Chapter Summaries

Chu Zhiyuan persuaded Chu Qingfeng to let him study intelligence on the Four Great Demonic Sects so he could understand their offers and protect himself from being manipulated. At Autumn Knowing Hall, he began reading a century of Carefree Cult records and arranged to interrogate two captured Fearless Sect members.

• Chu Zhiyuan learned that Thirteenth Uncle secretly oversaw agents monitoring the Four Great Demonic Sects and suspected the Emperor had authorized access to their intelligence.
• Chu Zhiyuan told Chu Qingfeng that the Carefree Cult had invited him to its secret realm and asked to see intelligence on the Four Great Demonic Sects.
• Chu Zhiyuan explained that he wanted to assess the sects’ motives and seek cultivation aid, while ruling out the Eternal Spirit Divine Cult for now.
• Chu Qingfeng brought Chu Zhiyuan to Autumn Knowing Hall and ordered his eunuch staff to provide a century of Carefree Cult records.
• Chu Zhiyuan asked about other groups, including the Sky Concealment Sect and evil sects, and volunteered to interrogate captured disciples.
• Chu Qingfeng told Chu Zhiyuan that two Fearless Sect members were in custody, and Chu Zhiyuan began reading the Carefree Cult intelligence.

Chu Zhiyuan investigated the Carefree Cult’s overseas influence and learned from Chu Qingfeng about the dangerous Path of Incense and Fire. He left with new questions about divine envoys and how they could be identified.

• Chu Zhiyuan learned that the Carefree Cult had founded the Bliss Cult overseas and considered how it might seek influence in Great Lie and Great Guang.
• Chu Qingfeng warned Chu Zhiyuan that the Four Great Sects were collaborators rather than subjects of the Imperial Court, but Chu Zhiyuan maintained that contact with them was inevitable.
• Over lunch, Chu Zhiyuan suggested the Carefree Cult might be spreading its teachings to cultivate the Path of Incense and Fire, prompting Chu Qingfeng to explain that it required a divine envoy’s guidance.
• Chu Qingfeng explained that deities often demanded human lives as offerings and that the Imperial Court’s God Slaying Division hunted divine envoys.
• Chu Zhiyuan asked how to identify a divine envoy, and Chu Qingfeng said they used strange arts to avoid people like them.

Chu Zhiyuan proposed a Martial Lecturing Hall to strengthen Great Jing by teaching Grandmaster candidates and learning from the Four Great Sects. After examining captured Fearless Sect disciples, he removed one of their sealing needles and began assessing the awakened man’s suitability for his sect’s martial arts.

• Chu Zhiyuan learned from Chu Qingfeng about hidden sects, the Carefree Cult’s reach, and the Imperial Court’s limited control over Great Jing.
• Chu Zhiyuan proposed that Innate Perfection practitioners from the Four Great Sects join his Martial Lecturing Hall, and Chu Qingfeng agreed to find a courtyard.
• Chu Qingfeng brought Chu Zhiyuan to a courtyard where investigators were studying three captured Fearless Sect disciples sealed with Heavenly Gang Spirit Sealing Needles.
• Chu Zhiyuan read the booklet on the needle technique, quickly understood it, and pulled a needle from the middle-aged disciple’s brow.
• The disciple awakened, and Chu Zhiyuan told him that his age and cultivation made him unsuited to Fearless Sect martial arts.

Chu Zhiyuan convinced a suspicious Fearless Sect disciple that he had seen the Fearless Realm and cultivated the sect’s martial arts. He revealed his plan to bring the Fearless Sect under his command, but rejected the man as unfit to help him control it.

• Chu Zhiyuan used the man’s energy and hand seals to show him a vision of the Fearless Realm, where deceased Fearless Sect disciples continued living and cultivating.
• The middle-aged man recognized former fellow disciples in the vision and began to believe in the Fearless Realm.
• Chu Zhiyuan claimed he had cultivated the Fearless Sect’s mental method, then struck the man with pure Fearless Sect Gang Qi to prove it.
• Chu Zhiyuan said he intended to bring the Fearless Sect under his command and use it for covert work.
• Chu Zhiyuan told the middle-aged man he needed someone to help control the sect, then judged the man unsuitable for the role.

Chu Zhiyuan questioned Lu Gaoxuan about the Fearless Sect and recruited him to pass along information, then attacked Wu Kuisheng after he overheard their conversation. The chapter ended with Wu Kuisheng striking back and crashing into a wall.

• Chu Zhiyuan challenged Lu Gaoxuan's belief that he could survive the Fearless Sect's trials and offered him a chance to relay information instead.
• Lu Gaoxuan agreed to tell Chu Zhiyuan everything he knew about the sect after Chu Zhiyuan used the Fearless Sect's Gang Qi to restore his strength.
• Lu Gaoxuan explained that the sect's disciples cultivated, descended the Mountain to fight martial artists, and either became grandmasters or died.
• Chu Zhiyuan considered killing the two grandmasters, but Lu Gaoxuan warned that the sect forbade disciples from killing one another.
• Chu Zhiyuan struck Wu Kuisheng, who had heard their conversation, but Wu Kuisheng swung back and was sent crashing into a wall.

Chu Zhiyuan recruited three Fearless Sect experts to serve as his informants and help destroy the sect’s leadership, while revealing that he could wield the Fearless Realm’s power without losing control. He left Chu Qingfeng considering whether the God Slaying Division could use Carefree Powder to eliminate the Fearless Sect’s Grandmasters.

• Wu Kuisheng threatened to report Chu Zhiyuan, but Chu Zhiyuan convinced him and Lu Gaoxuan that he could control the Fearless Realm’s influence and wanted to use the Fearless Sect against the Jade Cauldron Sect and Shadow Sect.
• Chu Zhiyuan ordered Wu Kuisheng, Lu Gaoxuan, and a third young man to act as his informants and find a chance to eliminate the Fearless Sect’s upper echelon, after making them promise not to slaughter innocents.
• Chu Zhiyuan put the third young man under his control with a palm strike, then watched all three Fearless Sect experts depart.
• Chu Qingfeng questioned Chu Zhiyuan’s plan, and Chu Zhiyuan demonstrated the Fearless Realm’s power in a palm exchange; his two tiny swords dispersed Chu Qingfeng’s invading Gang Qi and grew stronger.
• Chu Zhiyuan said he could use the Dragon Transformation Technique to sever the Fearless Realm’s influence and proposed using Carefree Powder to kill the sect’s Grandmasters, while Chu Qingfeng said he would consider it.

Chu Zhiyuan discovered that beginning Muscle Refining let him consume Heaven-Connecting Grass that had previously seemed dangerous. After using the grass to rapidly strengthen and connect his tendons, he was left eager to find more and complete Muscle Refining.

• Chu Zhiyuan walked through the outer city, noticed evil-sect experts among the crowd, and restrained himself from using a Flying Dagger so he would not reveal the White Cauldron.
• Bai Ningshuang reported that the Imperial Consort had recovered, and Chu Yi showed her the beauty-nourishing pills Xiao Ruoling had sent from Moon Invitation Palace.
• Zou Fang brought Chu Zhiyuan ten fresh stalks of Heaven-Connecting Grass, and he found that none gave him the danger sense he had felt from earlier stalks.
• Chu Zhiyuan realized his change might be related to beginning Muscle Refining, then ate a previously unsuitable stalk while circulating the Dragon Transformation Technique.
• The Heaven-Connecting Grass strengthened and lengthened Chu Zhiyuan's tendons until they began connecting into a network, but his supply ran out before Muscle Refining was complete.

Chu Zhiyuan prepared to establish the Martial Arts Hall after the Emperor rejected his plan to subdue the Fearless Sect until he reached the Grandmaster realm. He began testing the hall with Wen Qianqian and Xu Mengyu, leaving them with unfamiliar cultivation methods to practice.

• Chu Zhiyuan wrote to Xiao Ruoling to bring back the Heaven-Connecting Grass and read Chu Mingrui's report about the slow progress of the Lightning Spear Formation.
• Chu Zhiyuan learned that the Emperor rejected his plan to subdue the Fearless Sect until he entered the Grandmaster realm, but approved his Martial Arts Hall.
• Wen Qianqian and Xu Mengyu asked to join the Martial Arts Hall, and Chu Zhiyuan agreed to help them seek the path to the Master realm.
• Chu Zhiyuan opened the Martial Arts Hall in a courtyard beside his new residence and had Wen Qianqian and Xu Mengyu demonstrate their swordsmanship and circulate their cultivation methods.
• Chu Zhiyuan gave Wen Qianqian a fierce, yang cultivation method and Xu Mengyu a yin, supple one, telling them to practice for two days.

Chu Zhiyuan tested his cultivation theories on White Cloud Sword Palace disciples Wen Qianqian and Xu Mengyu, guiding them from Innate Perfection to Grandmaster in eleven days. After ten more Innate Perfection cultivators entered the Grandmaster realm in ten days, the method caused an uproar across the Four Great Sects and the Town Martial Division.

• Chu Zhiyuan used his observations of Wen Qianqian and Xu Mengyu to refine his theory that balancing the Five Elements could reveal the Grandmaster path.
• Chu Zhiyuan gave the two women new mental cultivation methods and prescribed their practice order and duration, forbidding them from using the White Cloud Sword Palace method.
• On the eleventh day, Wen Qianqian and Xu Mengyu entered the Grandmaster realm almost simultaneously after finding the path on the tenth day.
• The Four Great Sects and the Town Martial Division were shaken by the two women's breakthrough, and the Martial Arts Hall filled with applicants the next day.
• Chu Zhiyuan admitted ten Innate Perfection cultivators in a batch, and all ten entered the Grandmaster realm within ten days, sparking heated discussion and envy among existing Grandmasters.

Chu Zhiyuan’s Martial Arts Hall rules were approved, making military merit determine who could enter first and stirring intense interest across the capital. When Li Hongzhao asked him to reveal how he had helped cultivators become Grandmasters, Chu Zhiyuan demanded that Great Meng withdraw its troops, but she insisted the empire would keep its word.

• Chu Zhiyuan learned from Chu Qingfeng that the court had approved his rule prioritizing entry to the Martial Arts Hall by military merit, and Chu Qingfeng warned him that Great Zhen and Great Meng might target him.
• Chu Zhiyuan met Huang Shirong, who asked about bringing White Cloud Sword Palace disciples into the Martial Arts Hall, but he refused to make exceptions and advised them to earn military merit.
• Feng Xi reported that Li Hongzhao had arrived at Prince Qing’s Estate, and Chu Zhiyuan noticed she had advanced to the Fifth Heaven.
• Li Hongzhao questioned Chu Zhiyuan about how he had helped Innate Perfection cultivators become Grandmasters, while he declined to reveal the method.
• Chu Zhiyuan asked Li Hongzhao whether Great Meng could withdraw its troops in exchange for the secret, and she said it was possible but denied that Great Meng would break its promises.

Chu Zhiyuan negotiated with Li Hongzhao over Great Meng’s troop withdrawal and the Martial Arts Hall, while refusing to prove his ability by advancing two experts to Grandmaster. After the court’s rising interest in the Martial Arts Hall brought attention to his family, Bai Ningshuang received an imperial reward, and Huang Cheng also announced a reward for Earl Bai.

• Li Hongzhao offered to have Great Meng withdraw its troops if its martial arts experts could join the Martial Arts Hall, and Chu Zhiyuan asked her to withdraw first and send a delegation to negotiate.
• Li Hongzhao asked Chu Zhiyuan to advance two Innate Perfection experts to Grandmaster as proof, but he refused.
• Bai Ningshuang told Chu Zhiyuan and his family that Imperial Consorts had been courting her attention because of his influence over the Martial Arts Hall.
• Chu Minghou proposed asking Imperial Grandfather to issue an edict forbidding Chu Zhiyuan from making exceptions, and Chu Zhiyuan agreed it was the safest course.
• Huang Cheng brought an imperial edict awarding Bai Ningshuang an estate and announced that Earl Bai would also receive a reward.

Chu Zhiyuan accepted the Emperor’s warning not to make exceptions to the Martial Arts Hall rules, while Bai Ningshuang’s reward brought renewed favor to Prince Qing’s Estate. As the estate drew visitors, Bai Ningyu tried to persuade Bai Ningshuang to take two of his Innate Perfection subordinates as guards.

• Huang Cheng relayed the Emperor’s warning, and Chu Zhiyuan agreed not to privately bend the Martial Arts Hall rules.
• Chu Zhiyuan arranged to visit Moon Invitation Palace with Huang Cheng and Mister Qi accompanying him.
• Prince Qing’s Estate received numerous visitors, but Chu Zhiyuan refused to meet them and left receptions to Chu Minghou.
• Chu Zhiyuan went to Bright Moon Tower for lunch with Gao Lingfeng to avoid guests at the estate.
• Bai Ningyu asked Bai Ningshuang to hire two thirty-year-old Innate Perfection veterans from Eagle Soaring Camp as guards, but she rejected his request.

Bai Ningshuang rejected Bai Ningyu’s attempt to place two guards in Prince Qing’s Estate, while Chu Minghou explained that Yuan'er planned to establish a separate Imperial Guard camp in Yujing. Bai Ningyu warned that creating a new camp would be extremely difficult.

• Bai Ningshuang refused Bai Ningyu’s request to recruit two guards and insisted that they earn merit through the proper channels.
• Bai Ningyu asked to visit Yuan'er soon, then left with Chu Minghou after failing to persuade his sister.
• Chu Minghou told Bai Ningyu that Yuan'er intended to establish a separate Imperial Guard camp in Yujing, directly under the Emperor.
• Bai Ningyu warned that the Military’s entrenched factions would make establishing a new camp exceptionally difficult.

Chu Zhiyuan refused to accept invitations from the martial sects and rejected an audience with Flying Heaven Sect Elder Hu Jin. As the Town Martial Division prepared for a surge of recruits, Chu Zhiyuan held to his refusal to meet the sects’ elders and leaders.

• Bai Ningyu agreed to find a way for retired soldiers to join the Town Martial Division, while Chu Minghou and Bai Ningshuang discussed Chu Zhiyuan’s strict rules for relatives seeking entry.
• Chu Yi urged Li Suyue to ask Chu Zhiyuan about joining the Town Martial Division, and Li Suyue said she wanted to enter.
• Gao Lingfeng warned Chu Zhiyuan that competition for merit and recruitment could spark conflict within the Town Martial Division.
• Chu Zhiyuan refused invitations from three of the Four Great Sects and told Gao Lingfeng to reject them on his behalf.
• When Guo Chi announced that Flying Heaven Sect Elder Hu Jin had arrived, Chu Zhiyuan refused to see him and ordered that no elders or senior members of the Four Great Sects be received.

Chu Zhiyuan rejected the Four Great Sects' Elders to avoid private dealings over the Imperial Court's Martial Arts Hall, then left Jade Capital for Moon-Inviting Peak. Xiao Ruoling invited him to stay at Moon Invitation Palace's guest peak for a month, and he accepted despite the threat of an evil sect's Grandmaster.

• Chu Zhiyuan refused audiences with Elders from all Four Great Sects, explaining that he would not trade private favors over the Imperial Court's Martial Arts Hall.
• Chu Zhiyuan left Jade Capital for Moon-Inviting Peak to escape the pressure from nobles and martial world sects seeking influence over the Martial Arts Hall.
• Xiao Ruoling met Chu Zhiyuan and explained that her Great Yin Refinement complemented her Nine Heavens Profound Maiden Technique.
• Xiao Ruoling invited Chu Zhiyuan to stay at Moon Invitation Palace's guest peak, promising that its Grandmasters could protect him.
• Chu Zhiyuan agreed to stay for a month, asked Huang Cheng to notify the Prince's Estate, and chose a small courtyard beside the woods and a cliff.

Chu Zhiyuan and Xiao Ruoling arranged protection for him at Moon Invitation Palace, where four Elders eventually met them. He offered to help the Palace’s Innate Perfection disciples improve their cultivation, and Xiao Ruoling’s fellow disciples welcomed his support.

• Xiao Ruoling asked Shen Hanyue to summon four Elders to guard Chu Zhiyuan, but Shen returned saying the Elders were busy.
• Chu Zhiyuan said Grandmasters from Grandmaster's Mansion could protect him, but Xiao Ruoling insisted Moon Invitation Palace would handle matters on its own territory.
• Yun Qiuhua and three other Elders appeared, and Chu Zhiyuan recognized Yun Qiuhua and discussed his insight into the Grandmaster realm.
• Chu Zhiyuan offered to help Moon Invitation Palace’s disciples at Innate Perfection while he stayed for a month, and said he was supporting his Heir Apparent’s Consort and her maiden family.

Chu Zhiyuan agreed to help Moon Invitation Palace disciples enter the Martial Arts Hall and accepted an invitation to visit its secret realm with Xiao Ruoling and Shen Hanyue. Inside, he studied an ancient tree and encountered a giant Demon Beast snake, while the group set out to search for Heaven-Connecting Grass.

• Chu Zhiyuan agreed to train Moon Invitation Palace disciples in groups of ten, and Yun Qiuhua invited him into the palace's secret realm.
• Chu Zhiyuan, Xiao Ruoling, and Shen Hanyue entered the secret realm together, holding hands so they would arrive in the same place.
• Chu Zhiyuan used Spirit Communion on an ancient tree, while Xiao Ruoling killed a seven-colored bird that attacked him.
• Chu Zhiyuan suggested they search for Heaven-Connecting Grass, and Xiao Ruoling said the vast secret realm still held plenty.
• Chu Zhiyuan killed a small jade-green snake with his flying dagger, and it grew into a twenty-meter-long Demon Beast after it fell.

Chu Zhiyuan and the women encountered a small black snake with dragon horns in the Secret Realm and learned that it was an exceptionally powerful, ancient creature. After it retreated into the river, Chu Zhiyuan secretly struck again, and the chapter ended as an enormous Ink Flood Dragon rose above the water.

• Chu Zhiyuan dragged the giant snake they had killed out of the Secret Realm, where Yun Qiuhua warned the group about the danger posed by Demon Beasts over a hundred years old.
• Chu Zhiyuan, Xiao Ruoling, and Shen Hanyue entered the Secret Realm again and found themselves beside a surging river.
• Chu Zhiyuan sensed a flood dragon in the river and tried to lead the others away, but a horned black snake emerged and knocked aside his Flying Daggers.
• Chu Zhiyuan struck the black snake with a Breaking Gang Flying Dagger, but its scales repelled the attack and it fell back into the river.
• Chu Zhiyuan secretly sent another dagger after the retreating creature, and Shen Hanyue spotted an enormous Ink Flood Dragon floating above the river.

Chu Zhiyuan fought the Ink Flood Dragon while Xiao Ruoling and Shen Hanyue watched, withholding their signal as he endured its attacks and deepened his cultivation. After completing Muscle Refining, he turned the battle around, drove his Flying Daggers deeper into the dragon’s skull, and hurled it onto the riverbank, where it still twitched.

• The Ink Flood Dragon attacked Chu Zhiyuan, knocking him back as Xiao Ruoling stopped Shen Hanyue from firing the signal.
• Chu Zhiyuan repeatedly struck the dragon while three Flying Daggers embedded themselves in its forehead and near its horns.
• Chu Zhiyuan’s battle against the dragon accelerated his Dragon Transformation Technique and Muscle Refining.
• After Muscle Refining reached completion, Chu Zhiyuan seized the Ink Flood Dragon by its tail and flung it repeatedly, reversing the fight.
• Chu Zhiyuan struck the dragon’s skull with the Great Heavenly Dragon Fist and hurled it onto the riverbank, where it continued to twitch.

After killing the Ink Flood Dragon, Chu Zhiyuan learned that the ancient sect inheritances he had cultivated were thought impossible to master in the present age. He returned to the hidden realm with Xiao Ruoling and Shen Hanyue, where the search for the Profound Yin Palace failed but led them to a cave mansion.

• Shen Hanyue and Xiao Ruoling congratulated Chu Zhiyuan after he killed the Ink Flood Dragon and advanced his Dragon Transformation Technique.
• Chu Zhiyuan brought the Ink Flood Dragon out of the hidden realm, and Yun Qiuhua learned that he had cultivated the inheritances of three ancient sects.
• Yun Qiuhua explained that no one in the Four Great Sects or imperial family had successfully cultivated those inheritances and warned that staying too long in a hidden realm could drive people mad.
• Chu Zhiyuan decided to store the Flying Dragon Pearl in the White Cauldron, then entered the hidden realm again with Xiao Ruoling and Shen Hanyue.
• The three women could no longer sense the Profound Yin Palace, so Chu Zhiyuan led them to a cave mansion concealed by vines on a mountain.