Chapter Summaries

Chu Zhiyuan and Chu Honglin discussed the hidden devil sect’s growing power and the Imperial Observatory’s failure to detect it, while Chu Zhiyuan continued investigating the Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror without success. After several days of keeping out of danger and advancing his cultivation, Chu Zhiyuan received an imperial order to help Chu Honglin destroy one of the devil sect’s main altars.

• Chu Honglin and Chu Zhiyuan concluded that the devil sect’s power and lack of reverence threatened the Imperial Court, and Chu Honglin vowed to investigate with help from the Imperial Observatory.
• Chu Zhiyuan tested the Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror with True Essence, Spiritual Power, and the Spiritual Abyss’s power, but it remained inactive.
• Chu Zhiyuan and Chu Honglin stayed hidden while Chu Zhiyuan cultivated and practiced with the mirror, progressing toward the Seventh Turn.
• Chu Hongming told Chu Zhiyuan that the Emperor had ordered him to assist Chu Honglin in destroying one of the devil sect’s main altars.
• Chu Zhiyuan protested the assignment but agreed to depart that day.

Chu Zhiyuan helped Chu Honglin plan a strike against the Feiyun Sect, the main force behind the Thousand Mechanisms Tower, after its leaks enabled the Demon Race to assassinate the original owner. The group set out with twelve Venerables, while keeping their target secret and preparing for possible reinforcements.

• Chu Hongming told Chu Zhiyuan that the Emperor had ordered the Feiyun Sect destroyed and directed him to discuss preparations with Chu Honglin.
• Chu Honglin explained that interrogations had revealed the Thousand Mechanisms Tower’s ties to the Feiyun Sect and how its leaks had exposed the original owner to assassination.
• Chu Zhiyuan warned that the sects might have reinforcements and advised Chu Honglin to avoid mobilizing the one hundred and twenty Intent Transformation Realm experts at first.
• Chu Honglin agreed to take twelve Venerables and summon the larger force only if needed, while keeping the target secret.
• Chu Zhiyuan met Chu Honglin and the twelve Venerables outside the southern city gate, and they set out southward.

Chu Zhiyuan and Chu Honglin investigated the Feiyun Sect after Chu Zhiyuan sensed two Great Heavenly Demons there. They discovered two middle-aged men leaving the sect and set off after them.

• Chu Zhiyuan kept pace with Chu Honglin and the twelve Venerables as they traveled to the Feiyun Mountain Range.
• The group concealed their auras and approached the Feiyun Sect, where Chu Zhiyuan sensed two Great Heavenly Demons.
• Chu Honglin and Chu Zhiyuan went ahead to investigate while the twelve Venerables waited in the forest.
• Chu Honglin and Chu Zhiyuan discussed how the Great Heavenly Demons might have infiltrated the Feiyun Sect and gathered intelligence.
• Chu Zhiyuan spotted two middle-aged men leaving the sect, and after waiting, he and Chu Honglin pursued them.

Chu Zhiyuan and Chu Honglin followed Feiyun Sect members and learned that the Imperial Court had raided a decoy site belonging to the Thousand Mechanisms Tower. After hearing that the real Tower remained hidden, they pursued Elder Xi to uncover its location.

• Chu Zhiyuan identified a Feiyun Sect Venerable as a Great Heavenly Demon, and he and Chu Honglin decided to follow the sect members toward the imperial city.
• Chu Zhiyuan sensed another Great Heavenly Demon nearby, so he and Chu Honglin hid in a forest to watch the Feiyun Sect members meet Elder Xi.
• Elder Xi told Xiao Fang and Senior Brother Guo that the Imperial Court had raided a decoy Thousand Mechanisms Tower site, but the real location remained undiscovered.
• Elder Xi gave the two men spirit pills that would let them monitor the Imperial Court, then the group split up.
• Chu Zhiyuan and Chu Honglin followed Elder Xi east after he joined another group.

Chu Zhiyuan discovered that the Mountain God statue at Dragon Subduing Peak taught a mysterious body-cultivation move. Chu Honglin found that the move eased his old injury and resolved to seek its other forms.

• Chu Zhiyuan and Chu Honglin followed the Feiyun Sect group to Dragon Subduing Peak and learned the legend of its Mountain God statue.
• Chu Zhiyuan sensed the mountain's unusual vitality and discovered that imitating the statue's posture circulated Spiritual Qi through his body.
• Chu Zhiyuan taught Chu Honglin the posture, and Chu Honglin felt its restorative effects.
• Chu Honglin realized the move had slightly healed his old injury and decided to search for its other forms.

Chu Zhiyuan and Chu Honglin discovered Thousand Mechanisms Tower’s hidden location but chose to observe it while planning to raid Feiyun Sect first. Using the Lesser Bright Mirror to scout the sect, they identified their targets and split into groups to attack, leaving Chu Zhiyuan waiting nearby.

• Chu Zhiyuan persuaded Chu Honglin to raid Feiyun Sect before Thousand Mechanisms Tower so the tower would not realize they had found it.
• Chu Honglin and Chu Zhiyuan joined the twelve Venerables, and Mr. Zhu brought out the Lesser Bright Mirror to scout Feiyun Sect.
• Chu Zhiyuan activated the mirror with the Immeasurable Light Sutra and examined Feiyun Sect’s buildings and residents.
• Chu Honglin chose the blue-robed man and the short yellow-robed Elder as the first targets, while Mr. Zhu and two others remained hidden.
• Chu Honglin ordered the group to advance in two parties and told Chu Zhiyuan to wait rather than join the initial attack.

Chu Honglin and nine Great Venerables stormed Feiyun Sect and confronted its Sect Master, He Zixia. He Zixia refused to surrender and killed himself, asking Chu Honglin to spare the sect’s disciples.

• Chu Zhiyuan watched the infiltrators get discovered, identified two Great Heavenly Demons, and learned the Drunken God Flute required its user to see the target.
• Chu Honglin and the nine Great Venerables overcame Feiyun Sect’s Death Warriors and entered a hall where He Zixia and a blue-robed middle-aged man stood surrounded by disciples.
• Chu Honglin accused Feiyun Sect of assassinating a Prince and selling Imperial Court secrets through Thousand Mechanisms Tower, then revealed he was Prince Gan and offered the disciples a chance to surrender.
• He Zixia rejected surrender, asked Chu Honglin to spare his disciples, and struck his own head, taking his life.

After He Zixia and Zhou Wangchuan sacrificed themselves, Chu Honglin forced the remaining Feiyun Sect elites to choose between surrender and death. Meanwhile, Chu Zhiyuan discovered that the Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror could capture and devour Great Heavenly Demon souls on its own.

• Chu Honglin offered the Feiyun Sect disciples their lives if they surrendered and abandoned their devilish arts, while Zhou Wangchuan asked him to spare them.
• Zhou Wangchuan urged the Feiyun Sect elites to live, then took his own life after Chu Honglin promised to let them survive.
• The Feiyun Sect elites refrained from fighting, and Chu Honglin sealed their acupoints.
• Chu Zhiyuan saw the Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror capture and annihilate He Zixia's soul, making the mirror seem newer.
• The Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror also captured and devoured Zhou Wangchuan's soul, becoming two parts newer.

Chu Zhiyuan fused with the Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror after chanting its divine script, purifying his soul and gaining the ability to cleanse devilish thoughts. As Feiyun Sect’s captured experts were summoned, Chu Honglin and Mr. Zhu asked him to use the mirror on them before they resorted to violence.

• Chu Zhiyuan chanted the Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror’s nine layers of divine script, and the mirror fused with him, purifying his body and soul.
• Chu Zhiyuan learned that the mirror could sense devilish qi, refine devil souls, and purify devilish thoughts, while storing the two Great Heavenly Demons’ memories without merging them into his own.
• Chu Zhiyuan considered the mirror alongside the Great Demon Subduing Seal and decided that their different abilities could complement each other.
• Chu Honglin released two Feiyun Sect captives and had Mr. Chen signal for the others to come over.
• Chu Zhiyuan told Chu Honglin and Mr. Zhu that the mirror could wash devilish thoughts from the sect’s captured cultivators after their cultivation was crippled.
• Mr. Zhu asked Chu Zhiyuan to purify the cultivators before they became violent, and Chu Zhiyuan agreed to try.

Chu Zhiyuan purified the Feiyun Sect disciples of their demonic thoughts, then proposed that the Imperial Court keep the sect intact and use it to control the demonic sects. Chu Honglin recognized that Chu Zhiyuan intended to bring the Feiyun Sect—and perhaps the other demonic sects—under his own command, leaving the decision to the Emperor.

• Chu Zhiyuan purified sixteen captured Feiyun Sect experts by touching their heads, and explained that the Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror could cleanse them again from afar.
• Over half a day, more than two hundred Imperial Court experts helped subdue the Feiyun Sect, and Chu Zhiyuan purified all 892 disciples; Chu Honglin took eighteen elite experts to the imperial city and left the others behind.
• After leaving, Chu Honglin and the others returned to observe the Feiyun Sect disciples, who had resumed their usual activities and remained united.
• Chu Zhiyuan argued that the Feiyun Sect should keep practicing demonic arts and be used by the Imperial Court to control the demonic sects, since its disciples trusted him after purification.
• Chu Honglin left the decision to the Emperor and realized Chu Zhiyuan wanted to bring the Feiyun Sect, and possibly the demonic sects, under his own command.

Chu Zhiyuan considered how the Emperor might use the Feiyun Sect, celebrated reaching the Seventh Turn, and discovered that Li Miaotan had disguised herself to watch him. He flew toward Qionghua Tower as Li Miaotan and Li Yuzhen discussed how to lure him out.

• Chu Zhiyuan argued that the Emperor might let him control the Feiyun Sect because he posed no threat to imperial authority, while Chu Honglin doubted the Emperor would agree.
• Chu Zhiyuan reached the Seventh Turn after the Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror purified and strengthened his soul and deepened his understanding of light.
• Chu Zhiyuan spotted Li Yuzhen at Qionghua Tower with a young man whose disguise concealed Li Miaotan from his Super Sensation.
• Li Miaotan admitted she only wanted to watch Chu Zhiyuan from a distance, while Li Yuzhen proposed several ways to draw him out.
• Chu Zhiyuan suddenly flew toward Qionghua Tower.

Chu Zhiyuan visited Qionghua Tower and learned that Li Miaotan had been there in disguise before slipping away. As he prepared to enter a Cave Heaven, he gave Li Yuzhen a soul pearl for Li Miaotan to help her detect the Devil Race.

• Li Miaotan noticed Chu Zhiyuan approaching Qionghua Tower and vanished before he arrived.
• Chu Zhiyuan questioned Li Yuzhen about Li Miaotan, and Li Yuzhen admitted that her mistress had been there in disguise.
• Chu Zhiyuan told Li Yuzhen that he would soon enter a Cave Heaven and warned her that several Devil Race members might appear.
• Chu Zhiyuan detected demonic arts among the masked performers preparing to perform at Qionghua Tower.
• Chu Zhiyuan gave Li Yuzhen a seven-colored soul pearl to pass to Li Miaotan so she could sense the Devil Race.

Chu Zhiyuan gave Li Yuzhen a soul pearl that could sense nearby Heavenly Demons and asked her to investigate sword dancers who practiced devil arts. Li Miaotan received the pearl and prepared to return, still intending to marry through a substitute.

• Chu Zhiyuan gave Li Yuzhen a Heavenly Demon's soul pearl and explained that it could detect nearby Heavenly Demons.
• After watching the sword dancers, Chu Zhiyuan recognized that they cultivated devil arts and ordered Li Yuzhen to investigate their origins.
• Chu Zhiyuan left before Li Miaotan could meet him, and Li Yuzhen passed the soul pearl to her.
• Li Miaotan and Li Yuzhen discussed the Devil Race's presence in the Cave Heaven and the Jade Scenery Dynasty's plans to prohibit devil arts.
• Li Miaotan asked Li Yuzhen to seek information from Tingyu Terrace, put away the soul pearl, and departed to prepare for her return and substitute marriage.

Chu Zhiyuan warned Chu Honglin that abolishing demonic arts would deepen the resentment of ordinary cultivators and threaten the dynasty, but the Emperor still planned to eradicate demonic sects. After learning that the sword dancers belonged to the Bamboo Sect, Chu Zhiyuan heard that the dynasty had once banned demonic sects and later stopped, leaving him to consider whether he could change the Emperor’s mind.

• Chu Honglin told Chu Zhiyuan that the Emperor intended to use Feiyun Sect disciples as bait before wiping out the demonic sects.
• Chu Zhiyuan explained that demonic arts were often the only cultivation path for people with poor aptitude, and that abolishing them could build resentment across generations.
• Chu Honglin agreed to raise Chu Zhiyuan’s concerns with the Emperor, while Chu Zhiyuan prepared to enter the coming Cave Heaven despite worries about leaving the imperial capital.
• Li Yuzhen told Chu Zhiyuan that the sword dancers came from the Bamboo Sect and that many demonic sects near the capital practiced the Supreme Heavenly Demon Strategy.
• Li Yuzhen relayed that the dynasty had previously banned demonic sects but later stopped interfering because prohibition caused greater harm.

Chu Zhiyuan met Fu Biqiong, the Bamboo Sect’s Venerable sect master, after learning that her sect’s demonic arts did not corrupt its practitioners. He deduced that a heart-purifying mental technique was responsible and proposed an exchange, but Fu Biqiong said the technique could not be passed on.

• Li Yuzhen explained that the Bamboo Sect was a small demonic sect led by Fu Biqiong, who had killed the Venerable Wu Yingfan but was now badly injured and in seclusion.
• Chu Zhiyuan asked Li Yuzhen to find Fu Biqiong and learned that she was staying at Night Rain Tower.
• Chu Zhiyuan and Li Yuzhen visited Fu Biqiong, and Chu Zhiyuan proved his identity with his prince’s jade pendant.
• Chu Zhiyuan asked Fu Biqiong about the Imperial Court’s plan to ban demonic arts and observed that her sect seemed unaffected by their corrupting influence.
• Chu Zhiyuan guessed that Fu Biqiong used a heart-purifying mental technique, and proposed an exchange after she said it could not be passed on.

Chu Zhiyuan offered Fu Biqiong the Second-grade Azure Bamboo Sword Art in exchange for the Bamboo Sect’s Pure Heart Art, arguing the sword art would greatly strengthen her sect. Fu Biqiong agreed and called over her disciple Xiao Zheng to witness the exchange.

• Chu Zhiyuan demonstrated the Azure Bamboo Sword Art to Fu Biqiong and Li Yuzhen, who recognized its superiority to the Bamboo Sword Art.
• Li Yuzhen argued that the Azure Bamboo Sword Art would benefit the Bamboo Sect more than the Pure Heart Art would benefit Chu Zhiyuan.
• Chu Zhiyuan explained that the Azure Bamboo Sword Art was Second-grade, and Fu Biqiong agreed to exchange it for the Pure Heart Art.
• Fu Biqiong confirmed that the new sword art could raise the Bamboo Sect’s strength and status, then called for Xiao Zheng.
• Xiao Zheng, Fu Biqiong’s top-notch Intent Transformation Realm disciple, arrived from the neighboring courtyard.

Chu Zhiyuan passed the Azure Bamboo Sword Art inheritance to Fu Biqiong and her disciple, Fu Zheng, whose exceptional aptitude let her absorb it immediately. The Bamboo Sect gained a powerful new inheritance, and Fu Biqiong agreed to provide Chu Zhiyuan with more information.

• Fu Zheng met Chu Zhiyuan and praised his victory over the Yuan Zhen Dynasty princes, prompting him to explain the strategy behind it.
• Fu Biqiong chose Fu Zheng to receive the Azure Bamboo Sword Art first, but Chu Zhiyuan offered to pass the inheritance to both of them.
• Chu Zhiyuan transmitted the sword art to Fu Biqiong and then Fu Zheng through his inheritance method.
• Fu Zheng quickly absorbed the inheritance and reached the Spirit Entry level, while Chu Zhiyuan judged that her talent could soon bring her to the Nascent Soul Stage.
• Fu Biqiong thanked Chu Zhiyuan and agreed to have the Bamboo Sect send him more information and warnings.

Fu Zheng broke through to the Nascent Soul Stage and underwent Spirit Transformation, becoming a Venerable after gaining insight from the Azure Bamboo Sword Art. Chu Zhiyuan then invited her to serve as chief of his guards, and she considered the opportunity to travel with him to the Phoenix Dynasty.

• Fu Zheng’s aura surged as she began breaking through, and Fu Biqiong recognized that the Azure Bamboo Sword Art had given her the insight she needed.
• Chu Zhiyuan and Fu Biqiong discussed the Bamboo Sect’s demonic cultivation, its Solitary Suffering Detachment Art, and the difficulty of producing Venerables.
• Fu Zheng underwent Spirit Transformation and became a Venerable, then thanked Fu Biqiong and Chu Zhiyuan for their help.
• Chu Zhiyuan offered Fu Zheng the position of chief of his guards alongside Li Yuzhen, explaining that he would need protection on his journey to the Phoenix Dynasty.
• Fu Zheng considered Chu Zhiyuan’s offer as the prospect of seeing a wider world appealed to her.

Chu Zhiyuan recruited Fu Zheng as his guard, offering her a place to cultivate and protection for the Bamboo Sect. After he helped Zhu Yijing break through to Venerablehood, Fu Biqiong warned Fu Zheng that joining the Ninth Prince’s Mansion was too dangerous, but Fu Zheng saw the danger as a chance to temper herself.

• Chu Zhiyuan urged Fu Zheng to join his mansion, explaining that she could serve as his guard, advance through worldly experience, and bring the Bamboo Sect under his protection.
• Fu Zheng said she would discuss the offer with her master, and Fu Biqiong introduced Zhu Yijing to Chu Zhiyuan.
• Chu Zhiyuan used the Haoyang Demon Subduing Mirror on Zhu Yijing, helping her break through to Venerablehood.
• Fu Biqiong realized the Bamboo Sect now had three Venerables and escorted Chu Zhiyuan away.
• Fu Zheng told Fu Biqiong about Chu Zhiyuan’s recruitment, but Fu Biqiong called the Ninth Prince’s Mansion too dangerous; Fu Zheng argued that facing its dangers would help her cultivate.

Fu Zheng urged Fu Biqiong to prepare the Bamboo Sect for stronger rivals, while Zhu Yijing celebrated becoming a Venerable. In the imperial city, Chu Zhiyuan cultivated the Pure Heart Art, broke through to the fourth floor of the Grandmaster realm, and considered forging an Emperor's Sword; he and Li Yuzhen also discussed using the art to justify bringing a demonic sect disciple into the Prince's Mansion.

• Fu Biqiong argued that the Bamboo Sect's many Venerables and second-grade sword art made it unnecessary for Fu Zheng to risk danger, but Fu Zheng warned that rival sects would strengthen their Venerables or Martial Skills.
• Zhu Yijing awakened as a Venerable, and Fu Zheng demonstrated her superior sword art by striking Zhu Yijing's hand despite her attempt to evade.
• Chu Zhiyuan and Li Yuzhen walked through the imperial city as Chu Zhiyuan praised the Pure Heart Art and examined its text on a bamboo jade token.
• Chu Zhiyuan cultivated the Pure Heart Art in Prince Qing's Estate, and its effects reached his incarnation as he broke through to the fourth floor of the Grandmaster realm.
• Chu Zhiyuan studied the Emperor's Sword above the imperial palace and wondered whether he could forge one within his mind.
• Chu Zhiyuan and Li Yuzhen agreed that presenting the Pure Heart Art to the Imperial Court could justify taking a demonic sect disciple as a guard, with Li Yuzhen suggesting Chu Zhiyuan claim the merit.