Chapter Summaries

Yun Huang revealed that Great Xia would be his first stop, and Yun Lan reported that the dynasty had ordered all non-nationals to leave its territory. Yun Qing suspected the border clearance had been planned in advance, while Yun Huang remained silent about its deeper significance.

• Yun Qing asked which faction Yun Huang would visit first, and Yun Huang chose Great Xia rather than the Azure Lotus Sword Sect.
• Yun Lan arrived with news that Great Xia had issued a Human Emperor Edict ordering non-nationals to leave within seven days and foreign establishments to close.
• Yun Lan explained that Great Xia was expelling Southern Mountain businesses and other major merchant guilds, while compensating them for broken contracts and enforcing the order swiftly.
• Yun Qing concluded that Great Xia's border clearance seemed carefully planned and asked Yun Huang to explain, but Yun Huang only sipped his tea.

Yun Huang sent Yun Qing to Great Xia with the Immortal Court’s seal and Azure Jade to investigate its border closures and population registration. Yun Qing met Yun Tianluo and Yun Ruyi at the Yun Clan’s halted ceremonial procession before setting out for Great Xia.

• Yun Huang told Yun Qing that Great Xia was clearing its borders, then assigned him to travel there as the Immortal Court’s representative.
• Yun Huang gave Yun Qing the Immortal Court’s seal and instructed him to reason with Great Xia or stamp the seal if it refused to listen.
• Yun Huang ordered Yun Tianluo and Yun Ruyi to accompany Yun Qing, and Yun Lan asked him to watch for changes among Great Xia’s populace.
• Yun Lan arranged for the Southern Mountain Lineage to send a visiting card ahead of Yun Qing, while Yun Huang halted the Yun Clan’s procession for half a day.
• Yun Qing arrived at the Cloud Platform and reunited with Yun Tianluo and Yun Ruyi.

Yun Qing met Yun Ruyi and her wolf cub, confirmed his suspicion that she had dealt with Yun Qingqu, and joined the Yun Clan’s procession bound for Great Xia. He and Yun Tianluo realized that the emperor had given neither of them an explanation for the journey.

• Yun Ruyi introduced Yun Qing to Little Wind’s wary cub, and Yun Qing gave her three Vermilion Fruits to feed it.
• Yun Qing casually asked Yun Ruyi about the missing Yun Qingqu, and her response confirmed that she had defeated him after he threatened Little Wind’s baby.
• Yun Qing concluded that Yun Ruyi had taken down Yun Qingqu and continued toward the Yun Clan’s ceremonial procession.
• Yun Tianluo asked whether Yun Qing’s trip to Great Zhou had gone smoothly, then said he was curious about the purpose of their journey to Great Xia.
• Yun Qing and Yun Tianluo realized that the emperor had offered neither of them an explanation, and Yun Qing told Tianluo to guess the two words he had heard.

Yun Qing led Yun Tianluo, Yun Ruyi, and the Cloud Valor Guards toward Great Xia as the dynasty expelled outsiders from Central Province. At Yu Pass, he was struck by the bustling mortal life and familiar warmth of the city, which recalled memories of his previous life.

• Yun Qing departed for Central Province with Yun Tianluo, Yun Ruyi, and a thousand Cloud Valor Guards.
• The procession passed cultivators fleeing Great Xia after the dynasty revoked their holdings and drove them out.
• Yun Tianluo noted that Great Xia’s purge of outsiders was broader than expected, while Yun Ruyi observed the exiles’ unhappiness.
• Yun Qing’s party descended outside Yu Pass instead of traveling directly to the Divine Capital.
• Yun Qing watched the city’s farmers, merchants, and families and felt the familiar warmth of mortal life stir memories of his previous life.

Yun Qing traveled to Great Xia and reflected on how mortal life might help him break through to the Immortal Lord realm. At a banquet with Crown Prince Xia Wushang, he asked why Great Xia had cleared its borders, but Xia Wushang gave no answer.

• Yun Qing watched the bustling mortal life below the city walls and began to understand Yun Huang's advice about entering the mortal world to temper his heart.
• Great Xia's soldiers opened the gates as Xia Wushang and Xia Wujie came to welcome Yun Qing and his companions.
• Xia Wushang led Yun Qing, Yun Tianluo, and Yun Ruyi through Yu City to the Water Cup Banquet, where they shared wine and refreshments.
• Yun Qing asked Xia Wushang what Great Xia intended to do after suddenly clearing its borders.
• Xia Wushang said other powers had already asked the same question and returned without an answer.

Yun Qing, Yun Tianluo, and Yun Ruyi met with Xia Wushang and discussed how their different Dao Paths were connected to the mortal world and its people. Yun Ruyi spoke of the impartial Heavenly Dao, leaving Yun Qing startled by the change in her bearing.

• Xia Wushang agreed to provide what the Yun Clan sought and invited the group to set politics aside to discuss their Dao Paths.
• Xia Wushang described the Human Emperor way as a Dao rooted in the people, the state, and the mountains and rivers.
• Yun Qing connected chaos and harmony to protecting others, saying transcendence need not mean turning away from the mortal world.
• Yun Tianluo said the Dao could be understood through the patterns of human hearts and desires.
• Yun Ruyi described the Heavenly Dao as impartial toward all things, and Yun Qing wondered if she had become sp Big Ruyi.

Yun Ruyi expounded on the Heavenly Dao’s impartiality, revealing an extraordinary understanding that unsettled Yun Qing and impressed Xia Wushang. As the discussion continued, Xia Wujie declared that his Dao was battle, then used the moment to reaffirm his loyalty to the emperor.

• Yun Ruyi described the Heavenly Dao as impartial and observed that Yun Qing, Yun Tianluo, and Xia Wushang each followed a Dao close to Heaven.
• Yun Qing asked what would happen if the Heavenly Dao changed, and Yun Ruyi said someone would step forward to set it right.
• Xia Wushang sensed Yun Ruyi’s words stirring the fortune of heaven and earth, praised her, and wondered about her past life.
• Yun Ruyi became dazed and exhausted after the discussion, while Yun Qing decided not to interfere with her Dao Path.
• Xia Wujie said his Dao was battle and pledged to protect Great Xia, its people, and Xia Wushang.

After three days of discussing the Dao, Yun Qing and the others parted with a deeper understanding of their own paths, and later generations would remember their gathering as the Red Dust Dao Inquiry Banquet. Xia Wushang offered Yun Qing the Immortal Court fragment but hinted that Great Xia faced an impending departure, then revealed Central Province’s origins as a piece of the Human World.

• Yun Qing praised Xia Wujie's direct battle-centered Dao, and the five youths toasted and continued discussing the Dao for three days and nights.
• Their interwoven Dao principles produced spiritual rain over Great Xia's border pass, while the five gained insight into their own paths.
• Later generations named the gathering the Red Dust Dao Inquiry Banquet and regarded it as the prelude to an era shaped by the five youths.
• Xia Wushang told Yun Qing that Great Xia would hand over the Immortal Court fragment of the Thirty-Three Heavens, then urged him to stay and see Great Xia before they parted.
• Xia Wushang revealed that Central Province had been torn from the Human World during the ancient Heavenly Origin catastrophe, and Yun Qing began to suspect Great Xia planned something drastic.

Xia Wushang revealed that Great Xia planned to move the Central Province and its people back to the Human World, and asked Yun Qing to authorize their passage with the Immortal Court seal. Yun Qing agreed, and Xia Wujie began showing him and his companions around Yu Pass while Great Xia prepared for the migration.

• Xia Wushang told Yun Qing, Yun Tianluo, and Yun Ruyi that Great Xia intended to return the entire Central Province to the Human World.
• Xia Wushang explained that restored ancient routes, the Central Province's shared origins with the Human World, and Yun Qing's Immortal Court seal would make the migration possible.
• Xia Wushang asked Yun Qing to stamp the seal to authorize Great Xia's passage through the World Barrier, and Yun Qing agreed on behalf of the Immortal Emperor.
• Xia Wushang said preparations would take time and asked Xia Wujie to guide Yun Qing and his companions around Great Xia.
• At dusk, Xia Wujie led the group through Yu Pass's bustling streets as Yun Tianluo remarked that their visit felt more like a sightseeing tour than a tense negotiation.

Yun Qing and his companions toured Yu Pass while Xia Wujie explained that Great Xia was preparing to move its realm into the Human World and warned outsiders to avoid Central Province. As Yun Qing savored the mortal city's everyday bustle, he realized he had no copper coins to buy a sugar painting and reflected on how far he had drifted from ordinary life.

• Xia Wujie explained that Central Province was sealed and unstable as Great Xia prepared to relocate, and joked that outsiders caught in the formation would be dragged into the Human World.
• Yun Qing decided to warn Uncle Lan to withdraw the Yun Clan's people from Central Province before they were caught in the upheaval.
• Yun Qing watched the ordinary life of Yu Pass's bustling streets and felt moved by the mortal world he had long forgotten.
• Yun Qing stopped at a sugar-painting stall, searched his storage items, and discovered he had no copper coins.
• Yun Qing sighed that he had strayed far from mortal life, then smiled with self-mockery and release.

Yun Qing enjoyed sugar paintings in the mortal market, briefly savoring the warmth of ordinary life as he ate a chick and a cat. Yun Ruyi bought a sugar wolf, but her Little Wolf Cub promptly devoured it, leaving her with only the bamboo stick.

• Xia Wujie paid the vendor in copper coins after explaining that cultivators rarely carried mortal currency.
• Yun Qing ordered sugar paintings of a chick and a cat, then happily ate bites from both as Yun Tianluo watched and abandoned his plan to record him.
• Yun Ruyi asked the vendor to make a sugar figure resembling her Little Wolf Cub.
• The Little Wolf Cub snatched and ate most of its sugar likeness, leaving Yun Ruyi staring at the bare bamboo stick.

Yun Qing’s days exploring Great Xia’s ordinary life deepened his understanding of the human world, and he prepared to help Great Xia migrate Central Province. As the Xia Emperor activated the migration formation, Xia Wushang faced his fears and went to fetch Yun Qing to affix the seal.

• Yun Qing and his companions toured Yu Pass, while Yun Qing watched the daily lives of its people and began to see how mortal life could belong within the Dao of chaos.
• Yun Tianluo watched performances, and Yun Ruyi learned to sculpt clay figures and made Yun Qing a miniature doll.
• When the agreed date arrived, Yun Qing left the guesthouse with Yun Tianluo and Yun Ruyi to discuss Great Xia’s migration.
• At the Mysterious Heaven Golden Palace, the Xia Emperor and Great Xia’s court gathered the nation’s fortune and formed a vast spatial formation over Central Province.
• Xia Wushang admitted he feared the risks but vowed not to retreat, and the Xia Emperor sent him to ask Yun Qing to affix the seal.
• The Xia Emperor opened the way between heaven and earth, and Central Province began to shake.

Yun Qing used the Immortal Court's seal and the Immortal Emperor's Dharma manifestation to send Central Province toward the Human World, but a second appearance of the manifestation sent him flying into the departing land. The chapter ended with Yun Tianluo and Yun Ruyi watching in shock as Yun Qing crossed the boundary.

• Yun Qing and Xia Wushang exchanged farewells at Yu Pass as Central Province prepared to depart for the Human World.
• Yun Ruyi gave Xia Wushang and Xia Wujie embroidered Fortune Pouches before Central Province began to rise.
• Yun Qing raised the Immortal Court's seal, and the Immortal Emperor's Dharma manifestation declared that Heavenly Origin's Immortal Dao granted passage.
• Central Province tore free of the Immortal World and began crossing the world barrier along the crimson-gold Human Emperor Way.
• As Yun Huang played Go in Great Zhou's Divine Palace, the Immortal Emperor's manifestation reappeared and poked Yun Qing into Central Province.

Yun Huang swept Yun Tianluo, Yun Ruyi, and the wolf cub into the world-crossing formation, and the Great Xia Ancient Dynasty descended into the Human World. Yun Qing and the others survived the passage and reunited with Xia Wushang, while the Immortal Emperor watched and wondered which path Yun Qing would attain.

• Yun Huang swept Yun Tianluo, Yun Ruyi, and the wolf cub into the formation, and the Cloud Valor Guards withdrew rather than risk being sent to the Human World.
• The World Barrier closed as the Great Xia Ancient Dynasty crossed into the Human World, and the Immortal Emperor placed a Go stone and called the Human World Yun Qing's true place of cultivation.
• Azure Cliff's True Person sect leader and a mortal dynasty's astronomical bureau director witnessed the arriving continent and raised alarms.
• Yun Qing shielded Yun Ruyi and Yun Tianluo from the violent, rejecting passage with his Chaos Immortal Power as Central Province crossed the barrier.
• Yun Qing, Yun Ruyi, and Yun Tianluo landed in the Human World and discovered that Xia Wushang and Xia Wujie had arrived there too.
• Yun Qing greeted Xia Wushang in surprise after their unexpected reunion.

Yun Qing and his companions were stranded in the Human World after Great Xia’s return, and the Immortal Seal revealed Yun Huang had arranged for them to remain there. They learned that the Human World’s laws suppressed outside cultivators to the mortal world’s limits, leaving Yun Tianluo stunned by the enormous drop in power.

• Yun Qing and his companions found themselves in the Human World beside the relocated Great Xia Ancient Dynasty, and Xia Wushang welcomed them.
• Yun Tianluo wondered if they had been sent on a diplomatic mission, while Yun Ruyi asked whether they could return; the Immortal Seal told Yun Qing to temper his heart in the mortal world.
• Qing Kitty realized Yun Huang had arranged the journey to keep Yun Qing from leaving and had manipulated the mission from the start.
• Yun Qing and his companions felt their powers suppressed by the Human World’s laws, while Xia Wujie’s human emperor way qi grew stronger.
• Xia Wushang explained that the Human World limited cultivators to the seven stages of mortal cultivation and that the Body Integration Realm was its current peak.
• Yun Tianluo silently clutched his chest after learning that the Human World’s cultivation ceiling was far below his Immortal King realm.

Yun Qing left his siblings in Great Xia and entered the Human World disguised as an ordinary man to seek his Dao. In the Immortal World, Yun Huang confronted three Yun Clan elders as three possible Dao Paths hung before him.

• Xia Wushang explained that the Human World favored mortal traditions and would suppress Yun Qing especially because of his Immortal Court Orthodoxy and treasures.
• Yun Qing accepted Xia Wushang's invitation to stay in Great Xia and settled Yun Tianluo and Yun Ruyi at the imperial capital.
• Yun Qing told his siblings he had no plan for his Dao and left to experience the mortal world as an ordinary man.
• Yun Huang studied three Dao Path scrolls, including ones titled "All Beings Sharing the Dust" and "Free and Unfettered True Heart," while the third remained untitled.
• Yun Huang summoned Yun Che, Yun Yuan, and Yun Jun, the elders responsible for the three Yuns being sent to the lower realm.

Yun Huang dismissed the Yun Clan elders after telling Yun Jun to let Yun Ruyi follow her Dao Path, then watched Yun Qing’s mortal-life scroll reveal a shop called “A Little Shop.” In Blackwater Town, Yun Qing returned to Liu Niang’s stall for wontons, leaving his life in the Human World underway.

• Yun Che reported that the Yun Clan was stable and that Yun Qing had arranged its affairs before leaving for Great Zhou.
• Yun Jun admitted Mei Hao had shown him kindness in a previous life, and Yun Huang told him to let Yun Ruyi go.
• Yun Yuan and the other elders departed, each accepting that they could not choose Yun Qing’s Dao Path for him.
• Yun Huang watched the mortal-life scroll reveal a humble shop named “A Little Shop” and criticized the name.
• Yun Qing visited Liu Niang’s stall in Blackwater Town and ordered his usual wontons with extra chopped scallions.

Yun Qing settled into Blackwater Town by opening A Little Shop, where he sold an unusual assortment of goods and hid valuable treasures among them. The chapter foreshadowed that a destined boy would become his disciple, while Yun Qing continued his quiet life as a traveling shopkeeper.

• Yun Qing chatted with Auntie Chen and a burly escort-agency worker while waiting for wontons, then paid Liu Niang and returned to his shop.
• Yun Qing admired the sign he had written for A Little Shop and reflected that its lettering concealed profound power few people could recognize.
• Yun Qing described the repairs and preparations he had done by hand before opening the shop, then added valuable odds and ends from his Storage Ring for a destined buyer.
• The narration foreshadowed that someone would claim one of Yun Qing's treasures and form a rare master-disciple bond with him, and that the disciple would later puzzle His Majesty the Immortal Emperor.
• Liu Niang congratulated Yun Qing on opening his shop and asked why he had come to Blackwater Town; Yun Qing said he was traveling.

Yun Qing settled into his shop in Blackwater Town and witnessed thugs conscripting beggars for a deadly mine. As he compared the town’s lawless misery with Yu Pass, he hoped Xia Wushang and the others would arrive soon.

• Liu Niang warned Yun Qing that Blackwater Town was plagued by demons, gangs, corrupt officials, and dangerous cultivators.
• Yun Qing spent the morning arranging his goods and gave Old Zhao writing paper for free.
• Li Er and other thugs beat a beggar and dragged two beggars away to work in the mine under orders from the yamen and the Immortal.
• A hidden figure watched the thugs leave before retreating into the shadows.
• Yun Qing reflected on the suffering and lawlessness he had witnessed and wished Xia Wushang and the others would hurry.

Yun Qing settled into his quiet life as a mortal shopkeeper while a battered young beggar lingered outside his store. After hearing that Heaven Sect cultivators were arresting people nearby, Yun Qing noticed the beggar’s reaction and grew curious about him.

• Yun Qing kept his shop and refrained from using his Double Pupils to inspect the beggar’s fate.
• He left the beggar some leftover noodle soup, and the boy cautiously ate it.
• Yun Qing watched a commotion in which several men dragged a gaunt man from an alley and beat him into kowtowing.
• Liu Niang brought Yun Qing bone broth and told him that Heaven Sect cultivators were searching Lone Goose City and Blackwater Town.
• The beggar briefly raised his head at the news, and Yun Qing wondered why he returned to the shop each morning after disappearing at night.