Chapter Summaries

Xu Changshou bought the Five Elements Sword technique and its matching Five-Cloud Sword, then practiced spells and sword attacks before leaving the Green Immortal Sect with Ye Shanhua. On the road to Fire Mulberry Country to fetch someone with a variant spiritual root, Ye Shanhua suggested Li Dao Path might be secretly protecting them.

• Xu Changshou chose the Five Elements Sword technique and bought the Five-Cloud Sword, spending 138 spirit stones.
• Xu Changshou tested the Five-Cloud Sword, mastered the basic spells in the Complete Compendium of Spells, and practiced the Five Elements Sword forms.
• Xu Changshou and Ye Shanhua bought supplies and Puppet Horses before departing the Green Immortal Mountain Range on Red-Scaled Horses.
• Xu Changshou told Ye Shanhua that Li Dao Path had sent him to fetch someone in Fire Mulberry Country who possessed a variant spiritual root.
• Ye Shanhua speculated that Li Dao Path might be secretly protecting the person, prompting Xu Changshou to look toward the sky.

Xu Changshou and Ye Shanhua traveled toward Fire Mulberry Country, where they were to retrieve a person with a variant spiritual root. After Xu killed a Savage Bull King to protect a nearby village, the pair reached the coast and set out across the water.

• Ye Shanhua explained that the Five Great Immortal Sects competed fiercely for talented disciples, while Xu suspected Li Dao Path had another reason for sending him on the mission.
• Xu Changshou and Ye Shanhua encountered a migrating herd of savage bulls, and Xu charged out to keep it from reaching a village.
• Xu killed the Savage Bull King with a single strike of his Five-Cloud Sword, scattering the herd, then harvested the bull's hide for making Sharp Gold Talismans.
• Ten days later, Xu Changshou and Ye Shanhua reached the eastern coast and boarded Ye's White Jade Boat to cross the sea toward Fire Mulberry Country.

Xu Changshou and Ye Shanhua traveled to Thunder Marsh to capture the Black Antelope Thunder Ox, but found many other cultivators had come for its valuable horns. After preparing powerful Sharp Gold Talismans, Xu Changshou reached the dangerous Thunder Pool and insisted he could enter it.

• Xu Changshou directed Ye Shanhua to Thunder Marsh before visiting the Fire Mulberry royal family, so he could pursue the Black Antelope Thunder Ox before seeking the person with the variant spiritual root.
• At an inn near Thunder Marsh, Xu Changshou learned that the Black Antelope Thunder Ox had terrorized the township for ten years and that other cultivators had gathered to hunt it.
• Xu Changshou prepared talismans using the Savage Bull King's hide, drawing ten Sharp Gold Talismans with at least twice the attack power of ordinary ones.
• The next morning, Xu Changshou and Ye Shanhua reached Thunder Marsh, where dozens of cultivators waited outside the lightning-filled pool.
• Ye Shanhua warned Xu Changshou that the Thunder Pool was too dangerous, but he said he was confident he could handle it.

Xu Changshou entered the Thunder Pool with Lightning-Attracting Talismans to confront the Black Antelope Thunder Ox. After absorbing and redirecting the beast’s lightning attacks, he weakened it, but it fled before he could kill it.

• A gray-robed elder and several injured cultivators emerged from the Thunder Pool, warning that the Black Antelope Thunder Ox was dangerous.
• Xu Changshou ignored Ye Shanhua’s concern and entered the Thunder Pool with his sword and Lightning-Attracting Talismans.
• Xu Changshou used a talisman to absorb a powerful bolt of heavenly lightning and detonate it at a distance.
• The Black Antelope Thunder Ox charged Xu Changshou and attacked with lightning, which he absorbed with another talisman and blasted back at the beast.
• Xu Changshou repeated the tactic until the Black Antelope Thunder Ox weakened, then charged with the Wind-Riding Art, but the beast turned and fled.

Xu Changshou killed the Black Antelope Thunder Ox as it fled the Thunder Pool, then refused to hand its remains over to an elderly couple claiming it belonged to their Meng Household. Ye Shanhua warned him that the couple might be from the Union of Joy Sect, and they prepared to attack him.

• Xu Changshou used a Windwalking Talisman to catch the Black Antelope Thunder Ox as it charged out of the Thunder Pool, then killed it with a sword strike.
• Xu Changshou stored the ox's body and head and told the crowd to disperse, while the cultivators watched him warily and the mortals bowed in thanks.
• An elderly couple claimed the Black Antelope Thunder Ox had once guarded their Meng Household and demanded its remains, but Xu Changshou refused.
• Ye Shanhua warned Xu Changshou that the couple might be from the Union of Joy Sect and explained that their combined strength was dangerous.
• The old man threatened Xu Changshou, who prepared his Sharp Gold Talisman and Earth Gang Talisman, and the old woman urged her husband to attack as they drew their swords.

Xu Changshou used an Earth Gang Talisman and Sharp Gold Talismans to kill two twelfth-layer Qi Refining cultivators who attacked him and Ye Shanhua. After returning to the inn and examining the couple’s stolen goods, he faced a new crowd of cultivators gathering to target them.

• The elderly couple attacked Xu Changshou and Ye Shanhua with their Pseudo-Magic Artifacts, but Xu Changshou blocked their strike with an Earth Gang Talisman.
• Xu Changshou killed the old man and the fleeing old woman with Sharp Gold Talismans, then collected their Storage Bags and swords and escaped with Ye Shanhua.
• Ye Shanhua asked about Xu Changshou’s Sword Qi, and he said Uncle-Master Li had given him a trump card.
• Ye Shanhua appraised the swords as common Pseudo-Magic Artifacts worth about sixty spirit stones and explained that the Many Treasures Pavilion would not buy illicit goods.
• Xu Changshou emptied the couple’s Storage Bags, revealing bizarre implements, hundreds of women’s undergarments, and a dozen or so spirit stones.
• A crowd of cultivators arrived at the inn, and Xu Changshou left his room to confront them.

Xu Changshou sold the Black Antelope Thunder Ox horn to the Lu Family Fort for forty spirit stones, avoiding a confrontation with the cultivators waiting to rob him. The next morning, he and Ye Shanhua left Thunder Marsh Town as its residents celebrated the Thunder God.

• Xu Changshou offered the horn to the cultivators at the inn, and the Lu Family Fort won it with a bid of forty spirit stones.
• After Xu Changshou returned to his room, the other cultivators left the inn, with some following the Lu Family Fort group into the night.
• Xu Changshou counted his gains, including the horn payment and two hundred and forty pieces of black antelope thunder ox hide for making talismans.
• Xu Changshou and Ye Shanhua left Thunder Marsh Town the next morning while townsfolk worshiped a gilded statue of the Thunder God.

Xu Changshou arrived in Rising Sun City and met with Li Xiaoxian and King Li Zheng to arrange his mission to bring the Ninth Princess, Li Ling'er, to the Green Immortal Sect. He kept her ice spiritual root secret and reached her sleeping quarters, where he was to meet her.

• Xu Changshou parted from Ye Shanhua and used the Wind-Riding Art to enter the imperial city without a pass.
• Li Xiaoxian recognized Xu Changshou as a fellow disciple and brought him to meet King Li Zheng, who bowed to him.
• Xu Changshou showed Li Xiaoxian Li Dao Path's letter and agreed to wait until after the Li Household's ancestral ceremony before taking Li Ling'er to the sect.
• Li Xiaoxian suggested that Li Zheng send his Seventh and Eighth Princesses to attend Xu Changshou, but Xu Changshou refused and asked to see the girl with the variant spiritual root.
• Li Zheng told Xu Changshou that Li Ling'er did not know about her ice spiritual root, and Xu Changshou promised to pose as her bodyguard and gave Li Zheng three Windwalking Talismans.
• Li Zheng led Xu Changshou to Li Ling'er's sleeping quarters.

Xu Changshou stayed in Li Ling'er's palace as her guard and saw how her exhausting lessons left her miserable. He let her stop her arts lessons and play, but the queen confronted him and left to bring Li Zheng into the dispute.

• Li Zheng introduced Xu Changshou to Li Ling'er as the guard who would protect her and arranged for him to stay beside her room.
• Xu Changshou saw Li Ling'er collapse from exhaustion after her long daily lessons and carry her to bed.
• After Li Ling'er injured her fingernail while practicing the zither, Xu Changshou told her she no longer had to study the zither, chess, calligraphy, or painting.
• Xu Changshou played games with Li Ling'er for several days, and her fatigue and sorrow faded.
• The queen scolded Li Ling'er for neglecting her studies, but Xu Changshou defended his decision, frightening the queen with his cultivator's pressure until she fled to seek Li Zheng.

After accompanying the Li Household to honor its ancestors, Xu Changshou discovered an evil spirit hiding in a side hall and realized it intended to possess him. The spirit invaded his body, leaving Xu Changshou struggling between lucidity and savagery.

• Li Zheng canceled Li Ling'er's lessons, and she spent the next half month happily clinging to Xu Changshou.
• Li Xiaoxian and Li Zheng brought Li Ling'er to the imperial mausoleum, while Li Xiaoxian led Xu Changshou to wait in a side hall.
• Xu Changshou sensed that something in the side hall was watching him and suspected the golden statue concealed a spirit.
• An evil spirit emerged from the statue and announced that it would devour Xu Changshou to resume cultivating through possession.
• The evil spirit lunged into the space between Xu Changshou's eyebrows, and his eyes began alternating between lucidity and savagery.