Chapter Summaries

Si Chen returned to the Si Household’s ancestral grounds with his companions after twenty years away, reuniting with his family and Qing Li. Black Mountain also reunited with Third Uncle Granduncle, ending the chapter by reciting a poem about missing the household dining hall.

• Third Uncle Granduncle and Si Che sensed Heartguard’s aura, while Qing Li recognized Si Chen’s return and hurried to the front courtyard.
• Si Chen stepped through a gate of light with Black Mountain, Red Wind, Murong Li, Jiang Ling, and Li Tiezhu.
• Qing Li and Si Che welcomed Si Chen, who met his younger sister Si Qing and gave her a protective silver-star necklace.
• Third Uncle Granduncle greeted Si Chen and recognized Black Mountain, praising his scholar’s robes and noting that he had grown fat.
• Black Mountain knelt before Third Uncle Granduncle and recited a poem, ending by declaring that he missed the old dining hall.

Si Chen reunited with the Si Household at a joyful family banquet and shared what he had learned about the Immortal Realm. The gathering ended with Si Ming accepting Si Chen as his brother, and the two promised to meet again the next day.

• Third Uncle Granduncle nearly fainted after hearing Black Mountain's poem end with a line about missing dining hall meals, then joined the Si Household's joyful banquet.
• Si Chen greeted Second Aunt Shen Yun and told Si Che and the family about his experiences in the Immortal Realm.
• Si Che called Jiang Ling his sister-in-law, while Li Tiezhu fretted about how to address the Si family members.
• Third Uncle Granduncle asked whether Si Chen had learned anything about the Si ancestors or his grandfather; Si Chen said he had not, and the family toasted to their lineage.
• Heartguard reassured Si Ming that Si Chen's affection for him did not depend on his catching up or proving himself.
• Si Ming visited Si Chen in his old courtyard, thanked him, and promised to see him tomorrow.

The Si Household settled into a lively routine after Si Chen and the others returned, while news of their return stirred the cultivation world. A crowd of female cultivators visited to see Si Chen and quietly ask after Third Uncle, leaving Third Uncle Granduncle fuming over a slip of the tongue.

• Qing'er spent each morning asking Si Chen for a hug, while Black Mountain resumed lessons and the household settled into its new routine.
• Word of Si Chen and the others returning spread across the continent, drawing crowds to several sects.
• A large group of female cultivators, including Su Miaoyin and Mu Qianqian, arrived at the Si Household.
• Si Che went to greet the visitors, and Si Chen joined them, recognizing each auntie and telling them Third Uncle was doing well in the Immortal Realm.
• Third Uncle Granduncle entered with Black Mountain, greeted the women, and inwardly cursed an unfilial descendant after letting his tongue slip.

Si Chen reassured the Si Household that he could eventually take them to the Immortal Realm, then introduced Jiang Ling as his new aunt, prompting her to storm out in anger. After reuniting with his family, he decided to set out the next day to handle important business.

• Su Miaoyin, Mu Qianqian, and the other women gave Qing Li many gifts, which Third Uncle Granduncle told her to accept.
• Si Chen promised to bring the women and eventually the entire Si Household to the Immortal Realm once matters there had settled.
• Jiang Ling entered looking for Murong Li, and Si Chen introduced her as an Immortal King and his new aunt.
• Jiang Ling angrily left after Si Chen called her auntie, while Mu Qianqian laughed at the thought of Si Shuo facing her temper.
• Si Chen watched his family celebrate the prospect of reaching the Immortal Realm and decided to set out the next day.

Si Chen left the Si Household ancestral grounds for the Demon Realm after bidding farewell to his family and friends. Meanwhile, Song Chi returned to Hidden Edge Mountain and continued pestering its leaders and elders for sword guidance, leaving the sect in despair.

• Si Chen said goodbye to Qing Li, Black Mountain, Qing'er, Si Ming, and Second Uncle Si Che before leaving the ancestral grounds.
• Song Chi returned to Hidden Edge Mountain after twenty years in the Immortal Realm and asked Zhao Wuji to guide his sword technique.
• Song Chi chased Zhao Wuji around the mountain for an hour, then received guidance from the Second Elder and Third Elder.
• Song Chi sought instruction from Hidden Edge Mountain's elders, stewards, guardians, hall heads, and Grand Supreme Elder over the following days.
• Song Chi stood outside the closed mountain gates and called to his master, eager to show him a new insight into the sword.

Si Chen arrived at Hidden Edge Mountain to collect Song Chi, whose efforts to seek guidance had kept his master and the sect on edge for seven days. He left with Song Chi and his companions, while Hidden Edge Mountain celebrated their departure, unaware Song Chi would later make its name known in the Immortal Realm.

• Si Chen and his companions reached Hidden Edge Mountain, and Sect Leader Zhao Wuji welcomed him with great relief.
• Si Chen went to the rear mountain, where he found Song Chi eager to keep seeking instruction from his master.
• Song Chi agreed to leave with Si Chen after Black Mountain and Red Wind pointed out that he had trapped his master inside for seven days.
• Song Chi promised Zhao Wuji he would return to demonstrate his new sword moves, and Zhao Wuji urged him to stay close to Si Chen and not hurry back.
• Zhao Wuji escorted the group out, then ordered the gates opened and announced Hidden Edge Mountain could resume its normal routine.

Si Chen and his companions reunited with Xie Changsheng and Zhou Yan, then visited the Jade Pivot Palace to take Luo Hongyi with them. Luo Hongyi said farewell to her master and left the fairy-like image behind, choosing to present herself as she truly was.

• Gray Gray rushed to Si Chen at the Mysterious One Dao Gate, and Xie Changsheng left with the group after bidding farewell to his sect.
• Zhou Yan left the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion after promising Elder Liu he would return to finish their board game.
• Wen Yao welcomed Si Chen and his companions to the Jade Pivot Palace, where Luo Hongyi appeared in her old blue robes and veil.
• Black Mountain began reciting a poem about Luo Hongyi, but she told him to shut up.
• Wen Yao urged Luo Hongyi to be herself, and Luo Hongyi removed her veil and hairpin, tied up her hair, and joined the group.

Wang Yan refined three First-Grade Foundation Establishment Pills in Alchemy Cauldron City and sent them to Si Chen as repayment for a promise made twenty years earlier. Recognizing Wang Yan’s achievement and realizing he had forgotten him, Si Chen set out to return to Alchemy Cauldron City.

• Wang Yan refined pills using his stir-frying method and left Alchemy Cauldron City with a jade bottle tied with a red cord.
• Luo Hongyi told Si Chen that Wang Yan had waited at the Jade Pivot Palace and left the bottle for him.
• Si Chen opened the bottle and found three scallion-scented First-Grade Foundation Establishment Pills, which reminded him of his promise to Wang Yan.
• Si Chen decided to reach Alchemy Cauldron City sooner and opened a golden vortex for his companions to follow him through.

Si Chen and his companions entered the Ascension passage to find a route to the Demon Realm and reach Red Bean. They encountered a black dragon ascending from the Ancestral Court and invited him to travel with them.

• Zhou Yan proposed that Black Mountain and Red Wind release their demonic auras to guide the passage toward the Demon Realm.
• Si Chen told the passage to take them to the Demon Realm, and it changed direction.
• Si Chen sensed an ascender nearby and brought the group to meet a black dragon.
• The black dragon said he had ascended from the Ancestral Court, startling Black Mountain and Red Wind.
• Si Chen invited the black dragon to travel with them to the Demon Realm.

Ao Chen ascended from his Ancestral Court and met Si Chen and his companions, who forced him to share what he knew. His account revealed that his intact Ancestral Court differed from the shattered courts in the cultivators’ histories, leading Zhou Yan to theorize that every lower realm had an Ancestral Court rooted in the Demon Realm.

• Ao Chen, the strongest being in his Ancestral Court, endured his tribulation and followed the guiding light toward the unknown.
• Si Chen and his companions stopped Ao Chen in the ascension passage, subdued him, and questioned him until he told them what he knew.
• Ao Chen said that dozens of demons had ascended from his Ancestral Court, where humans lived under Demon Race rule and none had ascended.
• Zhou Yan and the others compared Ao Chen’s account with their records of shattered Ancestral Courts and the Demon Race’s defeat.
• Luo Hongyi connected the records to the Demon Race’s retreat to the Mountain of Ten Thousand Silences, and Zhou Yan proposed that every lower realm had an Ancestral Court rooted in the Demon Realm.

Zhou Yan and the others reasoned that the Ancestral Courts in separate lower realms might have been established by demons from the Demon Realm to suppress humanity’s ascendants, and decided to ask Red Bean about their purpose. In the Demon Realm, Zhu Yao learned that the Dragon Race had refused her again and resolved to make them obey.

• Zhou Yan and Xie Changsheng deduced that demons from the Demon Realm may have founded Ancestral Courts across lower realms, while Song Chi suggested their purpose could be to prevent human ascendants.
• Jiang Ling said Zhu Yao had only supplied her with a magic treasure for their shared goal of killing the Immortal Realm’s upper echelon, and knew no more about her plans.
• Si Chen and the others decided to find Red Bean in the Demon Realm, and Ao Chen learned he would have to go with them.
• In the Demon Realm, Zhu Yao heard that the Dragon Race had refused her summons again and reflected on how the realm had changed during her twenty-year absence.
• Zhu Yao declared that a disobedient Dragon Race and a dead Dragon Race were no different.

Zhou Yan, Si Chen, and their companions emerged from the ascension passage into the Demon Realm and set out to find Red Bean. A group of Dragon Race demons confronted them, and their leader declared that Immortal Realm cultivators must be killed without mercy.

• Zhou Yan and the others emerged from the ascension passage into a beautiful sea, where Red Wind rescued Black Mountain from the water.
• Si Chen sensed that Red Bean was far away and pointed the group in her direction.
• A procession of sea beasts and armored demons appeared, led by a middle-aged Dragon Race man.
• The Dragon Race leader recognized Ao Chen as a newly ascended Black Dragon, then demanded to know why humans were with him.
• Si Chen introduced himself and said they had come from the Immortal Realm to find an old friend without causing offense.
• The Dragon Race leader declared that cultivators from the Immortal Realm were to be killed without mercy.

Ao Tong and the other demons attacked Si Chen’s group under the Demon Realm’s rule to kill Immortal Realm cultivators, but the Eastern Region group overwhelmed them. Jiang Ling ended the battle in moments, and Zhou Yan prepared to bind the defeated demons.

• Ao Tong declared that the Demon Realm’s rules required killing the humans, prompting Si Chen’s companions to attack.
• Song Chi and Xie Changsheng combined their swordsmanship, spells, and time-law abilities to wound Ao Tong, while the others trapped and fought the remaining demons.
• Jiang Ling entered the battlefield and knocked out several demons with slaps, then struck Ao Tong and sent him crashing into an island.
• Zhou Yan took out the Immortal-Binding Rope and told the defeated demons that they were not bad people.

Zhou Yan and the Eastern Region group bound the defeated demons, then questioned their leader, Ao Tong, about his name and whether he had a Demon Realm Star Map. Ao Tong refused to cooperate, and the chapter ended with the group proposing increasingly cruel interrogation methods that made him reconsider the beating he had just endured.

• Zhou Yan used Immortal-Binding Ropes to tie up the demons, with Gray Gray helping bind one of them.
• Si Chen asked Ao Tong for his name and a Demon Realm Star Map, but Ao Tong refused to answer.
• Ao Tong spat on Black Mountain and Red Wind and called them Demon Traitors, so they beat him while he remained bound.
• Jiang Ling threatened to use Soul Search, and the others suggested further ways to force Ao Tong to talk.
• Ao Tong listened to the group's interrogation ideas and decided their earlier group beating had been the gentlest treatment.

Si Chen summoned Little Lei to intimidate Ao Tong, who agreed to answer questions about the Demon Realm and Red Bean. Ao Tong explained the Dragon Race’s divided factions and four clans, leaving Black Mountain laughing at the Ao clan’s reputation for being the most numerous.

• Si Chen called on Little Lei, whose immense thunderous form made Ao Tong surrender and agree to answer questions.
• Ao Tong described the Demon Realm’s power structure and said the Dragon Race neither submitted to nor resisted the Imperial Lord.
• Ao Tong explained that the Ying clan opposed the Imperial Lord, the Shi stayed aloof, and the Yu followed whoever held power.
• Ao Tong said the Ao clan was the largest and most widespread; Ao Chen added that they were the best at reproducing.
• Black Mountain laughed at the Ao clan’s distinction, while Luo Hongyi wrote that Ao dragons were extraordinarily lustful by nature.

Ao Tong received an emergency message at the Dragon Palace revealing that the Imperial Lord had killed three Ying Dragon elders and that the Ying had declared war against her. The chapter ended with Ao Tong and his companions confronting the news as Dragon Race branches prepared to assemble.

• Zhou Yan prompted Ao Tong to declare that his family and branch were loyal to the Imperial Lord, and Ao Tong agreed.
• Ao Tong received an emergency message from the Dragon Palace, and Si Chen insisted that the group accompany him there.
• Ao Tong led Si Chen and the others through the underwater Dragon Palace to its central hall.
• An old woman presented Ao Tong with a jade slip containing news from the Dragon Domain.
• Ao Tong read that the Imperial Lord had killed three Ying Dragon elders, prompting the Ying to summon the Dragon Race branches and declare war against her.

After learning that the Ying clan planned to challenge the Imperial Lord, Si Chen and his companions decided to go to the Ying ancestral grounds at Cangwu. They pressured Ao Tong into joining the journey and letting Luo Hongyi and Murong Li raid his treasury for travel supplies.

• Zhou Yan furiously cursed the Ying for defying the Imperial Lord and vowed to capture their ancestor.
• Ao Tong explained that the Ying had ordered the Dragon Race to assemble at their ancestral grounds in Cangwu, a continent hidden in the void.
• Si Chen announced that the group would go to Cangwu, and he insisted that Ao Tong accompany them.
• Ao Tong ordered his Origin Demon-level clansmen to assemble and travel with them.
• Luo Hongyi demanded hospitality from Ao Tong, then claimed she and Murong Li would take what they needed from his treasury themselves.
• Xie Changsheng and Black Mountain called the seizure a willing donation, and Ao Tong reluctantly agreed.

Luo Hongyi and Murong Li plundered most of Ao Tong’s treasury while Si Chen questioned him about the Demon Realm’s history and its hostility toward the Immortal Realm. Si Chen resolved to bridge the ancient divide by making the other side his own, and he reflected that friendship made both sides fortunate.

• Luo Hongyi counted the treasury’s charitable donations as Murong Li examined a borrowed treasure, and Luo Hongyi said they still had three Dragon Race clans to visit.
• Si Chen asked Ao Tong whether the Demon Realm had a forbidden region without spiritual energy, and Ao Tong said he knew of none.
• Ao Tong explained that the Demon Realm’s clans believed the Immortal Realm had betrayed them in ancient times, causing great casualties and the Demon Realm’s isolation.
• Jiang Ling confronted Ao Tong about the rule to kill Immortal Realm cultivators, and Ao Tong confirmed that it came from their ancient inheritance.
• Si Chen compared the feud between the realms to two villages guarding a broken bridge and said he would make the other side his own so he could repair it.
• Jiang Ling called Si Chen’s friend lucky, and Si Chen replied that they were all fortunate to have one another as friends.

As the Dragon Ship neared Cangwu, Ao Tong explained how the Demon Realm’s factions might align in the coming conflict. He also revealed that the Imperial Lord was said to have been born within the sun, leaving Si Chen quietly pleased by the legend.

• On the eleventh day, Ao Tong learned that ships from many Demon Race tribes were heading toward Cangwu and discussed the gathering forces with Si Chen and the others.
• Ao Tong explained that the Demon Race was divided, with some factions likely to support the Ying clan, the Imperial Lord, or neither side.
• Ao Tong said the Imperial Lord had gathered followers and that the Phoenix Race might support her, though he knew little about their relationship.
• When Song Chi asked about the Imperial Lord’s race, Ao Tong said she had no known kin, bloodline, or ancestral land and was simply herself.
• Ao Tong shared the legend that the Imperial Lord had been born within the sun, and Si Chen smiled at the thought.

Zhu Yao and Feng Qing reflected on how the ancient clans and the Demon Realm had changed before Zhu Yao confronted the Ying, Yu, and Ao alliance at Cangwu. After denying that she had killed the three Ying elders, Zhu Yao declared that she would kill the three current clan leaders.

• Zhu Yao met Feng Qing at Cangwu and asked why the clans had changed since the ancient struggle to defend the Demon Realm.
• Feng Qing said that time had eroded their memories and that only she and Zhu Yao still remembered the past.
• Feng Qing asked whether Zhu Yao had killed the three Ying elders, and Zhu Yao questioned whether the Demon Realm believed her denial.
• Zhu Yao assumed her mature battle form and led her forces to face the allied armies of the Ying, Yu, and Ao clans.
• Ying You and Yu Ji demanded an explanation for the elders' deaths, while Ao Qing remained silent.
• Zhu Yao denied killing the elders, then told Ying You, Yu Ji, and Ao Qing that she would kill them.