Recaps

The Dean revealed that Su Mo could return to the Academy as his newly accepted seventh disciple, then explained that the Divine Realm made everyone mortal except Confucian cultivators. Ning Baixue left to seek another Confucian cultivator after Liu Feng’s death, while Su Mo remained with the Academy.

• Gu Yu rebuked Su Mo for addressing her as Immortal Gu, and the Dean arrived and welcomed Su Mo back to the Academy.
• The Dean introduced Su Mo as his seventh disciple and warned Ning Baixue and her companion against entering the Divine Realm, where even powerful cultivators became mortal.
• Ning Baixue explained that Confucian cultivators were exempt from the Divine Realm’s mortal restriction, and Su Mo inferred that the Liu Household had arranged for Liu Feng to enter the Confucian Dao to help the Holy Sect.
• Ning Baixue revealed that the Holy Sect had accepted Liu Feng in exchange for his help entering the Divine Realm, but his death left them without a Confucian guide.
• The Dean refused to let Su Mo accompany Ning Baixue, who departed on the white crane with the white-haired Spirit Transformation elder.

After the Dean declared Su Mo worthy of first place in the Palace Examination, Su Mo worried that people would think the emperor had awarded it under pressure. He left the Imperial Palace with Gu Yu and headed back to the Academy after collecting the little girl and waiting for Luo Yin to fetch the Ink Zither.

• The Dean explained that Su Mo had to take first place to become his seventh disciple, then advised him to add a little black to his overly white image before vanishing.
• Prince Ying and his wife invited Su Mo to visit their home, and Prince Ying said he would handle matters involving West City and the Liu Household.
• Gu Yu and Su Mo left the palace in a carriage driven by the same black horse that had taken Su Mo to the Spring Examination.
• At the Riverboat Pavilion, the little girl ran into Su Mo's arms, and Gu Yu told her that Su Mo had taken first place in the Palace Examination.
• Su Mo asked to return to the Academy, and Luo Yin went to get the Ink Zither while Gu Yu gave Su Mo a suspicious look.

Su Mo climbed the mountain to reach the Academy, where he met his senior brothers and learned that the so-called blessed lands were tombs and ancestral graves. The Dean sent Fourth and Fifth away and promised to teach Su Mo Confucian Dao Arts the next day.

• Gu Yu led Su Mo, Luo Yin, and the little maid up the mountain on foot and explained how the Dean had taken over an abandoned academy.
• Su Mo pushed himself up the steps, collapsed to his knees before the Dean, and disguised his exhaustion as a respectful bow.
• The Dean summoned Fourth and Fifth, introduced Su Mo as Great Hua's top scholar, and watched them celebrate the Academy's new Confucian cultivator.
• Fourth and Fifth invited Su Mo to join them exploring blessed lands, but the Dean sent them flying down the mountain to face the wall.
• Luo Yin told Su Mo that blessed lands meant great tombs and ancestral graves, prompting the Dean to leave and promise to teach him Confucian Dao Arts the next day.

After settling into the Academy, Su Mo reviewed the mysteries of the West City incident and realized the emperor had used national fortune power to orchestrate events that pushed him onto the Confucian path. The revelation left him horrified that the lives and deaths of the Liu Household and thousands of others had been arranged as part of a game targeting him.

• Gu Yu showed Su Mo and Luo Yin to empty houses at the Academy, where Su Mo and the little girl settled by the lake.
• Su Mo considered the unanswered questions surrounding the Spring Examination and the West City incident, then recalled the emperor's words about the sovereign's domain.
• Su Mo entered his Spirit Sea and asked the Great Calamity about national fortune power and Confucian cultivators.
• The Great Calamity explained that an emperor could use national fortune power to travel, conceal unusual auras, and monitor people throughout the nation, and that Confucian cultivators could not break through Spirit Transformation.
• The Great Calamity suggested that someone who guided a person onto the Confucian path either wanted that person's Confucian Dao foundation or was their father.
• Su Mo concluded that the emperor's game had targeted him, using the blank-paper examination and the West City deaths to make him choose the Confucian path.

Su Mo realized that the Emperor had orchestrated the West City events to make him enter the Confucian Dao, and he grieved over the deaths caused by the scheme. Great Calamity comforted him and promised to protect him, while warning that a far greater game still threatened him.

• Su Mo connected the West City events and realized the Emperor had arranged them to advance his Confucian Dao Foundation, leaving him horrified that people had died because of him.
• Great Calamity comforted Su Mo, telling him the wandering souls had been freed and that the Emperor's plan would have claimed victims even without him.
• Great Calamity warned Su Mo that players could become pieces in larger games, and Su Mo asked what would happen if the Emperor took his Confucian Dao Foundation.
• Great Calamity promised to keep Su Mo safe and explained that the Academy could not interfere in state affairs because national fortune carried immense karmic consequences.
• Su Mo learned that the Academy was playing its own game, while Great Calamity privately feared the greater game above it and its immense karma.

Su Mo examined the eerie Book of Life and Death in his Spirit Sea, and the Great Calamity offered to teach him the Confucian Dao so she could learn what the book could do. As he grasped the nature of Heaven and Earth's Laws, Su Mo manifested an ink-black flame that the Great Calamity recognized as Netherfire.

• Su Mo noticed that the enormous Book of Life and Death resembled two tomb doors, and the Great Calamity urged him to test it.
• When Su Mo admitted he knew no spells, the Great Calamity decided to teach him the Confucian Dao herself.
• The Great Calamity explained that Confucian Cultivators advanced by understanding and controlling Heaven and Earth's Laws.
• Su Mo understood the idea of immutable laws and declared that there should be fire in the empty space between them.
• The Book of Life and Death trembled as spiritual energy gathered, and its eerie power helped Su Mo create an ink-black flame.
• The Great Calamity identified the flame as Netherfire.

Su Mo learned that the Book of Life and Death carried dangerous karma, so the Great Calamity urged him to avoid using it and promised to teach him killing arts. He experimented with Confucian Dao spells by the lake, then used one to appear before Third Senior Sister Gu Yu, who silently drew her sword.

• Su Mo severed his mental connection to the Book of Life and Death and cast a harmless fire spell, prompting the Great Calamity to warn him about the book's karma.
• The Great Calamity told Su Mo to abandon the book if possible and promised to teach him killing arts the next night.
• Su Mo tested Confucian Dao spells that created light, stars, and wind, and realized they drew on the Spiritual Power between heaven and earth.
• Su Mo used a Confucian Dao spell to cross the lake and concluded that the spells seemed more suited to support than killing.
• Su Mo cast a spell to appear before Third Senior Sister Gu Yu, and Gu Yu silently drew her longsword.

Su Mo began learning Confucian Dao Arts and revealed his remarkable command of them, but the Dean told him that the little girl could not cultivate because her soul was damaged and she would not live past twelve. Su Mo refused to accept the news, and the little girl emerged from hiding in tears.

• The Dean taught Su Mo the basics of Confucian Dao Arts, and Su Mo demonstrated that he could conjure fire with ease.
• The Dean gave Su Mo a book of elementary Confucian Dao Arts and a Heart Flute, then warned him that the little girl could not cultivate because her soul was incomplete.
• The Dean explained that the girl's damaged soul prevented her from retaining memories and that she would not live past twelve.
• Su Mo broke down and insisted that there must be a way to mend the girl's soul, while Gu Yu tried to comfort him.
• The little girl stepped out from a nearby corner, crying, and called Su Mo her young master.

Su Mo carried the little girl down from the Academy and spent the day indulging her with food as they wandered through the city. Recognized and honored as Top Scholar Su, they returned to find their Little Painted Pleasure Boat waiting for them by the riverbank.

• Su Mo carried the little girl down the mountain after she asked for a chicken drumstick, and promised he would carry her for the rest of his life.
• Su Mo bought the little girl two candied hawthorns, and the vendor recognized him as Top Scholar Su and bowed in gratitude.
• Su Mo carried the little girl through the city, buying her favorite foods as passersby looked at them with respect and affection.
• The little girl asked to return to their Little Painted Pleasure Boat, and Su Mo took her to the riverbank.
• Su Mo found the boat still moored and a swept path leading to it, while kind people in the crowd smiled at them.

For three months, Su Mo searched the Academy's Book Tower for a way to save the little girl, while his hair turned gray and his cultivation advanced. The little girl comforted him and recorded his whitening hair in her journal, as Su Mo continued reading without telling her why.

• Luo Yin and Gu Yu discussed Su Mo's three-month search in the Book Tower and the Academy's sorrow over the little girl.
• Second, Sixth, Fourth, and Fifth returned or visited the Academy, while the Dean repeatedly went out seeking help.
• Su Mo read books day and night, reaching the perfection of Qi Refining as he searched for a way to save the little girl.
• The little girl brought Su Mo water, moved aside the books he had read, and combed his increasingly white hair.
• The little girl asked Su Mo to rest, but he smiled and urged her to write her journal entry.
• The little girl wrote that summer insects sang while she saw Su Mo's hair had turned white.

Su Mo spent a year searching books for a way to save the little girl, while her memories continued to fade and his hair turned white. He found that the Flower of the Other Shore could mend an incomplete soul, but it no longer existed, and the little girl had forgotten what it was like to first meet him.

• Su Mo rejected the Great Calamity's claim that the little girl's soul could not be saved and continued searching books for clues.
• The little girl told Su Mo that she was forgetting important things and feared she would forget him, and they promised never to forget each other.
• The little girl reported that many people had entered the Divine Realm, but few had come back; Su Mo said it had nothing to do with them.
• Winter arrived, and Su Mo finished reading the Academy's books, finding in the Record of Divine Herbs that the Flower of the Other Shore could mend an incomplete soul but had vanished from the world.
• The little girl told Su Mo she had forgotten what it was like when they first met.

Su Mo comforted the dying Girl by recalling how they first met and read aloud from her journal, which recorded their life together. As he sat with her in the Book Tower, news arrived that someone had seen the flower of the other shore inside the Divine Realm.

• Su Mo told Girl how he found her as a hungry child, and Girl remembered protecting his steamed buns from stray dogs before agreeing to travel with him to the capital.
• Girl told Su Mo she was content with the life they had shared and feared only forgetting him and their loved ones.
• Su Mo showed Girl her journal and read its entries about their journey and time together.
• A figure rushed into the Book Tower and reported that someone had seen the flower of the other shore inside the Divine Realm.
• Su Mo raised his head, his white hair trembling and his eyes alight.

Su Mo learned from the Dean that the Divine Realm was a dangerous world with no heaven, where strange entities rendered most cultivators powerless and even Confucian Cultivators suffered. He set out alone to find the Flower of the Other Shore and save Girl, while the Dean stayed behind to slow her deterioration.

• The Dean explained that the Divine Realm was the earth without a heaven among the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, and that little was known about the worlds beyond their own.
• The Dean told Su Mo that strange entities in the Divine Realm made cultivation useless against them, and that Confucian Cultivators who returned often died, went mad, or refused to speak of what they had seen.
• The Dean warned Su Mo that the Divine Realm was dangerous, that people could be more frightening than its strange entities, and that its opening had become more frequent and prolonged.
• Su Mo asked the Dean to look after Girl, and the Dean agreed to seal her to slow her deterioration while urging Su Mo to return if he could not find the Flower of the Other Shore.
• Su Mo resolved to find the Flower of the Other Shore and left for the Divine Realm alone.

Su Mo reached the Ruined Temple and prepared to enter the Divine Realm, where he reunited with Daoist Mude and Monk Zhixuan. After learning that their sect elders had not returned, the three faced the strange man’s warning, and Su Mo revealed his late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation.

• Su Mo entered the Ruined Temple, found the rift to the Divine Realm, and ignored a strange man's warning that the realm was no place for humans.
• Daoist Mude and Monk Zhixuan arrived, recognized Su Mo, and spoke with him about the Great Calamity that had altered West City's land and rivers.
• Zhixuan and Mude explained that they planned to enter because their sect elders had gone into the Divine Realm and never returned.
• Su Mo said he had no choice but to enter, and Zhixuan advised him against it unless he had reached Foundation Establishment.
• Su Mo revealed his aura, stunning Mude and Zhixuan with his late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation; the strange man recognized the Confucian Dao.

Su Mo entered the ghostly Divine Realm with Mude and Zhixuan, then continued alone after they withdrew. He sensed an unseen presence watching him and reached a deserted village while searching for the Flowers of the Other Shore.

• Su Mo, Mude, and Zhixuan entered the Divine Realm and found a mist-shrouded world with no living inhabitants.
• A bloodied man demanded their opportunities, begged them to kill him, and took his own life to escape the Divine Realm’s control.
• Mude and Zhixuan chose to leave, while Su Mo stayed to search for the Flowers of the Other Shore and found a paper on the corpse bearing the Holy Sect’s aura.
• Su Mo continued through the mist, sensed that something was watching him, and heard Great Calamity warn him to be careful.
• Su Mo tried to use a Dao Art to reach the Flowers of the Other Shore, suffered backlash, and then came upon a deserted village.

Su Mo found a strand of the Confucian Sage’s hair on a tablet describing the slaughter of eighty-six villagers during the Heavenly Cataclysm, then hurried toward a distant phenomenon that might be the Flower of the Other Shore. When two Holy Sect cultivators blocked him and tried to seize his opportunities, he killed them with Confucian Dao swordsmanship and continued toward the phenomenon.

• Su Mo entered the ruined village, collected the Confucian Sage’s hair from a stone tablet, and read that the Sage had killed all eighty-six villagers on the third day of the Heavenly Cataclysm.
• Great Calamity explained that the Confucian Sage had severed the Divine Realm from the outside world, and that it later became a land of death.
• Su Mo spotted a radiant phenomenon and rushed toward it, hoping it marked the Flower of the Other Shore.
• Two Holy Sect cultivators stopped Su Mo and demanded the opportunities he had found; they revealed that they had attacked another entrant with Holy Paper.
• Su Mo evaded the men’s sword attacks, halted their flying swords with a Confucian Dao word, and killed them with a hiltless Spirit Sword.
• Su Mo left the two bodies behind and continued toward the fading phenomenon while Great Calamity followed him.

Su Mo was swallowed by the strange fog and woke in what seemed to be his former life, where he reunited with his parents. He shared a warm meal with them, though his parents’ presence felt fragile and unfamiliar.

• Su Mo followed the radiant vision into dense fog, fell through the ground, and lost consciousness as unseen eyes watched him.
• Su Mo woke in a classroom, ignored his classmates, and left alone after a ponytailed girl invited him on a trip.
• Su Mo returned to a familiar home and tearfully called the arguing couple Mom and Dad before embracing them.
• Su Mo ate with his parents, sharing meat with both of them as the family enjoyed a warm meal together.

Su Mo resisted Great Calamity’s demand to kill the illusion of his parents, choosing instead to leave and save the little girl waiting for him. The illusion shifted to scenes of the girl selling paintings and her life with a young master, and Su Mo watched until he awoke disoriented as the vision vanished.

• Su Mo recognized that the home with his parents was an illusion but refused Great Calamity’s order to kill them, saying he needed to return and save a little girl.
• Su Mo leaped from the balcony, shattering the scene and awakening in another illusion as a white-haired man.
• Su Mo bought a mask, paid the little girl ten qian for two Kaitai paintings, and learned she believed her young master sent her out to walk because she was unhealthy.
• Su Mo followed the little girl to the Painted Pleasure Boat and watched her nag the youth there about drinking and their lack of silver.
• Su Mo watched the girl’s life unfold for an indeterminate time until a white-haired youth entered a ruined temple in the snow, then abruptly awoke as the illusion disappeared.

Su Mo escaped the Divine Realm with the Flower of the Other Shore and used it to awaken the little girl. Months later, he wondered whether the life before him was real.

• Su Mo returned to the Divine Realm and learned from Daoist Mude and Monk Zhixuan that its exits led to a supposed Second Layer, while their Sect elders were still alive.
• Thick fog separated Su Mo from Mude and Zhixuan, then cleared to reveal the Flower of the Other Shore, which Su Mo picked.
• Su Mo crossed the Divine Realm alone, entered the black rift, and emerged in the Ruined Temple before returning to the Academy.
• Su Mo gave the Flower of the Other Shore to the Dean, who used it to wake the little girl; she asked Su Mo for a chicken drumstick.
• Several months later, Su Mo stood beside a lake and told the little girl he wished everything before his eyes were real.

Su Mo realized the Third Illusion had been built from reality and explored the Divine Realm inside it to find the Flower of the Other Shore. He concluded that triggering the Divine Realm's Death Tribulation could let him escape and prepare to obtain the flower in reality.

• Su Mo told the little girl he had to return to the Divine Realm to save her, then left to investigate his surroundings.
• Su Mo found West City reduced to ruins and gravestones, confirming the illusion followed reality rather than his memories.
• Su Mo entered the Divine Realm through a black rift and explored its layers, finding ruined settlements and stone tablets recording the Confucian Sage's massacres.
• Su Mo reached the palace in the Third Layer and found the Flower of the Other Shore before a statue of the Confucian Sage.
• Su Mo reasoned that the flower's presence in an illusion based on reality meant he could find it after returning to reality, and he invited the illusion to give him a Death Tribulation so he could escape.

Su Mo endured the Confucian Dao’s Withered Falling Leaves tribulation inside an illusion, formed a Golden Core, and woke in the real Divine Realm. After learning that he and his companions had been trapped there for months and that the Divine Realm’s rules erased his Confucian True Words, he realized time was running short for Little Girl.

• Su Mo provoked the illusion into inflicting the Withered Falling Leaves tribulation, formed a Golden Core, and shattered the illusion.
• Su Mo woke beside Daoist Mude and Monk Zhixuan, then questioned whether he was still in an illusion and spoke with Great Calamity in his Spirit Sea.
• Monk Zhixuan told Su Mo that they had been in the Divine Realm for several months and could enter but not leave, while Mude reacted sorrowfully when Su Mo asked about his elders.
• Su Mo realized the events matched his third illusion and feared there was little time left for Little Girl.
• Su Mo revealed his Core Formation aura and tried to use Confucian True Words to reach the Flower of the Other Shore, but an unknown force erased the rule.

Su Mo led Zhixuan and Mude through the Divine Realm toward the third level, where he sensed wandering souls trapping six people, including the monks’ masters. As time ran short to find the Flower of the Other Shore and save the Girl, Su Mo considered how to get past them.

• Su Mo urged Zhixuan and Mude to leave the strange area and led them toward the third level.
• As the mist thickened, Su Mo sensed six living auras and more than a hundred wandering souls surrounding them.
• Su Mo told Zhixuan and Mude that the trapped figures included their masters, and the two grew anxious.
• Su Mo considered whether Confucian arts could help against the wandering souls, while worrying that the Girl might not live to twelve without the Flower of the Other Shore.

Su Mo discovered that his Confucian cultivation let him pass safely through a formation filled with ghosts that had trapped six people. He led Zhixuan, Mude, and the others out of the formation, while questions remained about the Divine Realm’s dangers and the Confucian Sage.

• Su Mo, Zhixuan, and Mude approached a formation where over a hundred ghosts surrounded six people, including Ning Baixue, an old Daoist, and an old Monk.
• The old Monk warned Zhixuan and the others not to enter, while Mude and the old Daoist argued over the Scripture of Daoist Mysteries.
• Su Mo found that the ghosts moved aside for him and realized Confucian Cultivators were spared the Divine Realm’s eerie formations, though they faced illusions that others did not.
• Su Mo led Zhixuan and Mude through the ghosts to the trapped group, where Zhixuan reunited with his injured master and Mude saw his old Daoist master.
• After confirming he followed the Confucian Dao, Su Mo led everyone out of the formation as the ghosts parted for him.

Su Mo refused to escort the finely robed youth and his companions, recognizing that they wanted to force him to lead them deeper into the Divine Realm. When the youth’s Mid Spirit Transformation protector attacked, Su Mo used a talisman that suppressed her cultivation.

• Su Mo sent Mude, Zhixuan, their elders, and Ning Baixue toward the Divine Realm’s exit while he continued deeper in search of the Flower of the Other Shore.
• Ning Baixue warned Su Mo that the finely robed youth and the old woman with him were not from their world.
• The finely robed youth demanded that Su Mo escort him, but Su Mo refused; the old woman attacked, and the others returned to his side.
• Su Mo deduced that the youth wanted him to guide them to opportunities deeper in the Divine Realm, not help them escape.
• The old woman’s Mid Spirit Transformation pressure forced Su Mo down, so he unleashed a yellow talisman that suppressed her cultivation below Spirit Transformation.

Su Mo used the Deity-Sealing Edict to suppress the old woman, but a small, sword-pierced girl emerged from the fog and killed her and the young man. The girl recognized Su Mo after a memory fragment passed between their matching stones, and he asked whether her wound hurt.

• Su Mo activated the Deity-Sealing Edict, suppressing the old woman's cultivation, and identified himself as the Academy's seventh direct disciple.
• Su Mo considered asking Great Calamity to intervene, but she said a fearsome presence had already set its sights on the group.
• A small girl emerged from the fog and froze everyone except Su Mo, then killed the old woman and the lavishly dressed young man by pulling out their hearts.
• The girl noticed the white-haired youth approaching and recognized Su Mo when a light from his white stone merged with the matching stone on her chest.
• Su Mo saw the sword embedded in the girl's chest and asked if it hurt; she replied that it hurt very much.