Chapter Summaries

Su Mo was trapped in a blood-red mist by a ghostly presence that tried to persuade him to help the souls of the dead. Mude and Zhixuan fled the underground chamber, where three black-robed cultivators ordered them killed, while the ghost asked Su Mo if he wanted to meet the wronged souls.

• An uncanny voice stirred Su Mo’s anger, and Mude spotted a blood-red mark on his neck as Zhixuan tried to reach him.
• Mude’s bronze sword turned red on touching Su Mo, and a surge of scarlet mist forced Mude and Zhixuan to flee without him.
• In the courtyard, Mude and Zhixuan realized the three black-robed cultivators did not know an ominous entity inhabited the Extreme Yin Land, and the cultivators ordered them killed to protect their blood-pill operation.
• Inside the red mist, Su Mo met the ghostly figure, who said she was no longer human and sensed the aura of the Great Dao around him.
• Su Mo refused to agree to help the wronged souls, and the ghost proposed a different game by asking whether he wanted to meet them.

Su Mo spoke with the ghost of an old woman to comfort her, then met the woman who had died in the street and assured her he was alive. After she urged him to preserve his life and pursue justice, the eerie woman offered to show him more ghosts, and Su Mo agreed.

• The eerie woman showed Su Mo an old woman's frightened soul wandering in darkness and calling for her husband.
• Su Mo asked to speak to the old woman, then gently convinced her she was home and could rest until morning.
• The eerie woman revealed the ghost of the woman who had died in the street, who believed Su Mo had died too.
• Su Mo told the woman he was alive and apologized that he had been unable to help her.
• The woman urged Su Mo to stay alive and work toward justice, and he agreed.
• The eerie woman asked whether Su Mo wanted to see more ghosts, and he said yes.

Su Mo saw off the dead beside the underground blood pool, taking on the identity of Impermanence as his eerie aura grew stronger. When a frightened little girl asked him to take her home, he led her onward, and his aura became a door to the Netherworld as the figure in the darkness possessed him.

• Aboveground, a black-robed cultivator battered Monk Zhixuan’s Golden Alms Bowl while Daoist Mude repaired its barrier with a blood talisman.
• Daoist Mude and Monk Zhixuan realized that either a powerful force was hiding the courtyard or its powerful occupants prevented anyone from intervening.
• Underground, Su Mo comforted departed souls and called himself Impermanence as each one faded away and his eerie aura strengthened.
• A little girl clung to Su Mo and asked him to take her home, unable to understand that she was dead.
• Su Mo took the girl’s hand, and his aura transformed into a door to the Netherworld as the figure in the darkness possessed him.

Trapped with the Black-Robed Men, Mude and Zhixuan watched Su Mo emerge from the blood mist after being possessed by the Great Calamity. Su Mo held the Little Girl’s wandering soul and promised to take her home, while the Daoist realized the Great Calamity had seized his body.

• Mude repeatedly used his blood to repair the Golden Alms Bowl barrier as the Black-Robed Men attacked, until he collapsed from exhaustion.
• Su Mo emerged from the blood mist, and Mude and Zhixuan noticed his strange, invisible grip on something.
• Su Mo spoke to the Little Girl’s wandering soul, picked her up, and promised to take her home despite the Black-Robed Men blocking their path.
• Su Mo laughed and cried while facing the Black-Robed Men, and the Daoist recognized the Great Calamity’s aura in him and declared that it had seized Su Mo’s body.

Su Mo tried to take Tongtong’s departed soul home, but the black-robed cultivators blocked his way and provoked his eerie power. As Tongtong sang the Three Character Classic, Su Mo danced in the rain while the immobilized cultivators watched in terror, and he began draining the life of the man who attacked him.

• Su Mo told the three black-robed men that he would take Tongtong home, and one of them charged at him with a sword.
• Su Mo’s eerie aura froze the attacker and began devouring his vitality, while the other two men retreated in fear.
• Su Mo comforted Tongtong and asked her to sing the Three Character Classic so the men might let them leave.
• Tongtong sang as Su Mo danced around the immobilized cultivators, while Zhixuan and Mude stayed hidden inside the Golden Alms Bowl.
• Su Mo tapped the sword-wielding man’s forehead, making him hear Tongtong’s song as the eerie aura continued to weaken him.

Su Mo danced a requiem with Tongtong’s wandering soul, using her song to kill the three Black-Robed Men who had trapped them. Tongtong remembered that she was already dead and faded away after Su Mo sang to comfort her, leaving him alone in the rain.

• Su Mo, while possessed by the uncanny being, danced with Tongtong and made the three Black-Robed Men hear her song.
• Tongtong’s singing caused the first Black-Robed Man to rapidly age and die, while Monk Zhixuan and Daoist Mude watched helplessly.
• Su Mo’s rules killed the other two Black-Robed Men, and he told Tongtong they could finally go home.
• Tongtong remembered that she had been murdered and admitted she could never go home again.
• Su Mo comforted Tongtong about the afterlife and sang opera as she fell asleep and faded away.

After the dread entity’s control over Su Mo ended, he left the courtyard but collapsed from exhaustion and blood loss. Gu Yu and Luo Yin arrived searching for him and learned that he lay unconscious near the entrance.

• Su Mo regained control of himself, left the courtyard, spat blood, and fainted outside the gate.
• Gu Yu arrived, questioned Zhixuan and Mude, and learned that a dread entity had killed the black-robed men refining blood pills.
• Luo Yin arrived searching for Jing Yan and told Gu Yu that he might be in danger.
• Gu Yu realized the Dean’s missing junior brother was Su Mo and asked Zhixuan and Mude if they had seen him.
• Mude pointed out that Su Mo, dressed in black, was unconscious just behind Gu Yu and Luo Yin.

Gu Yu and Luo Yin found the unconscious Su Mo after he killed several Foundation Establishment cultivators and brought him back to the Academy. Su Mo awoke in a mountain lodge with an old man in blue robes, where he drank Apricot Blossom Village wine and learned how costly it was.

• Gu Yu and Luo Yin found Su Mo collapsed, and Mude recounted how he had killed a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator with one arrow and three more after entering the Underground Palace.
• Gu Yu examined Su Mo, then he and Luo Yin took him to the Academy while ordering Zhixuan and Mude to keep the Blood Pill and Great Calamity matter quiet.
• Zhixuan and Mude wondered whether the Great Calamity had left Su Mo and hurried away, fearing it might still be nearby.
• Su Mo awoke in a mountain lodge and met an old man in blue robes warming Apricot Blossom Village wine.
• Su Mo poured a cup of wine onto the ground as an offering to keep a promise, then drank another and learned it was an expensive eighteen-year-aged brew.

Su Mo discussed his doubts about cultivation with the old man in blue, who persuaded him that the Academy’s path aligned with his desire to protect mortals and pursue justice. Su Mo agreed to join, then learned the old man was Mo Shangao, the Academy’s dean, before wine made him collapse during his attempted formal greeting.

• The old man in blue told Su Mo that his disillusionment with cultivators was a great Dao wound and urged him to uphold what he believed in.
• Su Mo asked about the Academy, and the old man explained that it sought to understand humanity’s relationship with heaven and earth.
• Su Mo decided to go to the Academy, and the old man revealed himself as Mo Shangao, its dean, and demanded that Su Mo accept him as his master.
• Su Mo knelt to pay his respects but collapsed from drinking too much wine.

After waking from a ten-day drunken unconsciousness, Su Mo reunited with the little girl who had anxiously watched over him. The Dean departed, leaving Gu Yu to guide Su Mo into the Dao and requiring him to take first place in the Spring Examination as a test of his heart.

• The Dean reassured the little girl that Su Mo would recover in time for the Spring Examination, while Gu Yu reported that the blood pills were missing and officials appeared to be involved.
• The Dean told Gu Yu to stay out of the blood-pill matter, then left and instructed him to help Su Mo enter the Dao and have him take first place in the Spring Examination as a trial.
• The Dean praised Luo Yin's progress, and Luo Yin asked Gu Yu to tell Su Mo to visit the Riverboat Pavilion after he woke.
• The little girl reflected on Su Mo's compassion and the dangers he had faced, then stayed beside him as he slept.
• Su Mo woke and comforted the little girl, who told him she had missed him and was glad he was safe.

Gu Yu told Su Mo that he had to take first place in the Spring Examination the next day to qualify as an Academy disciple, then gave him a cultivation method and explained the basics of cultivation. Su Mo left the exhausted little girl to sleep and ended the night beginning to understand how cultivation and entering the Dao worked.

• Gu Yu told Su Mo that the Dean had set him an entrance test: he had to take first place in the Spring Examination, which was happening the next day.
• The little girl explained that she and Gu Yu had brought Su Mo back from West City and cared for him while he slept for over ten days.
• Su Mo promised to visit the Riverboat Pavilion after the examination to thank Luo Yin, then let the exhausted little girl sleep while he went outside.
• Su Mo sat beneath the stars, brooding about his distant homeland, until Gu Yu appeared and gave him a cultivation method.
• Gu Yu explained that a cultivation method only guided cultivation, while entering the Dao required insight and the extraordinary abilities Su Mo described were Dao Arts.

Su Mo began cultivating under Gu Yu’s guidance and quickly entered an unusual trance, drawing a surge of spiritual power into himself and forming a spirit sea. Exploring its strange, star-filled depths, he spotted a mysterious figure in the mist.

• Su Mo sensed the spirit sword Gu Yu had given him and used its spiritual aura to find the power of heaven and earth.
• Su Mo entered a trance and began guiding spiritual power through a lesser celestial circuit, while Gu Yu noticed his eerie, mysterious aura.
• A spirit tide formed around Su Mo as his spiritual power gathered into a spirit sea threaded with eerie mist and scattered stars.
• Su Mo explored his spirit sea, wondered what object would manifest from his Book Dao, and worried that stray thoughts might shape it.
• Su Mo saw a curvaceous figure hidden in the mist within his spirit sea.

Su Mo discovered that the Great Calamity had been living in his Spirit Sea and planned to stay there, claiming she had opened it for him as a place to rest. After she expelled him from the Spirit Sea, Su Mo mistakenly concluded that his talent was poor because others opened their Spirit Seas themselves.

• Su Mo encountered the silent woman meditating in his Spirit Sea and recognized her as the Great Calamity when she finally spoke.
• The Great Calamity told Su Mo she had remained in his Spirit Sea since their encounter underground and had opened it for him so she could make it her home.
• The Great Calamity dismissed Su Mo's concerns about her learning his cultivation secrets, claimed no one in his world could rival her, and expelled him from the Spirit Sea.
• Su Mo woke beside Gu Yu and asked whether cultivators opened their own Spirit Seas.
• Gu Yu reassured Su Mo that his talent was not bad, while privately recognizing it as exceptional; Su Mo instead believed his talent was poor.

Su Mo traveled to the Spring Examination with the little girl, met fellow candidate Jiang Yu, and learned the exam would combine the classics, policy questions, and an eight-legged essay in one session. As the examination began, Su Mo recognized the aura of the Blood Pill and found his paper completely blank.

• Su Mo recited poetry on the way to the examination, and the little girl reminded him to stop drinking and finish the poem.
• Su Mo met Jiang Yu, who recognized his earlier work and explained that the Spring Examination would combine several subjects in a single paper.
• Su Mo left the little girl with the horse to go to Luo Yin’s Riverboat Pavilion, then entered the examination grounds.
• Su Mo sensed the Blood Pill’s aura as the bell rang and received a paper with no words on it.

Su Mo wrote a cryptic account of Peach Mountain on the blank Spring Examination paper, then waited outside the examination grounds for whoever carried the aura of the Blood Pill. He identified the man as Liu Feng and decided to avenge the Blood Pill’s victims, hoping to end his karmic entanglement.

• Su Mo interpreted the blank examination paper as an invitation to write anything and submitted a tale about Peach Mountain, a chess-playing old man, and tigers.
• Su Mo waited outside the examination grounds, sensing the Blood Pill’s aura and remembering the wronged souls who had died to create it.
• Su Mo spent the day at a roadside tea stall, watching candidates leave while the old stallkeeper repeatedly replaced his untouched tea.
• Su Mo recognized Liu Feng among the departing candidates and followed his carriage to the Liu Residence.
• Su Mo returned toward the Riverboat Pavilion, resolving to avenge the victims and protect the little girl from the dangers surrounding his cultivation.

Su Mo realized that the Blood Pill murders stayed hidden because mortals and cultivators lived in separate worlds, and he identified Luo Yin’s Riverboat Pavilion as a link between them. He reunited with the little girl there and left his restless thoughts behind as they shared a peaceful moment with Luo Yin.

• Su Mo questioned why nobody among the common people knew about the West City courtyard murders and concluded that news rarely crossed between mortals and cultivators.
• Su Mo decided he needed a connection to both worlds and recognized Luo Yin’s Riverboat Pavilion as a place that served both cultivators and ordinary people.
• A guard welcomed Su Mo to the Riverboat Pavilion and told him that Luo Yin and the little girl were upstairs.
• The little girl sensed Su Mo’s arrival, ran to greet him, and clung to him when he entered.
• Luo Yin and Su Mo agreed to address each other as fellow Academy members, while the little girl joked about her qin lessons.

Su Mo learned that the West City massacre had been hidden from the victims’ loved ones because of the Immortal-Mortal Divide, and that joining the Academy would prevent him from intervening in mortal affairs. He left the girl with Luo Yin for two days and, torn between cultivation and justice, asked the strange woman in his Spirit Sea to bring the dead before the world.

• The little girl told Su Mo she wanted to learn the sword, and he sent her to read books after discussing his Spring Examination with her and Luo Yin.
• Su Mo asked Luo Yin whether the victims’ families knew about the West City massacre, and she explained that the Immortal-Mortal Divide kept mortals from learning the truth.
• Luo Yin told Su Mo that the Academy could not interfere in a nation’s affairs and confirmed he would have to give up involvement in mortal matters if he entered the Academy.
• Su Mo asked Luo Yin to care for the girl for two more days, then left the Riverboat Pavilion to think over his choice.
• Back on his Painted Pleasure Boat, Su Mo weighed the risks of cultivation against the suffering of West City’s dead and asked the woman in his Spirit Sea to make their souls appear before the world.

Su Mo learned that the departed souls he wished to avenge had already dissipated, but that his Spiritual Power could expose those who had consumed Blood Pills. After the Golden Ranking summoned him to the Palace Examination, Eunuch Ji uniquely escorted him to the palace, where Su Mo arrived by a sudden transfer.

• Su Mo asked the woman in his Spirit Sea for help settling his karma with the departed souls, but she said they had dissipated and explained that his Spiritual Power carried their resentment.
• The woman told Su Mo he could reveal Blood Pill consumption by circulating his Spiritual Power near someone, though doing so would prevent him from entering the Academy.
• After two days in the Rocking Chair, Su Mo heard the nine bells and saw his name, along with other candidates, appear on the Golden Ranking summoning them to the Palace Examination.
• Eunuch Ji arrived by imperial decree and said Su Mo alone would receive an escort to the Imperial Palace.
• Su Mo changed into a Tribute Graduate Robe and accompanied Eunuch Ji, arriving inside a resplendent palace after his vision blurred.

Su Mo entered the palace, answered Eunuch Ji’s test, and received the Memory-River Spirit Jade before joining the candidates for the palace examination. The emperor asked why they studied, while a grief-stricken man nearby searched for Tongtong.

• Eunuch Ji asked Su Mo what he would do about a savage tiger he could not defeat, and Su Mo answered that he must first remedy his own afflictions and become stronger.
• Eunuch Ji gave Su Mo the Memory-River Spirit Jade, which could make his memories take shape, and sent him to the palace examination.
• Su Mo joined the candidates at the Hall of Supreme Splendor, where he recognized Jiang Yu and Liu Feng and stood beside Ji Hongyan.
• The emperor arrived, announced an oral inquiry, and asked the candidates why they studied.
• As the candidates pondered the question, a sorrowful, drunken man repeatedly called for Tongtong and asked whether the child no longer wanted her daddy.

At the palace examination, Su Mo listened as candidates explained why they studied, but he could not find his own answer. Elsewhere, Hongyi helped her blue-robed teacher uncover a hidden site, where he warned that the Ends of the Earth would soon disappear.

• Candidates gave the emperor varied reasons for studying, including serving the realm, gaining recognition, and freely seeing the world.
• Ji Hongyan said she studied to read the world’s affairs and behold its sights, earning the emperor’s amused approval.
• Su Mo reflected that none of the answers fit him and wondered whether he had any reason to study at all.
• Hongyi complained that her teacher had summoned her away from the palace examination to help explore a so-called blessed land.
• The blue-robed old man activated the formation disks and raised a blue-green beam from underground, then told Hongyi that the Ends of the Earth would soon disappear.