Chapter Summaries

Little Qing Yi encountered a plague-stricken village while traveling to find Su Mo and chose to treat its residents, despite knowing the work would consume the time she had left to reach him. She gathered her belongings and went into the mountains for medicinal herbs, leaving her journey to the Immortal Dao in jeopardy.

• Little Qing Yi walked through the mountains for half a month, enduring painful wounds on her feet as she continued toward Su Mo.
• After the mist cleared, Little Qing Yi found a village where many women and children were suffering from a plague.
• Little Qing Yi identified the illness, gathered medicinal herbs, and brewed medicine that eased an elderly woman's condition.
• The elderly woman asked Little Qing Yi to save the other villagers, and Little Qing Yi agreed despite having only a little over a month left to reach Su Mo.
• Little Qing Yi emptied her traveling bundle and went into the mountains to search for herbs, hoping Su Mo would forgive her for delaying her journey.

Little Qing Yi gathered herbs and brewed medicine for a plague-stricken village, but after the villagers worsened again, she was left helpless beside the critically ill elderly woman. A white-haired figure appeared and questioned why the isolated village had caught the plague.

• Little Qing Yi slipped into a stream while gathering herbs, scraped her knee, and limped back to the village with her findings.
• She brewed a limited supply of medicine and delivered one bowl to each household, then drank what remained in the pot.
• Little Qing Yi wondered why sickness and pain existed, wished to become like Senior and save people, and fell asleep on the village steps.
• After waking before dawn, Little Qing Yi searched the mountains for more herbs and returned to find the villagers' pain worse than before.
• She found the elderly woman unconscious and near death, then heard a voice ask why the isolated village had caught the plague.
• Little Qing Yi turned and recognized the white-robed, white-haired figure as Senior.

Su Mo told Little Qing Yi that only entering the Dao would let her dispel the Immortal Poison afflicting the villagers, then guided her to examine her reason for cultivating. After several days of reflection, Little Qing Yi found her own conviction, and the scene dissolved into white mist.

• Su Mo explained that the villagers suffered from Immortal Poison and that he could only seal it temporarily, leaving Little Qing Yi as their only hope of a cure.
• Su Mo told Little Qing Yi to find her own Dao and questioned whether cultivating only to repay him would give her a lasting Dao Heart.
• Little Qing Yi spent several days contemplating why she wanted to cultivate while Su Mo waited beside her.
• Little Qing Yi declared that she wanted to help people suffering from illness and pain and wished for a world without either.
• Heaven and earth resonated as the warmth left by Senior Black-Clad One surged through Little Qing Yi, and the scene collapsed into white mist.

Su Mo revealed that the village and plague had been an illusion meant to help Little Qing Yi enter the Dao, then waited for her at the Bamboo Hut. Little Qing Yi arrived, was welcomed as Su Mo’s disciple by him, Du Pingsheng, and Phoenix Woman, and was moved by the care they had prepared for her.

• Su Mo revealed the illusion to Little Qing Yi and told her to finish the mountain journey herself before waiting for her at the Bamboo Hut.
• Little Qing Yi completed the ten-thousand-mile journey and arrived at the bamboo huts half a month later.
• Little Qing Yi knelt before Su Mo and declared herself his disciple, and Su Mo introduced her to his master, Du Pingsheng.
• Du Pingsheng welcomed Little Qing Yi as his junior and promised to find her a gift.
• Little Qing Yi called Phoenix Woman “Big Sister” after Su Mo introduced her as a close friend and confidante.
• Little Qing Yi saw the new furniture in her room, realized Su Mo had arranged it for her, and wept with gratitude.

Su Mo welcomed Little Qing Yi as his disciple, and the three generations shared a peaceful tea gathering at the Bamboo Pavilion. Du Pingsheng gave Little Qing Yi Spirit Artifacts, while the Phoenix Woman challenged Su Mo to give his disciple something as well.

• Du Pingsheng delighted in sitting with Su Mo, the Phoenix Woman, and Little Qing Yi, while Little Qing Yi gladly served them tea.
• Su Mo told Little Qing Yi to rest for a few days before he began teaching her cultivation.
• Su Mo insisted that Du Pingsheng give Little Qing Yi a meeting gift, and Du Pingsheng produced several Spirit Artifacts.
• Su Mo placed the Spirit Artifacts in a Storage Ring and gave it to Little Qing Yi, who accepted it gratefully.
• The Phoenix Woman offered to give Little Qing Yi medicinal pills, but Su Mo stopped her before she could finish.
• The Phoenix Woman teased Su Mo for giving his own disciple nothing, and Su Mo withdrew his hand.

Su Mo welcomed Little Qing Yi as his disciple and gave her the Sacred Artifact Frost, then introduced her to the Void Beast. Later, he examined the Soul Incense Volume and realized it passively increased his cultivation by making him endure the pain of everyone who died.

• Su Mo gave Little Qing Yi Frost and told her to keep it in her ring until she reached Nascent Soul.
• Su Mo introduced Little Qing Yi to the Void Beast, which transformed into a small, cute beast.
• As night fell, Little Qing Yi went to rest while Su Mo rode the Void Beast away from the bamboo grove.
• On a distant mountaintop, Su Mo read the Soul Incense Volume and learned it drew power from the souls of the dead.
• Su Mo realized that every death strengthened his cultivation while forcing him to experience the dead person's suffering.

Su Mo struggled with the Soul Incense Volume, which grew his cultivation through the deaths of others while making him experience their suffering. He learned that Yu Gu could find no trace of Ning Baixue or Shi Jiuxuan, then captured two Thunder Sect members lurking in the darkness.

• Su Mo realized the Soul Incense Volume tied his cultivation to people’s deaths and considered whether it might tempt him into demonic ways.
• The Void Beast comforted Su Mo as he endured the pain of the soul incense.
• Yu Gu told Su Mo that no one knew of Shi Jiuxuan or the Three Thousand Great Dao, and explained that the Demon Realm’s troubles stemmed from the same two words behind other conflicts.
• Su Mo sensed that the Three Sects’ situation had grown dire and summoned Punishment One.
• Su Mo’s ghostly chains seized two Thunder Sect members hiding in the darkness and dragged them through the iron gates.

Su Mo learned from Yu Gu that the Young Master of the Cloud Sect had died in the Forbidden Lands, and Yu Gu urged him to join the Rain Sect and unite the Three Sects against the Demon Realm. Back at the Bamboo Hut, Du Pingsheng confronted Su Mo about his hatred of the Three Sects and the worlds beyond the Ninth Realm.

• Su Mo asked Yu Gu to watch for news of Shi Jiuxuan, while Yu Gu urged him to become the Rain Sect’s young master and lead the Three Sects.
• Yu Gu told Su Mo that the Young Master of the Cloud Sect had fallen in the Forbidden Lands, leaving Su Mo shaken despite their enmity.
• Su Mo left with the Void Beast, telling Yu Gu he would think about joining the Rain Sect.
• Su Mo returned to the Bamboo Hut and told Du Pingsheng about the calamity in the Forbidden Lands and Yu Gu’s proposal.
• Du Pingsheng told Su Mo that his reluctance came from hatred of the Three Sects’ slaughter in the Lower Realm and hostility toward everything beyond the Ninth Realm, then reminded him that most people were only suffering through troubled times.

Su Mo began teaching Little Qing Yi to cultivate by giving her talismans made with his power of rules and books on the way of plants and trees. As she studied, he remembered another girl and silently planted a fragment of his soul in the earth.

• After a night spent sitting outside, Su Mo, Little Qing Yi, Du Pingsheng, Phoenix Woman, and the Void Beast watched ants together until Little Qing Yi asked whether they held a mystery.
• Su Mo told Little Qing Yi there was no mystery and, after they ate, offered to teach her to cultivate.
• Su Mo made Little Qing Yi talismans that could help her escape, protect her, or suppress enemies at several cultivation levels.
• Su Mo warned Little Qing Yi not to reveal the valuable items he had given her and brought out books on plants and trees for her to study.
• Watching Little Qing Yi read, Su Mo remembered a girl who had struggled with books, forced a fragment of his soul from himself, and planted it in the soil.

Su Mo watched the Flower of the Other Shore bloom and sent the Void Beast to spread its seeds across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, hoping the Little Girl would return. He agreed to become the Rain Sect’s young master and sent Du Pingsheng and Little Qing Yi to the sect while he prepared to leave with Phoenix Woman.

• After two months, Phoenix Woman told Su Mo she was leaving, and he asked her to wait until the Flower of the Other Shore bloomed so he could accompany her through Nirvana.
• A month later, the Flower of the Other Shore bloomed, and Su Mo recognized its poisonous longing and ordered the Void Beast to scatter the other plants throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
• Su Mo agreed to Yu Gu’s proposal to become the Rain Sect’s young master, but said he would return only after finishing his business.
• Su Mo arranged for Du Pingsheng and Little Qing Yi to go to the Rain Sect, and the Rain Sect Master, Yu Gu, and the elders arrived to escort them.
• Before sending them away, Su Mo secretly told Little Qing Yi to give his meeting gift to her grandmaster if she faced danger; the group then vanished in golden light.

Su Mo and Phoenix Woman traveled by Phoenix Carriage while discussing why he was helping her and the Demon Realm. Phoenix Woman suspected Su Mo was hiding his desire to protect innocent people, and their talk ended with the revelation that the Confucian Sage had once advanced directly from the Inquiry Realm to the Difficult Realm by answering its three questions.

• Su Mo asked Phoenix Woman about resolving the Demon Realm's chaos and learned that the Phoenix pulling her carriage had been transformed from one of her feathers.
• Phoenix Woman asked why Su Mo was helping her, and he cited self-interest, his promise to stay through her Nirvana, and his debt to her for helping him undergo Nirvana.
• Phoenix Woman accused Su Mo of disguising his desire to help innocent people because he feared someday having to choose between the greater good and his attachments.
• Su Mo asked Phoenix Woman what lay beyond the Inquiry Realm, and she explained that the Difficult Realm involved resolving the Inquiry Realm's three questions.
• Phoenix Woman said answering those questions while still in the Inquiry Realm could remove its shackles, and she named the Confucian Sage as the sole person known to have done so.

Su Mo learned about the lifespans of the Difficult Realm and the Phoenix Race’s cycle of succession, then realized Great Peng might be planning to sacrifice the Human Race to transcend the realm. He urged Phoenix Woman to recover her cultivation, saying she alone could resolve the turmoil in the Demon Realm.

• Phoenix Woman explained that the Difficult Realm was not the highest realm and that only the Confucian Sage had ever surpassed it.
• She told Su Mo that humans in the Difficult Realm lived around ten thousand years, while Phoenixes passed their fortune to their only offspring and the previous generation could not survive another Nirvana.
• Su Mo realized Great Peng was nearing the end of his roughly ten-thousand-year lifespan and asked whether his campaign was really about the Demon Realm’s survival.
• Phoenix Woman concluded that Great Peng planned to eliminate the Human Race’s younger prodigies and older powerhouses, then use their blood and vitality to break beyond the Difficult Realm.
• Su Mo suspected Great Peng’s scheme was connected to the grand game spanning the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, but told Phoenix Woman to focus on resolving the Demon Realm’s turmoil.
• Su Mo said Phoenix Woman could end the turmoil by recovering her cultivation as quickly as possible.

Su Mo and Phoenix Woman traveled to the Demon Realm so she could recover her cultivation, disguising themselves as flower demons to avoid detection. As they reached the Demon Realm barrier, Su Mo continued to endure the suffering carried by streams of soul incense, and Phoenix Woman led him inside.

• Phoenix Woman told Su Mo that Great Peng had likely prevented her from entering the place where she underwent nirvana, and warned that he might be waiting there.
• Su Mo transformed the divine rune on his forehead into a flower of the other shore, changing his aura to resemble a demon.
• Su Mo gave Phoenix Woman a petal of the flower of the other shore, which became a matching divine rune and disguised her as a flower demon.
• Su Mo and Phoenix Woman traveled for several months in the Phoenix Carriage, while Su Mo silently endured soul incense and his cultivation rose involuntarily.
• At the Demon Realm barrier, Phoenix Woman stored the carriage, warned Su Mo not to act, and took his hand to lead him across.

Su Mo and Phoenix Woman entered a Demon Realm town and learned that ordinary demons lived much like human mortals. At an inn, they met Xiao Er, a cat-eared orphan who hoped to own an inn someday, and settled in for the night while keeping their identities concealed.

• Su Mo questioned why many demons lacked cultivation, and Phoenix Woman explained that demons were a race with ordinary mortals, unlike the Nether Clan and Divine Race.
• Su Mo and Phoenix Woman found an inn and met Xiao Er, the cat-eared boy minding it while its owner was away.
• Xiao Er told Su Mo that he owned only a battered chair and dreamed of saving up to own an inn, and Su Mo encouraged him.
• Xiao Er mistook Su Mo and Phoenix Woman for husband and wife, and they let the assumption stand as cover for their identities.
• Phoenix Woman paid for their room, and Xiao Er returned the extra coins, saying he wanted to earn only what he ought to earn.

Su Mo learned from Phoenix Woman about the Netherworld, the Spirit Realm, and their missing rulers, then focused on restoring her cultivation before the Great Calamity. As night fell, he set out to investigate whether Great Peng was in the Demon Realm.

• Phoenix Woman explained that the Underworld had no living inhabitants besides the missing Netherworld Lord, and that Ghost Guards came from the Endless Sea.
• Phoenix Woman described the Spirit Race as powerful, reclusive cultivators whose ruler had also been missing for ten thousand years.
• Su Mo worried that the Great Calamity might arrive soon and resolved to restore Phoenix Woman's cultivation as his priority.
• Su Mo asked whether Phoenix Woman had trusted followers, then said he would investigate Great Peng and decide whether they could leave the Demon Realm.
• Su Mo sensed the Void Beast planting Flowers of the Other Shore across the realms and observed how his flower avatars could gather information.
• As night fell and the Demon Realm grew active, Su Mo left the building to investigate Great Peng's whereabouts.

Su Mo and Phoenix Woman bought a riverside teahouse with a large courtyard in the Demon Realm and settled in while Su Mo pursued his plan to grow flowers. The chapter ended with Su Mo planting a seed formed from the Flower of the Other Shore’s power as Phoenix Woman prepared their new home.

• Su Mo failed to learn where Great Peng had gone and returned to the inn, where he proposed that he and Phoenix Woman settle down temporarily.
• Su Mo and Phoenix Woman bought an old riverside teahouse from a tree demon, with help from the little cat demon.
• Su Mo cleaned the teahouse, set up a concealing Barrier, and brought Spirit Soil into its courtyard.
• Su Mo planted a seed made from the Flower of the Other Shore’s power while Phoenix Woman tidied the teahouse and reflected on their uncertain bond.

Su Mo brought his first disciple, a little fish, out of his Spirit Sea to play in the teahouse pond, where Phoenix Woman helped feed it. After the Void Beast planted a Flower of the Other Shore in every realm, Su Mo used the Reincarnation Mirror to search across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths for two people, but the mirror returned without revealing the result.

• Phoenix Woman went out to buy supplies while Su Mo tended the courtyard and planted seeds in the Spirit Soil.
• Su Mo brought the little fish from his Spirit Sea into the courtyard pond after it showed excitement at the Demon Realm's aura.
• Su Mo refined Spiritual Power into pills for the fish, and Phoenix Woman fed it the remaining pills when it pleaded with her.
• Su Mo sensed that the Void Beast had planted a Flower of the Other Shore in every realm across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
• Su Mo used the Flowers of the Other Shore as conduits for the Reincarnation Mirror's power and asked it to find two people.
• The Reincarnation Mirror's light dimmed, and it returned to Su Mo without stating whether the search had succeeded.

Su Mo and the Phoenix Woman lived in seclusion while he grew Flowers of the Other Shore and she cared for Little Fish. Once the flowers bloomed, they prepared to leave for the place where she could restore her cultivation, and Su Mo gathered the flowers away.

• The Reincarnation Mirror failed to find Ning Baixue or Great Peng, leaving Su Mo confused about Ning Baixue’s disappearance.
• The Phoenix Woman cooked a disastrous meal, so Su Mo went into the kitchen to make another one.
• Su Mo and the Phoenix Woman posed as married flower demons while living in a courtyard; he grew the Flowers of the Other Shore, and she fed Little Fish with Spirit Pills he refined.
• As the flowers blossomed, the Phoenix Woman showed reluctance, knowing their peaceful life was ending and they would soon go to restore her cultivation.
• Su Mo told the Phoenix Woman it was time to leave, returned Little Fish to his Spirit Sea, and made the courtyard’s Flowers of the Other Shore vanish in golden light.

Su Mo discovered that Great Peng had used the resentment of dead Demon Realm subjects to seal the Phoenix Nest and exploit Phoenix Woman’s fear of filth. After sending Phoenix Woman away, Su Mo prepared to confront Great Peng, uncertain whether he would return.

• Su Mo examined the seal on the Phoenix Nest gate and asked Phoenix Woman why she had been unable to enter.
• Phoenix Woman recalled that the Phoenix Race avoided places it considered filthy, and Su Mo connected that weakness to the haunts of vengeful souls in the Forbidden Lands.
• Su Mo concluded that Great Peng had spent over a thousand years arranging the deaths of Demon Realm subjects to create a seal that suppressed Phoenix Woman during her Nirvana.
• Phoenix Woman vowed to enter the Phoenix Nest and restore her cultivation, while Su Mo questioned whether Great Peng had ancestors among the Peng Race.
• Su Mo sent Phoenix Woman away and faced the sealed gate, preparing to battle Great Peng despite doubting he would return.

Su Mo confronted Peng Venerable at the Phoenix Nest and learned that the Demon Realm’s scheme was meant to create a Sage to avert the Calamity of the Nine Heavens. Peng Venerable revealed that Phoenix Venerable had been his first choice, leaving Su Mo to challenge the cost of saving the world through sacrifice.

• Peng Venerable stopped the Demon Race cultivators approaching Su Mo and acknowledged that Su Mo had once plucked a feather from him while still at Nascent Soul cultivation.
• Peng Venerable said he would let Su Mo leave unharmed but would not allow him and Phoenix Venerable to enter the Phoenix Nest.
• Su Mo questioned whether Peng Venerable’s scheme was meant to escape difficulty and gain eternal life, and Peng Venerable asked him about the Calamity of the Nine Heavens.
• Peng Venerable explained that he believed only a new Sage, created by forcing someone near the Sage realm across the Difficult Realm using the blood of the Nine Heavens’ living beings, could save the world.
• Peng Venerable revealed that Phoenix Venerable had been his first choice but would never agree to the sacrifice, and Su Mo accused him of using Demon Race lives to keep her from the Phoenix Nest.