Chapter Summaries

Su Mo witnessed the Ruins’ original history unfold and watched Min’an grow up, recognizing Pingle as his Third Senior Sister. Determined not to let the cycle repeat his failure toward Yunxue, Su Mo waited outside her sect and intervened when she flew toward the Imperial Palace.

• Su Mo appeared as an outsider in the palace’s reincarnated history, where the empress died after recognizing him.
• He watched Min’an grow up from the palace roof, unseen by the child, who developed a fondness for white robes.
• At Min’an’s coming-of-age ceremony, Pingle urged him to attend, and he received the courtesy name Jing Yan as the palace saw Su Mo descend from the roof for the first time.
• Su Mo recalled that he had failed Yunxue, Ning Baixue, and brought out the Redwood Coffin while resolving to change events within the dream.
• Su Mo waited outside Yunxue’s sect, then used a golden light to make the woman in white vanish as she flew toward the Imperial Palace.

Su Mo showed Yunxue a vision of beasts fighting over driftwood and warned her not to become involved with Min'an, while questioning whether he was trapped in an illusion or a cycle of reincarnation. When Yunxue later met Min'an in the Imperial Palace, she remembered that she was Ning Baixue and Shi Jiuxuan, then chose to marry him despite Su Mo’s warning.

• Su Mo used the Memory-River Spirit Jade to show Yunxue beasts fighting over driftwood and warned her that Min'an would ruin her life if she became entangled with him.
• Min'an told Pingle that he wanted to leave the Imperial City, see the world, and search for answers.
• Su Mo watched the emperor and Yunxue meet again and wondered whether he could change what Jiuxuan had thought before.
• Yunxue saw Min'an, remembered that she was Ning Baixue and Shi Jiuxuan, and realized their situation was an illusion of the Ghost Gate.
• Yunxue declared that she would marry Min'an, leaving the emperor and the Cloud Sect elder stunned.

Su Mo searched the dreamlike Ruins for the regrets behind his Three Questions and returned to Jiangnan, where he found Peach Mountain but not Peach Sage. As he played chess alone among the blossoms, someone asked why he was playing by himself.

• Yunxue chose to follow Min'an in secret despite knowing the Calamity of the Nine Heavens might await him.
• The emperor told Su Mo to seek his Three Questions and wondered whether he could find his regrets.
• Su Mo wandered through Floating Life Pass and the peaceful realm, questioning whether he had any regrets in the illusion.
• Su Mo traveled to Jiangnan and found Peach Mountain empty of both blossoms and Peach Sage.
• Su Mo awakened the peach trees with All Things Have Spirits and played chess alone until someone asked him why he was playing by himself.

Su Mo realized that he had been the old man who taught him to play chess alone, but he remained unable to identify his regret. After the emperor died, his lingering obsession accompanied Su Mo as they watched Min'an and the others pass away, leaving no one to guard the people.

• Su Mo explained to Min'an that playing chess alone meant competing against his past self, then realized he had been the old man all along.
• Su Mo discovered that Peach Mountain's blossoms had appeared because of him, but he could not determine what his regret was.
• After the emperor returned gravely wounded, Min'an rushed to the palace, where the emperor died after asking whether Su Mo had found his regret.
• The dead emperor's obsession took his appearance and accompanied Su Mo as they watched Min'an ascend the throne with Yunxue's help.
• Yunxue died after her divine soul mysteriously dissipated, and Pingle and Min'an later died after Min'an's second journey to Jiangnan.
• With their deaths, the world no longer had anyone to guard its people.

The emperor's lingering obsession revealed that the Pei Clan's extinction had doomed Floating Life Pass and trapped the world in a reincarnation born from his regret over losing his child. Su Mo reunited with his parents, resolved the emperor's regret, and completed his Imperial Fate cultivation as the ruins prepared to release him.

• The emperor's lingering obsession remembered that the Pei Clan's deaths had erased Imperial Fortune, leaving Floating Life Pass vulnerable and the world to face war.
• Su Mo witnessed how the obsession became reincarnation, endlessly seeking the lost Imperial Fortune and waiting for his child to return.
• The reincarnation reset to a scene of Su Mo with the empress and emperor, who revealed that the emperor's regret was having no successor and never seeing his son inherit his legacy.
• The emperor told Su Mo that resolving the regret would let him leave the ruins, then brought him and the empress to the top of Floating Life Pass.
• The emperor asked Su Mo three questions about the mandate of heaven, an emperor, and all living beings, bringing Su Mo's Imperial Fate cultivation to perfection.

Su Mo reunited with his parents in the reincarnation and fought alongside his father before receiving the Imperial Heirloom Jade Seal. Accepting it ended the reincarnation, leaving him back in the Ruins before the withered bones he had once buried.

• Su Mo asked the Emperor to let him fulfill his own regret by fighting enemies alongside his father.
• The Emperor and Su Mo fought shoulder to shoulder beyond the pass while Su Mo's mother beat the war drum.
• The Emperor gave Su Mo the nine Pass Seals and showed him the Imperial Heirloom Jade Seal, which could awaken Imperial Fortune and grant its bearer the Imperial Mandate.
• Su Mo's mother told him to carry their hopes and live well, revealing that they had wished to name him Pingle.
• The Emperor sent the jade seal into Su Mo, and Su Mo bowed to his parents as the reincarnation shattered.
• Su Mo returned to the Ruins, where the decaying Imperial Mausoleum and the withered bones he had buried were all that remained.

Su Mo emerged from the Ruins believing his experiences in Reincarnation had been Pei Hongyi’s dream, but the peach pit he carried proved the dream’s gifts were real. The imperial fortune awakened and gave him Emperor’s Fate cultivation, the Three Questions, a second Fate Pattern, and nine pass seals, while the Ji Clan began planning to claim the fortune.

• Su Mo concluded that Pei Min'an and everything he gained in Reincarnation had been part of Pei Hongyi’s lingering dream, until he found the peach pit in his robes.
• The jade seal released eight golden characters that entered Su Mo’s forehead and restored his Emperor’s Fate cultivation, Three Questions, second Fate Pattern, and nine pass seals.
• Su Mo bowed to the two skeletons, left the Ruins, and caused the world to tremble as he stepped outside.
• Ji Yue told her parents that the Ruins’ reincarnation had changed and that she and the elder had failed to find the thing they sought.
• The Middle-aged Man ordered Ji Shuang found and imprisoned, then celebrated when the imperial fortune awakened, believing the Ji Clan could claim it because the ancient Pei Clan’s line had ended.

Su Mo left the ruins of the Ancient Forbidden Land and reunited with Wu Pangzi and Ji Shuang, who had followed him in hopes of reclaiming her hairpin. After promising to return it once she rested, Su Mo heard Wu Pangzi warn that the Ji Clan was making plans for a terrifying heavenly prodigy.

• Su Mo left the Ancient Forbidden Land after resolving the lingering obsession within it.
• Su Mo found Wu Pangzi waiting beside Ji Shuang, who had followed him into the forbidden land to get her hairpin back.
• Su Mo learned Ji Shuang had gone without rest for over a year and promised to return the hairpin after she slept.
• Ji Shuang gave Su Mo her ring in exchange for the hairpin and fell into a deep sleep.
• Wu Pangzi warned Su Mo that the Ji Clan was laying plans to clear the way for a terrifying heavenly prodigy.
• Su Mo recalled the Immortal-Slaying Net that had nearly killed him.

After leaving the Ruins, Su Mo returned Ji Shuang’s Hairpin and made her promise to hide it and their meeting from her family. He learned that Wu Pangzi had waited for him for over a year, leaving Su Mo to wonder why.

• Su Mo healed the sleeping Ji Shuang, returned her ring, and studied the sealed Hairpin while considering the strange events in the Ruins.
• When Ji Shuang woke, Su Mo returned the Hairpin on the condition that she conceal it and keep their meeting secret from her family.
• Ji Shuang hid the Hairpin in her Spirit Sea space and left using a Teleportation Talisman.
• Wu Pangzi told Su Mo he had been out of the Ruins for over a year, and Su Mo realized Wu Pangzi had been waiting for him that whole time.

Su Mo and Wu Pangzi split the Supreme Treasures Su Mo collected from the Ruins, with Su Mo counting Wu Qian as a third share and taking two items for every one Wu Pangzi chose. Wu Pangzi then explained why people remained in the Forbidden Land and revealed that he had brought a foul-mouthed pen out of a sealed ruined temple.

• Wu Pangzi eagerly asked Su Mo to divide the loot, and Su Mo brought out all the Supreme Treasures and Spirit Artifacts he had collected.
• Su Mo and Wu Pangzi agreed to take turns choosing items, but Su Mo took two each time because he was also choosing a share for Wu Qian.
• Wu Pangzi reluctantly accepted the uneven division, and Su Mo gave him the one extra item left at the end.
• When Su Mo asked why people had stayed in the Forbidden Land, Wu Pangzi said they were looking for him and trying to catch something.
• Wu Pangzi explained that he had traced the Forbidden Land's protective rules to a sealed ruined temple, entered it with taboo methods, and found nothing inside.
• Wu Pangzi said he had unknowingly brought an unclean thing out of the temple: a wretched pen with a filthy mouth.

Su Mo learned that Wu Pangzi had angered a mind-reading divine brush whose insults had made him a target in the Forbidden Land. As Su Mo and Wu Pangzi prepared to leave, the brush appeared and immediately began mocking Wu Pangzi.

• Wu Pangzi told Su Mo that a strange brush had insulted him and others, then blamed him for freeing it from the Ruined Temple.
• Wu Pangzi explained that everyone remaining in the Forbidden Land was seeking the brush, which had a spirit and was considered a great opportunity.
• Su Mo declined to pursue the brush and offered to take Wu Pangzi out of the Forbidden Land.
• Wu Pangzi bragged that he would trade insults with the brush, but it suddenly spoke from a boulder atop the Rock Pile.
• The Dragon Whisker Divine Brush stood up and relentlessly mocked Wu Pangzi for stuttering and boasting.

Su Mo and Wu Pangzi encountered an uncanny pen that read their personalities and exposed Su Mo’s grief over his parents’ early deaths. They fled as major factions pursued the pen, but it caught up with them and tried to persuade Su Mo to become its master.

• Wu Pangzi cursed the pen for eavesdropping, and it taunted him before inspecting Su Mo.
• The pen identified Su Mo’s two Fate Patterns and Three Questions, then declared that he was starved of love because his parents had died young.
• As major factions charged toward them, Su Mo threw the pen away and fled with Wu Pangzi while the pursuers chased the pen.
• The pen reappeared beside Su Mo and Wu Pangzi, explained that it needed a karmic bond to escape the Forbidden Land, and chose to follow Su Mo.
• The pen tried to become Su Mo’s Life-Bound Spirit Artifact, but Su Mo refused and sped away; the pen caught up and asked him to acknowledge it as his master.

Su Mo and Wu Pangzi fled from their pursuers with the Broken Brush, which kept following Su Mo and exposing their private thoughts. The chase continued as the brush turned to insult the people pursuing them.

• Su Mo tried to shake off the Broken Brush, but it followed him and begged him to become its master.
• Su Mo sealed the brush and threw it toward the pursuers, but it vanished and reappeared beside him.
• Su Mo used the Power of Law to take Wu Pangzi ten thousand li away, but the Broken Brush followed and claimed Su Mo as its human pet.
• The Broken Brush mocked Wu Pangzi for collecting treasures belonging to the dead, then revealed that Su Mo collected coffins.
• More pursuers caught up and attacked, so Su Mo carried Wu Pangzi onward while the Broken Brush taunted them and exposed their secrets.

Broken Brush exposed the pursuers’ private thoughts, then became an unlikely weapon as Su Mo hurled it at their attackers. Afterward, Broken Brush forcibly acknowledged Su Mo as its master and began draining his spiritual power, prompting Su Mo to teleport away with Wu Pangzi.

• Broken Brush read aloud the pursuers’ private thoughts, provoking their anger and throwing the group into disarray.
• When an old man in black attacked Su Mo with Sword Qi, Su Mo hurled Broken Brush at him, and the brush struck his face.
• Su Mo repeatedly threw Broken Brush at the pursuing major powers, while the brush cheered and struck down several people.
• As its aura weakened, Broken Brush said it needed spiritual power and forcibly acknowledged Su Mo as its master, draining his power.
• Su Mo activated teleportation and vanished with Wu Pangzi, leaving the pursuers unable to sense them or Broken Brush.

Su Mo returned to Wu Qian with Wu Pangzi and endured the Broken Brush’s forced contract until it awakened. The Broken Brush revealed its intrusive, outspoken nature, then rejected Su Mo’s offer to free it after they left the Forbidden Land.

• Su Mo and Wu Pangzi appeared before Wu Qian, and Su Mo sat down to meditate as the Broken Brush drained his spiritual power to complete their contract.
• Wu Pangzi told Wu Qian about the Broken Brush’s mind-reading ability, and she worried over Su Mo until he recovered.
• The Broken Brush awakened, identified Wu Qian as the spirit of all spirits, and teased her and Su Mo about their relationship.
• Su Mo told the Broken Brush he would help it leave the Forbidden Land and then undo their contract, but the brush said a masterless spirit artifact would be like a stray dog.

Su Mo accepted the Broken Brush as his Spirit Artifact and left the Forbidden Land with Wu Qian and Wu Pangzi. After Wu Pangzi departed, Wu Qian recognized that Su Mo planned to go to Floating Life Pass because he felt guilty about killing Li Wudi and leaving Desolate Demon Pass without a defender.

• Su Mo agreed to let the Broken Brush follow him, provided it kept others’ thoughts to itself, and learned it called itself the Brush of All Living Beings.
• The Broken Brush said it could dissolve its Karma Contract if Su Mo died, easing his concern that it would perish with him.
• Su Mo recovered his Spiritual Power, then used his Power of Law to take Wu Qian and Wu Pangzi out of the Forbidden Land while leaving the Ghost-Eyed Divine Flood Dragon behind.
• Su Mo declined Wu Pangzi’s offer to explore tombs together, and Wu Pangzi left for his Master’s Sect.
• Wu Qian guessed that Su Mo wanted to go to Floating Life Pass and help defend Desolate Demon Pass because he felt guilty about killing Li Wudi.

Su Mo traveled with Wu Qian toward Desolate Demon Pass to deliver Li Wudi’s pass token, learning that the southern section was called Rouge Pass. At the quiet, apparently unguarded pass, he spotted a white-haired woman in red sitting alone atop the fortifications.

• Su Mo reflected on his regret over Li Wudi’s death and examined the pass token Li Wudi had asked him to deliver to someone trustworthy.
• The Brush of All Living Beings left Su Mo’s Spirit Sea after being frightened by the Book of Life and Death, then disguised itself as a golden hairpin in his hair.
• Su Mo and Wu Qian traveled for several months toward Desolate Demon Pass, where Wu Qian explained that it consisted of three smaller passes: Desolate Demon Pass, Ten Thousand Swords Pass, and Rouge Pass.
• Su Mo entered Rouge Pass by carriage and found it bustling with ordinary people but seemingly devoid of soldiers and cultivators.
• Su Mo saw a white-haired woman in a red dress sitting alone atop the silent fortifications, gazing beyond the pass.

Su Mo learned that the mysterious woman Yanzhi had guarded Rouge Pass for ages and that Li Wudi had once asked her to protect Desolate Demon Pass. After confirming that Li Wudi was dead and Su Mo had killed him, she told Su Mo that Desolate Demon Pass was under attack by a Demonic Beast Tide and sent him to deal with it.

• Wu Qian explained that the red-dressed woman was called Yanzhi and that Rouge Pass was named after the fragrance of her power.
• Su Mo learned that countless Ancient Desolate Beasts, rather than people from the Desolate Realm, were what the passes guarded against.
• Wu Qian confirmed that Li Wudi had been the only person capable of defending Desolate Demon Pass, prompting Su Mo to worry about its fate after Li Wudi's death.
• Yanzhi summoned Su Mo and Wu Qian, asked where Li Wudi was, and heard Su Mo admit that he had killed him.
• Yanzhi revealed that Li Wudi had asked her to watch over Desolate Demon Pass and told Su Mo to deal with its ongoing Demonic Beast Tide.

Desolate Demon Pass faced a Beast Tide after Li Wudi’s absence left its defenders without their strongest guardian. As a scar-faced woman confronted a Demon Beast rivaling the Difficult Realm, a green-robed Daoist appeared to protect her.

• The defenders of Desolate Demon Pass debated how to survive the gathering Demon Beasts, and one messenger went to seek help from Lady Yanzhi at Rouge Pass.
• The Demon Beasts launched a Beast Tide, and the cultivators charged from the walls to fight them.
• The scar-faced woman fought through the beasts with her sword, killing many as the battle raged.
• The woman spotted a Demon Beast powerful enough to rival the Difficult Realm, which slowly approached her.
• A green-robed Daoist appeared in front of the woman, and she wept with relief while cursing him.

The cultivators outside the pass city fought a Difficult beast during the Desolate Demon Beast Tide while the pass formation sealed them out. Just as the scar-faced woman and the Daoist were about to die, golden light rescued the surviving cultivators, and a white-clad figure arrived on a divine brush.

• The elder ordered the pass formation activated, trapping the cultivators outside to keep the Difficult beast from reaching the city.
• The cultivators charged the Difficult beast, but it used the beast tide to hold them back as people fell in the fighting.
• The scar-faced woman and the Daoist fought side by side, confessed their feelings, and agreed to marry after death.
• Golden light swept up the surviving cultivators and carried them beneath the pass city just as the beasts were about to overwhelm them.
• A divine brush struck the beast tide, and a white-clad figure appeared standing atop it.