Chapter Summaries

The toddler followed his missing milk jar into the Rouyun Heart Tree, while Su Mo explored its depths and met a group of Tree Spirits. Su Mo healed their damaged Spirit-Seeing Green and advised them to move the nearby Cold Spirit Grass.

• The toddler reached the Rouyun Heart Tree, believed something in the Ancestral Courtyard had become a spirit and stolen his milk jar, and entered the tree to investigate.
• Su Mo asked the Brush of All Living Beings about the Heart Tree’s trials, then walked deeper into it without worrying about danger.
• Su Mo encountered Tree Spirits tending an herb plot, and the Brush of All Living Beings identified them as members of the Spirit Race.
• Su Mo realized one Tree Spirit had gnawed too many leaves from the Spirit-Seeing Green and used his power to make the herb grow again.
• Su Mo explained that the nearby Cold Spirit Grass had hindered the Spirit-Seeing Green’s recovery, so the Tree Spirits dug it up and replanted it farther away.

Su Mo explored the Heart Tree with the Brush of All Living Beings and encountered Wenge, the Book Wonder, while she studied calligraphy with several Tree Spirits. Wenge saw through Su Mo’s claim that he was a disciple of the Heavenly Secrets Grotto-Heaven and warned him not to use that identity to deceive people again.

• A Tree Spirit gave Su Mo a cherished Spirit-Seeing Green leaf, and Su Mo secretly kept it while returning an identical leaf.
• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings left the Tree Spirits, who later saw the Spirit-Seeing Green grow back and stopped gnawing on it.
• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings came upon Tree Spirits studying calligraphy beside a woman in a pale green dress.
• Su Mo introduced himself to the woman as a disciple of the Heavenly Secrets Grotto-Heaven and correctly guessed that she was Wenge.
• Wenge recognized that Su Mo was concealing his origins, accepted his explanation, and warned him not to impersonate a Heavenly Secrets disciple again.

Su Mo helped the Tree Spirits complete three unfinished couplets, impressing Wenge with his poetic lines. Wenge invited him to walk farther into the long street together, and he accepted.

• Wenge revealed that she knew Su Mo had concealed his identity and cautioned him not to use Heavenly Secrets Grotto-Heaven's identity again.
• The Tree Spirits asked Su Mo to help finish three couplets, and Wenge watched with curiosity.
• Su Mo completed the first couplet with a line about willow catkins gifting swallows their nests.
• Su Mo completed the second couplet with a line about meaning entering the heart as someone read at a desk by candlelight.
• Su Mo completed the third couplet with a line naming Wenge, prompting her to give him a seemingly reproachful glance.
• Wenge invited Su Mo to walk farther into the long street with her, and he accepted.

Su Mo and the woman pretending to be Wen Ge walked through the Heart Tree, where he learned that its trials involved helping the Tree Spirits with their problems. Behind them, the real Wen Ge found the couplet Su Mo had written using her name, while Su Mo and his companion reached a cooking trial.

• The real Wen Ge and Sword Wonder Hong Xia found Su Mo’s couplet, and Wen Ge copied it into her book before continuing onward.
• Su Mo walked with the disguised “Wen Ge,” discussing how rarely he experienced peace and how she often cultivated alone.
• Su Mo realized that the couplet had been a trial after “Wen Ge” pointed it out.
• Su Mo and “Wen Ge” found Tree Spirits struggling with ingredients for a cooking trial, and “Wen Ge” offered to handle it.

Su Mo and 'Wen Ge' traveled through the Heart Tree, helping its Tree Spirits and growing familiar as the Brush of All Living Beings remained silent. They eventually reached a tree and a stone stele engraved with “The bond of the Heart Tree.”

• 'Wen Ge' cooked for Su Mo and the Tree Spirits, then invited him to continue deeper into the Heart Tree.
• 'Wen Ge' healed an injured Tree Spirit while Su Mo spoke with the Scholar, who said Su Mo's Mind Power in the Memory River let him appear again.
• Su Mo and 'Wen Ge' took turns resolving the Tree Spirits' troubles as they passed successive trials and grew familiar with each other.
• Su Mo and 'Wen Ge' reached the apparent end of the Heart Tree, where a stele bore the words “The bond of the Heart Tree.”

Su Mo and “Wen Ge” reached the end of the Heart Tree’s path, where they found an empty box meant to hold Immortal Emperor Rouyun’s inheritance. They left through a passage behind an ancient tree, but when Su Mo emerged outside the Heart Tree, the “Wen Ge” he knew was gone.

• Su Mo and “Wen Ge” found a stone box beneath an ancient tree and discovered it was empty.
• Su Mo joked that Immortal Emperor Rouyun’s inheritance might change a person’s sex, easing “Wen Ge’s” disappointment.
• “Wen Ge” showed Su Mo the way out behind the tree and said the Tree Spirits could not leave the Heart Tree.
• Su Mo asked whether they would meet again, and “Wen Ge” promised they would before they stepped into the passage.
• Su Mo emerged outside the Heart Tree with two other people, but “Wen Ge” was not among them.

Su Mo left the Heart Tree believing the woman who had accompanied him inside was a different Wen Ge, then returned to investigate after the real Wen Ge and her companions followed him. Inside, the Brush of All Living Beings revealed it remembered none of their first journey, and Su Mo found a medicinal field where the Spirit-Seeing Green had been eaten bare.

• Su Mo waited outside the Heart Tree for the woman he knew as Wen Ge, but the Book Wonder Wen Ge identified herself and confused him.
• Su Mo reentered the Heart Tree, and Wen Ge, Hong Xia, and the toddler followed him inside.
• The Brush of All Living Beings spoke as if they had only just entered the Heart Tree and had no memory of their first journey with "Wen Ge".
• Su Mo realized the brush had been asleep during his first passage and hurried deeper into the Heart Tree.
• Su Mo reached a medicinal field and found tree spirits staring at a completely bare stalk of Spirit-Seeing Green beside Cold Spirit Grass.

Su Mo realized that the Heart Tree’s trials reset after each completion and suspected that a missing woman was asking him to free her from an endless cycle. After repeating the trials and changing their outcomes, he learned from the Scholar that the Heart Tree’s living inhabitants were trapped in a reincarnation like the one his Imperial Father had created.

• Su Mo found the Cold Spirit Grass restored beside the Spirit-Seeing Green, repeated the task of moving it, and accepted a leaf from the grateful Tree Spirit.
• Su Mo completed the Tree Spirits’ couplets, changing the final line to mention Rouyun, though the figure in the pale green dress was gone.
• Su Mo prepared the dishes from memory and told the Brush of All Living Beings that someone seemed to be asking him for help.
• Su Mo healed the injured Tree Spirit, which pleaded with him before he continued onward.
• The Scholar asked Su Mo if the trials felt familiar, and Su Mo recognized that the Heart Tree’s inhabitants were trapped in a repeating cycle.

Su Mo repeated the Heart Tree’s trials to test his theory that his previous journey had been planted in his mind, and arranged for the Brush of All Living Beings to observe the Reincarnation. After reaching the end and restarting the cycle, he emerged with Wen Ge, Hong Xia, and Little Milk Baby, then discovered the green leaf had withered and died.

• Su Mo explained that his earlier journey through the trials had been a false experience planted by 'she,' and asked the Brush of All Living Beings to observe something during the next Reincarnation.
• The Brush of All Living Beings agreed to remain inside the Heart Tree as an artifact spirit while Su Mo continued through the gates.
• Su Mo reached the end of the Heart Tree again, left the Inheritance Stone Box unopened, and vanished to restart the Reincarnation as the Brush of All Living Beings watched.
• Wen Ge, Hong Xia, and Little Milk Baby emerged from the Heart Tree with Su Mo, realizing that someone had completed all the trials.
• Su Mo took out the green leaf and saw that it had withered and died.

Su Mo returned to the Heart Tree and learned from the Brush of All Living Beings that the Tree Spirits were trapped in endless reincarnation, which had driven the gentle consciousness within the Heart Tree into sorrow. After realizing the consciousness had protected the Brush and was asking for help, Su Mo hurried toward the depths of the Heart Tree.

• Su Mo entered the Heart Tree for a third time, and Wen Ge and Hong Xia followed him while the toddler waited outside.
• Su Mo repeated the trials, healed the injured little Tree Spirit, and learned it had tried countless times to escape and had waited thousands of years for him.
• The Brush of All Living Beings explained that repeated reincarnation had left the Tree Spirits numb and despairing, and that their suffering had distressed the Heart Tree’s gentle consciousness.
• The Brush told Su Mo that the gentle consciousness had protected its memories from being erased and was responding to his understanding of its plea for help.
• Su Mo concluded that the consciousness wanted him to end the cycle and raced toward the depths of the Heart Tree.

Su Mo reached Immortal Emperor Rouyun’s inheritance and learned that the gentle woman he had met was the inheritance’s independent will, not Rouyun herself. Rouyun revealed that ending the reincarnations required Su Mo to kill her and destroy the inheritance.

• Su Mo opened the Stone Box at the Heart Tree and Rouyun’s inheritance appeared before him.
• Rouyun explained that she was an inheritance with her own will and knew Rouyun’s Dao Arts, but did not possess her memories.
• Rouyun explained how she had used the Heart Tree’s Law to reach Su Mo and why the Brush of All Living Beings could not perceive his independent reincarnation.
• Su Mo asked why Rouyun had left him clues instead of explaining the truth, and she said he needed to understand the suffering himself before facing what he had to do.
• Rouyun told Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings that the only way to end the reincarnations was to kill her and destroy the inheritance.

Rouyun explained that her legacy’s endless reincarnation trapped the Tree Spirits, and that Su Mo’s Heavenly Dao Sword was the only thing capable of ending it. She restored his memories of 3,464 journeys together, leaving him to face the full weight of their past.

• Rouyun explained that she had made her heart into the Heart Tree so her legacy could shelter the world, but its trials had gained awareness and trapped the Tree Spirits in endless reincarnation.
• Su Mo realized that obtaining Rouyun’s legacy would not end the cycle, and Rouyun confirmed that only his law-born Heavenly Dao Sword could sever it.
• Su Mo deduced that he had met Rouyun many times before, and Rouyun revealed that their meeting he remembered was their 3,465th.
• Rouyun admitted that she had erased his memories of their earlier journeys because she did not want him to suffer when he ended the reincarnation.
• Su Mo insisted that his memories mattered to him, so Rouyun gave him a green leaf that restored the memories of their thousands of journeys together.

Su Mo recovered memories of more than three thousand reincarnations with Rouyun and learned she had hidden them so he would not suffer after her departure. Unable to kill her and end the cycle, he left the Heart Tree, while Rouyun remained alone with no one else to turn to.

• Su Mo remembered his countless journeys with Rouyun and understood that she had endured every reincarnation without forgetting.
• The Brush of All Living Beings pleaded with Rouyun to reconsider, but she said the inheritance had to be destroyed to free the Tree Spirits.
• Su Mo admitted he could not kill Rouyun, then questioned whether sacrificing lives could ever be justified.
• Su Mo apologized and left the Heart Tree without ending the reincarnation.
• Rouyun sat alone beneath the Heart Tree and murmured that Su Mo was the only one she could turn to.

Su Mo struggled with the loneliness of the woman trapped in endless reincarnation, then fell asleep and dreamed of a conversation with his master about the Twin Perching pill. The dream revealed that his master sought to refine it to rescue his wife from the Perching reincarnation, and ended with him questioning whether ink could ever be sealed completely within white paper.

• Su Mo left the Heart Tree and wandered through the Immortal Domain before stopping on a mountain beneath the night sky.
• The Brush of All Living Beings told Su Mo that the woman trapped in reincarnation wanted to die and described her endless loneliness.
• Su Mo remembered other lonely figures and wondered what hope could remain for the woman in her reincarnation.
• Su Mo fell asleep and dreamed of asking his master about the Twin Perching pill.
• Su Mo's master explained that his wife had created the Perching pill, which trapped a stretch of the Long River in repeated reincarnation, and that he wanted Twin Perching to free her.
• Su Mo's master drew a circle repeatedly on black paper and wondered whether white-paper reincarnation could truly contain ink without any trace escaping.

Su Mo returned to the Heart Tree and told Rouyun he had found a way to end its endless reincarnation without killing her: using an Alchemical Art to magnify forgotten karma until the cycle could no longer reset. He planned to enter the reincarnation and plant causes, but first needed to resolve his inability to create avatars.

• Su Mo realized that the Heart Tree's reincarnation had loopholes and that events from outside it could alter its cycles.
• Su Mo agreed to help Rouyun and returned to the Heart Tree after passing its trials again.
• Su Mo refused to kill Rouyun and explained that an Alchemical Art could use the Heart Tree as a Furnace and Inheritance as a Catalyst to rewrite reincarnation.
• Su Mo showed Rouyun the withered Green Leaf and said that planting enough karma would eventually prevent the Heart Tree from resetting.
• Su Mo told Rouyun he needed many avatars to plant the causes, but could not create any because he seemed to be ill.

After leaving the Heart Tree, Su Mo remained unable to use any Avatar techniques and considered seeking help at the Immortal Furnace Grotto-Heaven. He returned Little Milk Baby’s Jarred Milk, and the child went blind after attempting a divination to repay him.

• Su Mo told Rouyun he could not create Avatars and left the Heart Tree, while Rouyun accepted that the little ones inside would have to wait longer.
• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings discussed his plan to seek treatment at the Immortal Furnace Grotto-Heaven, then encountered Little Milk Baby outside the Heart Tree.
• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings pretended that Little Milk Baby was a beggar and gave him his own bundle of Jarred Milk.
• Grateful to Su Mo, Little Milk Baby tried to perform a Heavenly Secrets divination for him and went blind.

Su Mo took the blind, mute Little Xuanji with him after learning the child had nowhere to go, and the two traveled with the Brush of All Living Beings to the Immortal Furnace Grotto-Heaven. At its immense furnace-shaped mountain range, Su Mo revealed he had come seeking treatment, and Xuanji told him about the Herb and Wood Ancient Path as a possible route to admission.

• Su Mo used divine soul transmission to communicate with Little Milk Baby and offered to take him along after the child said his family was dead and he had nowhere to go.
• Little Milk Baby gave his name as Xuanji, and Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings agreed to bring him on their journey.
• After half a month of travel, Su Mo, the Brush of All Living Beings, and Xuanji reached the vast mountain range surrounding the Immortal Furnace Grotto-Heaven.
• Su Mo said he had come to seek treatment, hoping to join the grotto-heaven because he believed it might resolve his problem.
• Xuanji told Su Mo that anyone who passed the year-round Herb and Wood Ancient Path qualified to join the Immortal Furnace Grotto-Heaven.

Su Mo and Xuanji entered the Immortal Furnace Grotto-Heaven’s Herb and Wood Ancient Path, hoping to learn whether Su Mo could pass its admission test. They found a poisoned person collapsed on the path, while elders inside the grotto-heaven plotted to follow a green-robed elder who had taken an interest in the newcomers.

• Xuanji explained that Immortal Furnace lacked a recognized Wonder and that its Herb and Wood Ancient Path was open to anyone seeking admission.
• Su Mo and Xuanji arrived at the Immortal Furnace Mountain Range and entered the Herb and Wood Ancient Path.
• Several elders discussed a hidden, mad disciple who used people to refine pills, then noticed someone had entered the path.
• A green-robed elder left the group after sensing something, and the other elders secretly followed him.
• Su Mo and Xuanji found a person collapsed among the plants, surrounded by black mist, and Su Mo recognized the signs of deadly poison.

Su Mo found a poisoned antlered girl of mixed Bai Ze blood and used his Giant God Blood to keep her from dying. After he vanished with Little Xuanji and the Brush of All Living Beings, an old man in green arrived and recognized the girl’s potential, only to be confronted by his peers.

• Su Mo approached the fallen stranger and learned from the Brush of All Living Beings and Little Xuanji that she was a girl of mixed Bai Ze blood.
• Su Mo found that he could not identify her poison, but when she began to die, he placed a drop of Giant God Blood on her forehead and stabilized her.
• Su Mo sensed someone approaching and fled with Little Xuanji and the Brush of All Living Beings.
• An old man in green arrived, noticed the girl’s unusual constitution, and decided she should become his disciple.
• Several other old men appeared and challenged the old man in green about secretly visiting the Path of Plants and Trees.

Several Immortal Furnace elders argued over who would take the antlered girl as a disciple and agreed to compete to cure her poison, while Su Mo continued along the Path of Plants and Trees. An unknown elder recovered the aura of Su Mo’s Giant God Blood and looked toward the Immortal Furnace with disdain.

• The green-robed elder and the other elders argued over who should take the antlered girl as a disciple, then agreed that whoever cured her poison could teach her.
• Su Mo concluded that the antlered girl was safe and explained to Little Xuanji that her bloodline resonated with plants and Immortal Herbs.
• Su Mo and Little Xuanji continued along the Path of Plants and Trees as Su Mo realized the trial tested talent for plants and trees.
• Su Mo considered how to develop within the Immortal Furnace and conceal his origins from powerful experts.
• A disheveled elder restored the dissipated auras at the place where Su Mo had saved the girl, including a wisp of Su Mo’s Giant God Blood, and called the Immortal Furnace elders fools for failing to recognize a treasure.