Chapter Summaries

Su Mo and Bai Zhi joked about becoming the Wonder of the Immortal Furnace as they headed for the Ancestral Courtyard. Meanwhile, Hong Xia and Wen Ge investigated disappearances in their sects, suspected the Evil Spirit Immortal Emperor Rouyun’s followers, and left the Ancestral Origin Land without finding clues.

• Su Mo teased Bai Zhi about becoming the Wonder of the Immortal Furnace, and she tattled to Granny Su Zhan that he did not want the title.
• Granny Su Zhan considered Su Mo’s suggestion that the title might make Bai Zhi more composed, and the three continued toward the Ancestral Courtyard.
• Wen Ge told Hong Xia that people had gone missing from their sects while training alone, and they suspected the Evil Spirit Immortal Emperor Rouyun’s followers were involved.
• Hong Xia and Wen Ge searched the Ancestral Origin Land but found no abnormalities near the Heart Tree.
• Hong Xia and Wen Ge decided to return to their Ancestral Grounds to seek other leads, while the Heart Tree swayed in the breeze.

Su Mo and Bai Zhi entered the Pill Furnace Ancestral Courtyard as Suzhan’s personal disciples and met their fellow Immortal Furnace disciples. As Rou'er led them to their lodgings, Bai Zhi asked for rooms close together.

• Su Mo and Bai Zhi learned that Taowu’s statues warned alchemy cultivators, and that Taowu remained sealed by Immortal Emperor Rouyun.
• Su Mo remembered Big Strong and felt lonely thinking they might never meet again, but teased Bai Zhi about continuing the Bai Ze lineage and lifted his spirits.
• Suzhan opened the gates to the Pill Furnace Ancestral Courtyard and introduced Su Mo and Bai Zhi as her personal disciples.
• The Immortal Furnace disciples warmly welcomed Su Mo and Bai Zhi, and Suzhan asked Rou'er to help them settle in.
• Rou'er asked whether Su Mo and Bai Zhi wanted lodgings close together or far apart, and Bai Zhi chose close together.

Su Mo and Bai Zhi settled into neighboring rooms at the Immortal Furnace Ancestral Grounds, where Su Mo felt at home among the peaceful disciples. The Brush of All Living Beings began to reveal its abilities, ending by declaring its power was creation.

• Senior Sister Rou'er led Su Mo and Bai Zhi to neighboring rooms beside the lotus ponds and offered to help them if needed.
• Bai Zhi blushed at the disciples' teasing, then angrily entered her room and slammed the door when Su Mo glanced at her.
• Su Mo admired the Immortal Furnace and told the Brush of All Living Beings that he liked the place at first sight.
• The Brush of All Living Beings realized it had never explained its wondrous uses to Su Mo and called itself an Emperor Artifact.
• The Brush of All Living Beings noticed Su Mo could not hear the words “Eternal Life,” then claimed it was joking and announced its power: creation.

Su Mo learned that the Brush of All Living Beings could create things by consuming its spiritual energy, but decided not to use it that way. After Bai Zhi replaced his tea-stained bedding and Senior Sister Rou'er teased them, Su Mo reflected on the coming New Year's Eve and his hopes for Baixue.

• The Brush of All Living Beings explained that the Pen Lord could draw things into existence by using its accumulated spiritual energy, and Su Mo refused to risk consuming its consciousness.
• Bai Zhi brought replacement bedding to Su Mo's room, swapped out his tea-stained bedding, and returned to dry and make the bed.
• Senior Sister Rou'er saw Bai Zhi making Su Mo's bed and teased them before delivering Immortal Lord Suzhan's message about New Year's Eve and Alchemical Intent.
• After Bai Zhi left, Su Mo sat by the window and reflected on New Year's Eve, while the Brush of All Living Beings mentioned his place as Emperor and his devotion to Baixue.

Su Mo joined the Immortal Furnace Ancestral Courtyard’s New Year celebration and was asked to write couplets for more than three hundred doorways. As he and Bai Zhi worked, Senior Sister Rou'er explained that the Ancestral Image World kept the custom because a late Immortal Emperor had loved New Year’s Eve, when the Heart Tree bestowed blessings.

• Bai Zhi woke Su Mo and brought him to the courtyard’s New Year celebration.
• Senior Sister Rou'er asked Su Mo to write a couplet, and he composed one praising the new year and the Pill Furnace.
• Impressed by his writing, Senior Sister Rou'er assigned Su Mo couplets for every doorway in the Ancestral Courtyard, while Bai Zhi offered to grind ink.
• Su Mo asked why the Ancestral Image World celebrated the Mortal Realm’s New Year, and Senior Sister Rou'er said the late Immortal Emperor had cherished the custom and that the Heart Tree released blessings each New Year’s Eve.
• Bai Zhi asked how Su Mo had learned to write, and he jokingly claimed to be the Star of Literary Excellence descended to the mortal world.

Su Mo celebrated New Year’s Eve with the Immortal Furnace disciples, and the sight of Kongming Lanterns helped him realize his alchemical intent was in his heart. He visited Rouyun in the Heart Tree world to offer New Year’s greetings, leaving her smiling beneath the couplets he pasted there.

• Su Mo and Bai Zhi finished writing more than three hundred sets of New Year Couplets and joined Senior Sister Rou'er and the other disciples for a festive dinner.
• The Immortal Furnace disciples celebrated by exploding Pill Furnaces, then led Su Mo and Bai Zhi to a mountain summit to release Kongming Lanterns.
• Watching the lanterns, Su Mo realized his alchemical intent was his dan chu and folded leftover red paper into flowers for Bai Zhi and Senior Sister Rou'er.
• Su Mo left Bai Zhi with the others and entered the world of the Heart Tree to visit Rouyun.
• Su Mo pasted New Year Couplets on the Heart Tree and told Rouyun that being happy today was enough; Rouyun smiled joyfully.

Su Mo celebrated New Year with Rouyun in the Heart Tree, then released a Kongming Lantern with Bai Zhi outside. When Senior Sister Rou'er failed to return, Su Mo searched the surrounding lands but could not sense her aura.

• Su Mo and Rouyun celebrated New Year with the tree spirits inside the Heart Tree before Su Mo returned to the outside world.
• Bai Zhi gave Su Mo a Kongming Lantern, and they released it after writing their wishes; Bai Zhi wished she would not become the Pill Wonder.
• Su Mo noticed Senior Sister Rou'er had not returned, and a disciple reported that her Voice Transmission Slip received no response.
• Su Mo sent the other disciples back to the Ancestral Courtyard to look for Rou'er while he waited on the mountaintop.
• After Bai Zhi reported that Rou'er was not at the Ancestral Courtyard, Su Mo carved a message in the void and searched hundreds of thousands of miles with his Divine Sense, finding no trace of her.

Su Mo searched the Ancestral City after Senior Sister Rou'er vanished and realized someone might be using living sacrifices for a forbidden alchemy. He used the paper flower he had given her to summon her back through the laws, but a sword strike wounded him, and he glimpsed a horrifying figure beyond the closing rift.

• Su Mo searched the Ancestral Image World for Senior Sister Rou'er but found no trace of her.
• Hong Xia and Wen Ge told Su Mo that disciples across the Ancestral Grounds had gone missing, and suspected Taowu's followers.
• The Brush of All Living Beings suggested the disappearances might be connected to alchemy and a forbidden art involving living sacrifices.
• Su Mo used the alchemical intent and karma tied to Rou'er's paper flower to call her back through the power of law.
• A frail figure fell through a rift, and a sword-ray pierced Su Mo before a Divine Talisman blocked most of its force.
• Su Mo saw a horrifying scene beyond the rift and realized the person on the other side was not the Three Pure Ones.

Su Mo survived a devastating sword strike from a mysterious realm beyond the rift and brought the dying Senior Sister Rou'er back to the Immortal Furnace Ancestral Courtyard. He learned that the Ancestral Image World had been cut off from the outside, leaving its young Heavenly Prodigies isolated as danger closed in.

• Su Mo glimpsed horned, red-eyed figures performing a bloody sacrifice beyond the rift, and a white-haired swordsman struck him with a Sword-Ray that the Book of Life and Death barely stopped.
• Su Mo asked the Brush of All Living Beings to check Senior Sister Rou'er and learned that her vitality was nearly exhausted.
• Su Mo carried Senior Sister Rou'er to the Immortal Furnace Ancestral Courtyard, where the anxious disciples saw her near death and Su Mo wounded.
• Su Mo asked whether anyone had notified the Cave Heaven, and a senior brother told him that communication and the ancient Teleportation route had both been severed.
• Su Mo carried Senior Sister Rou'er toward her quarters while the disciples silently made way, recognizing that her essence had been stripped away and could not be restored.

Su Mo used his Giant God Blood to briefly restore Senior Sister Rou'er after her essence was stripped away, but she remained close to death. Before she died, Rou'er entrusted the Immortal Furnace disciples to Su Mo and lamented that she had never properly enjoyed the New Year.

• Su Mo laid Senior Sister Rou'er on her bed and fed her drop after drop of Divine Heart Blood despite the Brush of All Living Beings warning that she would still die.
• Senior Sister Rou'er awoke, saw Su Mo's wounds, and asked what had happened to them both.
• Rou'er gave Su Mo the damaged Pill Furnace she had obtained as a New Year's gift for him and Bai Zhi, and Su Mo assured her that Jing Yan liked it.
• Su Mo told Rou'er that someone had taken her to an unknowable place and Jing Yan had brought her back too late; Rou'er urged him not to blame himself.
• Rou'er asked Su Mo to look after the trapped Immortal Furnace disciples, and he promised to lead them out of the sealed Ancestral Grounds.
• Rou'er held Su Mo's hand as she died, regretting that she had not properly enjoyed the New Year.

After Senior Sister Rou'er died, Su Mo stitched his wound and prepared to lead the Immortal Furnace disciples through the coming calamity. A white-haired, horned old man emerged from a vast rift but was blocked by the Ancestral Grounds’ rules, and said he had found someone in Ancestral City.

• Su Mo covered Rou'er's body and grieved her death, then stitched his chest wound so his Divine Body could heal.
• Su Mo suspected the people who had stolen others’ source were planning to take the Ancestral Image World’s Power of Origin, and remembered the white-haired old man’s promise to return.
• Su Mo told the Brush of All Living Beings that he felt awful, was angry, and wanted to kill; the Brush urged him to call forth a long-waiting presence.
• A vast rift opened at the edge of the Ancestral Image World, and the white-haired, horned old man emerged with a blood-colored Divine Sword.
• The old man could not enter because the Ancestral Grounds’ rules blocked him, but he looked toward Ancestral City and said he had found someone.

Seven blood-colored banners enclosed the Ancestral Image World, allowing eerie black figures to drain disciples of their power of origin. As Wen Ge and Hong Xia led survivors toward the Ancestral Courtyards, Bai Zhi entered Senior Sister Rou'er's room and found her dead while Su Mo stood nearby with a strange black book floating behind him.

• Seven banners landed around the Ancestral Image World, spreading azure mist and a power of law that let black figures seize the disciples' power of origin.
• A black figure drained an Ancient Scroll disciple, and its kind proved immune to ordinary sword attacks until Wen Ge and Hong Xia protected the survivors.
• The black figures admitted they had caused the Ancestral Grounds' disappearances to gather power of origin and spoke of the Ancestral Origin Land and the Heart Tree.
• Wen Ge warned that only the power of rules could counter the black figures, then ordered everyone to retreat into the Ancestral Courtyards.
• Bai Zhi entered Senior Sister Rou'er's room and found Rou'er dead, while Su Mo stood at the doorway with a pitch-black book floating behind him.

After Eldest Senior Sister died, Su Mo accepted responsibility for the Immortal Furnace disciples and sent them to stay in the Ancestral Courtyard while he faced the danger outside. Reunited with the Book of Life and Death, he resolved to fight through slaughter.

• Su Mo asked the Immortal Furnace disciples to let him take up Eldest Senior Sister's burden, and they agreed.
• When the disciples proposed fighting their way out, Su Mo used the golden Dragon-Pattern Laws to imprison them and told them to stay in the Ancestral Courtyard and keep contacting the Immortal Furnace.
• Su Mo left the rear courtyard and remembered the New Year's Eve celebration and Eldest Senior Sister, who had died.
• Su Mo greeted the Book of Life and Death, acknowledging that it had repeatedly saved him despite his fear and avoidance of it.
• Su Mo faced the Ancestral Courtyard's gateway and declared that gentleness could not save anyone, choosing slaughter instead.

Su Mo confronted the Black Figures attacking the Ancestral Grounds and used the Book of Life and Death to identify and kill them. He drew the Evil-Slaying Sword and cleared the street, while the slaughter continued elsewhere in the mist.

• Su Mo left the Ancestral Courtyard, raised a barrier around it, and summoned the Book of Life and Death.
• The Book of Life and Death revealed the Black Figures’ names in their own script, and Su Mo killed one who ambushed him.
• The Black Figures exploited Su Mo’s chest wound and attacked, but his divine bones remained unharmed.
• Su Mo summoned the Evil-Slaying Sword and unleashed Mortal Realm Purgatory, killing dozens of Black Figures.
• The names in the air took shape and the remaining Black Figures on the street fell, while the wider battle continued beyond it.

Su Mo crossed the Ancestral Grounds as the seven Banners gathered the essence of the dead, killing the invading other race with the Book of Life and Death and the Sword of Evil-Slaying. Survivors returned to the Ancestral Courtyard and recognized him from the descriptions as a disciple of the Immortal Furnace.

• Su Mo reflected on the mysterious white-haired old man's words and suspected the Ancestral Image World hid truths he did not understand.
• The other race slaughtered people across the Ancestral Grounds, while the seven Banners absorbed the essence of the dead and threatened the realm's destruction.
• Su Mo arrived at a besieged group and killed the attackers with his eerie runes and divine sword before continuing through the snow.
• The survivors returned to the Ancestral Courtyard and told Hong Xia and Wen Ge that a white-haired man in bloodstained white robes had killed the other race in the streets.
• Wen Ge and Hong Xia recognized the description as Su Mo, and Hong Xia said he was a disciple of the Immortal Furnace.

Su Mo continued fighting the other race to stop them from taking the Ancestral Grounds’ source power, despite his worsening sword wound. He met a nameless enemy immune to the Book of Life and Death, who agreed to answer who he was and revealed his race was called Xu.

• Wen Ge and Hong Xia heard that Su Mo had a severe sword wound and left the Ancestral Courtyard to investigate.
• Su Mo continued killing the other-race invaders, determined to delay their seizure of source power and protect the people of the Immortal Furnace.
• A broad-saber-wielding enemy resisted the Book of Life and Death and told Su Mo that he was nameless.
• Su Mo offered to fight the man fairly if he answered one question, and the man agreed to reveal who he was.
• The nameless man warned that learning his identity could bring a fatal calamity from Su Mo’s own people, then revealed that his race was called Xu.

Su Mo confronted Nameless of the Xu Tribe, learned that the Seven-Faced Banner would doom the Ancestral Grounds, and fought him without using the Book of Life and Death. Their evenly matched sword duel escalated when both summoned enormous Dharma Forms.

• Nameless told Su Mo that the Xu Tribe was taboo to the immortal race and warned him not to seek out its secrets.
• Nameless admitted he had warned Su Mo to discourage him from using the Book of Life and Death, and Su Mo agreed to fight him without it.
• Su Mo said Nameless had killed his Senior Sister, and the two resolved to fight despite finding an unexpected affinity with each other.
• Nameless revealed that everyone in the Ancestral Grounds would die once the Seven-Faced Banner took shape, then clashed swords with Su Mo.
• Su Mo gave Nameless the name Su Jingyan, and both men summoned their Dharma Forms as the battle intensified.

Su Mo and Nameless fought with their immense Dharma Forms in the Ancestral Grounds, and Su Mo revealed his Divine Image and nearly overwhelmed Nameless. The fight paused when Nameless’s fallen companions’ lingering Xu Images shielded him, leaving Su Mo struck by their devotion.

• Su Mo used the Brush of All Living Beings to wound Nameless’s exotic beast Dharma Form, but Nameless used Xu Passage to evade his attacks.
• Nameless merged with his Dharma Form using Xu Heaven Image, and Su Mo answered by merging his Divine Race body with his Human One Image to form his Divine Image.
• Su Mo’s Divine Image wielded the Extremely Evil Sword and erased more than a hundred Xu Images that stood between his strike and Nameless.
• Su Mo stopped attacking and challenged Nameless’s claim that no one cared whether he lived or died.
• Nameless explained that the Xu Images were lingering obsessions of the dead who had refused to leave him alone, while their gentle gazes turned toward him.

Su Mo and Nameless fought to the brink, each determined to kill the other over the lives their races had taken. Just as their final attacks collided, an unknown assailant struck Nameless, leaving Su Mo to turn toward the attacker in fury.

• Nameless used his agile Xu forms to wound Su Mo while Su Mo cut down the attacking forms.
• Su Mo drove back the Xu forms with a barrier and agreed with Nameless to settle the battle with one final sword stroke.
• Nameless withdrew the lingering-obsession Xu forms as the seven Banners sent a point of sharp light toward Su Mo.
• Su Mo bound Nameless with chains of law, but Nameless broke free and launched his own attack.
• A sky-toppling sword pierced Nameless before either fighter’s attack landed, and Nameless fell with his aura faint.
• Su Mo realized someone had ambushed Nameless and turned toward the attacker with cold fury.

Su Mo confronted Wen Ge and Hong Xia after Hong Xia’s intervention ended his fair fight with Nameless, then chose not to kill the defeated opponent. As Nameless departed through the Seven-Faced Banner, he warned Su Mo that the Ancestral Image World was a lie and told him to beware of the thirteen dead True Immortals.

• Su Mo rebuked Hong Xia for interrupting his even battle with Nameless, and Wen Ge apologized while explaining that the catastrophe had forced them to intervene.
• The Xu forms spent their remnant souls healing Nameless, then dissipated; Nameless woke, admitted defeat, and asked Su Mo to kill him.
• Su Mo decided not to kill Nameless and headed toward the Seven-Faced Banner to test whether his divine Dharma Form could shake it.
• The banner enveloped Nameless and began taking him away, and he warned Su Mo that the Ancestral Image World was a lie, urged him never to mention the Xu Tribe, and cautioned him about the thirteen dead True Immortals.
• Nameless vanished, and Su Mo continued toward the Seven-Faced Banner.