Chapter Summaries

After the old storyteller died, Su Mo stayed at the tavern with Little Xuanji and began seeking answers to his Three Questions before finding a way home. Their quiet life was interrupted when Liu Nian and his wife, the Demon Realm’s Phoenix, came to visit.

• Su Mo buried the old storyteller, reflected on his advice to seek his path, and thanked him at his grave.
• Su Mo and Little Xuanji settled into the tavern, where Su Mo spent his days drinking and watching the seasons change.
• Little Xuanji suggested planting peach blossoms to brew wine, then played a board game with Su Mo and asked if they could return home.
• Su Mo reassured Little Xuanji that they could return to the Immortal Domain and the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, though he still needed to find his path.
• Liu Nian and his wife visited the tavern and revealed that she was the Demon Realm’s sovereign, whose clan named every generation Phoenix; Su Mo’s wine cup trembled at the name.

Su Mo, using the name Su Eternal Life, shared wine and conversation with Human Emperor Liu Nian and the Phoenix Venerable at his tavern. Their visit eased some of his anguish, and Liu Nian left without paying the bill.

• Su Mo recalled a Phoenix woman from his past and reflected on her words about love and the Phoenix Race’s succession.
• Liu Nian asked Su Mo why he had settled at the tavern, and Su Mo said he had returned to his old home but found its people gone.
• Little Xuanji brought wine upstairs, and Su Mo poured cups for him, Liu Nian, and the Phoenix Venerable.
• As they drank, Liu Nian grew talkative and boasted about the Phoenix Venerable’s past battle, prompting her to threaten to leave him behind.
• When Su Mo asked Liu Nian to pay for the wine, Liu Nian took the Phoenix Venerable and escaped through the window, promising to put the bill on his tab.

Liu Nian and Phoenix Venerable discussed Su Mo’s extraordinary imperial aura, while Su Mo reflected on his longing for an ordinary mortal life and the Reincarnation Mirror remembered that wish. As spring arrived, Su Mo and Little Xuanji planted peach pits, and Su Mo made an entire hillside bloom at once.

• Phoenix Venerable told Liu Nian that Su Mo carried dense dragon qi and seemed like an emperor who had ruled for countless years.
• Su Mo wondered whether, without the Calamity of the Nine Heavens, he might have lived as an ordinary mortal, and the Reincarnation Mirror remembered his longing.
• After winter passed, Su Mo spent his days reading while Little Xuanji watched and asked about his love of books and the Heavenly Secrets Technique.
• Little Xuanji told Su Mo he had bought the barren hills behind the tavern and peach pits, hoping they could make Peach Blossom Brew in a few years.
• Su Mo took Little Xuanji to the hills and used his power to grow the peach pits into a blooming sea of peach trees.

Su Mo made Peach Mountain’s peach blossoms impossible to remember after visitors left, preserving the quiet he valued. As Little Xuanji learned why Su Mo avoided forming attachments, Liu Nian and Wind Venerable arrived to question him about the mountain.

• Su Mo’s Peach Mountain blossoms became visible only to those who climbed the mountain, and visitors forgot them as soon as they left.
• Little Xuanji spent more time reading among the peach trees while the tavern’s elderly regulars gradually stopped coming.
• During a game of Go, Su Mo told Little Xuanji the regulars had died and explained that he avoided knowing people because parting brought sorrow.
• Su Mo ended their game and told Little Xuanji to tidy up because guests were coming.
• Liu Nian and Wind Venerable arrived, and Liu Nian questioned Su Mo about Peach Mountain before refusing to repay what he owed.

Liu Nian told Su Mo that his search for the Confucian Sage had failed, then promised to issue a Saint-Seeking Edict based on Su Mo’s description. He also asked how to relieve the people’s poverty, and Su Mo proposed a Work-Hours Edict that would pay them to grow crops and let them buy grain from the treasury.

• Liu Nian asked Su Mo about the Confucian Sage he had been searching for, but said that his people had found no trace of him.
• Su Mo described the Confucian Sage, prompting Liu Nian and Little Xuanji to remark that the description sounded like Su Mo, who denied being the Sage.
• Liu Nian promised to issue a Saint-Seeking Edict and tell Su Mo if anyone recognized the person he described.
• Liu Nian explained that distributing treasury silver had not eased the people’s poverty because the money lost value.
• Su Mo advised Liu Nian to issue a Work-Hours Edict, pay people regularly to grow crops, and let them use their earnings to buy grain from the treasury.

After a year of watching the world, Su Mo struggled with the pain of parting while Little Xuanji urged him to value meeting despite its ending. Su Mo let Xuanji leave the winehouse to see the world, warning him not to become too entangled in mortal life.

• Liu Nian returned to the Imperial City, enforced Su Mo's work-relief plan, and issued an edict to find the Confucian Sage.
• Little Xuanji spoke to visitors on Peach Mountain about Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings, though they forgot everything when they left.
• Little Xuanji questioned Su Mo about avoiding partings, and Su Mo admitted he would not have chosen to follow the Brush of All Living Beings if he had known its fate.
• Little Xuanji played a board game with Su Mo, lost after taking the lead, and heard Su Mo explain that contests of human hearts extended beyond the board.
• Little Xuanji asked to travel and see the world, and Su Mo gave permission with a warning before Xuanji left the winehouse alone.

After Little Xuanji left to venture into the world, Su Mo kept the tavern open and grew familiar with its elderly regulars. As the years passed and the drinkers died one by one, the last customer eventually left and never returned, leaving Su Mo’s tavern empty.

• Little Xuanji left to make his way in the world, and Su Mo began opening the tavern himself.
• Su Mo treated the four old drinkers to Peach Blossom Brew after they asked about the wine Little Xuanji had mentioned.
• One day the old drinkers missed their usual visit, then returned two days later with one of their friends gone, leaving a cup of wine at his empty place.
• Over the next year, Xuanji stayed away, Liu Nian and Phoenix Venerable continued accumulating an unpaid wine bill, and the three remaining drinkers kept visiting Su Mo.
• Two more years passed, and only one old drinker remained; he chose clear wine and left after saying the tavern would be quiet from then on.
• The last old drinker never returned, and no old patrons came to Su Mo’s tavern again.

Su Mo hosted Liu Nian, who struggled with Phoenix Venerable’s wish to bear him a child despite the cost to her life. Their conversation deepened Su Mo’s questions about love and mortality, and Liu Nian left warning that the Heavenly Dao seemed to be changing.

• Su Mo spent years alone in the tavern after the old drinkers stopped coming, while Little Xuanji remained away.
• Liu Nian visited Su Mo alone and said he had refused Phoenix Venerable’s wish to bear him an imperial daughter because she would die after her next Nirvana.
• Su Mo explained that eternal life could be a shackle and love a way to escape it, prompting Liu Nian to reconsider his decision.
• Su Mo admitted he had forgotten how long he had lived and said he longed to live one ordinary mortal lifetime.
• Liu Nian told Su Mo that his National Fortune Power had sensed unknown changes in heaven and earth and that the Heavenly Dao seemed to be changing.

Su Mo told a little girl that he was the Confucian Sage so she could claim the reward to pay for her injured father's treatment. Liu Nian and the Phoenix Venerable arrived at the tavern, and Su Mo was stunned by the Phoenix Venerable's lower abdomen.

• Children retrieved a grass ball from Su Mo's loft, and a little girl asked whether he was the Confucian Sage.
• The girl explained that her father could not work because of an injured foot and that her family could not afford a doctor.
• Su Mo said he was the Confucian Sage and told the girl to claim the reward quietly; she gave him her grass ball before leaving with the other children.
• That night, Liu Nian and the Phoenix Venerable rushed into the tavern, and Liu Nian accused Su Mo of swindling him out of twenty taels.
• Su Mo stared at the Phoenix Venerable's lower abdomen in shock.

Su Mo revealed to the Phoenix Venerable that he was Su Jingyan, sovereign of all Nine Heavens downstream of the Long River, and showed her memories of his bond with the Phoenix Woman. The visions ended with his death during the Calamity of the Nine Heavens, leaving the Phoenix Venerable gazing at him with affection.

• Su Mo sensed the child in the Phoenix Venerable's womb, while she wondered whether he knew the child.
• The Phoenix Venerable questioned Su Mo about his Imperial Qi and his journey upstream, then guessed that he had suffered greatly downstream of the Long River.
• Su Mo admitted that he was Su Jingyan, sovereign of all Nine Heavens downstream of the Long River.
• Su Mo showed the Phoenix Venerable memories of his encounters and shared experiences with the Phoenix Woman, including their time together during Nirvana and the Demon Realm turmoil.
• The memories showed Su Mo stopping the Phoenix Woman from going to the Ancestral Grounds and dying after quelling the Calamity of the Nine Heavens.

Su Mo told the Phoenix Venerable he had traveled upstream along the Long River to find his way home, but the timing of the Phoenix Woman’s birth and the Confucian Sage’s rise left him confused. A year later, Little Xuanji returned to the tavern and understood that he and Su Mo should protect the Mortal Realm and give back what they had gained from its people.

• The Phoenix Venerable listened as Su Mo explained that he wanted to return home and find out how long he had to wait.
• Su Mo realized that the Confucian Sage’s absence meant he had arrived more than ten thousand years before his own time, while the Phoenix Woman’s birth was only a thousand years away.
• The Phoenix Venerable said the Forbidden Lands would open in three years and urged Su Mo not to let the Phoenix Woman down if he returned; she then left with Liu Nian.
• Another year passed as the little girl continued visiting Su Mo, and Little Xuanji finally returned to the tavern after several years away.
• Little Xuanji learned that Su Mo sought peace and joy for the Mortal Realm and pledged to stand with him in protecting its people.

Su Mo followed Little Xuanji to the Ends of the Earth and found stone steles bearing the Divine Race’s oath and a command to guard the realm beyond. As they read the inscriptions, a blood-red change swept across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, and countless people lost a wisp of their Life Souls to the Heavenly Dao.

• Little Xuanji told Su Mo that he had found the two lines from the Nine Heavens on a stone stele at the Ends of the Earth, and Su Mo asked him to lead the way.
• Su Mo left his pavilion for the first time in years and followed Little Xuanji to the chaotic, shattered Ends of the Earth.
• Su Mo and Little Xuanji found a stone stele bearing the Divine Race’s oath, and Su Mo revealed that eight more characters lay ahead.
• Su Mo and Little Xuanji discovered a second stele inscribed, “Guard the realm beyond; hold all beings within your heart,” leaving Su Mo wondering what the Divine Race guarded.
• A vast consciousness appeared above the Nine Heavens as a blood-red change spread across the sky, and countless people lost a wisp of their Life Souls to the Heavenly Dao.
• Liu Nian and the Phoenix Venerable suddenly spat blood in the Imperial Dynasty and exchanged horrified looks as they turned toward the Phoenix Venerable’s belly.

A new Heavenly Cataclysm stripped a strand of life soul from every living being except Su Mo, destabilizing Phoenix Venerable’s unborn child and changing the Heavenly Dao. Su Mo returned to the Imperial Palace and revealed that saving Phoenix Venerable and the child would require sealing them in the Phoenix Nest for a very long time.

• Liu Nian and Phoenix Venerable discovered that their unborn child had lost a strand of life soul, and Phoenix Venerable suffered a backlash trying to stop it.
• The sky turned blood-red as people across the world sensed something missing, while immortal cultivators realized the Heavenly Dao had taken a strand of their life souls.
• At the Ends of the Earth, Little Xuanji collapsed after losing part of his life soul, but Su Mo’s life soul remained unharmed; Su Mo comforted him and pondered the cataclysm’s origins.
• Su Mo sensed national fortune power and went to the Imperial Palace, where Liu Nian told him Phoenix Venerable had sealed herself to protect their child.
• Su Mo said the Phoenix Nest was the only place that could save mother and child, but they would need to remain sealed there until the child slowly took shape; Liu Nian recognized the place.

Su Mo took the self-sealed Phoenix Venerable to the Phoenix Nest, where he used the Phoenix Feather to preserve her and her unborn child. He realized that his own seal had created the time that did not line up, while Liu Nian remained behind to face the Heavenly Cataclysm as Human Emperor.

• Su Mo told Liu Nian that he could enter the Phoenix Nest and save Phoenix Venerable's unborn child, and Liu Nian chose to remain awake rather than abandon his people.
• Su Mo carried the self-sealed Phoenix Venerable to the Phoenix Gate, which opened for him because it recognized his bond with the Phoenix Race.
• Inside the Phoenix Nest, Su Mo used the Phoenix Feather to nourish Phoenix Venerable and placed her under a seal that would open several thousand years later.
• Su Mo realized that the time that did not line up was the seal he had placed himself, and that this had made the destined events fall into place.

As blood clouds gathered over the Nine Heavens, Su Mo took the Human Emperor Sword from Liu Nian and severed the connection to the Divine Realm to stop the coming blood rain. The people mistook the white-haired swordsman for the Confucian Sage.

• Su Mo returned to the Imperial Palace and discussed the approaching Heavenly Cataclysm and blood clouds with Liu Nian.
• Liu Nian resolved to sever heaven with the Human Emperor Sword, though he expected the act to cost him his life.
• Su Mo claimed the Human Emperor Sword, which flew from Liu Nian's hand and marked him with the imperial dragon pattern.
• As blood rain began to fall, Su Mo flew toward the source of the blood clouds and cut the Divine Realm off from the Nine Heavens with one sword stroke.
• Witnesses recognized Su Mo's figure from the Sage-Seeking Decree and called him the Confucian Sage.

Su Mo was forced out of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, leaving Little Xuanji behind with the Reincarnation Mirror. Little Xuanji accepted that he could not return and stayed in the Mortal Realm, where he carried on Su Mo’s gentle legacy.

• The people mistook Su Mo for the Confucian Sage as the world’s reincarnation force began to pull him away.
• Su Mo urged Little Xuanji to come with him, but Little Xuanji refused, saying he could not leave and would become someone like his senior brother.
• Little Xuanji’s hair turned white, and Su Mo realized that Xuanji had become the legendary figure in his memories.
• Before vanishing, Su Mo threw the Reincarnation Mirror to Little Xuanji and promised to bring him home.
• A little girl called Little Xuanji the Confucian Sage, and he later sat beneath the peach blossoms, playing a game alone and remembering Su Mo.

Su Mo escaped the Nine Heavens into the Divine Realm and stopped the blood-rain calamity by sealing the shattered sky, hoping to buy Little Xuanji a thousand years. As heaven’s repelling force gathered to send him away, he reached Peach Mountain and denied a lonely little girl who asked if he was her little brother.

• Su Mo used the Heavenly Dao Sword and the Book of Life and Death’s incense power to break through the force expelling him from the Nine Heavens.
• Su Mo arrived in the Divine Realm, where blood rain fell from a shattered opening in the sky, and vowed to buy Xuanji a thousand years.
• Su Mo repeatedly charged into the sky despite attacks from the laws, eventually sealing the opening and stopping the blood rain.
• Su Mo gathered the Divine Seals and staggered through a golden stone wall toward Peach Mountain as the repelling force grew stronger.
• Su Mo found a lonely little girl waiting on Peach Mountain, and when she asked if he was her little brother, he answered that he was not.

Su Mo met Yuan Yuan, his older sister, whose remnant soul had waited tens of thousands of years for her younger brother and for the Divine Mountain’s peach trees to bloom. He gave her the Divine Seal so she could make the trees blossom, then left without revealing who he was, while Yuan Yuan believed he would return.

• Yuan Yuan asked Su Mo who he was, and he said the world called him the Confucian Sage.
• Yuan Yuan thanked Su Mo for closing the calamity gate and saving the peach trees on the Divine Mountain.
• Su Mo learned that Yuan Yuan had waited tens of thousands of years for her younger brother and realized that love meant willingly waiting despite the pain and uncertainty.
• Su Mo gave Yuan Yuan the Divine Seal and told her its divinity could make the peach trees bloom, then walked toward the Divine Wall.
• Yuan Yuan used the Divine Seal to make a peach blossom bloom and said she would soon cover the Divine Mountain in blossoms so she and her younger brother could meet.

Su Mo fell through reincarnation and understood how love, karma, and destiny were bound to his life. Unable to return to those he cared for, he watched their futures unfold until a third flower, a stemless snowflake, bloomed as he saw the first meeting that began his destiny.

• Su Mo realized that he had been the white-robed man in the Remnant Soul's memories and that the Reincarnation Mirror had been the Brush of All Living Beings, then let reincarnation take him.
• Su Mo saw Liu Nian and Little Xuanji, but could not reach them or finish a game with Little Xuanji before being pulled away.
• Su Mo watched Little Xuanji grow old, enter Spirit Transformation, Inquiry, and Sainthood, and finally sever heaven during the Catastrophe.
• Su Mo turned through ten thousand years of the Long River, searching for a way out of reincarnation while watching the Little Girl's fate unfold.
• Su Mo saw the Little Girl meet the white-robed scholar in a snowy season, and a stemless snowflake bloomed atop his head as he recognized the beginning of destiny.

Su Mo broke through to an unprecedented realm and used reincarnation to revisit the little girl in the scholar’s past, buying two of his own paintings before the scholar’s consciousness drove him out. Drifting through reincarnation with the scrolls in hand, Su Mo glimpsed a barren mountain with five purification platforms and a vast ancient tree at its summit.

• Su Mo’s three questions blossomed into flowers, and his sealed cultivation surged through Sagehood into an unknown realm.
• Using the Laws of Heaven and Earth, Su Mo merged his consciousness with the scholar’s illusion and twisted reincarnation to return to the Capital City.
• Su Mo bought two paintings from the little girl and listened as she spoke proudly about her young master.
• The scholar’s consciousness awakened and resisted, forcing Su Mo out and ending the illusion.
• Su Mo found the two paintings in his hands as he drifted through reincarnation and saw a barren mountain, five purification platforms, and a gigantic ancient tree.