Chapter Summaries

Lin Mo convinced the Eight Great Households that Longevity Valley was controlled by the Tai Sui Gate and would threaten them once Wan Sicheng reached Nascent Soul. Wu Liu committed the households to attack in half a month, while Wu Ying suspected Lin Mo still had another trump card that could change Wu Liu’s resolve.

• Lin Mo warned the Eight Great Households that Longevity Valley served the Tai Sui Gate and urged them to act before Wan Sicheng advanced to Nascent Soul.
• Wu Liu recognized that Lin Mo had used his pill-upgrading ability and knowledge of the households’ reserves to secure their cooperation.
• Lin Mo offered to upgrade more pills for each household, with the number depending on the mid-grade spirit liquid they provided.
• Wu Liu gave Wu Pingdao the mid-grade Nascent Soul Condensation Pill and ordered the ancestors to prepare their households for battle.
• Wu Liu declared that the Eight Great Households would storm Longevity Valley in half a month, and Wu Ying suspected Lin Mo had another trump card.

Wu Ying asked Lin Mo to save Wu Liu, whose damaged cultivation and declining vitality made her likely to die in the coming battle against the Longevity Valley. Lin Mo agreed to restore Wu Liu’s vitality in exchange for knowledge about Sword Intent Grass, and Wu Ying revealed how it was commonly used before Lin Mo asked how to recognize a mature plant.

• Wu Ying explained that Wu Liu had once fought Wan Sicheng, suffered damage to her foundation, and spent centuries recovering to the tenth layer of Golden Core.
• Wu Ying warned that Wu Liu planned to lead the Eight Great Households into battle against the Longevity Valley in half a month and would likely die fighting.
• Wu Ying said Wu Liu was 446 years old, had only about fifty years left, and might reconsider the battle if she could hope to reach Nascent Soul.
• Lin Mo offered to restore Wu Liu’s vital blood and renew her vitality, but said he needed at least six months to a year to recover afterward.
• Lin Mo asked Wu Ying for texts on Sword Intent Grass, and she explained that its mature stalk contained a sword heart that was commonly extracted and swallowed.
• Lin Mo asked Wu Ying what mature Sword Intent Grass looked like.

Lin Mo cultivated Wu Ying’s sword intent grass into a mutated sixth-grade spirit plant, then staged a severe loss of blood to make the spirit liquid he gave her seem costly. Wu Ying brought the liquid to Wu Liu, who had been preparing to sacrifice her life for the Wu Household, and told her it could restore her vitality and give her a chance to form a Nascent Soul.

• Lin Mo learned from Wu Ying that mature sword intent grass reached about ten feet and bore three leaves, then realized his grass had advanced and mutated after two days of cultivation.
• Lin Mo secretly prepared ten drops of mid-grade spirit spring water, feigned a debilitating loss of essence blood, and gave the liquid to Wu Ying for Wu Liu.
• Wu Ying saw Lin Mo’s apparent condition, offered him Three-Origin Pills, and rushed to deliver the spirit liquid to Wu Liu.
• Wu Pingdao began attempting to form a Nascent Soul while Wu Liu resisted the pleas of the Wu Household’s head and Golden Core True Lords.
• Wu Ying arrived at the hall and told Wu Liu that Lin Mo’s spirit liquid could restore her vitality and let her try to form a Nascent Soul.

Wu Ying gave Wu Liu Lin Mo’s Special Spirit Liquid, restoring Wu Liu’s youthful appearance and vitality. Wu Liu went to thank Lin Mo, but his feigned weakness and claim that he had made a trade with Wu Ying led the Wu Household to mistake their arrangement for an affair and plan to marry them.

• Wu Ying urged Wu Liu to drink Lin Mo’s Special Spirit Liquid, and Wu Liu drank it.
• The liquid restored Wu Liu’s blood, vitality, and youthful appearance, filling the Wu Household with joy.
• Wu Liu hurried to Lin Mo’s guest room to thank him, where the household found him looking gravely weakened.
• Lin Mo said he had already made a trade with Wu Ying, and the Wu Household assumed the two had become lovers.
• Wu Liu said she would seek the Qi Household’s forgiveness and arrange a wedding for Lin Mo and Wu Ying after the Longevity Valley matter was settled.

Lin Mo cleared up Wu Liu’s misunderstanding about his relationship with Wu Ying and secured the Wu Household’s friendship. Half a month later, the Eight Great Households attacked Longevity Valley, wiping out its Golden Core cultivators while Wan Sicheng escaped mortally wounded.

• Wu Liu mistakenly assumed Lin Mo and Wu Ying had feelings for each other, but Lin Mo explained their transaction and insisted he had no improper intentions.
• Wu Liu declared Lin Mo an honored guest and promised the Wu Household would spare no cost to help him; Wu Ying privately wondered whether they might have become Dao companions if she were unmarried.
• Lin Mo recovered his vitality with spirit spring water while Wu Ying delivered pills and treasures, which he stored rather than consumed.
• Wu Ying told Lin Mo that Wu Liu’s forces had departed with two False Nascent Soul cultivators and twenty-two Golden Core cultivators to attack Longevity Valley.
• A messenger reported that Longevity Valley’s Golden Core cultivators had been wiped out, most weaker cultivators had been killed, wounded, or captured, and Wan Sicheng had escaped with fatal injuries.

After Wan Sicheng escaped, Lin Mo and Wu Ying learned that the Eight Great Households were clearing out Longevity Valley and discussed Wu Zheng’s alchemy and artifact-refining talents. Wu Zheng taught Lin Mo the Sword Heart Refinement Method, and Lin Mo ended the chapter by asking about the battle’s casualties and the captured disciples.

• Wu Zheng brought Lin Mo and Wu Ying news that Wan Sicheng had escaped and the Eight Great Households were clearing out Longevity Valley’s remnants.
• Wu Zheng boasted about his alchemy skills, and Wu Ying explained that he had also spent time studying artifact refining.
• Wu Zheng asked Wu Ying for her Sword Intent Grass Seeds and offered to refine the grass’s Sword Heart into a treasured artifact, but Wu Ying told him she had traded the seeds to Lin Mo.
• Lin Mo said he planned to use his Sword Intent Grass himself but asked Wu Zheng to teach him the artifact-refining method.
• Wu Zheng taught Lin Mo the Sword Heart Refinement Method and advised him to search the grass’s leaves, stalk, and roots for seeds.
• Lin Mo asked Wu Zheng whether any seniors had died, how severe the households’ losses were, and what Wu Liu would do with the captured Longevity Valley disciples.

Wu Liu brought the surviving Longevity Valley disciples to the Wu Household and left their fate to Lin Mo as a test of his character. Lin Mo refused to risk killing innocents and offered his own blood to pay for soul searches, while Wu Zheng called on the elders to stop testing him.

• Wu Liu proposed using the Longevity Valley survivors to test Lin Mo’s character, and the Eight Great Households agreed to bring them to Pill King City.
• Wu Zheng predicted that the elders would kill every survivor, leaving Lin Mo worried because he did not know which ones were guilty.
• Wu Liu presented more than four hundred survivors to Lin Mo, who sensed that only some were Tai Sui Gate Fiends.
• Lin Mo asked the elders to soul-search the survivors and offered to bear the cost by cutting his wrist and collecting his blood.
• Wu Ying stopped Lin Mo, and Wu Zheng told the elders that Lin Mo had already understood their test and asked them to end it.

After the Eight Great Households tested Lin Mo’s character, they declared him their ally and followed his advice on handling the surviving Longevity Valley disciples. Lin Mo stayed with the Wu Household until Wan Sicheng’s death was certain, then resolved to return to the Azure Cloud Sect and grow strong enough to face the Tai Sui Gate.

• Wu Pingdao stopped Wu Liu from making Lin Mo undergo another soul search, and Lin Mo accepted the elders’ character test without resentment.
• Wu Liu declared that the Eight Great Households would help Lin Mo whenever he asked and sought his advice on the Longevity Valley survivors.
• Lin Mo proposed that the survivors be soul-searched and crippled, with the Tai Sui Gate fiends executed and the others sent to work in the Market District.
• Wu Liu assured Lin Mo that Wan Sicheng’s false Nascent Soul was near collapse, but Lin Mo decided to stay at the Wu Household for at least half a month and asked them to notify the Azure Cloud Sect.
• Back in his guest room, Lin Mo planned to refine the Sword Intent Grass and reach Golden Core before the Tai Sui Gate’s Golden Core True Lords appeared.

Wan Sicheng’s dying false nascent soul told Wei Chen that the Eight Great Households had two false nascent souls and an unknown helper before he vanished. After the Eight Great Households settled Longevity Valley and established Pill King Domain, Lin Mo received a letter for the Azure Cloud Sect and flew back to report to its Sect Master.

• Wan Sicheng crashed into a valley and warned Wei Chen that Wu Liu had recovered her vitality with help from an unknown master before his false nascent soul shattered.
• Wei Chen refused to interrupt his imminent Golden Core breakthrough, but vowed to investigate and avenge Wan Sicheng afterward.
• The Eight Great Households killed the Tai Sui Gate fiends among Longevity Valley’s remnants, crippled the others, and renamed Longevity Domain Pill King Domain.
• Wu Liu gave Lin Mo a courteous letter for the Azure Cloud Sect, and Wu Zheng invited him to exchange spirit-plant cultivation methods for pill-refining lessons.
• Lin Mo bypassed the Air-Sealing Formation and flew toward the Azure Cloud Sect to deliver the letter.

Lin Mo noticed that spiritual qi was thinning across the Azure Cloud Sect, though he suspected the Ancient Sword and underground formation were responsible. After reporting news of the Eight Great Households’ alliance and discussing the Tai Sui Gate’s evil art, he returned to his room to begin refining a sword heart.

• Lin Mo observed that Spirit Plant Peak had lost many disciples and sensed that spiritual qi was thinner than it had been two years earlier.
• Lin Mo stopped to visit Wang Qiuru, then noticed that spiritual qi on Sect Master Peak had also declined despite its Spirit-Gathering Formation.
• Han Kang and the inner sect elders learned that Longevity Valley had been destroyed and that the Eight Great Households had pledged friendship with the Azure Cloud Sect.
• Han Kang told Lin Mo that the Sword Sect would keep the Ninth Elder away from Miss Xiao He and discussed capturing Gao Ce to investigate the Tai Sui Gate’s secret art.
• Lin Mo identified Han Kang’s advance to the ninth layer of the golden core, then returned to his bedroom and entered the Treasure Gourd’s space to use Wu Zheng’s sword-heart method.

Lin Mo tried to harvest the sword intent grass in the Gourd Space, but its leaves resisted even his strongest strike until the Treasure Gourd mysteriously stripped them away and revealed the sword heart. He obtained the sword-shaped core but was left wondering how to inscribe formations on something even tougher than the leaves.

• Lin Mo arrived at the spirit fields and thanked Chen Li for continuing to explore the Gourd Space while he was away.
• Lin Mo struck the mid-grade sixth-grade sword intent grass with the Baleful Black Saber, but his attack left only a mark that quickly vanished.
• The Gourd Space trembled, and pale blue-green ripples snapped off the grass's leaves and peeled away its stalk to reveal the sword heart.
• Lin Mo tried to call forth the ripples again but failed, then examined the sword heart and recalled the stages of artifact refining.
• Lin Mo realized the sword heart was too tough to inscribe with his current means and wondered how he could make it into a Dao sword.

Lin Mo forged the Greenwood Mystic Gourd Sword with the Treasure Gourd’s help, then spent nearly five years cultivating but remained on the verge of the seventh layer of Foundation Establishment. When he went to the sect’s main hall to arrange a trip for a breakthrough pill, Han Kang told him the Divine Firmament Sect had been devastated and the Tai Sui Gate was suspected.

• Lin Mo inscribed the incomplete star formation patterns from two Ancient Swords onto the sword heart and named the resulting treasure the Greenwood Mystic Gourd Sword.
• Lin Mo cultivated for nearly five years, traded with the Eight Great Households for spirit liquid, and reached the peak of the sixth layer of Foundation Establishment without breaking through.
• Lin Mo left the Gourd Space and went to the sect’s main hall to arrange a trip for a perfect-grade Barrier-Breaking Pill.
• Han Kang told Lin Mo that the Divine Firmament Sect’s mountain gates had collapsed, its six Nascent Soul Great Cultivators had fallen from the Nascent Soul Realm, and the Tai Sui Gate was suspected.

Lin Mo learned that the Divine Firmament Sect’s six Nascent Soul elders were losing their cultivation and recognized signs of the Nine-Nine Soul-Devouring Formation, so he set out to find its Ancient Sword and obtain a supreme-grade Barrier-Breaking Pill. After reaching a North Sea teleportation hub, he was accused by a scar-faced Daoist of blocking the way.

• Han Kang told Lin Mo that the Divine Firmament Sect’s six elders were losing their cultivation and that the sect’s crisis resembled the Sword Sect’s loss of fortune.
• Lin Mo realized a Nine-Nine Soul-Devouring Formation and an Ancient Sword were likely tied to the Divine Firmament Sect, and decided to travel there.
• Lin Mo left the Azure Cloud Sect after asking Han Kang to inform his parents, then traveled north while cultivating in his Treasure Gourd at night.
• Lin Mo reached a North Sea island and heard cultivators discussing the Divine Firmament Sect’s crisis and the rising teleportation fees.
• Lin Mo moved aside as cultivators rushed toward the Teleportation Array, but a scar-faced Daoist accused him of blocking the way and threatened him.

Lin Mo traveled with the scar-faced old Daoist to Vaultheaven City, recognizing that the man intended to lure him away and kill him. After leaving the city together, Lin Mo confronted the Daoist and drew the Greenwood Mystic Gourd Sword, preparing to test its power.

• Lin Mo repeatedly yielded to the scar-faced old Daoist, who eventually offered him a supposed opportunity to advance to the seventh layer of Foundation Establishment.
• Lin Mo pretended to accept the offer, and both cultivators entered the Teleportation Array to travel to Vaultheaven City in the Divine Firmament Domain.
• The scar-faced old Daoist led Lin Mo out through the west gate and into a nearby mountain range, keeping Lin Mo at a distance.
• Lin Mo revealed that he had seen through the Daoist's scheme, and the old man admitted he had planned to kill him outside the city.
• Lin Mo released the Greenwood Mystic Gourd Sword and gripped its hilt, intending to test its power against the scar-faced old Daoist.

Lin Mo killed a greedy Foundation Establishment cultivator with the Greenwood Mystic Gourd Sword, revealing its overwhelming power, then traveled to Vaultheaven City. There, an attendant explained that the Divine Firmament Sect’s formation barred outsiders from approaching within a thousand li.

• The scar-faced old Daoist attacked Lin Mo to seize the Greenwood Mystic Gourd Sword, but Lin Mo’s sword dissolved the attack and ground him into blood mist.
• Lin Mo examined the ruined Storage Bag and Crescent Short Blade, then rejoiced at the sword’s power and its low spiritual-power cost.
• Lin Mo recalled that he had cultivated more than eighty sword hearts and believed they could improve the Greenwood Mystic Gourd Sword.
• Lin Mo erased traces of the battle and flew to Vaultheaven City, where he asked an inn attendant why cultivators gathered so far from the Divine Firmament Sect.
• The attendant told Lin Mo that the sect’s Protective Sect Formation had barred entry within a thousand li since the Six Ancestors fell in cultivation realm, making Vaultheaven City the nearest gathering place.

Lin Mo learned that the Divine Firmament Sect had sealed itself off and set out with a crowd of cultivators heading toward it. Along the way, a scruffy young man approached him and asked whether he had heard of the Astrology Pavilion.

• Lin Mo learned from the inn attendant that the Divine Firmament Sect had activated its Protective Sect Formation, barred entry, and sent its Golden Core and stronger cultivators into seclusion.
• Lin Mo waited until night, then left the inn and followed a group of black-clad cultivators out of Vaultheaven City toward the Divine Firmament Sect.
• Lin Mo noticed that cultivators from different sects and factions were traveling together, including more than twenty Golden Core True Lords.
• A scruffy young man flying on a wooden stick introduced himself to Lin Mo and proposed that they join forces to collect overlooked spoils.
• The young man told Lin Mo he sensed a stellar aura on him and asked whether he had heard of the Astrology Pavilion.

Lin Mo met Dantai Jingyu, a disciple of the Astrology Pavilion who had been sent by Zhuge Fengming to find him, and learned that a Divine Firmament Sect Outer Elder was said to possess half the formation disc for the Divine Firmament Sky-Locking Formation. At the gathering of cultivators preparing to enter the sect, Lin Mo sensed that someone present carried the Tai Sui Gate’s hidden influence.

• Lin Mo recognized Dantai Jingyu as a disciple of the Astrology Pavilion and told him that Zhuge Fengming had once divined his fate.
• Dantai Jingyu revealed that Zhuge Fengming had sent him to find Lin Mo and that the outcome of their journey depended on Lin Mo.
• Dantai Jingyu explained that a Divine Firmament Sect Outer Elder supposedly had half the formation disc and could open a gap in the sect’s great formation, though he suspected the story might be a trap.
• Lin Mo and Dantai Jingyu arrived with thousands of cultivators near the Divine Firmament Sect’s golden barrier.
• A gray-robed old man in a fiend mask addressed the gathering, and Lin Mo sensed an aura linked to the Tai Sui Gate among the cultivators.

Lin Mo recognized signs of the Tai Sui Gate in the gray-robed old man distributing talismans that supposedly bypassed the Divine Firmament Sect’s formation. After Lin Mo challenged the talismans’ origins, the old man offered to take his back, leaving Lin Mo’s next move unresolved.

• Lin Mo recalled a previous encounter with a Tai Sui Gate Fiend and suspected the sect was connected to the Nine-Nine Soul-Devouring Formation.
• The gray-robed old man distributed Yellow Paper Talismans and claimed they would let cultivators pass through the Divine Firmament Sky-Locking Formation.
• Lin Mo sensed a foul aura from the old man and noticed that the talismans’ patterns stirred the Blood-Colored Sphere in his dantian.
• After taking a talisman to calm the impatient crowd, Lin Mo questioned how the old man had obtained items supposedly crafted by the Divine Firmament’s Six Elders.
• The old man offered to take Lin Mo’s talisman back if he did not want to get involved.

Lin Mo exposed the Yellow Paper Talismans as carriers of the Tai Sui Gate's blood-slave secret art, but Qi Feng activated them before everyone could discard them. With nearly half the cultivators controlled, Lin Mo called for Qi Feng to be killed and promised to restore the victims' senses.

• Lin Mo used his wood-type spirit body's essence blood to purify a Yellow Paper Talisman, revealing a sinister secret pattern that formed a demonic face.
• The Golden Core True Lords confronted Qi Feng about the talismans, while Lin Mo sensed the Blood-Colored Sphere in his dantian reacting as Qi Feng handled them.
• Lin Mo warned everyone to throw away their talismans, but nearly half the cultivators had already been marked by black-and-red patterns and transformed into blood slaves.
• Qi Feng removed his Ghost-Face Mask, revealed himself as a Tai Sui Gate agent, and declared that he had intended to turn everyone present into blood slaves.
• Lin Mo retreated with Dantai Jingyu and urged the Golden Core True Lords to kill Qi Feng while subduing the blood slaves without killing them, promising to restore their senses.

Lin Mo used his special physique and a barrel of bathwater to cure the cultivators controlled by Qi Feng’s evil art after the Golden Core True Lords killed Qi Feng. With the crisis over, the cultivators abandoned their attempt to enter the Divine Firmament Sect, and Luan invited Lin Mo to return to Vaultheaven City with him.

• The Golden Core True Lords protected Lin Mo and Dantai Jingyu, subdued the blood slaves, and overwhelmed Qi Feng with their attacks, killing him.
• Lin Mo gave the cultivators his Special Spirit Liquid, and they poured it into the blood slaves’ mouths.
• The blood slaves vomited dark-red filth and gradually regained their senses, though they had no memories of their time under the evil art.
• A Golden Core True Lord explained that Lin Mo had exposed Qi Feng’s plot, and the cultivators thanked Lin Mo for saving them.
• The cultivators decided not to enter the Divine Firmament Sect, and Luan invited Lin Mo to accompany him back to Vaultheaven City.