Recaps

Ouyang watched Chen Changsheng exploit the Sword-Climbing Platform’s pressure while Bai Feiyu climbed normally, then met the mysterious master of the Immortal Small World. The master revealed that Chen Changsheng was the sole suitable successor to Li Taibai’s inheritance, but said the trials were meant to keep the sword from rusting.

• Sword Cultivators began struggling up the ninety-nine steps, while Bai Feiyu climbed steadily and Chen Changsheng used puppet bodies to bypass the platform’s pressure.
• Ouyang saw the others apparently marching in place on a slab of bluestone and was stopped by a man in a blue-green robe before he could test it himself.
• The blue-green-robed man brought Ouyang to a lake, where Ouyang recognized him as the master of the Immortal Small World.
• The man said he seemed to be Li Taibai and an old friend of Li Taibai, though he had forgotten his identity.
• Ouyang asked whether Chen Changsheng would receive the inheritance, and the man confirmed Chen Changsheng was the only suitable successor.
• The man explained that he had arranged the trials because a sword left unused for too long would rust.

Blue-Green Robe explained how he became separated from the sword that had once been his body, and Liang Zai revealed his origins as Li Taibai’s sword scabbard. Their stories uncovered how the sword and its legacy endured after Li Taibai’s death.

• Ouyang accused Blue-Green Robe of planning to use Sword Cultivators’ sword intent to hone an Immortal Sword, and threatened him to learn the truth.
• Blue-Green Robe revealed that he had been Li Taibai’s closest friend and had entered the Sword Furnace to forge the sword that helped Li Taibai reach the Immortal Realm.
• Blue-Green Robe explained that after Li Taibai died, he remained trapped as the sword’s spirit until his hatred drove his reason out of the blade, leaving the man Ouyang now saw.
• Blue-Green Robe said he had wandered Li Taibai’s Minor World for ages, built a tomb for his friend, and left Li Taibai’s sword planted inside it.
• Liang Zai revealed that he had originally been the sword’s scabbard and recalled giving Li Taibai’s notes to a youth who later returned as an old man, the sword’s former tassel.

Ouyang learned that the blue-clad man had forged Li Taibai’s sword and intended for Leng Qingsong to destroy its mad spirit and inherit the complete Immortal legacy. Ouyang rejected the man’s scheme and raised water dragons against him, but the man revealed his power by slaying them with a word.

• Ouyang pieced together the connections between the Dachshund, the Sword Sect founder, the blue-clad man, and Li Taibai’s sword.
• The blue-clad man explained that he had brought Ouyang away to keep him from disturbing Leng Qingsong’s inheritance of Li Taibai’s legacy.
• The Dachshund chose to stand beside the blue-clad man, and Ouyang asked what the man intended to do.
• Ouyang rejected the plan as a scheme against his junior brother and summoned dozens of water dragons to attack the man and the Dachshund.
• The blue-clad man said “Sever,” beheading the water dragons and turning them back into water.

Ouyang turned the man in green’s own display of power against him and beat him into submission. He revealed that he had used the time to awaken the little world itself, leaving the man in green stunned.

• The man in green demonstrated that he could awaken water dragons and instantly turn them back into water, while insisting that Immortals controlled life and death.
• Ouyang called the man in green a madman, and his Words Become Law command that Ouyang deserved to die had no effect.
• When the man in green tried to escape, he discovered he could no longer tear open space, and Ouyang attacked him.
• Ouyang beat the man in green until he was badly injured, while Dachshund watched in disbelief and regretted siding with him.
• Ouyang explained that the man in green’s long speech had given him time to try awakening the little world itself.

Ouyang seized control of the little world and subdued the man in green, who admitted he wanted to reopen the Immortal Path. As Ouyang confronted a hidden presence, a gigantic face appeared in the sky and called him “Dad!”

• Ouyang revealed that he had spread his true qi through the little world and gained control of it and the man in green.
• Ouyang questioned the man in green, who confessed that he wanted to reopen the Immortal Path and blamed Li Taibai for destroying it.
• Ouyang concluded that reopening the Immortal Path might be connected to the coming calamity and angrily struck the man in green.
• Ouyang spared the Dachshund Liang Zai and demanded that the hidden presence reveal itself.
• Heaven and earth turned upside down, and a gigantic face appeared in the sky and called Ouyang “Dad!”

Ouyang enlightened the Minor World, whose newborn consciousness called him Dad, then watched the man in blue dissolve after his schemes failed. Liang Zai revealed that the man in blue had created him, and suggested endless loneliness had driven the man insane.

• The newborn Minor World consciousness called Ouyang Dad, while the man in blue blamed him for transforming the world.
• The man in blue began to lose control whenever he thought of Li Taibai, and Ouyang repeatedly slapped him back to clarity.
• The man in blue started dissolving, and Ouyang tried to keep him alive by claiming he knew where Li Taibai was, but the man vanished after saying he and Ouyang would meet again.
• Ouyang questioned Liang Zai about the man in blue, and Liang Zai said the man had created him and had likely been driven insane by endless loneliness.

Ouyang realized the Immortal Secret Realm was a scheme, then escaped through the sky and arrived at a vision of two Immortals recruiting Ou Yezi. He remained trapped as a phantom among them, unable to use most of his power.

• Ouyang suspected a long-lived madman had designed the Immortal Secret Realm as a scheme to become an Immortal, and trusted his son and Hu Yun to have planned for it.
• Ouyang used Liang Zai to shatter space, rode a pillar of water through the opening, and entered an unfamiliar plaza filled with phantoms.
• Ouyang discovered he was also a phantom, Liang Zai was missing, and his True Qi had dwindled as he approached two old men playing Go.
• The old men discussed assimilating a sword Immortal by making someone his scabbard, then summoned Ou Yezi and asked him to become a pawn.
• Ou Yezi eagerly agreed, while Ouyang concluded that the Immortals were ordinary beneath their robes after spotting embroidered little animals.

Ouyang watched a recording of Li Taibai’s past life and learned how Ou Yezi betrayed him on behalf of the Immortals, preventing him from becoming the Sword Immortal. After the vision ended, Ouyang started a side-story minigame to become Li Taibai’s closest friend.

• Ouyang watched the Immortals order Ou Yezi to find the Sword Immortal and become his scabbard or break his sword.
• Ou Yezi secretly planned to restrain Li Taibai’s growth and kill him for the Immortals, then spent years acting as his devoted companion.
• Li Taibai resolved to challenge the Immortals and create a world free of their rule.
• Ou Yezi used a scabbard to take Li Taibai’s sword, then sacrificed himself to curse Li Taibai’s Immaculate Sword Heart.
• Ouyang saw Li Taibai die before he could challenge the Immortals, then accepted the system’s minigame to become Li Taibai’s closest friend.

Ouyang traveled back in time into Ou Yezi’s body and altered the making of the Sword Scabbard and Sword Tassel to match the history he remembered. He then encountered Li Taibai and claimed they had been fellow disciples hundreds of years earlier.

• Ouyang arrived beneath the boulder where two Immortals questioned Ou Yezi, and he agreed to become their pawn.
• After the Immortals left, Ouyang used their authority to take charge of the sword-forging clan and changed his name to Ouyezi.
• At the furnace, Ouyang ordered the Sword Scabbard remade as a crooked Dachshund design and had the leftover materials turned into a Sword Tassel.
• The clansmen came to regard Ou Yezi and Ouyezi as two distinct personalities, and Ouyang’s arrangements shaped the items to match the future.
• Ouyang awoke before a white-clad Sword Cultivator, recognized him as Li Taibai, and told him they had been fellow disciples hundreds of years ago.

Li Taibai had grown listless after reaching the limits of swordsmanship, but Ouyang returned and urged him to explore the world and reclaim a Sword Cultivator’s presence. Ouyang began coaching him in showing off, leaving Li Taibai with a boastful declaration and an instruction to read it aloud while standing in a tree.

• Li Taibai missed Ouyang’s familiar warmth when Ouyang’s other personality, Ou Yezi, treated him with fearful reverence.
• Ouyang flicked Li Taibai on the forehead, and Li Taibai welcomed his return as Ouyezi.
• Li Taibai told Ouyang that he had reached the limits of the sword Dao and felt lonely in his invincibility.
• Ouyang pulled Li Taibai from his idle routine and said they should go out and see the world.
• Ouyang told Li Taibai to keep a diary of ways to show off, then wrote a boastful declaration for him to read aloud.
• Ouyang instructed Li Taibai to stand in a tree while reading the declaration, claiming that a Sword Cultivator who did not stand in trees could not be called one.

Ouyang strengthened the bond between Li Taibai and Ou Yezi and left their future to the choices they would make after he disappeared. As Ouyang's consciousness faded, he promised Li Taibai that he would be his Eldest Senior Brother in the next life.

• Li Taibai recited Ouyang's boastful lines across Chaoge City, and the words stirred his immaculate sword heart with hope of surpassing the Sword Dao's limits.
• Ouyang reflected on how his actions had changed Ou Yezi's relationship with Li Taibai and given him reason to doubt his devotion to the Immortals.
• Ouyang told Li Taibai that he and Ou Yezi were both parts of the same person, then urged Li Taibai to become Ou Yezi's true friend.
• Li Taibai begged Ouyang not to leave his body, but Ouyang's consciousness faded after leaving him with the choice to trust Ou Yezi.
• Ouyang promised Li Taibai that he would be his Eldest Senior Brother in the next life.

Ouyang witnessed Li Taibai battle the Immortals at the end of the Elder Ancient Era and sacrifice himself to hold up heaven and earth. He realized the system had sent him back to correct Li Taibai’s fate, then found Li Taibai’s Immaculate Sword Heart and spoke of waiting for his junior brothers in the future.

• Ouyang watched Li Taibai face the Immortals and countless eyes of heavenly punishment.
• Li Taibai used his Thirty-Six Flying Swords to destroy the eyes as the Immortals made the sky collapse.
• Li Taibai sacrificed himself to support heaven and earth, then tossed his sword tassel toward the Mortal World.
• Ouyang realized he had been sent to the Elder Ancient Era to correct the timeline and suspected Lin Feng was outside it.
• Ouyang kicked Li Taibai’s sword scabbard, which revealed the Immaculate Sword Heart, and said he would wait for his junior brothers in the future.

Ouyang returned from his fifty-year experience with Li Taibai and reached the top of the Sword-Climbing Platform in a single step. As Ouyang cornered Zhao Qiansun with Chen Changsheng's help, the palace doors burst open and a Sword Demon attacked a fleeing cultivator.

• Ouyang returned to the Sword-Climbing Platform and stepped onto its summit in one stride, astonishing Bai Feiyu and Chen Changsheng.
• Ouyang spotted Zhao Qiansun recovering on the plaza and grabbed him when he tried to leave, hoping to use him to complete his system mission.
• Chen Changsheng trapped Zhao Qiansun with a Spirit-Scattering Formation and summoned six Nascent Soul puppets after Zhao Qiansun noticed his attempt to take a strand of hair.
• The palace doors exploded open, and a fleeing Sword Cultivator shouted that the Sword Demon had appeared.
• Blood-red Sword Qi pierced the fleeing cultivator and dragged him back into the palace.

Ouyang, Bai Feiyu, and Chen Changsheng entered the palace and found Leng Qingsong possessed by a blood-red shadow after he had killed the Sword Cultivators inside. Bai Feiyu guarded the sealed entrance while Ouyang prepared to confront Leng Qingsong, leaving the story poised for a fight.

• Ouyang, Bai Feiyu, and Chen Changsheng rushed into the palace and found Leng Qingsong surrounded by the corpses of Sword Cultivators, wielding a blood-red sword in a demonic frenzy.
• Bai Feiyu saw a familiar blood-red shadow controlling Leng Qingsong, and Chen Changsheng sealed the palace entrance with Yellow Talismans to hide the scene from the Sword Cultivators outside.
• Ouyang ordered Chen Changsheng to reinforce the barrier and sent Bai Feiyu to guard the entrance.
• Bai Feiyu disarmed the weaker Sword Cultivators with his command and warned everyone that advancing would risk death, stopping their attack on the barrier.
• Chen Changsheng offered to test Leng Qingsong, but Ouyang said he would handle disciplining their possessed second senior brother himself.

Ouyang confronted the Sword Spirit controlling Leng Qingsong and used Liang Zai and his True Qi to restrain and subdue him. Inside Leng Qingsong’s Dantian, the Green Lotus began absorbing the sea of blood after Ouyang’s True Qi reached it, giving Leng Qingsong hope that his brother could save him.

• Ouyang recorded Leng Qingsong’s crazed state, then challenged Ou Yezi as the Sword Spirit attacked him with blood-red Sword Qi.
• Ouyang blocked Leng Qingsong’s sword with Liang Zai, threw Leng Qingsong to the ground, and struck him repeatedly to weaken the Sword Spirit’s control.
• Liang Zai clamped onto the blood-red longsword and struggled to keep it from escaping.
• Within Leng Qingsong’s Dantian, his Nascent Soul’s Green Lotus absorbed sword intent from those the Sword Spirit had killed, strengthening itself and Leng Qingsong’s Life-Bound Sword.
• Leng Qingsong lost all awareness of the outside world and feared the Sword Spirit would harm Ouyang, then his panic allowed the sea of blood to overwhelm the Green Lotus.
• Ouyang’s familiar True Qi entered Leng Qingsong’s Dantian, restored the Green Lotus, and caused it to sprout a stalk and leaf as it began absorbing the sea of blood.

Ouyang freed Leng Qingsong from the sword spirit possessing him, and Chen Changsheng eased Leng Qingsong’s guilt over the cultivators he had killed. The group then turned to the captured longsword, and Ouyang asked Liang Zai how he could speak with the spirit inside it.

• Ouyang repeatedly slapped Leng Qingsong until the blood-red sword qi faded and Leng Qingsong regained control of his body.
• Leng Qingsong restored his broken Life-Bound Sword, suppressed his cultivation breakthrough, and thanked Ouyang before explaining how the sword spirit had possessed him.
• Leng Qingsong admitted he felt partly responsible for the deaths of the cultivators killed through his body, and Chen Changsheng counted 108 dead.
• Chen Changsheng argued that the cultivators had deserved to die because they had abandoned their own Dao to seek Li Taibai’s inheritance, easing Leng Qingsong’s guilt.
• Ouyang asked Liang Zai how he could speak alone with the spirit in the longsword, and Liang Zai said Ouyang could enter his dog belly.

Ouyang entered the Minor World inside the Blood-Red Long Sword to confront Ou Yezi and explain that he had intervened in Ou Yezi’s fate. Ou Yezi questioned whether Ouyang had merely made him a pawn for someone else.

• Liang Zai swallowed Ouyang so he could enter the sword, while Leng Qingsong and Chen Changsheng stood ready to kill Liang Zai if Ouyang did not return.
• Leng Qingsong brooded over his weakness, and Chen Changsheng realized that their actions had spared thousands of Sword Cultivators and changed his second senior brother’s fate.
• Inside the Minor World, Ouyang met Ou Yezi and revealed that he had shared Ou Yezi’s body in the past and changed his fate.
• Ou Yezi admitted that he regretted his choices and described the loneliness he had endured after becoming Li Taibai’s sword.
• Ou Yezi asked Ouyang whether he had only turned him from the Immortals’ pawn into Ouyang’s pawn.

Ouyang spoke with Ou Yezi about the pain and choices that had shaped his life, and learned that Li Taibai and Ou Yezi had become true friends after he left. Before fading away, Ou Yezi warned Ouyang that Immortals’ plans were still unfolding through the Black-Clothed Lad.

• Ou Yezi told Ouyang that becoming his pawn had brought him a life worse than serving an Immortal, though he had chosen it himself.
• Ou Yezi explained that Li Taibai had once treated him as a replaceable servant and called him Ouyezi, leaving him envious of Ouyang’s friendship with Li Taibai.
• Ou Yezi revealed that he and Li Taibai had later traveled together and become close friends, and that he had willingly sacrificed himself to forge Li Taibai’s sword.
• Ou Yezi revealed that his sword was Tai’a and said his memories of life with Li Taibai had kept him lucid through endless years.
• Ou Yezi warned Ouyang that the Black-Clothed Lad could seize Sword Intent from slain cultivators, an Immortal method, and that Immortals’ plans continued after their deaths.
• Ou Yezi asked whether the Black-Clothed Lad was Li Taibai’s reincarnation, then concluded that the Immortals had chosen him as their pawn before fading away.

Ouyang received Li Taibai’s true life-bound sword intent from Ou Yezi and used his power to keep Ou Yezi from crumbling. When Ouyang returned to the palace, the flower stamen flew into Leng Qingsong, who began to accept Li Taibai’s Dao.

• Ouyang wondered whether Hu Yun had arranged the events surrounding his journey and decided to question his master when they met again.
• Ou Yezi gave Ouyang Li Taibai’s flower stamen, then began to crumble after it left his body.
• Ouyang returned the stamen, but used his power to stabilize Ou Yezi and took him along to meet Bai Feiyu.
• Ouyang emerged from Liang Zai’s mouth and showed the flower stamen to Leng Qingsong.
• The flower stamen flew into Leng Qingsong’s brow as green lotuses appeared, and a voice announced that he had begun accepting Li Taibai’s Dao.

Leng Qingsong received Li Taibai’s legacy in his consciousness space and broke free of the Ancient Sword Immortal’s control by condensing dao resonance. After Li Taibai vanished, Leng Qingsong began absorbing the Immortal Secret Realm, while Hu Yun paid a heavy price and decided to return home.

• A flower’s stamens merged with the Green Lotus between Leng Qingsong’s eyebrows, and his Life-Bound Sword came alive as he entered a white consciousness space.
• Li Taibai appeared, restrained Leng Qingsong, and explained that he was a wisp of divine soul in Leng Qingsong’s consciousness space.
• Leng Qingsong erupted with Sword Intent and broke free of Li Taibai, who shared cryptic words about Supreme Forgetfulness before disappearing.
• The Immortal Small World twisted toward the lotus between Leng Qingsong’s eyebrows as he began absorbing the Immortal Secret Realm.
• Tai’a realized he owed Hu Yun a great karmic debt, while Hu Yun’s hair turned gray and he spat blood before deciding to visit home for New Year’s.

Ouyang and Chen Changsheng escaped the collapsing palace while carrying Leng Qingsong, whose green lotus was absorbing the Immortal Secret Realm. Outside, Zhao Qiansun convinced the Sword Cultivators that Bai Feiyu had blocked their way to protect them from the danger inside.

• Ouyang and Chen Changsheng carried Leng Qingsong through the Yellow Talisman door as the Immortal Secret Realm collapsed around them.
• Bai Feiyu held off hundreds of Sword Cultivators outside the palace while keeping Song Mu in his hand.
• Bai Feiyu tossed Song Mu back to the Sword Cultivators, and Song Mu departed as they praised his supposed sacrifice and restraint.
• Zhao Qiansun told the Sword Cultivators that Bai Feiyu had been protecting them from the Sword Demon and the deadly danger inside the palace.
• The Sword Cultivators thanked Bai Feiyu, who recognized Zhao Qiansun’s attempt to gain his favor.

Ouyang, Chen Changsheng, and Leng Qingsong fled as Leng Qingsong absorbed the Immortal Secret Realm, while Bai Feiyu helped the others escape. The group rode out on a transformed Dachshund, Zhao Qiansun acquired a mysterious Sword Tassel, and Chen Changsheng announced that he and Senior Brother Ling Feng had emerged from seclusion.

• Ouyang and Chen Changsheng carried Leng Qingsong from the palace as he absorbed the Immortal Secret Realm, and Ouyang warned Bai Feiyu to run.
• Bai Feiyu sent the unconscious Sword Cultivators toward the exit and freed Zhao Qiansun from the Spirit-Scattering Formation.
• Liang Zai transformed into a giant Dachshund, and Ouyang and Chen Changsheng rode on his back while carrying Leng Qingsong through the air.
• A red Sword Tassel flew from the warped space-time into Zhao Qiansun's hand, and he secretly kept it.
• Chen Changsheng told Ouyang that he and Senior Brother Ling Feng had come out of seclusion.

After Leng Qingsong absorbed the Immortal Secret Realm, Ouyang and his companions emerged to find Sword-Forging City drenched in blood and its Sword Cultivators demanding answers for the slaughter of their fellow disciples. The chapter ended with Ouyang and the others standing ready to fight while protecting the unconscious Leng Qingsong.

• Ouyang worried over Ling Feng's suspicious change in temperament and resolved to ask Hu Yun for advice when his master returned.
• Leng Qingsong absorbed the entire Immortal Secret Realm into the Green Lotus between his brows and fell unconscious as Ouyang, Chen Changsheng, and Bai Feiyu carried him out.
• Bai Feiyu checked Leng Qingsong and confirmed he was unharmed.
• Blood rain and falling corpses revealed the cultivators Ou Yezi had killed while controlling Leng Qingsong's body.
• Sword Cultivators surrounded Ouyang and his companions, drew their swords, and demanded an explanation for the deaths.
• Ouyang, Chen Changsheng, and Bai Feiyu protected Leng Qingsong as Ouyang challenged anyone who dared demand an explanation.

Ouyang and his companions faced a city of Sword Cultivators demanding answers for the deaths in the Immortal Secret Realm. Tai'a defused the confrontation by taking responsibility, promising a memorial stele, and ordering Leng Qingsong sealed for ten years, while Ouyang and the others remained unwilling to accept that punishment.

• Ouyang, Changsheng, and Xiao Bai stood their ground as Sword Cultivators surrounded them and demanded an explanation for the deaths in the Immortal Secret Realm.
• Zhao Qiansun argued that Ouyang and the others could not have killed everyone and pointed out that cultivators had died before they entered the Main Hall, though the crowd remained suspicious of Leng Qingsong.
• Ouyang acknowledged Zhao Qiansun's support, then led the group forward to take Leng Qingsong home despite the Sword Cultivators advancing against them.
• Tai'a arrived with Song Mu and declared that the Sword Sect would shoulder the karma, then produced Golden Coffins so the Sword Cultivators could gather the dead.
• Tai'a promised to build a Myriad Sword Stele for the fallen and ordered Leng Qingsong sealed in the Sword-Questioning Pool for ten years; Ouyang rejected the punishment, while Chen Changsheng prepared a Leng Qingsong doll.
• Tai'a cleaved the clouds open and declared that heaven and earth should honor Sword Cultivators as well.

After Tai'a secured the Sword Sect's standing, Ouyang confronted Zhao Qiansun about his ingratiating disguise, provoking him into revealing his Heavenly Evolution Art. Zhao Qiansun exhausted himself trying to kill Ouyang in his eight-trigram small world, and Ouyang calmed him before he passed out.

• Tai'a sent Ouyang and the other three away, and Ouyang used a rope to pull Zhao Qiansun into the distorted space.
• Ouyang tested Zhao Qiansun's sincerity, mocked his groveling, and challenged him to strike back.
• Zhao Qiansun revealed his Immortal Small World and attacked Ouyang with commands from his Heavenly Evolution Art.
• Ouyang endured Zhao Qiansun's elemental assaults, even as the small world began to crack.
• Zhao Qiansun collapsed from exhaustion, and Ouyang soothed him until he lost consciousness.