Chapter Summaries

Lu Changfeng rescued Ajiu, learned that her transformation began in a deep cave beneath Dongting Lake, and took her to investigate. At a lakeside market, he discovered that the lake’s treasures had changed and heard that a strange mist around West Mountain Island had barred entry, possibly because of a River-Turning Mirage Beast.

• Lu Changfeng freed Ajiu from the net, cured her paralysis, and helped her transform her fish tail into legs.
• Lu Changfeng burned Lu Yizhao’s boats with the Eight Formations Diagram, while Lu Yizhao escaped across the river and ordered his family to be notified that Lu Changfeng had arrived.
• Ajiu told Lu Changfeng that a cave deep beneath Dongting Lake had transformed her, and she led him and Qing Dai toward the lake.
• At a lakeside market, Lu Changfeng identified a century-old Fuling Clam and offered the vendor ten taels of gold for information.
• The vendor told Lu Changfeng that the lake’s creatures and plants had changed, powerful families had seized the best waters, and a mysterious mist prevented anyone from reaching West Mountain Island.

Lu Changfeng crossed Dongting Lake’s dangerous fog to investigate the underwater cave and met Lu Qingwu, the Lu Clan’s renowned zither player. The chapter ended with them exchanging greetings aboard the lake.

• Lu Changfeng learned from Ajiu where the underwater cave lay and sent Qing Dai to protect Ajiu and her family at an inn.
• Lu Changfeng rode a bamboo pole across the lake, repelling the attacks of several groups that tried to stop him from entering the fog.
• Lu Changfeng followed a zither melody through the fog after sensing that its player meant him no harm.
• Lu Changfeng found Lu Qingwu playing Zhou Yu’s famed zither, Guqu, and exchanged introductions with her.

Lu Changfeng joined Lu Qingwu and the Lu family to kill the mirage dragon guarding West Mountain Island. After slaying it with a single sword strike, he faced the furious Guo family members who emerged from the island.

• Lu Qingwu told Lu Changfeng that Shen Guanlan had died on West Mountain Island and offered the Lu family's help and information in exchange for a share of the spoils.
• Lu Qingwu explained that the Guo family had kept the mirage dragon in Dongting Lake for years, and she and Lu Changfeng agreed to kill it while Lu Yuanfang's forces held off the Guo family.
• Lu Qingwu located the mirage dragon with purple crystal, attacked it with her zither, and joined Lu Changfeng in fighting it through its illusions and fog.
• Lu Changfeng unleashed his full power and killed the mirage dragon with one sword strike, while the Lu family's experts held the Guo family's forces at bay.
• A middle-aged Guo family man appeared with a dozen followers and shouted at Lu Changfeng for killing his Dragon Spawn.

Lu Changfeng helped the Lu family defeat the Mirage Dragon and uncovered the Guo family’s unusual abilities, including a Houtu bloodline. Suspecting the Guo family was buying time for a major undertaking on West Mountain Island, he proposed a two-pronged investigation.

• Guo Yuliang released a Mingshe Snake, but a drumbeat from West Mountain Island prompted him and his followers to escape underground using the Earth-Walking Technique.
• Lu Yuanfang thanked Lu Changfeng for killing the Mirage Dragon and ordered his son to divide its carcass with the White Rainbow Sword.
• Lingbo swallowed Lu Changfeng’s half of the Mirage Dragon carcass and returned to his wrist as a golden ring, astonishing the Lu family.
• Lu Changfeng and Lu Yuanfang concluded that the Guo family’s defenses were meant to stall their pursuers while something momentous happened on the island.
• Lu Changfeng proposed that Lu Yuanfang lead a frontal landing while he investigated the cave linked to the Merfolk’s mutation.

As the mist cleared from West Mountain Island, the Lu family watched treasure-seekers die to the island’s living forest, which Lu Yuanfang and Lu Qingwu suspected was empowered by Goumang’s bloodline and a hidden treasure. Meanwhile, Lu Changfeng reached a concealed opening on the bottom of Dongting Lake.

• The mist lifted from West Mountain Island, revealing mutated plants, animals, and treasures that drove the gathered sects and clans to rush ashore.
• The island’s trees attacked the intruders with branches, killing and injuring over a hundred people before the survivors fled.
• Lu Qingwu and Lu Yuanfang identified the forest barrier as a likely use of Goumang’s bloodline and suspected the island’s hidden treasure had awakened the Guo Family’s bloodlines.
• Lu Yuanfang suggested Lu Qingwu spend time with Mr. Lu, but she reminded him that Mr. Lu belonged to Princess Taiping.
• Lu Changfeng followed Ajiu’s directions across the lakebed and found a concealed opening among glowing aquatic plants.

Lu Changfeng discovered Zhang Mingqian, a Mount Dragon-Tiger disciple trapped underground for twenty years, and learned that a family had sealed the caverns with formations. After promising to rescue him, Lu Changfeng prepared to climb through Zhang Mingqian’s secret tunnel toward the cavern above.

• Lu Changfeng followed a passage into a crystal-lit cavern and found a filthy Daoist hiding there.
• Zhang Mingqian identified himself as a missing Mount Dragon-Tiger disciple and explained that formations had trapped him underground twenty years earlier.
• Zhang Mingqian told Lu Changfeng that members of one family occupied a secret cavern above, protected by the Sunken Earth Forbidden Formation and a formation made with Gold-Transforming Silkworm silk.
• Lu Changfeng agreed to rescue Zhang Mingqian but said he would first investigate the secret cavern.
• Zhang Mingqian showed Lu Changfeng a narrow tunnel he had carved upward over twenty years and asked him to return.
• Lu Changfeng promised to come back and take Zhang Mingqian with him.

Lu Changfeng broke into a vast underground cavern and discovered a giant Blood Tai Sui fused with a middle-aged man. The man sensed his intrusion and confronted him as Lu Changfeng faced the cavern’s defender.

• Lu Changfeng climbed through Zhang Mingqian’s passage, found the Blood Tai Sui’s roots, and realized they had detected him.
• The Blood Tai Sui attacked Lu Changfeng with roots, but he cut through them with the Wind-Raising Sword and used Gan Jiang and Mo Xie to break through the earth.
• Lu Changfeng emerged into a cavern filled with spirit plants, including darksteel wood, blood glazed fruit, and ghost thorn vine.
• Lu Changfeng saw that a powerful middle-aged man had fused his lower body with the giant Blood Tai Sui in a symbiotic body-refining transformation.
• The man opened his beastlike eyes, glared at Lu Changfeng, and demanded to know what intruder had come to die.

Lu Changfeng burned away Guo Yuhan’s spirit plants with a Golden Crow Splits the Firmament talisman, leaving Guo Yuhan to attack again with the Blood Tai Sui’s roots. The Living Forest Barrier weakened, allowing the island’s invaders to advance toward the Guo Family’s defenses, where Guo Yufeng learned they were closing in.

• Guo Yuhan attacked Lu Changfeng with the cavern’s spirit plants and the Blood Tai Sui’s roots.
• Lu Changfeng unleashed his Golden Crow Splits the Firmament talisman, incinerating the spirit plants but leaving the Blood Tai Sui alive.
• Guo Yuhan, badly burned, sent the Blood Tai Sui’s renewed roots rushing at Lu Changfeng.
• The Living Forest Barrier weakened, and the Maoshan Sect, Lanling Xiao Clan, Lu family, and other groups surged onto West Mountain Island.
• Lu Yuanfang led the Lu family toward the island’s center, while other invaders risked deadly traps to seize treasures.
• A Guo Family disciple warned Guo Yufeng that the barrier had weakened and the invading groups were advancing toward them.

Guo Yufeng used Bird in a Cage to defend the Random-Stone Formation, slaughtering the first attackers with hidden Gold-Transforming Silkworm threads while the Guo Family waited for Guo Shouzhuo to complete his breakthrough. A massive explosion and strange golden flames erupted near the Secret Cave, leaving Guo Yufeng fearing something had happened to Fourth Uncle.

• Guo Yufeng calmed the Guo Family defenders and suspected a traitor had broken the Qi-Concealing Formation Arts.
• Guo Yufeng activated Bird in a Cage, weaving Gold-Transforming Silkworm threads into a deadly net around the Random-Stone Formation.
• The threads sliced apart nearly a hundred attackers, including the leading Maoshan Sect disciples, and drove the survivors into retreat.
• Guo Yufeng sensed Guo Shouzhuo's aura growing stronger and urged the defenders to hold out until his sixth-realm breakthrough.
• A violent explosion shook West Mountain Island as golden flames and a piercing howl rose from the Secret Cave, and Guo Heng cried out for Fourth Uncle.

Lu Changfeng defeated Guo Yuhan in the hidden cavern, then discovered Guo Shouzhuo was using the Imperial Seal’s Nine Provinces dragon qi to break through to the sixth realm. Realizing the Guo Family’s defenses had been buying time for the breakthrough, Lu Changfeng prepared to disrupt it.

• Lu Changfeng burned Guo Yuhan’s Blood Tai Sui body with his second Golden Crow Splits the Firmament and assessed its weaknesses.
• Lu Changfeng struck the Blood Tai Sui with Heaven and Earth Are Heartless, gravely wounding Guo Yuhan and preventing his regeneration.
• Lu Changfeng used the Eight Formations Diagram to divine that Guo Shouzhuo was refining Nine Provinces dragon qi from the Imperial Seal to enter the sixth realm.
• Guo Yuhan warned Lu Changfeng that his father was about to break through, and Lu Changfeng killed him with a stomp that destroyed the hidden cavern.
• Lu Changfeng remained in the collapsing cavern, determined to disrupt Guo Shouzhuo’s breakthrough.

Lu Changfeng played a darksteel flute and used his Sonic Wave Art to freeze everyone on West Mountain Island, disrupting Guo Shouzhuo’s breakthrough. As Guo Yufeng struggled to respond, Guo Yuliang arrived with a Mingshe Snake whose Soundless Sound countered the flute.

• Lu Changfeng carved a flute from darksteel wood and played music that froze everyone on West Mountain Island.
• Guo Yufeng resisted the music long enough to realize Lu Changfeng had likely killed Fourth Brother and was disrupting their father’s breakthrough.
• Guo Shouzhuo’s merging of his spiritual intent with his sword dharma form faltered under the flute music, but he forced himself to continue.
• Guo Yufeng found himself unable to leave the formation or rely on the frozen Guo Family members to stop Lu Changfeng.
• Guo Yuliang approached the hidden cavern with two figures as his Mingshe Snake emerged from a leather pouch and unleashed Soundless Sound.

Lu Changfeng and the Guo brothers fought over Guo Yuhan’s remains while Lu Changfeng, Lu Yuanfang, Xiao Yanwen, and Zhang Xuanye disrupted Guo Shouzhuo’s breakthrough with sonic attacks. Guo Shouzhuo completed his breakthrough into the sixth realm, but succumbed to Qi Deviation.

• Guo Yuliang, Guo Yushan, and Guo Yuzhang entered the collapsed Secret Cave and found Guo Yuhan’s remains among the destroyed Blood Tai Sui.
• Lu Changfeng continued playing his flute as the Guo brothers attacked him, while his swords fought them off and the Mingshe Snake’s soundless sound weakened his music.
• Guo Shouzhuo continued channeling his divine intent into the Chess Sword Dharma Form as its final patterns neared completion.
• Lu Yuanfang, Xiao Yanwen, and Zhang Xuanye joined Lu Changfeng’s sonic assault, shattering the formations around Guo Shouzhuo’s secret chamber.
• Guo Shouzhuo was struck by the four sonic waves and spat blood, but completed the final pattern and broke into the sixth realm before succumbing to Qi Deviation.

Guo Shouzhuo forced a breakthrough to the Sixth Realm and unleashed his Chess Sword incarnation, which devastated the attackers and nearly killed Lu Changfeng before Guo Shouzhuo died. As Lu Changfeng began treating his injuries, an unseen voice applauded and said it was almost reluctant to kill him.

• Guo Shouzhuo fused his spiritual intent with the Chess Sword Dharma Form and sent its incarnation out to slaughter the attackers around the Random-Stone Formation.
• The Guo Family celebrated Guo Shouzhuo's breakthrough as the Chess Sword incarnation charged into the Secret Cave and attacked Lu Changfeng.
• Lu Changfeng used his formation and three swords to resist the Sixth Realm strike, but the blow wounded him and hurled him against the cave wall.
• Guo Shouzhuo exhausted his remaining vitality and died, leaving the Imperial Heirloom Seal glowing and the Chess Sword lifeless.
• Lu Changfeng began healing himself, then heard an unseen speaker applaud and say it was almost reluctant to kill him.

Guo Shen revealed that he possessed the Earth-Bearing and Tiger Wing formations and killed Guo Yuliang, Guo Yushan, Guo Yuzhang, and the Mingshe Snake with earthen spears. He confronted the gravely wounded Lu Changfeng, who recognized the formations, and Guo Shen showed him the two Hexagram Talismans.

• Guo Shen entered the Secret Cave as Guo Yuliang mistook him for an ally and ordered him to kill Lu Changfeng.
• Guo Shen pierced Guo Yuliang with an earthen spear and killed the Mingshe Snake with a storm of spears.
• Guo Shen overwhelmed Guo Yushan and Guo Yuzhang with earthen spears, then killed them.
• Guo Shen questioned Lu Changfeng about whether his power looked familiar, and Lu Changfeng identified the Earth-Bearing and Tiger Wing formations.
• Guo Shen revealed the two Hexagram Talismans containing the final formations of the Eight Formations Diagram.

Lu Changfeng questioned Guo Shen, learned that he was actually Sima Cheng, a descendant of the Sima imperial line who had infiltrated the Guo Family to reclaim the Imperial Seal. When Sima Cheng prepared to attack, Lu Changfeng revealed that he had secretly used his medical skills to plant a debilitating danger in his body.

• Lu Changfeng asked whether Guo Shen was Zhang Mingqian or Guo Shen, and Guo Shen admitted both were false names.
• Guo Shen explained that he entered the Guo Family as Guo Yufeng's illegitimate son and had killed the real Zhang Mingqian a year earlier.
• Guo Shen revealed that his true name was Sima Cheng, the fifteenth-generation descendant of Sima Yi, and said he intended to reclaim the Imperial Seal.
• Lu Changfeng mocked Sima Cheng's pride in his fallen royal ancestry and asked whether the Beam Gate and Supreme Unity acupoints in his abdomen had begun to ache.
• Sima Cheng realized Lu Changfeng had planted a hidden danger in him with a seemingly helpful touch, and Lu Changfeng warned that his medical arts could make him wish he were dead.

Lu Changfeng fought through Sima Cheng’s defenses and reached Guo Shouzhuo’s chamber, where he found the old man dead with the Imperial Seal. When Sima Cheng seized the seal, Guo Shouzhuo’s Purple Cloud Whisk trapped him, leaving Lu Changfeng injured but waiting as Sima Cheng tried to escape.

• Lu Changfeng endured Sima Cheng’s earthen spears, burned through his defenses with Golden Crow Splits the Firmament, and charged into the Secret Cave.
• Lu Changfeng broke through the Dragon-Severing Stone and entered Guo Shouzhuo’s chamber, where he found the old man dead beside the Purple Cloud Whisk and Imperial Seal.
• Sima Cheng used the Earth-Walking Technique to catch up, fought past Lu Changfeng, and reached for the Imperial Seal.
• Sima Cheng hesitated, encased himself in a clay shell, and took the seal from its casket.
• The Purple Cloud Whisk sprang to life and wrapped Sima Cheng in a cocoon, cutting him off from earth qi as Lu Changfeng watched from the chamber entrance.
• Lu Changfeng taunted the trapped Sima Cheng about the poison, and Sima Cheng drew the Tomb Tiger Tally.

Sima Cheng used the Imperial Heirloom Seal’s Earth Vein Qi and the Tomb Tiger Tally to break free of the Purple Cloud Whisk, but Lu Changfeng froze the chamber and charged to seize the seal. Sima Cheng fused the damaged tally into two enormous earth tigers to stop him.

• Sima Cheng used the Tomb Tiger Tally to drain the Imperial Heirloom Seal and turn its Earth Vein Qi into heavy earth, straining the tally and breaking the Purple Cloud Whisk’s cocoon.
• The Purple Cloud Whisk shattered, and Sima Cheng escaped amid the heavy earth with the seal, though he was badly wounded and the tally was cracked.
• Lu Changfeng activated the Dark Nether Returning to the Hidden talisman, freezing the chamber and trapping Sima Cheng’s feet in ice.
• Lu Changfeng charged at Sima Cheng to seize the Imperial Heirloom Seal, but Sima Cheng spat essence blood onto the tally and fused its halves.
• The fused Tomb Tiger Tally raised two enormous tigers made of refined earth, their eyes glowing scarlet.

Lu Changfeng and Sima Cheng became bound to the Imperial Seal as Li Longji and Chen Xuanli joined them, and its earth energy poured into all four men. As the first three cultivators’ realms rose, their souls drifted toward the nine heavens, where they saw a divine mountain.

• Lu Changfeng seized Sima Cheng and recovered the Imperial Seal after Li Longji and Chen Xuanli destroyed the earth tigers.
• Sima Cheng attacked Lu Changfeng, who drew earth essence from the Imperial Seal with the Treatise on All Under Heaven.
• Li Longji grabbed the seal to help Lu Changfeng, while Chen Xuanli channeled his power from behind; the seal drew all four men into its grip.
• The Imperial Seal sent torrents of earth energy into Lu Changfeng, Sima Cheng, Li Longji, and Chen Xuanli, raising the first three men’s cultivation.
• Lu Changfeng, Sima Cheng, and Li Longji found themselves unable to move as their Divine Souls rose toward the nine heavens and saw a divine mountain.

Lu Changfeng seized the Imperial Seal, crippled Sima Cheng, and escaped underground with Li Longji and Chen Xuanli. Aboveground, the Guo Family was defeated and the other factions looted the island, while Lu Yuanfang discovered the secret chamber’s treasure was gone.

• Lu Changfeng took the Imperial Seal while Sima Cheng and Li Longji were immersed in the Great Void, then used a Huayang Needle to reduce Sima Cheng to a mortal.
• Lu Changfeng retrieved the Earth-Bearing Formation and Tiger Wing Formation scrolls from Sima Cheng, completing his Eight Formations Diagram, and used the Earth-Bearing Formation to escape with Li Longji and Chen Xuanli.
• Lu Yuanfang and the allied factions overwhelmed the Guo Family, and Guo Yufeng surrendered after his sons and clansmen were killed or scattered.
• Lu Yuanfang found the secret chamber wrecked and its most precious treasure missing, then ordered the Lu Family to gather the island’s remaining treasures.
• Lu Changfeng, Li Longji, and Chen Xuanli emerged from the earth in a secluded mountain valley.

Lu Changfeng saved Sima Cheng, recovered the Imperial Heirloom Seal, and sent Li Longji toward Chang'an when he learned Qing Dai was under attack. As Lu Changfeng and Chen Xuanli rushed to the Riverside Inn, a powerful young man from Dragon-Slaying City waited for Lu Changfeng to arrive.

• Lu Changfeng treated the grievously wounded Sima Cheng and received the Heavenly Demon Zither as his reward.
• Li Longji declined to take the Imperial Heirloom Seal outright, and Lu Changfeng agreed to keep it until they returned to the capital.
• Mo Li brought Lu Changfeng Qing Dai's letter warning that powerful attackers had surrounded the Riverside Inn and defeated the Plum Blossom Guards.
• Lu Changfeng sent Li Longji toward Chang'an with the seal on Lingbo, instructing him to seek help from the Princess Who Guards the Nation, while Chen Xuanli stayed behind.
• Lu Changfeng and Chen Xuanli hurried toward Dongting as Qing Dai and Ajiu remained trapped in the inn, surrounded by Dragon-Slaying City fighters.
• The young man in yellow robes announced that he was waiting to meet Lu Changfeng, who had killed a disciple of Dragon-Slaying City.