Chapter Summaries

Li Xingtian discovered that the Clearwind Sect was draining miners’ spiritual roots to feed a sinister ritual, then attacked a guard to escape. The six black-robed Foundation Establishment cultivators turned on him and vowed to make him their blood feast.

• Li Xingtian saw through an illusion and found a vast ritual ground where miners’ energy flowed into a blood pool.
• Li Xingtian realized the mining was draining the workers’ spiritual roots and decided to escape and warn his master.
• Li Xingtian reflected on his bond with his master and senior sister and considered the divine abilities he could use in a fight.
• Li Xingtian pretended he needed the toilet, then killed a Clearwind Sect guard with a saber strike.
• The six black-robed figures rose and threatened to turn Li Xingtian into their blood feast.

Chu Xingchen attacked Clearwind Sect elder Mo Chen at the mine while Li Yingling waited outside, and discovered Mo Chen had an acquired demon body and could regenerate by draining miners. The battle was interrupted when Li Xingtian emerged from the mine covered in sinister blood energy, leaving Mo Chen to accuse Chu Xingchen and his disciple of being the real evil cultivators.

• Li Yingling worried that Li Xingtian had been inside the mine too long, and Chu Xingchen gave her a Random Teleportation Rune before going to intercept Mo Chen.
• Chu Xingchen ambushed Mo Chen with the Three Thousand Weak Waters Sword and blasted away half his body, but Mo Chen regenerated by draining nearby miners.
• Chu Xingchen checked Mo Chen's traits, learned he had an acquired demon body and inner demon possession, and attacked again as Mo Chen tried to stall for reinforcements.
• Mo Chen turned into a blood mist to evade Chu Xingchen's sword, while Chu Xingchen used flowing-water Sword Qi to erode the mist.
• Several battered figures flew out of the mine, followed by Li Xingtian, who emerged wrapped in demonic flames and blood energy and called Chu Xingchen his master.
• Mo Chen pointed at Chu Xingchen and Li Xingtian and accused them of being the real evil cultivators.

Chu Xingchen and Li Xingtian defeated the Clearwind Sect’s forces at the mine and discovered that Li Xingtian’s cultivation technique could absorb blood power from its evil ritual. After gathering the blood-tainted spirit stones, they prepared a teleportation formation so the miners could escape, while Li Xingtian reflected on why he wanted to save them.

• Chu Xingchen nearly killed Elder Mo Chen, but Li Xingtian stopped him and drained the elder’s blood power with his cultivation technique.
• Li Xingtian explained that the Clearwind Sect had been draining the miners’ Spiritual Roots and blood energy, then sent Chu Xingchen to collect supplies while he handled Mo Chen.
• Chu Xingchen took the blood-tainted spirit stones from the warehouse, and Li Xingtian drained Mo Chen until the elder was left a desiccated corpse, advancing to the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.
• Li Yingling emerged from the mine with Ning Kun, followed by the miners, and Li Xingtian offered them a chance to escape through an unpredictable teleportation formation.
• As the formation activated, Li Xingtian urged the miners to help others when they could and reflected that saving them followed what his heart wanted; Chu Xingchen silently approved.

Shangguan Hong found the blood pool drained and the formation damaged, ruining his preparations to reach the Nascent Soul realm. After searching six captured miners and learning that powerful intruders had taken the blood essence, he pushed the other elders to resume the scheme and secure the mine.

• Shangguan Hong arrived at the abandoned mine, examined Elder Mo Chen's desiccated corpse, and concluded that an evil cultivator had drained him alive.
• Shangguan Hong entered the mine and found the blood pool empty and the formation damaged, destroying his hopes of using them to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.
• The other four elders returned with six captured miners, and Shangguan Hong used the Soul-Searching Method on all six despite the strain it caused him.
• Shangguan Hong learned that a top-tier evil cultivator and a masked man and woman had taken the blood essence, then drew the disguised man's face from the miners' memories.
• After one elder warned that pursuing the intruders could be too dangerous, Shangguan Hong ordered the elders to guard the mine, summon sect disciples, and capture more people to replenish the blood sustenance.
• Elder Li urged the group to plan carefully for the long term, while the other elders remained reluctant to risk their lives and reputations.

After rescuing Ning Kun, Chu Xingchen sent him and Ning Qianqian away, then hurriedly evacuated the Ruined Temple with Li Yingling and Li Xingtian to avoid the Clearwind Sect’s retaliation. The three arrived in Yuzhou City and began looking for a place to stay.

• Chu Xingchen woke Ning Kun, gave him and Ning Qianqian food, water, and silver, and sent them east to escape the Clearwind Sect.
• Chu Xingchen ordered Li Yingling and Li Xingtian to pack and leave the Ruined Temple, while he laid misleading tracks behind them.
• Chu Xingchen, Li Yingling, and Li Xingtian set off together, carrying their belongings as the whole sect fled.
• In Yuzhou City, a property broker showed the trio a courtyard house beside the Chuan-Yu River, mistaking Chu Xingchen and Li Yingling for noble siblings and Li Xingtian for their guard.

Chu Xingchen rented a residence in Yuzhou City for his disciples, then secretly went to visit the courtesan Yaoqin at the Bamboo Jade Court. The chapter ended as Yaoqin entered her chamber and greeted him with a zither in her arms.

• Chu Xingchen rented a clean quadrangle residence for six months after Li Yingling approved of it.
• Chu Xingchen gave Li Yingling money and sent her and Li Xingtian to buy necessities, promising to explain their reasons for coming to Yuzhou City later.
• Chu Xingchen shut the gate and set concealed alert formations around the residence before vanishing from the courtyard.
• Chu Xingchen drank tea in Yaoqin's private chamber at the White Jade Tower and criticized the brew, angering her maid Xiao Ling.
• Yaoqin entered the chamber and Chu Xingchen greeted her, saying it had been a long time.

Chu Xingchen visited Yaoqin in Yuzhou City and asked her to find a way to purify a Blood Qi Spirit Stone, after his attempt to charm her with a verse went badly. Yaoqin agreed to investigate and kept the address where he was staying so she could send him an answer.

• Yaoqin sent Xiao Ling away and demanded to know why Chu Xingchen had come to see her.
• Chu Xingchen recited a verse about entrusting his heart to Yaoqin, but she blasted him with a sonic wave and called him a lecher.
• Chu Xingchen showed Yaoqin a Blood Qi Spirit Stone, and she suspected he had taken up evil cultivation after learning he had reached golden core.
• Chu Xingchen explained that he had obtained the stone at the Clearwind Sect's mine and asked Yaoqin how it could be purified.
• Yaoqin agreed to investigate, took the address Chu Xingchen wrote down, and demanded that he leave the verse behind.

Chu Xingchen studied a sinister blood-qi Spirit Stone while waiting for his disciples to return from shopping in Yuzhou City. Li Yingling came back with an enormous haul from a ring-toss vendor, including a wooden fish allegedly imbued with a monk’s merit, and Chu Xingchen learned the vendor’s troupe had fled the city after the monk passed into nirvana.

• Chu Xingchen examined a blood-qi Spirit Stone and suspected its craftsmanship exceeded what the remote region could produce.
• Li Yingling and Li Xingtian returned with bundles of prizes from a ring-toss stall, and Li Yingling gave Chu Xingchen a luxurious set of white clothing.
• Chu Xingchen inspected the odd prizes, including a set of wooden fish instruments, and tapped Li Yingling on the head with a wooden fish mallet.
• Li Yingling and Li Xingtian told Chu Xingchen that a Qi Refining monk had practiced Karmic Dharma and passed into nirvana after she won the wooden fish, claiming he infused it with his merit.
• Chu Xingchen asked to see the vendor, but Li Xingtian said the stallholders had packed up and fled toward Yuzhou City's gates.

Chu Xingchen and his disciples sorted their strange haul, discussed the blood-tainted spirit stones, and agreed to attend Yuzhou City's Lantern Festival. While Chu Xingchen fished outside the city, he finally reeled in something—but it was a huge corpse, not a fish.

• Chu Xingchen barred the strange pots and basins from the kitchen, and Li Yingling took the items she wanted while the rest went into a side room.
• Chu Xingchen showed Li Yingling and Li Xingtian a Blood Qi Spirit Stone and said he had asked someone to resolve the mine's spirit stone problem.
• Li Yingling asked to attend Yuzhou City's Lantern Festival, and Chu Xingchen agreed to take both disciples when it arrived.
• Chu Xingchen let Li Xingtian cultivate with the Blood Qi Spirit Stones while Li Yingling practiced her divine abilities, and he set up a concealment formation around Li Xingtian's room.
• Chu Xingchen spent several days fishing outside Yuzhou City, then reeled in a huge corpse instead of a fish and blamed Li Yingling's wooden fish.

Chu Xingchen rescued an unconscious Demon-Suppression Bureau constable from the river and helped a young physician treat the rampaging energy in his meridians. When the physician tried to draw it out, Chu Xingchen recognized the aura as resembling the blood energy in blood-energy spirit stones.

• Chu Xingchen fished a still-living Demon-Suppression Bureau constable from the river and used silver needles to keep the rampaging energy from reaching his heart.
• Chu Xingchen carried the constable on a reclining chair to Yuzhou City's gate, where guards summoned help from the bureau and asked Chu Xingchen to wait.
• A little physician arrived, checked the constable, and asked Chu Xingchen to help her draw the energy out.
• The little physician gave the constable medicine through a balloon flower stalk and told Chu Xingchen to pull out the needles while suppressing the energy.
• The little physician tried to guide the energy out, but it attacked her spiritual power and contaminated the surrounding flesh; Chu Xingchen recognized its blood energy as resembling that in blood-energy spirit stones.

Chu Xingchen helped A Nian control the blood energy in an injured young man he had caught while fishing, then returned home and agreed to take Li Yingling to the Little Temple Fair. At the Demon-Suppression Bureau, A Nian realized the unconscious young man was the younger brother of a feared squad leader and struggled to explain his injuries.

• Chu Xingchen helped A Nian suppress the blood energy attacking her spiritual power, and she thanked him and invited him to claim a reward from the Demon-Suppression Bureau.
• Chu Xingchen left the injured young man in A Nian's care and returned to his rented house without his fishing rod or chair.
• Li Yingling laughed at Chu Xingchen for catching a person instead of a fish and asked him to accompany her to the Little Temple Fair the next evening; he agreed.
• At the Demon-Suppression Bureau, A Nian recognized the injured young man as the younger brother of a squad leader and feared the consequences of his possibly ruined meridians.

After finding her younger brother gravely injured by blood qi, Zhao Wanqing began a separate investigation into the attack at Wang Family Village. She asked Yaoqin to trace the blood qi, and Yaoqin agreed after recognizing it.

• A Nian warned Zhao Wanqing that her unconscious younger brother's meridians and limbs were badly damaged, and Zhao Wanqing collected a trace of his blood qi with a talisman.
• Zhao Wanqing searched the archives, found her brother's mission file about missing people in Wang Family Village, and ruled out retaliation by a fellow Bureau member.
• Yaoqin's attempt to reverse the blood qi's corrosion of a spirit stone failed, and she continued working alone after sending A Ling away.
• Zhao Wanqing visited Yaoqin and asked her to identify the blood qi used against the Demon-Suppression Bureau.
• Yaoqin sensed the blood qi in Zhao Wanqing's talisman, agreed to investigate it, and promised to send word when she had results.

Yaoqin suspected Chu Xingchen was hiding his cultivation or practicing evil arts and went to find him. While his disciples stalled her at his residence, Chu Xingchen was at a brothel quietly discussing literature and worldly affairs with a courtesan.

• Yaoqin examined the violent blood qi in a talisman and decided Chu Xingchen might be concealing something or practicing evil cultivation.
• Yaoqin went to Chu Xingchen's residence, where Li Yingling opened the gate and tried to learn why she was looking for him.
• Li Yingling sent Li Xingtian out the back door to find Chu Xingchen while she kept Yaoqin waiting.
• Li Xingtian found Chu Xingchen at a brothel, where he was drinking tea and conversing with a pipa-playing courtesan.
• The courtesan admired Chu Xingchen's knowledge, manners, and appearance, while he recognized that he had charmed her.

Chu Xingchen returned to the courtyard with Li Xingtian and discovered that Yaoqin had come to investigate whether he was connected to the Blood Qi Spirit Stones. After examining him and hearing how he had rescued the Demon-Suppression Bureau man involved, Yaoqin confirmed he was not an evil cultivator, but Chu Xingchen realized she still had not sorted out the spirit stones.

• Chu Xingchen charmed Wanyun with a poetic farewell, while a young man in white listened and praised his words.
• Li Xingtian told Chu Xingchen that a cold-looking woman was waiting at the courtyard, and Chu Xingchen recognized her as Yaoqin.
• Yaoqin examined Chu Xingchen’s spiritual energy and found no blood qi, then showed him a talisman with blood qi matching the Blood Qi Spirit Stones.
• Chu Xingchen explained that he had rescued the Demon-Suppression Bureau man who had fallen victim to the talisman, and Li Yingling asked to join him on a future fishing trip.
• Chu Xingchen asked whether Yaoqin had sorted out the Blood Qi Spirit Stones, and her evasive expression revealed that she had not.

Yaoqin visited Chu Xingchen, questioned his rapid cultivation, and shared a meal with him and his disciples. After returning to her room in Yuzhou City, she learned that Miss Zhao had been waiting for her for nearly four hours.

• Chu Xingchen invited Yaoqin to stay for a meal and asked Li Yingling and Li Xingtian to buy groceries.
• Yaoqin asked Chu Xingchen how he had advanced from Foundation Establishment Peak to the mid-to-late Golden Core Stage, and he attributed it to a fortuitous opportunity.
• Chu Xingchen cooked for Yaoqin, Li Yingling, and Li Xingtian, and Yaoqin enjoyed the meal despite her careful manners.
• Yaoqin said goodbye to Chu Xingchen after nightfall and returned to her room.
• Xiao Ling told Yaoqin that Miss Zhao had been waiting downstairs for nearly four hours.

After being badly wounded while investigating evil cultivators, Zhao Wanqing asked Yaoqin to find a Golden Core cultivator to help rescue her younger brother, Zhao Zhengyang. Yaoqin gave her Chu Xingchen’s address, and Zhao Wanqing arrived at his gate determined to seek help.

• Zhao Wanqing arrived at Yaoqin’s residence covered in wounds and explained that evil cultivators had badly injured her younger brother, Zhao Zhengyang.
• Zhao Wanqing asked Yaoqin to find a Golden Core cultivator to help investigate the attackers, whose blood-energy-enhanced techniques exceeded their apparent cultivation.
• Yaoqin offered to pass the case details to Chu Xingchen and told Zhao Wanqing she could offer him more than three hundred spirit stones if needed.
• Yaoqin gave Zhao Wanqing Chu Xingchen’s address and required her to owe a favor regardless of his answer.
• Zhao Wanqing treated her wounds, reflected on her promise to protect Zhao Zhengyang, and reached Chu Xingchen’s shut gate.

Zhao Wanqing arrived with a letter from Yaoqin asking Chu Xingchen for help investigating evil cultivators, and Chu Xingchen agreed to assist. He sent Li Xingtian to investigate with Zhao Wanqing that night, while Li Yingling stayed behind and was promised she could join Chu Xingchen the next day.

• Li Yingling let Zhao Wanqing into the courtyard and went to fetch Chu Xingchen.
• Zhao Wanqing gave Chu Xingchen Yaoqin’s letter and offered him up to four hundred spirit stones for help with the investigation.
• Chu Xingchen agreed to assist and sent Li Xingtian to investigate with Zhao Wanqing that night, telling him to meet at the fishing spot at noon the next day.
• Zhao Wanqing told Li Xingtian she had found an evil cultivator ritual near the crime scene, and he agreed to follow her there.
• Chu Xingchen warned Li Xingtian to be careful, then refused to let Li Yingling join the nighttime investigation.
• Li Yingling agreed to sleep and asked Chu Xingchen to take her along the next day.

Li Xingtian and Zhao Wanqing investigated signs of Evil Cultivator rituals near Yuzhou City, and Li Xingtian removed the blood energy slowing Zhao Wanqing's injured leg. After he detected a disorientation formation, they escaped it and discovered a village massacred by the Evil Cultivators.

• Li Xingtian noticed Zhao Wanqing's injured right leg and used his spiritual energy to draw the clinging blood energy out of her wounds.
• Zhao Wanqing showed Li Xingtian the cleared site of a ritual, then led him north toward secluded villages where the Evil Cultivators might strike next.
• Li Xingtian realized they had circled inside a disorientation formation and found a stone-bead that he used to guide them out.
• Li Xingtian and Zhao Wanqing emerged before a burned village filled with slaughtered residents and headless corpses.
• Li Xingtian memorized the ritual traces and told Zhao Wanqing to search the village for useful information.

Zhao Wanqing investigated the ruined village and was attacked by a powerful evil cultivator, but Li Xingtian intervened and drove him off with a devastating sword strike. Li Xingtian brought the badly injured Zhao Wanqing to the Courtyard House, where Chu Xingchen saw her condition.

• Zhao Wanqing found the villagers' remains at the village center and encountered a black-robed evil cultivator who attacked her.
• The black-robed man overwhelmed Zhao Wanqing, but Li Xingtian arrived and pulled her out of the way of a lethal saber strike.
• Li Xingtian unleashed a powerful sword strike that destroyed the area and frightened the black-robed man into fleeing.
• Zhao Wanqing vomited blood from her injuries, and Li Xingtian decided to retreat with her rather than pursue the enemy.
• Li Xingtian took Zhao Wanqing to the Courtyard House, where Chu Xingchen saw her pale, bloodied condition.

Li Xingtian brought the badly injured Zhao Wanqing to the Courtyard House, where Chu Xingchen treated her with an iron-wok medicine that caused a bizarre reaction while healing her. He then showed Chu Xingchen the ritual formations linking the village sacrifice to the Clearwind Sect’s practices and urged him to act while an opportunity remained.

• Li Yingling welcomed Zhao Wanqing and persuaded her to try Chu Xingchen’s newly concocted healing medicine.
• Chu Xingchen made medicine in an iron wok, and Zhao Wanqing swallowed it despite its strange appearance and suffered an intense reaction as her injuries began to heal.
• Li Xingtian told Chu Xingchen that the village ritual shared an origin with the Clearwind Sect’s formation, though the two groups used blood qi differently.
• Li Xingtian drew both ritual formations and considered reporting the Clearwind Sect, whose evil cultivation could be tied to a larger force.
• Li Xingtian told Chu Xingchen, “An opportunity must not be missed. When it's time to make the cut, don't hesitate.”