Chapter Summaries

Zhai Xingzi and True Lord Huode led dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators in an attack on the volcano holding the jade casket, but its inscriptions unleashed a devastating counterattack. With Xunkong Shangren and Zhang Daoran approaching, True Lord Huode proposed that he and Zhai Xingzi attack together.

• Zhai Xingzi and True Lord Huode gathered dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators and surrounded the volcano before Zhang Daoran and Xunkong Shangren arrived.
• Zhai Xingzi led a coordinated assault that weakened the fiery peak and sent his Cloud-Glow Hand toward the jade casket.
• Vast Righteous Qi inscriptions erupted, shattered Zhai Xingzi’s giant hand, and blasted the cultivators; one Nascent Soul was dragged into the volcano and disappeared.
• Xunkong Shangren mocked Zhai Xingzi for failing to obtain the treasure, while Zhai Xingzi hesitated over whether to attack again.
• True Lord Huode urged Zhai Xingzi to strike before Zhang Daoran and Xunkong Shangren arrived, then proposed that they attack the volcano together.

Xiao Hua battled the battle puppet when the Profound Water Ancient Beast arrived and trapped him with its powerful domain. He broke free with help from his Nascent Soul and tried to stop the beast from reaching Xin Xin, but the puppet’s spear pierced his back.

• Glowing fragments broke Xiao Hua’s Threadbinding Technique, allowing the battle puppet to pierce his abdomen and attack him.
• Xiao Hua struck the puppet’s legs and wrestled it off balance, but the Profound Water Ancient Beast emerged and engulfed them in emerald water.
• The beast’s domain immobilized Xiao Hua, who used Blood Drop Cave Heaven before the beast suppressed his movement again.
• Green-robed Xiao Hua emerged through the Nascent Soul and shattered the beast’s immature domain with golden light.
• The Profound Water Ancient Beast turned toward Xin Xin, so Xiao Hua attacked it with his Nascent Soul hand and As-You-Wish Staff while the puppet’s spear stabbed his back.

Xiao Hua and Xin Xin nearly died fighting the Profound Water Ancient Beast and a battle puppet in the Profound Water Palace. Xin Xin’s golden hairpin weakened them, but the beast escaped; Xiao Hua then took her Chaoyuan Pill and began recovering from his grave injuries.

• The Profound Water Ancient Beast pierced Xiao Hua’s golden body with its fragmented form, leaving him gravely wounded as the battle puppet prepared to strike again.
• Xin Xin unleashed the golden hairpin, sending a vast river of flying swords through the passage that shattered the battle puppet and nearly destroyed the Profound Water Ancient Beast.
• The ancient beast re-formed by drawing emerald light from the palace walls, while Xiao Hua’s attempt to burn it with Lingmou Zhu Fire failed.
• A blue ripple appeared above Xiao Hua, and the Profound Water Ancient Beast retreated through it; Xin Xin gave Xiao Hua a Chaoyuan Pill to heal his organs.
• The Chaoyuan Pill clashed with Xiao Hua’s demonic blood, but after he withdrew the Blood Drop Cave Heaven, it drew Vast Righteous Qi into his body and helped his wounds begin to mend.

After surviving the Profound Water Ancient Beast’s attack, Xiao Hua learned from Xin Xin that Confucian True Qi was rooted in the Five Qi Ascending to the Origin and that his own Confucian cultivation followed a mistaken path. The passage’s exit appeared, and Xin Xin invited him into the Profound Water Palace to help her search for someone.

• Xiao Hua and Xin Xin thanked each other for saving them during the Profound Water Ancient Beast’s attack, and Xiao Hua said the Chaoyuan Pill had repaired his injured organs.
• Xin Xin explained that Confucian cultivators generated True Qi by cultivating the Five Qi within their internal organs, then recited the Five Qi Ascending to the Origin secret transmission.
• Xiao Hua revealed that he had cultivated Confucian techniques and demonstrated his Taiyi Azure Light, while Xin Xin recognized his Golden Essence Transforming into Sword realm.
• Xin Xin told Xiao Hua that he had followed a forked path by treating Confucian True Qi like Daoist True Qi, and said that Confucian cultivation had abandoned its original foundation.
• A triangular blue exit appeared in the ruined stone wall, and Xin Xin asked Xiao Hua to enter the Profound Water Palace with her to search for someone she wanted to save.

Xiao Hua and Xin Xin entered a mysterious light gate and found themselves in the Profound Water Palace, where a golden light healed Xiao Hua’s injuries. Xin Xin began explaining her hidden background as they prepared to seek the person she wanted to save beneath the immortal artifact.

• Xin Xin said her golden hairpin artifact control could be activated only two and a half times, and she and Xiao Hua entered the light gate.
• A golden light swept over Xiao Hua, restoring his Nascent Soul and healing his injuries.
• Xiao Hua found himself in a vast palace hall and saw a plaque identifying it as the Profound Water Palace.
• Xin Xin explained that the golden light was the Confucian cultivators’ Primordial Golden Light and teased Xiao Hua about recognizing Ancient Daoist Sect writing.
• Xin Xin admitted she had concealed her background and explained that she wanted to save her family beneath the immortal artifact; Xiao Hua agreed to help her.

Xin Xin told Xiao Hua about her family, her father’s imprisonment, and her fears before they entered the Profound Water Palace to search for the immortal artifact. They found a restriction blocking the raised platform, and Xin Xin began examining it with her golden pupils before summoning a golden sword.

• Xin Xin explained that the current Xin family head had lured her father to the Profound Water Palace and suppressed him with an immortal artifact.
• Xiao Hua comforted Xin Xin and promised to share her burden as they entered the Profound Water Palace together.
• Xiao Hua and Xin Xin searched the palace, inspected a Dragon Pillar, and found nothing unusual.
• Xin Xin guessed that the immortal artifact was beside the golden chair atop the raised platform, or that the chair itself was the artifact.
• An invisible restriction blocked their path, so Xin Xin used her golden pupils to inspect it and then summoned a golden sword with her true Qi.

Xiao Hua and Xin Xin entered the platform’s barrier and discovered a real Kunlun Mirror whose pressure overwhelmed them. The mirror absorbed Xiao Hua’s Ice Mirror and activated the golden throne, transporting Xin Xin and Xiao Hua back to the mirror field inside Profound Water Palace, where Xiao Hua spotted a strange treasured sword.

• Xin Xin cut open the platform’s golden restriction with her sword, and Xiao Hua broke the gap wider so they could enter.
• The Kunlun Mirror’s immense pressure forced Xin Xin and Xiao Hua to the ground, and they realized Xin Xin’s father was not on the platform.
• Xin Xin proposed using her golden hairpin to reach the golden throne, but Xiao Hua hurled her onto it and it did not respond.
• Xiao Hua released his Ice Mirror, which the Kunlun Mirror absorbed before activating the throne and teleporting Xin Xin away.
• Xiao Hua stepped into the throne’s halo and was transported back to the mirror field inside Profound Water Palace, where he found a strange milky-white treasured sword.

Xiao Hua discovered the Son of Heaven Sword suppressing Xin Xin’s father inside the Kunlun Mirror and tried to seize it so they could free him. After the sword retaliated with overwhelming force, Xiao Hua weakened it with spirit fire and nine bolts of heavenly lightning, but the struggle remained unresolved.

• Xiao Hua realized that Xin Xin’s father was trapped in a golden sword beneath the Son of Heaven Sword inside the Kunlun Mirror.
• Xin Xin explained that her father had entered sword transformation and would need Geng Earth to return to his former state.
• Xiao Hua declared that the Son of Heaven Sword had no right to rule within the Kunlun Mirror and tried to lift it with his Sleeve Universe technique.
• The Son of Heaven Sword unleashed a fierce attack that wounded Xiao Hua and forced him to use spirit fire and the Sun-Shading Art to resist.
• Xiao Hua struck the sword’s war-chariot-like light with nine bolts of heavenly lightning, then engulfed the sword in spirit fire until both forces vanished and the sword’s radiance dimmed.

Xiao Hua defeated and subdued the Son of Heaven Sword with his Nascent Soul’s Kunlun Mirrors, while Xin Xin recovered her father’s flying sword. Xiao Hua used the Kunlun Mirror to open a passage, and he and Xin Xin emerged above the Sage River.

• Xin Xin used her golden hairpin and blood to free her father’s flying sword, which responded to her blood and fell into her hand.
• The Son of Heaven Sword severed Xiao Hua’s fire arm and nearly struck his head, but his Nascent Soul used Ice Mirror techniques and the Kunlun Mirrors to trap and subdue it.
• Xiao Hua and Xin Xin discussed finding a Great Grandmaster to awaken her father, and Xiao Hua reassured her about returning to the Xin family.
• Xiao Hua revealed that he could use the Kunlun Mirror because it had absorbed a fragment he had already refined.
• Xiao Hua opened a passage with the Kunlun Mirror, and he and Xin Xin entered it and arrived above the Sage River.

After parting from Xin Xin, Xiao Hua flew toward Golden Mountain Temple, hoping to find Jiang Liuer and learn what had become of Cihui. Along the way, he met a mysterious little monk who stopped a violent storm and invited him to play chess.

• Xin Xin gave Xiao Hua a flower token and left for Nüwa Country, asking him to find her there when he could.
• Xiao Hua set off alone toward Golden Mountain Temple, concerned about Jiang Liuer and Cihui.
• As a storm gathered, Xiao Hua found a little monk meditating beneath a Bodhi Tree and offered to take him to shelter.
• The little monk stopped the storm with a gesture and insisted that Xiao Hua finish a game of chess with him.
• The little monk replaced a missing chess piece with a heavy black triangle, which Xiao Hua accepted, then defeated him at chess.

Xiao Hua discovered that the little monk had left him a Buddhist treasure containing a chess piece, then found the child Wang Zhengfei in a mountain village. Wang Zhengfei began painting a portrait of Master Wang’s daughter, while Xiao Hua watched in secret.

• Xiao Hua played nearly thirty chess games with the little monk, improving until he consistently defeated him.
• The little monk vanished after pointing out that Wang Zhengfei was nearby, and Xiao Hua discovered a chess piece hidden inside the black triangle with his Dharma Eye.
• Xiao Hua found Wang Zhengfei drawing beneath a flowering shrub and followed him to a village household where Master Wang’s steward summoned him.
• The steward told Wang Zhengfei to paint a portrait of Master Wang’s daughter in exchange for a silver ingot.
• Wang Zhengfei studied the young lady in silence, then began painting her portrait with bold strokes.

Wang Zhengfei refused to alter his truthful portrait of Master Wang’s daughter, despite being beaten and threatened. When the steward trapped his mother in a cage with a vicious dog, Wang Zhengfei began painting a tiger to prove his skill.

• Wang Zhengfei painted Master Wang’s daughter with the black mole on her cheek, but Master Wang and the steward condemned the portrait after the daughter fled in tears.
• Wang Zhengfei refused Master Wang’s gold and the steward’s demands to remove the mole, insisting a painter must depict what he saw.
• The steward struck Wang Zhengfei and demanded one tael for the paper, then threatened to put his mother with a vicious dog unless he painted a tiger that frightened it.
• The servants brought Wang Zhengfei’s mother and threw her into the dog cage, where the chained dog lunged and barked at her.
• Wang Zhengfei called for painting supplies and began painting a tiger instead of changing the portrait.

Wang Zhengfei left the Wang residence to find a real tiger so he could paint one and save his mother from the vicious dog. As Xiao Hua followed him up the mountain, an old hunter carrying a tiger cub approached Wang Zhengfei and offered to let him look at it.

• Wang Zhengfei asked Master Wang for a day to find a tiger, and Master Wang agreed after his veiled daughter intervened.
• Wang Zhengfei's mother tried to stop him from going up the mountain, but he reassured her and ran off; Master Wang ordered the steward to follow him.
• The steward lost Wang Zhengfei and chose to wait for him near the village, while the Wang family's maid sent an old hunter up the mountain.
• Xiao Hua followed Wang Zhengfei invisibly as he searched the forest, and the old hunter secretly took a tiger cub from its den and went to meet him.
• Wang Zhengfei asked the old hunter to take him to the tiger's den, but the old hunter warned him of the danger and offered to let him study the cub instead.

Wang Zhengfei painted a tiger cub, then became trapped in a mountain fissure with an injured old hunter as the cub’s mother hunted them. He used a lifelike painting of an enraged tiger to frighten the great tiger away, and he and the old hunter began making their way down the mountain.

• Wang Zhengfei drew the tiger cub and asked the old hunter where its den was, but the great tiger arrived before the hunter could answer.
• The old hunter twisted his ankle while fleeing with Wang Zhengfei, and the great tiger chased them after grabbing its cub.
• The old hunter pulled Wang Zhengfei into a narrow rock fissure, where they endured the tiger’s attacks through the night.
• After waking, Wang Zhengfei drew an enraged tiger and persuaded the old hunter to hold up the painting.
• The great tiger mistook the painting for another tiger and fled with its cub, allowing Wang Zhengfei and the old hunter to head down the mountain.

Wang Zhengfei outwitted Master Wang’s threat by painting Miss Wang with her blemish hidden, then returned home and faced his mother’s punishment for risking his life on the mountain. After his mother forgave him and urged him to pursue painting, Wang Zhengfei told her he no longer wanted to study it.

• The steward brought Wang Zhengfei back to the Wang residence, where his mother collapsed from worry and Master Wang demanded he fulfill their agreement.
• Wang Zhengfei faced the freed vicious dog and frightened it into submission by revealing his painting of a roaring tiger.
• Miss Wang asked her father to spare Wang Zhengfei, then posed with a fan covering her blemish so Wang Zhengfei could paint her portrait and earn his release.
• Wang Zhengfei returned home, apologized to his mother, and accepted punishment before his father’s memorial portrait; his mother stopped when she saw his injured hands and wept.
• While Wang Zhengfei ate, his mother urged him to become a great painter, but he told her he no longer wanted to study painting and asked her not to be angry.

After deciding that painting could not give him control over his fate, Wang Zhengfei resolved to seek cultivation, but his concern for his widowed mother made leaving home seem impossible. Xiao Hua appeared and revealed himself as a Daoist willing to guide him, then demonstrated his powers by carrying Wang Zhengfei and his mother high into the sky.

• Wang Zhengfei told his mother that the Wang family's treatment of him showed that even a great painter remained at the mercy of the powerful, and he wanted to seek cultivation instead.
• Wang Zhengfei's mother offered to leave home with him, but he realized that their poverty and their dependence on each other made the plan difficult.
• Xiao Hua understood why the Buddhist senior had brought him to Wang Zhengfei and decided to pass on the Daoist lineage because he admired the boy's intelligence and filial devotion.
• Xiao Hua appeared in the house, introduced himself as True Person Xiao, and explained that he had witnessed Wang Zhengfei painting the tiger and had heard his wish to pursue the Dao.
• Xiao Hua carried Wang Zhengfei and his mother into the sky, rising toward the heavenly fire, wind, and thunder as Wang Zhengfei asked to go higher.

Xiao Hua took Wang Zhengfei as a registered disciple and began teaching him cultivation, but an attempt to use the Soul Bridge shattered the Pure Land World. He abruptly awakened in an intimate embrace with Xin Xin, whose eyes filled with golden light as they realized their compromising position.

• Wang Zhengfei agreed to become Xiao Hua's registered disciple after Xiao Hua promised to teach him cultivation and help his mother live longer.
• Xiao Hua took Wang Zhengfei to a mountain, informed his mother, and taught him an introductory Dao Sect cultivation technique, which Wang Zhengfei quickly mastered.
• Wang Zhengfei could not sense Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, so Xiao Hua brought out the Soul Bridge and prepared to examine him with its power.
• When Xiao Hua activated the eerie green inscription, cracks spread through the mountain and the entire Pure Land World, shattering its fragments and memories.
• Xiao Hua suddenly awakened kissing Xin Xin and realized they were locked in an intimate embrace as her expression shifted to fury and golden light filled her eyes.

Xiao Hua and Xin Xin realized that the events inside the Profound Water Palace had likely been an illusion formed by demonic qi, then escaped their bindings into a vast space between a watery-blue immortal artifact and a demonic artifact. As the two forces began to shift, Guzhen entered the blue space and found himself stranded amid endless Yingluo ornaments.

• Xin Xin explained that she believed they had fallen into a demonic-qi illusion array upon entering the Profound Water Palace, though Xiao Hua noted that their current surroundings might also be an illusion.
• Xin Xin used her golden hairpin to unleash Vast Righteous Qi, clearing the demonic qi around them so Xiao Hua and Xin Xin could break free.
• Xiao Hua and Xin Xin searched the boundless space and concluded that an immortal artifact was suppressing a demonic artifact, but neither knew how to leave.
• The watery-blue Yingluo ornaments contracted as the demonic qi surged upward, and roars sounded from beyond their reach.
• Guzhen passed through the watery-blue halo and found himself in an endless space of linked Yingluo ornaments, with the arched bridge behind him gone.

Gu Zhen used the Heavenly Dragon’s pearl and scepter to break through the Yingluo and reveal a water-blue triangular flag, an immortal artifact. He summoned his future Heavenly King body and began the risky Buddhist-and-demonic ritual to seize the flag, leaving the Buddha palm descending toward it.

• Gu Zhen recovered his cultivation with the jade-green pearl, transformed his scepter into a Heavenly Dragon, and smashed through the Yingluo to reach the artifact’s chamber.
• Gu Zhen found the water-blue flag that produced the Yingluo, swallowed the pearl, and summoned the Heavenly King vision of his future Buddhahood.
• The Heavenly King warned Gu Zhen that failure would prevent him from entering reincarnation, then moved to the opposite side of the flag.
• Gu Zhen used blood-red sarira to draw out his karmic hindrances and form a Buddha palm, while the Heavenly King manifested a black, flame-wreathed palm of demonic nature.
• Gu Zhen formed a seal and sent his Buddha palm crashing down to seize the immortal artifact.

Guzhen tried to seize the Profound Origin Water Control Banner, risking the release of the Demonic Beast it suppressed, and Xiao Hua attacked to stop him. Xiao Hua pinned Guzhen with the Spirit Severing Primordial Light, but a dragon-shaped phantom suddenly struck Xiao Hua’s left arm.

• Guzhen and the Heavenly King combined their powers to pry the Profound Origin Water Control Banner from its place, but the banner’s radiance strengthened and resisted them.
• Xin Xin warned Guzhen that taking the banner would free the Demonic Beast, while Xiao Hua recognized that Guzhen had fallen under demonic influence.
• Xiao Hua transformed into a towering golden body and attacked the Buddha-Demon Hand with his Nascent Soul hand and As-You-Wish Staff, damaging it but failing to stop Guzhen.
• Xiao Hua used the Spirit Severing Primordial Light to pin Guzhen in midair as Xin Xin watched for the attack to kill him.
• A dragon-shaped phantom burst from the demonic qi and swept across Xiao Hua’s left arm.