Chapter Summaries

Yuan Qing’s forces advanced on Quanjin Mountain with over a thousand Blood Fiend Beasts, while Ling Yunwu’s fellow swordsmen arrived with Yu Wan. The assault fell into chaos when a tremor erupted beneath the mountain, and Li Min hurried to calm the fleeing beasts.

• Sword cultivators lifted the Blood Fiend Beasts into the air and brought them down among Quanjin Mountain’s forests to begin their advance.
• More than a dozen Illusion Sword Swordsmen arrived from Huan Kingdom, including Yu Wan, who explained to Ling Yunwu why she had come to help.
• Yuan Qing led the others toward the mountain while Ling Yunwu and his senior brothers stayed back as a concealed force.
• The Blood Fiend Beasts began trampling through the forest, but a tremendous rumble beneath Quanjin Mountain shook the ground and scattered them in panic.
• Li Min flew up with a drum and bone beater to calm the fleeing Blood Fiend Beasts.

Li Min and Yuan Qing tried to keep the Blood Fiend Beasts advancing, but the beasts proved easy to kill when Quanjin Mountain’s defenders attacked. Yuan Qing’s sword cultivators then struck the exposed cultivators, leaving the battle’s outcome uncertain.

• Li Min beat his drum to rally the panicking Blood Fiend Beasts as teams of Quanjin Mountain Disciples and cultivators from the Three Cultivation Kingdoms emerged and attacked them.
• The cultivators’ magical artifacts pierced the Blood Fiend Beasts, killing some and sending the rest fleeing.
• Ying Zhuo questioned the beasts’ weakness, and Li Min and Yuan Qing moved to calm them and protect them from further attacks.
• Yuan Qing’s sword cultivators attacked the exposed cultivators, who fought back with talismans and magical artifacts.
• About twenty percent of the cultivators counterattacked, while many others were overwhelmed and killed by the flying swords.

Blood Fiend Beasts devoured the fallen fighters while the sword cultivators tried to recover their comrades’ remains without killing the beasts. Tu Hong seized the distraction to launch a surprise attack, and the battle resumed with heavy losses on both sides.

• The Blood Fiend Beasts overcame Li Min’s drumbeats and began eating the corpses scattered across the battlefield.
• Yuan Qing and other swordsmen killed some beasts, but Li Min urged them to spare the Blood Fiend Beasts until after the battle so they could help break through Quanjin Mountain’s earthen layer.
• Yuan Qing and Ying Zhuo ordered the sword cultivators and bird cultivators to rescue their fallen companions while leaving the beasts unharmed.
• Tu Hong activated the triangular magic artifact and ordered another attack, reasoning that the beasts were feeding and the rescuers were distracted.
• Dao Sect cultivators emerged from underground and ambushed the sword cultivators and bird cultivators, killing more sword cultivators as another twenty percent of the Blood Fiend Beasts fell.

Yuan Qing’s sword cultivators regained the upper hand, while the Blood Fiend Beasts continued destroying Quanjin Mountain’s forest. As Yanjiang Sect reinforcements confronted Tu Hong over abandoned corpses and access to the formation, he enforced military law by having a disciple who disobeyed his orders beheaded.

• Yuan Qing rallied the Womb Sword Disciples to recover fallen swordsmen and ordered the Bright Sword disciples to attack the cultivators, turning the battle in the sword cultivators’ favor.
• Ying Chao and Yuan Qing discussed the unexpected battle and vowed to take Quanjin Mountain as the Blood Fiend Beasts continued demolishing its forest.
• Lan Qin asked Tu Hong what they should do, and Tu Hong said the Dao Sect would show no mercy to anyone who fell at Quanjin Mountain.
• Tu Hong ordered a disciple who had let the Yanjiang Sect cultivators enter his command tent to accept the military punishment for disobeying orders.
• A Yanjiang Sect cultivator complained that their dead were abandoned and their yellow talismans were useless while the spell formation stayed closed.
• Tu Hong received the executed disciple’s head on a tray, shocking the Yanjiang Sect reinforcements.

Tu Hong enforced Quanjin Mountain’s military discipline, reassured the Yanjiang Sect reinforcements, and planned another ambush while worrying about Yu Meng’s group. Meanwhile, Cui Hongshen led the Thunder Control Sect disciples into a hidden cavern he claimed was part of the defense formation, but Xiao Hua flew off to investigate.

• Tu Hong ordered a fallen brother’s head and remains buried together, then told the disciples to prioritize defending Quanjin Mountain and leave his own body where it fell.
• Tu Hong forgave the Yanjiang Sect disciples for their lack of discipline, warned them to follow his orders, and sent them back to guard the formation.
• Lan Qin worried that the formation could not withstand too many Illusion Sword Cultivators, while Tu Hong estimated there would be no more than five and worried about Yu Meng’s missing group.
• Tu Hong noticed the giant beasts were tiring and suggested another surprise assault.
• Cui Hongshen led the Thunder Control Sect disciples through a marked tunnel into an abandoned cavern and told them to sit in formation while they awaited Tu Hong’s command.
• Xiao Hua doubted that the cavern was part of the defense formation and flew toward one of its passages to look around.

Xiao Hua left Cui Hongshen’s group to secretly mine jade marrow while the battle at Quanjin Mountain continued. After Micheng Valley withdrew its Blood Fiend Beasts, Savage Beast Mountain Villa began its turn to expose the ground.

• Xiao Hua argued that their position beneath the spirit stone vein was suspicious, but Cui Hongshen and Zhen Minghui decided to wait for orders.
• Xiao Hua left the group, entered the stone wall, and resumed mining jade marrow before the sword cultivators arrived.
• Yuan Qing told Li Min to recall Micheng Valley’s Blood Fiend Beasts, and Li Min insisted on killing the remaining beasts rather than letting them remain alive.
• Li Min beat his drum as Micheng Valley disciples fed pills to the Blood Fiend Beasts, which lay down and died; Yuan Qing and Ying Zhuo recognized the act as decisive and honorable.
• Zhan Jian announced that Savage Beast Mountain Villa would reveal its methods, and more than a hundred masked disciples flew toward the exposed soil.

Savage Beast Mountain Villa released Earth Devouring Worms to undermine Quanjin Mountain’s defenses, but Quanjin Mountain countered them with Earth Solid Talismans. The battle intensified as the worms were turned to clods of earth, leaving the attackers’ plan in ruins.

• Zhan Jian released Savage Beast Mountain Villa’s Earth Devouring Worms, which quickly ate through the soil above Quanjin Mountain’s spirit stone vein.
• Yingchao told Yuan Qing that Fairy Yingzhuo had once demanded he change his name, while Li Min learned that acid from the Blood Fiend Beasts had weakened the earth for the worms.
• Tu Hong ordered Lan Qin to have Quanjin Mountain’s disciples use their Earth Solid Talismans against the worms.
• Quanjin Mountain’s disciples emerged from the formation and fought the sword cultivators, with casualties rising on both sides.
• Several hundred Quanjin Mountain disciples rushed toward the worms and used Earth Solid Talismans to harden the soil and immobilize them.
• Zhan Jian ordered the Savage Beast Mountain Villa disciples to recall the worms, but Quanjin Mountain’s disciples turned thousands of them into clods of earth before they could escape.

Tu Hong’s Earth Solid Talismans unexpectedly made the Earth Devouring Worms stronger, while Xiao Hua discovered that his squad was trapped inside Quanjin Mountain’s formation. The worms began tearing a massive hole through the earth layer as Xiao Hua returned to excavating jade marrow, leaving the squad to search for other trapped disciples.

• Tu Hong and Lan Qin celebrated the Earth Solid Talismans, but the talismans caused the Earth Devouring Worms to devour hardened earth even faster, delighting Yuan Qing and the swordsmen.
• Xiao Hua grew suspicious of Cui Hongshen’s assignment, found the entrance sealed by an unstable defensive formation, and concluded that the squad was trapped.
• Xiao Hua ordered Zhen Minghui, Su Qing, and Qiu Xu to search the surrounding area, while Cui Hongshen went north and handed Xiao Hua the Captain’s Token.
• After the others left, Xiao Hua abandoned his watch and returned to excavating jade marrow, trusting the token to alert him if anything happened.
• The Earth Devouring Worms widened a hundred-zhang hole in the earth layer, and Yuan Qing and Ying Zhuo prepared the swordsmen to practice while the worms rested.

Tu Hong waited until Yuan Qing focused on his attack against the black hole, then led an ambush against the sword cultivators at Quanjin Mountain. As Yuan Qing turned his blazing flying sword on the attackers, Tu Hong revealed himself and sent his Eighteen-Foot Snake Lance to meet it.

• Hundreds of sword cultivators joined their flying swords into a huge formation and blasted the black hole deeper.
• Tu Hong dismissed the sword formation as ineffective and told Lan Qin to wait for an opening.
• Yuan Qing sent his fireball-like flying sword crashing into the black hole.
• Tu Hong launched a surprise attack with several thousand cultivators while the sword cultivators watched Yuan Qing.
• Yuan Qing sent his blazing sword toward the ambushers, and Tu Hong appeared to challenge him.
• Tu Hong hurled the Eighteen-Foot Snake Lance at Yuan Qing's flying sword, transforming it into a giant python.

Tu Hong fought Yuan Qing, an Illusion Sword Rank Three swordsman, using earthen spells and a deliberately sacrificed magic treasure to catch him off guard. Yuan Qing escaped with minor wounds, while Tu Hong and the Dao Sect cultivators withdrew underground, leaving Yuan Qing furious.

• Yuan Qing broke through Tu Hong's giant python spell and clashed with Tu Hong's spear, then challenged him to witness a true Illusion Sword.
• Yuan Qing transformed into a sword and cut apart Tu Hong's spear phantoms and earthen spikes, but Tu Hong trapped him in a mass of spikes.
• Tu Hong detonated fragments of his spear and the earthen spikes around Yuan Qing, blasting him into the air and forcing him to spend sword essence to escape.
• Tu Hong and the Dao Sect cultivators vanished underground as Yuan Qing struck the ground where Tu Hong had disappeared and shouted in anger.

Yuan Qing’s forces resumed their assault on Quanjin Mountain after Tu Hong’s ambush, while Tu prepared his outnumbered defenders for a final battle. Several days later, Xiao Hua emerged from the mine and learned that the surrounding area was empty and still.

• Yuan Qing admitted that Dao Sect techniques had caught him off guard, and Ying Chao reported that the ambush had cost the Sword Domain about 230 warriors while leaving roughly 70 Dao Sect corpses.
• Yuan Qing ordered the Sword Domain warriors to resume attacking the pit while Li Min said the Earth Devouring Worms needed another hour.
• Tu Hong recovered from his injuries and told Lan Qin that he had wounded Yuan Qing more severely, but Quanjin Mountain remained heavily outnumbered by sword cultivators and Illusion Sword Swordsmen.
• Tu Hong told Lan Qin to have the Dao Sect cultivators wait for the final battle and said they might abandon the spirit stone mine if they could not win.
• Several days later, Xiao Hua came out after the Captain’s Token showed no further movement, and Zhen Minghui reported that the surrounding area was empty and completely still.

Xiao Hua kept Cui Hongshen’s group alive while Tu Hong’s order drew them toward a force of sword cultivators. The chapter ended as Yuan Qing sent Earth Devouring Worms into Quanjin Mountain’s mine and Tu Hong prepared to send his own disciples into battle.

• Cui Hongshen insisted that Tu Hong was trustworthy despite the group being trapped in an array and unable to contact He Fangyuan and the others.
• Xiao Hua took Zhen Huo away for more than half a day, then returned without explaining what he had done.
• Cui Hongshen received an attack order through the Captain’s Token and led the group upward, where the token’s signal removed the obstruction to Xiao Hua’s divine sense.
• After detecting sword cultivators closing in, Xiao Hua knocked out Cui Hongshen, Zhen Huo, and the others and hid them in a spirit storage pouch.
• Yuan Qing ordered Savage Beast Mountain Villa’s disciples to send Earth Devouring Worms into the hole leading to Quanjin Mountain’s spirit stone mine.
• Tu Hong asked Lan Qin whether the Daoist cultivators were still complaining as he considered sending them into battle.

Tu Hong ordered Quanjin Mountain’s disciples to draw the sword cultivators into the spirit stone mine vein so they could escape, while Yuan Qing prepared to meet their attack. The final battle began, and He Fangyuan struggled against a powerful female swordswoman as danger closed in behind him.

• Lan Qin told Tu Hong that complaints and doubts had spread among the disciples because several thousand had vanished, and Tu Hong reassured him that they still had a chance to survive.
• Tu Hong ordered Lan Qin to send the disciples against the sword cultivators and draw them into the spirit stone mine vein, then told them to escape for themselves.
• Yuan Qing spotted the Quanjin Mountain cultivators emerging from their concealment and rallied the sword cultivators as bird cultivators descended to block the sky.
• He Fangyuan fought a petite female swordswoman whose flying sword broke free of his azure ring, and he dodged its strike as a Quanjin Mountain disciple was killed behind him.
• He Fangyuan sensed danger from behind and abruptly dropped downward to evade it.

He Fangyuan was killed as the battle turned against the cultivators, while Ling Yunwu helped Yuan Qing break Quanjin Mountain’s defensive formation. Tu Hong emerged with reinforcements and, after his strange treasure failed to keep the swordsmen at bay, ordered the Dao Sect disciples to retreat into the mine and resist there.

• He Fangyuan killed a female swordswoman with the green ring after a fire crane set her ablaze, then fled and was pierced through the chest by a Bright Sword swordsman.
• Yuan Qing persuaded Ling Yunwu and the Lingfeng Sword Gate cultivators to use their combined sword intent to break Quanjin Mountain’s defensive formation.
• Tu Hong emerged from the black hole with about a thousand cultivators and challenged Yuan Qing, while Lan Qin and the others fought the high-ranking swordsmen and avian cultivators.
• Tu Hong’s triangular treasure extinguished Yuan Qing’s sword flames and began corroding the sword, then spread clear light over the leaders before its power faltered.
• Tu Hong ordered the Dao Sect disciples to retreat into the spirit stone mine vein and hold out against the swordsmen inside its remaining defensive formations.

After the mine’s defensive formations vanished, the sword cultivators poured into Quanjin Mountain’s spirit stone mine, while Ling Yunwu and the Illusion Sword Cultivators pursued Xiao Hua. As he fled, Xiao Hua realized Tu Hong’s apparent lures and the mine’s treasures concealed a deeper scheme, but the sword cultivators kept tracking him.

• Yuan Qing and Ying Zhuo discovered that the mine’s formations had vanished and allowed the sword cultivators to enter in search of spirit stones and jade essence.
• Ling Yunwu and more than a dozen Illusion Sword Cultivators detected Xiao Hua and Cui Hongshen’s group near the jade essence and pursued them.
• Xiao Hua put Cui Hongshen and the others into his spirit storage pouch, then fled without using Earth Evasion to avoid attracting attention.
• Xiao Hua found spiritual energy fluctuations around an abandoned mine and suspected Tu Hong had laid a formation to lure the sword cultivators away.
• Xiao Hua realized that Quanjin Mountain’s mines seemed depleted and questioned why Tu Hong had placed the Thunder Control Sect disciples by the untouched jade essence.
• The Illusion Sword Cultivators continued tracking Xiao Hua instead of investigating the nearby spiritual energy fluctuations, revealing that their pursuit was focused on him.

Xiao Hua fought off a group of Lingfeng Sword Gate swordsmen pursuing him underground, using a soul artifact and the As-You-Wish Staff to break their formations. After defeating Yu Wan and wounding three other Illusion Sword Swordsmen, he rushed toward the surface, where more swordsmen had surrounded him.

• Xiao Hua escaped into the earth, but four Illusion Sword Swordsmen and more swordsmen pursued him through the tunnels.
• Xiao Hua turned to confront the four pursuers, whose combined sword formation trapped him and shattered his Earth Shield Technique.
• Xiao Hua rang the Soul Capturing Bell with the toad soul artifact, disrupting the swordsmen's souls and breaking their formation.
• Xiao Hua smashed Yu Wan's flying sword and struck her down with the As-You-Wish Staff, prompting Ling Yunwu to rush to her.
• Xiao Hua broke the three remaining swordsmen's formation with another blow, then fled toward the surface as more Illusion Sword Swordsmen encircled him.

Xiao Hua nearly escaped the Seven Star Sword Array, but Ling Yunwu blocked the gap and demanded the Sword Pouch and Chansi Wood. Xiao Hua held off the combined swordsmen with his staff, while Ling Yunwu prepared to stake everything on a stronger attack.

• Xiao Hua spotted a flaw in the encirclement and used Thunder Control Movement to rush toward it.
• Ling Yunwu’s flying sword intercepted Xiao Hua, and twelve Illusion Sword Swordsmen surrounded him in the Seven Star Sword Array.
• Ling Yunwu showed Xiao Hua an image identifying him and demanded the Sword Pouch and Chansi Wood, but Xiao Hua denied knowing about them and attacked with the Soaring Flood Dragon Scissors.
• The array’s combined Sword Essence knocked the Soaring Flood Dragon Scissors away, so Xiao Hua defended himself from the swordsmen’s barrage with the As-You-Wish Staff and Heaven-Piercing Staff Techniques.
• Xiao Hua flew toward a less familiar swordsman in the formation, while Ling Yunwu, nearing the limit of his secret technique, gathered his sword light and unleashed a heavy sword intent.

Xiao Hua realized that Tu Hong had unleashed a spiritual tsunami across Quanjin Mountain’s spirit stone mine, trapping him and the sword cultivators in the Seven Star Great Formation. As the tidal energy flooded the formation and jade marrow veins erupted, Yu Wan was killed, and Xiao Hua struggled to survive without absorbing more of the energy.

• The Seven Star Great Formation restrained Xiao Hua, and he used spirit fire and the As-You-Wish Staff to weaken its confinement.
• Nine explosions marked the nodes of Tu Hong’s grand formation, which unleashed a surge of pure earth-attributed spiritual energy across the Quanjin Mountain mine.
• Xiao Hua recognized the surge as a spiritual tsunami and understood that Tu Hong’s formation had trapped everyone in it.
• Ling Yunwu ordered the sword cultivators to transform into swords as the tidal energy flooded their bodies, while Xiao Hua offered the Sword Pouch and Chansi Wood in exchange for their release.
• More jade marrow veins erupted, intensifying the tsunami and tearing Yu Wan apart before Xiao Hua could save her.
• Xiao Hua activated his cultivation techniques to refine the energy already inside him and kept the Phoenix Dharma Body outside his body as it absorbed the flood.

Xiao Hua struggled to refine the overwhelming spiritual energy unleashed in Quanjin Mountain’s mine as the formation’s spiritual roar killed cultivators across the area. Tu Hong and Lan Qin survived inside a protective bubble, but Ying Zhuo’s attempt to enter another bubble destroyed it and killed him; Tu Hong’s group continued toward the formation’s edge.

• Xiao Hua used the Dragon Transformation Art to refine the spiritual energy flooding his body and narrowly kept his meridians from bursting.
• The spiritual roar swept through the mine, killing fleeing swordsmen, cultivators, and bird cultivators as their meridians burst.
• Tu Hong and Lan Qin remained inside a protective bubble, and Tu Hong defended his plan to sacrifice Dao Sect disciples alongside Quanjin Mountain’s forces.
• Ying Zhuo broke into a nearby bubble, but the breach caused it to collapse and killed the disciples inside before the surging spiritual energy burst him apart.
• Lan Qin feared for his life, but Tu Hong’s bubble rose toward the formation’s edge without further disturbance.

Tu Hong led the surviving Quanjin Mountain Disciples away from the trapped battlefield after honoring the dead and rescuing survivors, while deciding to leave the dangerous formation untouched. Inside it, the twelve Illusion Sword Swordsmen had become sword spirits to trap Xiao Hua, who survived the spiritual howls by using his Phoenix Dharma Body and beginning to cultivate it.

• Tu Hong and the Quanjin Mountain Disciples emerged from the formation, and the sword cultivators and bird cultivators fled when they saw no pursuers behind them.
• Tu Hong mourned the fallen, ordered a search of the battlefield, and learned that forty-two people had survived, including eleven Daoist sect disciples.
• Tu Hong refused Lan Qin's suggestion to kill the survivors and explained that the formation was too dangerous to approach or break.
• Tu Hong and Lan Qin left for Xuntian City with the Quanjin Mountain Disciples, leaving the formation and its treasures behind.
• The twelve Illusion Sword Swordsmen merged with their flying swords and became sword spirits, keeping the Seven Star Great Formation intact to trap Xiao Hua.
• Xiao Hua used the Phoenix Dharma Body to shield himself from the spiritual howls, then sent part of his Primordial Spirit into it and began cultivating its arts.