Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xiaohua delivered the Incense-Passing Cult’s invitation to Great Forest Temple and secured permission to learn about Senior Sister Zixia’s origins. While choosing an ordinary manual in the Library Pavilion, he discovered an old monk whose presence his divine sense could not detect.

• Master Changsheng accepted Zhang Xiaohua’s invitation and learned that the Incense-Passing Cult’s protective formation had been destroyed.
• Master Chang Geng told Zhang Xiaohua that the Abbot had approved his request concerning Senior Sister Zixia’s origins, though he needed time to recall the old secret.
• Master Chang Xing said the Abbot would attend the Martial Arts Gathering and agreed to report Zhang Xiaohua’s request to visit Master Yuantian at the Pagoda Forest.
• Master Chang Xing brought Zhang Xiaohua to the Library Pavilion, where he was permitted to read one ordinary martial arts manual but not remove or copy it.
• Zhang Xiaohua noticed an old monk sweeping beside the stairs, but his divine sense could not detect the monk; a young monk said the mysterious figure had swept there for as long as anyone could remember.

Zhang Xiaohua uncovered eighty-one hidden sets of staff techniques in Heaven-Piercing Staff Techniques, retaining three hundred and sixty moves. After being lured back to Forbidden Wind Valley, he used a sudden gale that disrupted the formation to enter a passage beneath the platform.

• Zhang Xiaohua studied Heaven-Piercing Staff Techniques with his divine sense and discovered that the manual revealed nine new sets of staff moves each day.
• Over nine days, Zhang Xiaohua saw eighty-one sets of techniques and memorized three hundred and sixty moves before returning the manual.
• A young monk thanked Zhang Xiaohua for helping him and warned him not to follow any Great Forest Temple disciple to the back mountain.
• Yuanfa told Zhang Xiaohua that Kong Jian had summoned him, and Zhang Xiaohua followed him to Forbidden Wind Valley despite the warning.
• When a violent gale disrupted the formation, Zhang Xiaohua sealed Kongjian's acupoints, left him beneath a pillar, and entered a flaw beside the Town Suppressing Cauldron.
• Zhang Xiaohua found that the space beneath the platform was covered in formations, except for a passage where cold wind continued to blow.

Zhang Xiaohua found a seven-jointed bamboo suppressing a Wind Bead, then passed through Buddhist radiance into a hidden space where a black flag and 360 magical artifacts suppressed a Nine-Ranked Lotus Platform. He left the source of the black formation and the conflict between the artifacts and the Buddhist radiance unresolved.

• Zhang Xiaohua followed the cold wind to a chamber and found a luminous, fragrant seven-jointed bamboo resembling the one in Abbot Changsheng’s painting.
• Zhang Xiaohua discovered an invisible Wind Bead beneath the bamboo, whose gusts weakened the bamboo’s lotus-flower defenses and the restriction holding it down.
• Zhang Xiaohua attacked the defenses with Fire Talismans and the Dream Chasing Sword, but Buddhist radiance continually repaired them.
• Zhang Xiaohua followed the Buddhist radiance through a strange restriction into a space where a black flag and 360 magical artifacts pressed down on a Nine-Ranked Lotus Platform.
• Zhang Xiaohua used his divine sense to examine the formation and found that it blocked his probing while allowing nine-colored Buddhist radiance to pass through.

Zhang Xiaohua escaped the black banner’s attack, explored a vast Buddhist pavilion, and collected its strange beads before returning to the trapped lotuses. He took the Nine-Ranked Lotus Platform and bamboo, then the Wind Pearl pierced his finger and opened a passage, allowing him to seize it and fly onward.

• Zhang Xiaohua replaced a hook-shaped artifact in the black formation with a rabbit talisman and took the freed artifact, but severed his divine sense when the black banner attacked it.
• Zhang Xiaohua escaped underground into a vast Buddhist pavilion, where he found sandalwood boxes filled with scriptures and Silk Brocade, along with unusual beads behind a restricted door.
• Zhang Xiaohua returned to the black-and-white space, collected the Nine-Ranked Lotus Platform, and used the golden talisman to restrain the black banner.
• Zhang Xiaohua burned through the little lotus, removed the bamboo suppressing the Wind Pearl, and stored both the bamboo and the platform separately.
• The Wind Pearl pierced Zhang Xiaohua’s finger, absorbed his blood, and released a cold gust that opened a passage above him.
• Zhang Xiaohua grabbed the Wind Pearl and flew into the newly opened passage.

Zhang Xiaohua secured the Wind Pearl, finished studying the Heaven-Piercing Staff Techniques, and received clues from Master Chang Geng about Meng’s past. Great Forest Temple prepared to send Zhang Xiaohua and Meng to pay respects to Master Yuantian before they returned to the Incense-Passing Cult.

• Zhang Xiaohua hid the Wind Pearl in a jade box, then woke young monk Kongjian and learned that even Abbot Changsheng did not know why Forbidden Wind Valley had its name.
• Zhang Xiaohua and Meng joked together outside Great Forest Temple, and Zhang Xiaohua said he had spent nine days studying a strange staff technique.
• Master Chang Geng arrived on the tenth day, and Zhang Xiaohua returned the Heaven-Piercing Staff Techniques manual after finishing it.
• Master Chang Geng gave Zhang Xiaohua a paper with places and names to help him and Meng investigate her background, while withholding Great Forest Temple’s secrets.
• Master Chang Geng invited Zhang Xiaohua and Meng to pay respects to Master Yuantian, and Zhang Xiaohua agreed to leave for the Incense-Passing Cult afterward.

Master Chang Geng explained Great Forest Temple’s Pagoda Forest, sarira, and Guiyuan Pagoda to Zhang Xiaohua and Meng. Zhang Xiaohua left convinced that the beads he had found were not sarira, though Guiyuan Pagoda’s vast collection of relics stirred his curiosity.

• Master Chang Geng suggested that Zhang Xiaohua visit Yi Xia Town before the Martial Arts Gathering, and Zhang Xiaohua apologized for misjudging him.
• Master Chang Geng led Zhang Xiaohua and Meng toward the Pagoda Forest and explained that it commemorated Great Forest Temple’s eminent monks.
• Master Chang Geng described sarira and said that the remains of the temple’s monks were enshrined in Guiyuan Pagoda, prompting Zhang Xiaohua to wonder whether the beads he possessed were sarira.
• Master Chang Geng showed them the mountain-sized Pagoda Forest, containing 99,803 pagodas, and pointed out the enormous Guiyuan Pagoda.
• Master Chang Geng explained that an ancient formation protected Guiyuan Pagoda and that only successive abbots carrying the temple’s inherited treasure could enter it to enshrine sarira.

Zhang Xiaohua and Meng left the Great Forest Temple with a Poison Scripture and continued toward Yi Xia Town to investigate Meng’s origins. Their affectionate journey was interrupted when a group of young martial artists surrounded them and demanded to know Zhang Xiaohua’s sect.

• Zhang Xiaohua and Meng exchanged healing pills with Master Chang Geng, who gave Meng a Poison Scripture after she swore not to use it against Great Forest Temple disciples.
• Zhang Xiaohua and Meng departed with Monk Kongchan, who arranged to spar with Zhang Xiaohua at the Martial Arts Gathering.
• On the road, Zhang Xiaohua read the Poison Scripture while Meng discussed the oath and teased him about their relationship.
• Meng suggested turning back from Yi Xia Town, but Zhang Xiaohua persuaded her to continue so she could uncover her origins and meet her family.
• A group of young martial artists rode up, mocked Zhang Xiaohua and Meng as inexperienced newcomers, surrounded them, and asked Zhang Xiaohua which sect he belonged to.

Zhang Xiaohua and Meng encountered disciples from Falling Blossom Island who tried to humiliate them, but a troop from the Heavenly Dragon Divine Cult interrupted them. After learning Zhang Xiaohua belonged to the increasingly famous Big Dipper Sect, the troop left and killed all six Falling Blossom Island disciples, leaving Zhang Xiaohua to condemn their tyranny.

• Falling Blossom Island disciples mocked Zhang Xiaohua's Big Dipper Sect and demanded that he kiss Meng for their amusement.
• Meng told Zhang Xiaohua to deal with the disciples, and he prepared to fight them.
• A cavalry troop from the Heavenly Dragon Divine Cult arrived, questioned the Falling Blossom Island disciples, and then asked Zhang Xiaohua about his sect.
• The troop's leader recognized the Big Dipper Sect because Nie Qianyu had invoked it when refusing an immortal's offer to take her as a disciple.
• After the troop rode on, its men surrounded and killed all six Falling Blossom Island disciples, leaving a small green banner with a dragon on it.

Zhang Xiaohua and Meng reached Yi Xia Town to investigate Hou Mingcheng, but learned that both Hou households had burned down overnight with everyone inside. They suspected someone had learned of their search and left Zhang Xiaohua fearing they were being followed by a powerful pursuer.

• Zhang Xiaohua and Meng discussed their encounter with the Heavenly Dragon Sect and continued toward Yi Xia Town.
• In Yi Xia Town, Zhang Xiaohua asked locals about Hou Mingcheng, but no one recognized the name; he and Meng planned to visit the two Hou households the next morning.
• The next morning, they heard that both Hou households had burned down overnight, then hurried to Hou Feng's ruined estate.
• A local man told Zhang Xiaohua and Meng that no one had survived either fire, and Zhang Xiaohua confirmed there were no living auras in the estate.
• Meng ruled out the Great Forest Temple and the Heavenly Dragon Sect, while Zhang Xiaohua feared someone had overheard his inquiries and followed them.

Zhang Xiaohua and Meng reached Cheng Family Village to find it burned to ashes, deepening their suspicion that someone was preventing Meng from discovering her origins. Meng chose to stop searching, and Zhang Xiaohua destroyed the list as they set off to return to the Incense-Passing Cult and Yi Xiang Peak.

• Zhang Xiaohua reassured Meng that he would cherish and protect her, and she agreed to continue searching for her family.
• Zhang Xiaohua secretly asked for directions and learned that their next destination was White Spring Mountain, where the Cheng family lived in Cheng Family Village.
• Zhang Xiaohua and Meng arrived to find Cheng Family Village burned down, with every resident and animal dead and no survivors.
• Zhang Xiaohua suspected that Great Forest Temple was hiding Meng's origins and arranging for the people on the list to be erased.
• Meng decided to stop searching, and Zhang Xiaohua destroyed the list before they rode away toward the Incense-Passing Cult.

Zhang Xiaohua and Meng encountered Qu Zhigao being attacked by Li Jing Mountain Villa over his family’s medicinal formula, while Heavenly Dragon Sect learned that its missing Saintess Xiaoya had gone to Great Forest Temple as an Incense-Passing Cult envoy. The chapter left the Saintess heading elsewhere, Di Shitian preparing to go to the Incense-Passing Cult’s Martial Arts Gathering, and Abbess Jingyi considering whether Zixia was connected to an immortal cultivator.

• Zhang Xiaohua and Meng rode toward a clash and found Qu Zhigao defending his family and medicinal formula against Li Jing Mountain Villa.
• The Villa Master’s men captured Qu Zhigao’s young son, and Qu Zhigao dropped his saber before a yellow figure sprang from a carriage at the captor.
• A woman told Di Shitian that Saintess Xiaoya had gone to Great Forest Temple as an Incense-Passing Cult envoy with Ren Xiaoyao, but seemed to have lost her memories.
• Di Shitian ordered Heavenly Dragon Sect to proceed to the Incense-Passing Cult, while Xiaoya continued in another direction after leaving Great Forest Temple.
• Abbess Xuezhen reported that Zixia and Ren Xiaoyao had sent no news from Great Forest Temple, and Abbess Jingyi wondered whether Zixia’s arrival in Mochou City was linked to the immortal cultivator.

Abbess Jingyi explained why she had kept Zixia and sent her with Ren Xiaoyao, revealing that she suspected Zixia was the Heavenly Dragon Sect Saintess's daughter and was testing Ren Xiaoyao's mysterious background. She and Abbess Xuezhen weighed the risks surrounding Ren Xiaoyao and Nie Qianyu before Jingyi asked whether Xuezhen had completed her latest assignment.

• Abbess Jingyi told Abbess Xuezhen that Zixia resembled the Heavenly Dragon Sect Saintess and that she had kept Zixia in the Incense-Passing Cult to avoid provoking the Heavenly Dragon Sect and eventually return her.
• Abbess Jingyi explained that she sent Zixia with Ren Xiaoyao to test the Heavenly Dragon Sect's response and learn more about Ren Xiaoyao, whose Big Dipper Sect background and unusual abilities remained unclear.
• Abbess Jingyi pointed out that Ren Xiaoyao had taught Nie Qianyu cultivation verses despite her inability to practice martial arts, and that the jade talisman she received made it dangerous to approach her by force.
• Abbess Jingyi said Ren Xiaoyao had returned Mo Qingshan's Grass Returning Pill, which suggested he did not understand its value and was not an Immortal Path practitioner.
• Abbess Jingyi warned that harming Ren Xiaoyao could provoke Nie Qianyu and jeopardize the Incense-Passing Cult, so she intended to use him if useful and otherwise leave him alone.
• Abbess Jingyi asked Abbess Xuezhen whether she had completed everything Jingyi had requested.

Abbess Jingyi revealed that the Incense-Passing Cult had always intended Misty Hall to become an independent Misty Sect and asked Yang Ruying to lead it. Yang Ruying declined, leaving the leadership question unresolved as Abbess Jingfan began to comment on Abbess Jingyi’s decision.

• Chen Chen asked Zhang Xiaohu about Chen Chen, and he said she was well and training in seclusion on Shixin Peak.
• Abbess Jingyi expressed concern for Yang Ruying and urged her to let go of her Hall Master duties.
• Yang Ruying said she would step aside if a suitable successor could protect Misty Hall’s disciples.
• Abbess Jingyi asked Yang Ruying to become Misty Sect Leader and revealed the cult had never intended to keep Misty Hall under its control permanently.
• Yang Ruying declined the leadership, while Gao Kunheng eagerly anticipated being chosen as Sect Leader.
• Abbess Jingfan interrupted to praise Abbess Jingyi’s decision to let Misty Hall go.

Abbess Jingyi’s followers defended her decision to release the Misty Sect and rebuild it at Misty Peak, while Ou Yan confronted her over the past and cautiously reconciled with Yang Ruying. Jingyi then asked Ou Yan to help with the rebuilding, but the chapter ended before Ou Yan answered whether she would support the plan.

• Abbess Jingfan and Peacock explained how rebuilding the Misty Sect would preserve Immortal Path balance and counter the Righteous Path Alliance.
• Abbess Jingyi said she had planned to restore the Misty Sect since Misty Peak and wanted to fulfill Yang Ruying’s wish.
• Ou Yan entered Mocu Palace and maintained that Jingyi’s explanations could not undo Ou Peng’s death or Yang Ruying’s suffering.
• Ou Yan called Yang Ruying her sister-in-law but said she had not forgiven her, and Yang Ruying accepted this.
• Abbess Jingyi said she would release the Misty Sect members and rebuild the sect at Misty Peak, then asked Ou Yan to help.
• Ou Yan questioned Jingyi’s motives, and Jingyi asked whether she was unwilling to see Ou Peng’s Misty Sect rebuilt.

Abbess Jingyi secured Ou Yan’s agreement to rebuild the Misty Sect under the Incense-Passing Cult’s influence and demanded the sect cooperate whenever the Cult needed a mysterious Misty Sect item. She then named Zhang Xiaohu as the new Sect Leader through a proposed marriage to Ou Yan, while Gao Kunheng and Aunt Qin were appointed Deputy Sect Leaders and preparations began for their departure.

• Ou Yan agreed to support rebuilding the Misty Sect after Abbess Jingyi explained that its disciples would be supplied by the Incense-Passing Cult and Ming Qing would serve as Deputy Sect Leader.
• Abbess Jingyi made Ou Yan agree that the rebuilt Misty Sect would secretly depend on the Incense-Passing Cult and provide a mysterious item whenever the Cult needed it.
• Abbess Jingyi proposed that Ou Yan marry Zhang Xiaohu so he could become the Misty Sect Sect Leader, surprising Ou Yan, Zhang Xiaohu, and the others.
• Abbess Jingyi appointed Gao Kunheng as Zhang Xiaohu’s Deputy Sect Leader and named Aunt Qin as another Deputy Sect Leader, ordering them to settle affairs at Shixin Peak and gather at Jinghai Lake in three days.
• Gao Kunheng asked about Hall Master Yang and Gang Leader Zhang, and Abbess Jingyi said Hall Master Yang would return to Yi Xiang Peak while Zhang Xiaohu had not yet made his preparations.

Abbess Jingyi arranged for Zhang Xiaohu to marry Ou Yan and become Misty Sect Leader, then forced him to face Changge before deciding. As Changge left heartbroken, both Ou Yan and Zhang Xiaohu called for her to wait.

• Abbess Jingyi told Zhang Xiaohu she had arranged for him to marry Ou Yan and succeed as Misty Sect Leader, using his cultivation method, status, and seniority to support his claim.
• Ou Yan accepted the arrangement after considering how Zhang Xiaohua's connection to Zhang Xiaohu could protect the Misty Sect.
• Zhang Xiaohu hesitated, thinking of Changge and Chen Chen, while Abbess Jingyi urged him to choose the sect's future and summoned Changge.
• Changge denied that she and Zhang Xiaohu were lovers, blessed the match, and left in tears.
• Ou Yan and Zhang Xiaohu both called for Changge to wait as she reached the palace doors.

Zhang Xiaohu chose Changge over the Misty Sect’s leadership arrangement, but Abbess Jingyi forced him to drink poison before granting their wish. He left as Misty Sect leader under the threat of needing her antidote each year, while Abbess Jingyi revealed she meant to keep him under control.

• Zhang Xiaohu declared his love for Changge and refused Ou Yan’s proposed match, while Ou Yan accepted his choice and challenged Abbess Jingyi’s arrangement.
• Abbess Jingyi threatened the group, then offered Changge and Ou Yan two wine cups, one poisoned and one harmless, as a way to decide who could marry Zhang Xiaohu.
• Zhang Xiaohu drank both cups for Changge and Ou Yan, and Abbess Jingyi granted their wish before revealing that one cup contained a slow-acting poison for which only she had the antidote.
• Zhang Xiaohu agreed to lead the Misty Sect, and Abbess Jingyi allowed the crippled Misty Sect disciples to follow while advising him to appease them.
• After the Misty Sect group departed, Abbess Jingyi told Peacock, Chen Chen, and Yuyan that she had poisoned Zhang Xiaohu because his devotion made him difficult to control, though she intended to provide the antidote if he behaved.

On Qiu Long Mountain, Zhang Xiaohua and Meng rescued Qu Zhigao’s family from Li Jing Mountain Villa after Manor Lord Liu betrayed Qu and seized the Bone Condensing Pill formula. The danger passed, but Jing’er’s grandmother stared at Meng in terror as Qu Zhigao began explaining his family’s history.

• A monkey scratched the man holding Jing’er, but the man struck the child and threatened to kill him unless Qu Zhigao surrendered the Bone Condensing Pill formula.
• Qu Zhigao handed the formula to Manor Lord Liu after he promised to let the family go, but Liu broke his word and ordered everyone killed.
• Meng killed the man holding Jing’er, and Zhang Xiaohua killed Manor Lord Liu and the other Li Jing Mountain Villa men.
• Qu Zhigao thanked Ren Xiaoyao and gave him the formula; Zhang Xiaohua accepted it and gave Qu a medicinal pill in return.
• As Qu Zhigao spoke about Qiu Long Mountain’s past, Jing’er’s grandmother remained fixed on Meng with an expression of terror.

After Zhang Xiaohua and Meng helped Qu Zhigao’s family escape Li Jing Mountain Villa, Qu Zhigao brought them to his hunting caves for the night. Meng wondered whether the Holy Emissary Jing’er’s Grandmother had mistaken her for her mother, and Zhang Xiaohua left their story unresolved as he joined Qu Zhigao beneath the moon.

• Jing’er’s Grandmother mistook Meng for a Holy Emissary and begged her to spare Qu Zhigao and Jing’er, so Zhang Xiaohua sealed the old woman’s sleep acupoint.
• Qu Zhigao settled his sleeping mother and child in the carriage, then invited Zhang Xiaohua and Meng to stay at his hunting caves.
• Meng wondered if the woman who resembled her had been her mother, while Zhang Xiaohua suggested they ask Jing’er’s Grandmother after she woke.
• Qu Zhigao asked why Zhang Xiaohua and Meng had come to Qiu Long Mountain, and Zhang Xiaohua explained Meng’s search for her family’s past.
• Meng apologized to Qu Zhigao in case her mother had wronged his family, then went to sleep as Zhang Xiaohua protected her with a jade talisman.
• Zhang Xiaohua found Qu Zhigao standing outside beneath the full moon, with the little yellow monkey imitating him.

Zhang Xiaohua reunited with Qu Zhigao, accepted his invitation to explore a hidden place on Qiu Long Mountain, and discovered the cave dwelling of Fire Dragon True Person. He entered the inheritance site and found a modest cavern whose sparse contents left him disappointed.

• Qu Zhigao recognized Zhang Xiaohua as the benefactor who had saved him years earlier after Zhang showed him the old pill-formula book.
• Zhang Xiaohua gave Qu Zhigao a bottle of Bone Condensing Pills, explaining that he had refined them using Qu Zhigao's family formula.
• Qu Zhigao told Zhang Xiaohua where the peculiar place on Qiu Long Mountain was, and Zhang Xiaohua recognized the location from Fire Dragon True Person's jade slip.
• Zhang Xiaohua flew to the waterfall, passed through it into a hidden cave, and used the hand seals from Fire Dragon True Person's jade slip to open the way into his dwelling.
• Zhang Xiaohua entered the inner cavern and found only a faded painting, a meditation cushion, and a few jade bottles on sparse shelves.