Chapter Summaries

Cheng Xinzhan helped Jiang Weishan successfully fuse Bluewater Earth Gold and Red-Ring Precious Tin, then continued refining Peach Capital and improving his other swords. He sought Daoist Tongxuan's help with a dangerous plan to temper a flying sword in his eyes, and decided to proceed despite the risk.

• Cheng Xinzhan proposed using Wildfire Sulfur Stone to stabilize Bluewater Earth Gold, and he and Jiang Weishan successfully forged the desired alloy.
• Jiang Weishan again urged Cheng Xinzhan to join the Weaponry Academy, but Cheng Xinzhan declined and continued his refining studies.
• Cheng Xinzhan added Fire-Feather Cinnabar and Purple Fire Rotten Peach Baleful Intent water to Peach Capital as he repaired and strengthened the sword.
• Cheng Xinzhan fused Frost-Flowing Flying Mercury and Gold Essence into Autumn Water, improving its grade.
• Cheng Xinzhan consulted Daoist Tongxuan about tempering a flying sword within his eyes using the yang hall and yang Gang, and accepted the plan despite its one-in-ten-thousand chance of success.

Cheng Xinzhan received a method for opening his Yang Palace and planned to use his eyes as a furnace to refine Peach Capital into a sword of pure Yang. After beginning the practice, he visited Green at Pine Green Lake and revealed that her scale had taken root in his flesh.

• Patriarch Tongxuan gave Cheng Xinzhan the Nine Yang Eye Refining method and warned him not to rush opening his Yang Palace.
• Cheng Xinzhan reviewed his recovered fleshly body's condition and considered how to refine Peach Capital using his Eye Apertures as a pure Yang furnace.
• Before dawn, Cheng Xinzhan practiced Nine Yang Eye Refining and drew a wisp of Yang Qi into his left eye.
• Cheng Xinzhan went to Pine Green Lake, where Green dropped her ritual conch after he praised her playing.
• Cheng Xinzhan explained that he had returned to his fleshly body and told Green that her scale had shielded him from an enemy and taken root in his flesh.

Cheng Xinzhan discovered that the green dragon’s scale had become an aperture in his body, learned that the dragon was named Gu Qin, and fed her roasted loaches and mussels. Back at Bright Governance Mountain, he refined the Red-Haired Ancestor’s heart’s blood, controlled the resulting dragon might, and realized he could now cultivate Dragon Thunder.

• Cheng Xinzhan discovered that the scale on his chest had taken root and become an unknown aperture, and the green dragon agreed he could keep it.
• Cheng Xinzhan offered the green dragon the Brocade Dragon’s heart’s blood, but she recoiled from it and accepted roasted loaches and mussels instead.
• Cheng Xinzhan guessed that the green dragon’s name was Gu Qin and suspected she was Gu Yi’s offspring, but he did not question her further.
• Cheng Xinzhan fed Gu Qin and taught her a zither piece before returning to Bright Governance Mountain, where he roasted loaches for Third Younger Sister.
• Cheng Xinzhan swallowed the Red-Haired Ancestor’s heart’s blood, subdued its blood dragon with his Inner Landscape Deity, and gained a surge of vitality.
• The blood essence and the scale each released dragon might, which Cheng Xinzhan suppressed with thunder; he realized the two sources would let him cultivate Dragon Thunder.

Cheng Xinzhan joined the Five Thunder Court to cultivate all Five Thunders, then learned from Wen Sukong that Bright Governance Mountain guarded Three Pure Ones Mountain’s secret mausoleum. He discovered that its tombkeepers could awaken countless sealed corpses to defend the sect, and Wen Sukong told him the mountain’s succession could never be allowed to end.

• Cheng Xinzhan asked Zhao Wuji to let him cultivate all Five Thunders, and Zhao Wuji admitted him to the Five Thunder Court after sensing the blood dragon’s draconic might.
• Cheng Xinzhan congratulated Wen Sukong on her tribulation, learned that she had a sixth-wash Golden Core body and a second-wash avatar, and told her about his cultivation plans.
• Wen Sukong explained that the sect leader had ordered Cheng Xinzhan to stay for two years so he could attend the Dragon-Tiger Dharma Assembly, then suggested he use Bright Governance Mountain’s teachings to open his Spleen Mansion.
• Wen Sukong led Cheng Xinzhan through a hidden entrance in Zhan Biyun’s Bamboo Retreat and revealed that Bright Governance Mountain was Three Pure Ones Mountain’s mausoleum, filled with coffins holding sealed predecessors.
• Wen Sukong told Cheng Xinzhan that Bright Governance Mountain’s disciples were tombkeepers tasked with raising the corpses to defend the sect, and that the mountain’s lineage would always be renewed.

Wen Sukong revealed Bright Governance Mountain’s duty of suppressing emperor corpses and guided Cheng Xinzhan in visualizing the mountain and Crown Prince Bingling. She gave him ancient diagrams to study, and he began observing Bingling’s divine form before receiving a True Forms of the Five Great Mountains Diagram to copy.

• Wen Sukong explained that Bright Governance Mountain collected and suppressed the corpses of emperors who might become calamity-causing emperor corpses, and said Cheng Xinzhan would inherit this duty.
• Wen Sukong advised Cheng Xinzhan to visualize Bright Governance Mountain as the foundation for his Wu Earth visualization and suggested Crown Prince Bingling as its Inner Landscape Deity.
• Cheng Xinzhan studied Bright Governance Mountain and its array, while Daoist Jiang Weishan completed the refinement of Peach Capital and returned the sword to him.
• Wen Sukong gave Cheng Xinzhan an ancient scroll depicting Crown Prince Bingling, and Cheng Xinzhan entered its recorded scene to observe the deity inspecting Mount Yingzhou.
• Wen Sukong lent Cheng Xinzhan a True Forms of the Five Great Mountains Diagram from Two Springs Abbey on Mount Heng so he could copy and visualize it.

Cheng Xinzhan learned from Tongxuan Patriarch how to safely refine Yangming Cloud Hall Gang, then continued studying mountain visualization and talisman-making. At dawn, he finally began writing a letter to Shi Yiniang, though the chapter ended before he finished it.

• Cheng Xinzhan brought Yangming Cloud Hall Gang to Tongxuan Patriarch, who explained its properties and gave him Flying Mercury to subdue it.
• Cheng Xinzhan swallowed the Flying Mercury and Gang dew, guiding both into his Yang Palace and containing the Gang Qi with the mercury florescence.
• Tongxuan Patriarch discussed the possibilities of tempering a flying sword with many kinds of Gang and Baleful Intent, inspiring Cheng Xinzhan.
• Cheng Xinzhan returned to Bright Governance Mountain and continued visualizing the True Forms of the Five Great Mountains Diagram while turning its insights into talismans.
• Cheng Xinzhan took out paper and began writing a long-delayed letter to Shi Yiniang.

Cheng Xinzhan returned from his busy year of cultivation to visit old friends and keep his promise to bring door-god prints to the Miao Stockade. He reunited with the villagers and joined their New Year bonfire gathering.

• Cheng Xinzhan left his original body in Carefree Cave and traveled in his Bamboo Body, stopping at Rainfall Temple to leave gifts and at his parents’ graves to pay his respects.
• Cheng Xinzhan visited the Golden Aspect Sect, where Jiang Nanjing and his family praised his sword-dueling feats and told him Jiang Nanjing had shortened the Seventeen-Character Curse to Nine-Character.
• Cheng Xinzhan gave Jiang Yanxing the remaining Yangming Cloud Hall Gang, and Jiang Yuexing explained that Cheng Xinzhan’s talisman arrows had boosted Bright Light Hall’s business in the Southern Borderlands.
• Cheng Xinzhan crossed the Gan River and Mount Heng, then entered the Miao Borderlands with Third Younger Sister and Dengge’er.
• Dengge’er rushed into the Miao Stockade, where the old stockade chief recognized him and welcomed Cheng Xinzhan back; Cheng Xinzhan promised to stay a few days and bring the villagers their door gods.
• Dengge’er helped the hunters return with game, and Cheng Xinzhan joined the stockade’s New Year bonfire gathering, accepting the villagers’ wine.

Cheng Xinzhan was summoned to Three Pure Ones Mountain after the Northern Demon Cult conquered Western Kunlun Mountain and founded the Blood God Sect there. He volunteered for the first relief force and prepared to depart for the north with Dengge'er, while Wen Sukong warned him to stay cautious and return safely.

• Cheng Xinzhan received a silver-cloud recall arrow while putting up door-god pictures with the village children and rushed back to Three Pure Ones Mountain with Dengge'er.
• The sect promoted Cheng Xinzhan to lineage disciple and summoned him to Thousand-Jun Hall, where Wen Sukong told him that the Northern Demon Cult had destroyed Western Kunlun and established the Blood God Sect.
• The deputy head of Jade Capital Peak organized a first rotation to aid the fight, and Cheng Xinzhan insisted on joining it.
• Wen Sukong warned Cheng Xinzhan about the Northern Demon Cult, advised him to use his incarnation to scout, and ordered him to learn Heaven's End, a Hair's Breadth Away.
• Cheng Xinzhan brought Dengge'er along, left Third Younger Sister in Wen Sukong's care, and prepared to depart with the first rotation.

Cheng Xinzhan and the other young disciples traveled to Western Kunlun after the Blood God Sect destroyed the Western Kunlun Sect, while the righteous sects gathered to confront the new demonic force. The Blood God Child revealed that the sects’ campaign was largely for appearances and planned to keep the conflict limited until public attention moved elsewhere.

• Huo Jingyan told the disciples that the Blood God Sect had destroyed Western Kunlun and warned them about its blood-based techniques, distributing Turtle-Breathing Blood-Slowing Pills.
• Cheng Xinzhan reunited with his companions aboard the Cloud Vessel, and they saw a vast blood cloud covering Western Kunlun as they arrived.
• Ying Jingsong and Huo Jingyan suspected that the Blood God Sect had infiltrated Western Kunlun long before its sudden attack.
• The disciples established a camp at Righteousness Slope as Daoist, Buddhist, and sword sects gathered and selected Jian Bingru to coordinate their campaign.
• The Blood God Child rejected calls to recall his followers and ordered them to trade blows with the juniors while the righteous sects maintained their public show of resistance.

Ying Jingsong and Huo Jingyan organized the Three Pure Ones Mountain disciples into teams to scout the Blood God Sect’s defenses on Western Kunlun. Xiao Miaoyu’s team encountered Blood God Sect fighters on the Dragon-Folding Path, where Cheng Xinzhan killed one and discovered that blood pearls concealed flying swords.

• Huo Jingyan explained the Blood God Sect’s position and defenses, and the sects planned separate routes up Western Kunlun, assigning Three Pure Ones Mountain to the eastern slopes as a feint.
• Ying Jingsong arranged the disciples into teams, and Xiao Miaoyu led a group of eleven toward the mountain with an old map of Western Kunlun.
• On the Dragon-Folding Path, Dengge'er and Xiao Miaoyu warned the group of enemies ahead, and Zhu Jianmo’s puppets revealed eight Blood God Sect fighters inside a cave.
• Xiao Miaoyu and Yu Miaoyin engaged the fighters while the rest of the team concealed themselves and moved to surround them.
• Cheng Xinzhan struck down a demon with his spells and Xin Metal qi, then examined its fallen blood pearl and discovered a flying sword hidden inside.

The righteous forces attacked the Blood God Sect’s defenses on Western Kunlun while He Si led the sect’s disciples against them. After He Si killed Wang Miaoyuan and the battle turned against both sides, Cheng Xinzhan lured an enemy into range and killed him with a hidden sword launched from his eye.

• Jian Bingru coordinated the righteous forces’ assault on Western Kunlun, and the Blood God Child watched the battle unfold from Blood Cloud Palace.
• He Si remembered how he had joined the demonic path to avenge his family and protect his younger brother, then learned his brother had died in the fighting.
• He Si’s Bone-Blood Pellet struck Wang Miaoyuan through the chest, and Wang Miaoyuan died in Feng Ji Hu’s arms as Cheng Xinzhan held off the demons.
• He Si ordered his disciples to fight at range while Cheng Xinzhan battled a cautious Second Realm opponent and Zhu Jianmo was wounded by a poisonous flying sword.
• Cheng Xinzhan pretended to be paralyzed by the enemy’s baleful light, then used his fiery eye to launch a crimson sword that killed the demon.

Cheng Xinzhan rejoined the fight against the Blood God Sect cultivators and helped Three Pure Ones Mountain’s disciples defeat them, though Wang Miaoyuan was killed. After regrouping, the disciples learned that other teams had suffered heavy losses and continued north up the mountain, soberly aware of the cost of the campaign.

• Cheng Xinzhan emerged unharmed from behind a boulder, assessed the battle, and joined Zeng Jinian to relieve the pressure on the disciples.
• Cheng Xinzhan used a fire dragon to kill one demonic cultivator and help Sun Miaoshu capture another, while Huang Miaoluo, Zeng Jinian, and Xu Jishen defeated their opponents.
• He Si retreated in bloodlight after his companions fell, and Xiao Miaoyu stopped the others from pursuing him into dangerous territory.
• Xiao Miaoyu blamed himself for Wang Miaoyuan’s death, then sent Zeng Jinian to camp with Zhu Jianmo while the others recovered and burned the demonic cultivators’ bodies.
• Zeng Jinian returned with Feng Ji Hu and reported heavy losses among the campaign’s teams, suspicions that an orthodox cultivator had defected, and orders to head north.
• The group continued north in silence, and Cheng Xinzhan reflected on Wang Miaoyuan’s death and the reality of fighting demons.

The Blood God Sect drew northern reinforcements from Northern Yin while the orthodox forces pressed its defenses on Kunlun. Cheng Xinzhan became a tireless fighter and talisman-maker, then joined a battle against Ice and Snow Palace cultivators to test his arts against their cold yin power.

• Jian Bingru shifted the orthodox forces to probe for the formation's anchor points and advance north, while the Blood God Child ordered a gradual withdrawal from the northern front and awaited reinforcements.
• Northern Yin arrived with two thousand demonic troops, which the Blood God Child accepted and ordered mixed into the northern front; Northern Yin asked the sect to support his hall in a coming palace evaluation, and the Blood God Child agreed.
• Cheng Xinzhan continued fighting and drawing talismans on the eastern slope, earning the names "Little Zhong Kui" and "Cheng Yifu" while rumors and rivalry between the two slopes intensified.
• Cheng Xinzhan joined Sun Miaoshu, Zeng Jinian, other Three Pure Ones Mountain disciples, and Wutai Mountain monks against demonic cultivators identified as Ice and Snow Palace reinforcements.
• After learning the enemy wielded cold yin magic, Cheng Xinzhan cast an incantation and sent fiery sparrows against them.

Cheng Xinzhan’s solar Bing fire drew the attention of Shang Sansi, who wanted his head to complete the White Bone Soul-Locking Hammer. When Shang Sansi found Cheng on the battlefield, he overpowered him and carried him away, leaving Xiao Miaoyu unable to protect his fellow disciple.

• Cheng Xinzhan used solar Bing fire to drive off Ice and Snow Palace fiends, while the man wielding the North Pole Cold-Light Miasma retreated after his treasure was damaged.
• Blood God Child and Northern Yin agreed to ally their sects, and Shang Sansi arrived with four hundred Five Ghosts Gate disciples and showed them his nearly completed White Bone Soul-Locking Hammer.
• After learning that Cheng Yifu wielded solar Bing fire, Shang Sansi decided to have his subordinates target him for the hammer’s final sacrifice.
• Five Ghosts Gate fiends repeatedly besieged Cheng Xinzhan, forcing him and his companions to retreat as the attackers gathered around him.
• Shang Sansi charged Cheng Xinzhan, shattered his Bright Governance Mountain spell, and was wounded by the Peach Capital before seizing him.
• Shang Sansi carried Cheng Xinzhan away, and Xiao Miaoyu collapsed and rang his bell in despair.

Cheng Xinzhan escaped Shang Sansi by using mirage-cloud illusions, but Shang Sansi pursued him until Ying Jingsong and Northern Yin intervened. Back in camp, Cheng Xinzhan discovered that a ghost talisman had invaded his inner landscape and that another foreign presence had entered his bamboo body.

• Cheng Xinzhan manifested six Inner Landscape Deities to startle Shang Sansi, then fled using phantoms, his bamboo body, and thunderfire talismans.
• Ying Jingsong arrived with a torrent of sword qi, while Northern Yin extinguished Shang Sansi's netherfire and immobilized him with blood-colored light.
• Shang Sansi's ghost talisman struck toward Cheng Xinzhan's bamboo body, but Northern Yin's mysterious light destroyed it before entering the body; Ying Jingsong then wounded Shang Sansi, whose golden core restored him.
• Northern Yin shielded Shang Sansi and fought Ying Jingsong, while Huo Jingyan escorted Cheng Xinzhan back to camp.
• Cheng Xinzhan found a ghost talisman attached to his souls in the Purple Tower Void Realm, and Swallowing Thief held it until the Bright Palace and Thunder General Directorate destroyed it.
• Cheng Xinzhan examined his bamboo body in the Metal Palace after noticing that a foreign presence had made the Heart Mansion's Inner Landscape Deity resist it.

Cheng Xinzhan discovered that Northern Yin, the Ice and Snow Palace’s Northern Yin Hall Master, was his long-lost martial uncle Chen Suxing. Before his thoughts faded, Northern Yin gave him a Taiyin deity visualization diagram and a water-refinement method, leaving Cheng Xinzhan determined to report his survival to the sect.

• Cheng Xinzhan followed the stars around the moon in the Bamboo Body’s Water Palace and revealed Northern Yin, who recognized Bright Governance Mountain’s secret qi-circulation route.
• Cheng Xinzhan respectfully identified himself as Northern Yin’s martial nephew, and Northern Yin confirmed that he was Chen Suxing, alive and serving as the Northern Yin Hall Master.
• Northern Yin told Cheng Xinzhan to inform only Senior Sister, the Patriarch, and the sect leader that he was alive, and warned them not to search for him.
• Northern Yin recommended that Cheng Xinzhan open his Kidney Palace with Taiyin and gave him the Emperor's Moon Palace Demon-Slaying Diagram and the Essentials of the Water-Refined Yin Cauldron.
• Northern Yin’s thoughts faded, and Cheng Xinzhan refused to let Swallowing Thief consume them, resolving to send word of his martial uncle’s survival back to the sect.

After avenging Senior Brother Miaoyuan on Western Kunlun, Cheng Xinzhan traveled across the northern lands and gained a new understanding of his cultivation by the Bohai Sea, where he opened his earth and water palaces. He then went to Haiqing City to visit Shi Yiniang, who was preparing to receive him.

• After the Third Realm battle on Western Kunlun, Cheng Xinzhan secretly remained there for six months and hunted down He Si, avenging Senior Brother Miaoyuan.
• Huo Jingyan told Cheng Xinzhan that Three Pure Ones Mountain and Emei were withdrawing from the campaign, but Cheng Xinzhan stayed to study the northern lands and advance his Dao Path.
• Over the next two years, Cheng Xinzhan traveled through the northern frontier, visited the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect, and saw all four peaks before reaching the Bohai Sea.
• Reflecting on the sea’s vastness, Cheng Xinzhan opened his earth and water palaces, bringing his total to four after six years of cultivation.
• Cheng Xinzhan flew to Haiqing City under the assumed name Cheng Qieqing to visit Shi Yiniang, and her maid Qingyu received him while Shi Yiniang hurried to prepare.

Cheng Xinzhan visited Shi Yiniang in Haiqing City, gave her purple fire rotten peach baleful intent to aid her cultivation, and agreed to serve as her guest retainer in the Xiao Household's Autumn Hunt. The hunt began on Changqing Island, which Shi Yiniang revealed through a hidden opening over Bohai.

• Qingyu led Cheng Xinzhan to Shi Yiniang's courtyard, where they discussed his ambush in Western Kunlun and her Wood-Grafting Method cultivation.
• Cheng Xinzhan gave Shi Yiniang purple fire rotten peach baleful intent, and she accepted it in a lead bottle.
• Shi Yiniang told Cheng Xinzhan she ranked sixth in her performance review and invited him to serve as her guest retainer at the Autumn Hunt; he agreed.
• Shi Yiniang ordered Qingyu to apologize to Sister Guo and fetch the talisman paper and ink from Peacock City for Cheng Xinzhan.
• After touring Haiqing City together, Shi Yiniang led Cheng Xinzhan over Bohai and opened a hidden passage to Changqing Island for the Autumn Hunt.

Cheng Xinzhan accompanied Shi Yiniang to the Xiao Household’s Autumn Hunt on Changqing Island, where he rescued her from rival hunters and helped her claim a marked spirit beast. The hunt continued as Thin Daoist seized all thirteen marked beasts in a herd, leaving the other participants to confront him.

• Cheng Xinzhan and Shi Yiniang arrived on Changqing Island, received guest tokens, and joined the Autumn Hunt after the Xiao Household elder fired the starting arrow.
• Cheng Xinzhan went searching for wood essences while Shi Yiniang hunted with Dengge'er, but he returned when four hunters attacked her and Dengge'er to seize a purple sable.
• Cheng Xinzhan swept the attackers away with a river-like water technique and moonlit Sword Intent, and Shi Yiniang healed Dengge'er and claimed the powder-marked sable.
• Cheng Xinzhan and Shi Yiniang flew onward and found dozens of hunters hesitating over a herd containing thirteen marked spirit beasts.
• Thin Daoist summoned Beast Souls from his Banner and captured all thirteen marked beasts, then brought out over a hundred Beast Souls as the remaining hunters surrounded him.

Cheng Xinzhan and Xiao Shiniang captured two Wood Essences during the Autumn Hunt, helping Xiao Shiniang win first place overall in the Xiao Household assessment. Afterward, the old ginseng spirit traded a promise of freedom for a secret and asked whether they had heard of the Ginseng Fruit Tree.

• Cheng Xinzhan spotted a Wood Essence disguised as a spotted deer, trapped it underground, and helped Xiao Shiniang seal it in her scented pouch.
• Dengge'er tracked a second Wood Essence, an old ginseng disguised as a white mouse, and Cheng Xinzhan chose to spare it in exchange for its secret.
• At the Autumn Hunt's conclusion, Xiao Shiniang revealed she had captured two Wood Essences and won first place, while Xiao Yuan placed second with fifteen powder-marked beasts.
• Back in Haiqing City, Xiao Shiniang told Cheng Xinzhan that her assessment results earned her first place overall and greater funds for the next ten years.
• After returning to the wilderness, Cheng Xinzhan agreed to hear the white mouse's secret, and it asked whether they had heard of the Ginseng Fruit Tree.