Chapter Summaries

Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou rescued Little Stone from the underwater palace, but the boy’s injuries left a remnant soul in his Divine Sense that needed treatment. After his grandparents agreed to let him go, Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou left the fishing village with him, promising to bring him home safe and well.

• Zi Yuner warned Lin Shisan that Little Stone’s False Spirit Pearl could not always suppress the remnant soul and arranged to meet him by the Blackwater River in three days.
• Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou returned to the village with Little Stone, and the Old Man wept with relief when he saw them.
• The Old Man agreed to let Lin Shisan take Little Stone away for treatment and asked him to bring the boy back safely.
• Lin Shisan told Bai Youyou that he might return to the Danyang Sect to see his master and Little Nine.
• Two days later, Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou set out with Little Stone after his grandparents said goodbye and promised to have fish balls ready when he returned.

Lin Shisan, Bai Youyou, and Little Stone traveled with Zi Yuner to the Purple Sky Dragon Palace and arrived at its golden barrier. Bai Youyou promised to explain her reasons for saving and following Lin Shisan after they returned, and he agreed to wait until she was ready.

• Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou left Little Fishing Village with Little Stone and met Zi Yuner at the coast.
• Zi Yuner opened a Mobile Teleportation Formation and led them on a long journey beneath the sea.
• Lin Shisan and his companions arrived at the outskirts of the Purple Sky Dragon Palace and marveled at its underwater barrier and city.
• Bai Youyou held Lin Shisan's hand, saying they were husband and wife, while Zi Yuner opened the barrier's entrance.
• Bai Youyou told Lin Shisan she would explain why she saved him and followed him after their return, and promised she was not his enemy.
• Lin Shisan agreed to listen when Bai Youyou was ready to tell him.

Four months after Lin Shisan vanished, those who cared about him continued to hope he would return while he entered the Purple Sky Dragon Palace with Little Stone and Bai Youyou. Princess Zi Yuner warned him to keep the Hornless Dragon True Spirit secret from the palace elders, and Lin Shisan stepped inside with the danger of the visit still uncertain.

• Feng Xian'er, Long Yan'er, Xiao Qing, Ye Xingchen, Su Wan'er, and Gu Mengli continued grieving or waiting for Lin Shisan after his disappearance four months earlier.
• Lin Shisan followed Zi Yuner through the Dragon Palace gate with Little Stone and Bai Youyou, while Zi Yuner watched the Hornless Dragon True Spirit within him.
• Zi Yuner led them through the Dragon Palace streets and plaza, where its inhabitants bowed to her and Lin Shisan saw a statue of her royal father.
• Lin Shisan noticed an ancient mural depicting a battle between a Dragon Clan member and a human, though he could not remember why its human figure seemed familiar.
• Before entering the royal palace, Zi Yuner asked Lin Shisan to conceal his Hornless Dragon True Spirit from certain elders and said she owed him a favor.
• Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou followed Zi Yuner into the palace, with Lin Shisan keeping hold of Little Stone's hand.

Lin Shisan, Bai Youyou, and Little Stone arrived at the Purple Sky Dragon Palace, where Zi Yuner arranged a guest courtyard for them while the Dragon King was in seclusion. As they settled in, Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou sensed an unseen powerful observer watching them, and Bai Youyou suggested that Little Stone sleep in his own room.

• Lin Shisan and his companions entered the Purple Sky Dragon Palace and saw its lavish halls and armed guards.
• Zi Yuner told Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou that the Dragon King was in seclusion and might not emerge for up to half a month.
• Zi Yuner led the three to a guest courtyard and offered to arrange separate care for Little Stone, but Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou chose to keep him with them.
• After Zi Yuner left, Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou discussed the powerful, unseen presence that had watched them since they entered the teleportation array.
• Lin Shisan inspected the courtyard rooms, and Bai Youyou suggested that Little Stone sleep in a room by himself.

Lin Shisan tried to break through the seal on his dantian in the Dragon Palace, while the Hornless Dragon True Spirit sensed a threatening presence watching him. After Zi Yuner showed Lin Shisan, Bai Youyou, and Little Stone around the palace, the watcher returned that night and injured Lin Shisan's divine sense before vanishing.

• Lin Shisan kept his distance from Bai Youyou, settled Little Stone into bed, and began cultivating in the courtyard.
• Lin Shisan gradually opened a narrow crack in the seal, but the Hornless Dragon True Spirit stirred and warned him of a Dragon Clan presence nearby.
• Lin Shisan found no one outside the courtyard, and the next morning Zi Yuner hosted him, Bai Youyou, and Little Stone for breakfast before showing them around the Dragon Palace.
• Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou wondered whether Zi Yuner had invited them for a purpose connected to Lin Shisan's Hornless Dragon True Spirit.
• That night, Lin Shisan resumed cultivating, but the Hornless Dragon True Spirit reacted violently as a powerful gaze fixed on him outside the courtyard.
• A cold snort ended the watcher's stare, leaving Lin Shisan collapsed and his divine sense damaged.

Lin Shisan and his companions were denied an audience with the Dragon King, who remained in seclusion for half a month to a month. While they waited in the guest courtyard, Lin Shisan safely cultivated with the Little Black Cauldron concealing his secrets, until an imposing stranger arrived at the gate.

• Zi Yuner led Lin Shisan, Bai Youyou, and Little Stone to the Dragon King's palace, where Uncle Mo told them the Dragon King had extended his seclusion and would meet them later.
• Zi Yuner apologized and warned Lin Shisan not to wander far from the guest courtyard, offering to arrange a guide if they wanted to go elsewhere.
• Lin Shisan stayed in the courtyard with Little Stone and Bai Youyou, while the False Spirit Pearl continued suppressing the python demon's remnant soul.
• Lin Shisan used the Little Black Cauldron's Conceal Heavenly Secrets ability to hide his aura and cultivate amid the Dragon Palace's dense spiritual energy.
• As Lin Shisan began his ninth greater celestial circuit, a haughty stranger stopped outside the gate and asked whether the three humans Yuner had brought were staying there.

Lin Shisan faced a probing visit from Zi Tianya, whose warning and apparent interest in the Hornless Dragon True Spirit left him wary. Zi Yuner assured Lin Shisan that she would protect him, while Bai Youyou teased him about taking Zi Yuner as a second wife; the seal in his Dantian loosened further as he cultivated.

• Zi Tianya visited Lin Shisan, questioned him about rescuing Zi Yuner and breaking Hei Feng's Spirit-Sealing Seal, then warned him not to wander around the Dragon Palace.
• Bai Youyou said Zi Tianya seemed to suspect Lin Shisan possessed something he wanted and reported that the False Spirit Pearl on Little Stone's chest had flashed when Zi Tianya entered.
• Zi Yuner asked about her Second Uncle's visit, warned Lin Shisan that Zi Tianya was calculating, and promised to come if Lin Shisan needed protection.
• Bai Youyou teased Lin Shisan about Zi Yuner's feelings and said she would accept her as a second wife.
• Lin Shisan resumed cultivating the Nine Heavens True Dragon Art, loosening the seal in his Dantian and brightening the Hornless Dragon True Spirit's horn.

Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou fought off two masked intruders who targeted Little Stone and cracked the False Spirit Pearl suppressing his power. Little Stone’s condition worsened as Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou were pinned down, and the intruders continued their assault without revealing their identities.

• Lin Shisan made progress loosening the seal on his Dantian until the Hornless Dragon True Spirit warned him of danger above the courtyard.
• Lin Shisan spotted a dark figure clinging to the barrier and alerted Bai Youyou, but the intruder entered and attacked him with a dagger.
• A second dark figure slipped into the courtyard to reach Little Stone, and Bai Youyou blocked his path with a petal that burst into a net of light.
• The second intruder sent black spiritual energy past Bai Youyou and cracked the False Spirit Pearl on Little Stone’s chest, causing Little Stone to writhe in pain.
• The first intruder kept Lin Shisan from reaching Little Stone while the second fought Bai Youyou, leaving both defenders wounded and Little Stone in danger.

After the False Spirit Pearl shattered, Little Stone’s Python Demon remnant soul began devouring his divine sense, and Lin Shisan desperately tried to save him. The Little Black Cauldron finally responded, healing Lin Shisan and breaking his seal as he reached the sixth stage of Meridian Opening, while Little Stone’s fate remained unresolved.

• Bai Youyou warned Lin Shisan that the black-clad men wanted the False Spirit Pearl, but one of them shattered it and awakened the Python Demon’s remnant soul in Little Stone.
• Lin Shisan unleashed his dragon spirit power, struck the black-clad men, and drove them from the courtyard, though both escaped and one left blood behind.
• Bai Youyou found that the Python Demon was consuming Little Stone’s divine sense and would possess him within half an incense stick.
• Lin Shisan repeatedly tried to awaken the Little Black Cauldron, which finally released seven-colored light that healed his wounds and shattered the seal in his dantian.
• Lin Shisan broke through to the sixth stage of Meridian Opening, while the hornless dragon true spirit devoured Ning Jiuying’s remaining essence blood and grew stronger.

Ning Jiuying learned that Lin Shisan had severed his hidden connection to him, while Aunt Mei ordered him to recover and keep Lin alive. Lin Shisan suppressed the Python Demon's remnant soul inside Little Stone for twenty-four hours, and Zi Yuner promised to arrange an audience with her royal father so Lin could seek the Dragon King Dragon Pearl.

• Ning Jiuying suffered a severe backlash when Lin Shisan severed the Divine Sense mark hidden in his essence blood.
• Aunt Mei told Ning Jiuying that Lin Shisan had to live and ordered him to focus on recovering his cultivation.
• Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou used the Little Black Cauldron's Seven-Colored Rosy Light and the hornless dragon true spirit to suppress the Python Demon's remnant soul in Little Stone, but Bai Youyou said the suppression would last only twenty-four hours.
• Lin Shisan said he had to find the Dragon King and use the Dragon King Dragon Pearl to save Little Stone.
• Zi Yuner arrived, saw Little Stone's condition, and promised to secure Lin Shisan an audience with her royal father within twenty-four hours.

Lin Shisan and Zi Yuner sought the Purple Sky Dragon King's help to save Little Stone from the Python Demon's remnant soul. The Dragon King revealed he had caused Little Stone's danger to test Lin Shisan and demanded that Lin choose between marrying Zi Yuner and surrendering the Hornless Dragon True Spirit.

• After waiting four hours, Lin Shisan and Zi Yuner entered the Purple Sky Dragon King's chamber.
• Zi Yuner begged her father to use the Dragon Pearl to save Little Stone, and Lin Shisan asked for the same without seeking a reward.
• The Purple Sky Dragon King agreed to save Little Stone but demanded that Lin Shisan either marry Zi Yuner and divorce his wife or surrender the Hornless Dragon True Spirit.
• Lin Shisan asked whether the Dragon King had sent the two men in black, and the Dragon King admitted he had arranged the attack and activated the Python Demon's remnant soul.

Lin Shisan confronted the Purple Sky Dragon King over his coercive terms, while Bai Youyou defended their marriage and challenged the king’s demands. The king agreed to save Little Stone with a Dragon Pearl if Lin Shisan surrendered his Hornless Dragon True Spirit, giving him one night to choose.

• Lin Shisan rejected the Dragon King’s choices and accused him of testing whether a mortal would submit to his draconic might.
• The Dragon King claimed Lin Shisan’s Hornless Dragon True Spirit had triggered the Python Demon’s remnant soul, endangering Little Stone.
• Bai Youyou joined Lin Shisan and argued that forcing him to marry Zi Yuner or surrender his life-bound True Spirit served neither the princess nor the Dragon Palace.
• The Dragon King asked Zi Yuner what she wanted, and she said she would not tear apart another couple’s marriage.
• The Dragon King offered to use a Dragon Pearl to save Little Stone in exchange for Lin Shisan’s Hornless Dragon True Spirit and gave him one night to decide.
• Zi Yuner offered to escort Lin Shisan out of the hall.

Little Stone’s demonization worsened, leaving Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou only one way to save him: accept the Dragon King’s terms. Bai Youyou arranged for Lin Shisan to marry Zi Yuner, then led him into a bedroom and pressed her fingers to his lips.

• Little Stone’s Python Demon mark spread as the remnant soul resisted the Little Black Cauldron’s Seven-Colored Rosy Light, and he feared becoming a monster.
• Bai Youyou urged Lin Shisan to accept the Dragon King’s first condition and marry Zi Yuner so the Dragon King would use the Dragon Pearl to save Little Stone.
• Bai Youyou told Zi Yuner that Lin Shisan had agreed to marry her, and Zi Yuner agreed to inform her father while promising not to keep Lin Shisan from Bai Youyou.
• Bai Youyou returned to Lin Shisan and said the Dragon King would purify Little Stone’s remnant soul by dawn.
• Bai Youyou pulled Lin Shisan into a bedroom, told him not to speak, and pressed her fingertips against his lips.

Lin Shisan spent the night with Bai Youyou before she prepared to leave the Dragon Palace with Little Stone, while he faced his coming marriage to Zi Yuner and his guilt over Hu Niu. The next morning, Zi Yuner realized what had happened between Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou and walked away after offering him the chance to speak with her father.

• Bai Youyou asked Lin Shisan to spend the night with her, then planned to return Little Stone to his grandparents and leave the Dragon Palace after daybreak.
• Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou shared a bed, and he thought about Hu Niu, his promise to her, and his impending marriage to Zi Yuner.
• At Nine Nether Mountain, Hu Niu suffered a sudden surge of spiritual power and a painful sense of loss, then resumed cultivating while longing for Lin Shisan.
• In the morning, Bai Youyou told Lin Shisan to cure Little Stone, forget her and their night together, and treat Zi Yuner well before he left.
• Zi Yuner saw signs that Lin Shisan had spent the night with Bai Youyou, offered to let him speak with her father if he had changed his mind, and walked away.

Lin Shisan agreed to remain in the Dragon Palace and marry Zi Yuner in exchange for the Purple Sky Dragon King saving Little Stone. The Dragon King planted Karmic Fire in Lin Shisan’s Divine Sense to enforce the pact, leaving the agreement sealed while Little Stone’s demonization continued.

• Little Stone told Lin Shisan and Bai Youyou that he was hungry and felt something crawling and sizzling inside his head as the Python Demon’s influence worsened.
• Zi Yuner led Lin Shisan, Bai Youyou, and Little Stone to the great hall to meet the Purple Sky Dragon King.
• Lin Shisan agreed to stay in the Dragon Palace, marry Zi Yuner, and part with Bai Youyou so the Dragon King would save Little Stone.
• The Purple Sky Dragon King announced he would plant Karmic Fire in Lin Shisan’s Divine Sense to punish him if he broke their agreement.
• Lin Shisan accepted the Karmic Fire, and the Dragon King planted it, sealing their pact.

Lin Shisan watched Bai Youyou and Little Stone leave after the Purple Sky Dragon King cleansed Little Stone’s python demon remnant soul, then accepted that he would remain in the Dragon Palace under the karmic pact. Zi Yuner told him she would not force him to forget his past as they prepared to spend their lives together.

• The Purple Sky Dragon King sealed Lin Shisan’s karmic bond and warned that breaking it would burn away his divine sense and destroy his soul.
• The Purple Sky Dragon King used the Purple Sky Dragon Pearl to cleanse the python demon remnant soul from Little Stone, who endured the painful process until the mark vanished.
• Bai Youyou carried the exhausted Little Stone through the Teleportation Array, while Lin Shisan stayed behind and watched them go.
• The Purple Sky Dragon King told Lin Shisan that he would publicly announce him as Zi Yuner’s prince consort at the Dragon Saliva Festival in five days.
• Zi Yuner explained that Bai Youyou had not looked back because she did not want Lin Shisan to see her regret leaving, and said she would not force him to forget Bai Youyou or Fishing Village.
• Zi Yuner asked Lin Shisan to wipe the red streak from his eye before returning to the Guest Courtyard, reminding him that he was now the prince consort.

Bai Youyou returned Little Stone to his grandparents, then traveled to Blackwater River to use her Demon Spirit Contract with the Python Demon's remnant soul to find a route to the Purple Sky Dragon Palace. She forced the reluctant Hei Feng to guide her toward an unstable teleportation array.

• Bai Youyou brought Little Stone back to his grandparents, who welcomed him home as he told them Lin Shisan had stayed beneath the sea to save him.
• The old man entered Lin Shisan into the family genealogy and marked him as still alive, while Little Stone fell asleep beside his grandmother.
• Bai Youyou secretly planted a Dao Seed in Little Stone, then left the village without looking back.
• Bai Youyou reached the underwater stone chamber at Blackwater River and found traces of a teleportation array beneath the stone platform.
• Bai Youyou summoned Hei Feng through their Demon Spirit Contract and demanded he guide her to the Purple Sky Dragon Palace.
• Hei Feng revealed an abandoned, unstable teleportation array foundation three li beyond the northern wall and pointed the way with a thread of blue light.

Bai Youyou found an abandoned Dragon Clan Teleportation Array and began repairing it so she could return to the Purple Sky Dragon Palace before Lin Shisan’s wedding. Meanwhile, Lin Shisan remained under guard and learned from Zi Yuner why she had accepted their political marriage; Bai Youyou continued risking her life to reach him.

• Bai Youyou broke through a stone wall, followed the underground river, and found an abandoned Teleportation Array that could take her to the Purple Sky Dragon Palace.
• Bai Youyou ignored the Python Demon's warnings and began repairing the array with Spirit Stones, determined to finish within five days.
• Lin Shisan sat under house arrest, remembering Bai Youyou and the shell she had left behind.
• Zi Yuner let Lin Shisan leave his room for a walk and explained that their marriage would make the Hornless Dragon True Spirit legally belong to the Purple Rosy Cloud Dragon Palace.
• Zi Yuner asked to keep Lin Shisan's old garment so she could embroider its flower, then returned to the corridor.
• Bai Youyou fitted a third and fourth Spirit Stone into the Teleportation Array despite the risk of Space-Time Turbulence.

Lin Shisan accompanied Zi Yuner to visit her imprisoned third aunt, who had spent 227 years sealed for loving a human. When the woman recognized the self-cultivated dragon spirit inside Lin Shisan, he prepared for a possible confrontation.

• Zi Yuner led Lin Shisan through a secluded path to the ridge where her third aunt was imprisoned by Dragon-Sealing Locks.
• Zi Yuner explained that her third aunt had raised her, then surrendered herself for punishment after returning from a failed search for the human she loved.
• Zi Yuner said she obeyed her father and planned to become Dragon King so she could free her aunt.
• Zi Yuner brought Lin Shisan into the stone chamber, where he met her frail third aunt.
• Third Aunt sensed the Hornless Dragon True Spirit inside Lin Shisan and identified it as a dragon spirit he had cultivated himself, making him wary.

Third Aunt revealed that she possessed a dragon spirit, and the ancient wall in Prisoner Dragon Ridge resonated with Lin Shisan’s hornless dragon true spirit, strengthening it and triggering the ridge’s defenses. After Zi Yuner helped him escape the guards, Lin Shisan wondered whether the familiar figure he glimpsed beneath an ancient tree had been his father, Lin Qinghan.

• Third Aunt told Lin Shisan that she had a dragon spirit and opened an ancient pattern on the stone wall, causing his hornless dragon true spirit to react violently.
• Lin Shisan’s dragon spirit and a blue light inside the wall resonated, showing him a fleeting image of a figure beneath an ancient tree and strengthening his spirit.
• The stone peak shook and the dragon-binding chains lit up, alerting the Dragon Scale Guards to a disturbance at Prisoner Dragon Ridge.
• Zi Yuner pulled Lin Shisan away before the guards arrived and told him to stay in the side courtyard while she diverted the investigation.
• Back in his room, Lin Shisan connected the familiar figure in the vision to Lin Qinghan and wondered how his father could be linked to Third Aunt.