Chapter Summaries

Lin Shisan broke through to the second stage of the Lingxi Sword Art after Zhantai Xian taught him to guide Sword Aura gently, and its power merged with the dragon breath in his dantian. With Zi Yuner’s help, he practiced until his Sword Aura lasted eighty breaths, bringing him closer to the road home and the answers about his identity.

• Zhantai Xian showed Lin Shisan how to release Sword Aura without forcing it and recalled that Senior Brother Tian had once taught her to treat the sword as water.
• Lin Shisan followed her advice, reached the second stage of the Lingxi Sword Art, and saw golden patterns appear as the Sword Aura merged with the dragon breath in his dantian.
• Gai Jiuyou said Lin Shisan’s improved Sword Aura might help him endure the flowing light around the Reincarnation Mirror and see farther when he reached the third stage.
• Zhantai Xian promised to take Lin Shisan to find the road home once he reached the fifth stage, guided by the character for “return” she had carved.
• Zi Yuner trained Lin Shisan against a spiritual power barrier, and his Sword Aura lasted eighty breaths and split the barrier.
• Lin Shisan said he wanted to discover who was at the end of the road, who he really was, and how he was connected to the Lingxi Sect.

After learning that Long Yan'er had disappeared under conflicting circumstances, Lin Shisan returned to Cold Moon Peak with Zhantai Xian despite warnings that the Danyang Sect might be a trap. He found no trace of Yan'er and encountered Hu Niu on the way down the mountain.

• Long Shuang'er and Qing'er separately told Lin Shisan that Long Yan'er was missing, while Qing'er showed him a recording of Yan'er's crushed jade pendant.
• Zi Yuner, Gai Jiuyou, and the Mountain Guardian warned Lin Shisan that returning could be dangerous, and the Mountain Guardian suggested he take Zhantai Xian with him.
• Lin Shisan and Zhantai Xian traveled by Azure Cloud Boat for three days and reached Cold Moon Peak.
• Lin Shisan searched Long Yan'er's room and Cold Moon Peak with his divine sense, finding only a dried bamboo leaf bearing a drawing of two people holding hands.
• As Lin Shisan and Zhantai Xian descended the mountain, Hu Niu confronted him and asked whether Zhantai Xian was his new wife.

Hu Niu revealed that she had abducted Long Yan'er and manipulated Long Shuang'er and Qing'er to lure Lin Shisan into consummating their marriage. She gave Lin Shisan until dawn to decide, leaving him conflicted beneath the Old Locust Tree.

• Hu Niu admitted she had used Long Yan'er's disappearance, Long Shuang'er's Message Stone, and Qing'er's message to draw Lin Shisan to Danyang Sect, and demanded he consummate their marriage.
• Lin Shisan found that Long Shuang'er had been sent to Qingyang and discovered Qing'er's broken Message Stone and note, confirming Hu Niu had silenced her.
• Hu Niu admitted she had taken Qing'er and hidden Long Yan'er safely, then threatened to make Yan'er disappear if Lin Shisan refused her demand.
• Hu Niu offered Lin Shisan a Jade Talisman that would release Long Yan'er from restrictions, but required him to meet her in the Back Mountain Bamboo Grove and consummate their marriage before dawn.
• After Hu Niu left, Lin Shisan remained with Zhantai Xian, unsure what to do.

Lin Shisan met Hu Niu at the Bamboo Hut, where she tried to lure him into surrendering his treasures in exchange for Yan'er. He exposed the trap, and Zhantai Xian rescued Yan'er, leaving Aunt Mei and Hu Niu facing him.

• Hu Niu offered Lin Shisan the Jade Talisman and claimed he could use it to reach Yan'er if he drank the wine.
• Hu Niu told Lin Shisan she wanted him to consummate their marriage so he could not erase her place as his first wife.
• Lin Shisan sensed Hu Niu's nerves and exposed Aunt Mei, who revealed the Jade Talisman could not open Yan'er's restraints and demanded his treasures.
• Hu Niu and Aunt Mei admitted they had lured Lin Shisan to seize the Myriad Souls Banner and the Nine Nether Alchemy Scripture.
• Zhantai Xian revealed she had found Yan'er asleep in a cage and taken her to Lin Shisan's master, then blocked Aunt Mei's attack with sword aura.
• Hu Niu said Yan'er was fine, and Lin Shisan told her he would never trust her again because her eyes had betrayed her heart.

Aunt Mei trapped Lin Shisan and Zhantai Xian inside Cold Moon Peak’s formation and attacked them, but Zhantai Xian shattered the assault. Feng Xian’er and Bai Ziyin intervened, forcing Aunt Mei to lower the formation, while Hu Niu refused Lin Shisan’s offer to leave with him.

• Aunt Mei activated the Peak-Guarding Grand Formation and tried to turn Hu Niu against Lin Shisan, then attacked him with a sphere of dark cyan light.
• Zhantai Xian sliced apart Aunt Mei’s attack and destroyed the chains she sent against them, damaging the formation.
• Lin Shisan urged Hu Niu to leave with him, but she warned him not to move as Aunt Mei launched another attack.
• Zhantai Xian split the formation’s barrier, and Feng Xian’er arrived to defend Lin Shisan and confront Aunt Mei.
• Bai Ziyin ordered Aunt Mei to withdraw the formation, and she complied.
• Hu Niu stayed beneath the Old Locust Tree, told Lin Shisan they should part and never meet again, and did not go with him.

Lin Shisan and Zhantai Xian faced Chi Mingyuan’s corpse puppet forces, who had come to avenge Qingxuan. They battled the regenerating puppets, and Zhantai Xian slowed Old Zhou’s healing with a piercing Sword Intent as the fight continued.

• Lin Shisan confronted Chi Mingyuan, who identified himself as Chiyangzi’s son and demanded vengeance for Qingxuan.
• Chi Mingyuan attacked Lin Shisan with a crimson palm, but Lin Shisan shattered it with the Green Creek Sword.
• Old Zhou lunged at Zhantai Xian, who struck him with Sword Aura, but his corpse-puppet body quickly healed.
• Chi Mingyuan sent ten synchronized black-clad corpse puppets against Lin Shisan and Zhantai Xian, and Lin Shisan’s sword forms knocked back the seven he faced.
• Old Zhou charged Zhantai Xian again, and her Dripping Water Pierces Stone Sword Intent pierced his chest and slowed his regeneration.

Lin Shisan and Zhantai Xian defeated Chi Mingyuan and his corpse-puppet guards, but Chi Mingyuan’s father tracked them after his death and chased them across the wilderness. The chapter left the pair fleeing beneath the pursuit of a powerful Three Flowers Realm cultivator.

• Lin Shisan killed Chi Mingyuan with the Green Creek Sword Art and took his command token and storage ring.
• Lin Shisan joined Zhantai Xian against the white-bearded old man and ten Black-Clad Men, and Zhantai Xian killed the old man by destroying the essence soul in his corpse qi core.
• Lin Shisan found three dormant Gold-Devouring Flying Tigers in Chi Mingyuan’s storage ring and kept them.
• Chi Mingyuan’s father’s Divine Sense Mark activated, revealing Lin Shisan’s location and drawing his enraged pursuit.
• Lin Shisan and Zhantai Xian fled as the pursuing cultivator’s pressure and crimson pillar of light closed in behind them.

Chiyangzi pursued Lin Shisan and Zhantai Xian after discovering his son Chi Mingyuan had been killed. With Lin Shisan badly wounded and Chiyangzi closing in, Lin Shisan jumped with Zhantai Xian into Burial Spirit Abyss, where the deadly mist swallowed them and repelled Chiyangzi’s divine sense.

• Chiyangzi found Chi Mingyuan’s headless corpse, traced the killer through a mark in his son’s essence blood, and raced southeast.
• Lin Shisan fled with the exhausted Zhantai Xian, using the Little Black Cauldron to evade Chiyangzi’s pursuit briefly.
• Chiyangzi caught up with Lin Shisan, but Lin Shisan obscured their auras, attacked with the Green Creek Sword, and escaped into the forest.
• Chiyangzi struck Lin Shisan in the back, breaking bones, but Lin Shisan carried the sleeping Zhantai Xian onward toward Burial Spirit Abyss.
• Lin Shisan leaped into Burial Spirit Abyss as Chiyangzi’s crimson hand crushed his ankle, and the mist swallowed their auras.
• Chiyangzi tried to probe the abyss with his divine sense, but its mist attacked his spiritual platform and forced him to sever the connection.