Chapter Summaries

The Three-Eyed Wolf Clan let Lin Ke and Mo Tianji enter the Cold Moon Pavilion under their ancestral instructions, while Mo Tianji secretly revived his body and vowed revenge. When the pavilion was uncovered, Mo Tianji betrayed the Wolf Queen, rushed inside, and left the doors sealed behind him.

• The Wolf King's daughter explained that ancestral instructions naming Tianji required the clan to let Lin Ke and Mo Tianji enter the Cold Moon Pavilion, and warned that anyone who violated their ancestor's wishes would be killed.
• Mo Tianji secretly revived in the Dragon Cultivator Cave Abode and vowed to take back everything he had lost from Lin Ke.
• Shi Yuan's group searched for a high-tier demon beast, while Shi You's Nascent Soul tried to flee after realizing the Illusionless Gu Sect cultivators planned to capture him.
• Three days later, the Three-Eyed Wolf Clan raised the Cold Moon Pavilion from the sand and used the Wolf Queen's essence blood to awaken its stone lions.
• Mo Tianji struck the Wolf Queen, rushed into the pavilion, and left Lin Ke and the others unable to open its doors after they slammed shut.

Lin Ke purified the wolf cultivators’ essence blood and entered the Cold Moon Pavilion before Mo Tianji could claim its inheritance. Inside, he faced an illusory world that shifted from a mirror maze to a burning landscape and ended with a strange wedding procession featuring Nan Shang, Zong Ya, and Lin Ke himself.

• Lin Ke proposed purifying the wolf cultivators’ essence blood so they could open the Cold Moon Pavilion without exhausting the wolf queen.
• Lin Ke used the Myriad Transformations Profound Nether Bell and the Dragon Pearl’s flame to refine their blood into a crystal, just as Mo Tianji appeared to be advancing inside the pavilion.
• The wolf queen gave the blood crystal to the stone lion, which opened the doors, and Lin Ke entered the Cold Moon Pavilion.
• Lin Ke attacked a reflection in the mirror maze, destroying it and causing the pavilion’s illusion to transform into a burning landscape.
• Hua Wujiang urged Lin Ke to flee from the approaching wedding procession, but Lin Ke continued forward and saw Nan Shang in the bridal sedan, Zong Ya on a flower carriage, and himself as the groom.

Lin Ke passed the Heart-Testing Mirror’s first trial by confronting his fear of failing to protect others and accepting the limits of his strength. The mirror then presented him with a vision of himself as a revered ruler, and he began to suspect that this new scene was another trial.

• A black-eyed version of Lin Ke blamed him for the Sect’s slaughter and tried to break his resolve by accusing him of failing to save anyone.
• Lin Ke rejected the demand for absolute strength, arguing that he could only do his best and could not control cause and effect.
• The phantom showed Lin Ke visions of Nan Shang and Zong Ya suffering, but Lin Ke affirmed their resilience and said his strength came from those he protected.
• Lin Ke declared that he could not be killed by his own deepest fear, causing the illusion to collapse and marking his success in the first trial.
• The mirror transported Lin Ke to a palace where cultivators hailed him as the Sacred Master and he enjoyed the honors and tributes of a ruler.
• Lin Ke saw beauties gathered in the Main Hall and began questioning whether a true master of the Great Dao would cling to worldly splendor.

Lin Ke recognized that his luxurious life as ruler of Wanjiang was an Illusory Realm formed from his desire for power and tried to convince his reflection to leave it. He challenged the reflection to live through a thousand years, while Lin Ke waited inside a mirror; after growing bored, the reflection began reforming the realm and claimed its scholars could surpass the Hundred Schools.

• Lin Ke realized his imperial life was an Illusory Realm and explained that enjoying power without fulfilling its duties would lead to ruin.
• Lin Ke challenged his reflection to speed up time a thousandfold and test whether ruling Wanjiang would bring lasting fulfillment.
• The fat Lin Ke sealed Lin Ke inside a mirror and spent the accelerated years indulging in the realm’s luxuries.
• After hundreds of years, the fat Lin Ke grew bored with the pleasures and shallow writing, then vowed to reform the court and promote scholarship.
• Lin Ke argued that the illusory Wanjiang could not produce genuine thought or cultivators beyond the Hundred Schools, but the fat Lin Ke insisted its scholars would surpass them.

Lin Ke broke through the illusory world created by his deluded thoughts and returned to the Cold Moon Pavilion, where he searched for treasures. He claimed a Lu Ban Lantern, only to learn that his limited mental power would let him fuel it for about thirty breaths a day.

• Lin Ke explained that the peaceful illusion lacked the hardship and conflict needed to spur learning, then tore it apart and escaped.
• Lin Ke returned to the Cold Moon Pavilion and found its shelves filled with rare mental-power spirit artifacts and treasures.
• The Centipede Dragon Cultivator warned Lin Ke that the unbarriered treasures scattered on the floor could alter the rules of the Great Dao.
• Lin Ke searched the pavilion's scattered treasures and found a clay figurine holding an oil lamp, which the Centipede Dragon Cultivator identified as a Lu Ban Lantern that could slow time within its light.
• Lin Ke broke the lantern's barrier before hearing the full warning, then learned he could accumulate enough lamp oil for only about thirty breaths per day.

Lin Ke solved the Cold Moon Pavilion’s staircase trial by memorizing the patterns and beat Mo Tianji to the second floor. There, they encountered mirror phantoms that could only be fought with mental power, leaving Mo Tianji vulnerable as another ripple crossed the mirror.

• Lin Ke learned that the lamp oil in his clay figure could only fill its tray over three days, then entered the Cold Moon Pavilion’s second trial.
• Lin Ke discovered that matching the patterns on the endless staircase let him break steps and advance.
• Lin Ke used a Mystic Vein Book to record the patterns, overtook Mo Tianji, and reached the second floor first.
• Lin Ke found a mirror on the empty second floor, and a phantom emerged to attack him; Mo Tianji faced a similar opponent after arriving.
• Lin Ke defeated his phantom with his reserved mental power while Mo Tianji, whose mental power was exhausted, was beaten by his opponent.
• Another ripple passed through the mirror as Mo Tianji was struck again.

Lin Ke and Mo Tianji fought phantoms in the Cold Moon Pavilion’s second-floor trial, where each defeated phantom spawned two more. Lin Ke realized the phantoms’ mental-power mist might help him increase his mental-power limit and summoned the Purple Mansion Insect and Dream-Eating Gecko.

• Mo Tianji mocked Lin Ke about the phantoms multiplying, then discovered that killing his own phantom caused two more to appear.
• Lin Ke discovered he could defeat two phantoms by making them collide, then used one of four phantoms as a weapon to destroy the others.
• Lin Ke faced eight phantoms that could imitate his use of mental power, while Mo Tianji ran from his pursuers to recover his strength.
• Lin Ke struck a phantom and saw it dissolve into mental-power mist, then realized he might absorb the phantoms’ mental power to raise his limit.
• Lin Ke summoned the Purple Mansion Insect and the Dream-Eating Gecko.

Lin Ke and his spirit creatures discovered a way to refine the Heart-Testing Mirror’s phantoms into mental power, while Mo Tianji struggled against his own illusions. Mo Tianji accused Lin Ke of cheating as Lin Ke continued using the creatures to improve.

• Lin Ke rejected the Dream-Eating Gecko’s suggestion to smash the mirror and told the creatures to find a way to devour the phantoms.
• The Dream-Eating Gecko swallowed Purple Mansion Insect phantoms, and Lin Ke used the creatures to restrain and attack the other illusions.
• The Purple Mansion Insect discovered it could gather the mental power left by destroyed phantoms and refine it into crystals that Lin Ke could absorb.
• Lin Ke and the Dream-Eating Gecko began rapidly refining phantoms, while Mo Tianji exhausted himself fighting his own copies.
• Mo Tianji complained that Lin Ke was cheating and played his Bone Flute as he resisted his phantoms.

Lin Ke reached the nascent soul middle stage while battling Dream-Eating Gecko phantoms, and the Purple Mansion Insect on his shoulder formed a chrysalis. Mo Tianji tried to make peace with him by offering the Cloud Ink Sect’s Talisman-Making Method, leaving Lin Ke to examine the difficult texts and symbols.

• Lin Ke devoured the last Dream-Eating Gecko phantom and advanced to the nascent soul middle stage, prompting the Heart-Testing Mirror to produce 256 more phantoms.
• The Purple Mansion Insect formed a black chrysalis, while the Dream-Eating Gecko continued fighting its phantoms after completing its own transformation.
• Mo Tianji used a pillar to defeat 31 phantoms, tied up the last one, and decided to apologize to Lin Ke and seek an alliance.
• Lin Ke said he would not mind joining forces but asked about the Cloud Ink Sect’s Talisman-Making Method, implying that his curiosity would make cooperation difficult.
• Mo Tianji gave Lin Ke both volumes of the Talisman-Making Method, explaining that few people could understand it and inviting Lin Ke to teach him if he mastered it.
• Lin Ke opened the books and saw dense characters, patterns, equations, and verification processes that he would have to learn from scratch.

Lin Ke and Mo Tianji advanced to the second stage of the Cold Moon Pavilion’s trial and discovered a ranking of powerful Purple Mansion cultivators. They challenged its lowest-ranked figure, who offered to test their learning with a question.

• Lin Ke agreed to help Mo Tianji pass the second-floor test in exchange for learning about talisman-making materials and tools.
• While waiting for the Purple Mansion Insect to hatch, Lin Ke studied how to use mental power and learned the Dream-Eating Gecko’s Divine Mill technique.
• After Lin Ke’s insect hatched, the Heart-Testing Mirror announced the second stage and displayed the Purple Mansion Ranking, which included Master Zhuang, Meng Yuzi, and Yun Qiuze.
• Mo Tianji challenged the hundredth-ranked Lin Shuyuan, who appeared as a remnant soul and offered to yield her place if they answered her questions correctly.
• Lin Shuyuan asked which five stars the King of Qin once had.

Lin Ke challenged Master Zhuang’s question on the Purple Mansion Ranking and learned that answering it could earn the blessing of Heaven and Earth. After realizing he could not abandon the trial without facing stronger phantoms again, Lin Ke resolved to keep trying.

• The woman explained to Mo Tianji that the ranking’s assessments grew shorter at higher tiers, and that first place required answering Master Zhuang’s question to receive Heaven and Earth’s blessing.
• Lin Ke challenged Master Zhuang, was expelled after introducing himself, then returned and answered that he was born of parents and shaped by Heaven and Earth; Master Zhuang closed his eyes and sent him back again.
• Mo Tianji mocked Lin Ke’s failed attempts, but the woman told him he had answered incorrectly about the Tea Horse Road and would have to restart his assessment.
• Lin Ke realized Master Zhuang sought a state of attainment rather than a simple answer, and that quitting would send him back to face stronger phantoms.
• Lin Ke decided to continue answering Master Zhuang’s question so he could see what Heaven and Earth’s blessing was.

Lin Ke tried to pass Master Zhuang’s test while Zong Ya and the others learned that Shi Yuan had refined a fierce spirit using his own family and Shi You’s soul. Shi Yuan prepared to slaughter the cultivators in Wolf King Valley, and Lin Ke was left facing another question from Master Zhuang.

• Lin Ke challenged Master Zhuang on the Purple Mansion Ranking, while Zong Ya and Nan Shang waited outside the Cold Moon Pavilion.
• Fang Mengdie warned Zong Ya, Nan Shang, and the Wolf Queen that Shi Yuan had killed his family for cultivation and possessed Shi You’s divine soul and nascent soul.
• Zong Ya urged the group to prepare defenses and buy Lin Ke time if Shi Yuan attacked.
• Shi Yuan stood over slain Cloud Ink Sect disciples with Shi You as three more disciples fled deeper into Wolf King Valley.
• Lin Ke answered Master Zhuang’s question with a reflection on fragrance, the Dao, and tea, prompting the old man to prepare him tea before asking, “Who are you?”

Lin Ke repeatedly challenged Master Zhuang for the top spot on the Purple Mansion Ranking, trying to understand the scene and its questions while Mo Tianji waited for his chance to claim the pavilion’s legacy. The chapter left Lin Ke contemplating the scene’s meaning as Mo Tianji neared the end of his own test.

• Lin Ke tried answering Master Zhuang with a question of his own, but the challenge sent him back to the second floor of the Cold Moon Pavilion.
• Mo Tianji praised Lin Ke’s persistence while privately believing he was too arrogant to defeat Master Zhuang, and Lin Ke warned Mo Tianji to focus on surviving.
• Lin Ke entered the top-spot challenge again, drank the replenished tea, and offered Master Zhuang another answer that received no response.
• Lin Ke reasoned that the challenge’s setting and questions might help cultivators prepare to inherit the Purple Mansion Ranking’s legacies, then began studying the scene in silence.
• Mo Tianji realized that the pavilion’s third floor was the ranking’s legacy itself and continued answering the Yu Dynasty woman’s questions, nearing the end of her test.

The Three-Eyed Wolf Demons and allied cultivators defended the Cold Moon Pavilion against the Illusionless Gu Sect’s assault. Shi Yuan arrived with the powerful Fierce Spirit Shi You, who tore through the defenders until an angry voice shouted from the pavilion.

• Zong Ya and Nan Shang detected the Illusionless Gu Sect’s approaching forces, and the Wolf Queen led the Three-Eyed Wolf Demons into battle.
• The Wolf Queen persuaded the Cloud Ink Sect cultivators and other trapped cultivators to join the defense, while Fang Mengdie and Dongfang Yao fought together.
• Shi Yuan entered Wolf King Valley with Shi You chained to him, and the Wolf Queen ordered the males to fight while females, children, and old wolves fled.
• Shi You killed fleeing cultivators and devastated the defenses as Shi Yuan led the Wuhuan Gu Sect’s charge.
• An angry voice from the Cold Moon Pavilion shouted at the attackers to stop.

A cultivator emerging from the Cold Moon Pavilion’s third floor seemed to turn the battle in Wolf King Valley, but Shi Yuan exposed and defeated him. The fighting continued, with the Illusionless Gu Sect still pressing its attack.

• The second floor of the Cold Moon Pavilion lit up, and a powerful mental shock wave shattered nearby Yin souls and rallied the cultivators.
• The third floor lit up, and Mo Tianji emerged, claiming to be the Cloud Ink Sect’s foremost Heaven’s Chosen and inheritor of the Yu Dynasty Domain Body.
• Mo Tianji summoned Zhu Hong Xueyue with his Bone Flute, forming a region of sound attacks that made the onlookers mistake him for a Fusion Stage powerhouse.
• Shi Yuan ordered the Illusionless Gu Sect and its Yin souls to attack while Mo Tianji tried to leave with three Cloud Ink Sect disciples.
• A red blood shadow struck Mo Tianji into the ground, and Shi Yuan revealed that Mo Tianji had only reached halfway to the Purple Mansion Realm.

Mo Tianji fought the Fierce Spirit while the Wolf King Valley forces counterattacked, and Lin Ke completed Master Zhuang’s meditation trial. After awakening with his mental power at the Nascent Soul Late Stage, Lin Ke returned to the illusory realm and asked the Heart-Testing Mirror to let him abandon the challenge.

• Mo Tianji attacked the Fierce Spirit with the Bone Flute, and the Wolf Queen rallied her forces to counterattack Shi Yuan and the Illusionless Gu Sect.
• Lin Ke meditated through an illusion of decades or centuries of changing seasons, enduring insects, petals, and snow until he understood Master Zhuang’s question.
• Lin Ke answered that he came from nowhere and went nowhere and was, in essence, emptiness, then returned to the Cold Moon Pavilion.
• Lin Ke sensed that Zong Ya and Nan Shang were injured and Mo Tianji was nearing defeat, and found that his mental power had reached the Nascent Soul Late Stage.
• Lin Ke reentered Master Zhuang’s illusory realm, prepared tea in the stone cup, and asked the Heart-Testing Mirror to let him abandon the challenge.

Mo Tianji tried to use the Fierce Spirit to destroy the Cold Moon Pavilion and bury Lin Ke in the illusory realm, while Zong Ya, Nan Shang, and the wounded defenders fought to protect it. The barrier finally shattered under Shi Yuan’s blow, leaving the pavilion exposed.

• Mo Tianji lured the Fierce Spirit toward the Cold Moon Pavilion while the three Cloud Ink Sect cultivators escaped amid the battle.
• Zong Ya used pills and her lifespan to overpower the Illusionless Gu Sect cultivators, then sent Nan Shang to save Lin Ke.
• Mo Tianji attacked Fang Mengdie and Dongfang Yao as they reinforced the barrier, knocking Dongfang Yao unconscious and opening a breach.
• Nan Shang arrived to defend the barrier, and the wounded and elderly inside helped restore it while he used Bone Nails to restrain Mo Tianji.
• Shi Yuan struck the barrier with full force and shattered it.

Lin Ke emerged from the Heart-Testing Mirror trial after reaching the top ten of the Purple Mansion Ranking, overwhelming Mo Tianji, Shi Yuan, and the fierce spirit. The Wolf Queen and Wolf King Valley’s cultivators welcomed him as their savior.

• Mo Tianji and Shi Yuan allied to destroy the Cold Moon Pavilion and trap Lin Ke, while Zong Ya, Nan Shang, and Shen Wei defended it.
• The Cold Moon Pavilion shone repeatedly as Lin Ke’s ranking rose, and the Wolf Queen declared that he had entered the top ten of the Purple Mansion Ranking.
• The Wolf Queen and the wolf cultivators knelt to welcome Lin Ke as the Purple Mansion Sacred Master, while Mo Tianji attacked the pavilion with his Domain Body.
• Lin Ke walked out of the Cold Moon Pavilion, froze Shi Yuan in midair, and hurled the fierce spirit into a rock wall.
• Lin Ke stopped the yin souls from approaching him, and some of the weaker souls burst apart.

Lin Ke subdued Shi Yuan and the Illusionless Gu Sect while assessing the upheaval outside the Cloud Dragon Secret Realm. A message from Hua Wujiang revealed that the major powers were preparing for war and that the Poison Tempering Mountains had formed a Fourth Force, leaving Lin Ke to consider how to protect his sect.

• Lin Ke crushed the Illusionless Gu Sect cultivators and gathered their souls around Shi Yuan, then pulled three fleeing Cloud Ink Sect disciples back under his mental pressure.
• Mo Tianji tried to appease Lin Ke by offering to teach him talisman-making, but the Wolf Queen and Nan Shang reminded Lin Ke that Mo Tianji had joined Shi Yuan in trapping him.
• Lin Ke detected that fighting had broken out outside the Cloud Dragon Secret Realm and that the Dali Domain Imperial Sovereign was probing the realm for a Purple Mansion cultivator.
• Lin Ke received Hua Wujiang's message that the Illusionless Gu Sect, the Imperial Clan, and the Jade Great Radiance Church were mobilizing, while Hua Wujiang and True Lord Zheyu had formed a Fourth Force.
• Lin Ke concluded that the Cloud Ink Sect and the Golden Wing Sect were now allies and decided that sparing Mo Tianji could help protect their side.

Lin Ke and Mo Tianji reconciled after Lin Ke attacked the Cloud Ink Sect cultivators, while news of the war outside forced the secret realm’s factions to choose sides. Lin Ke joined the Golden Wing Sect and Cloud Ink Sect alliance, which tasked the Heaven’s Chosen with opening a passage into the Cloud Dragon Secret Realm before its spatial disturbances closed in a month.

• Lin Ke called his clash with Mo Tianji a misunderstanding, and the two agreed to treat each other as brothers while their allies regrouped.
• Cultivators learned that the Illusionless Gu Sect and Jade Great Radiance Church had gone to war with the Dali Domain Imperial Clan, and several groups fled Wolf King Valley.
• Howling Ape Old Ghost ordered Illusionless Gu Sect disciples to prepare for war, while Lin Ke announced he would side with the Golden Wing Sect and Cloud Ink Sect.
• Nan Shang chose to stay with Lin Ke until his memories returned, and Fang Mengdie gave Lin Ke Mo Qi Qi’s prosthetic-limb refinement technique before leaving to recover.
• Hua Wujiang ordered the Heaven’s Chosen to help the Golden Wing Sect and Cloud Ink Sect open a passage into the secret realm within a month, when the Dragon Pearl would emerge.
• Dongfang Yao woke and asked why everyone had fallen silent.