Chapter Summaries

Li Piaoqing entered the Pupil Lineage Dragonkin Ancestral Land and confronted Yi Chengxin inside its central hall. Meanwhile, Pei Ye raced toward the mountain but was intercepted by Yi Nandai, and their clash left Pei Ye badly wounded.

• Li Piaoqing slipped through the closing stone gate after Yi Chengxin and found the Heart-Transmitting Candle hall at the center of the Ancestral Land of the Pupil Lineage Dragonkin.
• Li Piaoqing used her gray-white world to make Yi Chengxin lose focus as the two faced each other across the formation.
• Pei Ye rode toward the mountain, where Yi Nandai emerged and blocked his path with a spear.
• Pei Ye's [Clouded Sky Obscures Eyes, Lost Feathers] briefly suppressed Yi Nandai, but Yi Nandai broke through its effect with his fiery spear intent.
• Pei Ye countered Yi Nandai's sweeping spear with [Jade Elder], withering its force but taking a heavy blow that sent dark blood into his throat.

Pei Ye’s fire-and-sword ambush failed to overcome Yi Nandai, who revealed himself as a Dragonkin and forced Pei Ye to resume the fight. In the Sacrificial Realm, Li Piaoqing resisted a Heart Candle illusion and learned that Yi Chengxin’s elder brother had gone to kill Pei Ye.

• Pei Ye used [Snowy Night, Fallen Life, Soul-Shattering Terror] to unsettle Yi Nandai, then unleashed a massive torrent of fire.
• Pei Ye hid a sword strike inside the flames, but Yi Nandai countered with Fire-Washed Spearheart and sent him staggering away injured.
• Yi Nandai removed his scorched eye covering, revealing golden vertical pupils in dark blue sockets, and Pei Ye charged him again.
• Li Piaoqing saw an illusion of Bai Yuliang reclaiming the Emerald Feather Sword Sect leadership, but asserted her own resolve and rekindled her Candle Sword.
• Yi Chengxin explained that she had cultivated the Clan of the Imperial Decree’s Heart Candle for ninety years and told Li Piaoqing that her elder brother had gone to kill Pei Ye.

In the Sacrificial Realm, Li Piaoqing faced a Heart Poison trial that repeatedly drew her into cherished memories and aspirations. She recognized the illusion, resisted its emotional pull, and finally struck the weakened black-robed figure, though the outcome remained unresolved.

• Li Piaoqing found herself outside an opera house in Bowang City and realized the scene was an interrogation within her Mindscape.
• A black-robed figure appeared, and Li Piaoqing pursued it with her Lost Jade Sword, but each encounter shifted her into a memory from her past.
• Li Piaoqing endured hundreds of emotional cycles, gradually recognizing that she had to overcome the Heart Poison and rekindle the Candle Sword.
• The memories faded, leaving Li Piaoqing facing a weakened black-robed opponent in the deserted Jade Feather Sword Arena.
• Li Piaoqing crossed swords with the figure and cut beneath its ribs.

Li Piaoqing survived the third Heart Candle Trial and realized that Yi Chengxin could sense her thoughts, but Yi began the fourth trial before she could prepare. Li Piaoqing awoke in a memory of the Jade Feather Main Hall, facing the aftermath of her failed ambush and the impending threat of Joy-in-Death Tower.

• Li Piaoqing defeated the Heart Poison that resembled her, but froze when it called them both the Jadeite sect master.
• Pei Ye killed Yi Nandai with the [Newly-Hatched Corpse] sword strike, burned the body, and rode away.
• Yi Chengxin expected Li Piaoqing to remain unconscious, but Li gasped awake and recognized how Yi's inherited Heart Candle cultivation had made the trials so dangerous.
• Li Piaoqing studied the writing about the three Heart Candle Realms and concluded that she needed to understand Yi Chengxin to survive.
• Yi Chengxin sensed that Li Piaoqing was preparing a way to kill her and began the fourth Heart Candle Trial.
• Li Piaoqing awoke in the Jade Feather Main Hall after her failed ambush, remembering Mr. Lu's death and fearing that Joy-in-Death Tower would soon attack.

Li Piaoqing endured a Candle Trial that forced her to confront Jade Feather's rejection, then awakened the fourth Heart Candle and vowed to face the sect's enemies alongside her people. As she began to awaken from the mindscape, Shen Yao stabbed her, plunging her back into confusion and darkness.

• Li Piaoqing was captured by five fellow disciples and brought before the gathered Jade Feather sect, who said they would send her away because they no longer accepted her leadership.
• Li Piaoqing accepted their decision in the Candle Trial, but the heart poison failed to extinguish her flame, and she learned the five poisons of the Heart Candle.
• Li Piaoqing merged her fourth Candle with the previous three and told the sect she would abandon drastic actions but would never leave Jade Feather.
• As Li Piaoqing's consciousness began to awaken, Shen Yao pierced her chest with a sword, causing black flames to spread and her Heart Candle to crack.
• Li Piaoqing looked into Shen Yao's eyes and froze, unable to understand why the attack had happened within her mindscape.

Li Piaoqing entered Yi Chengxin’s Heart Candle and confronted her with a painting that exposed the tragedy behind Yi Chengxin’s belief in her family’s fate. After their mindscapes clashed, Li Piaoqing gained her fourth Heart Candle, but Yi Chengxin’s dragon eyes forced her to retreat, leaving Li Piaoqing exhausted in the Ancestral Land.

• Li Piaoqing used [Quail Head] to enter Yi Chengxin’s Heart Candle and found a New Year’s Eve scene at the Yi Residence.
• Li Piaoqing painted the Yi family, then revealed their horrific deaths and accused Yi Chengxin of imagining the culprit behind them.
• Li Piaoqing inscribed “New Year’s Eve Night Drinking Record” on the painting, and the two girls’ mindscapes struggled for dominance.
• Li Piaoqing overcame her own trial, pinned Yi Chengxin, and gained her fourth Heart Candle when the mindscape dissolved.
• Yi Chengxin reaffirmed that her family’s fate was something they had to bear, then revealed red-gold dragon eyes and forced Li Piaoqing to flee the mindscape.
• Back in the Ancestral Land, Yi Chengxin mocked Li Piaoqing for attempting to cultivate the Five Poisons Heart Candle without preparation.

Li Piaoqing’s mind trial with Yi Chengxin reached its breaking point as Pei Ye arrived at the sealed stone door and searched for a way to reach her. Black Cat discovered the pendant Pei Ye carried contained a Jade Ke Formation and activated it, opening a new path forward.

• Yi Chengxin struck Li Piaoqing’s embryonic fifth Heart Candle, unleashing the romantic-love poison and pushing Li Piaoqing’s mind toward collapse.
• Li Piaoqing told Yi Chengxin she had never intended to defeat her in a battle of minds, and a crisp crack sounded.
• Pei Ye reached the underground cavern and learned from Black Cat that Li Piaoqing had followed Yi Chengxin through the sealed stone door about half an hour earlier.
• Black Cat explained that Yi Chengxin was the Clan of the Imperial Decree’s current Edict Child and wielded the Heart-Transmitting Candle.
• Black Cat recognized Zhang He’s pendant as a device containing the Jade Ke Formation and used Chi Flame and Glaze’s Profound Qi to activate it.

Pei Ye reunited with Li Piaoqing inside the sealed formation after she killed Yi Chengxin with a bamboo shoot, and they treated their wounds while discussing the dangers of the ancient site and Li Piaoqing’s lingering fears. The chapter ended with their tension easing into playful teasing as Pei Ye tickled her.

• Li Piaoqing regained control of her body and killed Yi Chengxin with a True Qi-infused Purple Bamboo Shoot.
• Pei Ye and Black Cat reached the formation, where Pei Ye found Li Piaoqing alive beside the corpse and comforted her.
• Li Piaoqing treated Pei Ye’s wounds and told him how she had survived, while sharing her fear that the Yi Family’s corruption could threaten Jade Feather.
• Black Cat explained that [Quail Head] could clear illusions but could not resolve the fire within Li Piaoqing’s own heart.
• Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing treated her minor wound, then teased each other until he tickled her.

Pei Ye, Li Piaoqing, and the black cat completed the Edict Transmission and entered the Purple Bamboo Forest, where the Divine Child’s oppressive presence attacked them. Pei Ye repelled a snake disguised as Li Piaoqing’s severed arm, and they stood at the start of the Divine Path as she began to recover.

• Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing realized Yi Chengxin had meant to escape with the Dragonkin core, while the black cat connected her plan to Yang Zhaoren’s marriage fifty years earlier.
• The ceremony transported Pei Ye, Li Piaoqing, and the black cat into a vast purple bamboo forest beneath an underground ceiling.
• A snake disguised as Li Piaoqing’s severed arm attacked Pei Ye, but [Quail Head] cleared his mind and he pinned the snake to a bamboo stalk with Mountain Feather.
• The black cat explained that the forest’s pressure harmed Li Piaoqing because her Heart Candle was not lit, and she weakened in Pei Ye’s arms.
• Pei Ye recognized the place as deep within Xin Cang Mountain, where the Torchworld Cult had planned the Immortal Lord’s descent, while Li Piaoqing steadied and said her true qi was returning.

Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing reached the altar in the Purple Bamboo Forest, where they discovered records of two divine edicts tied to the Torchworld Cult and the Immortal Lord’s planned descent. They confronted the awakening Edict-Listening God-Child, and Pei Ye launched an attack on the enormous creature atop the platform.

• Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing crossed the misty Purple Bamboo Forest and found an empty altar beneath a towering platform.
• Pei Ye read the altar inscriptions, learning that the Jia Yin Edict ordered the Immortal Lord’s descent and the Jia Zi Edict ordered the slaying of the sword.
• Pei Ye and the black cat concluded that an Edict-Bearing Servant had come to retrieve each edict for the Torchworld Cult.
• Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing saw the bamboo forest’s snake-like shapes were tentacles attached to a creature on the high platform, and a warning said not to disturb the Divine Child’s sleep for more than two quarter-hours.
• Pei Ye charged the platform and sent his sword toward the Imperial Throne as the awakening creature struck at him with a massive tentacle.

Pei Ye and his companions fought the Divine Child atop the Purple Forest platform, but the creature’s tentacles overwhelmed them and delivered Pei Ye to its feast. Pei Ye struck its forehead with Mountain Feather, yet the wound seemed ineffective, leaving him caught in the Divine Child’s golden gaze.

• Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing struggled against the Divine Child’s flood-dragon tentacles as Glaze repeatedly attacked from above.
• Pei Ye let the tentacles carry him to the Divine Child while Glaze held back the creature’s defenses, then opened his eyes and struck its forehead with Mountain Feather.
• The Divine Child’s golden pupils overwhelmed Pei Ye, but Quail Head pulled him back into the real world.
• Pei Ye saw that Mountain Feather had pierced through the Divine Child’s head without visibly harming it, though its tentacles had blocked Glaze’s earlier attack.

Li Piaoqing recognized the Divine Child as Yi Danjun and used the Heart-Transmitting Candle to enter her Mindscape, interrupting its attack on the mortally wounded Pei Ye. She understood the cycle behind Edict Transmission, while Pei Ye survived the collapsing dais with Black Chi's help.

• The Divine Child's flood-dragon strike shattered Pei Ye's body, leaving him bleeding and unable to fight as it turned toward Li Piaoqing.
• Li Piaoqing recalled Yi Chengxin's clues about the Heart-Transmitting Candle and wondered whether the Divine Child could truly be harmed by Heart Poison.
• As the Divine Child's attack fell on Pei Ye, Li Piaoqing recognized its face and called it Yi Danjun, freezing its movements.
• Li Piaoqing entered the Divine Child's Mindscape and realized that the Divine Child was the transformed body of an Edict Child, whose consciousness was replaced through Edict Transmission every thirty years.
• The tentacle veered away from Pei Ye, and Black Chi caught him as he fell from the collapsing dais.
• Black Chi told Pei Ye that Li Piaoqing had identified the Divine Child as Yi Danjun and entered her Mindscape with the Heart-Transmitting Candle.

Pei Ye discovered the Torchworld Cult’s abandoned hideout and recovered Zhang Zijing’s belongings, while Li Piaoqing entered Yi Danjun’s collapsing Mindscape to find the painting pavilion and strike at her Heart Poison. The chapter left Li Piaoqing still navigating the ruins and Pei Ye examining the Immortal Painting Scroll.

• Pei Ye found the clearing where the Torchworld Cult had hidden its captives and prepared for Qiongqi’s descent.
• Pei Ye recognized Zhang Zijing’s belongings among the discarded clothes, and Black Chi retrieved his traveling bag.
• Pei Ye opened the bag and found the Immortal Painting Scroll.
• Li Piaoqing entered Yi Danjun’s ruined Mindscape and set out to find the Lin Jing Painting Pavilion before her mind gave out.
• Li Piaoqing deduced the pavilion’s likely location in the eastern city and continued through the collapsing Mindscape as the Heart Poison surged.
• Pei Ye examined the scroll, which showed a section of a flood dragon shadow and part of a mountain.

Pei Ye recognized the strange image in the scroll as the Edict Diagram and urged Glaze to hold on while he went to help Li Piaoqing. Li Piaoqing reached Yi Danjun’s Heart Poison in the Lin Jing Painting Pavilion and confronted her with the deception at the heart of her romance with Xifang Tian.

• Pei Ye studied the Edict Diagram, realized what the Divine Child feared, and asked Glaze to tell Piao Qing to hold on.
• Li Piaoqing endured Yi Danjun’s collapsing Mindscape and found the intact Lin Jing Painting Pavilion, where the woman’s Heart Poison remained.
• Li Piaoqing entered the pavilion’s courtyard and saw Yi Danjun and Xifang Tian together during the spring when they had fallen in love.
• Li Piaoqing confronted Yi Danjun about when she would tell Xifang Tian the truth, then accused her of originally treating him as a tool for planting her Heart Poison.

Li Piaoqing uncovered the truth behind Yi Danjun’s memories: Xifang Tian had become a mindless servant of the Immortal Lord’s Edict Diagram, leaving Yi Danjun trapped in a fate she could not escape. As her Heart Poison failed and the Mindscape collapsed, Li Piaoqing tried to ignite a new poison, but remained unable to form the Candle Sword.

• Li Piaoqing urged Yi Danjun to leave with Xifang Tian, but Yi Danjun said it was impossible and revealed that he was already dead.
• Li Piaoqing realized that the painter in the tower was depicting the flood dragon and that the Immortal Lord’s will had invaded Yi Danjun’s Mindscape.
• Pei Ye reclaimed Glaze and approached the Divine Child, invoking Heart-Slaying as Li Piaoqing tried to understand the scene.
• Li Piaoqing recalled how the Immortal Lord’s Edict Diagram had driven Xifang Tian mad after he found Yi Danjun tending immortal herbs.
• Li Piaoqing ignited her last Heart Poison, but could not form the Candle Sword as the tower and spring-night Mindscape crumbled into the true, snowbound reality.
• Yi Danjun faded beside Li Piaoqing, looking at her with sorrow as the golden-eyed figure watched from Cang Mountain.

Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing witnessed Yi Danjun’s Mindscape collapse after Xifang Tian completed his final painting, then Pei Ye became trapped in his own Mindscape with the Edict Diagram. He used Quail Head to shield his mind, but the descending dragon’s whisker continued its Edict Transmission, leaving him and Black Chi unable to resist.

• Pei Ye urged Xifang Tian to finish his painting, and Xifang Tian completed it before dying as Yi Danjun saw his devotion.
• Yi Danjun thanked Pei Ye, then burned away her Mindscape and herself, destroying the world that had imprisoned her.
• The collapsing Mindscape expelled Li Piaoqing, but Pei Ye remained trapped in his own Mindscape as the Edict Diagram emerged around him.
• Pei Ye recognized the Edict Diagram as a vast shroud and identified the immense descending form as a dragon’s whisker.
• Black Chi told Pei Ye to spread Quail Head around his Mindscape, and Pei Ye used it to blunt the Diagram’s eroding influence.
• The dragon’s whisker continued descending despite the shield, and Black Chi warned that the Edict Transmission could not be resisted.

Pei Ye touched the Purple Bamboo Forest Dragon Immortal Secret Edict and survived its overwhelming will when his mind returned from [Taiyi]. Elsewhere, Ming Qitian postponed her journey to Sword-Belly Mountain, while Shang Huaitong recovered and vowed revenge under the guidance of a masked benefactor.

• Pei Ye accepted the Edict Diagram’s direct contact, endured the Immortal Lord’s will, and glimpsed a purple bamboo forest where he met the gaze of his other self.
• Pei Ye returned to a dark cavern, heard Black Chi explain [Taiyi], and identified the name branded in his heart as the Purple Bamboo Forest Dragon Immortal Secret Edict.
• Xiao Tingshu found Ming Qitian’s note postponing their journey to Sword-Belly Mountain for ten days.
• Shang Huaitong told the black-robed benefactor that he could wield his sword again after seven days in the Netherworld Yellow Springs.
• Shang Huaitong pledged to climb the Sword Dao and take revenge, and the benefactor said a heart was needed to pursue a goal for more than twenty years.

Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing recovered in the cavern after escaping Yi Danjun’s Mindscape, while Pei Ye learned that the Immortal Lord’s influence was eroding his own Mindscape through the Edict Diagram. The chapter ended with Pei Ye and Black Chi facing the urgent problem of keeping him alive.

• Pei Ye reassured Li Piaoqing as the Fifth Poison stirred painful doubts about their relationship, and she gradually regained her strength.
• Pei Ye examined his Mindscape Realm and saw that the Immortal Lord’s painting had pierced Quail Head and was spreading into it.
• Black Chi explained that Quail Head had severed the Edict Diagram’s link to the Mindscape Realm, but the Immortal Lord could still support the erosion through a tendril connecting him to the mortal world.
• Pei Ye learned that the erosion could soon kill him, though controlling the Edict Diagram might eventually grant him command of the Purple Bamboo Secret Realm.
• Pei Ye and Black Chi fell silent, then both suddenly widened their eyes amid the pressure of the Immortal Lord’s presence.

Pei Ye recovered by devouring the Edict-Listening God-Child, then explored the site with Li Piaoqing and Black Chi. They found evidence of an ancient Edict Guardian and questioned Yi Duanzhi’s absence, leaving them to wonder who had guarded Yi Danjun’s edict.

• Pei Ye discovered that a little sword had pierced the dragon whisker in his Mindscape Realm, but Black Chi said the image showed an event from the past.
• Pei Ye absorbed the Edict-Listening God-Child’s corpse, healing his shattered body and growing stronger; Li Piaoqing grew frightened until he teased her, then kissed her forehead.
• Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing found the circular clearing left by the Sword Bead and considered whether the pearl, rather than the sword, had been the main force behind it.
• Black Chi pointed out that Yi Duanzhi had not appeared to guard the dragonkin or the Edict Diagram, and Pei Ye suspected he was carrying out the Immortal Lord’s edicts.
• Li Piaoqing found two ancient kneeling depressions beneath a stone stele, and Black Chi identified them as traces of an Edict Guardian, prompting the group to wonder who had guarded Yi Danjun.

Li Piaoqing concluded that Yi Duanzhi had taken Yi Danjun’s Heart Candle core in a mirror made from 120 jin of Heart Amber, while she and Pei Ye waited for Black Chi to check the Jade Ke Formation. In Bowang City, Li Weiru watched a manor as a masked intruder extracted the final “Flow” from Shang Huaitong, triggering a sword and a Desolate God, Wretched Bone wind as An Zang and Shi Zanxue approached.

• Li Piaoqing reasoned that Yi Duanzhi had removed Yi Danjun’s Heart Candle core and identified a circular depression where a Heart Amber mirror had been.
• Pei Ye and Li Piaoqing rested by a campfire, joked about their shared battles, and waited as Li Piaoqing struggled to understand her unformed Heart Candle.
• Black Chi returned and reported that the Jade Ke Formation was still present and working.
• Li Weiru continued guarding a manor in Bowang City while studying Jadeite texts and waiting for a possible enemy.
• A black-robed man extracted the final “Flow” from Shang Huaitong’s pearl, but Shang Huaitong’s death caused his sword to shoot out and a Desolate God, Wretched Bone wind to rise.
• An Zang and Shi Zanxue headed east through the rain toward the Immortal Platform, questioning how their enemies knew they were coming.