Chapter Summaries

Ying Huaixu tried to keep Meng Wuya from confronting Cheng Wanshu, whom he believed was dangerously powerful, and the group reunited with He Xiuyuan. After meeting Cheng Wanshu, Meng Wuya recalled that she resembled a long-missing martial uncle’s descendant.

• Ying Huaixu warned Meng Wuya against attacking the amnesiac Cheng Wanshu, but Meng Wuya refused to back down.
• Cheng Wanshu noticed Ying Huaixu and the others watching her, and Ying Huaixu interrupted her attempt to approach them alone by calling out to He Xiuyuan.
• He Xiuyuan introduced Cheng Wanshu as his cultivation partner and welcomed the group into their home.
• Ying Huaixu told He Xiuyuan that the Secret Realm was not dangerous and that Meng Wuya was only traveling, easing He Xiuyuan’s concerns.
• On the way back to the inn, Meng Wuya said Cheng Wanshu resembled Cheng Changfeng, a martial uncle rumored to have left the sect over a woman.

Meng Wuya learned that Cheng Wanshu was Cheng Changfeng’s daughter and sought Ying Huaixu’s advice about taking her as a disciple. Ying Huaixu urged him to tell her the truth at the sect, while he prepared to leave with Old He and learned that many groups were targeting him.

• Meng Wuya discovered that Cheng Wanshu was the daughter of Cheng Changfeng and the first Descender, whose mother had sacrificed Cheng Changfeng and intended to raise Cheng Wanshu against the Divine Firmament Sword Sect.
• Lü Qingyi agreed that Meng Wuya could take Cheng Wanshu as his disciple but told him to consult Ying Huaixu first.
• Ying Huaixu advised Meng Wuya to bring Cheng Wanshu into the sect and tell her the truth directly, warning that delays could deepen her misunderstanding.
• Ying Huaixu decided to take Old He away because the little Secret Realm was about to open.
• Ye Ningshuang and Xu Yaoyang revealed that they had spent the night killing attackers, and Xu Yaoyang told Ying Huaixu that many cultivators and assassin organizations had placed a high bounty on him.

Ying Huaixu, He Xiuyuan, and Ye Ningshuang reached the Cold Pool Secret Realm and watched Divine Firmament Sword Sect disciples confront the Shura Hall. The sect’s supposedly ordinary disciple defeated the Shura Son in one strike and named He Xiuyuan the threshold for its geniuses, leaving He Xiuyuan bewildered.

• Ying Huaixu and Ye Ningshuang left He Xiuyuan behind, but He Xiuyuan hurried after them when he feared he would be excluded.
• Ying Huaixu told He Xiuyuan that Cheng Wanshu would become a powerful personal disciple, but He Xiuyuan insisted she was his wife regardless.
• Ying Huaixu, He Xiuyuan, and Ye Ningshuang reached the Cold Pool Secret Realm and waited outside its unopened entrance.
• Ye Ningshuang spotted Huang Tianqi leading Divine Firmament Sword Sect disciples, while a Shura Son mocked their group.
• A Divine Firmament Sword Sect disciple challenged the Shura Son and knocked him into a boulder with one strike.
• The disciple called He Xiuyuan the threshold for the sect’s geniuses, and He Xiuyuan protested that the title made no sense.

The Divine Firmament Sword Sect disciples defeated two famous geniuses, while Xu Yaoyang’s arrival and the Secret Realm’s opening shifted the group’s focus. Inside, Ye Ningshuang secretly raised the trial’s difficulty by creating a Sea of Qi Realm red-name monster, leaving He Xiuyuan to face it.

• A Divine Firmament Sword Sect disciple defeated another jeering genius with a single sword strike, alarming the gathered cultivators.
• Huang Tianqi asked Ying Huaixu whether they should drive the other geniuses away, and Ying Huaixu said the group should handle the Secret Realm’s traps first.
• Xu Yaoyang greeted Huang Tianqi instead of confronting the Divine Firmament Sword Sect, and the Secret Realm’s barrier opened.
• The geniuses entered the Secret Realm, followed by Huang Tianqi’s group, Ying Huaixu, Ye Ningshuang, and He Xiuyuan.
• Ye Ningshuang bypassed the traps and created a Sea of Qi Realm red-name monster, raising the Secret Realm’s difficulty for He Xiuyuan and the others.

He Xiuyuan and the others reached a star-gazing platform guarded by a powerful stitched female monster, who slaughtered many of the gathered geniuses. After Xu Yaoyang recognized her purple cutting attack and fled, the monster charged He Xiuyuan, leaving him to face her.

• The Divine Firmament Sword Sect disciples advanced through traps, using them to train, while He Xiuyuan sensed danger and sent Huang Tianqi ahead.
• Huang Tianqi slipped away as the group arrived at a star-gazing platform, where a towering stitched woman blocked their path and their way back vanished.
• He Xiuyuan and the Divine Firmament Sword Sect disciples prepared to fight together, but the woman crushed several charging geniuses and killed many more with pillars of black light.
• Xu Yaoyang struck the woman with blazing-sun sword attacks, but she countered with purple spiritual power that he recognized from Ye Ningshuang's technique, so he fled.
• The female monster charged He Xiuyuan, who gritted his teeth and resolved to give the fight everything he had.

He Xiuyuan fought the female monster and survived her second phase by unleashing his hidden miniature sword, while Ye Ningshuang revealed that the battle had only tested a fraction of her strength. Afterward, Huang Tianqi showed off his newly comprehended spatial artistic conception by immobilizing He Xiuyuan.

• He Xiuyuan restrained the female monster, endured her bone-blade strike, and wounded her with a rain of golden sword energy, but she healed almost instantly.
• He Xiuyuan shattered the female monster's bone blade with his miniature golden sword, but her second phase overwhelmed him and sent him crashing into a mountain wall.
• The female monster began to dissipate, and He Xiuyuan celebrated defeating her before Ye Ningshuang revealed that the monster had not withstood even thirty percent of her strength.
• Huang Tianqi told He Xiuyuan that he had comprehended an artistic conception and challenged him to a test.
• Huang Tianqi immobilized He Xiuyuan with his spatial artistic conception, leaving He Xiuyuan stunned that an Alchemist had mastered it.

Ying Huaixu completed the small secret realm exploration and received a major reward, then accepted a map fragment from Xu Yaoyang tied to the Great Sun Sacred Ground’s secret realm. He Xiuyuan revealed that Xu Yaoyang needed supreme yin power to balance his Pure Yang Body and suggested Ying Huaixu take him on as a lackey.

• He Xiuyuan lost his duel with Huang Tianqi, whose Spatial Shackles and poison overwhelmed him, and Huang Tianqi explained that he had comprehended spatial intent while trying to control his pill furnace.
• Ying Huaixu received 500,000 EXP, 300,000 spirit stones, and 100 Spirit Leaves for completing the small secret realm exploration, and planned to save the EXP for the Cold Pool Secret Realm.
• Ye Ningshuang declined Ying Huaixu’s invitation to explore secret realms because she wanted to return to seclusion and digest her recent insights.
• Xu Yaoyang gave Ying Huaixu a Heavenly Palace Index Map Fragment and explained that he wanted help finding something when the Great Sun Sacred Ground’s secret realm opened.
• Xu Yaoyang asked Ying Huaixu to inject spiritual power into a crystal ball, completed his daily quest, and left with the ball.
• He Xiuyuan told Ying Huaixu that Xu Yaoyang’s Pure Yang Body needed supreme yin power to suppress its divinity and suggested recruiting him as a lackey.

Ying Huaixu left the secret realm while Ye Ningshuang stayed behind to keep enemies from learning more about him. She slaughtered a Shura Hall branch and, after hearing that another bounty came from Beimang Mountain, flew there to continue her attack.

• Ying Huaixu refused to replace his current artistic conception with the low-grade concepts he sensed on the stargazing platform, then prepared to return to the sect with He Xiuyuan and the others.
• Ye Ningshuang stayed behind and confronted people secretly following Ying Huaixu, killing them with a sword strike and absorbing their power.
• Ye Ningshuang went to a Shura Hall Branch and massacred it over the bounty on her and Ying Huaixu.
• Ye Ningshuang asked where else Shura Hall had posted a bounty on her and rewarded a bystander with a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones for naming Beimang Mountain's Old Demon City.
• Ye Ningshuang flew toward Beimang Mountain on her sword.

Ye Ningshuang arrived at Old Demon City, a Shura Hall branch, and cut down its monsters as she made her way toward the bone tower. The masked woman in charge tried to stop her with a skull-shaped magic treasure, but Ye Ningshuang effortlessly dispersed its attack.

• In Old Demon City, the masked Shura Hall leader learned that Ye Ningshuang had destroyed another branch and ordered the Hard-Kill Guard to confront her, while her subordinate prepared to flee.
• Ye Ningshuang entered the city and exposed a child’s plea for help as a disguise used by an old soul, then killed the creature by crushing its filthy-water form.
• The monsters of Old Demon City rushed Ye Ningshuang, and she slew them with a sweep of purple sword energy before walking toward the bone tower under an oil-paper umbrella.
• The masked woman watched Ye Ningshuang approach and, despite fearing her strength, launched blood-red mist from a skull-shaped magic treasure.
• Ye Ningshuang blew gently and dispersed the mist, leaving the woman dumbfounded.

Ye Ningshuang wiped out more Shura Hall outposts, forcing the hall to withdraw its bounties and flee while attention shifted away from Ying Huaixu. Afterward, she met an old diviner who upset her by predicting her marriage prospects, then asked him to read He Xiuyuan's fortune.

• Ye Ningshuang killed the Shura Hall outpost’s defenders and rewarded independent cultivators who revealed other outpost locations.
• Ye Ningshuang destroyed several more Shura Hall outposts, and the hall withdrew its bounties before fleeing when she continued her campaign.
• Ye Ningshuang concluded that the Shura Hall had targeted Ying Huaixu and was satisfied when people stopped focusing on him.
• An old man offered to tell Ye Ningshuang’s fortune, and she asked about her marriage prospects.
• Ye Ningshuang threatened the old diviner when he described her future cultivation partner, then asked him to read He Xiuyuan’s fortune.
• The old man began divining He Xiuyuan’s future and reacted with bewilderment.

Ye Ningshuang returned to the Divine Firmament Sword Sect with her Third Grandmaster, who clashed with Ying Huaixu and was beaten by He Xixiang before Lü Qingyi intervened. Lü Qingyi ordered the old man to stay in the sect, then returned home injured and began regulating her breathing.

• Ye Ningshuang challenged the old man's attempt to lecture her and revealed that her master was Lü Qingyi, causing him to abandon his plan and identify himself as her Third Grandmaster.
• Ying Huaixu reproached Ye Ningshuang for killing people without bringing him along, and she promised to include him next time.
• The Third Grandmaster examined Ying Huaixu, insulted him, and provoked him to message He Xixiang for help.
• He Xixiang attacked the Third Grandmaster, but Lü Qingyi stopped her and persuaded her to spare him because his treasury could benefit Ying Huaixu.
• Lü Qingyi ordered the Third Grandmaster to settle in the sect, then returned to her residence and began regulating her breathing after blood escaped her mouth.

Lü Qingyi worried that Ying Huaixu’s conflict with the third martial uncle would provoke He Xixiang, but found Ying Huaixu content and persuaded He Xixiang to let the old man live. The sect’s leaders explained that Ying Huaixu had become so indispensable that they feared the sect itself might be at fault if he ever turned against it.

• After recovering from He Xixiang’s strike, Lü Qingyi went to Tianqu Peak to calm the situation and discovered Ying Huaixu was happily resting in He Xixiang’s lap.
• Lü Qingyi warned that the third martial uncle held the key to their master’s treasury, and Ying Huaixu persuaded He Xixiang not to punish him further.
• Ying Huaixu declined personal compensation and said he wanted the Divine Firmament Sword Sect to grow stronger.
• He Xixiang told Ying Huaixu to reach the Spirit Sea Realm so she could teach him her signature skills, and a master-disciple mission was automatically accepted.
• Inside the sect’s small world, Zhuang Mu and Tong Xinran told the old man that Ying Huaixu’s pills and talismans had made him indispensable to the sect and warned him not to insult Ying Huaixu.

The old man criticized the sect’s changes and Ye Ningshuang’s path, but Zhuang Mu and the other peak masters defended their choices and Ying Huaixu. As Zhuang Mu showed him the sect’s new disciple tokens, cheap pills, talismans, and magical-artifact shortages, the old man struggled to understand the changes and Ying Huaixu’s generosity.

• The old man challenged Zhuang Mu over Ye Ningshuang, but Zhuang Mu and Meng Wuya questioned his assumptions and defended her cultivation and actions.
• Tong Xinran reminded the old man that he had opposed Junior Sister Qingyi’s reforms before and urged him to stay in the small world, then the other peak masters left him with Zhuang Mu.
• Several days later, Zhuang Mu showed the old man disciple tokens that enabled remote chatting and trading, including purchases delivered from the tokens’ storage spaces.
• At the pill-refining room, Zhuang Mu explained that Ying Huaixu supplied supreme-quality Spirit-Shaping Pills using his own herbs and sold them cheaply to support the disciples.
• The old man saw disciples buying talismans in bulk for the illusory dream trial and heard that the Artifact Refining Room could not meet demand because Ying Huaixu had not learned artifact refining.

The old man disguised himself as a disciple to investigate the Divine Firmament Sword Sect’s sudden enthusiasm for training, then tried the illusory dream trial and was instantly defeated by Ying Huaixu. He kept spending spirit stones to challenge her again, while the disciples warned him not to question Sister Ying’s strength.

• The old man returned to the Sword Tower with Zhuang Mu and was stunned to find disciples eagerly competing to enter it.
• Zhuang Mu explained that the Sword Tower had become a shortcut to improving strength, then told others that Third Martial Uncle was mingling with the disciples.
• Disguised as a disciple, the old man learned that entrants were expected to pass the illusory dream trial first and watched Senior Brother Erniu celebrate clearing He Xiuyuan’s stage.
• The old man went to the illusory dream trial, selected Ridiculous difficulty, chose Ying Huaixu, and was defeated almost immediately.
• The old man repeatedly spent spirit stones to challenge Ying Huaixu again, and the disciples told him to stop questioning Sister Ying’s strength.

An old man challenged the Divine Firmament Sword Sect’s Illusory Dream Trial and struggled against its disciples, eventually passing He Xiuyuan’s Hard difficulty trial. He learned the sect’s genius rankings just as the bell called all disciples to assemble.

• The old man tried increasingly difficult trials, but Ye Ningshuang, Ying Huaixu, Huang Tianqi, and Qiu Shiyi defeated him.
• He Xiuyuan repeatedly killed the old man until he learned to cast faster, eliminate hand seals, and strengthen his divine sense.
• After many attempts, the old man finally passed He Xiuyuan’s trial, and the disciples cheered and asked how he had improved.
• The disciples explained that He Xiuyuan was the Hard difficulty threshold, while the old man qualified as an earth-grade genius.
• The sect bell rang, summoning all disciples to assemble.

Lü Qingyi announced a tournament to choose the hundred disciples who could enter the Cold Pool Secret Realm, while Ying Huaixu watched from the stands and assessed the sect’s progress. Huang Tianqi ultimately won the tournament, revealing that his spatial artistic conception made him far stronger than the other disciples expected.

• Lü Qingyi announced that only the top one hundred disciples in the tournament could enter the Cold Pool Secret Realm, while Ye Ningshuang and Ying Huaixu sat out as spectators.
• Lü Qingyi told Ying Huaixu that Li Shuangshuang had joined the Divine Firmament Sword Sect as an ordinary Inner Sect disciple and now had Qi Sea cultivation.
• Ying Huaixu agreed to evaluate the disciples during the tournament and share suggestions for improving their strength with Lü Qingyi.
• The disciples fought fiercely, and the top one hundred advanced to compete for special rewards and places in the top ten.
• Third Martial Uncle secretly entered the top ten in disguise, while He Xiuyuan was quickly defeated and finished at the bottom.
• Huang Tianqi won the tournament, surprising the disciples, who cursed him for hiding his strength; he credited his powerful spatial artistic conception.

After the competition, Ying Huaixu planned to improve his disciples’ teamwork in the Cold Pool Secret Realm and secretly secured life-saving and combat treasures for them. Lü Qingyi handed out the gifts as rewards from the sect, insisting they had nothing to do with Sister Ying.

• The disciples accepted their losses without jealousy, crediting Ying Huaixu’s encouragement and help for their growing confidence and strength.
• Third Martial Uncle left after worrying that Ying Huaixu might die young, and Zhuang Mu informed Lü Qingyi of his departure.
• Ying Huaixu proposed training the disciples in team battles, and Lü Qingyi suggested they test their teamwork in the Cold Pool Secret Realm.
• Ying Huaixu decided to seek the Nine-Leaf Nether Soul Lotus for Ye Ningshuang and traded Spirit Leaves for life-saving treasures for every disciple entering the secret realm.
• Ying Huaixu also gave Lü Qingyi defensive and attack talisman treasures to distribute, asking her to credit the sect rather than him.
• Lü Qingyi distributed the treasures as sect rewards and told the disciples they had nothing to do with Sister Ying.

Lü Qingyi freed He Xixiang and asked her to watch over the sect while she recovered in seclusion, then Ying Huaixu discovered that sharing food and drink with immortals granted him enormous experience. The chapter ended with Lü Qingyi suppressing the dangerous surge of power after Ying Huaixu drank from her teacup and asking how long he expected to be bedridden.

• Lü Qingyi released He Xixiang from her restrictions and told her to guard the Divine Firmament Sword Sect while she entered seclusion to restore her peak condition.
• Lü Qingyi warned He Xixiang not to advance or attempt the Heavenly Tribulation, and He Xixiang agreed to watch over the sect.
• Ying Huaixu returned, and He Xixiang scolded him for giving Lü Qingyi too many Spirit Leaves before soothing him and offering him mysterious blood-red fruits.
• Ying Huaixu gained 100,000 experience when he took a fruit He Xixiang had put in her mouth, then hurried to test whether an immortal's contact caused the effect.
• Ying Huaixu drank from Lü Qingyi's teacup and gained experience repeatedly until a connection error appeared and his body began to swell.
• Lü Qingyi restored Ying Huaixu to normal and asked how many days he planned to spend in bed.

After discovering that Ying Huaixu carried an unknown, pure primordial force that could draw the Heavenly Dao’s wrath, Lü Qingyi gave him her sovereign blood to conceal him. She then confronted the chaotic river of time, which revealed that its visions were unreliable and left Ying Huaixu’s future uncertain.

• Lü Qingyi and He Xixiang whipped Ying Huaixu for his misdeeds, while Fawn found unusual energy in the spiritual energy stripped from him.
• Lü Qingyi and He Xixiang identified the energy as primordial force, feared the Heavenly Dao might erase Ying Huaixu or imprison him, and He Xixiang set out to find a way to hide him.
• Lü Qingyi refined her own sovereign blood into a rainbow-colored pearl and gave it to He Xixiang for Ying Huaixu to wear.
• Lü Qingyi looked into the river of time and saw misleading phantom figures beside Ye Ningshuang, including visions of Ying Huaixu holding her, He Xixiang, and Lao Zhuang.
• Lü Qingyi shattered the illusions and seized the river of time, which admitted its chaos contained no reliable outcomes; she released it and warned it not to show her such nonsense again.

With Lü Qingyi in seclusion, Zhuang Mu pulled the peak masters into handling the sect’s affairs, exposing shortages and unresolved problems. Ying Huaixu’s advice helped the Discipline Peak Master improve the sect’s defenses, while Zhuang Mu proposed recruiting new ascendants to work in the spirit stone mines.

• Lü Qingyi entered seclusion, and Zhuang Mu found himself overwhelmed by the sect affairs she had managed.
• Zhuang Mu summoned the peak masters, including Third Martial Uncle, to help review and approve the backlog of reports.
• The Artifact Refining Peak Master realized the sect relied on Lü Qingyi’s purchases to cover a shortage of magical artifacts and considered asking Ying Huaixu to learn artifact refining.
• The Discipline Peak Master asked the Disciples' Plaza how to detect conscious puppets, and Ying Huaixu suggested using a mind-detecting formation linked to the Sin-Severing Grand Formation.
• The Discipline Peak Master decided to modify the Questioning Heart Formation based on Ying Huaixu’s suggestion, earning Ying Huaixu fifty thousand experience points.
• Zhuang Mu suggested having newly ascended cultivators work in the spirit stone mines as a way to give them a place to start.