Chapter Summaries

Chu Feikong, Qing Chen, and Di Huaiyi investigated the massacre at Liangshan Stronghold, where Di Huaiyi used the Flowing Light Spirit-Peering Art to glimpse the attack. The hostile spell injured him, but he learned that multiple demonic fiends had carried out the sacrifice under a powerful leader, and the group prepared to report their findings to Martial Uncle Gu.

• Chu Feikong led Qing Chen and Di Huaiyi into Liangshan Stronghold, where they found charred ruins, scattered bones, and signs of a brutal sacrificial ritual.
• Chu Feikong identified sinister spell traces on the bones and animal hides and warned Di Huaiyi that lingering magic could contain traps.
• Di Huaiyi cast the Flowing Light Spirit-Peering Art and saw demonic spells ravaging the villagers in the past.
• A concealed countermeasure struck through the spell, shattering Di Huaiyi's mirror and injuring him before he severed the connection.
• Di Huaiyi told Chu Feikong and Qing Chen that several demonic fiends, led by a powerful cultivator controlling a barrier, had performed the sacrifice.
• Chu Feikong urged them to send Di Huaiyi's findings to Martial Uncle Gu so he could prepare accordingly.

Qing Chen planted a black jade pendant in Liangshan Stronghold’s ruins so Di Huaiyi and Chu Feikong would find evidence that could implicate the Xu Household. The three planned to question the surviving stronghold chief, who was living in Mysterious Mountain City.

• Qing Chen led Di Huaiyi and Chu Feikong to the center of Liangshan Stronghold and urged them to search its unusually clean ruins more closely.
• Chu Feikong explained that the stronghold chief belonged to a collateral branch of the Yue Household and had been away in Mysterious Mountain City when the massacre occurred.
• Di Huaiyi found a black jade pendant whose sinister aura matched traces on the bones, and sealed it for Senior Brother Gu to examine.
• Di Huaiyi recorded the evidence and the details of his retrospective vision, while Qing Chen reflected that Su Zixuan had secretly planted the pendant at his direction.
• Qing Chen asked Chu Feikong where the surviving chief lived, and Chu Feikong said he had settled in the Eastern Mountain Market Ward of Mysterious Mountain City.

After discovering a black jade pendant at the ruins of Liangshan Stronghold, Gu Jianchun’s party went to Mysterious Mountain City to question the surviving chief, only to find his household massacred. Their investigation turned toward a possible leak within the Condensed Jade Sect, and Xu Baichuan was challenged after reacting strangely to the pendant.

• Di Huaiyi, Qing Chen, and Chu Feikong reported that a powerful group had massacred Liangshan Stronghold and presented a black jade pendant linked to demonic magic.
• Gu Jianchun led the group to Mysterious Mountain City to find the surviving Liangshan Stronghold chief, Yue Chengfeng helping them locate his residence.
• Gu Jianchun’s party found the chief’s household dead, and Chu Feikong suspected the killers had learned of their movements from a traitor.
• Gu Jianchun redirected the investigation toward the pendant, and Xu Baichuan’s reaction drew Qing Chen’s attention.
• A Law Enforcement Hall disciple identified the pendant’s emblem as belonging to the Xu Household of Sea Prosperity Island and questioned Xu Baichuan about it.

Gu Jianchun’s investigation linked the mass sacrifice to Blackwood Island’s demonic art and led the sect’s group to a battle in northern Mysterious Mountain Island. As the Redwood Shuttle charged toward the fighting, Qing Chen remained indifferent to the mortals in danger.

• Gu Jianchun detained Xu Baichuan after finding a Xu Household jade pendant and ordered him to cooperate with the investigation.
• Di Huaiyi presented recorded images identifying the demonic art as Blackwood Island’s Unbroken Suffering and Joy, and Chu Feikong suggested questioning Yue Zhimu.
• Gu Jianchun’s group found Yue Zhimu’s cave abode empty, then used his soul tablet to locate him in the island’s northern wilderness.
• Gu Jianchun and the others found wounded Yue Zhimu, Ding Buxing, and a Condensed Jade Sect patrol disciple, who reported that demonic cultivators were sacrificing a village nearby.
• Gu Jianchun led the Redwood Shuttle toward the battle while Yue Chengfeng sent Yue Lin to escort the wounded back to the city.
• Qing Chen watched the battle ahead and felt no desire to protect the mortals caught in it.

Qing Chen secretly followed Yue Lin's party and uncovered Yue Zhimu and Ding Buxing's betrayal of the Condensed Jade Sect. After confronting them, he faced their coordinated attack and prepared to fight.

• Qing Chen persuaded Gu Jianchun to let him secretly escort Yue Lin's party and investigate suspicious traces.
• Qing Chen found Yue Lin and an injured Condensed Jade Sect disciple dead, recorded the evidence, and pursued Yue Zhimu and Ding Buxing aboard the Green Bamboo Boat.
• Qing Chen accused Yue Zhimu and Ding Buxing of colluding with demonic cultivators, sacrificing mortals, and killing fellow disciples.
• Ding Buxing explained that he had embraced demonic cultivation to gain power and fulfill his promise to extend his royal father's life, declaring that he would betray the world rather than be betrayed by it.
• Yue Zhimu and Ding Buxing attacked Qing Chen from opposite sides, and he countered with the Mother-Son Thundershadow Swords and the Mystic Light Mirror, startling them with his seventh-layer Qi Refining cultivation.

Qing Chen turned the tables on Yue Zhimu and Ding Buxing with his three High-Grade Magical Artifacts and killed Yue Zhimu. Ding Buxing destroyed his Ink Bamboo Sabers and threatened Qing Chen with a Blood-Fouled Thunder Pearl, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Yue Zhimu and Ding Buxing used Spirit-Raising Talismans and talisman attacks to intensify their assault on Qing Chen, but his Mystic Ice Pearl and Mystic Light Mirror blunted it.
• Qing Chen counterattacked with the Mother-Son Thundershadow Swords, overcoming the two men’s weapons as the talismans’ effects faded.
• Yue Zhimu hurled Corrupt Blood Pearls at Qing Chen, whose blood sword gang shattered them and whose White Bone Demon Mara Banner absorbed the tainted blood.
• Qing Chen strengthened the Mother-Son Thundershadow Swords with his life-bound blood essence and pierced Yue Zhimu’s chest, killing him.
• Ding Buxing tried to flee, then detonated both Ink Bamboo Sabers to stop Qing Chen’s swords and revealed a Blood-Fouled Thunder Pearl, demanding that Qing Chen let him leave.

Qing Chen spared Ding Buxing after extracting an oath and the location of the White Bone Blood Pool, then raced to the Chaos Burial Mound to claim its remains for himself. He reached the cavern beneath the grave and found a vast pool filled with thousands of bones.

• Ding Buxing offered the White Bone Blood Pool's location in exchange for his life, and Qing Chen secretly recorded his accusation against the Sea Prosperity Island Xu Household's collateral branches.
• Qing Chen made Ding Buxing swear an inner-demon oath to keep their encounter secret, provide accurate information, and never return to Mysterious Mountain Island.
• Ding Buxing revealed the pool's location and fled, while Qing Chen decided to claim its blood essence and bones for the White Bone Demon Mara Banner.
• Qing Chen burned his stored blood essence to speed the Green Bamboo Boat toward the Chaos Burial Mound outside Big Stone Village.
• Qing Chen opened the grave with two stone headstones, descended into an underground cavern, and found thousands of bones gathered in a vast pool.

Qing Chen used the White Bone Demon Mara Banner to devour the White Bone Blood Pool, strengthening the banner and absorbing purified blood essence that boosted his cultivation. As the banner neared advancement into a Low-Grade Spirit Artifact, he poured his spiritual sense into it and began its breakthrough.

• Qing Chen linked himself to the White Bone Blood Pool and the White Bone Demon Mara Banner, then sent a pillar of black radiance into the pool.
• The banner devoured the pool's bones and flesh, growing stronger as the cavern shook.
• Demon Seed Golden Lotus helped the banner purify the resources, and refined blood essence flowed back to Qing Chen for the Brahma Demon-Refining Art to absorb.
• With the pool nearly emptied and the banner glowing blood-red, Qing Chen began guiding it through its breakthrough into a Low-Grade Spirit Artifact.

Qing Chen completed the Pojun Demon Mara Banner’s transformation into a Low-Grade Spirit Artifact, then returned to Gu Jianchun with a Recording Stone implicating Ding Buxing, Yue Zhimu, and a collateral branch of the Xu Household in treachery. Gu Jianchun resolved to return to the sect and investigate the wider conspiracy, while Qing Chen urged scrutiny of Xu Baichuan.

• Qing Chen completed the banner’s ascension, concealed his true condition, and retrieved the Recording Stone containing Ding Buxing’s testimony.
• Qing Chen returned to the Condensed Jade Sect’s flying vessel and presented Gu Jianchun with the Recording Stone, claiming Yue Zhimu and Ding Buxing had attacked and killed their fellow disciples.
• Gu Jianchun played the recording, which revealed the traitors’ collusion with the demonic path and a collateral branch of the Xu Household, enraging him and shocking the disciples.
• Gu Jianchun reported that his group had destroyed the demonic cultivators at Blackwood Island and decided to return to the sect to report the conspiracy.
• When a Law Enforcement Hall disciple asked about Xu Baichuan, Gu Jianchun said the Xu Household connection warranted further investigation, and Qing Chen reinforced the need to pursue that lead.

After a month of cultivation, Qing Chen reached the peak of the seventh layer of Qi Refining and learned that the sect had recalled the Law Enforcement Hall disciples but left him on Mysterious Mountain Island. The sect’s lenient treatment of the Yue Household and Chu Feikong’s strange distance left Qing Chen uneasy as he prepared to keep cultivating.

• Qing Chen advanced to the peak of the seventh layer of Qi Refining while sensing unexplained stirrings in his Brahma Aperture and discovering that his spirit-artifact banner now sought cultivators’ remains and powerful martial artists’ bones.
• Qing Chen emerged from seclusion and found Chu Feikong managing Mysterious Mountain Island’s affairs, though Chu urged him to focus on cultivation and avoid island business.
• Di Huaiyi told Qing Chen that the sect had ordered Xu Baichuan held under house arrest and had declared Yue Zhimu’s actions unrelated to the Yue Household.
• Qing Chen questioned whether Yue Zhimu had acted alone and worried over the sect’s handling of the case.
• Qing Chen escorted Di Huaiyi and the other Law Enforcement Hall disciples to their flying boat, then learned that he and the other island disciples had not been recalled.

After the Law Enforcement Hall left Luofu Island, Qing Chen learned that He Fei’s missing father had once been Di Huaiyi’s fellow disciple and that his family needed help. He investigated Yang Jinquan’s public torment of He Fei’s mother and grew suspicious of Yang’s motives and Chu Feikong’s failure to intervene.

• Di Huaiyi warned Qing Chen that the disappearances on Luofu Island were part of a wider pattern and asked him to look after He Fei and his family.
• Su Zixuan told Qing Chen that Yang Jinquan was forcing He Fei’s mother to crawl across the island for three days in exchange for spirit stones to treat her son.
• Qing Chen recognized that the widow’s husband was surnamed He and told Su Zixuan to monitor events, reasoning that the spectacle might draw Chu Feikong out.
• For two days, Luofu Island residents condemned Yang Jinquan, but he remained hidden and no one intervened.
• Qing Chen watched He Fei’s mother crawl and kowtow through Luofu City as cultivators observed from the crowd and nearby buildings.
• Qing Chen found Chu Feikong’s continued silence and Yang Jinquan’s costly public scheme suspicious, and began to form a theory about Yang’s true goal.

Yang Jinquan emerged before the crowd that had gathered to demand justice for He’s family and revealed that He had been investigating disappearances and village blood sacrifices before his death. Yang Jinquan accused Island Master Chu Feikong of being the mastermind, leaving the crowd furious and divided.

• Qing Chen overheard cultivators in a restaurant threaten to punish Yang Jinquan, while a wounded woman crawled toward the city lord’s residence seeking help for her son.
• Cultivators who had admired He rallied around the woman and marched to the Condensed Jade Sect’s compound to find Yang Jinquan.
• Yang Jinquan came out carrying Chongyang Pills for He Fei and said He had entrusted his wife and son to him before disappearing.
• Yang Jinquan claimed He had linked years of disappearances on Mysterious Mountain and Luofu Islands to recent village blood sacrifices, and that He had vanished while investigating the connection.
• Yang Jinquan named Chu Feikong as the mastermind, prompting the crowd to curse him and defend Island Master Chu while a female cultivator quietly led the woman and boy away.

Chu Feikong tried to kill Yang Jinquan, then persuaded the crowd that Yang was a demonic spy after he escaped. Qing Chen remained suspicious, but his doubts turned into temptation when he realized Chu might possess a vast store of cultivators’ remains for the White Bone Demon Mara Banner.

• Chu Feikong attacked Yang Jinquan with the Fire Dragon Silver Scroll, but Yang escaped using a second-tier escape talisman.
• Chu Feikong pursued Yang for two hours, returned empty-handed, and claimed Yang had used a demonic escape art to flee.
• The crowd trusted Chu Feikong because of his long-standing reputation as the Chivalrous King, but Qing Chen remained doubtful about Yang’s accusations and Chu’s hasty attack.
• Qing Chen considered ignoring the affair and focusing on making money after securing the White Bone Blood Pool and upgrading his demonic banner.
• Qing Chen realized Chu might have accumulated a huge White Bone Blood Pool over many years and became eager to obtain the cultivators’ remains.

Chu Feikong crushed public doubts and launched a hunt for Yang Jinquan while Qing Chen quietly pursued the lead of the abducted mother and child. Su Zixuan traced them to the Yue Household’s inner city, leaving Qing Chen to plan how to investigate without entering a dangerous stronghold unprepared.

• Chu Feikong sealed Luofu Island’s routes, ordered the hunt for Yang Jinquan, and demanded the Yue Household’s cooperation in killing him on sight.
• Chu Feikong’s speech persuaded the crowd that Yang Jinquan was a demonic spy, while Qing Chen chose not to challenge him publicly.
• Qing Chen revealed that he had marked the abducted mother and child with his demon seed and instructed Su Zixuan to follow them with a magical power mark.
• Su Zixuan reported that a gauze veil blocked her magical power mark, but the demon seed’s trace led her to the Yue Household’s inner city in Mysterious Mountain City.
• Qing Chen decided the lead was too valuable to abandon and began considering how to investigate the Yue Household’s heavily guarded inner city.

Qing Chen prepared to infiltrate the Yue Household’s inner city, relying on the Demon Seed’s signal to guide him toward a secluded area. After avoiding a hidden trigger restriction, he used Su Zixuan’s Formation-Locking Plate and an Illusion-Confounding Talisman to slip through the city’s defenses.

• Qing Chen told Su Zixuan to remain in the Cave Abode and use their agreed code if he contacted her while investigating Mysterious Mountain City.
• Qing Chen used the Demon Seed Golden Lotus technique and Earth-Escaping Talismans to travel toward the Yue Household’s inner city while concealing his presence.
• Qing Chen found a hidden trigger restriction near the inner city wall and retreated before setting it off.
• Qing Chen used the Formation-Locking Plate to disrupt the formation and crushed an Illusion-Confounding Talisman to confuse its spiritual sensing.
• Qing Chen slipped through the wall amid the interference and illusions.

Qing Chen infiltrated the Yue Household's inner city and used the Soul Bewitchment Technique to question He Fei's mother. He learned why Yang Jinquan exposed Chu Feikong and discovered that Yue Daishi, the sister of the Yue Zhimu he killed, had hidden the mother and son.

• Qing Chen used concealment techniques and a short-range earth escape to slip past the Yue Household's defenses and enter its inner city.
• Qing Chen located He Fei and his mother in a remote residence and subdued them with the Soul Bewitchment Technique.
• He Fei's mother revealed that her late husband had shared his suspicions about Chu Feikong with Yang Jinquan and entrusted the child to him.
• He Fei's mother explained that Yang Jinquan exposed Chu Feikong because he gambled that people would unite out of a desire to see He Fei dead.
• He Fei's mother identified Yue Daishi as the female cultivator who sheltered them, and Qing Chen learned she was Yue Zhimu's younger sister and Yang Jinquan's former comrade.

Qing Chen learned that Yue Daishi had taken a token granting access to a hidden cave abode and passage through the Condensed Jade Sect base on Luofu Island. He returned to his cave abode and concluded that the Xu Household might have tried to frame the Yue Household for the blood sacrifice.

• Qing Chen pressured a woman in the Yue Household's inner city until she revealed that Yue Daishi had taken a hidden cave-abode token from her husband.
• The woman explained that the token belonged to a Condensed Jade Sect disciple and could open a concealed cave abode and identify its bearer within the sect's base.
• Qing Chen inferred that Yang Jinquan and Yue Daishi were heading to the Luofu Island base, where something beneath it might be drawing them and him.
• Qing Chen put the woman into a deep sleep, then used escape techniques and Spirit Talismans to return to Luofu City.
• Su Zixuan told Qing Chen that the cave abode's formations were intact and no suspicious people had been watching it.
• Qing Chen recalled evidence against the Xu Household and suspected it had sought to blame the Yue Household for the blood sacrifice.

Qing Chen suspected Chu Feikong and the Xu Household were preparing to act, so he made escape preparations and searched underground for the hidden secret. The demonic aura led him more than a hundred zhang beneath Luofu Island, but he had not yet reached its source.

• Qing Chen concluded that Chu Feikong had used Yue Zhimu to frame the Yue Household and hurried to investigate Xu Baichuan's cave abode.
• Qing Chen found Qin Zigu and Pan Yuelian guarding Xu Baichuan, reinforcing his suspicion that the Xu Household and Chu Feikong were colluding and about to make their move.
• Qing Chen returned to his cave abode, strengthened his defenses, and sent Su Zixuan to set warning and interference formations around Luofu Island.
• Qing Chen used earth escape techniques and talismans to descend underground, following the pull of his Brahma Aperture and White Bone Demon Mara Banner.
• Qing Chen reached a depth of more than a hundred zhang, sensed a chilling blood aura, and continued searching for the buried secret.

Qing Chen descended into Chu Feikong’s hidden underground cave abode and discovered a vast Blood Pool Bone Forest made from the remains of tens of thousands of people. He spotted Chu Feikong and Xu Baichuan at the edge of the pool and focused the Mystic Light Mirror on Xu Baichuan.

• Qing Chen followed the strange fluctuations deep underground, preparing talismans and the Formation-Locking Plate as he advanced.
• Qing Chen entered the cave abode disguised as an ordinary seventh-layer Qi Refining cultivator and cautiously navigated its ominous runes and array markings.
• Qing Chen used the Mystic Light Mirror to discover a blood pool and bone forest containing the remains of tens of thousands of people.
• Qing Chen spotted Chu Feikong and Xu Baichuan beside the pool and locked the Mystic Light Mirror onto Xu Baichuan.

Hidden beneath the rocks, Qing Chen overheard Chu Feikong and Xu Baichuan reveal their blood-sacrifice scheme and the Upper Sect’s plans, then recorded their conversation. When intruders arrived, Chu Feikong sent Xu Baichuan to deal with them, leaving himself alone at the ritual site.

• Qing Chen concealed his aura and listened as Chu Feikong blamed Xu Baichuan for loose ends involving the blood-sacrifice scheme.
• Xu Baichuan revealed that Chu Feikong’s Boundless Blood Sea Body would erode his mind, while he intended to control Chu as a weapon for the Upper Sect.
• Chu Feikong described his plan to complete the blood sacrifice, reach Foundation Establishment, and pit the Yue Household against the Condensed Jade Sect.
• Qing Chen recorded the exchange and transformed his appearance into Yang Jinquan’s, deciding to use him as a scapegoat.
• Chu Feikong detected intruders and told Xu Baichuan to take his Command Token and lead Condensed Jade Sect cultivators to apprehend them.
• After Xu Baichuan left, Chu Feikong watched him go with a sinister smile.