Chapter Summaries

Li Xian recovered from his battle with the Thirteen Eagles of Luoyang while Zhou Juechen urged him to enter Leaping Over the Dragon Gate. Xu Yu Niang learned the Eagles were dead, left a clue to her family’s legacy, and took poison; Li Xian agreed to travel to the Royal Capital within six days.

• Hongyu and the Zhou Family members questioned Li Xian about killing the Thirteen Eagles and Zhang Shuheng, and Hongyu sent Tang Zhou and Qin Wangchuan back to practice.
• Hongyu told Xu Yu Niang that Li Xian and Zhou Juechen had killed all thirteen Eagles, and Xu Yu Niang rejoiced over her family’s vengeance.
• Xu Yu Niang bowed to her benefactors, revealed that her family’s legacy lay beneath a locust tree outside the north gate, and took poison.
• Zhou Juechen ordered Xu Yu Niang buried and planned to retrieve the legacy while arranging the aftermath of the battle.
• Li Xian assessed his recovery after taking Precious Jade Soup and considered seeking Blood Spirit Powder to heal faster.
• Zhou Juechen invited Li Xian to attempt Leaping Over the Dragon Gate in the Royal Capital, and Li Xian agreed to leave within six days.

Zhou Juechen and Li Xian studied the Blood Refining Technique and found ways it could help Li Xian master blood and qi without relying on blood-drinking. Li Xian began refining blood essence, but after six days of cultivation, Zhou Juechen warned him they had to leave for the Dragon Gate Convention.

• A Zhou Family disciple delivered an ancient manual, a token, and a map to Zhou Juechen, along with news of the attack on the Dingfeng Marquis Estate and Mo Caiying's death.
• Zhou Juechen recognized the manual as the Blood Refining Technique, worried that its practice required replenishing blood with blood, and considered destroying it before deciding to study its method of refining blood essence.
• Li Xian examined the manual and argued that the technique was not inherently demonic, since exceptional blood and qi or Blood-Nourishing Pills could make up for its costs.
• Li Xian devised a plan to combine the Blood Refining Technique with the Limit-Breaking State and Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique, then began cautiously refining blood essence while recovering.
• After six days, Zhou Juechen told Li Xian they had to leave for the Royal Capital to reach the Dragon Gate Convention before it began.

The Rising Dragon Pavilion finalized the Hidden Dragon Ranking and placed Li Xian ninth after reviewing his extraordinary rise and combat record. His ranking caused a stir across Great Zhou, and factions began seeking information and preparing to approach him as he traveled toward the Royal Capital.

• Zhong Lingxiu reviewed Li Xian’s dossier and learned that he had reached the Body Without Leaks Realm in three and a half months and defeated numerous powerful martial artists.
• Zhong Lingxiu approved Li Xian’s ninth-place ranking and ordered the Rising Dragon Pavilion to monitor his conflict with the Yan Family and notify her when he reached the Royal Capital.
• The Rising Dragon Pavilion published the Hidden Dragon Ranking, drawing attention to Li Xian’s rapid advancement and his victories over established experts.
• Factions throughout Great Zhou reacted to Li Xian’s ranking with surprise and began gathering information and preparing to approach him.

Yan Shui Rou showed Xiaoyu Li Xian’s place on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, but Xiaoyu said she had left her past with him behind and returned to cultivation. Meanwhile, Zhou Juechen’s party arrived at Asking the Dao Mountain to enter the Dragon Gate Convention, where several prominent figures came to welcome Li Xian.

• Yan Shui Rou brought Xiaoyu the Hidden Dragon Ranking and pointed out that Li Xian had reached ninth place.
• Xiaoyu said Li Xian was dead to her, while Yan Shui Rou insisted he had no permission to climb out of the abyss.
• Yan Shui Rou refused to see Yan Kaigui, telling her maid to say she could not be disturbed.
• Zhou Juechen and his party arrived at Asking the Dao Mountain, and Zhou Juechen reaffirmed his intention to leap over the Dragon Gate.
• Long Yu, Li Qiong, and Ren arrived to greet Li Xian and Zhou Juechen.

Li Xian received recruitment offers from four major factions but refused to join any of them, focusing instead on Leaping Over the Dragon Gate. After asking for Blood-Nourishing Pills to strengthen his chances, he heard that the Sacred Martial Tower’s Tower Master had sent him a gift.

• Li Xian, Zhou Juechen, and representatives of the Tai Xu Sword Palace, the Sacred Martial Tower, the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, and the Canglang Sword Sect gathered at Asking the Dao Mountain.
• Li Qiong offered Li Xian Sword Scion status, personal guidance, a guardian, scriptures, and cultivation resources if he joined the Tai Xu Sword Palace.
• Li Xian refused offers conditioned on joining a faction and declared that he would compete in Leaping Over the Dragon Gate.
• Li Qiong and Long Yu warned Li Xian that several powerful competitors had stronger cultivation and legacies, while advising him to prepare for a later attempt.
• Li Xian asked the factions to sponsor him with three to five Blood-Nourishing Pills, and Long Yu began discussing how to arrange them.
• A voice outside announced that the Sacred Martial Tower’s Tower Master had a gift for Li Xian.

Li Xian bought three Blood-Nourishing Pills from the Rising Dragon Pavilion and accepted a courtyard there while preparing to enter the Dragon Gate Convention. With twelve days remaining before the competition, he focused on using the pills and Blood Refining Technique to strengthen himself.

• Yang Xu delivered three Blood-Nourishing Pills to Li Xian, who bought them for thirty thousand taels despite the objections of Li Qiong, Long Yu, and Xiao Ruqing.
• Yang Xu invited Li Xian to stay in a Rising Dragon Pavilion courtyard, while the other faction representatives urged him to postpone competing and warned him about the Yan Family.
• Li Xian offered to cooperate with the factions in exchange for Spirit-Concentrating Incense, then left with Yang Xu and Zhou Juechen.
• Yang Xu arranged Li Xian’s residence on Asking the Dao Mountain and gave him information about the Dragon Gate Convention’s registered contestants.
• Li Xian declined to study his competitors immediately and took the Blood-Nourishing Pills to the cultivation chamber to test them with the Blood Refining Technique.

Li Xian mastered blood and qi and refined it into astral force, strengthening his resolve to reach the world beyond the Dragon Gate. As the Dragon Gate Convention opened, the Rising Dragon Pavilion announced a battle format in which participants would fight for five available Dragon Gate Tokens.

• At a banquet, Yan Kaigui asked Lin Buzhi and Qi Liang to deal with Li Xian, and Qi Liang agreed to kill him if they met.
• Li Xian mastered blood and qi, then used it to refine astral force and strike a tree from a distance with his punch.
• Li Xian concluded that resources from the world beyond the Dragon Gate could help him withstand the strain of more powerful techniques.
• The Rising Dragon Pavilion leaders gathered on Asking the Dao Mountain as the Dragon Gate Convention was about to begin.
• Pavilion Master Shen Chenzhou announced that 118 registered participants would compete for five tokens by defending arenas on the Five-Element Platform.

Li Xian arrived at the Rising Dragon Pavilion for the Leaping Over the Dragon Gate, where he resolved to seek a fight with Yan Yu and Xiang Yangsheng to advance his cultivation. Shen Chenzhou opened the competition by announcing that contenders could claim Dragon Gate Tokens by dominating the Five-Element Platform.

• Zhou Juechen explained past competition formats as he and Li Xian descended Asking the Dao Mountain with Hongyu.
• Li Xian judged that only a few competitors could challenge him and decided that fighting Yan Yu and Xiang Yangsheng was essential to his progress.
• Onlookers debated Li Xian’s reputation as the Gentleman Sword, while Zhou Juechen advised him not to let their words affect him.
• Qi Liang arrived with Lin Buzhi and other followers, drawing the crowd’s attention as the competitors gathered.
• Shen Chenzhou announced that the Five-Element Platform was active and that anyone who defeated all challengers could claim a Dragon Gate Token.

The Dragon Gate Convention announced a hold-the-arena contest for its five Dragon Gate Tokens, favoring the strongest and most influential contenders. Yan Yu claimed the first token uncontested, but Li Xian suddenly stepped onto the Five-Element Platform to challenge her.

• Shen Chenzhou announced that contestants had to hold the arena and defeat challengers to win the Dragon Gate Tokens, prompting the assembled martial masters and leaders to react.
• Yan Shiri sent Yan Yu to claim a token, while Nangong Zhaoyue sent Xiang Yangsheng to compete.
• Zhou Juechen decided he would fight when the timing was right, and Li Xian declined to wait until the contest was nearly over.
• Yan Yu arrived at the Five-Element Platform, took a Dragon Gate Token, and said that Xiang Yangsheng was the only worthy opponent present.
• As Yang Xu asked whether anyone would challenge Yan Yu, Li Xian leaped onto the platform.

Li Xian challenged Yan Yu on the Five-Element Platform, stunning the crowd and provoking her to attack. He blocked her Sword Qi and caught her sword, leaving her assault halted but the duel unresolved.

• Li Xian stepped onto the Five-Element Platform and announced that he would challenge Yan Yu.
• The crowd reacted with disbelief, while Qi Liang dismissed Li Xian as a show-off and predicted his death.
• Yan Yu drew her sword and attacked after Li Xian interrupted her taunts and said he still planned to fight Xiang Yangsheng afterward.
• Li Xian crushed Yan Yu's Sword Qi with his astral force, then entered the Limit-Breaking State and caught her blade with his palm.
• Li Xian's astral force shattered the force behind Yan Yu's sword, abruptly stopping her attack.

Li Xian fought Yan Yu, using Refining Blood into Astral Force to withstand her True Qi and then suppress her with a series of saber strikes. His Black Iron Saber broke just as Yan Yu found an opening, and Li Xian unleashed an even stronger aura.

• Li Xian blocked Yan Yu’s True Qi attack with his bare hand, and Xiang Yangsheng recognized his technique as Refining Blood into Astral Force.
• Yan Yu poured more True Qi into her treasured sword, injuring Li Xian’s hand before he drew the Black Iron Saber and counterattacked.
• Li Xian used Sword Sweeps the Three Thousand Worlds to keep Yan Yu on the defensive with a relentless series of strikes.
• Li Xian’s Black Iron Saber broke, giving Yan Yu an opening to thrust at his face.
• Li Xian erupted with a terrifying aura stronger than before as Yan Yu attacked.

Li Xian used the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique to break Yan Yu’s sword, cripple her arm, and kick her off the Five-Element Platform, winning their match. As the arena reeled from Yan Yu’s defeat, she ordered Qi Liang to kill Li Xian, claiming his secret technique had left him exhausted.

• Li Xian used the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique to boost his strength and snapped Yan Yu’s treasured sword between his palms.
• Li Xian twisted and broke Yan Yu’s arm, then kicked her off the Five-Element Platform.
• Yan Yu landed beyond the platform and was declared defeated, while spectators and fighters including Xiang Yangsheng and Zhou Juechen reacted in disbelief.
• Yan Yu swallowed a medicinal pill and told Qi Liang that Li Xian was exhausted from using a secret burst technique.
• Yan Yu ordered Qi Liang to get onto the platform and kill Li Xian.

After defeating Yan Yu, Li Xian ended his power-enhancing techniques but stayed on the Five-Element Platform to study true qi. Lin Buzhi attacked him to gain Yan Yu’s favor, but Li Xian blocked Lin’s blood and qi force and was left unimpressed by its strength.

• Qi Liang agreed to Yan Yu’s request and leaped toward the Five-Element Platform, but another figure reached it first.
• Li Xian ended the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique and his limit-breaking state, then noticed Lin Buzhi challenging him on the platform.
• Lin Buzhi attacked Li Xian, hoping to kill him while he appeared exhausted and win Yan Yu’s favor.
• Li Xian evaded Lin Buzhi’s first twelve strikes, then broke Lin’s wrist with the Golden Snake Entwining Silk Hand.
• Li Xian blocked Lin Buzhi’s blood-and-qi-powered palm strike, and his core force easily crushed the invading force.
• Li Xian asked Lin Buzhi whether he had anything else, disappointed by the attack’s limited strength.

After Lin Buzhi fled the Five-Element Platform, Li Xian continued fighting, and observers concluded he still had enough strength to defeat the other Hidden Dragon Ranking prodigies. As Zhao Qi faced Li Xian and the first Dragon Gate Token remained undecided, Shen Chenzhou learned that Li Xian had already defeated Yan Yu and was sweeping aside all opposition.

• Lin Buzhi mistook Li Xian's strength for a hidden threat and fled the Five-Element Platform while pretending to prepare his ultimate sword technique.
• Qiao Liushui and Yue Longsha concluded that Li Xian was stronger than Yan Yu and might even surpass Xiang Yangsheng.
• Yan Yu ordered Qi Liang to attack Li Xian, but Qi Liang refused and urged her to wait for others to test him.
• Yan Yu sent Zhao Qi onto the Five-Element Platform, and Li Xian invited him to use his strongest secret art before their battle began.
• Great Zhou Imperial Clan guards and disciples of the Three Great Forces hurried to report the fights to the pavilion, where Shen Chenzhou learned through his jade tablet that Li Xian had defeated Yan Yu and no Dragon Gate Token had been claimed.

Li Xian shocked the Dragon Gate Convention by defeating Yan Yu, and the Rising Dragon Pavilion leaders recognized his Blood Refining Art as the reason he could overcome her true qi. Yan Shiri’s accusations were shut down, leaving Li Xian’s victory accepted and Zhong Lingxiu wondering whether he had a special constitution.

• The pavilion leaders learned that Li Xian had defeated Yan Yu by using Refining Blood into Astral Force to break through her true qi.
• Zhong Lingxiu suggested Li Xian might have a special constitution, which could make him equivalent to a high-grade Immortal Seedling.
• Yan Shiri received the news of Yan Yu’s defeat and angrily questioned how Li Xian could have beaten her.
• Xiao Ruqing confirmed that Li Xian had defeated Yan Yu fairly and without relying on secret techniques, sneak attacks, or other unorthodox methods.
• Yan Shiri accused Li Xian of using outside help or forbidden drugs, but Shen Chenzhou and Zhong Lingxiu warned him against interfering with the Rising Dragon Pavilion’s selection.
• After learning Li Xian had mastered the Blood Refining Technique, Yan Shiri withdrew his objections and accepted the result.

Li Xian killed Zhao Qi on the Five-Element Platform and confronted the Yan Family supporters who accused him of acting without martial virtue. He challenged Yan Yu to fight again, then mocked her strength and warned that he would return to settle accounts with the Yan Family; she vowed he would see its power.

• Li Xian struck Zhao Qi with a powerful punch that shattered his arms, ribs, and internal organs, killing him as he flew off the Five-Element Platform.
• A martial master accused Li Xian of killing Zhao Qi despite having enough strength to spare him, and Li Xian warned that he would return to take revenge when he was strong enough.
• Li Xian challenged Yan Yu to come back onto the platform, but she refused to risk another fight after recalling his strength and her own injuries.
• Li Xian called Yan Yu trash for reaching only the True Qi Realm despite her royal advantages, and she flew into a rage.
• Yan Yu called Li Xian a mud-legged peasant and warned him about the Yan Family’s power; Li Xian recalled Yan Ruxue’s similar insult and said she had died.
• Li Xian said he hoped the Yan Family would reveal how powerful it was, and Yan Yu coldly promised that he would see.

Li Xian won the first Dragon Gate Token after no one else challenged him, becoming a disciple of the Great Luo Immortal Sect. As he went to the Dragon Transformation Platform, Zhou Juechen and Hongyu reflected on his future, while Yan Kaigui and Liu Wufeng accepted that they could no longer oppose him openly.

• With Xiang Yangsheng and Qi Liang refusing to challenge, Yang Xu declared Li Xian the winner and awarded him the first Dragon Gate Token.
• Yang Xu told Li Xian that winning the token made him a disciple of the Great Luo Immortal Sect, and Li Xian followed a Rising Dragon Pavilion disciple to the Dragon Transformation Platform.
• Zhou Juechen recalled Li Xian’s rapid cultivation progress, while Hongyu wondered whether he would return to Lijiang City after the convention.
• Zhou Juechen predicted that Li Xian could become a Pre-Heavenly Grandmaster within five years and privately believed he might enter the Dao through martial arts.
• Yan Kaigui cursed Yan Yu and Lin Buzhi for failing to kill Li Xian, then left to seek another chance to approach Yan Shui Rou.
• Liu Wufeng resigned himself to Li Xian’s rise and decided to stay out of his way.

At the Dragon Transformation Platform, Zhong Lingxiu revealed that Li Xian’s token had earned him a place among the Rising Dragon Pavilion’s Dao Seedlings and identified the token accompanying his Blood Refining Art as belonging to Great Luo’s Immortal Sect. After Li Xian described how he obtained the art, Shen Chenzhou and Zhong Lingxiu realized he had reached major mastery in just thirty-three days.

• Zhong Lingxiu told Li Xian that the Rising Dragon Pavilion’s leaders belonged to Great Luo and that a heavenly vessel would take the Immortal and Dao Seedlings to the Immortal Sect in half a month.
• Li Xian described the token and map he had received from Xu Yu Niang, and Zhong Lingxiu identified the token as an Inner Sect Disciple Token of Great Luo.
• While Zhong Lingxiu investigated, Li Xian read an introduction to the Immortal Sect and became eager to pursue cultivation and immortality.
• Xiang Yangsheng arrived at the Dragon Transformation Platform, and he and Li Xian kept to separate corners.
• Shen Chenzhou and Zhong Lingxiu questioned Li Xian about how he obtained the Blood Refining Art, and Li Xian recounted Xu Yu Niang’s death and his fight with the Thirteen Eagles of Luoyang.
• Shen Chenzhou and Zhong Lingxiu realized Li Xian had gained the Blood Refining Technique only thirty-three days earlier and had already reached major mastery.

Li Xian learned about Dao foundations and received the Xiantian Qi Refining Technique while Shen Chenzhou and Zhong Lingxiu considered recommending him to a sect elder. Meanwhile, the Dragon Gate Grand Competition ended with Wei Jiuyi claiming the fifth token.

• Zhong Lingxiu explained how the Blood Refining Technique and Xiantian true astral force related to reaching the Dao Entry realm.
• Li Xian asked for a technique beyond the Five Elements Art, and Zhong Lingxiu gave him the Xiantian Qi Refining Technique.
• Shen Chenzhou explained the four categories of Dao foundations, while Zhong Lingxiu warned Li Xian not to waste time pursuing a peerless foundation.
• Li Xian read the technique as the Dragon Gate Grand Competition continued; Qi Liang won the third token and Yan Yu secured the fourth.
• After eight hours of fierce fighting, Wei Jiuyi outlasted the remaining contenders and won the fifth Dragon Gate Token.

Li Xian cultivated true qi by repeatedly reproducing the process of uniting his mind and blood qi, then began exploring how to combine it with astral force. After learning that Zhou Juechen planned to return to Lijiang City, Li Xian offered him a deacon position in the Rising Dragon Pavilion, which Zhou accepted.

• Li Xian formed true qi after nine days of practice and replenished his depleted strength with Blood-Nourishing and Qi-Gathering Pills.
• Li Xian entered the limit-breaking state and found a path toward merging true qi with blood astral force to cultivate true astral force.
• Zhou Juechen recounted how Qiao Liushui, Su Jianxing, and Wei Jiuyi had fared in the tournament, and said he planned to return to Lijiang City to establish the Dragon Spring Martial Arts Hall.
• Li Xian explained that the Rising Dragon Pavilion had investigated Ning Wuxia's remains and credited him for the discovery.
• Li Xian offered Zhou Juechen a deacon position in the Rising Dragon Pavilion in recognition of his contribution, and Zhou accepted.