Chapter Summaries

Chi Yu used his knowledge of story conventions and a stack of top-grade explosive talismans to escape a wealthy young gentleman’s attempt to humiliate him, then upgraded his clothes at Jinxiu Pavilion. Ling Hezhou questioned Chi Yu’s uncanny predictions and stinginess as they left town, while remaining bound to him as a Soul-Guarding Pearl earring.

• A young gentleman accused Chi Yu of stepping on his shoe and demanded that he kneel and lick it, but Chi Yu echoed his threats and taunted him.
• Ling Hezhou urged Chi Yu to use a protective artifact, and Chi Yu displayed top-grade explosive talismans until the young gentleman and his guards backed down.
• Chi Yu entered Jinxiu Pavilion and traded his ragged clothes for luxurious protective robes, winning extra gifts from the shop owner through haggling.
• Ling Hezhou asked how Chi Yu had predicted the young gentleman’s words, and Chi Yu explained that the man was a familiar kind of novel character.
• Chi Yu decided to leave the city immediately rather than return to the inn for his luggage, while Ling Hezhou protested that he was abandoning it.

Chi Yu refused to hand Ling Hezhou over to the masked killer who had hunted them down, and ran after the man demanded one of his hands in exchange. Ling Hezhou feared they would die, but Chi Yu believed the killer would toy with them rather than kill them immediately.

• Chi Yu realized the masked man had deliberately let Ling Hezhou escape before catching up with them.
• Ling Hezhou urged Chi Yu to give him up and avoid provoking the killer, but Chi Yu refused because he had promised to take Ling Hezhou home.
• The masked man offered to spare Ling Hezhou if Chi Yu left one hand behind.
• Chi Yu turned and ran, telling the panicked Ling Hezhou that they would not die that day.

Chi Yu hid with Ling Hezhou in a valley while facing the threat of Xie Xiyi, then calmly prepared a meal despite Ling Hezhou's fear. The chapter left them eating in their hiding place, with Xie Xiyi still expected to come after them.

• Ling Hezhou questioned why Chi Yu was so unafraid, and Chi Yu explained that fear would not help him.
• Chi Yu took cooking equipment and ingredients from his Sumeru Ring and prepared three dishes and a soup.
• Ling Hezhou watched in shock as Chi Yu sat down to eat.
• Chi Yu said he wanted to die with a full stomach and praised the food he had cooked.
• Chi Yu picked up a fallen grain of rice and ate it, showing the frugal habits he had learned from his grandparents.

Chi Yu challenged Xie Xiyi to a card game to buy time and try to draw close to him, but lost every round and was killed while Ling Hezhou was captured. Chi Yu revived and tried to force the system to grant him cultivation, while Ling Tian learned that the Myriad Phenomena Disc had stopped responding and feared for Ling Hezhou.

• Xie Xiyi accepted Chi Yu's offer to play ten rounds of Fight the Landlord, and Chi Yu used the game to try to make him curious.
• Xie Xiyi silenced Chi Yu, won all ten rounds, took the ruby-like earring, and ran Phantom Lightning through Chi Yu's heart.
• Xie Xiyi pulled Ling Hezhou into his body with black mist and left as rain fell over the valley.
• Chi Yu revived, changed his clothes, and pummelled the system until it produced a mock chemistry examination paper.
• A Tianyan Sect disciple told Ling Tian that the Myriad Phenomena Disc had stopped responding, and Ling Tian worried that Ling Hezhou was in grave danger.

Ling Tian investigated the slaughter of Ling Hezhou and his companions, while Ling Hezhou awoke as a captive nascent soul spirit beside Qingming. After dying and losing a year of age, Chi Yu followed Xie Xiyi’s coordinates into a strange, deserted forest, where Xie Xiyi’s sword willingly went to him.

• Ling Tian used a secret treasure to reveal that a ghost-masked man had killed Ling Hezhou and five other Tianyan Sect cultivators with mysterious black runes, then ordered their remains brought back to the sect.
• Ling Hezhou woke inside a blood-red lamp among captured nascent soul spirits and learned that the fiend had already taken three of them away for cultivation.
• Chi Yu realized he had eighteen lives, used a beating to make his system reveal Xie Xiyi’s coordinates and affection value, and set out toward him.
• Chi Yu reached Xie Xiyi’s coordinates after traveling with a spirit beast mount and found the forest eerily silent as ants fled in panic.
• Chi Yu followed the system’s map until Xie Xiyi’s jade-white sword approached him and allowed him to take it.

Chi Yu recruited Phantom Lightning to help rescue Ling Hezhou, but Xie Xiyi caught him and killed him again. After Chi Yu revived, he revealed the system’s orders to Xie Xiyi while begging for mercy.

• Chi Yu learned Phantom Lightning could not become his Life-Bound Spirit Sword, then watched it return to Xie Xiyi.
• Xie Xiyi experimented with curse seals and subdued a Nascent Soul Spirit while Phantom Lightning stole the lamp containing Ling Hezhou.
• Chi Yu met Phantom Lightning outside the cave, but Xie Xiyi appeared and immobilized him with Forbidden Curses.
• Chi Yu tried to persuade Xie Xiyi to take him in, but Xie Xiyi stabbed him through the heart and imprisoned Phantom Lightning.
• Chi Yu revived, saw that his age had increased to fifteen, and blamed the system for ordering him to betray Xie Xiyi.

Chi Yu tried to stay close to Xie Xiyi after becoming his sword slave, while Xie Xiyi showed little interest in him and kept him confined near the cave. After Chi Yu discovered that he could drain spiritual energy from a top-grade spirit stone, the chapter ended with him holding the stone’s residue.

• Xie Xiyi accepted Chi Yu as a sword slave but refused to release Ling Hezhou, then placed a curse mark on Chi Yu and temporarily sealed his voice.
• Chi Yu watched Xie Xiyi refine a Nascent Soul cultivator’s spirit into a soul artifact and decided that joining Xie Xiyi was better than being his enemy.
• After a day without Xie Xiyi asking about his system, Chi Yu cooked, cultivated, and realized that dying had made him younger and increased his cultivation speed.
• Chi Yu offered Xie Xiyi a straight wooden stick, but Xie Xiyi snapped it and threatened him when he kept making noise.
• Chi Yu sneaked toward Xie Xiyi’s table and picked up a top-grade spirit stone without being noticed.
• The spirit stone’s spiritual energy drained away in Chi Yu’s hand, leaving only white powder.

Chi Yu discovered that Xie Xiyi’s cursed spirit stones activated new, unusable system abilities, then learned the stones could also inflict horrifying curses. Xie Xiyi made him test a curse that melted his bones, but Chi Yu found it might let him cultivate rapidly, leaving him unexpectedly delighted.

• Chi Yu found the gray Backtracking and Seizure abilities on his system panel after trying to absorb Xie Xiyi’s spirit stones.
• Xie Xiyi let Chi Yu keep the stones, then activated a Bone Melting curse on one and made him use it.
• Chi Yu begged Xie Xiyi not to turn him into a sword, while Xie Xiyi explained that Phantom Lightning had been made from a Golden Core cultivator’s spine.
• The curse softened Chi Yu’s hand and melted all his bones, and Xie Xiyi held him and secured him on a meditation cushion.
• Xie Xiyi said Chi Yu could cultivate rapidly without qi apertures, and Chi Yu excitedly thanked him.

Chi Yu cultivated rapidly, survived Xie Xiyi’s experiments, and reunited with Ling Hezhou, whom Xie Xiyi handed over to him as a Soul-Guarding Pearl. Chi Yu promised to return Ling Hezhou to the Tianyan Sect, while Ling Hezhou discovered Chi Yu had reached Qi Refining third layer.

• Chi Yu advanced to Qi Refining third layer in one afternoon, but remained trapped by Xie Xiyi’s talisman rings and had to cultivate while hungry.
• Xie Xiyi brought injured cultivators into the cave and experimented on them with curse seals, frightening Chi Yu into considering how to stay alive.
• Chi Yu used Rejuvenation to regrow his bones, cooked a meal, and resumed cultivating as his progress slowed.
• Xie Xiyi released Ling Hezhou from the lamp, and Ling Hezhou urged him to let Chi Yu go; Chi Yu claimed he was now on Xie Xiyi’s side.
• Xie Xiyi sealed Ling Hezhou in a Soul-Guarding Pearl and gave it to Chi Yu, who promised to return Ling Hezhou to the Tianyan Sect.
• Ling Hezhou noticed Chi Yu’s Qi Refining third-layer cultivation and warned him about relying on pills.

Chi Yu left Xie Xiyi’s cave under the pretext of searching for him and learned in a cultivator city that Xie Xiyi had massacred two cities and defeated numerous powerful cultivators. The chapter left Chi Yu alarmed by the reports and urging others to gather forces to stop Xie Xiyi.

• Ling Hezhou told Chi Yu about Xu Qingming, a Nascent Soul sword cultivator captured by Xie Xiyi, but Chi Yu refused to risk releasing him.
• After a week without Xie Xiyi’s return, Chi Yu packed the lamp and two spirit stones and left, claiming he was going to look for Xie Xiyi.
• Chi Yu traveled to a large cultivator city, replenished his supplies, and heard cultivators describe Xie Xiyi’s massacres of Changping and Du'en.
• The cultivators said Xie Xiyi had defeated or killed Nascent Soul cultivators and the Fairy Yu Liuxin, despite reportedly being in the Golden Core Realm.
• Chi Yu argued that the immortal sects should join forces to defeat Xie Xiyi, and the cultivators told him an earlier group sent to support Du'en had been wiped out.

Chi Yu learned that Xie Xiyi knew about his resurrections and warned him that they were limited, then chose to make himself useful by promising to tame Phantom Lightning. After testing the sword’s power and accidentally wrecking his inn room, Chi Yu was forced out and looked for a cultivation room for the night.

• Xie Xiyi told Chi Yu that he could not be hurt or die, warned that Chi Yu’s resurrections were limited, and demanded that he make himself useful.
• Chi Yu decided to cooperate openly and promised to settle Phantom Lightning for Xie Xiyi.
• After Xie Xiyi left, Chi Yu befriended Phantom Lightning and tested whether he could wield it.
• Phantom Lightning used Chi Yu’s arm to release a sword strike that destroyed half the room and caused an uproar at the inn.
• Chi Yu paid for the damage, was thrown out, and learned from Ling Hezhou that he could rent a cultivation room instead.

Chi Yu joked about becoming a destined hero named Long Aotian, then treated Huandian like a kitchen utensil despite its connection to Xie Xiyi. Xie Xiyi retrieved the sword and threatened Chi Yu after removing the pungent smell.

• Chi Yu described the traits of a destined hero, and Ling Hezhou told him about Long Aotian and a fallen Buddhist candidate from his father's generation.
• Chi Yu declared himself the new Long Aotian and asked Huandian and Ling Hezhou to support him; Huandian eagerly agreed, while Ling Hezhou agreed temporarily.
• Chi Yu warned Huandian to placate Xie Xiyi, kissed it, and soaked it in ginger water with scallions and garlic to remove its smell.
• Xie Xiyi came to retrieve Huandian the next day and smelled the pungent ingredients on it.
• Chi Yu apologized for washing Huandian, and Xie Xiyi wiped the sword clean before threatening to make a Soul-Refining Lamp from Chi Yu's finger bones if he did anything unnecessary again.

Chi Yu found Xie Xiyi before the seven-day deadline and demanded that he lift the memory-stealing curse, while Xie Xiyi’s control over Phantom Lightning appeared to weaken. At Tianyan Sect, Ling Tian met Yan Tongchen, who had come to discuss the ghost-masked cultivator, as Ling Tian prepared to show the recorded images of Ling Hezhou’s death.

• Xie Xiyi planted the Wenxin curse on Chi Yu and gave him seven days to find him before he lost his memories.
• Chi Yu used the system’s real-time map to locate Xie Xiyi, after eating and resting before setting out.
• Xie Xiyi killed a blue-robed Golden Core cultivator despite accepting his ninth-grade star sand, and Phantom Lightning objected to the killing.
• Chi Yu arrived, and Phantom Lightning flew from Xie Xiyi to Chi Yu, who asked Xie Xiyi to lift the curse before the deadline.
• Ling Tian received word that Yan Tongchen had arrived to discuss the ghost-masked cultivator and went to meet him at Tianyan Sect.
• Ling Tian explained the failed hunt and Yu Liuxin’s death, then showed the gathered cultivators a recording of Ling Hezhou’s death.

Ling Tian joined Yan Tongchen and the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect on an expedition to the Eastern Mirror Continent, where they found the seals around an abyss undisturbed. Chi Yu’s curse was lifted, and Xie Xiyi made him his Sword Slave and told him to witness his madness; afterward, Ling Tian warned Yan Tongchen that their sudden ability to locate the masked cultivator might be a trap.

• Yan Tongchen persuaded Ling Tian to travel with the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect to the Eastern Mirror Continent, while his disciples secretly discussed whether the masked cultivator was the man they sought.
• Yan Tongchen’s party inspected the sealed abyss and found no sign that its seals or formations had been disturbed, then reported that the imprisoned man could not have escaped.
• After the party departed, a snow-white snake emerged from the abyss and turned into a black curse inscription, while unseen handprints crept up the abyss walls.
• Xie Xiyi summoned the snake, lifted Chi Yu’s curse, and named him his Sword Slave, telling him to stay alive as a witness to his madness.
• Ling Tian warned Yan Tongchen that the sudden divination of the masked cultivator’s location might be a trap because the man had previously concealed himself from their divinations.

Xie Xiyi confronted the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect and Tianyan Sect cultivators who had tracked him down, then killed Jin Yuan with a hidden curse and seized his nascent soul. He returned to Chi Yu and offered the captured soul as a night lamp.

• Ling Tian and the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect party used the Myriad Phenomena Disc to locate Xie Xiyi and set out to kill him.
• Chi Yu repeatedly offered Xie Xiyi bouquets of wildflowers, which the black mist turned to ash, before the pursuing sects arrived and challenged him.
• Xie Xiyi taunted the cultivators and invited Jin Yuan to attack, while Chi Yu accidentally echoed their threats.
• Jin Yuan unleashed two sword techniques, but Xie Xiyi's black mist swallowed them; Xie Xiyi then copied Jin Yuan's Nine Heavens Sword Art and killed him with a hidden forbidden curse.
• Yan Tongchen and Ling Tian tried to respond as Jin Yuan's nascent soul flew toward Xie Xiyi, who captured it and told Chi Yu he could use it as a night lamp.

Xie Xiyi slaughtered the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect cultivators who attacked him, while Chi Yu unexpectedly helped destroy one attacker and escaped with Ling Tian. The chapter ended with Chi Yu discovering that he had advanced from the third level of Qi Refining to its peak.

• Xie Xiyi killed two Nascent Soul cultivators, then fought off a group attack and killed more of Yan Tongchen's disciples.
• A Xuanxiao Immortal Sect disciple attacked Chi Yu, but Chi Yu's light devoured the sword strike and caused the attacker to explode.
• Ling Tian approached Chi Yu, but Ling Hezhou pleaded with him to spare the man who had saved his life; Ling Tian retrieved Ling Hezhou from the Soul-Guarding Pearl.
• Ling Hezhou warned Ling Tian that Xie Xiyi had captured many Nascent Soul cultivators, and Chi Yu urged Ling Tian to flee as Xie Xiyi defeated Yan Tongchen and the remaining attackers.
• Xie Xiyi revealed that he was the escaped Xie Xiyi, blinded Yan Tongchen, and let him flee to warn his sect.
• Ling Tian brought Chi Yu and Ling Hezhou to a cultivators' city, where Chi Yu discovered he had reached the peak of Qi Refining.

Chi Yu learned that Xie Xiyi’s Forbidden Curse returned attackers’ damage and cultivation to him, while Xie Xiyi continued his murderous plans and kept Chi Yu close. After Chi Yu presented a music-backed recording of Xie Xiyi’s battle, Xie Xiyi praised him, but threatened him when Chi Yu asked to see his face.

• Xie Xiyi killed Ling Tian, and Ling Tian joined Ling Hezhou inside the Soul-Guarding Pearl.
• Xie Xiyi explained that Chi Yu’s Forbidden Curse had caused his Foundation Establishment breakthrough and revealed that it contained twelve incantations, including some that could kill him.
• Ling Hezhou warned Ling Tian not to provoke Xie Xiyi, and Ling Tian vowed to arrange for Chi Yu to become the Tianyan Sect master’s direct disciple if they returned.
• Chi Yu abandoned his attempt to save the Nascent Soul cultivator after Xie Xiyi’s killing intent flared, then questioned Xie Xiyi about why he killed people.
• Xie Xiyi said he found people with higher cultivation especially repulsive and considered keeping Chi Yu around because he was interesting.
• Chi Yu gave Xie Xiyi a recording of his battle set to music, and Xie Xiyi praised it before threatening Chi Yu when he asked to see Xie Xiyi’s face.

After Yan Tongchen reported Xie Xiyi’s escape and the deaths of his disciples, Immortal Lord Qingxuan and Taixuzi plotted to capture Xie Xiyi and exploit his jade marrow. Meanwhile, Chi Yu kept Xie Xiyi occupied with music, but the group decided not to return to the Tianyan Sect yet.

• Yan Tongchen returned to the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect, accepted punishment, and told Immortal Lord Qingxuan that Xie Xiyi had killed eight Nascent Soul cultivators and escaped without disturbing the seals.
• Immortal Lord Qingxuan informed Taixuzi, who ordered him to capture Xie Xiyi alive and reveal that he intended to use Xie Xiyi as a source of jade marrow.
• Chi Yu teased Phantom Lightning, while Xie Xiyi listened to music and demanded two pieces from Chi Yu each day.
• Chi Yu asked Xie Xiyi about his plans, but Xie Xiyi told him to leave.
• Ling Hezhou proposed keeping Xie Xiyi occupied with a thousand songs, and Ling Tian advised delaying their return to the Tianyan Sect while its sect master remained in secluded cultivation.

Chi Yu was caught in the clash between Wu Yunsu and Xie Xiyi, then kidnapped by Wu Yunsu and taken aboard his lavish flying palace. Ling Tian pleaded for Wu Yunsu to release Chi Yu, but Wu Yunsu instead asked what rumors they had mentioned.

• Wu Yunsu confronted Chi Yu in a restaurant, then fought Xie Xiyi after Chi Yu learned Wu Yunsu was from the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect.
• Chi Yu recorded the battle as Xie Xiyi fought Wu Yunsu, who turned into a swarm of insects and escaped after Xie Xiyi trapped most of them.
• Wu Yunsu kidnapped Chi Yu during the chaos, and Chi Yu woke aboard a flying palace surrounded by treasures.
• Chi Yu explored the palace while Ling Tian and Ling Hezhou discussed Wu Yunsu's wealth and the rumors about his standing in the sect.
• Wu Yunsu appeared, and Ling Tian asked him to release Chi Yu; Wu Yunsu asked what rumors they had been discussing.

Wu Yunsu abducted Chi Yu, but Xie Xiyi appeared and drove him off. Afterward, Xie Xiyi complained that Wu Yunsu had escaped again, while Chi Yu questioned his logic.

• Wu Yunsu dismissed Ling Tian and Ling Hezhou, then told Chi Yu he would take him somewhere alone, prompting Chi Yu to mistake his intentions for a romantic pursuit.
• Immortal Lord Qingxuan told Taixuzi that Wu Yunsu had defected and that Xie Xiyi might have lost his memories because his heart was missing.
• Xie Xiyi emerged from Chi Yu’s curse mark and attacked Wu Yunsu, who escaped after abandoning most of his gu insects.
• Xie Xiyi returned to the flying artifact and criticized Nascent Soul cultivators for fleeing when they could not win, while Chi Yu silently disagreed.