Chapter Summaries

After rebirth, Xue Fuyao looted and burned the imperial palace before escaping the rebel army, then began planning a new life as a cultivator. She set her sights on Lingjiu Mountain to improve her Spiritual Root aptitude.

• Xue Fuyao raided the imperial treasury and palaces, taking their treasures and furnishings before setting the imperial palace on fire.
• Xue Fuyao escaped through a dog hole and reached a hiding place she had prepared ahead of time.
• Xue Fuyao recalled how, in her past life, her maid betrayed her after she fled the fallen palace, and resolved to avoid repeating that fate.
• Xue Fuyao examined the white lotus-petal necklace left by her mother and considered how it might be connected to her rebirth and mysterious inherited artifacts.
• Xue Fuyao decided to pursue cultivation and use her memories of rumored fortuitous encounters to gain an advantage.
• Xue Fuyao chose Lingjiu Mountain as the first place to seek a way to improve her Spiritual Root aptitude.

Xue Fuyao disguised herself as a boy and began gathering news in the rebel-occupied Imperial City, where she learned the Xue Clan had been slaughtered. She poisoned the kitchens of several luxurious residences and, after hearing passersby mention a little princess, hurried to learn more.

• Xue Fuyao selected boys' clothes from the imperial palace's stolen treasures and prepared to leave once the Imperial City settled down.
• Zhang Zhenyu found the palace stripped bare, blamed the old Emperor for hiding its treasures, and ordered his soldiers to search for them.
• Xue Fuyao learned that the Xue Clan had been killed and saw her Imperial Father's severed head displayed above the palace gates.
• Xue Fuyao poisoned the kitchen of a luxurious residence and spotted a stranger entering a concealed door behind a water vat.
• Xue Fuyao spread the rest of her Beauty's Drunkenness poison through other residences, then hurried after passersby who mentioned a little princess.

Xue Fuyao used a secret map and the imperial token to contact the Dark Guards after learning the current emperor had ordered a citywide search for her. Eleven recognized her and offered to gather the guards to escort her out of the city, but she had not yet answered.

• Xue Fuyao overheard people discussing the bounty for the surviving princess and realized Yingtao had exposed her again.
• Xue Fuyao studied the palace’s hidden passages and decided to summon the Dark Guards.
• Xue Fuyao saw children being taken in cages during the city search, evaded a guard’s inspection, and went to a tofu shop.
• Xue Fuyao proved her identity to Eleven by letting her blood activate the token.
• Eleven told Xue Fuyao that all fifty Dark Guards were in the Imperial City and offered to escort her out.

Xue Fuyao ordered the Dark Guards to kill Yingtao and corrupt officials, recover her family’s remains, and use poisons to destabilize the Imperial City. After the city descended into chaos, she and the guards escaped through a secret tunnel with her father’s head and prepared to depart by carriage.

• Xue Fuyao told Shadow Eleven to help her kill Yingtao and corrupt officials and recover her father’s and siblings’ corpses, while warning him not to sacrifice the living needlessly.
• Shadow Eleven rallied the other Dark Guards, and they used secret medicines and poisons to kill or incapacitate people across the Imperial City.
• Shadow Eleven’s group recovered the bodies of Xue Fuyao’s twenty-four siblings and her father from an ice cellar, leaving their heads behind; Shadow Three later asked about her lifelike disguise, and Xue Fuyao explained that she used a dharma artifact.
• As deaths spread and the Zhang Family tried to force Xue Fuyao to appear using her siblings’ remains, she decided it was time to leave the Imperial City.
• Shadow One, Shadow Five, and Shadow Six caused explosions and fires across the city, and Shadow One retrieved Xue Fuyao’s father’s head amid the chaos.
• Xue Fuyao and the Dark Guards escaped through a secret tunnel, destroyed its entrance, and prepared to leave by carriage.

Xue Fuyao and the Shadow Guards reached Lingjiu Mountain on the night of the full moon to seek the hidden opportunity that could change her fate. She found the rumored moss-covered rock on the mountainside and prepared the area for the possible appearance of a mysterious cave.

• Xue Fuyao traveled toward the border with Shadow One through Shadow Ten while the other Shadow Guards went ahead to Lingjiu Mountain.
• Xue Fuyao recalled how the Zhang Family had blocked her from joining a sect in her past life and how she had heard rumors about a boy who found an extraordinary opportunity at Lingjiu Mountain.
• Shadow One carried Xue Fuyao up the mountain, where Shadow Eleven reported three possible locations for the opportunity.
• Xue Fuyao chose the mountainside location and identified a moss-covered rock that matched the rumors.
• Xue Fuyao ordered the Shadow Guards to clear the branches around the rock and gave Shadow One cultivation exercises to practice.

Xue Fuyao entered a hidden cave abode after touching an Eight Trigrams pattern and met the remnant consciousness of the cultivator who had separated the Mortal Realm from the Cultivation Realm. The cultivator left his collection to her, including the Universe Creation Pill she had been seeking, and she realized its effects explained the fate of the blind youth from her previous life.

• Xue Fuyao decided to bring Shadow One and the others into the Cultivation Realm and gave Shadow One a manual.
• At night, an Eight Trigrams pattern appeared on a rock beneath the moonlight, and Xue Fuyao touched it and lost consciousness.
• Xue Fuyao awoke in a tunnel filled with dense spiritual qi and followed it to a cultivator's cave abode.
• A remnant consciousness appeared, confirmed he had protected mortals from cultivators, and left his collection to Xue Fuyao before disappearing.
• Xue Fuyao read the cave abode's manual and found the Universe Creation Pill, learning that it could transform an ordinary person into a peerless genius and grant immunity to poisons and maladies.
• Xue Fuyao realized the blind youth from her previous life had become a walking Universe Creation Pill, which explained why a cultivation lineage might have taken him.

Xue Fuyao consumed the Universe Creation Pill and Creation Green Lotus, gaining a Creation Spirit Root and Creation Green Lotus Body before gathering treasures from the cave abode. After emerging, she reunited with Shadow One and learned she had been missing for two years.

• Xue Fuyao absorbed the Universe Creation Pill and Creation Green Lotus in the spirit spring, transforming her body as the spiritual qi vanished.
• Xue Fuyao packed the cave abode’s weapons, medicines, treasures, and storage Dharma Treasure, then found a spirit-testing stone.
• Xue Fuyao discovered that she had a Creation Spirit Root and a Creation Green Lotus Body, which could conceal her identity and let her resurrect at a great cost.
• Xue Fuyao checked the cave abode for anything left behind, took the torches, and returned to the surface.
• Shadow One stopped Xue Fuyao at dagger-point, recognized her after seeing her token, and told her she had been missing for two years.

Xue Fuyao learned that General Qin had taken power after the Zhang Family was overthrown, then buried her father and siblings on Lingjiu Mountain. She and Shadow One’s guards prepared to leave for the Cultivation Realm by a dangerous route through a small, overlooked country.

• Shadow One told Xue Fuyao what had happened during her two-year disappearance, including the Zhang Family’s fall and General Qin’s rise to power.
• Xue Fuyao revealed that she had the Imperial Jade Seal but rejected the idea of reclaiming the throne, saying she could not govern the country alone.
• Xue Fuyao and the Shadow Guards prepared twenty-five coffins, buried her father and siblings on Lingjiu Mountain, and concealed the graves with a formation.
• Xue Fuyao asked Shadow One and the other guards whether they would follow her to the Cultivation Realm, and they pledged to go with her.
• Xue Fuyao explained that they would reach the Cultivation Realm by crossing a beast-filled forest and poisonous miasma in a small, overlooked country, and the guards began preparing for the journey.

As Xue Fuyao traveled toward the Qiu Kingdom, she arranged for Shadow One to cure a blind youth she had encountered and give him money. Her party traded goods for supplies on the grasslands and continued its journey, while Lu Huo regained his sight and chose to live.

• Xue Fuyao disguised herself and her guards, then extended their route to trade goods beyond the Xue Kingdom’s borders.
• Seeing a blind, emaciated youth heading toward Lingjiu Mountain, Xue Fuyao ordered Shadow One to help him.
• Shadow One gave Lu Huo a pill and silver; Lu Huo’s sight returned, and he left with the money instead of going to Lingjiu Mountain.
• Xue Fuyao prepared medicinal water to protect her party from toxic miasmas.
• Shadow One and the others traded furniture, fabrics, and other goods for provisions, then the party left the grasslands and picked up its pace.

Xue Fuyao and her companions crossed a forest and entered a deadly poisonous miasma, relying on her protective potions to survive. After discovering Zhang Rong'er among the corpses ahead, Xue Fuyao realized the people in front were from the Cultivation Realm’s Zhang Family and ordered the party to proceed cautiously.

• Xue Fuyao sold the caravan’s carriage and horses before leading the group on foot into the forest with Beast Repelling Powder.
• Shadow One and the others carried Xue Fuyao through the forest, and ten days later they reached the poisonous miasma.
• Xue Fuyao outfitted everyone in potion-soaked clothes and had them carefully probe their way through the miasma and its quagmires.
• Shadow One found a poisoned corpse, and the group encountered more bodies as they continued through the miasma.
• Xue Fuyao recognized Zhang Rong'er among the dead and told Shadow One and the others that the people ahead belonged to the powerful Cultivation Realm Zhang Family, so they needed to avoid revealing her presence.

Xue Fuyao entered the Cultivation Realm and returned to Shihan Town to secretly obtain the Heavenly Eye hidden in a stone statue. She secured the treasure and rested at the inn, while unfamiliar guests filled its rooms.

• Xue Fuyao left the Poison Miasma Zone with Shadow One and the others and entered the Cultivation Realm.
• Xue Fuyao led Shadow One and Shadow Two to Shihan Town, where she recognized a stone statue concealing the Heavenly Eye.
• Xue Fuyao and her guards took the inn’s premium rooms as other unfamiliar guests arrived and filled the remaining rooms.
• At midnight, Shadow One brought Xue Fuyao a food box containing a Storage Bag with the stone statue inside.
• Xue Fuyao confirmed the statue was in the Storage Bag, ate her meal, and went to sleep.

Xue Fuyao kept the stolen stone statue hidden while Beiwang searched Shihan Town, then planned to reach the undiscovered Moonview Mountain Secret Realm to refine the Heavenly Eye and improve her companions’ cultivation aptitudes. After Beiwang lifted the town’s travel ban, Xue Fuyao left with her group and encountered the Zhang Clan.

• Beiwang and his bailiffs searched Xue Fuyao’s room for the missing stone statue, but she denied knowing anything about it and agreed to remain in town.
• Xue Fuyao stopped Shadow Two and Shadow One from questioning her, then stayed quiet while Beiwang’s search caused a fight elsewhere in the inn.
• Xue Fuyao planned to enter the Moonview Mountain Secret Realm, where she hoped to refine the Heavenly Eye and help Shadow One and the others improve their spiritual-root aptitude.
• During the half-month lockdown, Xue Fuyao prepared for the secret realm and avoided the Zhang Clan members staying in Shihan Town.
• After Beiwang ended the lockdown, Xue Fuyao left Shihan Town with her group alongside the Zhang Clan and saw Zhang Qin’er.

Xue Fuyao led Shadow One and the Shadow Guards to Moonview Mountain to find the Secret Realm entrance, using clues she remembered from her past life. After digging beneath a strange tree, the group was transported into the Secret Realm together.

• Shadow One rented a carriage and ox cart, and the group traveled toward Moonview Mountain while collecting talismans along the way.
• Xue Fuyao and the Shadow Guards disguised themselves as ordinary merchants and reached Moonview Mountain after two months on the road.
• Xue Fuyao guided the group through the mountain for three days, avoiding demonic beasts and cultivators’ battles as they searched for a strangely shaped tree.
• Ying Sishi Jiu found a towering, twisted tree, and Xue Fuyao had the Shadow Guards gather around it and dig at its base.
• Shadow Eleven struck a root with the shovel, triggering the Secret Realm entrance and transporting Xue Fuyao and the Shadow Guards together.
• Xue Fuyao woke beneath an azure sky in a place filled with dense spiritual qi and confirmed that Shadow One and the others had arrived with her.

Xue Fuyao entered the Moonview Mountain Secret Realm with Shadow One and the others, then sought out the Heavenly Eye hidden inside a stone statue and fused it with herself. After recovering, she discovered her cultivation had advanced and the Heavenly Eye had gained powerful abilities, then began cultivating in the secret realm.

• Xue Fuyao warned Shadow One and the others to search for the Immortal Spring in a valley and avoid guardian spirit beasts, then sent them off while she pursued her own goal.
• Xue Fuyao found a hidden cave, smashed the stone statue, and retrieved the stone bead containing the Heavenly Eye.
• Xue Fuyao cut her forehead and pressed the bead to the wound, and it absorbed her blood before fusing with her and causing her to lose consciousness in agony.
• Xue Fuyao woke after dark and, once she had recovered enough to examine herself, discovered she had reached the second layer of Qi Refining and fused with the Heavenly Eye.
• Xue Fuyao learned the Heavenly Eye could see through disguises and formations, perceive weaknesses, appraise treasures, and fire a beam that left wounds unable to heal.
• Xue Fuyao left the cave, searched for a place rich in spiritual qi, and began cultivating as the qi rushed into her body.

Xue Fuyao gathered the Moonview Mountain Secret Realm’s resources, cultivated to the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, and helped Shadow One and the others gain cultivation before they left the Secret Realm. After descending Moonview Mountain, the group split up, with five Shadow Guards escorting her toward Cloud City.

• Xue Fuyao reached the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, then spent time consolidating her foundation and collecting spirit medicines, fruits, and grasses from the Secret Realm.
• Xue Fuyao discovered that her token bound Shadow One through Shadow Fifty and could determine their life and death if they betrayed her.
• Xue Fuyao found Shadow One and the others transforming their physiques in the Immortal Spring, then refined the defensive Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Treasure called Water Silk.
• Shadow One and the others emerged with Qi drawn into their bodies, received storage spaces and resources from Xue Fuyao, and promised to cultivate and protect her.
• Xue Fuyao and the Shadow Guards scoured the Secret Realm for a month before leaving; she had reached the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, while the guards had reached around the Third Layer.
• After descending Moonview Mountain, Shadow One, Shadow Two, Shadow Three, Ying Si, and Shadow Five escorted Xue Fuyao toward Cloud City while the others split up.

Xue Fuyao arrived in Cloud City and sought a shattered Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Treasure that could alter her aura and Spiritual Root. She left the Yunlan Merchant Guild disappointed after finding only ordinary and misrepresented goods.

• Xue Fuyao heard Shadow One and Shadow Two explain that the old master had secretly cared for her and sent them to protect her, but she asked them not to bring up the past again.
• Three days later, Shadow One and the others watched Xue Fuyao enter Cloud City before leaving to seek their own opportunities to grow stronger.
• Xue Fuyao returned to the city where she had once stayed and planned to apprentice at the Yuanji Sect under the guise of possessing a wood-element Heavenly Spiritual Root.
• Xue Fuyao rented a courtyard and went to the Trade Market to search for the shattered Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Treasure she remembered from her past life.
• Xue Fuyao used her Heavenly Eye to inspect stalls at the Yunlan Merchant Guild but found no valuable item.

Xue Fuyao bought two pieces of Broken Jade and bound them to herself with her blood, discovering their ability to disguise her appearance and cultivation. While relaxing at a tavern, she heard that Long Wuqing had lost his cultivation in a Secret Realm and recalled that his fiancée and her lover were responsible.

• Xue Fuyao found the Broken Jade seller and bought two pieces of Broken Jade and a black flute for one mid-grade Spirit Stone.
• Back at her dwelling, Xue Fuyao cut her wrist and used her blood to make both pieces of Broken Jade acknowledge her as their master.
• Xue Fuyao drew the Broken Jade into her body and used its camouflage ability to disguise her Spiritual Root as a wood-element Heavenly Spiritual Root.
• Xue Fuyao strolled around Cloud City and visited a tavern where she listened to cultivators discuss Long Wuqing's loss of cultivation.
• Xue Fuyao remembered that Long Wuqing's fiancée and her lover had betrayed him in a Secret Realm.

Xue Fuyao waited in Cloud City for the Yuanji Sect’s spiritual-root tests and caught the attention of its disciples. After Gu Nian discovered that Xue Fuyao possessed a Wood-element Heavenly Spiritual Root, she brought the girl under her protection and contacted the sect’s Master.

• Xue Fuyao learned that the Yuanji Sect had arrived in Cloud City to test children and hoped to find a way into the sect.
• Gu Nian noticed Xue Fuyao standing alone on a rooftop and went to ask about her family and cultivation.
• Xue Fuyao gave Gu Nian her name and placed her hand on the Spirit-Testing Stone.
• The Spirit-Testing Stone revealed Xue Fuyao’s Wood-element Heavenly Spiritual Root, and Gu Nian excitedly took her to Lin Qing.
• Gu Nian told Lin Qing about Xue Fuyao’s rare talent and said she had contacted the Master to send elders, while Xue Fuyao realized she was close to entering the Yuanji Sect.

Xue Fuyao watched the Cloud City lineages test their children’s spiritual roots as Gu Nian explained their reserved sect quotas and the advantages of lineage resources. The testing ended, and the lineages began deciding who would enter the Yuanji Sect, including a little girl whose high-purity Water-Fire Dual Spiritual Root made cultivation especially difficult.

• Gu Nian explained that Cloud City’s four lineages shared ten Yuanji Sect quotas that came only once every ten years, and that medicinal baths could improve young cultivators’ foundations and sometimes their spiritual root purity.
• The lineages tested their children, sorting them by spiritual root count while Xue Fuyao reflected on the bleak prospects for Quad and Five Spiritual Root disciples.
• A five- or six-year-old girl tested as a Water-Fire Dual Spiritual Root with purities of ninety and ninety-five percent, and Lin Qing sent her to the Dual Spiritual Root group.
• The other children avoided and mocked the girl, while Xue Fuyao reasoned that her lineage and high purity still gave her advantages over most rogue cultivators.
• After testing ended, the Yuanji Sect began selecting disciples, while the Four Great Clans retained ten quotas that could place disciples of any talent directly in the Inner Sect.

As Yuanji Sect registered new disciples, Xue Fuyao recalled the tragic and remarkable futures of Zhou Qingxue and Wang Yan. She then explored the market with Gu Nian, learned about the Rain Dew Secret Realm, and bought spirit medicine seeds before the story ended with them shopping.

• Lin Qing registered Zhou Qingxue, the only candidate with a single spiritual root, and the fifteen dual-spiritual-root candidates, including Wang Yan.
• Xue Fuyao remembered that Zhou Qingxue would fall to the Devil Race and that Wang Yan would later defect to the Heavenly Sword Sect and pass Ask the Sword Mountain.
• Gu Nian took Xue Fuyao to the bustling market and insisted on paying for her purchases.
• Gu Nian explained that many rogue cultivators had returned from the Rain Dew Secret Realm, which opened once every ten years under the Rogue Cultivator Alliance.
• Xue Fuyao bought several spirit medicine seeds after Gu Nian explained that she could grow them in a sect spirit field.