Chapter Summaries

Xue Fuyao explored the outskirts of the Blazing Sun Holy Land Ruins and uncovered a hidden chamber containing imprisoned Demon Race souls and a collection of mysterious books. She took the books and a warm red gourd, leaving the chamber’s purpose unresolved.

• Xue Fuyao searched a ruined study on the outskirts and used her Heavenly Eye to find and destroy the formation concealing a secret chamber.
• Xue Fuyao entered the chamber and discovered cages holding more than a hundred resentful Demon Race souls, including demons who had been at least in the Spirit Transformation Realm.
• Xue Fuyao read the plaques and found that the souls had been imprisoned for over two hundred years.
• Xue Fuyao passed the cages and found a second chamber filled with books, including one written in characters resembling mysterious runes she had seen before.
• Xue Fuyao put away all the books and found a red gourd that felt warm and produced heat.

Xue Fuyao used Haoran Righteous Qi to destroy the resentful souls imprisoned beneath the Blazing Sun Holy Land. As she prepared to leave, she discovered a young Elk Mountain Deer spirit hiding in the chamber and began questioning him.

• Xue Fuyao sensed something extraordinary inside the gourd and decided to ask her master about it later.
• Xue Fuyao returned to the passage and used Haoran Righteous Qi to eliminate the imprisoned resentful souls.
• Xue Fuyao spotted a hidden spirit in a corner and threatened it with Haoran Righteous Qi.
• The Elk Mountain Deer said he did not know why he was there and claimed he had awakened in the chamber after dying.
• Xue Fuyao ordered the Elk Mountain Deer to answer her questions truthfully or suffer the same fate as the resentful souls.

Xue Fuyao questioned the Elk Mountain Deer's soul and learned that demons connected to Ghost Sorrow Cliff had been disappearing as they sought Chaos's legacy. She saw through the deer's attempt to lure her into searching for treasure and sealed his soul in a bottle for later use.

• Xue Fuyao asked where the Elk Mountain Deer had been captured, and he said it was at Ghost Sorrow Cliff.
• The Elk Mountain Deer claimed that the vengeful souls Xue Fuyao had killed had also come from Ghost Sorrow Cliff, and said the Demon Race had mistaken missing great demons for demons who had jumped off the cliff.
• The Elk Mountain Deer said Chaos had deliberately perished at Ghost Sorrow Cliff and that his legacy was supposedly buried beneath it.
• Xue Fuyao doubted the deer's claims about treasure and recognized that he hoped to make her spare him and take him along.
• Xue Fuyao sealed the Elk Mountain Deer's soul in a bottle instead of killing it.

After escaping the Blazing Sun Holy Land, Xue Fuyao told Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe how she uncovered Thousand-Faced’s disguise and resolved to warn her master about a sealed demon’s future rampage. Xie Yichu then revealed that they suspected the Blazing Sun Holy Land’s people had survived the explosion because no intact bodies had been found.

• Xue Fuyao left the secret chambers and hurried to Blazing Sun City after her master contacted her.
• Xue Fuyao told Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe that Thousand-Faced was a Rotwood Demon and explained how she recognized the fake Gu Nian.
• Xue Fuyao decided to tell her master about the great demon near Ghost Sorrow Cliff who would break free in ten years and devastate the Demon, Devil, and Cultivation Realms.
• Xie Yichu asked Xue Fuyao whether she had seen bodies among the Blazing Sun Holy Land’s ruins, and she said she had seen only fragments.
• Xie Yichu told Xue Fuyao that they suspected the Blazing Sun Holy Land’s people were not dead because cultivators’ bodies did not decay after death.

Xue Fuyao told Xie Yichu about the vengeful souls she found in the Blazing Sun Holy Land ruins, and he explained their use in forging artifacts with ghost spirits. After learning she could cultivate Haoran Righteous Qi, Xie Yichu ordered her to reach the Golden Core Realm within three months.

• Xie Yichu reasoned that the Blazing Sun Holy Land's leaders likely had defensive magic artifacts and that their disappearance suggested something suspicious.
• Xue Fuyao described finding and dispersing the vengeful souls of more than a hundred great demons in a secret chamber.
• Xie Yichu explained that vengeful souls could produce netherfire used to forge artifacts capable of harming an opponent's soul.
• Xue Fuyao gave Xie Yichu the Elk Mountain Deer's soul and asked him to interrogate it about the secret it was hiding.
• Xue Fuyao revealed that she had just cultivated Haoran Righteous Qi, and Xie Yichu urged her to keep practicing it.
• Xie Yichu gave Xue Fuyao three months to break through from the Foundation Establishment Late Stage to the Golden Core Realm, or he would confine her to Green Bamboo Peak.

Xue Fuyao planned to leave for the South Sea Grand Feast, but first went to retrieve her formations and found Thousand-Faced, Shen Qianqian, and Tan He trapped and badly injured. After burning Thousand-Faced to ashes, she turned to the two unconscious women and began looking through their memories.

• Xie Yichu ordered Xue Fuyao to reach the Golden Core stage within three months and return to secluded cultivation afterward, and she agreed to the breakthrough.
• Xue Fuyao planned to travel early to the South Sea Grand Feast to obtain an item that would appear there.
• Xue Fuyao checked Master Tu's shop but left when she saw his no-entry sign, then went outside the city to retrieve her activated formations.
• Xue Fuyao found Thousand-Faced, Shen Qianqian, and Tan He unconscious and seriously injured inside her formation, and recognized Shen Qianqian as the real one.
• Xue Fuyao searched Thousand-Faced, found a Storage Ring, and burned the gravely wounded Rotwood Demon to ashes.
• Xue Fuyao touched Shen Qianqian and Tan He on the forehead and began viewing their memories.

Xue Fuyao discovered that the Heavenly Sword Sect had conspired to steal the Blazing Sun Holy Land’s Heart-Guarding Scale, while Tan He had caused the explosion in an attempt to improve her spiritual root. After claiming the scale and killing Shen Qianqian and Tan He, Xue Fuyao learned that several burned survivors had appeared in a cave on Ghost Sorrow Cliff.

• Xue Fuyao learned from Shen Qianqian and Tan He’s memories that the Heavenly Sword Sect planned to steal the Heart-Guarding Scale and kill Thousand-Faced afterward.
• Xue Fuyao discovered that Tan He had detonated the Blazing Sun Holy Land’s fire-attribute spirit mineral veins to temper her body and raise her spiritual root’s purity.
• Xue Fuyao found the Heart-Guarding Scale in Shen Qianqian’s Storage Bag, took the pair’s belongings, killed them, and burned their bodies.
• Several badly burned people appeared in a secluded cave abode on Ghost Sorrow Cliff in the Demon Realm, where two conscious survivors found their storage artifacts destroyed and their medicine lost.

After the Blazing Sun Holy Land survivors resolved to recover and seek revenge without relying on the Demon Race, Xue Fuyao left for the South Sea Grand Feast. Shadow Three then reported that Zhang Clan members had appeared in the South Sea, and Xue Fuyao ordered him to watch them until she arrived.

• The wounded Blazing Sun Holy Land elder rejected an alliance with the Demon Race and told the survivors to heal before pursuing revenge against the Heavenly Sword Sect.
• Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe worried that Xue Fuyao was cultivating too quickly, but she assured them she would protect her foundation and set off for the South Sea Grand Feast.
• Chu Yunzhe asked whether Xue Fuyao would be safe to leave, and Gu Nian said their junior martial uncle could handle anyone who caused trouble.
• Xue Fuyao messaged Jimo Xiubai to arrange a future meeting at the Three Realms Auction House to sell the stone slabs.
• Shadow Three reported traces of Zhang Clan members in the South Sea, and Xue Fuyao ordered him to observe them without acting until she arrived.

Xue Fuyao arrived in South Sea City and learned that several Zhang Clan survivors had gathered there after escaping the clan’s destruction. They had come seeking either the South Sea Grand Feast’s Sea God’s Blessing or the newly unearthed ancient ruins, leaving Xue Fuyao curious about the ruins and prepared to confront her old enemies.

• Xue Fuyao reached South Sea City after forcing Xiao Yan to make the journey in five days, then met Shadow Three and went to his lodgings.
• Shadow Three told Xue Fuyao that he had found no clear leads on the ancient runic script, but had spotted Zhang Clan survivors in the city.
• Shadow Three identified Zhang Zhenyu and several relatives, then explained that Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Qizhi had led other survivors out through a hidden teleportation formation.
• Xue Fuyao realized she had underestimated the Zhang Family’s preparations and learned that Zhang Zhenyu’s group sought the Sea God’s Blessing at the South Sea Grand Feast.
• Shadow Three reported that the twins’ group had come for the ancient ruins and that two women, addressed as elders, appeared to be making its decisions.

Xue Fuyao learned that the ancient ruins near South Sea City appeared ordinary, then gave Shadow Three medicine balls made with Divine Spirit Fruit and prepared to investigate the ruins and the Sea God’s Blessing. She left determined to stop the Zhang Clan from obtaining the blessing.

• Shadow Three told Xue Fuyao that the underground ancient ruins had been investigated but seemed to be only the remains of an ordinary city.
• Shadow Three said the Chaos Formula suited him and the others, whose cultivation had advanced quickly with their multiple Spiritual Roots.
• Xue Fuyao gave Shadow Three fifty medicine balls made with Divine Spirit Fruit, Ten-Thousand-Year Mystic Spirit Liquid, and medicinal ingredients, and asked him to distribute them among the others.
• Xue Fuyao took Big Treasure into South Sea City and examined the Sea God statue with her Heavenly Eye, but found nothing unusual about it.
• Xue Fuyao decided to visit the ancient ruins with Shadow Three and the others and to prevent the Zhang Clan from receiving the Sea God’s Blessing.

Xue Fuyao investigated the Zhang Clan’s courtyard, spotted Wang Yan in South Sea City, and learned about the Sea God’s Blessing and the newly made Sea God Statue. At Sea God Cliff, she found golden lines on weathered rocks that resembled markings once seen on her body, and Big Treasure recognized the rocks as valuable.

• Xue Fuyao used her Heavenly Eye to spy on Zhang Qin’er and the others taking medicinal baths, but a formation and a Nascent Soul Cultivator forced her to withdraw.
• Xue Fuyao spotted Wang Yan, a Yuanji Sect disciple with water and fire spiritual roots, and considered how the Sea God’s Blessing might improve her water spiritual root.
• Xue Fuyao questioned a wonton-stall owner, who told her that the city lord had commissioned a new Sea God Statue for the South Sea Grand Feast and that the blessing could renew a person’s body.
• Xue Fuyao recalled the story of the Sea God’s ascension near South Sea City and went to Sea God Cliff.
• Xue Fuyao saw familiar golden lines across the weathered rocks, and Big Treasure excitedly tried to swallow one before she sent it to search for more.

Xue Fuyao collected golden-veined stones from Sea God Cliff, discovering that they accelerated the growth of her Innate Sword Embryos. After killing Zhang Yizhi and evading a powerful pursuer, she returned to South Sea City disguised, where she used the Heavenly Eye to inspect a heavily loaded carriage.

• Big Treasure guided Xue Fuyao to stones rich in golden veins, which she gathered after the Innate Sword Embryos reacted to them.
• The Innate Sword Embryos absorbed the stones’ golden veins, developing faint golden patterns and beginning to take the shape of swords.
• Zhang Yizhi ambushed Xue Fuyao and demanded her stolen goods, but she revealed her late Golden Core cultivation and killed him.
• Xue Fuyao cut Zhang Yizhi’s corpse into pieces, fled into the sea as a Nascent Soul presence approached, and collected more golden-veined stones.
• Xue Fuyao changed her appearance and aura before returning to South Sea City, then used the Heavenly Eye to examine a heavily loaded carriage.

Xue Fuyao followed a City Lord’s Mansion convoy and suspected that its stone was tied to the Sea God’s Blessing and the city lord’s scheme for the South Sea Grand Feast. After learning Sea God Cliff’s importance from Shadow Three, she wondered what the Zhang Clan had sought there, while Shadow Three proposed dealing with Zhang Zhenyu and his people.

• Xue Fuyao followed the convoy out of the city, transformed into a spirit insect, and absorbed golden veins from its stone while overhearing that the men belonged to the City Lord’s Mansion.
• Xue Fuyao recalled the city lord’s past tampering with the South Sea Grand Feast and suspected the golden veins in Sea God Cliff’s stones were the source of the Sea God’s Blessing.
• Xue Fuyao returned to the courtyard and admitted to Shadow Three that she had killed Zhang Yizhi after he tried to ambush her.
• Shadow Three told Xue Fuyao that Sea God Cliff was guarded and that its stones were used to carve the Sea God Statues for the South Sea Grand Feast.
• Xue Fuyao and Shadow Three reasoned that the Zhang Clan had lured away the guards to reach Sea God Cliff, and Shadow Three suggested killing Zhang Zhenyu and his people.

Xue Fuyao traveled with Shadow Three, Ying Jiu, and Fifteen to the ancient ruins near South Sea City, where she discovered a scroll hidden inside a stone stele. After learning that the stele’s formation aided sword cultivators in comprehending the Dao, she agreed to explore deeper with Gu Zhinan, who hoped to rely on her guards’ strength.

• Xue Fuyao rejected a plan to pursue the Sea God's Blessing recipient and chose to investigate the ancient ruins, while vowing to avenge the Snow Dynasty.
• Xue Fuyao and her three companions flew to the ruins, where she learned that South Sea City had restricted discussion of their discovery.
• Xue Fuyao saw a scroll hidden inside the stone stele and learned that a formation prevented people from approaching within five meters.
• Gu Zhinan introduced himself as the successor of Free and Unfettered Valley and explained that the stele helped sword cultivators comprehend the Dao.
• Gu Zhinan invited Xue Fuyao to explore deeper, and she accepted, adding him and his two companions to their group.

Xue Fuyao and Gu Zhinan explored the pristine depths of the ancient ruins and encountered Zhang Qizhi and his clan. After Gu Zhinan mocked Zhang Qizhi’s murdered eldest brother, Zhang Qizhi attacked, and the Zhang elders apologized to the young master of Free and Unfettered Valley.

• Xue Fuyao noticed furtive explorers in the ruins and told Shadow Three, Ying Jiu, and Fifteen to watch for treasures.
• Xue Fuyao and Gu Zhinan reached the deepest part of the ruins and went toward a towering pavilion instead of the City Lord’s Mansion.
• Xue Fuyao recognized Zhang Qizhi among the Zhang Clan members, and Gu Zhinan explained that Zhang Qizhi had returned from the Central Continent to rebuild his family.
• Gu Zhinan mocked Zhang Qizhi’s eldest brother, and Zhang Qizhi’s Sword Qi destroyed the pavilion as the group dodged clear.
• Zhang Qizhi accused them of insulting his eldest brother, and the Zhang elders apologized after Gu Zhinan invoked Free and Unfettered Valley.

Xue Fuyao learned the truth behind South Sea City's Sea God legend and that the ruins belonged to the Aquatic Race. Gu Zhinan asked her guards for protection while his family’s elders traveled to the ruins, and Xue secretly sent her Treasure-Seeking Mouse to search for the hidden treasure.

• Gu Zhinan explained that a flying fish great demon, not a cultivator, had attempted to ascend near Sea God Cliff before being killed, and that the South Sea Grand Feast originally honored its slayer.
• Gu Zhinan identified the ruins’ stone writing as Aquatic Race script and said the Zhang Family had likely found a lead to something valuable.
• Gu Zhinan asked Xue Fuyao to have her guards protect him and his companions until his family’s people arrived, promising a reward from Free and Unfettered Valley.
• Xue Fuyao agreed to protect Gu Zhinan while privately deciding to pursue the ruins’ treasure herself.
• With Shadow Three, Ying Jiu, and Fifteen providing cover, Xue Fuyao sent her Treasure-Seeking Mouse into the ruins, and the Purple-Clad Maid noticed something dart away.

Xue Fuyao searched the City Lord's Mansion, collecting ancient objects and discovering unusual painting scrolls that seemed to contain sealed objects. She then joined Gu Zhinan in a standoff with the Zhang Clan, hoping to keep them occupied while Big Treasure gathered things elsewhere.

• Xue Fuyao entered the City Lord's Mansion and began collecting intact objects to sell for Spirit Stones, while Gu Zhinan watched and wondered about her identity.
• In the study, Xue Fuyao found that the old books had weathered into fragments but a painting of a sea cliff remained untouched and glowed faintly under her Heavenly Eye.
• Xue Fuyao ordered Shadow Three and the others to search for similar paintings, and they found more than a hundred scrolls for her to store away.
• Xue Fuyao continued collecting valuable-looking items as she headed to the next location, where she found Gu Zhinan and the Zhang Clan locked in a standoff.
• Xue Fuyao brought Shadow Three and the others to Gu Zhinan's side and faced the Zhang Clan, hoping to keep them occupied while Big Treasure collected things elsewhere.

Xue Fuyao and Gu Zhinan agreed to search the alchemy room separately with the Zhang Family, while Xue Fuyao secretly collected a stone bead and prepared to bring Big Treasure inside. The South Sea City Lord’s people then arrived in force, appearing hostile.

• A Zhang Family Nascent Soul cultivator proposed that both sides search the alchemy room independently, and Gu Zhinan reluctantly agreed.
• Xue Fuyao examined the alchemy room, collected dried petals that merged into her body, and picked up a large stone bead.
• Zhang Qizhi felt the urge to kill Xue Fuyao again, while she recognized his killing intent and dismissed him as a dog that could not change its habits.
• Xue Fuyao told Fifteen to bring Big Treasure inside, but Fifteen returned to report that the South Sea City Lord’s people were approaching.
• A large group of cultivators charged into the alchemy room.

Xue Fuyao and the others discovered that South Sea City had trapped outsiders in a formation, apparently to support the Sea God’s Blessing and pursue something within the Ancient Ruins. With a Spirit Transformation Realm cultivator holding the barrier, Xue Fuyao arranged for her allies to fight the three Nascent Soul cultivators while she helped the trapped cultivators resist South Sea City’s forces.

• A South Sea City official demanded that Xue Fuyao’s group surrender their loot and threatened to use them as sacrifices, so Xue Fuyao blasted a way out of the Ancient Ruins.
• Xue Fuyao and the others found outsiders trapped beneath a formation that blocked communication, and she realized South Sea City had likely caused the disappearances once blamed on the Devil Race.
• Xue Fuyao proposed that the Zhang Family’s two Nascent Soul cultivators each engage one enemy while her group faced the third, and the two allies agreed.
• Xue Fuyao ordered Shadow Three, Ying Jiu, and Fifteen to kill the remaining Nascent Soul cultivator and gave them three longswords along with Evil and Darkness Withering.
• Xue Fuyao attacked South Sea City’s lower-level cultivators with silver needles and talismans while healing and replenishing the other trapped cultivators.

Xue Fuyao and her allies broke the spatial seal and survived the battle, though the South Sea City Lord escaped despite being gravely wounded. Xue Fuyao decided to take revenge on the City Lord’s Mansion and led a large group toward South Sea City.

• The South Sea City cultivators were overwhelmed as the wounded and depleted fighters gathered around Xue Fuyao, while Shadow Three and the others kept attacking a Nascent Soul cultivator.
• Gu Zhinan and Xue Fuyao used their life-saving treasures to break the spatial seal and strike at the hidden South Sea City Lord.
• Shadow Three, Ying Jiu, and Fifteen killed the wounded Nascent Soul cultivator they had been fighting, then returned to Xue Fuyao as the seal lifted.
• The South Sea City Lord escaped, and the two remaining enemy Nascent Soul cultivators fled after the battle turned against them.
• Xue Fuyao asked Gu Zhinan about the City Lord’s Mansion and declared that she would take revenge, persuading the gathered cultivators to march on South Sea City.
• Zhang Qizhi suggested that his group follow the crowd because the ruined site might no longer hold what they sought.