Chapter Summaries

Xue Fuyao was confronted by Buddhist Sect monks who tried to force her to convert, so she defeated and abducted them. After using the Soul-Seizing Technique to inspect their memories, she discovered their vile deeds and grew even more determined to deal with them.

• A monk blocked Xue Fuyao from leaving a restaurant, claiming she needed purification and urging her to convert to the Buddhist Sect.
• Xue Fuyao mocked the monks for asking her to betray her sect, then kicked one aside when they tried to seize her by force.
• She bound the injured monks with the Immortal-Binding Rope and took them to a grove while the town's cultivators stayed out of it.
• The monks invoked the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple, but Xue Fuyao ignored the threat and used the Soul-Searching Art on one of them, leaving him with severe soul damage.
• The remaining monks begged for mercy, but Xue Fuyao used the Soul-Seizing Technique on them and found their memories filled with vile deeds.

Xue Fuyao discovered that the Buddhist disciples who had attacked her were former bandits extorting nearby towns, killed them, and learned that the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple controlled travel out of the Western Continent. While searching a marsh for herbs, she checked whether her Dark Guards were there and learned that none had managed to enter.

• Xue Fuyao searched the men's Storage Bags, found goods they had extorted from nearby communities, burned their bodies, and imprisoned their souls in the Heavenheart Bottle.
• Several Life Tablets belonging to low-ranking Ten Thousand Buddha Temple disciples shattered, prompting the monk guarding them to investigate and consider whether they had been killed.
• Xue Fuyao learned the men had targeted her because a special technique made her appear dazzling, and she resolved to avoid Buddhist Sect disciples.
• Xue Fuyao headed to a marsh to find Seven-Star Grass and Black Spirit Ear while considering how she could leave the Western Continent, where Teleportation Arrays were controlled by the Buddhist Sect and required costly payments and bribes.
• Xue Fuyao asked her Dark Guards whether any were in the Western Continent, and Sanqi reported that none had entered because access was tightly controlled and expensive.

Xue Fuyao harvested Black Spirit Ear and ancient Seven-Star Grass in a marsh, then negotiated with a Two-Headed Snake that had come to reclaim the grass. After trading the grass for one tooth from each head, she accidentally dropped a black box that immediately captivated the snakes.

• Xue Fuyao found and harvested Black Spirit Ear and over five-thousand-year-old Seven-Star Grass in the marsh.
• A Two-Headed Snake confronted Xue Fuyao and asked her to return the Seven-Star Grass.
• Xue Fuyao recognized that the snake heads feared her and offered to trade the grass for one tooth from each of them.
• The Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil each pulled out a tooth and gave it to Xue Fuyao.
• Xue Fuyao took out the box containing the Seven-Star Grass but accidentally dropped a black box radiating scorching energy, which drew both snakes' attention.

Xue Fuyao contracted with the Two-Headed Snake brothers, Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil, and learned they knew of an ancient Teleportation Array that might let her leave the Western Continent. She set out for Seahorse Island with them, then entered a human city to buy a suitable Spirit Beast Pouch.

• Xue Fuyao warned the Two-Headed Snake that the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple had found them, and Golden Pupil asked her to take the brothers in.
• Xue Fuyao accepted Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil as contracted spirit pets after they listed their strengths.
• Purple Pupil told Xue Fuyao about an unreliable Teleportation Array on Seahorse Island, and she followed his directions toward it.
• Purple Pupil explained that the Snake Clan considered two-headed snakes an ill omen, and the brothers described how they escaped being killed as hatchlings.
• Xue Fuyao gave the brothers dragon meat, unaware that it brought out faint golden markings in their scales.
• Xue Fuyao avoided monks on the way to a human city and went to buy a higher-grade Spirit Beast Pouch for the brothers.

Xue Fuyao bought a Spirit Beast Pouch and a large supply of blank Formation Disks, hoping to repair and reconstruct the Teleportation Array. She left with the materials after paying two hundred thousand mid-grade Spirit Stones, while considering how she might benefit from the Buddhist Sect’s control of the Western Continent.

• Xue Fuyao bought a high-grade Spirit Beast Pouch, and Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil climbed inside it.
• Xue Fuyao asked the clerk for blank Formation Disks so she could try repairing the Teleportation Array and work out its complete formation.
• Xue Fuyao considered the Buddhist Sect’s control of the Western Continent and thought she could take a share of its resources.
• The clerk led Xue Fuyao to the third floor, where she ordered a thousand Formation Disks of every material available.
• Xue Fuyao paid two hundred thousand mid-grade Spirit Stones and checked that the Formation Disks had been delivered in the correct quantities.

Xue Fuyao set out by Spirit Boat for Seahorse Island, hoping to find the Teleportation Array there, but learned that a sea beast had sunk the island. She also discovered that two groups had recently searched for the island, including monks from the Four Symbols Temple, and continued toward its location.

• Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil told Xue Fuyao about the Two-Headed Snake elder who had revealed Seahorse Island’s location, while Golden Pupil explained why he distrusted him.
• Xue Fuyao asked a Spirit Boat operator to take her to Seahorse Island.
• The operator told Xue Fuyao that a sea beast had sunk Seahorse Island several days earlier, but she insisted on traveling to its location.
• Xue Fuyao paid the operator a mid-grade Spirit Stone, and he revealed that monks from the Four Symbols Temple had asked about Seahorse Island before it sank.
• The operator said another group had searched for Seahorse Island after the sea beast left but found nothing.

Xue Fuyao searched the ruins of Seahorse Island and discovered that its Teleportation Array had been completely destroyed. She gathered all the broken formation runes, hoping to use them to deduce and build a new large Teleportation Array.

• Xue Fuyao learned that angry monks had come to Seahorse Island seeking its Teleportation Array and likely caused the sea beast attack that sank it.
• Xue Fuyao traveled to the island’s former location and descended to the seabed, where she found the island shattered into wreckage.
• Xue Fuyao determined that the old Teleportation Array could not be repaired, but explained that its runes might help her set up a new one.
• Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil joined Xue Fuyao in searching the seabed for formation runes.
• After two days of searching and piecing the fragments together, Xue Fuyao gathered all the formation runes.

Xue Fuyao received control of Bai Ze’s different space and prepared it as a safe refuge for her Dark Guards, modifying her Teleportation Array to connect to it. After finishing her work, she discovered that Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil were missing.

• Xue Fuyao spent three months deciphering the seabed Teleportation Array and considered where to build it safely in the Western Continent.
• Bai Ze summoned Xue Fuyao to the expanded different space and gave her control of it as a first-meeting gift.
• Xue Fuyao imprinted the Bai Ze mark onto the Token so Shadow One and the others could access the space, and Shadow Five, Ying Qi, and Shadow Twenty-One decided to join her in the Western Continent.
• Xue Fuyao modified the Teleportation Array so marked Dark Guards could teleport into the different space, though returning would require the space to cooperate if they wanted to change locations.
• After finishing her work, Xue Fuyao realized Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil were missing.

After leaving the alternate space, Xue Fuyao found Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil imprisoned and badly injured in a snake-meat shop, then rescued them and punished the shop owner. She returned to the alternate space with the recovering snakes and received a message saying her things were ready.

• Xue Fuyao followed her contract with Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil to a town where the two snakes had been captured.
• Xue Fuyao entered the snake-meat shop’s kitchen and found Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil wounded in a cage among other snakes.
• Xue Fuyao freed the two snakes, fed them dragon blood, and forced the shop owner to take venom from a severed snake head.
• Xue Fuyao returned to the alternate space, where Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil fell into a deep sleep while digesting the dragon blood.
• Xue Fuyao received a message on her Communication Talisman that said, “Your things are ready.”

Xue Fuyao collected Nirvana, a three-form semi-divine weapon forged by Master Tu, and planned her next journey. After arranging to meet Bai Ling, she set out for the Northern Wilderness Realm to investigate rumors of a Vermilion Bird.

• Xue Fuyao used her alternate space to arrive at Master Tu’s workshop almost immediately after he contacted her.
• Master Tu revealed a weapon that could shift between a whip, a sword, and a more powerful form resembling Shattered Star, and said it was nearly a Divine Artifact.
• Xue Fuyao named the weapon Nirvana and wished Master Tu success in forging a true Divine Artifact before they parted.
• Xue Fuyao planned to visit the Yuanji Sect after giving Bai Ling the Seven-Star Grass and Black Spirit Ear.
• Xue Fuyao recalled rumors of a Vermilion Bird in the Northern Wilderness Realm and decided to investigate, despite suspecting the reports were false.

Xue Fuyao arrived in Ping'an Town, a settlement where cultivators stopped before entering the Northern Wilderness Realm's forest. She declined Li Cheng's offer to guide her through the forest, but asked whether his group could provide information.

• Xue Fuyao traveled to the Northern Wilderness Realm and reached Ping'an Town after three days.
• Xue Fuyao learned that Ping'an Town served as a resupply and rest stop for people training in the forest, and that its strong residents kept troublemakers in line.
• Li Cheng approached Xue Fuyao and offered to guide and protect her in the forest for a high price.
• Xue Fuyao refused to hire Li Cheng's group because she preferred to train alone.
• Xue Fuyao asked Li Cheng whether his well-known group was well-informed, and he realized she wanted information.

Xue Fuyao bought Li Cheng’s group’s latest information and entered the Northern Wilderness Forest, where she learned of a possible heavenly flame and began using her ability to communicate with plants. She left the town behind and sought the forest’s treasures, though the tree she questioned knew nothing.

• Xue Fuyao agreed to pay Li Cheng five hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones for all the scrolls of information.
• Li Cheng warned Xue Fuyao about the forest’s dangers, especially during the transition between day and night, and later hired out his team to a group of five newcomers.
• Xue Fuyao entered the Northern Wilderness Forest and used her power to move the undergrowth aside.
• Xue Fuyao read the scrolls and learned that a sudden rise in temperature had withered plants at one location, prompting rumors of a heavenly flame that might be connected to the Vermilion Bird.
• Xue Fuyao threatened a tree into revealing where the good things were, but sensed its despair as it insisted it had no information.

Xue Fuyao explored the dangerous Northern Wilderness Realm, whose strange energy made its Spirit Plants unusually potent. After learning the Heavenly Flame lay near the inner region, she hurried deeper into the forest toward its location.

• Xue Fuyao left the towering tree and gathered useful Spirit Plants as she crossed the humid forest.
• Xue Fuyao blocked a green snake’s venom with her arm, found it barely affected her, and put the snake into the Demon-Suppressing Bracelet.
• Xue Fuyao read a scroll explaining that the Heavenly Flame lay near the boundary between the outer and inner regions, where unbearable heat had injured other Cultivators.
• Xue Fuyao put the scroll away and quickened her pace as poisonous Spirit Plants grew more numerous around her.

Xue Fuyao camped in the damp forest using her Spirit-Mind Purifying Flame while searching for the location recorded on a scroll about Fish Lake. A group of armed strangers arrived, and she overheard them mistake her flame for a gentle Heavenly Flame, leaving their intentions unclear.

• Xue Fuyao planned to have Bai Ling turn the poisonous Spirit Plants she had gathered into poison and poison pills for later use.
• Xue Fuyao failed to find the place recorded on her scroll before nightfall and used her Spirit-Mind Purifying Flame to dry the ground for a camp.
• Xue Fuyao read a scroll predicting that the wandering Fish Lake would next appear in the forest.
• A group of armed strangers approached Xue Fuyao's camp, and she watched them settle nearby without inviting them to share her fire.
• A young man warned a lively girl that the white flame was unusual, then said it was probably not the violent Heavenly Flame they had come to find.
• Xue Fuyao silently laughed when the young man described her Spirit-Mind Purifying Flame as gentle.

Xue Fuyao followed the signs of a Heavenly Flame into a scorching region where her Heavenly Eye revealed a world engulfed in fire and Starry Sky quietly healed the damage she suffered. She used the Spirit-Mind Purifying Flame and Wine God Heartflame to confront the hidden flame, and a furious phoenix cry rang out.

• Xue Fuyao traveled toward the site of the rumored Heavenly Flame while questioning how the news of a Vermilion Bird had emerged.
• As the heat intensified, the Spirit-Mind Purifying Flame and Wine God Heartflame appeared to protect Xue Fuyao and confirmed another Heavenly Flame was nearby.
• Xue Fuyao opened her Heavenly Eye and saw flames covering the sky and ground, then realized Starry Sky had been healing her injuries.
• Xue Fuyao sent both Heavenly Flames outward to force the hidden flame to reveal itself and helped the Spirit-Mind Purifying Flame try to devour it.
• A piercing phoenix cry filled with anger and unwillingness rang across heaven and earth.

Xue Fuyao let the spirit-mind purifying flame devour the fiery Vermilion Bird, then left the forest before the arriving human and Demon Race forces could reach her. Back in Ping'an Town, she met the commotion’s aftermath as Jiu Laosan insisted the bird had been a divine Vermilion Bird.

• The spirit-mind purifying flame devoured the fiery Vermilion Bird while the Wine God Heartflame restrained it, and Xue Fuyao chose not to interfere.
• After the devouring ended, Xue Fuyao recalled both flames and used her different space to escape as human cultivators and Demon Race members approached.
• Xue Fuyao returned to Ping'an Town in the guise of a young man and waited to meet Bai Ling while Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil ate.
• Jiu Laosan declared that the fiery bird had been a Vermilion Bird he had seen before, but he could not remember where.
• Another patron challenged Jiu Laosan’s claim, pointing out that the bird had been swallowed and that unusual phenomena had already appeared in the forest.

Xue Fuyao overheard a man in Ping'an Town claim that a newly born heavenly flame had taken the form of a divine beast, and she suspected he was manipulating the locals into searching for it. After the Spirit-Mind Purifying Flame and Wine God Heartflame failed to answer her questions, Bai Ling arrived and confronted her about her appearance.

• A bearded man told the residents of Ping'an Town that a newly born heavenly flame in the forest could rank among the top ten on the Heavenly Flame Ranking and urged them to seek it.
• The residents grew excited about obtaining the flame, while the man admitted he wanted to keep it from outsiders and could not compete for it alone.
• Xue Fuyao recognized that the man had persuaded the locals and suspected his claim about the flame taking a beast's form was a scheme.
• Xue Fuyao tried to sense whether the Spirit-Mind Purifying Flame and Wine God Heartflame could change shape, but neither responded.
• Bai Ling found Xue Fuyao and asked whether her current or previous appearance was fake, and Xue Fuyao replied that both could be.

Xue Fuyao revealed that Xue Qinning was a fake name and helped Bai Ling escape the people hunting her. After leaving Ping'an Town, Xue Fuyao arrived at the foot of the Yuanji Sect's mountain rather than trespassing into the sect.

• Bai Ling confronted Xue Fuyao about her false name, but accepted that she had been cautious and asked for her things so she could flee.
• Xue Fuyao warned Bai Ling that her pursuer was waiting outside and used a Formation Disk and Spirit Stones to send her away unnoticed.
• A group led by a burly man stormed into the establishment and searched for Bai Ling, while Xue Fuyao realized they were not from the Dragon Star Tower.
• Xue Fuyao messaged Bai Ling to ask why people were hunting her, then left with Purple Pupil and Golden Pupil.
• Xue Fuyao traveled through the different space to the foot of the Yuanji Sect's mountain and chose not to enter anywhere but the main gate.

After returning to Yuanji Sect, Xue Fuyao received cultivation guidance from Xie Yichu and learned that the Kunlun Sect and Heavenly Sword Manor had arrived for a disciple competition. She declined to compete and left to gather fruit, promising to bring her master fresh tea flowers.

• Xue Fuyao noticed many unfamiliar disciples from other sects at Yuanji Sect and went to Green Bamboo Peak to greet Xie Yichu.
• Xie Yichu praised Xue Fuyao’s cultivation, discussed her progress in the Longevity Formula, and answered her cultivation questions.
• Xue Fuyao suggested brewing the ripe fruit on Green Bamboo Peak into spirit wine, and Xie Yichu warned that the squirrels and spirit birds had been eating it.
• Xie Yichu explained that the Kunlun Sect and Heavenly Sword Manor had come to hold a competition against Yuanji Sect’s disciples, and Xue Fuyao declined his suggestion that she participate.
• Xie Yichu asked Xue Fuyao for more tea flowers for his martial uncles, and she promised to bring fresh ones before leaving to inspect the ripe fruit trees.

Xue Fuyao finished preparing fruit preserves and camellia blossoms, then learned from Xie Yichu that the competition had been delayed by two late-arriving sects. She visited Gu Nian and proposed replacing the disputed schedule with open arena challenges.

• Xue Fuyao buried jars of wine and stored dried fruit, fruit tea, and camellia blossoms before asking Xie Yichu about her Heavenly Flame.
• Xie Yichu explained that the Vermilion Bird Heavenly Flame had likely burned through its potential before dying, and said Xue Fuyao’s flame was stronger for devouring it.
• Xie Yichu told Xue Fuyao that Gu Nian was busy with the competition, which had been disrupted by the arrival of two more sects.
• Xue Fuyao found Gu Nian furious over the Azure Cloud Sect and the Luofu Sect, whose leaders had persuaded Gu Nian’s master to let them join.
• Gu Nian told Xue Fuyao that the two sects kept objecting to her revised schedules, so Xue Fuyao suggested open arenas where challengers could compete until someone stopped winning.