Chapter Summaries

Xue Fuyao and Jimo Xiubai destroyed the Li, Wang, Sun, and Zhou households in the City Within a City and learned that their core disciples had already gone to the Central Continent to pledge allegiance to the Zhang Family. After the pair left, the City Lord emerged from hiding and faced a request for help from the four households’ remaining disciples.

• Xue Fuyao gave Jimo Xiubai his share of the recovered cultivation resources, and he killed the poisoned people who had tried to flee.
• Xue Fuyao retrieved the Li Household’s genealogy, and Jimo Xiubai killed its Clan Chief before checking which members were missing.
• Jimo Xiubai threatened Sun Qing into revealing that the core disciples of the Li, Wang, Sun, and Zhou households had left for the Central Continent with precious resources as a pledge to the Zhang Family.
• Xue Fuyao received a message from Jimo Yunqi that a strange person in Moon Dance City was asking for her.
• Xue Fuyao and Jimo Xiubai finished searching the four households’ residences and left the City Within a City after the Formation Disk disappeared.
• The City Lord came out of his study, and a servant told him that disciples from the four fallen households were seeking help.

The City Lord rejected the Li, Wang, Sun, and Zhou lineages as they tried to claim kinship, while Jiang Zuo waited at the City Lord's Mansion for Xue Fuyao. When she arrived, he challenged her to a contest in Mechanism Arts, but she explained that she had bought the Heavenly Thunder Bombs from him at a roadside stall in Three Realms City.

• The City Lord refused to recognize the Li, Wang, Sun, and Zhou lineages, believing the Jimo Household had no reason to spare them after their betrayal.
• Jiang Zuo stayed at the City Lord's Mansion and pressed Jimo Yunqi to bring Xue Fuyao back to him.
• Jiang Zuo revealed that he was from Three Realms City, and Jimo Yunqi recognized his name.
• Xue Fuyao arrived with Jimo Xiubai, and Jiang Zuo demanded a contest in Mechanism Arts after assuming she had made the Heavenly Thunder Bombs.
• Xue Fuyao told Jiang Zuo she had bought the bombs from his roadside stall in Three Realms City, leaving him uncertain as he tried to remember the transaction.

Xue Fuyao captured Jiang Zuo after he tried to flee Moon Dance City, intending to keep him around to make Heavenly Thunder Bombs. She also asked him about Hidden Weapon Grandmaster Zhong Ying, whose future inheritance she hoped Jiang Zuo could claim.

• Jiang Zuo said he had used up all his Heavenly Thunder Bombs and refused to explain why Three Realms City had placed a hundred-million-Upper-Grade-Spirit-Stone bounty on him.
• Jiang Zuo pretended to accept Jimo Yunqi's invitation to stay overnight, then secretly left the City Lord's Mansion and hid in Moon Dance City disguised as a beggar.
• Xue Fuyao followed Jiang Zuo, knocked him unconscious, and took him to a room where his clothes, storage artifacts, hidden weapons, and poisons had been removed.
• Jiang Zuo accused Xue Fuyao of planning to claim his bounty, but she said she had captured him so he could make Heavenly Thunder Bombs and help her with another matter.
• Xue Fuyao asked Jiang Zuo whether he knew Hidden Weapon Grandmaster Zhong Ying, and Jiang Zuo said the grandmaster's name was widely known.

Jiang Zuo accepted Xue Fuyao’s offer to help him obtain Zhong Ying’s inheritance in exchange for teaching her subordinates his concealed-weapon skills. Meanwhile, Jimo Yunqi discovered that the Flood Dragon Token had been altered and suspected it was meant to be used with the Snake Clan’s Dragon Gate.

• Xue Fuyao offered Jiang Zuo the location of Zhong Ying’s inheritance in exchange for his full instruction in making and using concealed weapons, and he agreed.
• Xue Fuyao told Jiang Zuo to wait until the demons near the inheritance site had been cleared and warned him to rely on his abilities rather than cultivation during its trials.
• Xue Fuyao left a puppet to attend to Jiang Zuo’s daily needs and assured him that he was safe.
• Jimo Xiubai said Jiang Zuo had apparently left his room, while Jimo Yunqi explained that Three Realms City had placed a massive bounty on him after half the city was destroyed.
• Jimo Yunqi revealed that the Flood Dragon Token had been broken and altered, and he suspected it was intended for use with the Snake Clan’s Dragon Gate.
• Xue Fuyao relayed Venerable Spiritwood’s warning not to give the token to Jimo Yunqi’s father, confirming a suspicion Jimo Yunqi kept to himself.

Jimo Yunqi explained that the Dragon Gate held a True Dragon’s inheritance, and that the Snake Clan planned to claim it by altering their bodies. Xue Fuyao proposed drawing the White Flood Dragons into the conflict as a scapegoat, but the brothers questioned how she knew their secrets.

• Jimo Yunqi revealed that the Dragon Gate was a True Dragon inheritance, not a Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Treasure, and that only those with dragon blood could compete for it.
• Jimo Yunqi explained that the Snake Clan had incorporated True Dragon remains into their bodies and that Venerable Spiritwood had given him the Flood Dragon Token to destroy the Dragon Gate.
• Jimo Yunqi insisted the Dragon Gate had to be destroyed despite the risk of provoking the Snake Clan, and Jimo Xiubai worried their father would object.
• Xue Fuyao proposed leaking the Dragon Gate’s location to the White Flood Dragons, who needed power, would keep the secret, and despised the Snake Clan.
• Xue Fuyao revealed that the White Flood Dragon Ancestor had died and that the Black and Yellow Flood Dragon lineages had caused his old injury.
• Jimo Xiubai asked how Xue Fuyao knew such closely guarded information.

Xue Fuyao and her companions arranged to implicate the White Flood Dragon Clan before traveling to Snake Staff Mountain to destroy the Dragon Gate. They found the gate and hid as Beast Taming Sect disciples arrived with captive members of the Snake Clan.

• Xiao Bai offered to alter a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator's memories to help implicate the White Flood Dragon Clan, and Xue Fuyao sent puppets to protect it.
• Jimo Yunqi identified Snake Staff Mountain as the Dragon Gate's next location, and Xue Fuyao recalled a failed dragon transformation and a dragonlike silhouette from her previous life.
• Jimo Yunqi handed over Moon Dance City's affairs, and the three companions traveled to Snake Staff Mountain disguised as members of the Snake Clan.
• The companions found a crude stone doorframe that Jimo Yunqi's Flood Dragon Token identified as the Dragon Gate.
• Xue Fuyao detected approaching people, and the companions hid before Beast Taming Sect disciples arrived escorting captive members of the Snake Clan.
• Xue Fuyao recognized the leader as the Beast Taming Sect Master's eldest direct disciple, recalled his contracted black flood dragon, and connected his arrival with the sect's fate in her previous life.

Xue Fuyao watched the Beast Taming Sect use pills made from flood dragon essence blood to temporarily gain flood dragon traits, then saw unexpected arrivals disrupt the plan to lure the White Flood Dragon. A Yellow Python Clan elder arrived as a servant to a powerful young prodigy, whom Xue Fuyao recognized as the clan’s Qilin Prodigy.

• Xue Fuyao identified the Beast Taming Sect’s pills as containing flood dragon essence blood and realized their use would inflict severe cultivation damage.
• The Beast Taming Sect members endured painful transformations and gained temporary flood dragon bloodlines and features.
• Xue Fuyao sensed dense demon qi as the Snake Clan arrived, then saw a Yellow Flood Dragon appear unexpectedly.
• Xue Fuyao explained that the Yellow Flood Dragon was a yellow python who had evolved through spirit medicine and was rejected by the true Yellow Flood Dragon clan.
• A Nascent Soul middle-stage elder arrived half a step behind a young man, and Xue Fuyao recognized the youth as the Yellow Python Clan’s Qilin Prodigy, born with a flood dragon body.

Xue Fuyao and the Jimo brothers disguised themselves among the gathered clans and entered the Dragon Gate when it opened. The gate vanished shortly afterward, leaving newcomers with no way to follow.

• Two white Jiaolong arrived and belittled the Yellow Python Clan while claiming the Dragon Gate's legacy for themselves.
• The white Jiaolong insulted the Beast Taming Sect, whose members concealed their identity and avoided a fight.
• Xue Fuyao led Jimo Yunqi and Jimo Xiubai into the crowd, using Jiaolong-like auras to hide their presence.
• Golden light struck the Dragon Gate, and the gate opened amid a violent tremor and a burst of white light.
• Xue Fuyao grabbed the Jimo brothers and charged through the Dragon Gate as the others rushed in after them.
• The Dragon Gate disappeared, and later arrivals found Snake Staff Mountain deserted.

Xue Fuyao became trapped behind a Barrier inside the Dragon Gate after the Heavenly Eye injured her, and she waited while cultivating. She killed Yellow Flood Dragon when his cultivation deviation turned him violent, then reunited with Jimo Xiubai, who warned her not to expose their identities.

• Xue Fuyao used her Heavenly Eye to find her way out of an illusion realm, but the Barrier at the Cave's exit injured the Heavenly Eye and blurred her vision.
• Xue Fuyao covered her eyes, realized the Barrier would vanish after enough people gathered, and cultivated while she waited.
• After three days, Yellow Flood Dragon emerged suffering cultivation deviation, and Xue Fuyao killed him when he turned violent.
• Jimo Xiubai emerged with others, called Xue Fuyao “Xiao Bai,” and quietly told her they could not expose themselves.

Xue Fuyao and the Jimo brothers escaped the illusion realm and entered a chamber marked by dragon murals, where a dragon head offered her the True Dragon Inheritance. She rejected its attempt to merge with her, then used the Soul-Severing Bow to destroy it and collected the golden light it left behind.

• Xue Fuyao explained that the exit barrier would vanish once enough people emerged, and she and the Jimo brothers waited while recovering their spiritual power.
• When the barrier disappeared, dragon might surged through the exit, but Xue Fuyao and the Jimo brothers endured it and entered the mural-covered chamber.
• A golden dragon head addressed Xue Fuyao, recognized the auras of a True Dragon and Bai Ze on her, and offered her the True Dragon Inheritance if she let it merge with her.
• Xue Fuyao refused the inheritance and drew the Soul-Severing Bow despite the dragon head's warning that it could drain her soul.
• Xue Fuyao fired a soul-forged arrow that destroyed the dragon head, stored the golden light it left behind, and found the other people frozen in place.

Xue Fuyao used the Flood Dragon Token to trigger a dragon’s roar that revealed the true Dragon Gate, while she escaped with Jimo Yunqi and Jimo Xiubai. A dragon soul began gathering dragon bones to restore its body, but Xue Fuyao believed the gathering tribulation clouds would destroy it.

• Xue Fuyao shot arrows through Jimo Yunqi and Jimo Xiubai, pulling faint dragon-head phantoms from them, then ordered Jimo Yunqi to act.
• Jimo Yunqi merged the Flood Dragon Token into the dragon-head statue, releasing a powerful roar, while Xue Fuyao hid the three of them behind Water Silk.
• The roar killed cultivators inside the Dragon Gate, and a complete Dragon Gate appeared outside as a blue streak flew away unnoticed.
• A dragon soul appeared and drew dragon bones toward itself, prompting the crowd to realize it was trying to rebuild its body and return to life.
• Jimo Xiubai said they had caused trouble, but Xue Fuyao predicted that tribulation lightning would strike the dragon soul once it gathered the bones.

As the Jiaolong Clan and the Demon Race converged on the Dragon Gate, Xue Fuyao and the Jimo brothers fled the coming battle and raided abandoned Demon Race territory for spirit medicines. A dragon roared beneath gathering Tribulation Clouds, and the clouds finally descended as an unknown wondrous scene began elsewhere.

• Xue Fuyao, Jimo Yunqi, and Jimo Xiubai fled as the Jiaolong Clan and the Five Lineages gathered at Snake Staff Mountain, then hid from the Monster Beasts rushing toward the Dragon Gate.
• Jimo Yunqi told the others that his grandfather and elders from the Yuanji Sect and Kunlun Sect were preparing to deal with the Dragon Gate, while Jimo Xiubai proposed looting the Demon Race's undefended territory.
• Xue Fuyao led the brothers to spirit medicines she had detected, and Jimo Xiubai joked that he would use Jimo Yunqi's money to support her.
• Xue Fuyao explained that she was gathering supplies to support her household, then described the progress of her plans in the Western Continent and at the Cultivation Realm's border with the Devil Race.
• A dragon roared beneath black Tribulation Clouds, and Xue Fuyao glimpsed the scene with her recovering Heavenly Eye before the Tribulation Clouds descended and a wondrous scene unfolded elsewhere.

Xue Fuyao investigated a hidden area beneath a marsh after the Water Spirit Pearl reacted, discovering a powerful demon’s formation and a resemblance to her own inherited techniques. She opened a way through the formation and found a concealed weight-operated mechanism at the center.

• Xue Fuyao told Jimo Xiubai and Jimo Yunqi that something lay beneath the lake and dove in, while Jimo Yunqi stopped the unable-to-swim Jimo Xiubai from following her.
• Xue Fuyao examined the underwater ground and suspected a powerful Jiaolong-type demon lived there, then connected the place to the future Thunder Domain Marsh.
• The Water Spirit Pearl guided Xue Fuyao through a dark passage to clear water, where she sensed a formation resembling her own techniques and recognized its maker as a shrewd imitator.
• Xue Fuyao used Spirit Stones to tear an opening in the formation without alerting the demon, then followed the Water Spirit Pearl to the center.
• Xue Fuyao searched the hollow ground, found a tiny mechanism beneath her feet, and realized it operated by weight.

Xue Fuyao triggered an underwater mechanism with monster beast corpses and obtained a drop of lightning-filled purple water before escaping with Jimo Xiubai and Jimo Yunqi. After they returned to the Cultivation Realm and heard that Venerable Spiritwood had slain a half-step Void Refinement Jiaolong, Xue Fuyao prepared to fulfill her promise to Jiang Zuo.

• Xue Fuyao piled monster beast corpses onto the underwater mechanism, opening it and revealing a drop of purple water with lightning inside.
• Xue Fuyao used the Water Spirit Pearl to withstand the surging current, then escaped the lake with Jimo Xiubai and Jimo Yunqi while leaving behind a wisp of demonic qi.
• Xue Fuyao and the two Jimo brothers fled through the Demon Race's estates and returned to the Cultivation Realm after a half-month detour.
• The cultivators in a teahouse discussed how black tribulation lightning had destroyed the Dragon Soul and Dragon Bones at Snake Staff Mountain, and how Venerable Spiritwood had slain a half-step Void Refinement Jiaolong.
• Jimo Yunqi and Jimo Xiubai said they would return to the Northwestern Lands, and Xue Fuyao set out to fulfill her promise to Jiang Zuo.

Xue Fuyao visited Jiang Zuo at the Western Continent site and heard him volunteer to join her, while he insisted she still honor her promise to help him obtain Zhong Ying’s inheritance. They set out to pursue the inheritance, with Jiang Zuo asking whether anyone else would come along.

• Xue Fuyao arrived at the transformed site, narrowly avoided its traps, and found Jiang Zuo studying the damaged courtyard with Shadow Five and Ying Qi.
• Xue Fuyao sent Shadow Five and Ying Qi away to clear the traps and spoke with Jiang Zuo about his interest in her Dark Guards.
• Jiang Zuo said he wanted to join Xue Fuyao, and she warned him that he could not leave once he joined.
• Jiang Zuo accepted the warning and reminded Xue Fuyao that she had promised to help him obtain Zhong Ying’s inheritance.
• Xue Fuyao headed out to get the inheritance, and Jiang Zuo asked whether they were going alone.

Xue Fuyao told Jiang Zuo that a scroll connected to the Hidden Weapon Celestial Master's inheritance was somewhere in the city, and the two began searching for it. Big Treasure led Xue Fuyao to a crowded stall, where she found two mothers and their daughters arguing over a wooden ruler and asked the stall owner what had happened.

• Xue Fuyao explained that finding the scroll could help Jiang Zuo obtain the complete inheritance, and she persuaded him to search for it.
• The next morning, Xue Fuyao and Jiang Zuo split up to look for the scroll, with Xue Fuyao bringing Big Treasure along.
• Big Treasure pointed Xue Fuyao toward a crowd gathered around a stall.
• Xue Fuyao saw two mother-daughter pairs arguing over an ordinary wooden ruler, then asked the stall owner what the dispute was about.

Xue Fuyao bought a mysterious carved wooden object after intimidating its stall owner, then returned to the inn without finding the scroll she sought. As she and Jiang Zuo agreed to search for two more days before pursuing the inheritance, a steward arrived and invited her to his master’s residence.

• Xue Fuyao found a carved wooden object that rattled and bought it from the stall owner for one Spirit Stone after revealing her Golden Core cultivation.
• Big Treasure sensed something wonderful sealed inside the object, and Xue Fuyao detected a faint fragrance but decided to wait until the Heavenly Eye recovered before trying to open it.
• Xue Fuyao returned to the inn, where Jiang Zuo asked whether she had any clues about the scroll, and she admitted she did not.
• Xue Fuyao told Jiang Zuo the scroll would help but was not necessary for obtaining the inheritance, and they agreed to search for two more days before going after it.
• A middle-aged steward entered the inn, approached Xue Fuyao, and invited her to his master’s residence for a chat.

Xue Fuyao and Jiang Zuo used the Tang Household’s ties to the Tiance Sect to secure an invitation and planned to enlist its help finding the scroll. At the Tang Household, Xue Fuyao asked why its head had invited her, leaving him too intimidated to reveal his original business.

• Jiang Zuo challenged the steward, and Xue Fuyao identified the Tiance Sect as a subordinate of the Yuanji Sect and linked its injured elder to the Tang Household’s ancestor.
• The steward recognized Xue Fuyao’s standing and apologized, and Xue Fuyao accepted the Tang Household’s invitation because she wanted its help.
• Xue Fuyao told Jiang Zuo that the Yuanji Sect had investigated the Tiance Sect’s claims and responded by halving its holdings and the cities under its jurisdiction.
• Xue Fuyao and Jiang Zuo arrived at the Tang Household, where she recognized the two mother-and-daughter pairs from the market among the gathered relatives.
• The head of the Tang Household trembled when Xue Fuyao asked why he had invited her, and he hesitated to mention his original plan to strengthen the household before news of his ancestor’s grave injury spread.

Xue Fuyao learned that the Tang Household’s three-year-old grandson, Tang Yi, had a single metal spiritual root and arranged for the Yuanji Sect to take him in. The Tang Household revealed that the scroll she sought would be offered at a Black Market auction, and the next morning a Yuanji Sect disciple arrived sooner than she expected.

• The Tang Household head asked Xue Fuyao to bring Tang Yi to the Yuanji Sect, and she agreed to report his talent so someone could collect him.
• Xue Fuyao showed the Tang Household a drawing of the scroll she was seeking, and the head said it would be sold at a Wan City Black Market auction the following evening.
• Xue Fuyao and Jiang Zuo returned to the inn, where she warned that the independently organized auction’s sellers could withdraw their items or be interrupted before bidding.
• The next morning, Xue Fuyao returned to the Tang Household after a Yuanji Sect disciple summoned her, and she asked why the disciple had arrived so quickly.

Xue Fuyao and Elder Zhao came to the Tang Household to bring Tang Yi to the Yuanji Sect, but the family tried to delay his departure. After Tang Yi was poisoned, the Tang Household Head agreed to send him away, while Xue Fuyao stayed in Wan City to handle other matters.

• Xue Fuyao learned that the Tang Household wanted to postpone Tang Yi joining the Yuanji Sect because he was too young and did not want to leave his parents.
• The Tang Household Head apologized and said Tang Yi had cried and refused to go, so Elder Zhao decided not to force the matter.
• Tang Yi's mother rushed into the hall with him, reporting that he had a severe fever, and the Tang Household hurried to seek help.
• Xue Fuyao explained that members of the Tang Household might resent Tang Yi because his cultivation would consume resources that could otherwise go to them.
• After treatment revealed five kinds of mixed toxins in Tang Yi's body, the Tang Household Head asked Elder Zhao to take him away.
• Elder Zhao left with Tang Yi, while Xue Fuyao stayed in Wan City and asked him to tell her master she was safe.