Chapter Summaries

Jing Jiu visited Consort Hu and offered to make her son, Prince Jing Yao, a disciple of Green Mountain through Gu Qing. He left Duke of Lu to arrange Gu Qing’s arrival and asked for help entering the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

• Duke of Lu led Jing Jiu to Consort Hu’s palace, where she asked for help protecting herself and her son from the forces backing Jing Xin.
• Jing Jiu met the young Prince Jing Yao, praised his cleverness and honesty, and asked Consort Hu whether she would let him join Green Mountain.
• Jing Jiu chose Gu Qing to teach Jing Yao, and Consort Hu reluctantly agreed.
• Jing Jiu wrote to Gu Qing and instructed Duke of Lu to arrange his entry into the palace to tutor Jing Yao for two years.
• Jing Jiu told Duke of Lu that he wanted to enter the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

Jing Jiu arranged to enter the dangerous, hidden depths of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices for at least three years, despite the Duke of Lu’s fears. He asked the white cat to guard the Jing Household and aid Jing Yao’s rise while he was gone, as a way to settle its long rivalry with the Zhongzhou Sect.

• The Duke of Lu warned Jing Jiu that the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was perilous, but Jing Jiu said he was prepared and expected to stay at least three years.
• The white cat considered entering the Court with Jing Jiu, then agreed instead to watch over his home and restrain their enemy if trouble arose.
• Jing Jiu explained that helping Jing Yao become the Divine Emperor would count as victory over the Zhongzhou Sect in the white cat’s ancient feud.
• A black-cloth-covered carriage passed through the Pure Heaven Bureau into the Court of Imperial Sacrifices while the Duke of Lu watched grimly and kept the Zhongzhou Sect’s Law Treasure hidden in his sleeve.

Jing Jiu was taken beneath the Court of Imperial Sacrifices into the Demon-Suppressing Prison, where a terrifying pressure struck him and left him apparently unconscious. He escaped his cell and descended toward the prison’s second level.

• The Duke of Lu arranged for Lu Ming to serve in South River Province for three years while he waited for Jing Jiu’s return.
• Officials brought Jing Jiu’s carriage beneath the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, revealing that the Demon-Suppressing Prison lay underground.
• A powerful presence’s pressure swept through Jing Jiu, who concealed his strength and pretended to be knocked unconscious.
• Black Gold Puppets carried Jing Jiu to a cell on the prison’s first level, where he saw the imprisoned captives and their formation-sealed caves.
• Jing Jiu used his keys to remove his Origin Energy Lock, undo the cell’s formation, and slip past the prisoners and puppets.
• Jing Jiu jumped from a cliff into the darkness below, heading for the Demon-Suppressing Prison’s second level.

Jing Jiu descended through the Demon-Suppressing Prison’s deadly second level and entered Taichang Prison, where space and time lost meaning. After floating through the darkness until his Dao Heart stirred, he saw a colorful world and a person dressed in every color.

• Jing Jiu crossed the Endless Day Prison’s scorching passages and poisonous green mist, using a cut strip of his sleeve to secure the corroded Iron Sword.
• Jing Jiu found the poisonous pool where a great demon’s bones lay and entered it to reach the third level.
• Jing Jiu explored the ordinary-looking third level and sensed that its long, wind-filled passage led into the abyss and the Nether Department.
• Jing Jiu turned away from the abyss and entered Taichang Prison, where he lost his sense of space and time.
• Jing Jiu floated through the darkness until his Dao Heart stirred, then saw a vivid landscape and a person wearing clothes covered in every color.

Jing Jiu met the imprisoned Nether Department heir who claimed the title of Underworld Emperor and asked him to teach Soul Fire Control. The Underworld Emperor agreed to hear his reason, leaving the request before him.

• Jing Jiu found the Underworld Emperor living among flowers in the Demon-Suppressing Prison and spoke with him.
• The Underworld Emperor explained that he considered himself emperor despite never having ascended the Nether Department's throne.
• Jing Jiu introduced himself as a Green Mountain disciple and identified Taiping as his master.
• The Underworld Emperor revealed that he and Taiping had once been friends and told Jing Jiu to call him Uncle.
• Jing Jiu asked the Underworld Emperor to teach him Soul Fire Control so his Sword Ghost could cultivate independently.

Jing Jiu told the Nether Emperor how True Person Taiping had betrayed him and revealed that he himself had later betrayed Taiping, hoping to clear the way for their negotiations. The Nether Emperor rejected offers of freedom and All in One, and Jing Jiu ended by asking what Taiping would do with the Nether Master lineage.

• The Nether Emperor accused True Person Taiping of betraying him and explained how Taiping had lured him to the human world, where he was imprisoned.
• Jing Jiu said Taiping had not originally intended to capture him, and revealed that he had later betrayed Taiping himself.
• The Nether Emperor said he had no reason to help Jing Jiu, and that negotiations made him lose his reason.
• Jing Jiu refused to offer the Nether Emperor freedom but promised to capture or kill Taiping.
• The Nether Emperor rejected All in One, and Jing Jiu asked whether he wanted the Nether Emperor's succession to end with his generation.
• Jing Jiu said the Nether Master lineage belonged to Taiping and asked what the Nether Emperor thought Taiping would do next.

Jing Jiu negotiated with the Nether Emperor about Taiping’s influence and the Nether Department’s future, then recognized that the Emperor was secretly using Soul Fire Control to trap him. Jing Jiu let the plan proceed so they could quickly settle the matter, and the chapter ended with the Nether Emperor demanding to know why Jing Jiu was so confident.

• Jing Jiu warned that Taiping could provoke war between the Nether Department and the human world, and offered to help the Nether Emperor’s successor inherit the throne.
• The Nether Emperor learned that Jing Jiu had once held the Nether Emperor’s Seal and mocked the human race for giving it to Taiping.
• Jing Jiu reflected that he had made their negotiation unnecessarily complicated and decided to let the Nether Emperor act without interference.
• The Nether Emperor deduced that Jing Jiu had used the Nether Emperor’s Seal to find him in the dark space.
• Jing Jiu revealed that he knew the Nether Emperor was using Soul Fire Control to ensnare him and explained that he wanted to end the attempt quickly.
• The Nether Emperor questioned how Jing Jiu could be certain he would win.

Jing Jiu survived the Nether Emperor’s soul fire, while the Nether Emperor failed to retrieve his seal from the vast space where Jing Jiu had hidden it. The Nether Emperor recognized that Jing Jiu, like himself, was risking everything for a chance to survive.

• The Nether Emperor demanded the Nether Emperor’s Seal and attacked Jing Jiu with soul fire.
• Jing Jiu endured the soul fire for a long time, resisting with his sword intent while the Nether Emperor searched him for the seal.
• The Nether Emperor’s Nether River Hand reached the space containing the seal but could not retrieve it because the space was unimaginably vast.
• The Nether Emperor questioned Jing Jiu about the space and how he had withstood the attack; Jing Jiu explained that he was willing to risk everything if he could leave alive.
• The Nether Emperor concluded that Jing Jiu was also someone who had lost everything.

Jing Jiu negotiated with the Nether Emperor, who agreed to teach him if he solved the problem of the immortal mosquitoes in the Demon-Suppressing Prison. After learning that the mosquitoes might fear thunder, Jing Jiu asked whether the Nether Emperor knew Green Mountain had Thunder Soulwood.

• Jing Jiu told the Nether Emperor that the Nether Department's desire to reach the Mortal World was no more inherently wrong than the Human Race's desire to ascend.
• The Nether Emperor accepted Jing Jiu's terms but demanded that he deal with the mosquitoes that had tormented him for six hundred years.
• The Nether Emperor explained that he believed the mosquitoes could not die because they were part of the unchanging Taichang Prison, and Jing Jiu discovered they were too small to strike.
• Jing Jiu suggested sealing himself in solidified lava, but the Nether Emperor said such coverings could not keep the mosquitoes out and that nobody else could enter the prison.
• The Nether Emperor recalled that Jing Jiu's master had said the mosquitoes feared thunder, and Jing Jiu asked whether he knew Green Mountain had Thunder Soulwood.

Jing Jiu helped the Nether Emperor drive away mosquitoes in the verdant valley and listened as he explained Nether Department Soul Fire cultivation. The chapter left them continuing their lesson amid the calm spring weather.

• Jing Jiu asked why the Nether Emperor had been captured, and the Nether Emperor said that power, not a scheme, had defeated him.
• Jing Jiu taught the Nether Emperor a Wind-and-Rain Dao Art, which he inscribed into an array diagram to make a small rain cloud.
• Jing Jiu placed Se Se’s Heart-Clearing Bell in the cloud, creating a small bolt of lightning that drove the mosquitoes into hiding.
• The Nether Emperor began explaining how Nether Department practitioners found netherfire, embraced it, and merged it into their bloodline to generate Soul Fire.
• Jing Jiu listened attentively as the Nether Emperor detailed the later Soul Fire cultivation realms and methods.

Jing Jiu learned the Nether Department’s secret Soul Fire Control method from the Nether Emperor, and they worked together to explore how it could help his Sword Ghost cultivate independently. The discussion ended without a conclusion, while the Duke of Lu was jolted awake by news that a bowl had broken at his residence.

• The Nether Emperor explained the nine realms of soul fire cultivation and warned that leaked Soul Fire Control could create demon fire capable of destroying the Nether Department.
• Jing Jiu promised not to reveal the method, then listened as the Nether Emperor taught him Soul Fire Control.
• Jing Jiu considered how to adapt the method for his Sword Ghost and questioned the Nether Emperor about unfamiliar details.
• The Nether Emperor became deeply involved in helping Jing Jiu develop a new cultivation path, and the two continued their silent, intense discussion beneath the dark cloud.
• At the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, an official told the sleepy Duke of Lu that the steward had reported a bowl had broken, and the Duke of Lu immediately woke up.

The Duke of Lu brought Gu Qing to Chaoge City to carry out Jing Jiu’s plans, while the dispute within Green Mountain delayed Gu Qing’s arrival. Gu Qing entered the palace as the Second Imperial Prince’s new teacher, drawing attention to Green Mountain’s involvement in court affairs.

• The Duke of Lu learned from his blind former guard that the Blue-and-White Porcelain Cup had broken, then went to the Jing Residence to meet Gu Qing.
• Gu Qing explained that Green Mountain’s debate over his trip had delayed him, and the Duke of Lu told him to rest before they entered the palace.
• Gu Qing saw Big One in the Jing Residence garden, where the white cat played dominoes with Jing Li and noticed Gu Qing watching.
• The next morning, the Duke of Lu and Gu Qing appeared before the grand court assembly, and news spread that Gu Qing would teach the Second Imperial Prince.
• Officials debated whether Gu Qing’s status qualified him to teach the prince and wondered what Green Mountain intended to do.

Gu Qing became the second imperial prince Jing Yao’s teacher after Consort Hu forced the boy to apologize for refusing to bow. At Fruitful Accomplishment Temple, Yin San learned from a coded report that Jing Jiu was in Chaoge City and deduced that he had gone to the Court of Imperial Sacrifices to solve a cultivation problem.

• Gu Qing visited Consort Hu and met the young Jing Yao, who refused to greet him because he sensed his mother disliked him.
• Gu Qing and Jing Yao stood in silence until the child nearly fell; when a matron scolded Gu Qing, Consort Hu had her dragged away and ordered Jing Yao to apologize.
• Jing Yao bowed to Gu Qing, who accepted the greeting and returned it respectfully.
• Yin San inspected Liu S sui’s well-tended Vegetable Garden and concluded that his cultivation had improved.
• Yin San read a coded Never-Old Forest report and learned that Jing Jiu had gone to Chaoge City.
• Yin San realized Jing Jiu was addressing a problem encountered when advancing from Wuzhang to Wandering the Wilds and concluded that he was at the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

Yin San considered leaving Fruitful Accomplishment Temple to witness an event, but concluded he should not go and warned Profound Yin Ancestor that he would die if he went in his place. At Precious Thoroughfare Zen Monastery, Tong Yan explained his plan to help Pei Baifa kill the Western Sea Sword God, but Guo Dong revealed that Pei Baifa had only three years left.

• Yin San told Profound Yin Ancestor that the Buddhist scriptures advised him not to go witness an event, and warned the Ancestor that he would die if he went instead.
• Tong Yan explained to He Zhan that his plan was to choose a battlefield near the Western Sea to improve Pei Baifa's chances against Jian Xilai from forty percent to fifty percent.
• Guo Dong praised Tong Yan's strategy and inspected his work at Precious Thoroughfare Zen Monastery.
• Tong Yan invited Guo Dong to join the plan, saying her participation could raise their chances to eighty or ninety percent.
• Guo Dong said she needed twenty years to recover, and revealed that Pei Baifa had only three years left.

Guo Dong took He Zhan to the Fruitful Accomplishment Temple as Mister Pei’s final undertaking against the Western Sea Sword God took shape. Meanwhile, Jing Jiu slept in the Demon-Suppressing Prison while pursuing a new Daoist art, and the Nether Emperor grew concerned after seeing him float above his chair.

• Guo Dong told He Zhan to accompany her to the Fruitful Accomplishment Temple, and he quietly agreed.
• Tong Yan left the Precious Thoroughfare Zen Monastery and reflected on Mister Pei’s plan, Jing Jiu’s journey, and how he should spend his remaining eight hundred years.
• Jing Jiu told the Nether Emperor to wake him if anything happened, then fell into a deep sleep to complete his Daoist art.
• The Nether Emperor watched Jing Jiu sleep for several days and built himself a couch after failing to recreate the bamboo chair.
• The Nether Emperor noticed Jing Jiu floating above the chair and connected his state to the third stage of Soul Fire Control.
• The Nether Emperor took the Formation Diagram to the edge of the valley and contemplated the chaotic darkness beyond it.

The Nether Emperor strengthened his aura after making a decision at the Demon-Suppressing Prison, while Gu Qing continued teaching Jing Yao in snowbound Chaoge City and questioned the cultivators’ refusal to aid disaster victims. Xiang Wanshu met Gu Qing for a meal, hinting that he had an important matter to discuss.

• The Nether Emperor made a decision as the dark cloud and the prison’s mosquitoes gathered near the cliff, and his aura grew stronger.
• Consort Hu watched Gu Qing make Jing Yao practice in the snow and worried that the boy was too young for such discipline.
• Gu Qing reassured Consort Hu that Jing Yao was preparing for cultivation through lessons and self-control, then continued his daily teaching at the palace.
• Walking through the blizzard toward the Jing Residence, Gu Qing wondered whether cultivators should help the people suffering outside Chaoge City and concluded Green Mountain’s elders would not intervene.
• Xiang Wanshu stopped Gu Qing outside the alley and invited him to a meal at an Immortal Residence beside White Horse Lake.

Gu Qing discovered that White Ghost was teaching Jing Li the Jade Gate Breath Method, while a fat messenger from the Never-Old Forest confronted Grand Tutor Liang with evidence linking Prince Jing Xin to the assassination attempt on Zhao Layue. The chapter ended with Jing Xin admitting to Grand Tutor Liang that the conspiracy was the one wrong he had committed.

• Gu Qing told Xiang Wanshu that Divine End Peak owed Consort Hu a favor, then returned to the Jing Residence and noticed Jing Li's unusual breathing.
• Gu Qing recognized Jing Li's breathing as the Jade Gate Breath Method and realized White Ghost was teaching the boy to cultivate.
• A fat messenger told Grand Tutor Liang that Shi Fengchen had left evidence of Prince Jing Xin's collusion with the Never-Old Forest in the ambush on Zhao Layue nine years earlier.
• The messenger warned that the evidence could cost Jing Xin the support of One-Thatch Studio and put his life at risk, then said his group would notify Liang when the time came.
• Jing Xin joined Grand Tutor Liang and admitted that his involvement in the old affair was the one wrong he had committed.

Prince Jing Xin agreed to send the Never-Old Forest’s letter to Yunmeng Mountain, and two years later the Forest sought his help placing a messenger inside the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Meanwhile, Gu Qing sought Little Lotus’s advice on Jing Yao’s cultivation, while Yin San quietly befriended a monk at Fruitful Accomplishment Temple.

• Jing Xin agreed to write a detailed letter for White True Person and keep the matter from One-Thatch Studio, while Grand Tutor Liang offered to speak with Bu Qiuxiao.
• Two years later, a messenger from the Never-Old Forest asked Jing Xin to help someone enter the Court of Imperial Sacrifices so he could deliver a letter, and Grand Tutor Liang warned him that he might die.
• The Duke of Lu wondered about Lu Ming’s future and Jing Jiu’s condition in the Demon-Suppressing Prison.
• Gu Qing struggled to guide Jing Yao’s cultivation and sent his questions to Little Lotus at Fruitful Accomplishment Temple; Little Lotus complained but began writing him a reply.
• Yin San gave a roasted dog leg to a fat monk at Fruitful Accomplishment Temple, saying that dog legs were what he did best.

Lu Ming returned to Chaoge City and learned how the sects’ backing shaped the struggle for the Jing Dynasty throne while Jing Jiu remained missing. Exactly three years after entering the Demon-Suppressing Prison, Jing Jiu woke and appeared ready to leave.

• Gu Pan intercepted Lu Ming in Chaoge City and brought him to a banquet with Prince Jing Xin, who questioned why the Divine Emperor’s attitude toward him had not changed.
• Lu Ming returned to the Duke’s Residence and learned that the Zhongzhou Sect openly supported Jing Xin while Green Mountain’s support for Jing Yao remained uncertain without Jing Jiu.
• Jing Li chatted with a neighbor girl while the white cat watched the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, uncertain whether Jing Jiu was alive.
• The Nether Emperor returned to the valley beneath the Demon-Suppressing Prison and told Jing Jiu that the time had come.
• Jing Jiu woke, descended lightly to the ground, and seemed ready to depart after exactly three years.

Jing Jiu and the Nether Emperor discussed the Nether Department’s plans and the cost of the Nether Emperor’s sacrifice. Before leaving the Demon-Suppressing Prison, Jing Jiu revealed that True Person Taiping had once planned to rescue him, then asked the Nether Emperor for a gift.

• Jing Jiu realized the mosquitoes had been draining the Nether Emperor’s soul fire and sending it to the Lower Realm to confirm he was alive.
• The Nether Emperor explained that the Nether Department would choose a new emperor and leave him behind, and Jing Jiu acknowledged that war between the Human Race and the Nether Department would continue.
• Jing Jiu told the Nether Emperor about seeing flying swords burn among the stars and promised to look at the sight on his behalf.
• Jing Jiu revealed that True Person Taiping had devised a thorough plan to rescue the Nether Emperor, though he had lacked the ability to carry it out at the time.
• As Jing Jiu reached the edge of the valley to leave, he turned back and asked the Nether Emperor for a gift.