Chapter Summaries

During a violent storm over Jade Lake, Jing Jiu confronted the white cat, who tested him with a claw strike combined with lightning. Jing Jiu survived unharmed, called the cat Liu A'da, and left after learning he would remain neutral; the cat watched him go with a trace of nostalgia.

• Cheng Youtian watched the storm over Jade Lake Peak and worried that the lightning might be heavenly punishment for Jade Lake Peak's past deeds.
• Jing Jiu warned the white cat that he would face consequences if he refused to stand with him, and the cat swiped at him from a distance.
• The cat's cold gleam struck Jing Jiu at the same moment a massive bolt of lightning hit him, blasting him into Jade Lake.
• Jing Jiu emerged from the lake unharmed, approached the uneasy cat, and called him Liu A'da while petting him.
• Jing Jiu learned that Liu A'da intended to remain neutral, then returned beneath the lake; Liu A'da watched him go and remembered the comfort of his hand.

Jing Jiu revealed that he was badly injured while investigating what had happened to True Person Jingyang, and he urged Zhao Layue to focus on cultivating. As Jing Jiu spent the months recovering, Yuan Qijing continued to watch the well on Shangde Peak, and Jing Jiu’s repaired Sword Pellet became more harmonious.

• Jing Jiu admitted to Zhao Layue that he was badly injured after taking White Ghost’s claw strike, and he urged her to stop investigating and cultivate.
• Jing Jiu told Zhao Layue that True Person Taiping had once cultivated on Shangde Peak, where Yuan Qijing and others had also lived.
• Jing Jiu wondered how Lei Poyun had escaped the Sword Prison and where the person he sought was now.
• Yuan Qijing stood at the mouth of the well on Shangde Peak while Chi Yan watched him, unsure what troubled his senior brother.
• Jing Jiu remained ill and barely cultivated through early autumn, but he thought White Ghost’s strike had left his repaired Sword Pellet more harmonious.

Jing Jiu gave Gu Qing the Heaven-Bearing sword manual and later recovered from his illness as news arrived of a monster attack near Chaonan City. The chapter ends with Gu Qing rushing to Divine End Peak to report that Liu S sui has been injured.

• Gu Qing visited Jing Jiu with bananas, and Jing Jiu invited him to look inside the cave abode.
• Jing Jiu gave Gu Qing a sword manual, which Gu Qing discovered was titled Heaven-Bearing rather than Nine Deaths.
• Jing Jiu recovered as Twofold Forgetting Peak sent disciples, including Liu S sui, to slay a great monster near Chaonan City.
• Gu Qing passed on a question about whether Divine End Peak would take disciples at the next Sword Inheritance Assembly, and Zhao Layue said it would.
• After winter snow blanketed Green Mountain, Gu Qing arrived in haste and told Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue that Liu S sui was injured.

After Liu S sui returned gravely wounded from a demon-slaying expedition, Jing Jiu refused to visit him and went to Jade Lake Peak instead. There, he told White Ghost that a nearly identical incident had happened centuries earlier, leaving the cause of Liu S sui’s injury unresolved.

• Gu Qing reported that Liu S sui had returned from the Turbid River unconscious and burning with fever, while Jian Ruyun had been sentenced to six months of reflection.
• Jing Jiu declined to visit Liu S sui, saying the incident was his own choice, and told Zhao Layue he planned to leave the mountain.
• Zhao Layue revealed that she had broken through to the Wuzhang Realm, and Jing Jiu said the Nine Deaths Sword Art suited her.
• Jing Jiu descended the mountain and went to Jade Lake Peak, where he crossed the lake during a storm and found White Ghost in the hall.
• Jing Jiu told White Ghost that Liu S sui’s demon-slaying mishap closely resembled an event from several hundred years earlier.

Jing Jiu decided to leave Green Mountain with Zhao Layue, while Gu Qing chose to stay and cultivate. Their departure reached a Green Mountain council already arguing over Liu S sui’s condition, leaving the elders unsure where the pair had gone or when they would return.

• Jing Jiu asked White Ghost to accompany him, but the cat refused and warned him through gestures to be careful.
• Jing Jiu told Gu Qing that he and Zhao Layue were leaving and would return before the Sword Inheritance; Gu Qing stayed at Divine End Peak to cultivate.
• At the Green Mountain council, Bai Rujing and Shi Mingxuan argued over Liu S sui’s illness and Jian Ruyun’s punishment.
• News arrived that Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu had left Green Mountain without saying where they were going or when they would return.
• The Peak Master of Past Arrival Peak said he would report their departure to the Sect Master, while Mei Li wondered how long they would be gone.

Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue struggled with ordinary travel customs before sneaking into Shangzhou and booking a room at the city’s finest inn. After washing away the dust of their journey, they startled the waiter with their extraordinary appearances.

• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue traveled from Divine End Peak to Shangzhou, then realized they had no travel permits to enter the guarded city.
• They flew over Shangzhou’s city wall and chose to stay at an inn rather than an immortal lodge.
• Zhao Layue bought bamboo hats to hide their faces, and Jing Jiu paid for the best room with a gold leaf at the Exiled Immortal Abode.
• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue cleaned themselves with cultivation techniques, and the waiter was stunned when he saw their faces.

After a waiter mistook Jing Jiu for someone extraordinarily beautiful, Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu discussed their journey, cultivation, and mortal customs in Shangzhou City. Later, they watched a brothel from the Star-Catching Tower, where Zhao Layue saw what happened inside for the first time.

• A waiter told his companion he had seen the most beautiful face of his life, then prayed for an immortal to take him away.
• Zhao Layue asked Jing Jiu how the waiter had recognized them, and Jing Jiu indicated that his face had given him away.
• Zhao Layue insisted that Jing Jiu follow her arrangements as Peak Master, then resumed cultivating while Jing Jiu slept.
• After waking, Jing Jiu watched the quiet city and explained to himself that he had to wait patiently before entering the Wuzhang Realm.
• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue stood atop the Star-Catching Tower and watched a brothel, leaving Zhao Layue astonished by what she saw.

Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue encountered a woman being beaten in an alley, and Zhao Layue killed her attackers with one sword strike. After walking through the night and discussing cultivation and flight, they reached the Turbid Waters and saw Chaonan City across the river.

• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue heard a woman being beaten and debated whether cultivators should intervene.
• Zhao Layue sent the Unthought Sword into the alley and killed four men, then trembled as she took in her first killing.
• Jing Jiu comforted Zhao Layue, and they left without learning whether the woman would escape her circumstances.
• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue walked in silence for two hours before Zhao Layue said she wanted to fly by sword.
• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue reached the Turbid Waters at sunrise and saw Chaonan City, a major stronghold, on the opposite bank.

Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue crossed Sky-reaching Bridge and entered the Precious Tree Residence in Chaonan City while cultivators pursued them. The steward explained the auction house’s rules, then mocked Jing Jiu’s offer of gold leaves as payment for a guest token.

• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue crossed Sky-reaching Bridge, where Zhao Layue pointed out damage caused by a Ghost-Eyed Ling.
• Jing Jiu wondered why the Ghost-Eyed Ling had returned and considered whether demons were being driven from the Netherworld.
• Zhao Layue led Jing Jiu over Chaonan City’s western wall, alerting the city’s authorities and cultivators.
• Zhao Layue revealed that the Precious Tree Residence was an outlying business of the Green Mountain Sect and brought Jing Jiu inside.
• The steward explained that guests needed to pay for a wooden token and that the residence only protected them within the building.
• Jing Jiu offered the steward a handful of gold leaves, and the steward responded with a trace of mockery.

Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue entered Precious Tree Residence to investigate its connection to Jade Lake Peak and the events surrounding Lei Poyun. At the auction, physician-monks from Fruitful Accomplishment Temple sought Spirit-Calming Borneol for people harmed by the Ghost-Eyed Ling, but a hostile voice objected when the item was offered to them as a gift.

• Jing Jiu offered a Mysterious Herb Pill to gain entry to Precious Tree Residence, and the steward led him and Zhao Layue to a private room.
• Zhao Layue explained that Lei Poyun's grandnephew ran Precious Tree Residence and that she wanted to look for clues linking the residence to the loss of Thunder Soulwood and Lei Poyun's death.
• Jing Jiu said he believed the person behind the events would eventually come looking for him, allowing him to ask them directly.
• During the auction, two physician-monks from Fruitful Accomplishment Temple asked for Spirit-Calming Borneol to treat people affected by the Ghost-Eyed Ling.
• The auction steward announced that Precious Tree Residence would give the Spirit-Calming Borneol to the monks, but an unseen speaker objected that the auction rules should be followed.

At the Precious Tree Residence auction, Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue won the Spirit-Calming Borneol with a Mysterious Herb Pill, disrupting a contest between the Fruitful Accomplishment Temple and the Three Capitals Sect. As they left, the Three Capitals Sect stopped them, and Zhao Layue asked if they wanted to die.

• A man from the Three Capitals Sect demanded the Spirit-Calming Borneol, revealing that his young master needed it after contracting flower poison in Ying City.
• The Fruitful Accomplishment Temple sought the medicine for treating sick people, and the Three Capitals Sect refused to yield it despite the competing bids.
• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue offered a Mysterious Herb Pill, and the Three Capitals Sect stopped bidding as the auction awarded them the Spirit-Calming Borneol.
• The steward delivered the medicine and warned Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue to wait for the proprietor, but they left without meeting him.
• People from the Three Capitals Sect stopped Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue nearby, and Zhao Layue asked them, “Do you want to die?”

Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue killed the Three Capitals Sect members who attacked them, then went to eat hot pot while the Fruitful Accomplishment Temple monks received the medicine. The chapter ended as an official entered the monks’ temple with soldiers and a crowd outside.

• The Three Capitals Sect disciples attacked Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue, but Zhao Layue shattered their swords with the Unthought Sword.
• Zhao Layue killed the middle-aged man and the disciples, searched their bodies, and burned them; she said she had wanted to spare children from seeing the corpses.
• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue discussed the traces left behind, then ate at Hongmao Studio, where Zhao Layue ordered lamb and Jing Jiu ate greens.
• The old monk recognized the medicine delivered to the temple as Spirit-Calming Borneol and told his martial nephew that the visitors were fellow travelers on the path.
• The young monk praised Liu S sui and worried about why he had fainted, then an official entered the temple with soldiers as a crowd gathered outside.

Shi Fengchen questioned the monks about the deaths of the Three Capitals Sect cultivators and the Spirit-Calming Borneol, but the old monk concealed what they knew. Meanwhile, Jing Jiu found the dead Ghost-Eyed Ling beneath the river and discovered that its demon core was missing.

• Shi Fengchen told the old monk and the young monk that the Three Capitals Sect cultivators had been killed and their bodies burned to ashes.
• Shi Fengchen asked whether the monks knew the two masked people who had bought the Spirit-Calming Borneol, and the old monk claimed the young monk was practicing the meditation of silence.
• The old monk hid the Spirit-Calming Borneol and sent Shi Fengchen away without giving him any leads.
• Jing Jiu dived beneath the Sky-reaching Bridge and found the dead Ghost-Eyed Ling chained inside a secluded cliff in the river.
• Jing Jiu opened the Ghost-Eyed Ling's head and found its core chamber empty, confirming that its demon core was gone.

Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue discussed the failed ascension and the possibility that the Smoke and Clouds Disperse formation had been flawed from the start. Back at Green Mountain, Liu S sui was imprisoned on suspicion of swallowing a Demon Core, then unexpectedly released after Gu Qing secretly sought help from the monkeys; Liu S sui returned to Heavenly Light Peak feeling isolated and missing Jing Jiu.

• Jing Jiu told Zhao Layue that the ascension failure might have stemmed from the formation True Person Jingyang had learned being wrong from the start.
• Shangde Peak imprisoned Liu S sui and tortured him over suspicions that he had swallowed the Ghost-Eyed Ling's Demon Core, but investigators found no direct evidence.
• Gu Qing, convinced Liu S sui would not have swallowed the Demon Core, asked the monkeys to carry a plea for help to an unknown recipient.
• Shangde Peak released Liu S sui the next day without explanation, and he returned to Heavenly Light Peak to unfamiliar, distrustful gazes.
• Gu Han told Liu S sui that the Sect Master had ordered his release and that Eldest Brother had wanted to visit, while Liu S sui sat alone missing Jing Jiu.

Two years after the last great battles, Shi Fengchen gathered cultivators in Haizhou City to enlist help investigating two murderous fiends. The meeting ended with Green Mountain disciple Lin Yingliang confronting Zhu Jie after he accused the Green Mountain Sect.

• Shi Fengchen warned the gathered cultivators that he could influence the court's resource quotas if they refused to help him catch the two fiends.
• Shi Fengchen described the fiends' killings across Shangzhou, Chaonan City, and elsewhere, and said one had slain Master Zhu Gui and likely reached the Wuzhang Mid-Realm.
• The Left Rain Envoy suggested the sword-wielding killers might belong to the Never-Old Forest, the No-Grace Gate, or the Western Sea, while Shi Fengchen rejected the first two possibilities.
• Zhu Jie accused the Green Mountain Sect of being suspect because the killings began in its territory.
• Lin Yingliang threatened Zhu Jie as Yao Songshan watched in silence.

Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue reached Haizhou after two years of traveling and killing monsters, while cultivators gathered to prepare for the arrival of two suspected fiends. Over hot pot, Zhao Layue asked Jing Jiu whether he truly believed Yin San was still alive.

• At the Pure Heaven Bureau, Shi Fengchen explained that the killers were expected to reach Haizhou, and the cultivators planned to surround them with help from the Western Sea's Heaven-Calculating Pavilion if necessary.
• Zhu Jie accused the young monk from Fruitful Accomplishment Temple of speaking inappropriately, and the monk's uncle-master later told him to keep silent until they or the Green Mountain Daoists left Haizhou.
• Outside Haizhou, Zhao Layue killed a man-eating monster with the Unthought Sword, and Jing Jiu reflected on how their two-year journey had been teaching her.
• Jing Jiu told Zhao Layue that he had come to Haizhou to see someone, and they entered the city without trouble.
• While eating seafood hot pot in Haizhou, Zhao Layue asked Jing Jiu whether he believed Yin San was still alive.

After two years of travel, Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue reached Haizhou as cultivators gathered for the Four Seas Banquet. They visited their Green Mountain Sect allies, who recognized them as their martial uncles, while the looming conflict with the Pure Heaven Bureau remained unresolved.

• Little Lotus warned Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue that the Pure Heaven Bureau intended to harm them and urged them to leave Haizhou.
• A Flying Whale welcomed the Four Seas Banquet guests with rain, and Zhao Layue asked Jing Jiu how they would fight the powerful cultivators gathered in the city.
• Jing Jiu said there was no hurry to reveal their identities and took Zhao Layue directly to the Green Mountain Sect's courtyard.
• Yao Songshan recognized Zhao Layue's hand signal, and he and the other cultivators understood that the visitors were their martial uncles.
• Yao Songshan bowed to Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue, leaving Lin Yingliang stunned.

Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu learned from Yao Songshan that Liu S sui had been disgraced and was suspected of stealing a Demon Core and killing Zuo Yi. After hearing that the Four Seas Banquet was hosted by the mysterious Western Prince and featured contests in the arts, Zhao Layue asked to hear more about him.

• Zhao Layue admitted to Yao Songshan that she and Jing Jiu had killed the people they were accused of killing, and Yao Songshan agreed they deserved it.
• Yao Songshan told Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu that Liu S sui had been imprisoned, shunned, and suspected of secretly eating the Ghost-Eyed Ling's Demon Core.
• Yao Songshan said Shangde Peak had reopened the investigation into Zuo Yi's death and questioned Liu S sui, while Gu Qing had returned to Twofold Forgetting Peak to defend him.
• Yao Songshan explained that the Western Prince hosted the Four Seas Banquet in Haizhou and that its contests were in zither, Go, calligraphy, and painting.
• Zhao Layue asked Yao Songshan to tell her more about the Western Prince.

Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue were surrounded by the Pure Heaven Bureau in Haizhou City, but Little Lotus led them through a hidden tunnel to a ruined Sea God Temple. There, a mysterious Man in Black spoke of the Never-Old Forest as a way to face the world's hostility.

• Yao Songshan told Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue about the Western Prince, whom Jing Jiu suspected might be Yin San, and Zhao Layue agreed to wait before revealing their identities.
• The Pure Heaven Bureau discovered Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue's whereabouts and organized cultivators and soldiers to surround their inn.
• As the encirclement closed in, Little Lotus opened a hidden passage and led Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue out of Haizhou City.
• Little Lotus warned them that once they entered, they would not be able to leave, then brought them to a ruined Sea God Temple by the sea.
• A Man in Black emerged behind the Sea God statue and told Zhao Layue she needed help from another world or had to become part of it; Zhao Layue identified the Never-Old Forest.

Zhao Layue rejected the Never-Old Forest steward’s offer and killed him with a sword hidden in her palm. As a powerful presence drew near, Jing Jiu suddenly pinned Little Lotus to the temple wall with his iron sword.

• The Never-Old Forest steward tried to recruit Zhao Layue, but she refused and dismissed his threats.
• After Jing Jiu urged her to hurry, Zhao Layue crossed the Falling Sword Banners and killed the steward with a sword emerging from her palm.
• A powerful pressure descended toward the ruined temple, and Zhao Layue looked up, ready to fight.
• Little Lotus realized that Jing Jiu had pierced her shoulder with his iron sword before she noticed him draw it.
• Jing Jiu regarded Little Lotus with complete indifference, and she lost the will to oppose him.