Chapter Summaries

Jing Jiu challenged Gu Han to defend Liu S sui and fought him across the stone forest, using the Nine Deaths Sword Technique to withstand Gu Han’s superior cultivation and relentless sword attacks. As Gu Han tried to end the battle with a direct strike, he invoked Cold Well Locks Clear Autumn.

• Jing Jiu told Gu Han that his entire Dao was wrong, and Gu Han challenged him to prove it with their swords.
• Gu Han opened with the Eight Directions Sword Technique, but Jing Jiu’s Iron Sword struck first before being driven back.
• Jing Jiu rode his sword at extraordinary speed, dodging Gu Han’s pursuit and drawing him toward the western stone forest.
• Gu Han pressed Jing Jiu with a barrage of sword techniques, while Jing Jiu’s Iron Sword repeatedly returned to the fight using the Nine Deaths Sword Technique.
• Gu Han accelerated his flying sword toward Jing Jiu’s face as Jing Jiu’s Iron Sword slashed at him, and an elder recognized Gu Han’s Cold Well Locks Clear Autumn.

Jing Jiu escaped Gu Han’s sword-locking technique, wounded him, and then stopped Guo Nanshan’s attempt to intervene by catching and breaking his flying sword. The chapter ended with Guo Nanshan spitting blood as Jing Jiu watched him.

• Gu Han used Cold Well Locks Clear Autumn to trap Jing Jiu’s Iron Sword, but Jing Jiu vanished through the air and reappeared before him.
• Jing Jiu reclaimed the Iron Sword and pierced Gu Han through the right chest, then kept pressing him toward the cliff.
• Guo Nanshan sent his flying sword at Jing Jiu, then tried to halt it when Jing Jiu did not turn to defend himself.
• Jing Jiu caught Guo Nanshan’s sword with Great Compassion Hand and trapped it between his palms.
• Jing Jiu bent the flying sword until it snapped, and Guo Nanshan spat out blood.

Jing Jiu defeated Gu Han and Guo Nanshan at the Green Mountain Sword Trial, securing a place at next year’s Plum Gathering. The Peak Masters wondered whether his strange sword abilities revealed that he possessed an Innate Sword Body.

• Jing Jiu defeated Gu Han and caught Guo Nanshan’s flying sword between his hands, breaking it.
• Chi Yan stopped Twofold Forgetting Peak’s disciples from retaliating, while Jing Jiu defended his actions to Gu Han.
• Zhao Layue claimed a Plum Gathering place for Divine End Peak and left with Jing Jiu.
• The sword trial ended with nine disciples qualifying for the Plum Gathering, and the Peak Masters discussed Jing Jiu’s unusual abilities.
• The Peak Masters considered whether the sword light surrounding Jing Jiu meant he had an Innate Sword Body.

After Jing Jiu broke Guo Nanshan’s sword, Green Mountain’s Peak Masters suspected he had a Vajra Indestructibility Fruit Body and agreed to keep their theory secret while ensuring he stayed with Green Mountain. On Divine End Peak, Jing Jiu revealed his frustration over Liu S sui’s fate and his desire to become strong enough to punish Bai Rujing, while Gu Qing and the youth surnamed Yuan watched the River-Tracing Pearl recording and wondered whether their eldest brother would ever return.

• The Peak Masters speculated that Jing Jiu’s hands showed he had practiced Vajra Indestructibility and might possess an innate sword body, then agreed to conceal their suspicions and seek equal time for him at Green Mountain and Fruitful Accomplishment Temple.
• Zhao Layue gave Gu Qing and the youth surnamed Yuan the River-Tracing Pearl, and Gu Qing projected its recording of the Sword Trial.
• Jing Jiu told Zhao Layue he could not accept why people lived earnestly for others and said his cultivation was progressing too slowly.
• Jing Jiu said the day’s events had made him feel urgency because, if he were in the Sea-Breaking Realm, he could beat Bai Rujing.
• After viewing the recording of Liu S sui’s expulsion and Jing Jiu’s clashes with Twofold Forgetting Peak, Gu Qing reassured the youth surnamed Yuan and said their eldest brother might never return.

Guo Nanshan visited Divine End Peak to warn Jing Jiu against taking future disputes too far, but Jing Jiu dismissed him and told Zhao Layue that swordsmanship had more than one style. Liu S sui returned home after losing his cultivation and Sword Pellet, where his family and villagers confronted his changed circumstances.

• Guo Nanshan visited Jing Jiu on Divine End Peak, acknowledged his own mistake in their earlier fight, and asked him not to go so far if another clash occurred.
• Guo Nanshan warned that Gu Han had learned Jing Jiu's Sword Battle style, but Jing Jiu dismissed him and had Gu Qing see him off.
• Zhao Layue asked Jing Jiu whether he could defeat Gu Han again, and Jing Jiu said that all things were a sword and there was more than one style.
• Liu S sui returned to Small Mountain Village after a month-long journey, and his parents scolded and mourned over his ruined cultivation.
• Liu S sui went to help his parents with spring plowing, fell into the flooded paddy, and remembered that he was a broken man.

After a year of recovering through farmwork in his village, Liu S sui was approached by a Profound Yin Sect emissary who offered to restore his cultivation. Liu S sui refused because the method was evil, and the emissary left in frustration.

• Liu S sui gradually regained his strength by exercising, helping at home, and doing farmwork, while waiting in vain for someone from the mountain path to appear.
• As the seasons passed, Liu S sui's parents and villagers accepted him again, but he declined a marriage proposal and sometimes watched sword lights cross the sky.
• One year later, a Profound Yin Sect emissary appeared in the paddy field and offered to help Liu S sui recover his cultivation in Cold Mountain.
• Liu S sui revealed that he knew the principle of undying Demon Fire but had not used it because it was an evil sect's cultivation method.
• The emissary called Liu S sui a nuisance and left.

Liu S sui was visited by recruiters from One-Thatch Studio and the Zhongzhou Sect, who tried to persuade him to join the Never-Old Forest. When he rejected them and attempted to kill himself, Wei Chengzi and the old scholar revealed that the Profound Yin Sect disciple was their enemy and destroyed him.

• An old scholar from One-Thatch Studio visited Liu S sui and offered to take him away, but Liu S sui refused to resume cultivation through evil arts.
• Wei Chengzi of the Zhongzhou Sect offered Liu S sui a method to guard his mind and urged him to join them.
• The old scholar and the Profound Yin Sect disciple arrived together and asked Liu S sui whether he had heard of the Never-Old Forest.
• Liu S sui tried to kill himself rather than join them, but a sinister wind threw him against the kitchen wall.
• After the Profound Yin Sect disciple threatened Liu S sui’s village, Wei Chengzi struck him down and the old scholar burned the black mist escaping from his corpse.

Liu S sui was pressured by Wei Chengzi and an old scholar to join the Never-Old Forest, but a jasmine flower left by the Ninth Young Master prompted him to leave his village. As the Green Mountain disciples prepared for the Plum Gathering, Jing Jiu traveled alone to Yunji Town.

• Wei Chengzi told Liu S sui to join the Never-Old Forest or die, and threatened his family if he tried to take his own life.
• Liu S sui’s father gave him a jasmine flower the Ninth Young Master had left, and his mother sewed it onto his robe.
• Liu S sui disappeared from Small Mountain Village as cultivators across the continent headed to Chaoge City for the Plum Gathering.
• Green Mountain disciples discussed the Precious Tree Residence’s effort to curry favor with Zhao Layue and the weakened state of their Plum Gathering contingent.
• Jing Jiu walked to Yunji Town and ordered a pot of plain broth, cooking only one leaf of greens.

Jing Jiu traveled separately from Green Mountain to investigate rumors of a cave abode attributed to True Person Jingyang and waited near Meng Mountain. At a ruined temple, he encountered a young monk who recognized him and mistakenly took his presence as proof that the cave abode mattered.

• Jing Jiu left Yunji Town in a comfortable carriage arranged by the Gu Household and planned to have it sent to South Pine Pavilion.
• Jing Jiu traveled to Meng Mountain because he wanted to see whether the person behind the false cave-abode rumor would appear.
• Jing Jiu reached a ruined temple outside the twenty-li boundary and sat among cultivators waiting for the cave abode to open.
• A young monk entered with an old monk, mocked the rumor of True Person Jingyang's other abode, and apologized after realizing cultivators were listening.
• The young monk recognized Jing Jiu and assumed his presence meant the cave abode had some significance, but Jing Jiu shook his head.
• The old monk told the young monk to be quiet, and Jing Jiu wondered whether he should learn Silence Meditation to teach Liu S sui.

Jing Jiu watched cultivators gather at a fake cave abode and recognized the Zen Child’s arrival as well as the Peak Master of Past Arrival Peak’s presence. After the Zen Child dispersed the crowd and warned an old monk not to go north, Jing Jiu followed the auspicious cloud out of South River Province under the Peak Master’s watch.

• Jing Jiu told an old monk from Fruitful Accomplishment Temple that True Person Jingyang’s cave abode was a prank, then left to search a nearby cliff for someone from his past.
• Cultivators gathered at the valley and argued over how to divide the supposed treasures as the cave abode began to open.
• The Zen Child arrived on an auspicious cloud and announced that the cave abode was a joke by True Person Taiping and True Person Jingyang, prompting the cultivators to disperse.
• The Zen Child warned the old monk not to head north, while Jing Jiu spotted the Peak Master of Past Arrival Peak among the crowd and realized the man’s sword sense had found him.
• Jing Jiu followed the auspicious cloud through the mountains until the Zen Child sped toward Chaoge City and said they would meet again.

Duke He met the Zen Child at Pure Enlightenment Temple, where the Zen Child declined Consort Hu’s request for a blessing. Meanwhile, Jing Jiu arrived in Chaoge City and went to the old courtyard that was said to be his home.

• Duke He asked the Zen Child about the Green Mountain Sect’s cave abode and heard that the figure beneath the auspicious clouds was probably a descendant of an old acquaintance.
• The Zen Child dismissed Duke He’s praise of other young cultivators and declined to meet Consort Hu, saying her blessings already abounded.
• Consort Hu rejected her attendant’s suggestion to involve the Zhongzhou Sect and complained that Jing Jiu had challenged Tong Yan.
• Jing Jiu entered Chaoge City, telling the gate soldier that he was going home.
• Jing Jiu walked through the rainy city to the quiet courtyard where his ancestors had once lived and hesitated before its old gate.

Jing Jiu visited the Jing family arranged as his relatives and told the Duke of Lu that he would stay at their courtyard for the Plum Gathering. The Duke returned to his youngest son’s wedding, leaving the guests puzzled by his unexplained absence and damp knees.

• Jing Jiu used a wooden token to gain entry to the Jing family’s courtyard, where the Duke of Lu recognized and welcomed him.
• The Duke of Lu explained that the Jing family served as retainers and had concealed Jing Jiu’s identity, while sects and Consort Hu had investigated him over the years.
• Jing Jiu said he would stay at the courtyard for the Plum Gathering and told the Duke of Lu to notify the Zhao Residence.
• The Duke of Lu reflected on his family’s centuries-old duty to obey the owner of the wooden token, even above the Divine Emperor, and wondered whether Jing Jiu was its heir.
• The Duke of Lu returned to his youngest son’s wedding after his unexplained absence, and the guests noticed his ceremonial robes concealed damp gray clothing.

Jing Jiu visited a family he had troubled for years, then sought information from the Curtain Rollers in Chaoge City. He asked about the relationship between the Green Mountain Sect’s Peak Master of Past Arrival Peak and True Person Taiping.

• The Duke of Lu told Lu Ming that he intended to pass him the dukedom and that inheriting it meant shouldering a family secret that began with a bowl.
• Jing Jiu woke after sleeping through the rain, entered the reception hall, and unsettled the family by refusing their offers of food and tea.
• Jing Jiu apologized to the family for the trouble he had caused over the years and left the courtyard.
• Jing Jiu found a clinic marked with a begonia blossom and used the phrase “Is the Begonia Still the Same?” to contact the Curtain Rollers.
• Jing Jiu asked the physician about the relationship between the Green Mountain Sect’s Peak Master of Past Arrival Peak and True Person Taiping.

Jing Jiu negotiated with a Curtain Rollers doctor for information about Fang Jingtian and the Western Prince, offering a verifiable secret about the Zen Child in exchange. The doctor shared news about the Plum Gathering and Heaven Near Person, whose imminent arrival in Chaoge City left Jing Jiu unimpressed.

• Jing Jiu offered Gold Leaves and information about Fang Jingtian's presence at True Person Jingyang's false cave abode, but the doctor said it was not enough to investigate him.
• Jing Jiu confronted the doctor over the Curtain Rollers' failure to protect Zhao Layue's Jade Lake Peak investigation and asked them to investigate Fang Jingtian and the Western Prince.
• Jing Jiu revealed the Zen Child's secular name and childhood, providing records the Curtain Rollers could verify; the doctor agreed to check them and offered three pieces of information in return.
• The doctor told Jing Jiu that the Plum Gathering's five victors would receive the Zen Child's crown-anointing blessing and that Heaven Near Person would soon arrive in Chaoge City to appraise the sect disciples.
• The doctor explained Heaven Near Person's reputation for perceiving people's fates, and Jing Jiu remarked that he knew how to impress people.

Jing Jiu learned that Zhao Layue would enter the Plum Gathering’s Dao Battle, then studied the Curtain Rollers’ rankings and found himself rated poorly in both Dao Battle and Chess Battle. He left his family preparing for a visitor and asked whether he could bet on himself to win the Chess Battle.

• Jing Jiu exchanged news with the doctor, revealing that Zhao Layue would compete in the Plum Gathering’s final event, the Dao Battle.
• After Jing Jiu left, the doctor identified him as Jing Jiu and ordered the Curtain Rollers to investigate Green Mountain’s turmoil and classify information about the Zen Child as top secret.
• Jing Jiu read the booklet’s rankings, which placed Luo Huainan first in the Dao Battle, Yao Songshan seventeenth, Jing Jiu in the forties, and Tong Yan first in the Chess Battle.
• At breakfast, Jing Jiu told his family not to worry about his upcoming guest and asked whether there were private betting pools for the Plum Gathering.
• Jing Jiu told his nominal elder brother to bet on him to win the Chess Battle.

Jing Jiu told Zhao Layue that his family and background were fabricated and gave her a way to contact the Duke of Lu if trouble arose in Chaoge City. As the Plum Gathering began, Zhao Layue learned that Lian Sanyue’s disciple Guodong would compete and reacted with unexpected rivalry.

• Jing Jiu welcomed Zhao Layue to the Jing family home and revealed that his identity and family were fabricated.
• Jing Jiu told Zhao Layue that the courtyard and their safeguards had been arranged as fallback measures by Great-Uncle-Master Jingyang, then gave her a wooden token to contact the Duke of Lu.
• Zhao Layue accepted the token and promised to take Jing Jiu along if she could not go farther.
• Zhao Layue told Jing Jiu that Guodong, Lian Sanyue’s final disciple, had arrived for the Plum Gathering and declared she would not lose to her.
• Jing Jiu teased Zhao Layue about her appearance and inability to play the zither as the first Plum Gathering event began.
• Chaoge City buzzed with the Plum Gathering’s arrival, while Shi Fengchen watched the disorder at the government office with mockery.

Shi Fengchen reflected on his failed attempt to gain leverage over Consort Hu and vowed to kill a fox spirit, while the sects gathered at the Plum Garden for the Plum Gathering. The Green Mountain Sect arrived at its terrace, and the gathered disciples wondered which arrivals were Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu.

• Shi Fengchen recalled how his investigation had led him to the Green Mountain Sect and how Consort Hu's intervention had saved his position, though he had failed to secure her support.
• Shi Fengchen remembered that he had tried to use an old-paper clue to blackmail Consort Hu, then realized His Majesty had already known about it and vowed to kill the fox spirit.
• Masters and disciples from the cultivation sects gathered on their assigned cold terraces in the Plum Garden, where the Zhongzhou Sect, Fruitful Accomplishment Temple, and other major sects had established their places.
• The Green Mountain Sect arrived at its highest cold terrace, led by Nan Wang, with several dozen disciples in blue-green swordsman's robes.
• Disciples from the other sects asked which newcomers were Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu.

At the Plum Gathering, Jing Jiu drew the crowd’s attention with his beauty and his unexplained need to carry his sword, while Zhao Layue arrived carefully groomed. Jing Jiu placed a wintersweet flower in her hair and told her she had always been beautiful, leaving onlookers convinced they might be dao companions and Xiang Wanshu visibly shaken.

• Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue arrived at the Plum Gathering, where attendees focused on their reputations and Jing Jiu’s beauty.
• Zhongzhou Sect disciples dismissed Jing Jiu’s victory over Gu Han, while the Water-Moon Convent’s veiled woman approved of Zhao Layue but was unimpressed by Jing Jiu.
• Tonglu suspected Jing Jiu carried his sword for vanity and asked a Western Sea Sword Sect elder to watch for his Dao Battle registration.
• Jing Jiu revealed to himself that he carried his sword because he could not draw it into his Sword Pellet, a problem caused by his unusual body.
• Jing Jiu plucked a wintersweet flower and tucked it into Zhao Layue’s hair, then told her she had always been beautiful.
• The gathered cultivators interpreted the exchange as evidence that Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue were dao companions, and Xiang Wanshu turned pale.

At the Plum Gathering, Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue watched the Qin Dao contest while other cultivators misread their easy familiarity as romance. The Water-Moon Convent’s expected advantage came into question when Bai Zao took the stage.

• Xiang Wanshu felt disappointed after seeing Zhao Layue with Jing Jiu, while they remained unaware of the spectators’ reactions.
• Duke He announced the Plum Gathering’s opening, and the Qin Dao contest began with young cultivators performing on various instruments.
• Contestants from prominent sects impressed the crowd with music that stirred the weather, including Xiang Wanshu, whose flute brought snow.
• Nan Wang said the Water-Moon Convent would win the contest, and Jing Jiu explained that the convent excelled at entering the Dao through qin music.
• Mo Xi of the Water-Moon Convent took the stage, but Bai Zao’s appearance led spectators to doubt that Mo Xi would win.

At the Plum Gathering, Bai Zao impressed the cultivators with her zither playing, while Zhao Layue wondered why Luo Huainan had not appeared. When the Dao Battle was mentioned, Zhao Layue volunteered to take it.

• Bai Zao arrived at the Plum Gathering, surprising many with her delicate appearance and leaving Jing Jiu surprised to learn she was a woman.
• Bai Zao played the zither, captivating the terraces and drawing birds from the surrounding mountains.
• Mo Xi realized she had lost, while Xiang Wanshu watched the Green Mountain Sect’s terrace instead of either performer.
• Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu praised Bai Zao’s music but remained unmoved by the performance.
• Bai Zao exchanged a smile with Zhao Layue, who wondered why Luo Huainan had not appeared.
• After the cultivators discussed Luo Huainan’s strength and the Dao Battle, Zhao Layue volunteered to take it, shocking the Green Mountain disciples.