Chapter Summaries

Huang Xiao subdued Tan Ming and Baili Zhen after they attacked without recognizing him, then devoured much of the essence blood aura before the formation collapsed. As survivors headed toward the remaining formation, Xuan Yuanjun and Ji Xuanying arrived, and Xuan Yuanjun urged everyone to act quickly.

• Huang Xiao found Tan Ming and Baili Zhen devouring essence blood aura, but they attacked him without recognizing him.
• Huang Xiao overwhelmed Tan Ming and Baili Zhen, knocked them unconscious, and moved them somewhere secluded.
• Huang Xiao devoured an estimated twenty to thirty percent of the essence blood aura before it vanished and the formation collapsed.
• The surviving Jianghu practitioners regained their senses and realized that many had died during their frenzy.
• Huang Xiao saw survivors heading toward the remaining formation, and Xuan Yuanjun and Ji Xuanying appeared beside him.
• Xuan Yuanjun urged the group to act while the great powers were occupied at the Spirit Land, then darted toward the formation.

Huang Xiao and Ji Xuanying waited for the formation to break while Qingfeng and Soaring Immortal Fruit prepared to lose the exotic plants. Xuan Yuanjun arrived, broke the formation, and took Qingfeng, Soaring Immortal Fruit, and the plants with him.

• Huang Xiao realized the other Great Powers were delayed by disputes over dividing Spirit Land Cold Jade and Vitality Pills.
• Qingfeng and Soaring Immortal Fruit discussed teleporting the exotic plants away if Huang Xiao’s help did not arrive in time.
• Qingfeng sensed an outer formation and a bloody aura affecting people’s minds as Jianghu practitioners began slaughtering one another.
• The formation broke, leaving Qingfeng and Soaring Immortal Fruit afraid they could not escape.
• Xuan Yuanjun identified Qingfeng, confirmed Soaring Immortal Fruit was extraordinary, and lifted the exotic plants into the air to take them all away.

Xuan Yuanjun and his companions escaped the Central Desert with the exotic plants and the Soaring Immortal Fruit, concealing their aura with a formation Huang Xiao struggled to maintain. After resting in a forest, they discussed the fruit’s uncertain transformation and Xuan Yuanjun’s injuries, before Xuan Yuanjun noticed something unusual about the unconscious Tan Ming and Baili Zhen.

• Xuan Yuanjun broke the formation, seized the exotic plants, and escaped the crowd while Ji Xuanying and Huang Xiao carried the others away.
• Xuan Yuanjun taught Huang Xiao to maintain a moving concealment formation, and the group fled the Central Desert while evading pursuit.
• The group stopped in a forest, where the Soaring Immortal Fruit helped Huang Xiao recover after he strained himself maintaining the formation.
• Xuan Yuanjun asked when the Soaring Immortal Fruit might transform into a Heavenly Immortal Fruit, and Huang Xiao explained that Xuan Yuanjun hoped to use its aura to heal his injuries.
• Xuan Yuanjun examined the unconscious Tan Ming and Baili Zhen and told Huang Xiao that something seemed wrong.

Ji Xuanying discovered Blood Crystals on Tan Ming and Baili Zhen, leading Huang Xiao and the seniors to suspect the Blood God had orchestrated the slaughter to gather essence blood. Xuan Yuanjun confirmed the men were under the Blood God’s control and could be saved, while the group remained puzzled about why the essence blood had also been transported away and what role the Longevity Daoist played.

• Ji Xuanying found Blood Crystals on Tan Ming and Baili Zhen, and Xuan Yuanjun identified them as treasures of the Blood Domain.
• Ji Xuanyuan recalled seeing others devour essence blood and suggested they also carried Blood Crystals; Xuan Yuanjun suspected the Blood God was gathering essence blood and might soon emerge.
• Huang Xiao asked the seniors to help Tan Ming and Baili Zhen, and Xuan Yuanjun woke them but found their minds controlled by the Blood God.
• Xuan Yuanjun said he could undo the control, though it would take time, and explained that a wondrous formation had transported most of the essence blood away.
• Huang Xiao questioned why the Blood God had sent people to collect essence blood if it had already been transported; Ji Xuanying and Xuan Yuanjun wondered whether the Longevity Daoist was involved.

Huang Xiao explained how he absorbed a large share of essence blood aura by storing it in his unusually capacious dantian. Xuan Yuanjun connected Huang Xiao’s insight to the rumored Treatise on Attaining the Dao, but concluded that its resemblance to the treatise was only a coincidence.

• Huang Xiao asked whether the Longevity Daoist might have learned the Blood God’s cultivation method, and Xuan Yuanjun explained that Huang Xiao’s method was not the Blood God’s own complete method.
• Huang Xiao revealed that he had absorbed around twenty or thirty percent of the essence blood aura by storing it in his dantian.
• Ji Xuanying and Xuan Yuanjun were astonished when Huang Xiao described his dantian as vast enough to take in a hundred rivers.
• Xuan Yuanjun suggested Huang Xiao’s Dantian as the Sea insight might relate to the Treatise on Attaining the Dao, then asked how he had gained it.
• Huang Xiao said he had gained the insight from reading Zhuangzi’s “Free and Easy Wandering” and recited the text for them.
• Xuan Yuanjun said the text was not the Treatise on Attaining the Dao, though Zhuangzi may have glimpsed the Dao through an insight resonant with heaven and earth.

Xuan Yuanjun agreed to teach Huang Xiao the Treatise on Enlightenment, hoping he might comprehend the Treatise on Attaining the Dao. Their group was quickly surrounded by pursuing forces, and Xuan Yuanjun prepared to hold them off while Ji Xuanying led Huang Xiao and the others away.

• Xuan Yuanjun and Ji Xuanying explained that everyone followed a different Dao and that Huang Xiao’s Dantian as the Sea cultivation method was exceptionally difficult to imitate.
• Ji Xuanying suggested that Huang Xiao study the Treatise on Enlightenment, and Xuan Yuanjun agreed to teach it to him after they returned.
• The Soaring Immortal Fruit objected that Huang Xiao was receiving the reward for finding it, but Xuan Yuanjun reminded it that Huang Xiao had saved it from the Jianghu people.
• Ji Xuanying made Tan Ming and Baili Zhen unconscious again when pursuing forces caught up and surrounded the group.
• Xuan Yuanjun said they might have to abandon the exotic flowers and plants if necessary, then asked Ji Xuanying to take Huang Xiao and the others away while he held off their pursuers.

Huang Xiao and his companions fled with the exotic flowers and plants while Xuan Yuanjun held off the Demon Domain experts. They were trapped between pursuing enemies and a new force ahead, so Qingfeng asked Xuan Yuanjun to teleport the plants away before the group faced the attackers.

• Huang Xiao and Ji Xuanying identified the Fire Demon General among the experts blocking their way, and Xuan Yuanjun charged at him while the others followed.
• Xuan Yuanjun defeated the Fire Demon General and helped the group escape, but the pursuers remained close behind them.
• Xuan Yuanjun said the route to West Mountain Town was blocked, and the group considered abandoning the exotic flowers and plants if they could not escape.
• The Wood Demon General and his allies appeared ahead as the Fire Demon General's people closed in from behind, trapping Huang Xiao's group.
• Qingfeng asked Xuan Yuanjun to teleport the exotic flowers and plants within a hundred li, accepting that they might be scattered.

Senior Ji offered the last Bronze Key to the gathered Jianghu experts in exchange for letting Huang Xiao and his group leave with the exotic flowers and rare herbs. He revealed the genuine key and demanded that the experts clear a path before he handed it over.

• As Huang Xiao's group was surrounded, Senior Ji arrived and asked the Jianghu experts to let them leave.
• Senior Ji offered the last Bronze Key in exchange for mercy, drawing the gathered experts' attention away from the herbs.
• Senior Ji waited for more experts to arrive while Xuan Yuanjun held back from teleporting the herbs away.
• After an hour, Senior Ji showed the Bronze Key and warned that Huang Xiao's group could abandon the herbs and escape if anyone attacked.
• Senior Ji demanded that the experts clear a path before he handed over the key.

Senior Ji’s group traded the Bronze Key for a chance to escape, then fled toward the Evil Domain’s Valley of Death while Jianghu pursuers tracked them. As Xuan Yuanjun began investigating the valley’s formation, Tan Ming and Baili Zhen unexpectedly awoke and struggled toward it.

• Senior Ji placed the Bronze Key inside a formation set by Xuan Yuanjun, and Huang Xiao’s group escaped while the other experts tried to break through.
• Huang Xiao led the group toward the Valley of Death, hoping its dangerous formation would hide them from their pursuers.
• Five days later, with Jianghu people closing in, Xuan Yuanjun asked for two hours to investigate whether he could unravel the valley’s formation.
• Tan Ming and Baili Zhen woke unexpectedly and struggled toward the Valley of Death, prompting Huang Xiao to wonder whether they had come from inside it.

Xuan Yuanjun led the group into the Valley of Death after identifying its confinement formation as the work of the Longevity Daoist and explaining how to break it. Inside, Tan Ming and Baili Zhen woke again, and Xuan Yuanjun suspected they had been in the valley before.

• Ji Xuanying tried to restore Tan Ming and Baili Zhen, but her treatment fell just short and left them unconscious.
• Xuan Yuanjun identified the formation as likely belonging to the Longevity Daoist and said the Treatise on Enlightenment could break it.
• The group entered the Valley of Death, where Huang Xiao discovered he could not step backward because the formation prevented anyone from leaving.
• Xuan Yuanjun urged the group to move deeper into the valley, and they found no sign of other people.
• Tan Ming and Baili Zhen woke again, and Xuan Yuanjun concluded they had probably been in the valley before.

Huang Xiao and the seniors restored Tan Ming and Baili Zhen to their senses, but the two could not remember being controlled or how they escaped the Valley of Death. As they explored the empty valley, they learned about its trapped inhabitants and Xuan Yuanjun suspected the Longevity Daoist had gathered them to form a powerful force.

• Xuan Yuanjun awakened Tan Ming and Baili Zhen, who recognized Huang Xiao and Qingfeng but could not recall anything that happened while they were controlled.
• Huang Xiao explained that they had been controlled and sent to the Central Desert to collect auras of essence blood; Tan Ming recalled that the valley's spiritual energy had once shuddered.
• Xuan Yuanjun concluded that no one else remained in the valley unless someone was concealed by a powerful grand formation.
• Tan Ming and Baili Zhen described how trapped newcomers had studied the moves in the valley's images, while many eventually lost hope or took their own lives.
• Xuan Yuanjun suggested that the Longevity Daoist had gathered the valley's powerful inhabitants to serve as his subordinates.

Huang Xiao and the others reached the central plaza, where bluestones revealed martial techniques and caves held more advanced knowledge. Xuan Yuanjun broke into the highest cave and recognized a formation connected to the Creation Sect Sacred Land.

• Xuan Yuanjun reasoned that Longevity Daoist had sent his puppets away because he was preparing to activate the Spirit Land Grand Formation, and said the group needed the Treatise on Enlightenment to unravel this place.
• Huang Xiao and the others reached the central bluestone plaza, where stepping on different stones revealed images of experts demonstrating martial arts.
• Baili Zhen explained that the best techniques were inside the caves, and Xuan Yuanjun chose to enter the highest cave, which only five people had ever reached.
• Xuan Yuanjun broke the formation at the highest cave and invited the others inside, where he recognized a formation on the chamber floor.
• Huang Xiao asked whether the formation was the same one he had seen in the Creation Sect Sacred Land.

Huang Xiao learned that the stone chamber’s formation could give him and his companions half a year of accelerated cultivation while they studied images of techniques collected by the Longevity Daoist. Xuan Yuanjun taught Huang Xiao the Treatise on Enlightenment and explained how its principle of leaving room complemented the Treatise on Seeking the Dao, though Huang Xiao was surprised to learn that hardly anyone could reach the Dao’s ultimate limit.

• Xuan Yuanjun confirmed that he could modify the formation to let Huang Xiao, Qingfeng, Baili Zhen, Tan Ming, and the Soaring Immortal Fruit use it for about half a year.
• Xuan Yuanjun revealed images of techniques from the stone chamber for Huang Xiao and the others to study inside the formation.
• Ji Xuanying and the others left while Xuan Yuanjun imparted the Treatise on Enlightenment to Huang Xiao.
• Xuan Yuanjun explained that the Treatise on Seeking the Dao pursued the ultimate of the Dao, while the Treatise on Enlightenment taught practitioners to leave some room and avoid excess.
• Huang Xiao questioned whether the two principles conflicted, and Xuan Yuanjun said few people could truly cultivate the ultimate of the Dao to its limit.

Xuan Yuanjun explained that the Treatise on Enlightenment could help suppress the lingering effects of the Ultimate of the Dao, though it might not save Slaughter Evil Lord from the Ruthlessness Dao. After spending three days modifying the formation in the Valley of Death, Xuan Yuanjun heard Ji Xuanying propose using his knowledge of the Treatise on Enlightenment to break Longevity Daoist’s Spirit Land Grand Formations.

• Xuan Yuanjun told Huang Xiao that Slaughter Evil Lord’s Ruthlessness Dao could become fatal unless he abandoned it, and Huang Xiao resolved to try persuading him.
• Xuan Yuanjun planned to study Longevity Daoist’s formation for at least half a year and modified it over three days while Huang Xiao watched.
• Ji Shidao reported that he and the others had found no further clues, though Xuan Yuanjun warned that Longevity Daoist had been making frequent moves.
• Ji Xuanying suggested that Xuan Yuanjun might use the Treatise on Enlightenment to find a way to break Longevity Daoist’s Spirit Land Grand Formations.

Ji Xuanying proposed that the Spirit Land formations in the Immortal Spirit Domain might contain the creator’s insights into the Treatise on Enlightenment, and Xuan Yuanjun agreed to study the formation while recovering. Inside it, Huang Xiao reflected on the dangers of pursuing cultivation to an absolute limit and began questioning which of his cultivation methods he should keep.

• Ji Xuanying suggested the Immortal Spirit Domain’s Spirit Land formations might embody insights from the Treatise on Enlightenment, and Xuan Yuanjun considered using their Cold Jade Key to investigate them.
• Huang Xiao and the others entered Xuan Yuanjun’s formation, where they learned that Hong Yi and Dugu Sheng had been found, while Wu Xuancang and Li Bai remained missing.
• Huang Xiao asked whether the Soaring Immortal Fruit could complete its transformation in the formation, but it could not guarantee success and feared its vitality would fade with time.
• Huang Xiao recalled Senior Xuanyuan’s guidance about the Treatises on Seeking the Dao and Enlightenment, and considered how reaching the absolute limit could bring harmful consequences.
• Huang Xiao wondered whether he should give up the Longevity Chapter and Heavenly Demon Disintegration, but feared losing the strength they had given him.

Huang Xiao strengthened his divine sense with essence blood aura and began considering whether he could develop his own Dao through Dantian as the Sea and Sea of Consciousness as the Sea. Outside the Valley of Death, the Jianghu factions withdrew, though some kept watch in case Huang Xiao and his companions returned.

• Huang Xiao used the Blood God Conversion Great Method to consume the stored essence blood aura and greatly strengthen his divine sense.
• After exhausting the aura, Huang Xiao rejected the idea of pursuing more through slaughter and wondered whether his sea of consciousness could absorb divine sense.
• Huang Xiao considered Dantian as the Sea and Sea of Consciousness as the Sea his possible true Dao, and resolved to improve his strength before Longevity Daoist acted.
• Qingfeng sensed that Huang Xiao's aura had changed, recognized that he had gained a great deal, and returned to meditating.
• The Wood Demon General, Fire Demon General, and other Jianghu groups concluded that Huang Xiao's party was unlikely to leave the Valley of Death and began withdrawing.
• Some people left disciples to watch the Valley of Death while others turned their attention to the Last Spirit Land and hoped its unknown key would appear.

After Wu Xuancang and Li Bai killed members of the Radiant Sun Sect while taking a Vitality Pill, they worried that returning to the Guiyi Sect would bring the sect trouble. Yang Jun met them on the road, gave them precious pills, and urged them to flee to the Demon Domain, where they planned to seek refuge with Huang Xiao and Huo Lian.

• Wu Xuancang and Li Bai discussed the danger of returning to the Guiyi Sect after killing a Radiant Sun Sect Grand Elder's great-grandson and his companions.
• Wu Xuancang decided they should return and tell the Guiyi Sect what had happened rather than flee without explanation.
• Yang Jun met Wu Xuancang and Li Bai fifty li from the Guiyi Sect and said the Radiant Sun Sect's retaliation could not be avoided by calling them traitors.
• Yang Jun gave Wu Xuancang and Li Bai Wound Healing Pills, Antidote Pills, and pills to enhance their power, then told them to leave the Alliance Domain.
• Wu Xuancang and Li Bai departed for the Demon Domain, intending to seek shelter with Huang Xiao and Huo Lian at the Wild Ox Sect.

Wu Xuancang and Li Bai fled toward the Demon Domain, hoping its proximity would shield them from the Radiant Sun Sect, but Du Deyi intercepted them. After learning the Guiyi Sect had disowned them, they prepared to fight without holding back, and the battle began with Wu Xuancang facing Du Deyi while Li Bai confronted the elder’s subordinates.

• Wu Xuancang and Li Bai discussed whether Huang Xiao and Huo Lian might be at the Wild Ox Sect as they headed for the Demon Domain.
• After evading the Radiant Sun Sect for half a month, Wu Xuancang and Li Bai were stopped less than a hundred li from the Demon Domain by Du Deyi and more than a dozen followers.
• Du Deyi revealed that the Guiyi Sect had disowned Wu Xuancang and Li Bai, freeing the Radiant Sun Sect to pursue them without implicating the sect.
• Wu Xuancang and Li Bai accepted that they could fight without worrying about the Guiyi Sect, and Wu Xuancang charged at Du Deyi while Li Bai prepared to take on the others.
• Du Deyi ordered his subordinates not to kill Li Bai, and Senior Brother Cao sent them to attack as they mocked Li Bai for keeping his sword sheathed.

Li Bai and Wu Xuancang killed Senior Brother Cao and the other Radiant Sun Sect men while fighting Du Deyi. Du Deyi prepared to strike with his full strength as the two attacked him from both sides.

• Li Bai killed the remaining Radiant Sun Sect fighters and Senior Brother Cao with powerful finger force that was actually Sword Qi.
• Du Deyi struggled against Wu Xuancang, who blocked his saber strike and taunted him about relying on his father, Du Moyou.
• Du Deyi grew enraged and attacked Wu Xuancang while Li Bai launched a sneak attack from behind.
• Li Bai and Wu Xuancang exchanged a glance and charged Du Deyi from opposite sides.
• Du Deyi's imposing presence reached its peak as Wu Xuancang warned Li Bai to be careful, but both men charged faster.

Li Bai and Wu Xuancang fought Du Deyi, and Li Bai killed him by drawing the genuine Seven-Star Dragon Abyss. They found two Vitality Pills and prepared to leave for the Demon Domain, but an angry voice confronted them about Du Deyi's death.

• Wu Xuancang clashed with Du Deyi and was knocked back, while Li Bai's sword qi failed to seriously threaten him.
• Du Deyi pressed his attack, but Wu Xuancang's sudden charge gave Li Bai an opening to draw Seven-Star Dragon Abyss and kill him with one strike.
• Wu Xuancang found two Vitality Pills on Du Deyi, and Li Bai let him keep them because Li Bai already had one.
• Wu Xuancang and Li Bai prepared to head for the Demon Domain to find Huang Xiao.
• An angry voice demanded to know whether they had killed Deyi.