Chapter Summaries

Huang Xiao learned he had to endure the activated Supreme Evil Pillar’s evil qi for two hours, despite managing less than fifteen minutes. After Old Man Wang apparently killed Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli, Huang Xiao attacked the old men and refused to cooperate, then discovered the women were still alive.

• Huang Xiao left the Pool healed and told Old Man Fan he could endure its evil qi for less than a quarter of an hour, while Old Man Fan said he needed to last two hours.
• Old Man Fan, Old Man Wang, and Old Man Zhu agreed to give Huang Xiao a year to adapt to the evil qi and use the Imitation Sabers.
• Old Man Wang attacked Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli, and Huang Xiao found them lying motionless with no apparent signs of life.
• Huang Xiao confronted Old Man Wang and repeatedly charged him, but Old Man Wang struck him back each time without killing him.
• Old Man Fan stopped Huang Xiao from severing his own meridians, and Huang Xiao refused to leave or obey the three old men.
• Huang Xiao noticed Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli stir and realized they were still alive.

Old Man Wang revealed that Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli had been kept alive so the three elders could use them as hostages to make Huang Xiao carry out their task. He then demanded that Huang Xiao leave a child behind before going, and Huang Xiao resisted as Old Man Zhu tried to present the demand as a chance for him and the women to be together.

• Old Man Zhu explained that Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli had only been placed in a state of feigned death.
• Old Man Wang said the women would remain behind as hostages while Huang Xiao left alone to complete the elders’ task.
• Old Man Fan said Huang Xiao’s concern for the women would ensure he did his utmost for them.
• Jiang Liuli threatened to kill herself, but Old Man Wang warned that the elders would prevent it.
• Old Man Wang demanded that Huang Xiao leave a child behind, and Jiang Liuli vehemently objected.
• Huang Xiao refused the demand and offered to swear he would fulfill the task, while Old Man Zhu argued that the arrangement could help him and the women be together.

Huang Xiao, Zhangsun Youyue, and Jiang Liuli faced Old Man Fan and Old Man Wang’s demand that they conceive children and endure two hours in the evil-qi pool or die. Zhangsun Youyue accepted Huang Xiao despite his four wives, while Jiang Liuli resisted, and the chapter ended with Huang Xiao taking her hand and apologizing.

• Old Man Fan and Old Man Wang gave Huang Xiao, Zhangsun Youyue, and Jiang Liuli a year to conceive children and demanded that they survive two hours in the evil-qi pool, threatening to kill them if they failed.
• Back at their lodgings, Zhangsun Youyue told Huang Xiao that the three old men would force them by other means and said she was willing to be with him.
• Huang Xiao admitted that he had four wives and might never see them again, while Zhangsun Youyue believed they had been imprisoned by their sects.
• Jiang Liuli confronted Zhangsun Youyue, rejected the idea that women needed a man, and became angry when Zhangsun Youyue brought up her past kiss with Huang Xiao.
• Huang Xiao approached Jiang Liuli, took her hand, and apologized.

Huang Xiao forced Jiang Liuli to comply with the three old men’s demand, hoping to keep her and Zhangsun Youyue alive. After leaving the furious, secretly weeping Jiang Liuli, he found Zhangsun Youyue, who reassured him that he had done the right thing.

• Zhangsun Youyue fled from the house in tears as Huang Xiao carried Jiang Liuli inside.
• Huang Xiao forced himself on Jiang Liuli, telling her he wanted them all to survive and escape.
• Jiang Liuli threatened Huang Xiao with the Lihuo Sword, ordered him out, and said she would kill the three old men if she got the chance.
• After Huang Xiao left, Jiang Liuli wept silently, blaming the three old men rather than him for what had happened.
• Huang Xiao found Zhangsun Youyue beneath a tree, and she told him she understood why he had acted and could not bear to see Jiang Liuli die.

Huang Xiao and Zhangsun Youyue became intimate beneath a tree before returning to the house, where Jiang Liuli confronted them. The next morning, the three were summoned by the old men to a vast stone chamber filled with books, and Huang Xiao prepared to begin their next stage of training.

• Zhangsun Youyue reassured Huang Xiao about Jiang Liuli and accepted his apology for their circumstances before the two became intimate beneath a tree.
• Huang Xiao and Zhangsun Youyue returned to the house, where Jiang Liuli called them out for sneaking around and then turned her back on Huang Xiao.
• The next morning, Jiang Liuli and Zhangsun Youyue sparred with swords while Huang Xiao pretended he had been asleep.
• Old Man Zhu summoned Huang Xiao and the two women, and Old Man Wang remarked on Huang Xiao's actions before sending them into the third stone chamber.
• Huang Xiao and the women found the chamber filled with more than a hundred bookshelves and rows of books.

Huang Xiao, Zhangsun Youyue, and Jiang Liuli learned why the Three Great Families had amassed so many martial texts and how their ancestors collected them to oppose the Demon Hall. The elders then revealed their interest in a mysterious cultivation method by snatching Huang Xiao’s Jade Slip.

• Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli compared the Three Great Families’ preserved library with their own sects’ collections, and Old Man Wang boasted of the Heavenly Evil Sect’s former prestige.
• Jiang Liuli and Huang Xiao questioned the elders about the Three Great Families’ seizure of other sects’ manuals, and Old Man Zhu admitted it had provoked resistance across the Jianghu.
• Old Man Fan explained that the Three Great Families had gathered texts to oppose the Demon Hall and cut off their own retreat, though their ancestors still lost despite possessing three Ancient Evil Blades.
• Zhangsun Youyue asked whether the Three Great Families had sought a powerful cultivation method, and Old Man Zhu snatched Huang Xiao’s Jade Slip from beneath his armor.

Old Man Zhu explained the Jade Slips’ connection to the Longevity and Imperishability Scripture and the Longevity Pill, while Huang Xiao concealed that he already knew of the scripture. The conversation left Huang Xiao and the two women suspecting that successive Demon Hall Masters had embodied the scripture’s extraordinary powers.

• Old Man Zhu recognized Huang Xiao’s Jade Slip as one of the Longevity Pill Manual slips and explained that it contained a nearly exhausted energy he called longevity qi.
• Huang Xiao learned that Old Man Zhu believed the Jade Slips had absorbed energy from the Longevity Pill, which could heal injuries and prolong life.
• Old Man Zhu revealed that the Jade Slips were connected to the Longevity and Imperishability Scripture, a cultivation method that could help its practitioner live longer and become harder to kill.
• Huang Xiao named the Demon Hall Masters of successive generations as Jianghu figures who might fit Old Man Zhu’s description.

Old Man Zhu explained how the first Demon Hall Master obtained the Imperishability Chapter and used its power to defeat the ancestors of the Three Great Families. He then revealed that those ancestors abandoned their failed efforts to enter Dragon Mountain and tried to create a comparable cultivation method, leaving the outcome of that attempt unknown.

• Old Man Zhu said the first Demon Hall Master had obtained the Imperishability Chapter, which made him nearly impossible to kill and likely caused the Three Great Families’ defeat.
• Huang Xiao asked why the ancestors of the Three Great Families had seized cultivation manuals instead of pursuing the Longevity Pill Manual.
• Old Man Zhu explained that the ancestors found clues to the Longevity Pill Manual inside the Longevity Death Formation on Dragon Mountain but could not devise a way to enter before the Demon Hall pressured them.
• Jiang Liuli proudly said her Ancestor had solved the formation, while hiding that Leng Guhan had asked someone else for help.
• Old Man Zhu said the ancestors had sealed away their incomplete formation-breaking methods and later tried to create a cultivation method like the Imperishability Chapter.

Old Man Zhu explained that the Three Great Families’ ancestors had tried and failed to develop cultivation methods rivaling the Demon Hall Master’s Imperishability Chapter. He offered Huang Xiao and the others a chance to study their surviving methods, which could strengthen the body and improve healing.

• Jiang Liuli criticized the ancestors’ failed research, and Old Man Wang nearly struck her before Old Man Fan intervened.
• Old Man Zhu revealed that the ancestors believed Demonic Sect methods offered a better path to imperishability than Righteous Path methods.
• Old Man Zhu admitted that the ancestors’ methods never came close to the Imperishability Chapter, and Old Man Fan explained that generations of research had also failed.
• Old Man Fan said the three elders now cared mainly about preserving the Three Great Families’ legacies.
• Huang Xiao asked why the elders had brought them to the library, and Old Man Zhu offered to let them study cultivation methods that could strengthen their bodies and improve healing.

Huang Xiao was shown more than three thousand cultivation manuals from the Three Great Families, hoping to learn from them and improve his Imperishable True Qi. The old men gave him a year to escape, while allowing Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli to read freely, leaving Huang Xiao to begin studying and undergo the Evil Qi Baptism.

• Huang Xiao realized the Three Great Families' cultivation methods could help him understand the Imperishability Chapter and refine his Imperishable True Qi.
• Old Man Fan led Huang Xiao to three bookshelves containing more than three thousand manuals passed down by the Three Great Families.
• Zhangsun Youyue asked whether Huang Xiao could read the other books, and Old Man Zhu warned that he had only one year to escape and too little time to study everything.
• Old Man Wang reminded Huang Xiao to prepare for the Evil Qi Baptism and address the matter between him and the two women.
• Old Man Zhu allowed Huang Xiao to focus on the three shelves or read other books if he believed he could escape in time, and told Jiang Liuli and Zhangsun Youyue they could read any books they wanted.

Huang Xiao worried that the three old men might never let Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli leave, so he proposed using the Jade Slip of the Longevity Pill Manual to attract help from the Jianghu. He left the Jade Slip with them and planned to obey the old men while spreading word that the women and the Jade Slip remained trapped in the Evil Water Region.

• Huang Xiao told Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli that the old men might have let them study the manuals because they never intended to release them.
• Huang Xiao gave the women the Jade Slip of the Longevity Pill Manual and urged them to prepare for the possibility that they would remain trapped.
• Huang Xiao argued that if he escaped, he could rally the Jianghu to break the formation around the Evil Water Region.
• Huang Xiao asked whether Bishui Palace or the Sword Pavilion would risk anything to rescue the women, and they recognized their sects might not pay the price without an incentive.
• Huang Xiao proposed obeying the old men while telling the Jianghu that the women and the Jade Slip were still in the Evil Water Region, tempting powerful figures to come rescue them.

Huang Xiao gave the Jade Slip to Zhangsun Youyue and the three studied the manuals before being forced to resume their assigned tasks. After spending the night with Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli, Huang Xiao underwent another Evil Qi Baptism and began to wonder whether he had reached his limit.

• Huang Xiao offered the Jade Slip to Jiang Liuli and Zhangsun Youyue, and Zhangsun Youyue accepted it after Jiang Liuli yielded her claim.
• Huang Xiao, Zhangsun Youyue, and Jiang Liuli read manuals in the stone chamber until Old Man Zhu sent them outside and reminded them of their other tasks.
• Zhangsun Youyue claimed Huang Xiao for the night, and Jiang Liuli later followed her into the small house.
• The three old men sent Huang Xiao to the Pool for an Evil Qi Baptism while Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli returned to the manuals.
• Huang Xiao endured the evil qi breaking down and restoring his body, but his Imperishable True Qi ran low and he questioned whether he had reached his limit.

Huang Xiao finished memorizing three thousand cultivation manuals and decided to rely on his imperishable true qi rather than master an unfamiliar method. A discussion about the Demon and Ghost Factions led him to realize that Tuoba Ao's art might help him perfect his own cultivation, though obtaining the sect scriptures remained unlikely.

• Huang Xiao completed the three thousand manuals and chose to focus on his imperishable true qi because the other methods would take too long to master.
• Old Man Fan explained that the Three Great Families had never obtained the Demon Daoist Canon or Ghost Daoist Canon, despite seeking them in the past.
• Huang Xiao recalled Tuoba Ao and recognized that his Demon Ghost Nine Transformations Spirit Art had been derived from the two scriptures and resembled the Imperishability Chapter.
• Huang Xiao considered using Demon and Ghost cultivation methods to improve his imperishable true qi, but concluded the scriptures would be difficult to obtain even if he won the Hall Master's Seat.
• Huang Xiao thought of Li Bai as he weighed his uncertain path forward.

After a month and a half of training, Huang Xiao was told to leave the sealed region far earlier than planned because an outside attempt to break the formation had shaken it. The three old men believed waiting could be even more dangerous, though Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli feared Huang Xiao would not survive.

• Huang Xiao spent a month and a half undergoing the Evil Qi Baptism and studying cultivation methods, strengthening his Imperishable True Qi’s ability to heal injuries.
• Old Man Zhu urgently summoned Huang Xiao, Zhangsun Youyue, and Jiang Liuli, and Old Man Wang told them to prepare to leave immediately.
• Old Man Fan explained that the three old men could not wait the planned year because the situation had changed.
• A water column erupted from the pool as Old Man Zhu said people outside the Evil Water Region were trying to unravel the formation.
• Old Man Zhu said the Heavenly Evil Sect’s efforts had shaken the formation, and Old Man Zhu warned that brute force might damage it and trap everyone inside forever.

Huang Xiao agreed to leave the formation early so he could find descendants bearing the three Ancient Evil Blades and help rescue Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli. As the Three Old Fellows began activating the formation, the two women withdrew from the stone chamber.

• Old Man Zhu explained that the Heavenly Evil Sect was breaking the formation from outside and that the Three Old Fellows could work with them to send Huang Xiao out, though the attempt carried risks.
• Huang Xiao agreed to find descendants who held the three Ancient Evil Blades and promised Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli that he would get them out.
• Huang Xiao entered the Pool and told Old Man Zhu to send him out.
• Old Man Fan ordered Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli to leave the stone chamber, while the three old men took their places and brought out formation objects.

Huang Xiao endured the Evil Water Region’s rising evil qi as Old Man Zhu and the other elders activated a formation to send him out. Elsewhere, the Kong and Chen Families’ attempt to exploit the region was disrupted by spreading whirlpools and violent waves, leaving Old Kong and Old Chen waiting as the danger grew.

• Old Man Zhu warned Huang Xiao to survive for an hour while three elders drove their Imitation Sabers into the formation slots, stirring the Evil Water Region’s evil qi.
• Huang Xiao circulated his Imperishable True Qi to repair his body as the pool spun around him and pulled him deeper.
• Old Kong and Old Chen oversaw their families’ effort to break through the Grand Formation before the Sima Family discovered them.
• Whirlpools appeared across the Evil Water Region, and waves swept people into the water, prompting Old Kong to order a retreat.
• Old Kong and Old Chen agreed to wait before continuing, but the whirlpools began merging into larger ones as increasingly violent waves surged toward the shore.

Old Chen and Old Kong investigated the enormous whirlpool in the Evil Water Region and used fragments of the Supreme Evil Pillar in an attempt to trigger its formation. The fragments shattered, unleashing a vast eruption of evil qi that convinced them a legendary treasure lay within the region.

• Old Chen and Old Kong sent disciples to report the strange whirlpool to the Ancestors, then decided to continue their investigation.
• The two families threw objects into the whirlpool and approached the shore with palm-sized jade boxes containing fragments of the Supreme Evil Pillar.
• Old Chen and Old Kong tossed their fragments above the whirlpool, where an unseen force drew them together and made them shatter.
• A tremendous surge of evil qi erupted from the whirlpool, leaving Old Chen and Old Kong convinced that a wondrous treasure existed within the Evil Water Region.

Old Kong and Old Chen discovered that the Supreme Evil Pillar fragments had temporarily changed the Evil Water Region, allowing two disciples to return from its edge. As the evil qi weakened, they ordered the same disciples to enter the water and investigate further.

• Disciples absorbed the vortex’s evil qi, and many died or were badly injured until Old Kong ordered the survivors to retreat.
• Old Kong and Old Chen confirmed that the formation had changed, then threw one disciple from each family toward the Evil Water Region with jade pendants for protection.
• The two disciples briefly commanded heaven and earth momentum above the water and escaped back to shore, proving the region had changed.
• Old Kong noticed the evil qi weakening, and he and Old Chen worried that the effect of their Supreme Evil Pillar fragments was fading.
• Old Kong ordered someone to enter the water and, with Old Chen, forced the two surviving disciples to go again.

The Sima Family ambushed the Kong and Chen Families, revealed that it had obtained three Supreme Evil Pillar fragments, and took over their attempt to enter the Evil Water Region. As Sima Chong sent the fragments into the vortex, Huang Xiao reacted to a violent disturbance below and hurled two corpses toward the stone chamber.

• Two chosen disciples entered the Vortex Center and vanished, leaving Old Kong and Old Chen waiting to learn whether they survived.
• Sima Chong arrived with two Martial Realm experts and a large force, surrounding the badly weakened Kong and Chen Families.
• Sima Chong revealed three Supreme Evil Pillar fragments and said his family had learned about the plan after trading with the Jiang Family.
• Sima Chong's men attacked Old Kong, Old Chen, and their disciples while Sima Chong threw the three fragments into the vortex.
• As the water beneath the vortex shook, Huang Xiao sank farther down despite Old Man Zhu's plea to leave the others alive, and two corpses landed before the two women at the stone chamber entrance.

Huang Xiao vanished into the formation’s whirlpool as the three old men continued their attempt to send him out, leaving Zhangsun Youyue and Jiang Liuli waiting anxiously. Above the Evil Water Region, Sima Chong destroyed the Supreme Evil Pillar fragments, then charged into the region himself after killing the Kong and Chen Families’ disciples.

• Huang Xiao killed the two newcomers to prevent the three old men from using them as leverage, then demanded to know how he would survive the experts outside.
• Old Man Zhu and the other two old men drove the formation, and a mass of evil qi crashed into the whirlpool as Huang Xiao disappeared.
• Jiang Liuli stopped Zhangsun Youyue from rushing toward the pool, warning that the process was not over while the old men continued the formation’s final step.
• Sima Chong’s three fragments of the Supreme Evil Pillar crumbled, unleashing evil qi that forced the fighters around the Evil Water Region to retreat.
• Old Kong and Old Chen sent two disciples toward the Evil Water Region with Jade Slips, but Sima Chong killed them and charged into the region himself.