Chapter Summaries

Hou Niao was expelled from the Quanzhen Sect after True Person Yang destroyed his flying sword and erased its reflection from his Purple Mansion. As the disciples performed a sword formation that blocked the square from view, his friends realized the display was giving him a chance to escape.

• True Person Yang pulled Nameless from Hou Niao's Purple Mansion and crushed it, severing his connection to the sword.
• True Person Xu expelled Hou Niao from the Quanzhen Sect, and Hou Niao bowed before leaving the square alone.
• Yu Zhengxing, Li Chuping, Fang Yazi, Rao Zongzhi, Zong Qian, and Hai Xixi discussed Hou Niao's future and the risks he faced.
• Hai Xixi revealed that the vote on Hou Niao's fate had been eight to five against his death, then pointed out that the sword formation would prevent anyone from seeing or following him.

The aftermath of Hou Niao’s victory overturned traditions across the Mainland Xiuzhen World, while growing fears about the opening of Heaven and Earth pushed cultivators to prioritize strength. Hou Niao was named a True Disciple and then a Constellation True Disciple, but he vanished from sight as the continent braced for change.

• After the Shanmen Annual Assembly, Shanmen abolished its True Disciple selection system and allowed disciples to challenge and replace those who lacked the title’s substance.
• Northern Anhe named Daoist Zhan and Hou Niao as its two True Disciples, recognizing Hou Niao despite his lost Flying Sword.
• Tianxin Pavilion and the Taihao Sect appointed Hou Niao to the vacant Heavenly Dog Star position among the Constellation True Disciples.
• Cultivators debated whether the opening of Heaven and Earth would bring danger from the Outer Cosmos, and some traditions began covertly preparing for conflict.
• Huxia Huncheng and Yunzhang Blood Transformation abolished their old selections and made True Disciple status an open contest of strength.
• Hou Niao disappeared while people wondered whether he could forge a new sword before the extraterrestrial spirit green descended.

Lady Bai ran her small flower shop in Year-End City while Hou Niao recovered there after the upheaval in the Jade Capital and struggled to refine a new Flying Sword. The chapter ended with Hou Niao arriving for lunch, looking thinner from the strain.

• Old Liu warned Little Six not to presume anything about Lady Bai, whose courtyard and position suggested powerful backing.
• Lady Bai tended the flowers and watched Hou Niao rest in the greenhouse, content that he had returned to her.
• Lady Bai reflected that Hou Niao’s fame had spread across the mainland, while she preferred not to ask about events beyond what he chose to tell her.
• Lady Bai prepared a simple meal and declined Third Auntie’s advice to cook more lavishly for Hou Niao.
• Hou Niao came in for lunch looking thinner after the upheaval in the Jade Capital.

Hou Niao explained why he had chosen to destroy his flying sword and attempt a new method of sword cultivation, despite the uncertainty and short time remaining. Lady Bai helped him accept that he had already made his choice and suggested he connect his new sword-nurturing path with growing orchids in the courtyard.

• Hou Niao told Lady Bai that restoring his old flying sword would be easier, but he wanted to try a new method that could overcome his weakness.
• Hou Niao recalled how Sea True Person had offered him a choice between losing his cultivation and destroying his flying sword as part of a compromise over the True Disciple rules.
• Hou Niao explained that recovering his old sword would make him stronger but leave him unable to surpass the Constellation True Disciples, while his new path might take him beyond them.
• Lady Bai told Hou Niao that he had already chosen his path and urged him to focus rather than divide his attention.
• Lady Bai reminded Hou Niao that Gu Sou had hinted he should try growing a Strange Stone Orchid and suggested that planting it might relate to nurturing his sword anew.

Hou Niao examined why he had destroyed Nameless and concluded that his Flying Sword Art might have been fundamentally flawed, especially compared with the Sword Light Division he had witnessed from Sword Three. He remained committed to rebuilding his flying sword, though he had not yet found a practical method.

• Hou Niao recalled how punishment and his dissatisfaction with the Flying Sword Art had led him to destroy Nameless rather than passively endure the loss of cultivation.
• Hou Niao compared his work on the Body Sword Technique with Duan Wu Qian's work on the Flying Sword Art, recognizing their mutual envy and desire to take each other's achievements.
• Hou Niao revealed that Duan Wu Qian's supposed five flying swords were actually five streams of Sword Qi from a single sword, produced through Sword Light Division.
• Hou Niao contrasted Quanzhen Sect cultivators' limited Sword Light Division with Sword Three's ability to create thousands of streams, and concluded that the two techniques were fundamentally different.
• Hou Niao decided he could not abandon the Flying Sword Art, but its fatal weakness might require him to destroy his sword and start over.

After spending six months studying Duan Wu Qian’s sword art without success, Hou Niao chose a new approach: cultivating a Strange Stone Orchid while nurturing a sword seed through his Five Elements power. He began the work in the courtyard’s Stone Formation, leaving the time and outcome uncertain.

• Hou Niao realized that Duan Wu Qian’s flying sword had been an energy mass inside his Purple Mansion, and decided to carry forward the dead cultivator’s innovation.
• Hou Niao considered growing a Strange Stone Orchid and mirroring its growth in his Purple Mansion, though the process might take longer than the twenty years he had before the Extraterrestrial Spirit Green fell.
• Hou Niao told Lady Bai he would enter a long period of seclusion and asked her to manage the flower shop and stop tending to his daily needs.
• Hou Niao entered the Stone Formation, sat down with a Strange Stone Orchid seedling, and began using his Five Elements power to grow it and nurture a sword seed.

Two years after the Shanmen Annual Assembly, Daoist sects across the continent changed how they selected their True Disciples, while the Duan Prince's Residence continued searching for a missing man. The old man refining Dragon-Returning Pills suspected the man was hiding and recovering, but the search had found no trace of him in nearly ten years.

• The Wu Sect announced a grand competition to reassess its nineteen True Disciples, hoping to counter Shanmen Quanzhen and find successors among its grassroots cultivators.
• The Guo Sect followed the Wu Sect's example, while two other Southeast Daoist sects opened half their True Disciple positions to competition and the Chu Sect refused to change its selections.
• A Golden Core cultivator reported that the Duan Prince's Residence had searched across the continent for nearly ten years without finding the missing man, while avoiding the Minister of Justice Prefecture's scrutiny.
• The old man in the Duan Prince's Residence refined five superior-grade Dragon-Returning Pills from materials for twenty-four, but said he needed transcendent-grade pills.
• The old man rejected the possibility that the missing man was dead and ordered the search to continue, noting that the man might be hiding while he recovered his strength.
• The Golden Core cultivator explained that the man had no family, and that his dao companion from the Bai Trading Company had not been seen since the Lizhi Sea.

Fang Yazi secured his place among Shanmen Quanzhen's three undefeated True Disciple candidates, with the final six places to be decided at the Annual Assembly in three months. He returned to his post in the Jade Capital and reflected on Hou Niao's influence and the controversy surrounding his Body Sword Technique.

• Fang Yazi won his sixty-first match and became one of three undefeated candidates certain to qualify as a True Disciple.
• Fang Yazi considered the fifteen contenders still competing for six places and noted that several of his friends, including Rao Zongzhi, Zong Qian, and Hai Xixi, had been eliminated.
• Fang Yazi returned to his home in the Jade Capital after his friends congratulated him on his victory.
• Fang Yazi recognized that the Minister of Justice Prefecture was watching over him because of his loyalty to Hou Niao.
• Fang Yazi noted that other Sword Cultivators wanted to learn Hou Niao's Body Sword Technique, but he refused to teach it because he had only mastered its basics.

Fang Yazi celebrated his likely elevation to True Disciple with Yan Zhu and his friends, while they discussed the continued search for his expelled senior brother. The chapter left his whereabouts unknown, with Fang Yazi confident that he would remain hidden and survive.

• Fang Yazi returned home to Yan Zhu, who congratulated him on his victories and asked him to visit her relatives.
• Fang Yazi agreed to visit Yan Zhu's family but warned her not to use his senior brother's name to claim protection for the Yan Clan.
• Wang Mian arrived, and Fang Yazi's friends gathered to congratulate him and share a meal.
• Zong Qian reported that searches for Fang Yazi's senior brother had spread across much of the continent, backed by underground factions, the Daoist Sect, and a figure in the city.
• Fang Yazi said searches were also underway around the Li Sea, but argued that many people admired his senior brother and that the searches had found nothing in ten years.

Wang Shanchang confirmed that the flower shop’s proprietress matched the wanted woman’s portrait and reported the clue, setting underground cultivation groups in motion. As cultivators gathered in Year-End City, Zhang Hancheng arrived to hunt Hou Niao on behalf of the Duan Prince’s Residence.

• Wang Shanchang learned from a flower merchant’s assistant that the flower shop’s proprietress resembled the woman in the portrait.
• Wang Shanchang secretly visited the flower shop and confirmed the proprietress was the woman being sought.
• The report spread through the underground cultivation organizations and reached Shanmen, whose members hesitated to act openly in Shangyu Kingdom because of the Tianxin Pavilion.
• Zhang Hancheng entered Year-End City as the Duan Prince’s Residence’s chosen Golden Core cultivator to pursue Hou Niao.

Zhang Hancheng met Tang Yan to plan an assassination of Hou Niao, whose location they believed was a flower shop in Year-End City. They agreed Zhang would strike in three days while Tang kept Hou Niao’s dao companion occupied.

• Zhang Hancheng traveled to Horseshoe Town to meet Tang Yan, the Wu Sect Daoist who had traced Hou Niao’s location.
• Tang Yan said he was certain Hou Niao was staying at his dao companion’s flower shop, though the pair had not investigated closely enough to alert Tianxin Pavilion.
• Tang Yan explained that nearby cultivators complicated an attack, but the two Golden Core Daoists in the area had been persuaded to leave.
• Zhang Hancheng questioned whether Tang Yan would join the attack and raised the risk posed by Hou Niao’s dao companion.
• Tang Yan said he would keep the woman occupied while Zhang struck, and they agreed to act in three days.

Zhang Hancheng and Tang Yan carried out a plan to seize Bai Qingqian and draw Hou Niao into an ambush. Zhang Hancheng found Hou Niao’s aura inside the Stone Formation and suspected he would escape underground, but the chapter ended before the attack began.

• Zhang Hancheng waited for Tang Yan’s signal, intending to strike Hou Niao when the opportunity came.
• Bai Qingqian went shopping while worrying about her family and how long she had remained in Year-End City.
• Tang Yan used his footsteps to control Bai Qingqian and led her into a building, where he told her she would be released after his business was finished.
• After receiving Tang Yan’s message, Zhang Hancheng approached the Flower Shop and concealed his Golden Core aura until he was ready to act.
• Zhang Hancheng sensed Hou Niao inside the Stone Formation and concluded that he was likely preparing to escape using Earth Escape.

Zhang Hancheng attacked Hou Niao in the courtyard but became trapped in its mysterious Five Elements forces. As Zhang Hancheng’s law power deepened the danger, both men faced a threat from the courtyard itself rather than from each other.

• Zhang Hancheng entered the Five Elements formation, found Hou Niao, and tried to break through with his cultivation and law power.
• Hou Niao remained overwhelmed by his years-long struggle to cultivate the Strange Stone Orchid and form a sword seed in his Purple Mansion.
• Hou Niao realized that the courtyard’s strange force had trapped him for three years and that a cultivator’s life force might serve as fertilizer for the orchid.
• Zhang Hancheng pushed his law power toward Hou Niao, sank deeper into the formation, and discovered that the courtyard—not Hou Niao—was the real danger.

Tang Yan waited anxiously for news from the flower house, while Bai Qingqian challenged his confidence in the assassination and warned him of the consequences if it failed. As the attack remained silent, Cheng Qianli and another Daoist arrived above the flower house and entered the Stone Formation from opposite sides.

• Tang Yan sensed that the lack of disturbance from the flower house was suspicious and summoned an older Daoist to investigate.
• Bai Qingqian taunted Tang Yan about the stalled attack and his growing unease, while he insisted the Daoist Sect would protect her if the hunt succeeded.
• Bai Qingqian warned Tang Yan that if the attack failed, he would have to send her safely home rather than let the Wu Sect's Daoists die alongside her.
• Cheng Qianli arrived above the flower house and encountered another Daoist, though both pretended not to know why the other was there.
• Cheng Qianli and the Daoist dropped into the Stone Formation at the same time, entering from the south and north.

Hou Niao remained inside the mysterious courtyard as more people arrived, while Tang Yan hesitated outside after three Golden Core cultivators vanished without a trace. Bai Qingqian tried to keep Tang Yan from entering by sowing doubt about Tianxin Pavilion, and the standoff continued with Hou Niao’s fate unknown.

• Hou Niao focused on finding a way to turn the three people’s variables to his advantage inside the courtyard.
• Tang Yan grew alarmed when Zhang Hancheng and two Golden Core cultivators failed to return or send word.
• Bai Qingqian taunted Tang Yan and urged him to consider making peace, while he released her restraints and tried to learn what she knew.
• Tang Yan questioned whether Tianxin Pavilion had approved Bai Qingqian and Hou Niao’s presence in Year-End City, but she gave him no clear answer.
• Tang Yan decided not to enter the courtyard, reasoning that four Golden Core cultivators would fare no better than three.
• Tang Yan offered to release Bai Qingqian so she could check on Hou Niao, but she refused and claimed she would find another companion if he died.

Hou Niao and the three Golden Core cultivators became trapped in the ancient Stone Formation after their four life energy forms triggered a mysterious resonance. As the others merged with three ancient immortal auras, Hou Niao joined with a Strange Stone Orchid sprout and received a Sword Seed in his Purple Mansion.

• Hou Niao realized that the three assassins' arrival had disrupted the formation's balance, and the four cultivators suspected their life energy forms had linked the place to an ancient event.
• Cheng Qianli, Zhang Hancheng, and the lone Daoist searched for a way out while Tang Yan stayed away and the four ancient auras struggled to break free.
• Cheng Qianli merged with the monk aura, Zhang Hancheng with the Three-legged Strange Bird, and the lone Daoist with the High-Crowned Feathered Immortal.
• The three cultivators experienced immortal power and were overwhelmed by a torrent of knowledge that burst their Seas of Consciousness.
• Hou Niao merged with the Strange Stone Orchid sprout, felt its urge to break through the soil, and received a Sword Seed in his Purple Mansion.

Hou Niao resisted the temptation to absorb the three assassins’ dissolving spiritual energy and survived the strange trial, while a Sword Seed formed in his Purple Mansion and the Strange Stone Orchid began growing normally. After collecting the assassins’ belongings, he let Tang Yan leave with their bodies, keeping their conflict within the rules.

• The three assassins gave in to their curiosity while possessed by Immortals, and their consciousnesses collapsed.
• Hou Niao merged with the Strange Stone Orchid and resisted the temptation to absorb the assassins’ Dao Dissolution energy, focusing instead on the orchid and his Sword Seed.
• The trial ended, the three Golden Core assassins died, and Hou Niao found a clear, hungry Sword Seed in his Purple Mansion as the orchid grew smoothly.
• Hou Niao gathered the three assassins’ treasures and told Tang Yan he would let their personal grudge continue under the trade’s rules.
• Tang Yan collected the corpses and left, while Hou Niao judged that Tang Yan’s will had already crumbled.

After the rogue cultivators escaped the Great Canyon, Cao Dean pursued their Sword Cultivator with two junior brothers, but the clash left all three body cultivators dead or incapacitated. Hou Niao claimed the wounded swordsman, and when Cao Dean turned to report him, Hou Niao attacked from behind.

• The rogue cultivators broke through the Baishen Sect's interception and scattered after the Sword Cultivator cut down several body cultivators.
• Cao Dean and two junior brothers used their relay pursuit method to intercept and fight the Sword Cultivator.
• The Sword Cultivator killed both junior brothers in a desperate exchange, then fell too wounded to continue fighting.
• Hou Niao found the wounded Sword Cultivator and claimed him before Cao Dean arrived.
• Cao Dean accused Hou Niao of stealing the result and threatened to bring the matter before the Venerable Masters.
• Hou Niao attacked Cao Dean from behind as Cao Dean turned to leave.

Li Chuping tried to recruit Hou Niao into the Great Wind Plains Commandant Prefecture by taking responsibility for part of his punishment. Hou Niao accepted the favor, learning that the Commandant Prefecture’s elite troublemakers belonged to the Unpaid Salary Alliance.

• Li Chuping concluded that Hou Niao’s past deeds proved his loyalty and decided the Commandant Prefecture should stop investigating him and win him over.
• Li Chuping explained that Jia Shangguan had reported Hou Niao’s disobedience to the Jade Capital, leaving the final decision beyond Marquis Ping’s control.
• Li Chuping claimed the Commandant Prefecture’s secret order could have authorized Hou Niao to act as circumstances required during the Southwest Dao Discussion.
• Li Chuping said the Commandant Prefecture would share responsibility for Hou Niao’s offense, though both would lose salary and provisions as punishment.
• Hou Niao accepted Li Chuping’s help, then realized that the Quanzhen Sect’s demonic-path elites formed the Unpaid Salary Alliance.

Xinghuan’s Earth Spirit Pearl appeared to kill another Ruthless Dao cultivator, while the other cultivators struggled to understand how it worked. As the sky filled with wary observers, Uncle Niao told Xinghuan from underground that he would return soon.

• Luo Yewang and Daoist Ying noticed that Xinghuan had recovered and was climbing faster than before, and they questioned whether the Earth Spirit Pearl was responsible.
• Daoist Liu approached Xinghuan cautiously, sealed his law power, and tried to avoid provoking the Earth Spirit Pearl.
• When Daoist Liu’s legs sank into the ground, he began to circulate his law power, but an unseen force seized him and dragged him underground.
• Teng Chongzhi realized that the Ruthless Dao had lost another cultivator, while the battle between the Chu Sect’s True Disciples and Zhaoneng Temple ended without a victor.
• Nine cultivators gathered in the sky and watched Xinghuan and the ground around her as Uncle Niao told her to stay put while he went to deal with them.