Chapter Summaries

Huo Old Freak brought Meng Yuan to Du Xingyi, whose Foundation Establishment opportunity lay beyond a forbidden Bronze Gate guarded by a mysterious candle flame. Meng Yuan crossed the flame’s boundary but walked past the candle toward the gate, where Netherflame began to consume him as Du Xingyi’s opportunity vanished.

• Huo Old Freak led Meng Yuan into a hidden cavern beneath his cave abode, where Du Xingyi waited before a Bronze Gate and a dragon-shaped Bronze Candle Stand.
• Du Xingyi explained that she sensed her Foundation Establishment opportunity beyond the gate, but the candlelight prevented her from approaching it.
• Meng Yuan realized the Soul-Tracking Thread’s ten-year term had ended and stepped into the forbidden ground despite Huo Old Freak’s warning.
• Meng Yuan crossed the candlelight unharmed and stopped at the stand, prompting Du Xingyi to ask him to extinguish the flame.
• Meng Yuan smiled at Du Xingyi, then passed the candle and approached the Bronze Gate as Netherflame swallowed him.
• Du Xingyi felt her Foundation Establishment opportunity disappear and murmured that yesterday’s cause had borne fruit today.

Meng Yuan purified his four spiritual roots, returned to cultivation, and decided to settle on Deer Island after Old Turtle Island sank. He reached Deer Island and headed toward Chaolong Mountain, determined to explore the secret beyond the Bronze Gate.

• Meng Yuan used Spiritual Root Purification and resolved to stay on Deer Island, spending two years cultivating on Old Turtle Island first.
• Pei Hu delivered a message supposedly from Du Yueyi’s younger sister, and Du Yueyi investigated him before arranging a boat to Scattered Rock Island.
• Meng Yuan cultivated on Old Turtle Island, reached Qi Refining second layer, and left when the island sank beneath the sea.
• Meng Yuan boarded a Kong Clan fishing boat, berated its steward over the sailors’ food and wages, and ordered him thrown overboard.
• Meng Yuan reached Deer Island and set out for Chaolong Mountain to investigate the Bronze Lamp and the secret beyond the Bronze Gate.

Du Xingyi investigated whether Pei Hu’s visit to her family had been a trap, then returned to Chaolong Mountain and learned that the visitor Yuanyuanzi possessed an unusual life-bound object. She arranged for Huo Old Freak to test whether it could counter illusions.

• Du Xingyi questioned Du Yueyi about Pei Hu and ordered the family to move to Longstone Island, then searched Scattered Rock Island for signs of him.
• Du Xingyi found Huo Old Freak chatting with Meng Yuan, who called himself Yuanyuanzi and claimed to come from the Cape Islands.
• Huo Old Freak told Du Xingyi that Yuanyuanzi was poor, boastful, and had a life-bound object shaped like a millstone that could ward off mind-bewitching illusions.
• Du Xingyi told Huo Old Freak to replace the mountain-protecting formation with her own formation and lure Yuanyuanzi into testing it.

After taking Li Nineteen in as a brother and discovering his talent for spirit-plant cultivation, Meng Yuan tested Huo Old Freak’s illusion formation. Huo Old Freak and Du Xingyi recruited Meng Yuan for an expedition to nearby ruins, and he agreed after Du Xingyi offered compensation and future help.

• Xin Li left Meng Yuan a Daoist robe and pills before departing Deer Island with Zhou Xin.
• Meng Yuan found Li Nineteen working in the fields, brought him to Chaolong Mountain, and began teaching him cultivation as his sworn brother.
• Meng Yuan discovered that Li Nineteen had Three Spirit Roots and a green-tree Life-Bound manifestation suited to cultivating spirit plants.
• Huo Old Freak paid Meng Yuan with pills and nightlight grass to test his new illusion formation, which Meng Yuan passed without difficulty.
• When Meng Yuan tried to leave Deer Island, Huo Old Freak introduced him to Du Xingyi, who asked him to help investigate ruins.
• Meng Yuan initially refused to join the expedition but accepted after Du Xingyi offered regular pay, a reward, help if he was injured, and a future favor.

Meng Yuan reached the third Qi Refining layer, then accompanied Du Xingyi and Huo Old Freak to the Bronze Gate Ruins. He briefly entered the candlelight’s reach before retreating, and Du Xingyi offered to teach him a superior cultivation method to persuade him to try again.

• Du Xingyi took Li Nineteen to the Main Mountain and agreed to provide Meng Yuan with Qi-Replenishing Pills while he cultivated.
• After a year of practice and daily pills, Meng Yuan reached the third Qi Refining layer, and Xin Li visited to collect the annual tribute.
• Du Xingyi returned and led Meng Yuan and Huo Old Freak through the cave to the Bronze Gate Ruins.
• Du Xingyi asked Meng Yuan to use his life-bound Divine Ability against the Bronze Candle Stand, but he demanded assurances and described his final wishes before approaching it.
• Meng Yuan entered the candlelight, heard thoughts and desires crowding his mind, and retreated after only a few steps.
• Du Xingyi questioned Meng Yuan about the experience, then offered to teach him a cultivation method superior to the Circulating Heaven Qi-Gathering Method.

Meng Yuan cultivated in seclusion for ten years while Du Xingyi supplied him with pills and resources, and he finally broke through to the late Qi Refining stage just as the Soul-Tracking Thread’s deadline arrived. The thread unraveled, freeing Meng Yuan from its ten-year restraint as Du Xingyi’s opportunity for Foundation Establishment appeared inside the Bronze Gate.

• Du Xingyi taught Meng Yuan the Supreme Clarity True Art of Qi Control, and Meng Yuan persuaded her to swear an alliance while he stayed to cultivate and help open the Bronze Gate.
• Over the following years, Meng Yuan advanced to the sixth layer of Qi Refining, entered the Ruins with Du Xingyi, and repeatedly asked her to buy supplies and support his cultivation.
• Du Xingyi brought Meng Yuan Origin-Opening Pills, spending her savings and eventually returning injured with the last of them.
• Du Xingyi stayed at the cave to recover, and her opportunity for Foundation Establishment appeared inside the Bronze Gate.
• Meng Yuan broke through to the late Qi Refining stage, and the Gray-Robed Skeleton Guest’s Soul-Tracking Thread unraveled as the ten-year deadline ended.

Du Xingyi entered the Bronze Gate to attempt Foundation Establishment while Meng Yuan and Huo Old Freak waited outside. She emerged successful, and a month later she asked Meng Yuan what he planned to do, leaving him poised to claim the favor she owed him.

• Meng Yuan helped Du Xingyi reach the Bronze Gate, and she vanished inside after opening it.
• Meng Yuan and Huo Old Freak waited outside as Meng Yuan reflected on his cultivation, his plans for the next life, and Du Xingyi’s possible success.
• After ten days, Du Xingyi emerged from the Bronze Gate bloodied but having achieved Foundation Establishment, then ordered the others to stand guard while she recovered.
• A month later, Du Xingyi found Meng Yuan beneath the stars and asked what he planned to do.

Du Xingyi brought Meng Yuan to Longstone Island, where he joined the Starsea Alliance and managed White Deer Pavilion in Goldstone Market. After a decade of prosperity and growing weariness, Meng Yuan abandoned the shop and set out to seek his own opportunities along the Great Dao.

• Du Xingyi took Meng Yuan to Longstone Island, where she introduced him to Gong Xiangxian and asked him to look after the Du clanspeople.
• Gong Xiangxian registered Meng Yuan with the Starsea Alliance and made him the managing steward of White Deer Pavilion in Goldstone Market.
• Meng Yuan ran the shop for years, profited through questionable dealings, pursued cultivation and refining, and gathered stories about distant places and secret realms.
• Ten years later, Du Xingyi visited and scolded Meng Yuan for wasting his drive on market affairs and romantic entanglements.
• Remembering his resolve to pursue the Great Dao, forty-two-year-old Meng Yuan left Longstone Island and gave up his position at White Deer Pavilion.

Meng Yuan traveled to the Starsea Alliance's Main Mountain, visited Li Nineteen, and searched for a way to purge his pill toxins while reconnecting with old acquaintances. The chapter ended with Xin Li telling him that Li Nineteen and Wang Zhinong had died exploring a secret realm, and that Li Nineteen had wanted to be buried beside the peach trees he and Meng Yuan planted.

• Meng Yuan arrived at the Starsea Alliance's Main Mountain and visited Li Nineteen, who showed him his spirit plants.
• Meng Yuan wandered the alliance's territory, lost Spirit Stones at the futures market, and declined Xin Li's invitation to explore a secret realm.
• Li Nineteen gave Meng Yuan pills meant to purge pill toxins, and Meng Yuan tried to take him to Hehuan Island to find a partner.
• Li Nineteen joined Wang Zhinong's secret-realm expedition despite Meng Yuan's offer to go in his place, and Meng Yuan gave him a notebook of exploration advice.
• Xin Li returned injured and aged, telling Meng Yuan that Li Nineteen and Wang Zhinong had died in the secret realm and sharing Li Nineteen's final wish to be buried beside their peach trees.