Chapter Summaries

Lian Youming, Gu Feiyan, and the White Lotus Sect Master engaged in a prolonged battle of wills as they walked west. When Lian Youming intervened to save two boys from wolves, the White Lotus Sect Master’s gaze plunged him into a disorienting vision that ended with him among worshippers invoking the Eternal Mother.

• Lian Youming and Gu Feiyan guarded their minds against the White Lotus Sect Master as the three traveled from Hong Kong through Guangzhou and westward.
• The White Lotus Sect Master tested their defenses with her Spirit Intent, while Lian Youming used the Twenty-One-Eye Dzi Bead to strengthen his spirit and focus on the land around him.
• After more than half a month of walking, Lian Youming saw a pack of wolves attack two boys and their sheep on the grassland.
• Lian Youming drove the wolves away with a Tiger's Roar, then attacked the White Lotus Sect Master with his fist as a sword.
• When Lian Youming met the White Lotus Sect Master's eyes, he saw himself dressed in theatrical costume before the vision shifted to Gu Feiyan and the White Lotus Sect Master praying and shouting, "True Void Hometown, Eternal Mother!"

Lian Youming and Gu Feiyan endured a series of reincarnation illusions conjured by the White Lotus Sect Master, struggling to preserve their true selves as their minds became intertwined. Lian Youming broke through to Foresight Perfection, while the White Lotus Sect Master also surged in strength.

• Lian Youming was swept into memories of a man called Huzi, whose wedding was interrupted by an attack that ended in his death, while the White Lotus Sect Master and Gu Feiyan also experienced the illusion.
• Lian Youming became a Taoist priest whose life ended in flames after a tragedy involving A Xiu and A Yun, then realized he could use the illusions to test and strengthen his mind.
• Lian Youming and the others lived through many different reincarnations, with shifting relationships and endings, until their minds and Qi Dynamics became dangerously entangled.
• As the ordinary life he shared with the White Lotus Sect Master weakened his will to attack, Lian Youming struck his own chest and used Dragon's Roar and Tiger's Howl to resist the illusions.
• Gu Feiyan joined her fist with Lian Youming's, helping him break through Iron Shirt and reach Foresight Perfection as the White Lotus Sect Master also began to rise in power.

The White Lotus Sect Master completed her spiritual transformation through Sanskrit chanting and revealed that Zhu You was a consciousness born from her fantasies, already possessing Foresight Perfection. Lian Youming and Gu Feiyan attacked her, but her self-empowerment let her overpower them, leaving Gu Feiyan wounded.

• The White Lotus Sect Master's chanting stirred illusions and emotions in Gu Feiyan and Lian Youming, but both steadied their minds and gained insight from the visions.
• Lian Youming asked whether the White Lotus Sect Master had achieved her goal, and she confirmed that she had before revealing herself as Zhu You, a consciousness created through Divine Knowledge.
• The White Lotus Sect Master used spiritual power to make her body impervious as Lian Youming seized her throat and tried to force her backward.
• The White Lotus Sect Master said she had possessed Foresight Perfection from the moment she appeared, then stood firm against Lian Youming's strength.
• Gu Feiyan struck the White Lotus Sect Master's back, but the White Lotus Sect Master threw Lian Youming aside and pierced Gu Feiyan's shoulder with a finger.

Lian Youming and Gu Feiyan fought the White Lotus Sect Master, whose overwhelming spiritual power let her defeat their techniques with sheer strength. After she crushed Lian Youming’s Elixir Sword, he wondered whether she had already reached Mystic Connection.

• Gu Feiyan and Lian Youming circled the White Lotus Sect Master and recognized her extraordinary strength and spiritual power.
• The White Lotus Sect Master blocked their attacks with seemingly simple hand movements, and Gu Feiyan realized the consciousness in control might have surpassed Foresight Perfection.
• The White Lotus Sect Master twisted both fighters’ arms and hurled them more than ten meters away, leaving Gu Feiyan bleeding and Lian Youming’s Qi-Blood surging.
• Gu Feiyan reasoned that the Sect Master’s frail body could not sustain her power for long, so she and Lian Youming prepared to endure more exchanges.
• Lian Youming launched his Elixir Sword at the White Lotus Sect Master, but she caught and crushed its Sword Qi with her bare hand, prompting him to suspect she had reached Mystic Connection.

Lian Youming and Gu Feiyan fought the White Lotus Sect Master, who used illusions, a sound attack, and overwhelming spiritual power to injure and capture them. As she prepared to kill Lian Youming to sever her attachments, blood ran from her nose, and Gu Feiyan called for the others to strike.

• Lian Youming and Gu Feiyan attacked the White Lotus Sect Master, who used an illusion of their mother to make Gu Feiyan hesitate.
• The White Lotus Sect Master chanted the Six-Syllable Mantra and froze Lian Youming with a sound attack, but he broke free after being pierced in the chest.
• Lian Youming and Gu Feiyan pressed their assault together, but the White Lotus Sect Master met them with a spinning barrage of powerful blows.
• After forty-seven exchanges, the White Lotus Sect Master used White Bone Contemplation to disorient them, broke their bones, and lifted them by the throats.
• The White Lotus Sect Master declared she would kill Lian Youming to sever her attachments, but blood trickled from her nose, prompting Gu Feiyan to shout for her to be killed.

Gu Feiyan used hidden allies and a Pulse Gate Nail to turn the fight against Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master, then demanded Lian Youming’s treasures. Lian Youming attacked her, and she recognized his technique as Divine Mobility.

• Gu Feiyan escaped the White Lotus Sect Master's grip and fought her alongside Lian Youming, until all three were bloodied and the White Lotus Sect Master vomited blood.
• Gu Feiyan revealed that she had planted marks and brought in two old-era martial artists, who attacked the White Lotus Sect Master.
• Gu Feiyan explained that she would use any means to reach the summit and said the two elders had once fought under Wing King Shi Dakai.
• Gu Feiyan demanded Lian Youming's Thumb Ring, ring, and Peace Amulet, offering to spare his life, but he refused.
• Lian Youming rushed Gu Feiyan with a powerful elbow strike, and she flew backward, identifying his technique as Divine Mobility.

Lian Youming used his transformed martial arts to overpower Gu Feiyan in a brutal fight. With Gu Feiyan badly injured and unable to continue, Lian Youming told her to take her own life.

• Lian Youming ambushed Gu Feiyan and drove her back with powerful punches, revealing that his earlier injuries had been a deception.
• Gu Feiyan used Divine Eye, Mind-Reading, and her Pulse Gate Nails to search for an opening, but Lian Youming knocked the nails away and kept up his assault.
• Gu Feiyan met Lian Youming’s attacks head-on with Xingyi Pounding Fist, but he seized her in a crushing embrace and rolled with her across the ground.
• Gu Feiyan escaped the grapple and struck Lian Youming, but he kicked her in the chest as they separated.
• Lian Youming stood over the battered Gu Feiyan and told her to take her own life.

Lian Youming defeated Gu Feiyan after their fight escalated into a clash of spiritual intent and overwhelming killing force. As Gu Chan arrived beside the fallen Gu Feiyan, a one-eyed old man revealed that he was the previous White Lotus Sect Master from a hundred years ago.

• Gu Feiyan reset her injured arm and unleashed a sound strike, but Lian Youming countered with Supreme Killing Intent and Fists Suppress the Mountains and Rivers.
• Lian Youming declared his resolve to destroy monsters and demons, then attacked Gu Feiyan as dawn approached.
• Gu Feiyan launched forty-three rapid attacks, but Lian Youming's forty-fourth move broke through her defense and gravely wounded her.
• Lian Youming left while Gu Feiyan collapsed and coughed blood.
• Gu Chan appeared with a one-eyed old man, who told Gu Feiyan to call him Great-grandfather and identified himself as the former White Lotus Sect Master.

Lian Youming arrived to help the White Lotus Sect Master, pulled a Pulse Gate Nail from her back, and fought the old-era martial artists pursuing the Three Teachings tokens. After he and the Sect Master defeated their opponents, three more hostile figures approached, leaving their condition uncertain.

• Lian Youming rushed in, struck one old-era martial artist, and removed the Pulse Gate Nail from the White Lotus Sect Master's back.
• The remaining old-era martial artist attacked Lian Youming with the Kunlun Secret Sword and demanded the Three Teachings tokens.
• Lian Youming used Witnessing Art, three Sword Pellets, and the Kunlun Secret Sword to turn the enemy's attack back on him and kill him.
• The White Lotus Sect Master defeated her opponent but collapsed after the battle, while Lian Youming was wounded.
• Lian Youming spotted three more figures with obscure qi dynamics approaching from beneath a distant ridge.

Lian Youming fled with the White Lotus Saintess as rival factions pursued them for the Three Teachings Token. After discovering her old injuries and tending to his own, he escaped Mangus again by drawing power from the Twenty-One-Eye Dzi Bead.

• Lian Youming carried the White Lotus Saintess away from their pursuers, including Mangus and White Bone Daoist.
• After a day of flight, Lian Youming examined the White Lotus Saintess and discovered that she had been injured before they left Hong Kong.
• The White Lotus Saintess admitted she had hidden her injuries, while Lian Youming recovered from severe physical and spiritual wounds.
• Lian Youming gave the White Lotus Saintess his upper garment, but fled again with her when Mangus caught up to them.
• Lian Youming used the Twenty-One-Eye Dzi Bead to boost his speed and widen the gap from Mangus.

Lian Youming and the White Lotus Saintess escaped their pursuers by climbing Mount Sumeru, where they discovered that knowledge gained in their reincarnation illusions had become real. At the summit, Lian Youming uncovered a broken stele bearing an inscription by Gan Danran.

• Lian Youming recognized Mount Sumeru as Mount Kailash, and the White Lotus Saintess explained that insights and knowledge from their reincarnation illusions could affect them after waking.
• Lian Youming and the White Lotus Saintess climbed the steep, snow-covered mountain while more than a dozen pursuers searched below; Lian Youming caught the Saintess when she slipped.
• The White Lotus Saintess said White Lotus Sect followers in the west would arrive within a day, and the pair continued toward the summit despite their exhaustion and injuries.
• After reaching the summit, Lian Youming went to relieve himself and noticed what looked like a buried, broken stele.
• Lian Youming and the White Lotus Saintess cleared the snow and found an inscription bearing the name Gan Danran.

Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master found Gan Danran’s damaged inscription, which hinted at a Sword Immortal’s legacy but withheld its location. When an eagle exposed them to pursuers, Lian Youming used an Invisible Arrow while the White Lotus Sect Master attacked the climbers, though the White Bone Daoist approached below.

• Lian Youming read Gan Danran’s stele and learned of his extraordinary background, his conflict with the Mountain Guardians, and his search for a Sword Immortal’s legacy.
• Lian Youming and the White Lotus Saintess found a second stele fragment, but someone had scraped away the crucial details about the legacy.
• Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master rested through the night and healed their injuries on the snowy summit.
• Lian Youming brought down a scouting eagle with an Invisible Arrow, alerting the martial artists climbing the mountain.
• The White Lotus Sect Master hurled Flying Locust Stones while Lian Youming distracted two climbers with his arrow technique, killing both men as the White Bone Daoist sensed Lian Youming from below.

Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master fought off their pursuers, but she turned on him before hiding him in the snow and facing the remaining nine alone. After swallowing two pills, she used her Sound Strike to freeze the attackers, and they realized she was using them to attain mystic connection.

• Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master killed five pursuers from above before retreating into the snow as the others advanced.
• The White Lotus Sect Master attacked Lian Youming, then used a Sound Strike and the Spirit-Beating Whip to immobilize him and hide him beneath the snow.
• The White Lotus Sect Master left misleading footprints toward the northwest cliff and waited for Mangus and eight others to arrive.
• The pursuers found the White Lotus Sect Master alone and moved to subdue her, hoping to seize the White Lotus Sect's remaining reserves.
• The White Lotus Sect Master swallowed two pills and cried, "Freeze!", causing four attackers to fall as the others realized she was trying to attain mystic connection.

The White Lotus Sect Master used drugs to boost her strength and fought off nine powerful pursuers, but their attacks eventually wounded her. As Lian Youming appeared to catch her, he threatened to throw away the thumb ring and ring unless the others stopped.

• The White Lotus Sect Master faced nine pursuers and used her heightened mental power to evade and counter the first four attackers.
• Mangus and four other experts joined the fight, and the White Lotus Sect Master caught and hurled a boulder, then shattered a swordswoman’s blades.
• The pursuers landed several blows on the White Lotus Sect Master, who used Heavenly Dipper Strength to break free and kill two attackers before a Meteor Hammer struck her chest.
• Lian Youming recovered and caught the wounded White Lotus Sect Master as Mangus urged the others to finish her.
• Lian Youming removed the thumb ring and ring and threatened to throw them away unless the pursuers called off the fight.

Lian Youming held off the martial artists seeking the Three Teachings Token while protecting the White Lotus Sect Master. When he called for the person whose approval he needed, White Bone Daoist appeared and declared that he would not let them take the token.

• Lian Youming stopped the White Lotus Sect Master from continuing to fight and used the token to keep the surviving attackers at bay.
• Ma Qianqiu introduced himself and revealed that the man named Ma Fei, whom Lian Youming had killed, was his younger brother, but he showed no desire for revenge.
• Four more hostile martial artists arrived, and Lian Youming threw a pebble to trick them into thinking he had cast away the Three Teachings Token.
• Lian Youming called for the person he needed to consult, and White Bone Daoist appeared beside the broken stele.
• White Bone Daoist identified himself as a Five Elders of the Mountain Guardians member and refused to give the Three Teachings Token to the attackers.

White Bone Daoist revealed his obsessive pursuit of immortality and changed his mind about killing Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master, instead protecting them from Ma Qianqiu’s group. As the battle continued, Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master found their minds and movements linked, leaving their remaining attackers struggling to keep up.

• The White Lotus Sect Master explained that Gan Fengchi had sought immortality and betrayed his era, while White Bone Daoist said he was obsessive rather than delusional.
• White Bone Daoist announced that he wanted Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master alive, prompting Ma Qianqiu and the others to attack him.
• White Bone Daoist evaded the attackers with Daoist footwork and killed the One-Eyed Woman and another man with the metal threads of his fly whisk.
• Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master stood back-to-back against Mangus and three others, then began sensing each other's thoughts and movements.
• The pair fought in seamless coordination, and Lian Youming killed one attacker with Taiji Hammer, leaving the remaining three horrified.

Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master formed an unexpected spiritual union that let them share perceptions and coordinate their techniques against Mangus and his fighters. They killed the attackers, but Lian Youming collapsed from his injuries as White Bone Daoist caught him.

• Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master discovered that their spirits and qi had joined in a Daoist dual-cultivation state, allowing them to share thoughts and perceptions.
• Mangus called in two more fighters, and Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master used their spiritual connection to coordinate their defense against five opponents.
• Lian Youming endured the attackers’ combined strikes and redirected their force while the White Lotus Sect Master used the Witnessing Art to kill three of the fighters.
• Lian Youming struck the bald fighter dead with a Taiji Hammer and pursued Mangus, while Mangus fled down the mountain.
• Lian Youming saw White Bone Daoist standing in the bloodied snow, then collapsed into the White Lotus Sect Master's supporting arms.

After White Bone Daoist spared Lian Youming, he revealed that he wanted Lian Youming to survive and grow stronger so a hidden truth could be verified. Stranded on the snowy summit with the injured White Lotus Sect Master, Lian Youming used their shared spirit and qi to help them endure until dusk.

• Lian Youming questioned White Bone Daoist about his intentions, and the Daoist explained that Du Xinwu had died attempting to break through to Mystic Connection while Wang Yaqiao had fallen in battle against assassins.
• White Bone Daoist said he had noticed the secret Gan Danran discovered and wanted to use Lian Youming to verify the truth, then warned him that the still-missing One-Eyed Elder had attained Mystic Connection and was likely at full strength.
• White Bone Daoist swept away the corpses, took Ma Qianqiu, and left Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master stranded on the summit.
• When the White Lotus Sect Master murmured that he was cold, Lian Youming put on the Twenty-One-Eye Dzi Bead and joined palms with him to regulate their internal qi.
• Lian Youming and the White Lotus Sect Master shared their spirit and qi until dusk, preserving their strength as snow covered them.

Lian Youming escaped the frozen mountains carrying the White Lotus Sect Master, then encountered Gu Yutong and the White Lotus Sect's reinforcements. After the Sect Master revealed that she had feigned unconsciousness, Gu Yutong reported that Daoist Xuanming, Xuanling Perfected Person, and the Mystic Connection Old Monster appeared to have perished together in the north.

• Lian Youming descended the mountain with the unconscious White Lotus Sect Master on his back and ran until he reached a river.
• A pack of wolves surrounded Lian Youming, but Gu Yutong arrived with eighteen other Foresight Martial Artists, and the wolves stepped aside.
• Gu Yutong took the White Lotus Sect Master away, while Lian Youming left to protect the Two Teachings Token.
• The White Lotus Sect Master revealed that she had only pretended to be unconscious and said she had sensed the Mystic Connection Old Monster during the battle.
• Gu Yutong reported that Daoist Xuanming and Xuanling Perfected Person had fought the Mystic Connection Old Monster on the grassland and apparently all perished together.
• The White Lotus Sect Master asked Gu Yutong to return with her.

Lian Youming reunited with Sangji, who fed him, blessed his Dzi Bead, and warned that his tribulation was not over. After discussing Divine Knowledge and the White Lotus Sect Master, Sangji promised to take him to the battlefield where Gan Danran had fought years ago.

• Exhausted and injured, Lian Youming met Sangji again when the monk arrived in an ox cart and shared dried meat with him.
• Sangji explained that he had helped a young Heaven-Bestowed Singer awaken after she suffered a high fever.
• Sangji blessed Lian Youming's Dzi Bead and warned that darkness still lingered around him, while Lian Youming sensed the extensive damage to his body.
• Sangji told Lian Youming that Divine Knowledge could reveal memories and cause and effect, then cautioned him against becoming attached to visions of past lives.
• Sangji discussed the White Lotus Sect Master's feelings for Lian Youming and said their connection might lead to further conflict.
• After Lian Youming ate with the herders, Sangji announced that he would take him to the battlefield where Gan Danran had fought someone years earlier.