Chapter Summaries

Song Yan took Xiao He to Falling Blossoms Eatery, where they shared a meal with Xiao Yu, a young woman disguised as a male scholar who claimed her Heaven and Earth Bag had been stolen. After the meal, they listened to a storyteller begin speaking about Painting Sage Wu Daoxuan.

• Song Yan estimated that fewer than fifty cultivators would attend Wu Daoxuan's Painting Refinement, then took Xiao He to eat at Falling Blossoms Eatery.
• Xiao He ordered the eatery's signature dishes, and she and Song Yan began enjoying the spirit cuisine.
• Xiao Yu discovered she could not find her Heaven and Earth Bag and told the waiter that it had been stolen, leaving her unable to pay.
• Song Yan recognized that Xiao Yu was a woman in disguise, and Xiao He invited her to eat the leftover Osmanthus Fish in exchange for repaying them later.
• After Xiao Yu ate and thanked them, Song Yan and Xiao He listened as a storyteller downstairs introduced Wu Daoxuan as the sole Painting Sage in history.

Song Yan learned that a mysterious sect might be behind a theft in the Tang Court and worried its members could be operating near Fufeng. At the Realm Gathering, he offered Boqi a Battle Art Jade Fang Zhang in exchange for information, including how to guard against the Heaven-Stealing Sect.

• A storyteller recounted how Wu Daoxuan’s friend performed a sword-controlling dance that inspired the Painting Sage to create the mural “Averting Calamities and Transforming Misfortune.”
• Song Yan left the eatery, and Xiao Yu realized how close she had come to losing her Ink Jade and decided she should travel with her father and the others.
• Song Yan spent the New Year with Xiao He, who made a wish that they would stay together and reunite if they ever parted.
• Lin Qing discussed his hopes for the Painting Refinement, and Song Yan joined the Realm Gathering, where he heard that a spiritual object had been stolen from the Marquis of Zhenyuan’s Great General’s Residence.
• The attendees suspected the Heaven-Stealing Sect, whose members could bypass protections and sever cultivators’ connections to their possessions, and Song Yan feared one might be in Fufeng.
• Song Yan asked Boqi to stay and offered him a Battle Art Jade Fang Zhang in exchange for ancient-sword leads or information on protecting against the Heaven-Stealing Sect.

Song Yan traded with Boqi for information about the Heaven-Stealing Sect and a distant lead on an ancient sword before attending the opening of the Daoist Heir's Former Residence with Lin Qing. The residence was revealed, and a Heaven's Deputy Office officer escorted a protesting woman away as the cultivators prepared to enter.

• Song Yan and Boqi agreed to exchange the Jade Fang Zhang for information, then arranged to meet at the Falling Blossoms Eatery in Maoling Market Ward.
• At the eatery, Song Yan handed Boqi the Jade Fang Zhang, and Boqi added a rumor about a Ghost-Slaying Sword near Ghost Mountain in Yuzhou.
• Void Aspect left the eatery after buying grilled Wave Frogs to take away for Xiao He.
• Wu Xingzhi led a ceremony at Heavenly Pavilion and opened the concealed entrance to the Daoist Heir's Former Residence.
• Song Yan and Lin Qing saw a Heaven's Deputy Office officer escort a protesting female cultivator from the procession as the gathered cultivators focused on entering the residence.

Song Yan and the other cultivators entered Wu Daoxuan’s former residence, where his Dao Child Ink Spirit sealed everyone’s cultivation and began a seven-day Painting Refinement. Song Yan discovered he had an Ink Jade and, while choosing a painting to enter, found a figure painting that resembled the courtyard and showed an indistinct, faceless companion beside the ink spirit’s likeness.

• Wu Xingzhi led the cultivators into the secluded valley and explained that the Painting Refinement judged painting skill, knowledge, and sincerity.
• Wu Daoxuan’s Dao Child Ink Spirit appeared, sealed the cultivation of every cultivator present, and revealed that Song Yan also possessed an Ink Jade.
• The ink spirit displayed seven unfinished paintings and instructed each Ink Jade holder to enter one, complete it within seven days, and compete for access to the treasured collection.
• Cultivators began entering the painted realms, while Song Yan tucked the sleeping Xiao He into his sleeve and examined the paintings.
• Song Yan rejected several scenes and paused at a figure painting of a familiar courtyard, where a figure resembling Wu Daoxuan painted beside a faceless companion.

Song Yan discovered clues linking the figure painting to Cloud Abyss Sword Bamboo and entered it to investigate. Meanwhile, in Fufeng Commandery, Cui Mi and the Heaven's Deputy Office tried to make the captured Wu Mengliu demonstrate the Heaven-Stealing Sect's techniques.

• Zhong Ali explained that cultivators avoided the figure painting because its subject was likely a powerful friend of Wu Daoxuan, making it difficult and risky to portray him.
• Song Yan noticed clues in the figure painting that resembled the unusual phenomena around Cloud Abyss Sword Bamboo and suspected it depicted the flying-sword cultivator from a story about Wu Daoxuan's friend.
• Song Yan chose the figure painting and vanished into its realm, prompting the Dao Child Ink Spirit to glance at where he had stood.
• In Fufeng Commandery, Cui Mi questioned the captured Heaven-Stealing Sect disciple Wu Mengliu, who recalled that her attempt to steal a black-and-white Sword Case had left her disoriented and exposed her identity.
• Cui Mi and the Heaven's Deputy Office guards formed a formation and ordered Wu Mengliu to steal something from him so they could study her sect's methods.

Wu Mengliu tricked Cui Mi and the Heaven's Deputy Office guards, escaped with a Spirit-Binding Jade, and returned in disguise to pursue a treasure connected to Song Yan. Meanwhile, Song Yan entered a painting and overheard Wu Daoxuan speaking with a mysterious sword cultivator, whose story revealed a connection to the Sword Sect.

• Cui Mi loosened one restraint on Wu Mengliu and ordered her to steal the Divine Capital guard token from his Heaven and Earth Bag.
• Wu Mengliu stole the Spirit-Binding Jade from a guard instead, escaped the prison, and left behind a scroll reading “Sleight of hand.”
• Wu Mengliu knocked out two guards, disguised herself as one, and left Heaven's Deputy Office while planning to steal the treasure associated with Song Yan.
• Song Yan arrived in a painted mountain dwelling and listened as Wu Daoxuan spoke with a mysterious gray-robed man about his mother and his early Sword Dao training.
• The gray-robed man described how his mother forged him a sword when he joined the Sword Sect, startling Song Yan.

Song Yan witnessed a senior Sword Cultivator leave his mother's Flying Sword, Jin Returner, with Wu Daoxuan before departing, and Wu Daoxuan abandoned his unfinished portrait. Song Yan found the Cloud Abyss Sword Bamboo and Jin Returner in the Painting Realm, discovered they were ink illusions, but gathered eleven real clusters of Bamboo Rice.

• The senior Sword Cultivator demonstrated his sword control, and Wu Daoxuan painted a flowing sword shadow inspired by it.
• The senior named his mother's sword Jin Returner and left it with Wu Daoxuan before departing from Great Tang.
• Wu Daoxuan could not finish the portrait, and he vanished, leaving Song Yan alone in the Painting Realm.
• Song Yan found a grove of Cloud Abyss Sword Bamboo and Jin Returner, but both dissolved into ink when he touched them.
• Song Yan discovered real Bamboo Rice among the illusory bamboo and collected eleven clusters.

Song Yan explored Wu Daoxuan’s painting realm, gathered spirit bamboo seeds, and let Xiao He paint a vivid portrait of him before leaving. Meanwhile, Zhong Ali completed a painting in the Ghost Domain that matched a figure from her childhood dreams, though she still did not understand the connection.

• Song Yan and Xiao He explored the painting realm and discovered that its bamboo seeds were real while its landscape was only illusion.
• Xiao He painted a lifelike portrait of Song Yan, and Song Yan decided not to risk painting one himself.
• Song Yan left the painting realm and waited at the Daoist Heir’s Former Residence for the other cultivators to finish.
• Zhong Ali recognized the ghosts and tiger in the Ghost Domain as figures from a recurring childhood dream and recalled the strange man who had protected her.
• Zhong Ali finished the painting in one stroke and left the Ghost Domain with it.

Dao Child Ink Spirit judged the paintings from the Painting Refinement and praised Zhong Ali’s ghostly-divinity painting with Grade A Mid, while Xiao He’s portrait earned Grade B High. When Mo Ling noticed the Sword Sect seal on Song Yan’s painting, he stopped before returning it, leaving Song Yan’s work under renewed scrutiny.

• Dao Child Ink Spirit restored the cultivators’ cultivation, invited them to sign and seal their paintings, and began judging their work.
• Dao Child Ink Spirit awarded Jiang Yunzhi’s meticulous painting Grade A Low and Zhong Ali’s ghostly-divinity painting Grade A Mid, revealing that Zhong Ali was a Luofu Sect inheritor.
• Lin Qing’s landscape received Grade B High, and Xiao He’s portrait of Song Yan also received Grade B High for its vivid spiritual resonance despite its simple technique.
• Dao Child Ink Spirit noticed the Sword Sect seal on Song Yan’s painting and drew it back instead of returning it.

The Painting Refinement ended with Zhong Ali taking first place and receiving Wu Daoxuan’s painting and brush rack, while Song Yan was summoned and given the Sword Sect Flying Sword Jin Returner. Wu Daoxuan revealed that the last Sword Sect sect master was named Zhong Min before fading into a painted page that the Wu Clan brought home.

• The Dao Child Ink Spirit recognized the Sword Sect Jade Seal on Song Yan’s painting and learned that Xiao He had painted it.
• The Ink Spirit declared Zhong Ali the Painting Refinement’s winner, then summoned both her and Song Yan into the courtyard.
• The Ink Spirit gave Zhong Ali his Scroll of the Eighty-Seven Immortals and the Law Treasure brush rack Autumn Sound, Candle Shadow.
• The Ink Spirit led Song Yan to Jin Returner and granted him the Flying Sword, then told him about a sword-nurturing valley near Xiangyang and paintings left there.
• The Ink Spirit told Song Yan that the last Sword Sect sect master was Zhong Min, then warned him that learning more could invite disaster.
• The Ink Spirit faded into a painted page, which Wu Xingzhi placed in the Wu Clan’s ancestral painting album.

Song Yan and Lin Qing returned from the Central Region, where Song Yan had gained the Wu Clan’s goodwill before coming home to plant Cloud Abyss Sword Bamboo. Once he discovered that someone from the Heaven-Stealing Sect had stolen Xiao He’s portrait of him from his Heaven and Earth Bag, his anger turned to killing intent.

• The Wu Clan invited Zhong Ali and Song Yan to visit its painting garden; Zhong Ali accepted, while Song Yan declined the visit and accepted a Jade Talisman from Wu Yuqian.
• Song Yan left the valley with Lin Qing, returned to Maoling Market Ward, and departed for the Chu Kingdom after deciding not to stay for an auction.
• A month later, Song Yan and Lin Qing returned through the teleportation formation, then parted at the Hu River.
• Song Yan bought Hundred-Herb Soil from Liang Feng, returned to his sect cave abode, and planted a grain of Bamboo Rice in the courtyard.
• Song Yan searched his Heaven and Earth Bag for Xiao He’s portrait and realized it had been stolen; he suspected the Heaven-Stealing Sect and resolved that the theft would not go unanswered.

After discovering that someone had stolen his painting, Song Yan marked its lingering presence and refined the mid-grade Spirit Artifact Jin Returner. The sword revealed a memory of Zhong Yan’s early life, ending with Ye Chen offering to take him as a disciple in the Sword Sect.

• Song Yan placed a trace of the painting’s presence into the Mysterious Calamity Spirit-Worshipping Veil and resolved to seek the thief in the Central Region.
• Song Yan spent twelve double-hours refining Jin Returner and then entered the Two-Pole Realm, where the sword’s Yin-Yang Qi formed a woman who showed him Zhong Yan’s memories.
• Jiang Youxuan left Lotus Mountain with Zhong Yan to pursue his wish of becoming a Sword Cultivator, and she later told him how his father, Zhong Yuxing, had died fighting Demon Ruins Cultivators.
• Jiang Youxuan and Zhong Yan searched for a sword sect, settled in a secluded valley near Xiangyang, and waited for the Still Void Sword Sect’s recruitment.
• Zhong Yan failed the Still Void Sword Sect’s entrance examination because of his Four Spiritual Roots, but Jiang Youxuan encouraged him to seek another sect.
• Ye Chen appeared in the valley, introduced himself as the Sword Sect Master, and offered to make Zhong Yan his disciple.

Song Yan witnessed Zhong Yan's memories of his early days in the Sword Sect, his mother's death, and the sword display he performed in mourning. The vision inspired Song Yan to refine his own Sword Formation techniques, and he successfully merged two formations.

• Zhong Yan befriended fellow new disciples Pei Bu'er and Mirage in the Sword Sect's outer quarters.
• A thousand years later, Zhong Yan cared for his mother, Jiang Youxuan, and she urged him to avenge the deaths of Si Xiangqing, Dongcheng, and Su Yuan by killing the immortals.
• After Jiang Youxuan died, Zhong Yan summoned countless swords at the Heavenly Palace Temple and formed the Zhou Tian Xingchen Sword Formation before sending the gathered cultivators away.
• Song Yan gained insight from Zhong Yan's sword display, strengthening his slaughtering sword intent and grasp of merging Sword Formations.
• Song Yan practiced until two Sword Formations overlapped and merged into one.

After cultivating cloud abyss sword bamboo for a year and a half, Song Yan harvested its leaves and refined ten Sword-Nurturing Pills. Taking a high-grade pill in the Spirit-Absorbing Sword Formation pushed him into the middle Foundation Establishment stage and close to the late stage, but he chose to wait before taking another.

• Song Yan watched the cloud abyss sword bamboo grow past a thousand years old and harvested its sharp leaves with the Unmoored Boat.
• Song Yan refined thirty-six batches of Sword-Nurturing Pills over a month, producing ten pills, including three high-grade ones.
• Song Yan used the Spirit-Absorbing Sword Formation and took a high-grade Sword-Nurturing Pill during his morning cultivation.
• The pill strengthened Song Yan's body and propelled his cultivation into the middle Foundation Establishment stage, bringing him close to the late stage.
• Song Yan considered taking a second pill immediately, then decided to let his cultivation stabilize and avoid risking his foundation.

On Daoyuan Mountain, Shanhai and the purple-robed master of the Pill Sect discussed Chen Linyuan’s failing fortunes and the coming end of the old mortal age. The old man revealed that he had hidden Zhong Min’s instructions from his grandson, refusing to burden him with saving the world.

• Shanhai said Chen Linyuan’s collapsed Dao heart and fading sword intent made his death seem inevitable.
• The purple-robed old man argued that Chen Linyuan’s death could usher in a new age, and Shanhai said Ancestor Zheng’s fortunes would fall to the Chu Kingdom, the Dongyuan Sect, and Zheng’s disciples and successors.
• Shanhai asked about the purple-robed old man’s grandson, and the old man said the young man was doing well and had visited the Central Region.
• The purple-robed old man explained that Zhong Min’s legacy had been meant for Chen Linyuan and that his grandson had only received it because Chen Linyuan’s fortunes had run dry.
• The purple-robed old man admitted he had never told his grandson to gather spiritual sources, refine Yin-Yang Qi, or cultivate three sword intents, because he would not force the burden of saving the mortal world onto him.

Shanhai warned Wen Changming that the mortal world's old age was ending and a new age was approaching. After Xiao He reached the second tier, she prepared to leave with Bai Qi for Between Mountains and Seas, while Song Yan tried to ease her fears about their separation.

• Shanhai told Wen Changming that the fortune of the mortal world's old age was nearly exhausted and urged the Taiyi Sect to prepare for the coming age.
• At the Nuo Realm gathering, Song Yan heard reports of strange phenomena, including a dragon-shaped yao emerging from the Silent Dragon Abyss.
• Song Yan learned that Xiao He had reached the second tier and would leave with Bai Qi to seek Between Mountains and Seas.
• Bai Qi told Song Yan that Demon Cultivators of Shangtong Mountain had found a clue to Between Mountains and Seas and that preparations were complete.
• As Song Yan packed Xiao He's belongings, he reassured her that she could become powerful enough to visit him whenever she wished.

Song Yan parted from Xiao He as she left with Bai Qi for Between Mountains and Seas, while Wu Xusheng said farewell to the withdrawn Chen Linyuan. A year later, Song Yan tested the Six Void Heaven-Falling Sword Finger and destroyed a Foundation Establishment Realm puppet.

• Song Yan took Xiao He to the Yanran Mountain Range, where she gave him a clay figure of himself and promised they would reunite after becoming powerful.
• Bai Qi and another female yao carried Xiao He northwest toward Between Mountains and Seas, and Xiao He said she trusted Song Yan to become famous so they could live together for thousands of years.
• Song Yan returned to his cave abode, reflected on Xiao He's growth, and resolved to become a great cultivator before entering the Cultivation Room.
• Wu Xusheng told Chen Linyuan he had found news of his grandson and was leaving; Chen Linyuan wished him well but remained indifferent after he departed.
• One year later, Song Yan used the Six Void Heaven-Falling Sword Finger to pursue and destroy a Foundation Establishment Realm puppet.

Song Yan tested the Shaochong Sword and discovered that Xiao Ju’s Sword Intent let her resist techniques that restrained her. Xiao Ju then delivered a message from Li Yi about a gathering hosted by the Nangong Household at Immortal-Descending Pass.

• Song Yan used the Shaochong Sword to destroy a Foundation Establishment puppet, then replenished the Sword Qi it had drained from him.
• Xiao Ju visited Song Yan and told him she had reached the ninth layer of Qi Refining and was preparing for Foundation Establishment.
• Song Yan sparred with Xiao Ju and discovered her Sword Intent let her move and control her sword within his Howling Sun Sword Formation, resisting its controlling effects.
• Song Yan explained his findings about Xiao Ju’s Sword Intent and encouraged her to keep developing it.
• Xiao Ju gave Song Yan a Communication Talisman from Li Yi and said the Nangong Household would hold a grand gathering at Immortal-Descending Pass.

Qin Feiyu arranged for Shi Yunhao to hear about the River and Sky Night Banquet and its Spirit Transformation Realm Sword Qi, hoping to use him against the Nangong Aristocratic Clan. Shi Yunhao saw through the scheme but considered attending for entertainment, while Li Yi and the Nangong sisters discussed his expected fellow disciple, Song Yan.

• Qin Feiyu and the Qin elders decided to invite Shi Yunhao to the River and Sky Night Banquet to disrupt the Nangong Aristocratic Clan’s plans.
• Qin Sheng told Shi Yunhao that the banquet offered a chance to study Spirit Transformation Realm Sword Qi, and Shi Yunhao recognized Qin Feiyu’s scheme but considered playing along.
• Nangong Wang watched Li Yi practice martial arts while Nangong Shu teased her about her admiration for him.
• Li Yi told the Nangong sisters that he was waiting for his fellow disciple, who would come for the chance to study the Sword Qi.
• Nangong Shu guessed that Li Yi meant Song Yan, and Li Yi confirmed it.

Song Yan arrived at the Nangong estate for the River and Sky Night Banquet, where he reunited with Li Yi and unexpectedly met Nangong Shu, whom he had encountered in the Central Region. He examined a strange pill linked to the Qin Lineage and suspected it was a Spirit Pill that could improve cultivation aptitude, then agreed to consult his master after the banquet; meanwhile, Nangong Ming considered how the Nangong clan should deal with Song Yan’s arrival.

• Li Yi told Nangong Wang and Nangong Shu that Song Yan was coming, then went with them to meet him outside the Nangong estate.
• Song Yan arrived, and Nangong Shu recognized him as the kind cultivator who had once let her eat for free in Fufeng Commandery.
• Song Yan declined a separate guest residence and stayed with Li Yi in Listening to the Waves Valley.
• Li Yi showed Song Yan an eerie pill recovered from a cultivator he had killed, and Song Yan suspected it was the Spirit Pill Qin Xijun had once described.
• Song Yan decided to take the pill back to the sect after the banquet and show it to Qin Xijun.
• Nangong Ming instructed his daughters to host Song Yan sincerely but without excessive formality, then worried that one wrong decision could bring ruin to the Nangong lineage.