Chapter Summaries

At Silent Valley, Wang Xi agreed to kill the Dongyuan Sect and Spirit Talisman Sect disciples under orders from Shen Yu, while Song Yan arrived with the Dongyuan party and studied ancient sword cultivators. After reading about Sword Intent and Life-Bound Flying Swords, Song Yan shaped his Sword Dao True Essence at his fingertips and realized its strike could be deadly.

• Wang Xi accepted Shen Yu's order to silently kill the visiting sect disciples, including any others he encountered.
• Song Yan arrived at Silent Valley with Lu Ziye and met fellow Dongyuan disciples Shao Sichao and Gu Qingqing.
• Elders Xu Ziqing, Zou, and Shen Yu exchanged greetings as the three sects settled into their lodgings.
• Song Yan read the Complete Record of Immortal Dao Scenery and learned how ancient sword cultivators pursued a single Life-Bound Flying Sword.
• Song Yan drew his Sword Dao True Essence to his fingertips, then dispersed it when the forming Sword Essence caused pain.

Lu Ziye took Song Yan and the other Dongyuan Sect disciples to investigate unusual spiritual fluctuations around Silent Valley, where they found a Crucian Qiu and battled it and its lesser demons near Hidden Moon Pool. As the fight continued, Wan Songran grew suspicious of Wang Xi and the Xuanyuan Sect and prepared a red-and-black flute.

• Lu Ziye explained the possible causes of the spirit valley’s fluctuations and led Song Yan, Gu Qingqing, and the others to explore Spirit Demon Plain.
• A Sound Transmission Talisman reported a late first-tier demon beast near Hidden Moon Pool, so Lu Ziye brought the Dongyuan Sect disciples to investigate.
• Wan Songran identified the demon as a Crucian Qiu, and Xuanyuan Sect disciples began setting up a formation around the pool.
• The Crucian Qiu and more than a dozen lesser demons emerged, and Lu Ziye, Wang Xi, and Chai Yanghui confronted the fish demon while Song Yan joined the fight against the lesser demons.
• Wan Songran retreated into the woods, observed Wang Xi’s unusual lack of action, suspected something was wrong with the Xuanyuan Sect, and took out a red-and-black flute.

The Xuanyuan Sect disciples trapped and killed the fish demon, after which Wang Xi and Shen Huai discussed a plan to sacrifice disciples from the Spirit Talisman Sect and Dongyuan Sect in an emerging secret realm. Wan Songran overheard their plot, but before he could return to Silent Valley, a spatial rift opened above Hidden Moon Pool.

• The Xuanyuan Sect disciples used the Spirit-Congealing Form-Locking Formation to restrain the fish demon, and Wang Xi crushed it beneath a conjured mountain.
• Chai Yanghui tended the injured Spirit Talisman Sect disciples while Wang Xi ordered everyone to rest before returning to Silent Valley.
• Shen Huai told Wang Xi that the joint mission was also being used to gather information about rival sect disciples ahead of the Dragon Pool Mountain Nine Veins Grand Competition.
• Wang Xi and Shen Huai planned to kill selected Spirit Talisman Sect and Dongyuan Sect disciples inside the secret realm and claim they had attacked him.
• Wan Songran overheard their conversation and tried to leave for Silent Valley, but Chai Yanghui told him to wait for the others.
• A spatial rift opened above Hidden Moon Pool, and Chai Yanghui and Lu Ziye ordered all disciples to return to Silent Valley immediately.

A secret realm opened at Hidden Moon Pool and swept Song Yan and several cultivators inside. Injured and stranded in the Cloud Forest Secret Realm, Song Yan received a warning that the realm would last only an hour and that someone was hunting him and the sender.

• Chai Yanghui tried to protect the cultivators as the secret realm emerged, but its spatial pull swept several people inside, including Wang Xi.
• Song Yan found himself in the Cloud Forest Secret Realm with an injured shoulder and treated himself with pills from his Heaven and Earth Bag.
• Song Yan reasoned that the secret realm was an unpredictable, ownerless realm and climbed a giant tree to look for an exit.
• An unfamiliar Sound Transmission Talisman reached Song Yan and warned him that the secret realm would last one hour, contained low-rank Demon Beasts, and was controlled by someone hunting them both.

Wan Songran revealed that his Glutton Tail Immortal Flute could briefly influence Demon Beasts and invited Song Yan to join him against Wang Xi. As Wang Xi approached the secret realm’s exit, Wan Songran insisted that they had to kill him to survive.

• Wan Songran reflected on the declining Wan Lineage and planned to use the Ancient Flute to restore its fortunes.
• Wan Songran played the flute to distract the Night Wind Wolf king and Fire-Pattern Fox as they fought, intending to claim their cores and corpses.
• Song Yan detected Wan Songran and tested the flute’s effect on Xiao He, who said it only made her a little sleepy.
• Wan Songran summoned Song Yan and explained that Wang Xi of the Xuanyuan Sect intended to kill them for their possessions.
• Wan Songran said Wang Xi was nearing their location and could use his Jade Pendant to find the secret realm’s exit, so they had to kill him to survive.

Song Yan and Wan Songran lured Wang Xi into the marsh and fought him with the help of talismans and a summoned demon beast. As Wan Songran’s Yi Wood Spirit-Severing Talisman disrupted Wang Xi’s technique, Song Yan channeled heavenly thunder into his flying sword for a decisive strike.

• Wan Songran gave Song Yan a Demon Beast Core, then led him to the marsh to wait for Wang Xi.
• Wang Xi arrived after killing a Spirit Talisman Sect disciple and attacked Song Yan and Wan Songran with the Mountain-Subduing Seal.
• Song Yan and Wan Songran fought back with flying sword attacks, vines, fire, and a Hard-Shelled Giant Crab, but Wang Xi’s Earth-Crumbling Mountain-Shaking Incantation overwhelmed them.
• Wan Songran activated a half Remnant Talisman, revealing it as a Yi Wood Spirit-Severing Talisman that disrupted Wang Xi’s earth spiritual power and trapped him behind the crab.
• Song Yan summoned thunderclouds with three Pale Talismans and used the Heavenly Thunderfall Sword Stance, channeling a second bolt of heavenly thunder into his flying sword.

Song Yan defeated Wang Xi and Wan Songran but was left gravely wounded after using Sword Dao True Essence. He gathered their belongings and headed for the secret realm exit, while Shao Sichao recovered the Mountain-Suppressing Seal from the marsh.

• Wang Xi used three blood-red talismans to summon phantom mountains, and Song Yan shattered his flying sword to destroy them before the remaining broken blades killed Wang Xi.
• Wan Songran attacked the exhausted Song Yan with jade-eyed falcons and planned to frame him for Wang Xi’s death.
• Xiao He shielded Song Yan from the falcons, and Song Yan killed Wan Songran with a wisp of Sword Dao True Essence.
• Song Yan took the contents of Wang Xi’s and Wan Songran’s Heaven and Earth Bags, followed Wang Xi’s jade pendant toward the secret realm exit, and left the battlefield.
• Shao Sichao emerged from the woods, found the Mountain-Suppressing Seal in the marsh, and retrieved it.

Dongyuan Sect and the other sects investigated the disciples lost in the secret realm while Song Yan hid in a mountain cave to recover. Realizing the Xuanyuan Sect would likely frame him, Song Yan decided to stake everything on advancing his Sword-Planting Technique.

• Zhang Guangyuan sent Lu Ziye and Qin Ying to Silent Valley and ordered the sect to monitor Song Yan and Shao Sichao’s life lamps.
• Shen Huai reported that Wang Xi’s life lamp had gone out, and Xu Ziqing noticed Shen Yu’s reaction seemed genuine.
• Song Yan found a secluded cave, summoned Xiao He to guard its entrance, and began recovering from his injuries.
• Song Yan reflected that the Xuanyuan Sect would likely accuse him after Wang Xi and Wan Songran died, and resolved to risk everything by studying the Sword-Planting Technique.

Song Yan destroyed his spiritual roots and created the Sword Mansion of the Dao-Subduing, successfully planting a golden sword Dao seed. After recovering enough to cultivate again, he left the remote mountains with Xiao He, whose grass-cord creations recorded her days waiting for him.

• Song Yan severed his three spiritual roots and used the remaining spiritual power to create the Sword Mansion of the Dao-Subduing in his Dantian.
• Song Yan fed spiritual power into a golden shell until it formed a lotus-shaped sword Dao seed, completing Opening the Mansion, Planting the Sword.
• While Song Yan was in seclusion, Xiao He wove a grass cord each day to remember what had happened and waited outside his cave abode.
• Song Yan emerged, reassured Xiao He that his injuries had mostly healed, and learned she had woven 542 grass cords on Little Solitary Mountain.
• Song Yan spent five days cultivating back to Qi Refining, First Layer, then left the remote mountains with Xiao He.

After dispersing his cultivation, Song Yan traveled north through Qi Province toward his sect and accepted a ride with a carriage convoy bound for Fufeng City. He learned that the passengers were children from Nanhong City, traveling to Jiangyun Prefecture for business.

• Song Yan rested at a teahouse, where he overheard that the magistrate’s daughter had been chosen by an immortal to study the Immortal Method.
• Song Yan left the main road and asked a passing convoy for a ride toward Feng'an Prefecture.
• Xie Xing initially refused to take Song Yan aboard because he feared a trap, but Xie Chuan climbed down and persuaded him to let Song Yan ride as far as Fufeng City.
• Song Yan learned that the children were from Nanhong City and were traveling to Jiangyun Prefecture, with business to attend to in Fufeng City.

Song Yan traveled with Xie Xing’s family toward Fufeng City, where assassins ambushed them after learning that Xie Chuan had a spiritual root. Song Yan used a flying sword to save Xie Xing and stopped the attackers, then claimed Xie Xing was an old acquaintance and ordered the dispute postponed.

• Song Yan examined Xie Chan’s clay figurine and heard Xie Xing explain that rumors claimed it contained a peerless sword art, though he had never found one.
• As the convoy entered a forest near Fufeng City, Xie Xing sensed an ambush and ordered the children to stay inside the carriage.
• Masked attackers revealed that they had been hired to kill Xie Chuan because he had a spiritual root, and Xie Xing suspected the South Chu Qin Household was behind the attack.
• Xie Xing fought the attackers but was disarmed while trying to protect the children, and one assailant moved to attack the carriage.
• Song Yan sent his flying sword to deflect the leader’s strike and pin the assailant’s hand to the ground, revealing himself as an immortal.
• Song Yan announced that Xie Xing was his old acquaintance and told the attackers to bring their grudges up another day.

Song Yan protected the Xie family from assassins, accepted Xie Chan’s clay figurine, and parted ways with them in Fufeng City before returning to Dongyuan Sect. There, elders questioned whether he could really have killed Wang Xi, and a disciple announced his return.

• Song Yan drove off the black-clad assassins and used spiritual power to ease Xie Xing’s injuries.
• Song Yan asked about Xie Chuan’s spiritual root and learned that the Xie family had not tested the other children.
• At Ning'an Inn, Xie Chan gave Song Yan her clay figurine, and Xie Xing confessed that the story about a hidden sword art was made up.
• Song Yan accepted the figurine, urged Xie Chuan to cultivate diligently, and told Xie Xing to have the other children tested for spiritual roots.
• At Dongyuan Sect, the elders speculated that Song Yesheng was either unusually gifted or possessed by a devil cultivator.
• A disciple reported to Qin Xijun and the elders that Song Yesheng had returned.

Song Yan recounted a carefully altered version of the secret realm deaths to Dongyuan Sect's elders, concealing his secrets and claiming he had lost his cultivation. When Xuanyuan Sect elders arrived to accuse him and demand his Heaven and Earth Bag, Xu Ziqing defended him as Shen Yu unleashed his spiritual pressure.

• Song Yan told the Dongyuan Sect elders that he and Wan Songran had killed Wang Xi, while concealing the Glutton Tail Flute and sword Dao seed and claiming his cultivation had fallen to Qi Refining first layer.
• Xu Ziqing vouched for Song Yan's strong Divine Sense and alchemy ability before Xuanyuan Sect's Shen Yu, Zheng Xinzhi, and Chang Ziyi arrived to demand an explanation for Wang Xi's death.
• Shen Yu accused Song Yan of following Wang Xi and demanded that he hand over his Heaven and Earth Bag for inspection.
• Xu Ziqing deflected the accusation with a fabricated account that Wang Xi had died fighting Demon Beasts to help Song Yan and Wan Songran escape.
• Shen Yu threatened Dongyuan Sect and released overwhelming spiritual pressure toward Song Yan, but Xu Ziqing shielded him without showing fear.

Daoist Li Jun intervened when the Xuanyuan Sect threatened Dongyuan Sect, forcing Shen Yu and his group to retreat and ordering them to compensate Song Yan. After witnessing the sect master's overwhelming strength, Song Yan resolved to grow powerful enough to control his own fate.

• Shen Yu and the Xuanyuan Sect elders confronted Dongyuan Sect over Song Yan, and the sect master’s sword pressure silenced them.
• Daoist Li Jun demanded compensation for Song Yan and told the Xuanyuan Sect to return if it wanted war; his power sent the group outside the sect gates.
• Chang Ziyi tried to threaten Dongyuan Sect, but Li Jun’s Sword Qi shredded his mouth and warned him to stay silent until he reached the Xuanyuan Sect’s protective formation.
• Shen Yu fled with the Xuanyuan Sect cultivators, while Song Yan reflected on Li Jun’s words and the sect master’s history.
• Song Yan resolved to attain the Great Dao and become the master of his own fate.

Xu Ziqing told Qin Xijun that he only wanted the Xuanyuan Sect dead, while Song Yan returned to his cave abode and counted the spoils from Silent Valley. He found Spirit Stones, several law artifacts, and a strange flute whose purpose he thought he recognized.

• Xu Ziqing rejected Qin Xijun's thanks for helping Song Yesheng and said he only wanted the Xuanyuan Sect dead.
• Song Yan returned to his cave abode, slept, and resumed his daily cultivation the next morning.
• Song Yan counted his gains and found that he now had one hundred and sixty-five Spirit Stones.
• Song Yan sorted through the law artifacts, keeping a jade protective amulet and lamenting the lost Mountain-Subduing Seal.
• Song Yan examined Wan Songran's Glutton Tail Flute, reconsidered selling it, and remembered a description of a similar treasure.

Song Yan discovered that the Glutton Tail Flute might be an authentic treasure once wielded by the Wan family's ancestor, Wan Zhihong, and decided to seek a major buyer rather than sell it cheaply. After sorting the spoils, he resolved to restore his cultivation to the fourth Qi Refining layer before pursuing a Life-Bound Flying Sword and Supreme Spiritual Objects.

• Song Yan found the Wan Lineage booklet and identified the black-and-red flute's inscription as “Glutton Tail.”
• Song Yan and Xiao He read the legend of Tianhai City, which told two conflicting accounts of the Flower-Robed Daoist and the city's Demon Beast crisis.
• Song Yan suspected the Flower-Robed Daoist was Wan Zhihong and that the flute was an authentic Law Treasure once used by a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator.
• Song Yan decided to seek a major buyer for the flute, sorted the remaining pills, Talismans, and Law Artifacts, and set aside items for sale through Granny Qin or the Night Market.
• Song Yan resolved to restore his cultivation to the fourth Qi Refining layer and began cultivating while Xiao He continued wondering which version of the Tianhai story was true.

Song Yan struggled with the slow pace of rebuilding his cultivation and tried to settle his restless thoughts by going to Wendao Gorge to practice an art of cultivating the heart. On the way, he overheard a senior brother explain how disposition and state of mind could affect a cultivator’s pursuit of longevity.

• Song Yan reflected on the resources he had spent reaching Qi Refining, fourth layer, and worried that strengthening the Sword Dao Seed would remain difficult without Supreme Spiritual Objects.
• Song Yan refined the two-colored Stone Bead with Sword Qi, entered its Two-Pole Realm, and found that the seed there matched the Dao seed within him.
• Song Yan learned the complete Five-Star Pulse Seizing Art from the bead’s runes, but found he could not practice it until reaching Foundation Establishment and continued using the original mnemonic.
• Song Yan decided to visit Wendao Gorge to clear his mind and complete his monthly art of cultivating the heart.
• An outer sect senior brother surnamed Zhao told a new disciple that cultivating the heart helped temper a cultivator’s state of mind, though such arts were of little use before Golden Core.

Song Yan practiced calligraphy at the Ink Way Academy, finding that the exercise calmed his mind as the snowfall cleared. On his way back, he recalled that the clay figurine from the Xie Household might contain a calligraphy model.

• Song Yan chose calligraphy at the Ink Way Academy instead of playing Go or painting, and copied the Clearing After Snowfall Calligraphy Model.
• After about an hour, Song Yan finished his assignment with a peaceful state of mind and left the academy.
• Two disciples recognized Song Yan and speculated that his cultivation setbacks had ruined his chances of reaching Foundation Establishment.
• The steward disciple, Senior Brother Sun, voided the two disciples’ work for gossiping, then praised the calm progression in Song Yan’s calligraphy.
• Song Yan headed to his cave abode and remembered that Xie Xing had mentioned a calligraphy model inside the clay figurine from the Xie Household.

Song Yan discovered Xie Tianji’s hidden sword post and was moved by the mortal swordsman’s refusal of immortality and unwavering devotion to the Sword Dao. As Song Yan copied the post, he relived Xie Tianji’s life and awakened a powerful sword intent beneath the Sword Mansion of the Dao-Subduing.

• Song Yan retrieved the clay figurine from Xiao He and found a hidden sword post concealed inside it.
• Song Yan read how Xie Tianji became Number One Under Heaven, traveled across the world undefeated, and eventually lost to an immortal.
• Song Yan learned that Xie Tianji refused the chance to cultivate an Immortal Method because the Sword Dao had no teachers left.
• The Two-Pole Bead glowed faintly as Song Yan began copying the sword post, and he became absorbed in the task.
• Song Yan witnessed visions of Xie Tianji’s life and heard his own pleas for Sword Cultivators to flourish and pursue the Dao without submission.
• The Sword Dao Seed hummed, and a keen edge emerged beneath the Sword Mansion of the Dao-Subduing.

Song Yan discovered an incomplete heart of the Dao-seeker within his Sword Dao Seed, then intensified his cultivation and took sect missions to fund his progress. Meanwhile, Senior Sister Qin received a sect mission and decided to send Younger Sister Qingqing to carry it out.

• Song Yan realized that the tiny sword within his Sword Dao Seed was an incomplete heart of the Dao-seeker, formed through Xie Tianji's calligraphy, the Two-Pole Bead, and Song Yan's own resolve.
• Song Yan contemplated the heart of the Dao-seeker, felt renewed confidence in his pursuit of longevity, and found that his spiritual power was growing faster than before.
• Song Yan cultivated and practiced the Sword-Controlling Technique, then took challenging sect missions to earn resources and gain combat experience.
• Senior Sister Qin returned to her cave abode on Lianyou Peak and received a message about a sect mission.
• Senior Sister Qin decided to send Younger Sister Qingqing, who had experience fighting from the struggle at Silent Valley.