Chapter Summaries

Lin Qingyang forced the Immortal Alliance leaders to consider his demands, then clashed with Cang Mo over Li Tian’s deliberately suggestive remark. A wooden puppet attacked them, and Cang Mo was wounded while protecting Lin Qingyang.

• Jian Hong and Su Jingui left to discuss Lin Qingyang’s demands, while Li Tian invited Lin Qingyang to join Tianxuan Pavilion.
• Cang Mo jealously claimed Lin Qingyang as his Queen Consort, and Li Tian left after hinting at an intimate past with Lin Qingyang on Liuxian Island.
• Cang Mo accused Lin Qingyang of attracting admirers, citing Li Tian and Yun Zhan, and the two argued.
• Lin Qingyang noticed a bloody gash on the wooden puppet’s face just as it lunged at him with a dagger.
• Cang Mo kicked the puppet away, broke its wrist, and stabbed its neck, but the puppet counterattacked and cut his cheek.

Cang Mo and Lin Qingyang fought off a wooden puppet and discovered that Jian Hong and Su Jingui had also been attacked. As they suspected Pavilion Master Li, Cang Mo sensed something moving nearby.

• Cang Mo tore apart a wooden puppet that attacked him and crushed its head when it lunged at Lin Qingyang.
• Jian Hong ambushed Cang Mo at the gate, but Lin Qingyang stopped Cang Mo from killing him so they could learn what had happened.
• Lin Qingyang realized Jian Hong had also been attacked by a wooden puppet, and Su Jingui reported that an attendant had stabbed him outside.
• Su Jingui said Pavilion Master Li had gone to prepare food and never returned, prompting Lin Qingyang to suspect him.
• Cang Mo's ears twitched, and he warned that something was moving.

Cang Mo, Lin Qingyang, Jian Hong, and Su Jingui were trapped in Xuanji Pavilion by knife-wielding wooden figures and escaped by setting the figures ablaze. After reaching the river, they encountered Li Tian, who arrived carrying two jade wine flasks and asked what had happened.

• Blue-clad wooden figures surrounded the group, forcing Cang Mo and the others to retreat into Xuanji Pavilion.
• Lin Qingyang discovered the carved windows were solid wood, while the figures stabbed through the doors and threatened to break in.
• Lin Qingyang set the figures alight with spilled lamp oil, and Jian Hong and Cang Mo helped spread the fire through the hall.
• The group escaped the burning pavilion, and Lin Qingyang locked the gate behind them.
• As Lin Qingyang bandaged Cang Mo's wound by the river, Li Tian appeared and asked what had happened.

Inside the sealed Xuanji Space, Li Tian denied causing the wooden men’s rampage, leaving the group to suspect an unseen intruder. Outside, the Human and Demon Clans ended their tense standoff, but the Xuanji Walnut’s passage suddenly vanished, cutting off the way in and out.

• Li Tian arrived near the burning Thousand Mechanisms Hall and insisted he had only gone to fetch spirit wine, prompting the others to suspect a hidden sixth person in Xuanji Space.
• Zhu Ji offered tea to the Human and Demon Clans, and Mo Yan and Langya accepted, ending their motionless contest.
• Yun Zhan asked Mo Yan whether Lin Qingyang had stayed in Demon Emperor City of his own accord, but Langya’s alarm interrupted them.
• The Xuanji Walnut flickered, dimmed, and stopped projecting the formation that served as the only passage in and out.

Li Tian failed to reopen the exit from Xuanji Manor because someone had replaced his blood in the central array nexus, making them the manor’s new owner. He revealed that a traitor had also turned the wooden figures into blood puppets, and warned that the new owner could control even more than the figures.

• Li Tian attempted to draw and activate a new teleportation array, but the walnut rejected him and scorched the formation.
• Lin Qingyang deduced that the sixth person in the manor had replaced Li Tian’s blood in the underground array nexus and taken ownership of Xuanji Manor.
• Li Tian explained that the new owner must have used spare blood essence kept in Tianxuan Pavilion’s secret vault, suggesting a traitor within the pavilion.
• Li Tian revealed that someone had opened the wooden figures’ seven apertures and fed them blood, turning them into savage blood puppets.
• Li Tian said the ancestor had created eighty-one wooden figures and warned that the manor’s new owner could control more than just the puppets.

Li Tian led the group through the manor as its activated clearance mode brought its stone guardians and carvings to life. They escaped the pursuing creatures and reached the training ground, where a lone swordsman stood waiting.

• The stone guardian lions attacked after Li Tian explained that the array’s highest clearance mode made the manor’s carved creatures target intruders.
• Cang Mo dodged the lions and maneuvered them into colliding, cracking both of them and throwing Su Jingui from one lion’s back.
• Stone bats and other carved beasts came alive and chased the group toward the training ground at the manor’s center.
• Lin Qingyang used Li Tian’s wine and sparks from Cang Mo’s blade to set the bats ablaze, disrupting the pursuing creatures.
• Li Tian brought the exhausted group into the training ground, where they found a tall figure holding a longsword.

Lin Qingyang intervened when Immortal Venerable Jiuchen’s statue nearly killed Jian Hong in a swordsmanship duel. The statue then turned its attention to Lin Qingyang.

• Li Tian explained that the statue was carved in Jiuchen’s likeness and animated by a trace of Jiuchen’s sword intent.
• Jian Hong challenged the statue to a fair swordsmanship duel and initially held his own, but exhaustion allowed the statue to wound him.
• Jian Hong refused to let anyone interfere, even as the statue disarmed him and drove its sword into his shoulder.
• Lin Qingyang picked up Jian Hong’s sword and blocked the statue’s strike just before it reached Jian Hong’s throat.
• Lin Qingyang knocked the statue’s sword aside, and the statue fixed its sharp gaze on him.

Lin Qingyang drew the wooden statue of Jiuchen into a sword stance while Cang Mo smashed it from behind, ending the threat before its legendary strike could land. The group armed themselves and headed toward the formation core at the center of a lake, while the freed sword intent drifted away.

• Lin Qingyang faced the Jiuchen statue with a sword, and Jian Hong recognized its Heaven-Slaying technique as the statue prepared to strike.
• Cang Mo ambushed the statue with his spiked club and destroyed its head, stopping the attack before Jiuchen could swing.
• Lin Qingyang dismissed the statue as a piece of wood, upsetting Jian Hong and Li Tian, whose ancestor had created it.
• Li Tian pointed out the formation core, a small white building on an island in a lake, and the five chose weapons before heading there.
• After the group left the training ground, the sword intent escaped from the shattered wood and drifted toward the horizon.

Li Tian led the group across the lake toward the White Jade Waterside Pavilion, where the Xuanji Walnut’s main formation was located, as Blood Puppets drove them onto a self-moving jade boat. While Li Tian explained how the estate’s energy system worked, man-eating fish gathered beneath the boat.

• Blood Puppets surrounded the group at the lakeshore, so Li Tian untied the jade boat and everyone boarded while Cang Mo fought off the attackers.
• Cang Mo leaped onto the departing boat with Lin Qingyang, and Su Jingui knocked a Blood Puppet clinging to the gunwale back into the lake.
• As the boat carried them toward the pavilion, Cang Mo comforted Lin Qingyang, and Jian Hong rebuked them for flirting during their escape.
• Li Tian explained that the gears beneath the lake transmitted energy from the central formation to sustain the Xuanji Walnut’s miniature space.
• Lin Qingyang spotted schools of shapes gathering beneath the boat, and Li Tian revealed that they were man-eating fish carved from sinking hardwood.

Lin Qingyang and the others fought off wooden monster fish and used Li Tian’s blood array to speed their boat toward the White Jade Waterside Pavilion, but waterweed trapped them in black water. Lin Qingyang was dragged overboard and bound in a green cocoon as Cang Mo tried and failed to reach him.

• Wooden monster fish swarmed the boat, and Cang Mo, Jian Hong, Lin Qingyang, Su Jingui, and Li Tian fought them off.
• Li Tian activated a blood array that propelled the boat past the fish toward the White Jade Waterside Pavilion.
• The lake turned black, and waterweed stopped the boat; Li Tian realized someone had modified the array to control the weeds.
• Waterweed destroyed Su Jingui’s shield and the group’s weapons, then dragged Lin Qingyang overboard.
• Cang Mo dove after Lin Qingyang, but the weeds trapped them both and sealed Lin Qingyang inside a cocoon as darkness overtook him.

The Xuanji Walnut went dark, trapping people inside and bringing the Human and Demon Clans to the brink of battle. After an unknown attacker shot Ba Shan, Lin Qingyang awoke inside the walnut and confronted Elder Chen, who spoke in a familiar, nightmare-inducing voice.

• Ba Shan accused the humans of trapping the Demon Clan's king, and Lu Qing attacked him before Mo Yan and Yun Zhan persuaded both sides to lower their weapons.
• An unseen archer shot Ba Shan from the human ranks, and Langya and Mo Yan searched for the culprit as the two sides fell silent.
• Lin Qingyang woke inside a jade birdcage in the White Jade Waterside Pavilion, suspended above the Xuanji Walnut's Main Array.
• Lin Qingyang recognized Elder Chen beneath the cage and demanded to know what had happened to Cang Mo and the others.
• Elder Chen stared at Lin Qingyang with lifeless eyes and greeted him in a voice from Lin Qingyang's nightmares.

Lin Qingyang confronted Bi Yue, who had taken over Elder Chen’s body and revealed that he wanted to provoke a war between humans and demons. Outside, Ba Shan collapsed from Zhen Demon poison, and Langya’s attack on the humans ended in a clash with Yun Zhan’s sword qi.

• Lin Qingyang recognized Bi Yue’s voice and relived the trauma of losing his spiritual root in Tianshui City five years earlier.
• Bi Yue revealed himself inside Elder Chen’s body and taunted Lin Qingyang about surviving and about the people he cared for.
• Lin Qingyang deduced that Bi Yue had trapped people in Tianxuan Pavilion to spark fighting between the human and demon groups outside.
• Ba Shan convulsed and collapsed after vomiting black blood, and Ku Rong identified the cause as Zhen Demon poison.
• Langya attacked the humans in fury, and Yun Zhan shielded them with a sword strike that collided with her demonic qi.

Langya’s demons and the human sects nearly clashed in the Hidden Market, but Zhu Ji’s crossbowmen stopped them. Their investigation exposed Elder Chen as a wooden puppet controlled by Bi Yue, who then dropped Lin Qingyang’s cage into the lake beneath Xuanji Manor.

• Langya ordered the demons to attack, and Mo Yan tried to stop the fighting before Langya struck him.
• Zhu Ji halted both sides with a heavy crossbow bolt and revealed half-demons aiming repeating crossbows from the rooftops.
• Langya stood down so Ku Rong could take the poisoned Ba Shan to Fusheng Pavilion for treatment.
• A Myriad Spirits Sect disciple accused Elder Chen of firing the poisoned arrow, and Elder Chen attacked Mo Yan with a poisoned dagger.
• Yun Zhan knocked Elder Chen down and exposed him as a wooden puppet, while Lin Qingyang identified Bi Yue’s attempt to provoke a war.
• Bi Yue opened the floor beneath Lin Qingyang’s cage, and the cage plunged into the icy lake.

Bi Yue repeatedly drowned Lin Qingyang in the Birdcage and taunted him about his ideals, revealing that a peacemaker from five hundred years ago had been betrayed by his own people. When Bi Yue asked whom Lin Qingyang would have chosen in the Ten Thousand Demons Forest, Lin realized Cang Mo had arrived, and Cang Mo broke into the pavilion.

• Bi Yue raised the Birdcage after Lin Qingyang nearly drowned, then plunged it back into the lake when Lin insulted him.
• Bi Yue mocked Lin Qingyang for wanting to be a hero and argued that humans would never accept peace with the Demon Clan.
• Bi Yue recounted how a person who had sought peace five hundred years earlier had been betrayed and killed by humans, prompting Lin Qingyang to wonder about Bi Yue's connection to him.
• Bi Yue asked Lin Qingyang whom he would have chosen in the Ten Thousand Demons Forest if he had not known someone could return from the dead.
• Lin Qingyang deduced that Bi Yue had asked because Cang Mo was nearby, and Cang Mo smashed through the white jade wall and saw him trapped.

Cang Mo fought Bi Yue’s array-guarding Jade Falcon while trying to reach the weakened Lin Qingyang, but the beast’s spiritual power overwhelmed him. Bi Yue then forced Cang Mo to choose between killing Li Tian, Jian Hong, and Su Jingui or watching Lin Qingyang die.

• Cang Mo charged toward Lin Qingyang’s cage, but the Jade Falcon attacked and stopped him with a spiritual barrier and blasts of light.
• Li Tian, Jian Hong, and Su Jingui arrived and explained that the Jade Falcon drew unrestricted spiritual power from the Main Array.
• Lin Qingyang pleaded with Bi Yue to spare Cang Mo, and Bi Yue called off the Jade Falcon’s attack.
• Bi Yue proposed that the humans and demon kill each other so the survivors could leave, but Su Jingui rejected his offer.
• Bi Yue ordered Cang Mo to kill Li Tian, Jian Hong, and Su Jingui or the Jade Falcon would kill Lin Qingyang.

Cang Mo rescued Lin Qingyang from Bi Yue’s threat, taking the Jade Falcon’s blast and the fall on himself. As Lin Qingyang tended to him and kissed him, Bi Yue raged at Cang Mo for choosing love over the Demon Clan’s cause.

• Bi Yue threatened to kill Lin Qingyang unless Cang Mo attacked the Immortal Alliance, but Cang Mo charged at Lin Qingyang’s jade cage instead.
• Cang Mo smashed open the cage, shielded Lin Qingyang from the Jade Falcon’s beam, and crashed onto the pavilion floor with him.
• Lin Qingyang found Cang Mo badly wounded and panicked as Cang Mo asked whether Lin Qingyang cared for him.
• Cang Mo joked about sharing a grave with Lin Qingyang, and Lin Qingyang kissed him while Jian Hong, Li Tian, and Su Jingui watched.
• Bi Yue berated Cang Mo for abandoning the Demon Clan’s cause, while Su Jingui wondered whether they could make the crow die of anger.

Bi Yue unleashed a horde of Blood Puppets against Cang Mo, Lin Qingyang, Jian Hong, Su Jingui, and Li Tian, trapping them in the Xuanji Walnut. As the exhausted group struggled to survive, the Array-Guarding Jade Falcon prepared a devastating blast aimed directly at them.

• Bi Yue activated the wall array, releasing Blood Puppets that attacked the group, and Cang Mo shielded Lin Qingyang before collapsing from his injuries.
• Lin Qingyang discovered that divine jade could counter the Wooden Puppets, and Su Jingui and Li Tian used jade fragments to disrupt the attackers.
• A puppet knocked Lin Qingyang down, but Cang Mo rescued him before collapsing, and Jian Hong cut down the puppet threatening them.
• The five formed a defensive circle as the Array-Guarding Jade Falcon returned with its ruined Birdcage, then charged a powerful attack while Bi Yue vowed to keep the two races at war.
• The Jade Falcon fired a massive pillar of light at the trapped group.

The group turned the battle against Bi Yue after Li Tian sabotaged the Main Array and Su Jingui shielded them from the Jade Falcon’s blast. With Bi Yue defeated and the array destroyed, the Xuanji Space began collapsing around them, leaving their fate uncertain.

• Su Jingui used his defensive spiritual power to deflect the Jade Falcon’s blast, while Jian Hong cut down the Blood Puppets attacking the group.
• Li Tian revealed that he had jammed the array’s gears with Su Jingui’s Golden Silk Armor, overloading the Main Array.
• Cang Mo destroyed the Jade Falcon and tore apart Bi Yue’s red vines and crow form, freeing Elder Chen’s corpse from control.
• The Main Array exploded, causing the Blood Puppets to revert to wooden figures, but the White Jade Cottage and the Xuanji Space began collapsing.
• Li Tian and Su Jingui shouted about the danger as the cottage’s dome fell and the group was swallowed by the destruction.

The Xuanji Walnut exploded, but a Ten-Thousand-Li Tianyan Array brought Cang Mo, Lin Qingyang, Jian Hong, Li Tian, and Su Jingui safely back. With both clans’ leaders reunited, the danger passed and Zhu Ji invited them to rest at Fusheng Pavilion while the Immortal Alliance prepared to discuss what happened with Bi Yue.

• The Xuanji Walnut began releasing black smoke and then exploded, sending a devastating shock wave down the Hidden Market’s street.
• A Ten-Thousand-Li Tianyan Array opened in the sky and returned Su Jingui, Jian Hong, and Li Tian, followed by Cang Mo carrying the injured Lin Qingyang.
• Cang Mo carried Lin Qingyang into Fusheng Pavilion, while Su Jingui told Mo Yan that Bi Yue was involved in what had happened inside the artifact.
• Zhu Ji offered hot water and clean clothes to the Immortal Alliance’s leaders and invited both clans’ armies to eat and rest.
• Langya and the Immortal Alliance’s sect masters sent their followers into the shops, and the tense street finally fell quiet.

Lin Qingyang recovered in Fusheng Pavilion while Zhu Ji and Ku Rong discussed his condition, and Yun Zhan privately offered to take him to Divine Sword Mountain for protection from Cang Mo. Cang Mo interrupted their conversation by appearing in the doorway with a bowl of soup.

• Lin Qingyang drank a kidney tonic before Ku Rong explained that he also needed medicine to drive out the chill.
• Zhu Ji worried over Lin Qingyang and vowed to find a way to free him from Cang Mo, while Ku Rong proposed poisoning the Demon King.
• Yun Zhan visited Lin Qingyang and reported that Jian Hong had suffered no vital injuries.
• After Lin Qingyang sent Zhu Ji and Ku Rong away, Yun Zhan offered to protect him and take him back to Divine Sword Mountain.
• Cang Mo burst into the room carrying a steaming bowl of soup.