Chapter Summaries

Yang Zhen arrived to subdue the Sword Spirit and drew Luo Shan Yang’s attention after the Yaoguang Holy Son provoked a confrontation between them. The Sword Devil appeared to defend his disciple, and Luo Shan Yang prepared to test Yang Zhen in a contest between geniuses.

• The disciples and holy figures reacted with surprise when the Yaoguang Holy Son recognized Yang Zhen, while Luo Shan Yang remained focused on refining the Willow Heart Sword.
• Yang Zhen greeted the Yaoguang Holy Son, then said he had come to subdue the Sword Spirit, provoking Luo Shan Yang to unleash his Sword Intent.
• The Yaoguang Holy Son taunted Yang Zhen and suggested the others would have no chance at the Sword Spirit with him present.
• Luo Shan Yang calmed the Sword Intent, approached Yang Zhen, and implied that Yang Zhen had dismissed him as unworthy of attention.
• The Sword Devil appeared behind Luo Shan Yang and challenged Nine Dragons and the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord, who dismissed the idea that Luo Shan Yang was worthy of their joint effort.
• Luo Shan Yang realized the two Saint Venerables valued Yang Zhen and considered testing his full strength against him.

Yang Zhen brushed off Luo Shan Yang, who challenged him to a contest, and the clash revealed how effortlessly Yang Zhen could overpower the famed swordsman. Luo Shan Yang was left battered and bewildered as Yang Zhen continued toward his goal of subduing the Sword Spirit.

• Cultivators discussed Yang Zhen's notorious exploits, including his clash with Great Saint Fengli, while Li Qingfeng and Fuyao realized why he was famous.
• Luo Shan Yang declared that only he, Yang Zhen, and Yaoguang Holy Son were worthy of competing among the younger generation.
• Yang Zhen pushed Luo Shan Yang aside and said he had come to subdue the Sword Spirit, not to look at him, because Luo Shan Yang was not good-looking.
• Luo Shan Yang erupted in fury, reached the fourth level of Momentum, and charged Yang Zhen with his sword.
• Yang Zhen vanished and struck Luo Shan Yang in the face with the Great Deficiency Sword, sending him flying more than a thousand zhang.

Yang Zhen humiliated Luo Shan Yang, then relied on Nine Dragons and the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord to keep the Sword Devil from attacking him. As they headed to subdue the Sword Spirit, Yang Zhen proposed wagering Luo Shan Yang’s Willow Heart Sword against several ancient sword techniques.

• Yang Zhen struck Luo Shan Yang and swollen both sides of his face; the Sword Devil slapped his own disciple after Luo Shan Yang complained.
• The Sword Devil confronted Yang Zhen, but Nine Dragons and the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord intervened and reminded him that the older generation could not interfere while the Sword Spirit was being contested.
• Yang Zhen swaggered away, while the Sword Devil waited for the Sword Spirit contest to end before taking revenge.
• Luo Shan Yang resolved to use the Sword Spirit contest to defeat Yang Zhen and announced that he had already established a connection with the Sword Spirit.
• Yang Zhen suggested wagering Luo Shan Yang’s Willow Heart Sword against ancient techniques, including the Green Lotus Sword Song, prompting astonished reactions from the Sword Devil, Nine Dragons, and the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord.

Yang Zhen and Luo Shan Yang competed for the Sword Spirit while Yaoguang Holy Son tried to climb the mountain. Yang Zhen failed to locate the Sword Spirit and called out to it, leaving the others convinced that his strange behavior was part of a strategy.

• Yang Zhen offered Luo Shan Yang one of his sword techniques, and Luo Shan Yang chose the Green Lotus Sword Song after Sword Devil urged him to ask for it.
• Luo Shan Yang began gathering Sword Intent as Yaoguang Holy Son started toward the mountaintop, but Yang Zhen's stretch unleashed a force that knocked Yaoguang Holy Son back down.
• Luo Shan Yang resumed communicating with the Sword Spirit while Yang Zhen admitted to himself that he could not find it.
• Yang Zhen called for the Sword Spirit to come out and talk, provoking laughter and angering Luo Shan Yang, whose disrupted concentration unleashed Sword Intent that struck all three men.
• Nine Dragons Saint Venerable insisted to the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord that Yang Zhen's behavior was a strategy, while Yang Zhen kept calling out to the Sword Spirit as Yaoguang Holy Son climbed again.

Yang Zhen recalled a Taiji Sword form from his old life and practiced it on the mountaintop, astonishing the Sword Devil and drawing the Sword Spirit’s attention. Luo Shan Yang summoned the Sword Spirit first, and Yang Zhen asked whether he had arrived too late.

• Luo Shan Yang mocked Yang Zhen for failing to contact the Sword Spirit, while Nine Dragons and the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord suspected Yang Zhen had a plan.
• Yang Zhen drew the Great Deficiency Sword and slowly practiced a strange sword form, prompting Luo Shan Yang to sneer and the Sword Devil to study his movements.
• Yang Zhen remembered the Taiji Sword practiced by an old man in a park on the blue planet and refined the form until sword shadows and a black-and-white Taiji Diagram appeared around him.
• Luo Shan Yang summoned the Sword Spirit, a golden sword-shaped spirit, and claimed it had recognized him.
• Yang Zhen lowered his sword, kept the Taiji Diagram behind him, and asked the Sword Spirit whether he was too late.

Yang Zhen’s Sword Spirit chose him over Luo Shan Yang, whose sudden enlightenment and mastery of the Sword Dao could not explain the choice. Yang Zhen challenged the Sword Devil’s teachings and began to explain his own understanding of the sword.

• Yang Zhen called for the Sword Spirit to take form, and it changed from the Willow Heart Sword into the Great Deficiency Sword and flew to his side.
• Luo Shan Yang raged at the Sword Spirit’s choice, then cast aside his sword and experienced sudden enlightenment, forming swords from his Sword Intent.
• Luo Shan Yang declared that his sword was in his heart and accused Yang Zhen of lacking a Sword Heart, but the Sword Spirit remained beside Yang Zhen.
• The Sword Devil asked how Yang Zhen had won the Sword Spirit’s favor, and Yang Zhen said Luo Shan Yang was wrong and insisted the Sword Devil was wrong too.
• The Sword Spirit turned into an ordinary-looking red flower, and Yang Zhen explained that the sword was all things and all things were the sword.

Yang Zhen bewildered the Sword Devil and everyone on the mountaintop with his words about swords, then fled when Luo Shan Yang went mad and attacked him. The Sword Devil began to awaken to Yang Zhen’s ideas, while the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord predicted Yang Zhen would surpass her and Nine Dragons.

• Yang Zhen explained that swordsmen gave swords their meaning, then called the Sword Spirit a flower as he left the mountaintop.
• The Sword Devil entered a state of enlightenment, while Yang Zhen privately admitted he had been bluffing and ran from the ideas he had stirred up.
• Luo Shan Yang went into a frenzy and chased Yang Zhen with the blood-red Willow Heart Sword.
• Yang Zhen urged the Sword Devil to restrain his disciple, while the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord snapped Li Qingfeng, Fuyao, and the others out of their contemplation.
• The Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord said Yang Zhen’s future achievements would surpass hers and Nine Dragons’s, and a scruffy old man praised him as the Sword Devil began to wake.

Sword Devil awakened in a strange state after severing his Dao and himself, then killed and consumed his disciple Luo Shan Yang. He confronted Yang Zhen and the two Saint Venerables, while the Willow Heart Sword floated to his side and Yang Zhen claimed it as his own.

• Sword Devil emerged with overwhelming black Qi, and Nine Dragons concluded that he had severed everything but his body and was no longer acting with his own mind.
• Sword Devil apologized to Luo Shan Yang, struck him down, and swallowed his escaping soul.
• Sword Devil reached for Yang Zhen, but Nine Dragons attacked and Sword Devil stopped his strike without turning around.
• Yang Zhen broke Sword Devil's hand with the Great Deficiency Sword, but the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord pulled Yang Zhen away before Sword Devil could strike again.
• Sword Devil declared that the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord and Nine Dragons were no match for him as the Willow Heart Sword flew beside him, and Yang Zhen claimed it.

Yang Zhen confronted the Sword Devil as he fought the Nine Dragons Saint Venerable and the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord, then challenged the Sword Devil’s understanding of the Sword Dao. The Sword Devil paused in shock when Yang Zhen declared that he had only just broken through the first realm.

• Nine Dragons and the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord fought the Sword Devil, but they could not injure him as he overwhelmed them with his Sword Dao.
• The Sword Devil threatened to kill everyone present, and the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord ordered Elder Yan to take Yang Zhen away.
• Yang Zhen approached the Sword Devil and said that the giant sword overhead was impressive but that the Sword Devil was wrong again.
• The Sword Devil hesitated and asked Yang Zhen to explain, while the crowd watched and Zhou Tong listened from a neighboring peak.
• Yang Zhen described the stages of seeing a mountain as a mountain, not a mountain, and a mountain again, then said the Sword Devil had only broken through the first realm.
• The Sword Devil froze, and Zhou Tong stopped drinking in astonishment.

Yang Zhen intrigued Sword Devil and Zhou Tong with a cryptic saying about mountains, then claimed he had heard it in a legend from the Savage Wilderness. He left everyone hanging by revealing that the legend concerned the Pirate King's treasure.

• Yang Zhen told Sword Devil to see a mountain as a mountain, then as not a mountain, then as a mountain again, and Sword Devil asked him to explain.
• Yang Zhen admitted he had only comprehended the second level, leaving the onlookers worried that he could not support his claim.
• Zhou Tong joined the gathering and asked Yang Zhen where he had heard the saying.
• Yang Zhen began recounting a tale from his childhood in the East Sea and revealed that it was about the Pirate King's treasure.

Yang Zhen spun a tale about the Pirate King and a final realm of the Sword Dao, drawing the Sword Devil’s intense interest. When the Sword Devil tried to take Yang Zhen to the East Sea, Zhou Tong stopped him so he could hear the rest of the story.

• Yang Zhen told Zhou Tong and the others that the Pirate King had shared wine and debated the Dao with the Great Emperor of the Eastern Wilderness.
• Yang Zhen claimed the Pirate King had left clues at their meeting place, including words about the pinnacle of the Sword Dao and a final realm beyond three stages of swordsmanship.
• The Sword Devil demanded to know the final realm, and Yang Zhen urged him to seek the Pirate King's treasure in the East Sea.
• Yang Zhen swore his story was true, but the Sword Devil still tried to take him to the East Sea.
• Zhou Tong told the Sword Devil to go alone because he still wanted to hear the story, and Yang Zhen breathed a sigh of relief.

Yang Zhen left the mountain with Zhou Tong after Sword Devil tried to take him away, and learned that Zhou Tong was at the Final Step before the Half-Step Great Emperor realm. Zhou Tong asked Yang Zhen to be his disciple for a few days, but Yang Zhen refused and demanded to know what was in it for him.

• Sword Devil claimed the Pirate King was real and vowed to take Yang Zhen away, but Zhou Tong stopped him with a slap that sent him flying.
• The Yaoguang Holy Son left with the people of the Yaoguang Holy Land, while the Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord and Nine Dragons Saint Venerable watched Yang Zhen with surprise.
• Zhou Tong revealed that he had reached the Final Step and vanished with Yang Zhen, leaving the people on the mountain bewildered.
• The Heavenly Mountain Holy Lord accused Nine Dragons Saint Venerable of owing her another favor, and he hurried after her to protest.
• Zhou Tong asked Yang Zhen to be his disciple for a few days, but Yang Zhen refused and asked what benefit he would receive.

Yang Zhen bargained with Zhou Tong to become his temporary disciple in exchange for learning Zhou Tong’s cultivation methods and martial techniques. Zhou Tong took him to the Three Palaces and Six Sects gathering, where young disciples would be selected for the Great Wilderness Emperor Road, and Yang Zhen immediately demanded his first lesson.

• Yang Zhen tried to get Zhou Tong to let him go home, but Zhou Tong offered to teach him a cultivation method.
• Yang Zhen negotiated an open-ended deal: Zhou Tong would teach him another method or martial technique each time he mastered one, and Zhou Tong agreed.
• Zhou Tong explained that Yang Zhen would only pretend to be his disciple for a few days and that he wanted him to compete against a disciple with a Pure Yang Sacred Root.
• Zhou Tong told Yang Zhen that the Three Palaces and Six Sects were selecting young disciples for the Great Wilderness Emperor Road, where they might discover why the Great Emperors had disappeared.
• Yang Zhen accepted the trip and demanded that Zhou Tong teach him a cultivation method immediately.

Yang Zhen studied Zhou Tong’s Unnamed Blood Refinement Method and quickly began cultivating it, revealing extraordinary Qi and Blood. The method triggered a Heavenly Tribulation, leaving Zhou Tong fleeing in shock as Yang Zhen faced the dark red clouds.

• Zhou Tong gave Yang Zhen a Jade Slip containing the Unnamed Blood Refinement Method and warned that he had never mastered it himself.
• Yang Zhen entered sudden enlightenment while examining the method, astonishing Zhou Tong.
• Blood Qi seeped from Yang Zhen as he grasped the method’s principles, and Zhou Tong discovered his Qi and Blood were immense.
• A Heavenly Tribulation gathered over Yang Zhen, forcing Zhou Tong to drop him and flee.
• Yang Zhen opened his eyes in midair and looked up at the tribulation as Zhou Tong wondered what kind of monster he had found.

Yang Zhen used Zhou Tong’s nameless blood refinement method to absorb the Heavenly Punishment thundercloud, astonishing Zhou Tong with its power. He then demanded the promised martial technique and hinted that he had noticed flaws in the method, leaving Zhou Tong shocked and eager to question him.

• Yang Zhen chose to refine the Heavenly Punishment thundercloud instead of striking it with the Great Deficiency Sword, despite Zhou Tong warning him of the danger.
• Zhou Tong used a treasured gourd to send warmth and power into the thundercloud to help Yang Zhen.
• Yang Zhen activated the nameless blood refinement method and used nine aligned beads of Qi and Blood to absorb the thundercloud’s Heaven and Earth Qi and Blood.
• Yang Zhen reminded Zhou Tong of his promise to give him another cultivation method or martial technique, while Zhou Tong questioned what method Yang Zhen had actually used.
• Yang Zhen hinted that the nameless blood refinement method contained strange flaws, and Zhou Tong reacted with disbelief before following him.

Yang Zhen bargained with Zhou Tong over the nameless blood refinement method, using the old man's promise to secure a martial skill. Their deal ended with Zhou Tong swearing a village oath that triggered a thunderclap.

• Zhou Tong told Yang Zhen that he had failed to cultivate the nameless blood refinement method through any of its eight known directions, and Yang Zhen pointed out that every approach felt wrong.
• Zhou Tong realized Yang Zhen had discovered another way to cultivate the method and explained its immense value to sects across the Great Wilderness World.
• Yang Zhen threatened to sell the method unless Zhou Tong honored his promise, and Zhou Tong offered to buy it for the Heavenly Severance Sect.
• Yang Zhen demanded the martial skill Zhou Tong had promised, and Zhou Tong joked that he would take Yang Zhen as his master if he mastered it.
• Yang Zhen and Zhou Tong hooked little fingers and recited a hundred-million-year oath, after which thunder burst from clear skies and alarmed Zhou Tong.

Zhou Tong brought Yang Zhen toward the Three Mountains Grand Gathering while Yang Zhen studied a powerful sword technique in sudden enlightenment. They arrived at Snow Lotus Mountain as the Azure Lotus Sect prepared for the gathering, where Granny Chenggui’s arrival prompted a sharp exchange with the Fake Old Daoist.

• Zhou Tong carried Yang Zhen toward the gathering and worried that Yang Zhen might master the sword technique and make him honor his promise to become Yang Zhen’s disciple.
• Zhou Tong realized he had given Yang Zhen all of his precious Ten Thousand Flowers Dew and decided Yang Zhen might cause trouble at the gathering.
• Yang Zhen awoke as they reached the snowy mountains, and he and Zhou Tong exchanged mischievous smiles.
• The chapter described Snow Lotus Mountain as the home of the Lower Three Sects and identified the Azure Lotus Sect as the host of the Three Mountains Grand Gathering.
• Lin Miaoyi practiced with an ice sword while the Fake Old Daoist praised her talent and wondered which disciple Zhou Tong would bring.
• Granny Chenggui challenged the Fake Old Daoist, who recognized her voice and beckoned Lin Miaoyi closer.

The Three Mountains Grand Gathering brought the Heavenborn Sect and Azure Lotus Sect together, where Weng Yongli and Lin Miaoyi drew attention as their sects’ leading disciples. Meanwhile, Zhou Tong refused to continue to the gathering, leaving Yang Zhen to coax him on a snowy mountain.

• Granny Chenggui arrived with Weng Yongli and the Heavenborn Sect disciples, and the Fake Old Daoist praised Weng Yongli’s growing Qi and Blood.
• Weng Yongli praised Lin Miaoyi’s presence, while Granny Chenggui and the Fake Old Daoist compared their disciples and speculated about Zhou Tong and Yun Jin.
• Lin Miaoyi’s senior sister warned her about Weng Yongli, but Lin Miaoyi dismissed the gossip and Weng Yongli was left embarrassed when she looked away.
• On a snowy mountain, Zhou Tong squatted and refused to go to the Three Mountains Grand Gathering despite Yang Zhen’s efforts to pull him along.
• Yang Zhen sat beside Zhou Tong and tried to cheer him with a smile, then claimed Buddha said his background could not be spoken.

Yang Zhen persuaded Zhou Tong to take him to Lotus Mountain, where they confronted the other sect leaders and their disciples at the Three Mountains Grand Gathering. After Weng Yongli criticized Yang Zhen for staring at Lin Miaoyi, Yang Zhen challenged him and told Zhou Tong to explain refinement.

• Yang Zhen teased Zhou Tong into taking him to Lotus Mountain by claiming he was close to perfecting the Heavenly Severance Sword.
• Zhou Tong and Yang Zhen landed on the Lotus Mountain platform, startling the gathering and provoking the fake old Daoist and Granny Chenggui.
• Zhou Tong introduced Yang Zhen as someone who had cultivated many Heavenly Severance Sect divine abilities despite not being one of its inheritors.
• Yang Zhen studied Lin Miaoyi until Weng Yongli stepped forward and accused him of behaving improperly.
• Yang Zhen retorted that Weng Yongli's criticism was none of his business and told Zhou Tong to teach him what refinement meant.

Zhou Tong revealed that Yang Zhen was his master and forced the Three Mountains Grand Gathering to begin, where the first trial challenged Yang Zhen, Weng Yongli, and Lin Miaoyi to comprehend the Azure Lotus Sect’s Twelve Azure Lotuses. Weng Yongli resolved to defeat Yang Zhen, who took a seat beside Lin Miaoyi as the trial began.

• Zhou Tong slapped Weng Yongli for insulting Yang Zhen and revealed that Yang Zhen was his master, making Weng Yongli and Granny Chenggui doubt what they had heard.
• Zhou Tong insisted that the gathering begin, and the fake old Daoist announced a contest to comprehend the Twelve Azure Lotuses from a stone stele within one incense stick’s time.
• Zhou Tong urged Yang Zhen to win the contest, while Yang Zhen warned that the stele might hold a hidden trick.
• Weng Yongli blamed Yang Zhen for his public humiliation and vowed to defeat him in the comprehension trial.
• Weng Yongli taunted Yang Zhen at the stele, and Yang Zhen called him his little grand-disciple before moving his seat beside Lin Miaoyi.