Chapter Summaries

True Person Mei drove He Chong into retreat, and Chen Shuangbai emerged from sudden enlightenment having formed sword essence. Back at the sect, the Cheng Lineage’s crimes were reported and its patriarch begged for his son Yulang’s life.

• He Chong escaped True Person Mei’s attack by scattering blood shadows, though she severed one of his arms and wounded him with sword essence.
• Chen Shuangbai emerged from sudden enlightenment and demonstrated that he had formed sword essence.
• True Person Mei returned to the sect with Chen Shuangbai and the others, while Li Changfeng and Yan Heng stayed behind to guard East Mountain Commandery.
• Li Changfeng reported the Cheng Lineage’s numbers and punishments to True Person Bo in the Abyss Suppression Hall.
• Cheng Yin confessed to colluding with the Transformation Sect and pleaded for his son Yulang to be spared.

After the Jade Spring Sect punished the East Mountain Cheng Lineage, Cheng Yi accepted a long and arduous duty to cleanse the contaminated lands of East Mountain Commandery. Chen Shuangbai resumed cultivating his sword and named his Sword Essence Frost Osmanthus Sword Essence, while Daoist Mo Yun met the same fate as the Cheng father and son.

• The Jade Spring Sect executed the Cheng father and son and imposed harsh punishments on the East Mountain Cheng Lineage for its crimes.
• Chen Shuangbai recalled Cheng Yin's pleas for a third-tier Pure Heart Precious Lotus Pill, which Ding Chengyu dismissed as delusional.
• The Jade Spring Sect investigated its Cheng Lineage disciples and punished only those who had participated in the crimes.
• Cheng Yi resigned his post and accepted the task of cleansing the Demonic Qi contamination across East Mountain Commandery.
• Chen Shuangbai named the moonlit, frost-blossom Sword Essence of Foot-Long Silk the Frost Osmanthus Sword Essence.
• True Person Bo dealt with Daoist Mo Yun, whose fate matched that of the Cheng father and son.

Chen Shuangbai learned that the sect was choosing cultivation lineages to settle in East Mountain Commandery, a lucrative but burdensome assignment that had stirred intense competition. He rejected the Huangji Chen Clan’s attempt to use his name, insisting that his White Water Chen Clan lineage had long since separated from them.

• Chen Shuangbai stopped his alchemy lesson and went with a messenger to meet Ding Chengyu at the Jade Guarding Hall.
• Ding Chengyu noticed that Chen Shuangbai had reached the foundation establishment middle stage and marveled at how quickly his cultivation had advanced.
• Ding Chengyu showed Chen Shuangbai the sect’s plan to relocate cultivation lineages to East Mountain Commandery and explained the difficulties of screening applicants amid heavy lobbying.
• Ding Chengyu presented an application from the Huangji Chen Clan that invoked Chen Shuangbai’s name to seek favorable consideration.
• Chen Shuangbai said his White Water Chen Clan had separated from the Huangji Chen Clan long ago and that he had no connection to their household.

Chen Shuangbai declined to arrange for the White Water Chen Clan to relocate to East Mountain Commandery, then showed Yi Chongyue his cultivation breakthrough and a new pill formula. His Green Wood Transforming Rain Pills impressed the Foundation Establishment cultivators who appraised them.

• Ding Chengyu asked Chen Shuangbai about arranging for the White Water Chen Clan to relocate, but Chen Shuangbai declined because the clan lacked the strength and resources to establish itself.
• Chen Shuangbai visited Yi Chongyue, who discovered that he had reached the Foundation Establishment middle stage and celebrated with him.
• Chen Shuangbai presented Yi Chongyue with his refined Green Wood Transforming Rain Pill formula, and Yi Chongyue asked him to make a batch for appraisal.
• Chen Shuangbai brought the pills to a gathering with Yi Chongyue and four other Foundation Establishment cultivators, who sensed his breakthrough and examined the pills.
• Dong Lüqi swallowed a Green Wood Transforming Rain Pill and praised its gentle healing effects, foundation-purifying power, and nourishment of the soul.

Chen Shuangbai’s improved Green Wood Transforming Rain Pill impressed Jade Spring Sect’s elders, and he shared some with his old friend He Qi while refusing to meet a clansman seeking his favor. He then visited Lu Zhiyuan and Huang Shanglan to congratulate them on the birth of their daughter.

• Yan Nanlai, Dong, and Shi Yubai praised Chen Shuangbai’s Green Wood Transforming Rain Pill and discussed its benefits for the sect’s disciples.
• Chen Shuangbai teased Yi Chongyue about a burning pill furnace before returning to his routine of teaching, refining pills, and cultivation.
• He Qi told Chen Shuangbai that Chen Zonglin of the Huangji Chen Clan wanted to visit, but Chen Shuangbai refused to see him.
• Chen Shuangbai gave He Qi three soul-nourishing pills and explained how to dilute and take them safely.
• Chen Shuangbai visited Lu Zhiyuan and Huang Shanglan, congratulated them on their newborn daughter, and greeted the baby.

Chen Shuangbai attended Lu Zhiyuan and Huang Shanglan’s daughter’s celebration, honored his old bond with Lu Songting, and named the child Lu Xiangyuan. After returning to his cottage, he checked on the sea creatures and Spirit-Nurturing Clams he was raising.

• Chen Shuangbai arrived at Lu Zhiyuan and Huang Shanglan’s celebration, where the guests welcomed him as a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
• Chen Shuangbai greeted Lu Songting as Martial Uncle, recalling the help Lu Songting had given him when he was a Qi Refining disciple.
• Chen Shuangbai presented the couple’s daughter with a jade longevity lock and named her Lu Xiangyuan.
• Chen Shuangbai left the celebration on his sword light and returned to his cottage at Verdant Hills Stream.
• Chen Shuangbai inspected the saltwater pool and its growing sea creatures, especially the Spirit-Nurturing Clams he hoped would produce more Spirit-Nurturing Pearls.

Chen Shuangbai refused Ji Ruohua’s request to use his influence to secure a relocation place for Accumulated Verdure Monastery, directing her to apply through the proper channels. He later rejected a visit from Chen Zonglin, leaving the Huangji Chen Clan’s effort to gain his help at a dead end.

• Ji Ruohua asked Chen Shuangbai to recommend Accumulated Verdure Monastery for relocation to East Mountain Commandery and offered him a jade box.
• Chen Shuangbai refused the gift, explained that the matter was overseen by True Person Bo and Senior Brother Ding, and advised Ji Ruohua to approach Senior Brother Ding directly.
• Chen Shuangbai told his attendant to turn away any similar visitors, then returned to handling his work.
• Yunxiu told Chen Shuangbai that an inner disciple claiming to be his clansman had come to visit, and Chen Shuangbai ordered her to send him away.
• Chen Zonglin left Chen Shuangbai’s cave abode without seeing him and told Seventh Granduncle that Chen Shuangbai did not acknowledge their kinship.

Chen Zonglin reluctantly approached Chen Shuangbai on behalf of the Huangji Chen Clan, hoping to restore their severed family ties. Chen Shuangbai rejected the household’s pressure and warned that he would personally visit if they tried again.

• Chen Chuyan rebuked Chen Zonglin for doubting the Huangji Chen Clan’s claim on Chen Shuangbai and gave him a jade box to deliver.
• Chen Zonglin registered for Chen Shuangbai’s alchemy lecture and waited until it ended to approach him.
• Chen Zonglin asked Chen Shuangbai to hear a private matter, and Chen Shuangbai took him to a pavilion on a spiritual peak.
• Chen Shuangbai warned Chen Zonglin that he would personally visit the Huangji Chen Clan if they tried to force their former relationship again.
• Chen Zonglin remained kneeling until Chen Shuangbai’s pressure eased, then collapsed and gasped for breath.

Chen Shuangbai arranged for Yan Heng to keep Chen Zonglin and other disciples occupied, then left with Yi Chongyue for Wu Country. On the journey, Li Changfeng entrusted them with his grandson Li Chenguang, and Yi Chongyue began explaining how Li Changfeng’s son had married into a Wu Country Lineage before Chen Shuangbai asked why the son had been “carried off.”

• Chen Shuangbai asked Yan Heng to summon the latest grade-A aptitude disciples and keep them focused on cultivation, including Chen Zonglin.
• Chen Shuangbai requested leave from Luo Tao to accompany Yi Chongyue to an elder’s birthday celebration.
• Li Changfeng asked Yi Chongyue to take Li Chenguang to his mother in Wu Country, then left after handing over the boy.
• Yi Chongyue told Chen Shuangbai that Li Changfeng’s son, Li Muxian, had married a woman from a Wu Country Lineage and stayed there as her son-in-law.
• Chen Shuangbai asked why Li Muxian had been carried off, and Yi Chongyue had not yet answered.

Yi Chongyue explained Li Chenguang’s family and unruly reputation to Chen Shuangbai as they traveled to Wu Country. After Chen Shuangbai stopped Li Chenguang from sneaking out overnight, they reached the Su Clan, where Li Chenguang reunited with his parents.

• Yi Chongyue told Chen Shuangbai that Li Chenguang was a gifted but spoiled child cherished by the Su Household and notorious in Wu Country.
• The travelers rested in a valley, where Chen Shuangbai caught Li Chenguang trying to slip past the formation and bound his foot with a jade cord.
• Yi Chongyue warned Li Chenguang to behave on the way to Jade Bay and threatened to tell his parents if he did not.
• The carriage reached the Yuliu Su Clan, and Li Chenguang ran to his mother, Su Rong, while his father, Li Muxian, greeted Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai.

Li Muxian and Su Rong hosted Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai before they continued to Spring-Returning Mountain for Gongye Chun’s birthday. Yi Chongyue revealed that he had also come to help with a brewing succession crisis, and the pair arrived at the mountain as the birthday guests gathered.

• Li Muxian and Su Rong welcomed Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai to the Su Household and learned they were traveling to celebrate Gongye Chun’s birthday.
• Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai departed for Spring-Returning Mountain the next morning.
• Chen Shuangbai deduced that Yi Chongyue had another purpose for the journey, and Yi Chongyue confirmed that he intended to help with divisions over Spring-Returning Mountain’s succession.
• Yi Chongyue explained that Gongye Chun had sought help from their lineage because the aging elder could not resolve the growing discord himself.
• Spring-Returning Mountain’s steward disciple Liu Wenyan welcomed Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai, and Yi Chongyue announced their visit to offer birthday wishes to Gongye Chun.

Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai arrived at Spring-Returning Mountain to visit Gongye Chun for his birthday, where Chen noticed signs of conflict within the sect. After Chen’s Sword Essence frightened Song Zheyu, Liu Wenyan led them to Gongye Chun’s secluded cave abode.

• Liu Wenyan welcomed Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai and escorted them into Spring-Returning Mountain to meet Gongye Chun.
• Chen Shuangbai noticed Liu Wenyan’s excessive caution and sensed tension among the sect’s disciples.
• Song Zheyu blocked their flying Law Artifact and provoked Liu Wenyan, but Yi Chongyue urged him to move on.
• Chen Shuangbai’s murderous intent, fused with Sword Essence, frightened Song Zheyu into stopping, and two other visitors recognized Chen’s talent.
• Liu Wenyan apologized for the incident and brought Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai to Gongye Chun’s cave abode, where Yi paid his respects.

Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai visited Gongye Chun, whose failing health and troubled leadership of Spring-Returning Mountain became clear. While Yi Chongyue spoke privately with Gongye Chun, Xie Hong barged in and accused him of withholding his grandfather’s inheritance, prompting Liu Wenyan to attack.

• Gongye Chun warmly welcomed Yi Chongyue and praised Chen Shuangbai’s Foundation Establishment middle-stage cultivation.
• Yi Chongyue and Gongye Chun discussed their former companions and the worsening disagreements within Spring-Returning Mountain.
• Gongye Chun said Yi Chongyue’s arrival reassured him, and Yi Chongyue asked whether the disputes had grown worse.
• Chen Shuangbai and Liu Wenyan withdrew so Gongye Chun and Yi Chongyue could speak privately.
• Xie Hong forced his way toward Gongye Chun’s cave abode and accused him of keeping his grandfather’s inheritance.
• Liu Wenyan confronted Xie Hong and sent spirit-fire cranes to attack him.

Chen Shuangbai cut apart Xie Hong’s Fire-Capturing Ring and forced him to kneel after Xie attacked Liu Wenyan and insulted the Jade Spring Sect and Grand Martial Uncle Gongye. When Liu Shouren arrived, Chen challenged his failure to uphold Spring-Returning Mountain’s rules, and Liu responded with spiritual pressure.

• Liu Wenyan summoned a fire crane, but Xie Hong used the All True Persons' Fire-Capturing Ring to absorb it and Liu’s spirit fire.
• Xie Hong threatened to suppress Chen Shuangbai, so Chen cut the ring apart and pinned Xie to his knees with his scabbard.
• Chen questioned Xie about insulting the Jade Spring Sect and Grand Martial Uncle Gongye while Spring-Returning Mountain disciples watched.
• Song Zheyu arrived with Martial Uncle Liu and urged him to punish Chen, but Chen challenged Liu over his treatment of guests and the sect’s rules.
• Liu Shouren called Chen insolent and unleashed his foundation establishment late stage spiritual pressure.

Gongye Chun unleashed his Golden Core power when Xie Hong insulted him, killing Xie Hong and crippling Liu Shouren and Song Zheyu before Zhang Jing intervened. He drove Zhang Jing away, then received Chen Shuangbai and Liu Wenyan inside his cave abode, where he insisted he would not die soon.

• Gongye Chun opened the cave abode’s restrictions and crushed Liu Shouren, Song Zheyu, and Xie Hong with his spiritual pressure.
• Gongye Chun burned Xie Hong to ashes for insulting him.
• Zhang Jing tried to stop Gongye Chun’s true fire, but Liu Shouren and Song Zheyu were left crippled.
• Gongye Chun warned Zhang Jing that he could purge the sect before his death, then forced him to leave in humiliation.
• Chen Shuangbai and Liu Wenyan entered Gongye Chun’s cave abode, and Gongye Chun dismissed Liu Wenyan after he knelt and wept.

Yi Chongyue told Chen Shuangbai that Gongye Chun planned to split Spring-Returning Mountain after years of internal conflict, and revealed that the dispute centered on access to a damaged blessed land. The chapter left Chen Shuangbai and his master preparing to enter it alongside the rival faction’s invited guests.

• Yi Chongyue warned Chen Shuangbai that Gongye Chun was ending the pretense and splitting Spring-Returning Mountain into separate factions.
• Yi Chongyue revealed that five founders had once shared jade rings that together opened a blessed land, and that he had been entrusted with two rings, including one from a departed founder.
• Yi Chongyue explained that the blessed land was badly damaged and might collapse, so the founders had postponed exploring it further.
• Chen Shuangbai realized Gongye Chun intended to make a clean break by gathering what remained in the blessed land, and asked whether he and Yi Chongyue would get a share.
• Yi Chongyue said Golden Core cultivators could not enter the blessed land, while Zhang Jing had also invited outsiders, leaving the two factions evenly matched.

At Gongye Chun’s five-hundredth birthday banquet, guests presented lavish gifts while Spring-Returning Mountain’s disciples concealed their unease about the aging Golden Core True Person. Just as Zhang Jing was about to offer his gift, Gongye Chun abruptly stopped the proceedings, and Chen Shuangbai realized his grandmartial uncle was about to confront the matter directly.

• Chen Shuangbai and Yi Chongyue arrived at Danxia Hall and took seats near the place of honor as guests gathered for Gongye Chun’s birthday.
• Gongye Chun arrived, received the disciples’ salute, and welcomed the guests to his five-hundredth birthday celebration.
• True Person Qian of the Setting Sun Sect presented Earth’s Core Fire Jade, and Zhao Buyan of the Painstaking Heart Sect presented an ink painting said to temper the soul.
• Yi Chongyue presented Gongye Chun with a water-nurturing jade lingzhi, while Chen Shuangbai suspected his master had also privately given him an Aging-Delay Pill.
• When Zhang Jing was about to present Spring-Returning Mountain’s gift, Gongye Chun raised his hand and ordered everyone to wait.

At his five-hundredth birthday celebration, Gongye Chun confronted Zhang Jing and announced that he and his lineage would leave Spring-Returning Mountain to establish their own sect. Zhang Jing demanded that Gongye Chun leave a valuable item behind, but Gongye Chun insisted he had never intended to take it.

• Gongye Chun accused Zhang Jing of insulting him and rejected his attempt to blame the dispute on someone sowing discord.
• Gongye Chun proposed splitting Spring-Returning Mountain and said he would take only what belonged to him.
• Zhang Jing protested that the split would ruin the sect’s foundation, but Gongye Chun declared he was willing to let it be destroyed.
• Zhang Jing claimed Gongye Chun would have to leave instead, and Gongye Chun asked the guests to witness his lineage’s withdrawal and formation of a new sect.
• Zhang Jing demanded that Gongye Chun leave a certain item behind, and Gongye Chun replied that he had never intended to take it.

At Gongye Chun’s birthday gathering, he revealed Spring-Returning Mountain’s key to a blessed land and announced that its final entry opportunity would be used immediately. Zhang Jing brought in Qing Yizi as a fallback, but Gongye Chun offered him a share, leaving the gathering’s balance of power unsettled.

• Gongye Chun revealed a jade ring as the key to a blessed land, drawing the attention and greed of everyone in Danxia Hall.
• Gongye Chun announced that the blessed land could be entered only once more, by up to eight Foundation Establishment cultivators, and True Person Qian and True Person Zhao stopped Zhang Jing from attacking him.
• Gongye Chun demanded Zhang Jing hand over two jade rings, while Yi Chongyue and Chen Shuangbai avoided Zhang Jing’s accusing gaze.
• Zhang Jing summoned Qing Yizi, a middle Golden Core demonic cultivator, as his backup against Gongye Chun.
• Gongye Chun offered Qing Yizi a share of the spoils, and Qing Yizi accepted after acknowledging that he could not confidently defeat all three other Golden Core cultivators.

The five jade pendants opened the entrance to Wondrous Origin Blessed Land, and the Golden Core cultivators divided the eight places among their disciples. Chen Shuangbai entered and was randomly transported to a floating mountain, where he found an ancient Daoist temple.

• Qing Yizi sided with Gongye Chun, forcing Zhang Jing to hand over his two jade pendants and complete the set of five.
• Gongye Chun activated the pendants, opening a water-mirror entrance to Wondrous Origin Blessed Land and explaining that Golden Core cultivators could not enter.
• The Golden Core cultivators divided eight places, with Gongye Chun taking two and the remaining places shared among the others.
• Qing Yizi asked everyone to wait for his disciple, and the eight chosen disciples entered the blessed land the following day.
• Chen Shuangbai arrived alone on a floating rock, used the Three Warmings and Six Chills Wind Incantation to clear the mist, and found an ancient Daoist temple on a mountain peak.