Chapter Summaries

Lin Xuan took over Ximu Peak’s affairs while Cao Zhengyang prepared to enter death seclusion and entrusted the peak to him. After Cao Zhengyang left, Lin Xuan organized the peak and found its treasury and cultivators had plenty of numbers but little quality.

• Lin Xuan spent nearly half a month learning Ximu Peak’s affairs, and Cao Zhengyang concluded that Lin Xuan was trustworthy and had not been sent by another peak.
• Cao Chun entered seclusion, while Cao Zhengyang prepared to attempt a breakthrough to the Great Saint realm.
• Cao Zhengyang warned Lin Xuan about the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect’s troubles and his longstanding conflict with Chunwei Peak, then gave him a jade pendant to seek help from the Third Grand Elder.
• Cao Zhengyang entrusted Ximu Peak and its resources to Lin Xuan, asked him to look after Cao Chun, and left to enter seclusion outside the sect.
• Lin Xuan put Ximu Peak’s affairs in order and inspected its treasury, discovering that both its resources and cultivators lacked quality despite their numbers.

Lin Xuan assessed Ximu Peak’s depleted ranks and treasury, then focused on recovering and preparing a better cultivation method and protective treasures for Fang Yun’er. As Fang Yun’er approached the Thearch Realm and enjoyed her new status as his direct disciple, she wondered why Lin Xuan had seemed displeased and noted that she had not seen him in a long time.

• Lin Xuan recognized that departing elders had emptied Ximu Peak’s treasury and that the peak had few fighters and disciples.
• Lin Xuan exchanged contribution points for pills to heal his injuries and planned to refine Fang Yun’er’s cultivation method and prepare treasures for her.
• Fang Yun’er struggled to believe she had become Lin Xuan’s direct disciple and received respect and envy as she walked around Ximu Peak.
• Fang Yun’er received abundant Spirit Stones, Thearch Grade artifacts and talismans, treasury privileges, and the chance to obtain a custom-made Quasi-Saint Weapon.
• Fang Yun’er cultivated toward the Thearch Realm but wondered why Lin Xuan had looked displeased after giving her many pills and treasures, and realized she had not seen him for a long time.

Fang Yun'er reached the pinnacle of Heavenly Venerable and began her Thearch Realm tribulation while Lin Xuan realized that a Nine-Turn Heaven-Devouring Gu had been devouring her aptitude. As the Gu awakened during the tribulation, it began undergoing its first turn.

• Fang Yun'er reached the pinnacle of Heavenly Venerable after months of cultivation and reunited with Lin Xuan, who comforted her and prepared pills and a formation for her breakthrough.
• Fang Yun'er entered Lin Xuan's formation and began breaking through, while an unusually fierce Thearch Realm lightning tribulation gathered overhead.
• Lin Xuan examined Fang Yun'er's status and discovered that her heavenly destiny had fallen from seventh grade to ninth grade.
• Lin Xuan recalled learning from the Record of Ten Thousand Gu that Fang Yun'er hosted a Nine-Turn Heaven-Devouring Gu, which devoured its host's talent until the Thearch Realm tribulation.
• As lightning struck and Fang Yun'er's status changed, Lin Xuan saw that the awakened Gu was undergoing its first turn.

Fang Yun'er endured the Nine-Turn Heaven-Devouring Gu’s deadly lightning tribulation with Lin Xuan’s help and began fusing with the Immortal Gu. She reached the Thearch Realm and started overcoming the Heart Demon Tribulation as her new Immortal-grade aptitude drained the land’s vitality and Lin Xuan’s Spirit Stones.

• Lin Xuan realized Fang Yun'er's lightning tribulation had continued because the Nine-Turn Heaven-Devouring Gu was undergoing its own tribulation.
• Lin Xuan gave Fang Yun'er a wisp of High Antiquity True Dragon essence blood and instructed her to refine it to suppress the Gu.
• Fang Yun'er endured the dragon blood’s transformation and survived the lightning tribulation just before Lin Xuan’s formation could break.
• Fang Yun'er began the Heart Demon Tribulation, while the presence around her devoured the land’s renewed vitality and drained Lin Xuan’s Spirit Stones.
• Lin Xuan checked Fang Yun'er's panel and saw that she had reached the Thearch Realm First Layer with an Immortal Gu Sacred Physique of first-grade rainbow aptitude.

Lin Xuan returned to the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect for its disciple recruitment ceremony, where the other peaks watched him with curiosity and suspicion. As the youths prepared for their aptitude test, the ceremony officially began.

• He Qinglang notified Lin Xuan that the disciple recruitment ceremony was about to begin, and Lin Xuan decided to attend and consider taking disciples.
• Lin Xuan arrived at the final day of the ceremony on the Sect Master's Peak, where youths who had passed the earlier tests awaited their aptitude assessments.
• He Qinglang introduced the attending peak masters and deputy peak masters, including the hostile representative from Chunwei Peak.
• The gathered representatives and disciples scrutinized Lin Xuan because he had become Ximu Peak's acting peak master and disrupted Chunwei Peak's plans.
• A bell rang, and the aptitude test officially began.

The Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect’s final aptitude test revealed several exceptional recruits, and the Upper Six Peaks competed to claim them. As the test ended, He Qinglang urged Lin Xuan to recruit from the remaining low-ranked youths, and Lin Xuan noticed an intriguing seventh-rank youth.

• A youth awakened a second-rank, grade-A fire spirit through the sword test, prompting Chunhuo Peak, Quail Head Peak, and Chunwei Peak to compete for him.
• Chunwei Peak offered access to its Sword Heart Stone, which He Qinglang recognized as a treasure that had once belonged to Ximu Peak.
• The tests identified many high-ranked recruits, including twin sisters with second-rank, grade-A alchemy aptitude, and the Upper Six Peaks claimed nearly all candidates of fifth rank or above.
• After the test concluded, He Qinglang suggested that Lin Xuan choose disciples from the remaining low-ranked candidates.
• Lin Xuan noticed a seventh-rank youth whose lowered head made him seem interesting.

At the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect recruitment, Lin Xuan tried to recruit a youth with strong medicinal affinity and sword talent, but Elder Qi of Chunwei Peak cut in and the youth chose Chunwei Peak instead. As the other peaks also passed over or claimed Ximu Peak’s preferred disciples, a supreme elder assigned all remaining disciples to Ximu Peak.

• Lin Xuan identified a youth with fourth-grade medicinal affinity and sixth-grade sword breath whose inability to condense pills had caused the other peaks to reject him.
• Elder Qi of Chunwei Peak stepped in before Lin Xuan and argued that Ximu Peak had no prior claim to the youth.
• Lin Xuan offered to resolve the youth’s inability to condense pills, but the youth chose Chunwei Peak, believing its Great Saint Peak Master gave him a better chance.
• Chunwei Peak and the other peaks continued to block Ximu Peak from recruiting promising disciples, while Lin Xuan told He Qinglang he would keep trying to help Ximu Peak.
• After the major peaks had made their selections, a supreme elder declared that all remaining disciples would belong to Ximu Peak.

Lin Xuan brought the newly assigned disciples to Ximu Peak and discovered that Feng Jingyu was a reincarnated female Saint hiding her cultivation and appearance. After weeks of lessons, he decided only a few diligent disciples might merit his personal instruction, while many others complained that his teachings were too basic.

• The supreme elder assigned the unwanted new disciples to Ximu Peak, leaving its elders disappointed by the poor prospects for the peak’s coming competition.
• Lin Xuan spotted Feng Jingyu’s exceptional aptitude and learned through his system that she was a perfectly reincarnated female Saint who had concealed her abilities to join the sect.
• Lin Xuan brought the disciples to Ximu Peak without revealing that he had identified Feng Jingyu.
• Lin Xuan and the other elders taught the new disciples, but many students were lazy and disrespectful, and some elders refused to offer them extra instruction.
• Lin Xuan decided to consider a few hardworking disciples as registered disciples, while the others complained after his lesson that his teachings were too basic and that he was holding them back.

Feng Jingyu reflected on why Lin Xuan’s basic lectures were valuable and recalled her tragic first life, which ended after she became a Late Saint Realm expert and died protecting her sect. Reborn in the present, she remained determined to enter the Heaven-Gazing Secret Realm through the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect.

• Feng Jingyu silently retaliated against disciples who mocked her and Lin Xuan by sending a gust of spiritual wind that made them tumble.
• Feng Jingyu considered how Lin Xuan’s lectures built a firm foundation, despite other disciples dismissing them as superficial.
• Feng Jingyu remembered how her mother sacrificed herself to save her when their city fell, sending her from mortal life into the cultivators’ world.
• Feng Jingyu recalled rising to the Late Saint Realm, founding a sect, and dying while protecting it during the final calamity of demons and monsters.
• Feng Jingyu resolved to enter the Heaven-Gazing Secret Realm, for which she had come to the Heaven-Gazing Domain and sought a Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect slot.

Lang Ping, the overlooked senior brother known as Senior Brother Stone, struggled to reconcile his strong comprehension with his mediocre talent and stalled cultivation. He headed to Lin Xuan’s lecture on Purple Cloud Peak, eager to learn, when another disciple mocked him for attending.

• Lang Ping cultivated in a spirit pool but made little progress despite his diligence.
• Lang Ping recalled how others dismissed him as Senior Brother Stone and how his master had abandoned hopes for his Sword Dao.
• Lang Ping continued to hold to the Sword Dao despite doubting whether he was suited to it.
• Lang Ping went to Purple Cloud Peak to hear Lin Xuan lecture, having found that Lin Xuan’s teachings made the Sword Dao unusually clear to him.
• A disciple called Lang Ping Senior Brother Stone and teased him for freeloading on the lecture.

Lang Ping endured mockery from Yun Zhi’s group on his way to the last free lecture on Purple Cloud Peak, until they insulted the senior whose teachings he admired and he finally confronted them. Yun Zhi accused Lang Ping of disrespecting the sect’s seniors and implied that Longevity Star Peak could no longer accommodate him.

• Lang Ping headed to Purple Cloud Peak for a free lecture, enduring disciples’ insults about his poverty and reliance on free instruction.
• The disciples mocked the lecturer’s cultivation and attainments, while Yun Zhi directed the group’s harassment of Lang Ping.
• Lang Ping finally shouted at the disciples, defended the lecturer, and threatened to report their disrespect to Law Enforcement Peak.
• The disciples denied speaking disrespectfully and turned the accusation against Lang Ping for praising a Saint Realm cultivator above sect elders and Peak Masters.
• Yun Zhi called Lang Ping stubborn and incorrigible, accused him of disrespecting the sect’s seniors, and suggested Longevity Star Peak could no longer accommodate him.

Yun Zhi expelled Lang Ping from Longevity Star Peak with Elder Liu’s permission, and Lang Ping left for Ximu Peak after discovering his access to his old residence had been revoked. Before departing, he knelt and kowtowed to thank his master and Elder Liu for their past kindness.

• Yun Zhi told Lang Ping he was expelled from Longevity Star Peak, citing his lack of progress and revealing that Elder Liu had approved the decision.
• Yun Zhi gave Lang Ping a token for entering his residence and ordered him to move to Ximu Peak, while saying Elder Liu did not want to see him.
• Lang Ping returned to his residence, discovered his Spiritual Power imprint had been erased, and packed his few belongings.
• Lang Ping’s fellow disciples mocked him as he left Longevity Star Peak, and he realized they had known about his expulsion beforehand.
• Lang Ping looked back at Longevity Star Peak, then knelt toward its main peak and kowtowed in gratitude to his master and Elder Liu.

Lin Xuan gave his final Dao lecture on Purple Cloud Peak and noticed that the diligent young man who always attended was absent. Back on Ximu Peak, he agreed to meet the newly assigned disciples, among them Lang Ping, who regretted missing Lin Xuan’s lecture and hoped to hear him teach again.

• Lin Xuan finished his last lecture on Purple Cloud Peak and realized the tall, diligent young man had not attended.
• Lin Xuan returned to Ximu Peak, where He Qinglang told him that more disciples from other peaks had been assigned there.
• Lin Xuan agreed to meet the new disciples, hoping to find overlooked talent and uphold his promise to protect Ximu Peak.
• Lang Ping arrived with the other disciples and regretted missing the senior’s final lecture because he had been focused on cultivation.
• Lang Ping wondered whether the formidable lecturer belonged to one of the upper three sword peaks and hoped he might hear him teach again.

Lin Xuan accepted the displaced disciples into Ximu Peak and discovered that Lang Ping, a former attendee of his lecture, had been among them. After confirming Lang Ping’s honest nature and devotion to the Sword Dao, Lin Xuan left him with the chance to pursue swordsmanship under his guidance.

• Lin Xuan recognized Lang Ping among the disciples sent to Ximu Peak and saw that his Sword Heart had endured years of exclusion at Longevity Star Peak.
• Lin Xuan questioned each disciple, confirmed their accounts, and formally accepted them into Ximu Peak.
• After the other disciples left, Lang Ping realized that Lin Xuan was the senior whose lecture he had missed finishing.
• Lin Xuan told Lang Ping that the lecture’s final lesson had covered condensing Sword Dao and refining Sword Intent, prompting Lang Ping to regret missing it.
• Lin Xuan questioned Lang Ping about resentment toward Elder Liu and what he would do if he mastered the Sword Dao; Lang Ping said he held no grudge and would keep pursuing the sword until death.

Lin Xuan took Lang Ping as his disciple and supported his resolve to pursue the Sword Dao without changing his poor aptitude. After several months of training, Lang Ping emerged from seclusion shortly before the sect tournament and went to see his master.

• Lin Xuan invited Lang Ping to become his personal disciple, and Lang Ping accepted.
• Lin Xuan offered to change Lang Ping's aptitude, but Lang Ping refused and declared he wanted to prove that ordinary people could reach the pinnacle of the Sword Dao.
• Lin Xuan encouraged Lang Ping, promised to teach him without reservation, and asked him to compete in the sect tournament.
• Several months passed as the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect prepared for the tournament and Lang Ping trained in seclusion.
• Lang Ping dismantled the Spirit Gathering Formation, realized the tournament was near, and set out to see Lin Xuan.

After months of Lin Xuan’s generous instruction, Lang Ping reached the Thearch Realm Third Layer and advanced to the Sixth Layer of Sword Intent. He emerged from seclusion to find the Peak Master’s hall closed, then descended Ximu Peak amid congratulations from fellow disciples.

• Lin Xuan’s teachings and a high-grade Emperor Weapon helped Lang Ping overcome his doubts and grow grateful to his master.
• Lang Ping reached the Thearch Realm Third Layer and advanced from the First Layer to the Sixth Layer of Sword Intent in a few months.
• Lang Ping went to the Peak Master’s hall, but Elder Yueying told him it was closed for the day.
• Lang Ping accepted the news, trusting that Lin Xuan could handle whatever was happening.
• Ximu Peak disciples congratulated Lang Ping on his breakthrough and asked him to share his Sword Dao and wine.

Cao Zhengyang’s failed breakthrough left him badly injured and unlikely to reach the Great Saint realm, while his daughter Cao Chun blamed him and left to find a way to save him. He then explained the history and dangers of the Heaven-Gazing Secret Realm to Lin Xuan and the others as its opening approached.

• Cao Chun begged Lin Xuan for healing pills, then angrily blamed Cao Zhengyang for failing his breakthrough and left the hall.
• Cao Zhengyang sent his disciple Ziping after Cao Chun to make sure she did nothing reckless.
• Cao Zhengyang revealed that his failed breakthrough had damaged his foundation and left him with little chance of ever reaching the Great Saint realm.
• Cao Zhengyang told Lin Xuan, He Qinglang, and Bikong that the Heaven-Gazing Secret Realm was about to open and explained how the Heaven-Gazing Sacred Sect had fallen apart.
• Cao Zhengyang explained that the secret realm opened once every thousand years, contained the remains of a peak Saint King and valuable inheritances, and had to be evacuated after three months.

Cao Zhengyang explained that the Heaven-Gazing Secret Realm held the former Heaven-Gazing Sacred Sect’s treasury and legacy, and that climbing its heavenly steps could strengthen a sect’s Spiritual Qi. With the realm expected to be fully accessible, the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect prepared to send everyone inside, including Cao Zhengyang, while Lin Xuan promised to protect Ximu Peak.

• Cao Zhengyang told Lin Xuan that the four great sects descended from the Heaven-Gazing Sacred Sect and held the method for opening Heaven-Gazing Ridge, where the Saint King Domain Lord’s legacy and treasury lay.
• Cao Zhengyang explained that previous expeditions had failed to reach the ridge’s summit, but the pressure was fading and the coming opening offered the best chance to explore it.
• Cao Zhengyang said that climbers’ progress on the one hundred and eight heavenly steps increased their sect’s Spiritual Qi for centuries, possibly because the secret realm contained a dragon vein.
• Cao Zhengyang announced that he would enter the secret realm with the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect and hoped to find opportunities for He Qinglang and Lin Xuan to strengthen Ximu Peak.
• Lin Xuan promised Cao Zhengyang that he would keep Ximu Peak safe, and Cao Zhengyang said he could rest easy.
• As the secret realm’s opening approached, the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect’s powerful cultivators returned to the sect.

As the Heaven-Gazing Secret Realm’s opening approached, the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect prepared for the expedition while Feng Jingyu revealed her ambition to claim a Saint King’s inheritance. After the sect’s disciples and elders assembled, the flying ships set off toward the secret realm.

• Rumors spread through the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect that the Grand Supreme Elder, the Holy Maiden, and other powerful cultivators had emerged or returned ahead of the secret realm opening.
• Lang Ping trained relentlessly on Ximu Peak so he would not disappoint Lin Xuan.
• Feng Jingyu sat alone on a secluded subsidiary peak and resolved to claim the Saint King’s inheritance, believing she would become a Saint King within a thousand years.
• On the eve of the opening, nine bell tolls summoned the sect’s disciples, elders, and Peak Masters to the mountain gate.
• Cao Zhengyang suppressed his injuries with medicinal pills and watched Lin Xuan and the other Ximu Peak members board their flying ship.
• After another nine bell tolls, the Cinnabar Cloud Sword Sect’s twelve flying ships departed for the Heaven-Gazing Secret Realm.

Forces gathered at the Heaven-Gazing Secret Realm, where rumors about the Heaven-Gazing Domain Lord’s death and the Saint King’s hidden treasury fueled hopes and fears. The Heaven-Viewing Saint Sect arrived in overwhelming force, signaling its determination to reclaim the lost inheritances and claim the treasure.

• Rogue Cultivators and other observers discussed the secret realm’s unusual opening and the hidden treasury at Heaven-Gazing Ridge.
• The gathered crowd recalled conflicting rumors about how the Heaven-Gazing Domain Lord had died and how the dragon vein had gained sentience.
• Observers spotted the Heaven-Viewing Saint Sect arriving with a vast procession of flying boats and multiple Great Saints.
• The crowd noted that the Heaven-Viewing Saint Sect had long sought the lost inheritances and might claim the Saint King’s inheritance if it was recovered.