Chapter Summaries

Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu investigated Yuanqi Market for clues about the Qianyu Sect, but found little beyond evidence that the sect was tightening its security and stationing Void Refinement cultivators in major shops. They planned to investigate a guarded grove, while a black-clothed Spirit Transformation cultivator was ambushed in a dark alley and struck as he tried to flee.

• Su Nanzi explained that the Qianyu Sect had sent its hidden Void Refinement cultivators back into service after an earlier ambush killed most of the sect's resident experts.
• Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu released two memory-altered Spirit Transformation cultivators, entered Yuanqi Market, and split up to gather information.
• Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu reconvened and reported that their inquiries yielded little, though Pei Buchong and Ping Tu each found a Void Refinement cultivator guarding a large Qianyu Sect shop.
• Pei Buchong decided the three should investigate a grove containing powerful formations and a guarded courtyard, where a valued Qianyu Sect cultivator was stationed.
• A black-clothed Spirit Transformation cultivator left the Ghost Market and entered a dark alley, where an unseen pursuer confronted him.
• The black-clothed man tried to escape by flying toward the market's protective formation, but a tremendous force struck him in the chest.

A sallow-skinned young man killed a middle-aged cultivator in black in Yuanqi Market, but Liang Xuhe, the Qianyu Sect cultivator guarding the market, caught him before he could escape. Liang Xuhe brought the captive to the courtyard and began explaining the incident to Junior Brother Zeng, revealing that the young man belonged to Wind Bell Hall.

• The sallow-skinned young man killed the middle-aged man in black, but a hidden talisman alerted Liang Xuhe to the restricted alley.
• Liang Xuhe confronted the killer, questioned his claim that the dead man was a sect traitor, and pursued him when he tried to flee.
• Liang Xuhe subdued the sallow-skinned young man and assured the gathered cultivators that Qianyu Sect would investigate and explain the disturbance.
• Liang Xuhe took the captive to the courtyard in the nearby woods, where Junior Brother Zeng asked what had happened.
• Liang Xuhe told Junior Brother Zeng that the captive was from Wind Bell Hall and that the person he had pursued was the one with a problem.

Pei Buchong and Li Yan used disguises and a staged fight to infiltrate the Qianyu Sect’s guarded market courtyard. After Pei Buchong lured out Cultivator Zeng, Li Yan struck him down, leaving the pair in control of the courtyard.

• Cultivator Zeng came out after Liang Xuhe mentioned Wind Bell Hall and handed him the captive to search his soul.
• The captive suddenly attacked Cultivator Zeng, while Liang Xuhe watched without intervening.
• The captive revealed himself as Li Yan, and the supposed Liang Xuhe revealed himself as Pei Buchong.
• Pei Buchong and Li Yan’s plan was explained: they had staged the alley fight, captured the real Liang Xuhe, and used his memories to enter the courtyard.
• Pei Buchong used a name from Liang Xuhe’s memories to lure Cultivator Zeng out, and Li Yan ambushed him.

Pei Buchong and Li Yan searched Liang Xuhe and Cultivator Zeng, uncovering Qianyu Sect’s defenses and the history behind its search for Li Yan. Their findings identified Tian Xingwen as the source of the danger near Qianyu Sect and helped the three assess his likely strength as they prepared their next move.

• Pei Buchong ordered Ping Tu to keep watch and told the market patrol that people could enter and leave freely.
• Li Yan and Pei Buchong Soul Searched the captives and found that the market had no traps and only two stationed cultivators.
• Pei Buchong told Ping Tu that a teleportation array connected the market directly to Qianyu Sect and that Su Nanzi had removed old traps after waiting decades for the killer.
• Pei Buchong explained that Li Yan’s poison had delayed Su Nanzi’s recovery and that Tian Xingwen had since remained hidden within Qianyu Sect.
• Pei Buchong and Li Yan concluded that Tian Xingwen was probably no stronger than Su Nanzi, and Ping Tu listened to their assessment.

Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu investigated Qianyu Sect’s resources and concluded that Su Nanzi and Tian Xingwen were likely its only Body Integration cultivators. They began planning an attack, while Su Nanzi remained unaware that they were preparing to strike.

• Pei Buchong explained that Tian Xingwen was likely at Qianyu Sect, and Ping Tu warned that the sect might be hiding an even stronger cultivator.
• Li Yan proposed estimating Qianyu Sect’s hidden strength by examining its cultivation-resource purchases and searching the managers of its market shops.
• Ping Tu, Pei Buchong, and Li Yan searched Qianyu Sect’s shops and compared what they learned about resource requisitions before and after Li Yan’s earlier attack.
• The three concluded that Qianyu Sect likely had only two Body Integration cultivators, Su Nanzi and Tian Xingwen, and agreed to plan an attack that would separate them.
• Su Nanzi meditated at Qianyu Sect and recalled the poisoning disaster, his disciple’s death, and his failure to find the culprit.

Su Nanzi recovered from his poisoning and spent years searching in vain for the Gui Water Immortal Sect cultivator who had escaped his trap. An urgent report from Liang Xuhe then revealed a likely sighting at Yuanqi Market, prompting Su Nanzi to prepare to act personally.

• Su Nanzi held the Qianyu Sect together while poisoned until Yin-Yang Chaos Sect reinforcements arrived, then spent more than ten years recovering.
• Su Nanzi learned that two Xin Jin Immortal Sect cultivators had escaped a distant confrontation and concluded they were the targets who had fled his ambush.
• After emerging from seclusion, Su Nanzi and Tian Xingwen arranged for most reinforcements to return and set traps while continuing their search.
• Heng Qing brought Su Nanzi an urgent secret letter from Liang Xuhe at Yuanqi Market, reporting a yellow-robed cultivator who used a black water bead to kill someone in a hidden alley.
• Liang Xuhe followed the suspected Gui Water Immortal Sect cultivator to Bright Moon Inn and sent another cultivator to watch the location while he waited for instructions.

Su Nanzi and Heng Qing considered the report of a yellow-robed young man at Yuanqi Market, and Su Nanzi realized the suspicious circumstances might be a trap designed to lure him out. He decided to send a divine-sense clone to investigate while keeping his true body and the sect safe.

• Heng Qing offered to investigate the yellow-robed young man, but Su Nanzi insisted on going himself and ordered Heng Qing and Tian Xingwen to guard the sect.
• Su Nanzi reconsidered Liang Xuhe’s report and noticed that the young man’s killing in the market and his convenient discovery seemed too suspicious to be accidental.
• Heng Qing wondered whether something had happened to Liang Xuhe and Zeng, recalling that the target could infiltrate a sect without detection.
• Su Nanzi concluded the young man might be trying to lure him into an ambush and chose to send a divine-sense clone to Yuanqi Market.
• Heng Qing praised Su Nanzi’s plan, noting that it would test the situation without risking his true body.

Pei Buchong waited at Yuanqi Market’s teleportation array and destroyed it as Su Nanzi’s avatar arrived, killing the avatar with spatial force. Su Nanzi learned the ambush was real and realized his true body might have died had he gone himself.

• Su Nanzi ordered Heng Qing to guard the teleportation array while he sent an avatar to Yuanqi Market.
• Pei Buchong waited alone as the teleportation array activated and recognized Su Nanzi arriving.
• Pei Buchong struck the array base just before teleportation ended, destroying the formation and killing Su Nanzi’s avatar.
• Pei Buchong left to begin the next stage of the plan against two Body Integration Realm cultivators.
• Su Nanzi felt his avatar’s death through their connection, and Heng Qing realized Yuanqi Market had been ambushed.
• Su Nanzi learned that the array had been destroyed during the avatar’s arrival and recognized that his true body would likely have died in its place.

Su Nanzi left Qianyu Sect alone to investigate a possible trap at Yuanqi Market, leaving Heng Qing with instructions and Tian Xingwen in charge of the sect’s defenses. He arrived to find the market devastated and realized the attackers had killed its occupants to damage Qianyu Sect and turn other forces against it.

• Su Nanzi gave Heng Qing a jade slip and array disk for Tian Xingwen, then went alone to investigate Yuanqi Market while Tian Xingwen guarded Qianyu Sect.
• Su Nanzi stealthily flew through the night and snow, checking the area as he traveled toward the market.
• Su Nanzi encountered several Qianyu Sect disciples heading to Yuanqi Market and confirmed their identities before continuing.
• Su Nanzi reached the market and saw its entrance strewn with the bodies of Qianyu Sect disciples and outside cultivators.
• Su Nanzi concluded that the attackers had staged a swift massacre to destroy Qianyu Sect’s reputation and provoke powerful forces against it.

Su Nanzi arrived at Yuanqi Market and found it under attack by Five Immortals Sect forces. He rescued the badly injured Shopkeeper Zhu from two Heavy Water Beads, then recognized the masked yellow-robed young man pursuing him as the enemy who had schemed against him before.

• Su Nanzi hurried toward Yuanqi Market after hearing the fighting and seeing spells flare above it.
• Shopkeeper Zhu fled the market, badly injured, while two attackers pursued him with Heavy Water Beads.
• Shopkeeper Zhu tried to redirect the first bead, but its force shifted, broke his arm, and left him exposed to the second.
• Su Nanzi used his power to pull Shopkeeper Zhu out of the beads’ path and kept him at a cautious distance.
• A masked young man in yellow robes emerged from the market, and Su Nanzi recognized him as the Gui Water Immortal Sect cultivator who had schemed against him.

Su Nanzi confronted the attackers in the market town and tried to kill the masked yellow-robed youth before his allies could intervene. The youth was revealed as Li Yan and the wounded Shopkeeper Zhu as Pei Buchong, and their ambush against Su Nanzi began.

• Su Nanzi saved Shopkeeper Zhu and learned that Elder Wu had been killed while Liang Xuhe and Cultivator Zeng were still missing.
• The yellow-robed youth recognized Su Nanzi and fled, but Su Nanzi intercepted him and struck with his sword.
• Su Nanzi identified the youth as Li Yan and attacked with an ancient sword sheath, while concealed enemies launched attacks against him.
• Shopkeeper Zhu revealed himself as Pei Buchong, restored his wounded body, and unleashed a Body Integration Realm aura.
• Pei Buchong explained that he and his allies had planned to ambush Su Nanzi when he drew close, but Su Nanzi's caution had foiled their trap.

Li Yan and Pei Buchong joined forces against Su Nanzi, whose careful attacks and suspicions led him to recognize that he might have walked into a trap. Su Nanzi decided to retreat, but Li Yan and the others pressed the attack, and Li Yan added two black streaks to the struggle between the ancient sheath and the yellow flood dragon.

• Su Nanzi laid a concealed attack along Li Yan’s retreat, and Pei Buchong revealed himself to intercept it.
• Su Nanzi fought off Li Yan’s sand-and-stone attack and locked the ancient sword sheath in a stalemate with his yellow flood dragon.
• Su Nanzi sensed that the market might be part of a trap and decided to leave, despite not knowing where the danger lay.
• Li Yan recognized Pei Buchong’s intervention and continued fighting to create an opening for his companions.
• Li Yan sent two streaks of black light to the head and tail of the sheath as it struggled against the yellow flood dragon.

Li Yan and Pei Buchong joined forces to pin down Su Nanzi, targeting his yin-yang sword and sheath while Pei Buchong’s sand-and-stone spells overwhelmed his defenses. Su Nanzi recognized the fight as a possible trap, destroyed the trapped sheath, and transformed his sword into blazing flame to break Pei Buchong’s assault.

• Li Yan used his Guiyi Water-Parting Spikes to pin Su Nanzi’s sword sheath inside Pei Buchong’s yellow flood dragon.
• Pei Buchong attacked Su Nanzi with Dragon Binding Technique and Mad Sand Bone Stripping, then strengthened the assault with Stone Sinks into the Sea.
• Su Nanzi adapted to Pei Buchong’s pressure with his yin force but suspected the absent cultivators in the market were part of a trap and decided to escape.
• Su Nanzi shouted at Li Yan, then let the flood dragon crush the sword sheath and make Li Yan’s spikes stab into empty air.
• Su Nanzi changed his longsword into blazing flame, burning apart Pei Buchong’s golden-hooped sand and stones.

Su Nanzi escaped his fight with Pei Buchong and Li Yan, but grew suspicious when they pursued him and his other expected enemies did not appear. As he flew through the mountains, a peak turned into black mist and engulfed him.

• Su Nanzi used the Great Yin-Yang Transposition Technique to disrupt Pei Buchong and Li Yan’s attacks, then vanished amid a wave of powerless flames.
• Ping Tu realized Su Nanzi was fleeing and warned Pei Buchong and Li Yan, who pursued him.
• Su Nanzi flew tens of thousands of li from the marketplace, then noticed Pei Buchong and Li Yan were keeping pace behind him.
• Su Nanzi questioned why the hidden powerhouse and the marketplace’s other pursuers had not appeared, and suspected the scene there might have been an illusion or deception.
• A mountain beside Su Nanzi softened into black mist and swept over him as he flew past.

Su Nanzi was caught in a poisonous mist and a hidden trap as Ping Tu, Pei Buchong, and Li Yan moved to kill him. After testing the enclosure, Su Nanzi charged toward the direction of his sect to break through.

• A mountain peak turned into black mist around Su Nanzi, rapidly eroding his defenses with deadly poison.
• Su Nanzi realized he was trapped in an array and used his sword to gauge the enclosure, discovering he was confined within fifty zhang.
• Ping Tu strained to maintain the trap as Pei Buchong and Li Yan arrived and sent their bonded treasures into the black mist.
• Su Nanzi gathered his strength, returned his sword to its sheath, and charged more than twenty zhang toward the direction of his sect.

Su Nanzi nearly broke through Ping Tu’s black-mist formation, but Pei Buchong and Li Yan’s soul attacks and combined assault left him badly wounded. As Su Nanzi erupted with power and fought recklessly, the three abandoned their plan to capture him alive and intensified their attacks, leaving the battle at a critical point.

• Su Nanzi charged the formation with a lightning-wreathed sword strike, cracking its invisible barrier, while Ping Tu strained to hold the formation together.
• Pei Buchong and Li Yan attacked Su Nanzi’s soul with water-parting spikes and silver spears, disrupting his defenses and forcing him to use a defensive treasure.
• Ping Tu, Pei Buchong, and Li Yan continued their coordinated siege, wounding Su Nanzi and exhausting him as he struggled to withstand their attacks.
• Su Nanzi shattered his longsword and unleashed a surge of power, prompting Ping Tu to warn that they had to kill him before he escaped.
• Pei Buchong and Li Yan agreed to abandon the attempt to capture Su Nanzi alive, and Ping Tu doubled the black mist’s corrosive power at great cost to his own magical power.

Li Yan and Pei Buchong combined their attacks against Su Nanzi as he tried to break free from the black-mist formation. Their assault overwhelmed his defenses and left the battle silent after only four breaths, with Li Yan and Pei Buchong still hovering in the air.

• Pei Buchong formed his silver spears into a double-headed spear and unleashed Silver Dragon Piercing Moon, sending a sound-wave attack into Su Nanzi’s sea of consciousness.
• Li Yan fully activated Subduing Wave Soul-Killing while Su Nanzi used the Ancient Sword Sheath to gather the black mist and form a fragmented image that could break the formation.
• The sound wave shattered Su Nanzi’s soul defenses, disrupting his hand seals and causing the wind pillar to explode before he could escape.
• Su Nanzi struck the formation’s invisible boundary as the black mist eroded his defenses, and Li Yan’s Guiyi Water-Parting Spike repeatedly pierced him to keep his soul in agony.
• Su Nanzi’s resistance ended after four breaths, and Li Yan and Pei Buchong remained in the air with their breathing heavy.

Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu killed Su Nanzi but failed to capture him alive, leaving their plan to separate the Qianyu Sect’s two Body Integration Realm cultivators in need of revision. Ping Tu consumed Su Nanzi’s Nascent Soul to recover, while Li Yan and Pei Buchong began considering their next move against Tian Xingwen.

• Li Yan and Pei Buchong found Su Nanzi’s dead Nascent Soul and regretted that they had failed to capture him alive.
• Li Yan gave Su Nanzi’s Nascent Soul to Ping Tu, who swallowed it to restore his strength.
• Ping Tu warned that Su Nanzi’s death had ruined the follow-up plan and urged Li Yan and Pei Buchong to devise a new approach before Tian Xingwen became more alert.
• Li Yan and Pei Buchong reviewed their plan to separate Qianyu Sect’s two Body Integration Realm cultivators because a direct assault on the sect would be too dangerous.
• Li Yan had proposed using himself as bait to draw out Su Nanzi, while the three planned to destroy the teleportation array and kill whoever arrived within its spatial force.
• The three had intended to kill any investigator sent by Su Nanzi, forcing him or Tian Xingwen to emerge and giving them another chance to confront the sect’s remaining experts.

Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu prepared a Five Elements Dao-Evil Bead ambush along the route from Qianyu Sect to Yuanqi Market, hoping to lure an investigating Body Integration Cultivator into the illusion. Li Yan devised a way to distract the target with Qianyu Sect disciples, while the trio remained uncertain whether Su Nanzi had truly teleported to the market himself.

• Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu left Yuanqi Market and stopped halfway to Qianyu Sect to set their ambush.
• Ping Tu used the Five Elements Dao-Evil Bead to reproduce the route and create an illusory Yuanqi Market.
• Pei Buchong's Divine Thought clone arrived and reported that it had seen Su Nanzi teleport through the array before the teleportation space swallowed him.
• The trio continued preparing for the possibility that another Qianyu Sect Body Integration Cultivator would investigate the disturbance.
• Li Yan proposed capturing Qianyu Sect disciples, altering their memories, and sending them through the illusion to draw the investigator's attention.
• Pei Buchong planned to wait deeper inside the bead and repeatedly recapture the disciples near the false market to reset their memories and send them onward.

Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu used the Five Elements Dao-Evil Bead to lure Su Nanzi into an illusion and kill him, though they failed to capture him alive. At the true Yuanqi Market, Shopkeeper Zhu hurried toward the Qianyu Sect, while the guards remained unaware of the battle.

• Li Yan proposed hiding within the Five Elements Dao-Evil Bead and releasing captured cultivators in batches to conceal their movements.
• Su Nanzi entered the bead while searching for his sect’s disciples, and Ping Tu sensed him and warned Li Yan and Pei Buchong.
• Ping Tu moved Li Yan to Pei Buchong and sealed the bead as a small stone, then used illusions to make Su Nanzi believe he had reached Yuanqi Market.
• Li Yan, Pei Buchong, and Ping Tu ambushed Su Nanzi inside the bead and killed him, but they could not capture him alive.
• Li Yan kept the captured Qianyu Sect cultivators unconscious, while Shopkeeper Zhu left the true Yuanqi Market in a hurry toward the Qianyu Sect.