Chapter Summaries

Bai Rou and Li Yan learned how the little fiery-red fox survived in the Shattered Star Formation, grew stronger, and sought revenge on the goshawk that killed its family. After Bai Rou healed it, the fox awoke among the two cultivators and recoiled in fear, while they reassured it and walked away.

• The little fiery-red fox ate a blade of Golden Bone Grass in the courtyard, endured a painful purging, and gradually grew healthier and more intelligent.
• The fox remembered the goshawk linked to its family's disappearance, pursued it for years, and repeatedly killed its fledglings before finally being chased away.
• After a goshawk wounded the fox near the valley, it fled to the courtyard and collapsed; Bai Rou used Soul Search to witness its memories and told Li Yan what she had learned.
• Li Yan identified the grass as likely Golden Bone Grass and explained how it had tempered the fox's body and helped improve its intelligence.
• The fox woke after Bai Rou healed it, saw Bai Rou and Li Yan, and jumped back in fear; Bai Rou reassured it before the two cultivators walked away.

Li Yan and Bai Rou explored a secluded land sealed behind a formation and poisonous miasma, finding a peaceful lake and mountain landscape with no Demon Beasts or spirit plants. As they reflected on the place and its former inhabitant, the injured fiery-red little fox watched them from the grass, captivated by the calm scene.

• The fiery-red little fox recovered enough to move after Bai Rou gave it a medicinal pill, while Li Yan blasted open the courtyard gate.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou flew over the surrounding region and found mountains, forests, and dense miasma that appeared to have been deliberately placed to seal the land.
• Li Yan concluded that someone had cleared away Demon Beasts and spirit plants, though spiritual energy would eventually allow them to emerge again.
• The fiery-red little fox followed the pair and watched them talk beside the lake, feeling peaceful for the first time.
• Bai Rou wondered whether the place's former inhabitant had left to pursue greater cultivation, and Li Yan shared her sense of tranquility.

Li Yan and Bai Rou rested together near the Shattered Star Array, exchanging knowledge of cultivation and puppets. Li Yan taught Bai Rou the rare Microthought technique, and a month and a half later she was practicing it nearby.

• Li Yan suggested that he and Bai Rou stay and rest while studying the Shattered Star Array’s exit.
• Li Yan learned that Bai Rou’s puppet mastery had grown strong enough for her to kill late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Li Yan decided to teach Bai Rou Microthought to help refine her Divine Sense and improve her puppet control.
• Bai Rou warned Li Yan to keep the technique secret, then agreed to try cultivating it.
• Li Yan recited the Microthought incantation to Bai Rou, who was practicing it on the grassy slope one and a half months later.

Li Yan and Bai Rou prepared to leave their secluded lakeside refuge, but Li Yan awakened the intelligence of a wounded fiery-red fox and arranged for it to cultivate and guard the sealed dwelling. After they departed, the story shifted to Guan Junyi and Guan Man displaying puppets at the Rain-Nurtured Market.

• Li Yan remembered his family and childhood in the mountain village, then joined Bai Rou by the lake as they prepared to leave.
• Li Yan invited the fiery-red fox to approach, examined its spirit roots, and awakened its intelligence.
• Li Yan gave the fox a fire-element cultivation method, sealed pills and the dwelling with it, and instructed it to guard the surrounding resources.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou rearranged the formations and concealed the Star-Shattering Formation before leaving on the Cloud-Piercing Blade.
• Guan Junyi and Guan Man stood at a stall in the Rain-Nurtured Market, selling a small collection of puppets.

At a market stall, Bai Rou bought a falcon-shaped puppet from Guan Junyi and recognized that its unusual crafting method could be far more effective with better materials. After Bai Rou and Li Yan left, Guan Junyi tried to pursue them to sell another puppet, but Guan Man stopped him before the pair turned around to look.

• Guan Junyi and Guan Man worried that their puppet stall had barely earned enough to cover its fee while their village was short on spirit stones.
• Bai Rou and Li Yan visited the stall, where Bai Rou inspected a falcon-shaped puppet and tested its operation.
• Bai Rou paid Guan Junyi twenty mid-grade spirit stones for the puppet, then left with Li Yan.
• As they walked away, Bai Rou told Li Yan that the puppet's unusual crafting method could bring out its true function if it were made with better materials.
• Guan Junyi decided to catch up with them and secretly offer another puppet, but Guan Man blocked him and warned him not to go.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou noticed the movement behind them, turned around, and looked at Guan Junyi and Guan Man in puzzlement.

Guan Junyi offered Bai Rou a powerful puppet for one thousand mid-grade spirit stones and asked the seniors to advance half the price while his sister fetched it. After receiving the puppet, he feared Li Yan and Bai Rou would punish him for his cautious deception, while they judged how recklessly he had risked his life for his village.

• Guan Junyi offered Bai Rou a puppet capable of a late Nascent Soul strike for one thousand mid-grade spirit stones.
• Guan Junyi asked Bai Rou and Li Yan to pay five hundred spirit stones in advance and let Guan Man retrieve the puppet from their village.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou took Guan Junyi and Guan Man to a secluded wilderness, where Guan Man flew back to the village on a golden sparrow puppet.
• Guan Man returned with the leopard-shaped puppet, and Guan Junyi bowed and pleaded with Li Yan and Bai Rou not to harm the village.
• Li Yan calmly confronted Guan Junyi about his scheme, making the terrified youth struggle to explain that he had acted out of fear and need.

Li Yan and Bai Rou confronted Guan Junyi and Guan Man over their scheme, then Li Yan frightened Guan Junyi and took his leopard-shaped puppet while sparing him. As they continued onward, Bai Rou examined the puppet and noticed that its formations seemed deliberately weakened or flawed.

• Li Yan warned Guan Junyi and Guan Man not to repeat their scheme, then took Guan Junyi’s leopard-shaped puppet and left the pair behind.
• Guan Junyi recovered from his terror, discovered a high-grade Storage Pouch beside him, and found it contained spirit stones with no Divine Sense imprint.
• Bai Rou reproached Li Yan for frightening Guan Junyi, and Li Yan explained that he wanted the youth to understand the danger of careless schemes.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou discussed Guan Junyi’s cleverness, and Li Yan’s teasing words left Bai Rou blushing.
• Bai Rou examined the leopard-shaped puppet and found that its formations seemed weakened, obstructed, and unable to release its full power.

Li Yan persuaded Bai Rou to investigate Guan Junyi’s village in hopes of obtaining a complete puppet, while concealing that he might steal its puppet arts if the villagers refused to trade. On his way back to the village, Guan Junyi was confronted by a silver-robed man who had tracked him from the market.

• Li Yan and Bai Rou reasoned that Guan Junyi’s village had a shared, sophisticated puppet-making inheritance despite its apparent poverty.
• Li Yan urged Bai Rou to visit the village and seek a complete puppet, privately considering taking one or stealing the village’s cultivation methods if needed.
• Bai Rou worried that their visit could cause trouble for Guan Junyi, but agreed after Li Yan promised they would leave if circumstances seemed unfavorable.
• Guan Junyi reflected on the danger of the market encounter as he flew toward his village with the Storage Pouch.
• A silver-robed middle-aged man appeared before Guan Junyi and demanded to know what he had done after leaving the market with the outsiders.

Nie Yuanchang tracked down Guan Junyi after the youths from Guan Village disappeared, then used soul search to learn that Junyi had sold a forbidden puppet and killed him to suppress the potential threat. Guan Man waited in Junyi’s room, unaware that Nie Yuanchang was heading toward Guan Village with his corpse.

• Nie Yuanchang questioned Guan Junyi about the missing village girl and the cultivators who had left the market with him.
• Nie Yuanchang used soul search on Guan Junyi and learned he had sold a puppet given to him by Guan Tianxi.
• Nie Yuanchang destroyed Guan Junyi’s sea of consciousness, took his five hundred middle-grade spirit stones, and flew toward Guan Village carrying his corpse.
• Guan Man returned to Guan Junyi’s room and waited anxiously, relieved that the village chief and elders had not seen her.

Guan Man witnessed Nie Yuanchang throw Guan Junyi’s corpse into the village entrance before fainting. After she recovered, she told the village chief and Guan Tianxi what had happened, and the village chief’s grief and anger focused on the Runyu Sect.

• Guan Man hurried to the village entrance, where Nie Yuanchang’s furious shout shook the villagers and struck the village-protecting formation.
• Nie Yuanchang threw Guan Junyi’s corpse behind the entrance, then vanished as he hurried to report the incident to his superiors.
• Guan Man recognized Guan Junyi’s bloodied face and fainted as villagers rushed to the entrance.
• The village chief, Guan Tianxi, and Aunt Yuanxiang questioned Guan Man after she awakened, and Aunt Yuanxiang helped her regain her composure.
• Guan Man answered their questions and showed them the Storage Pouch, while the village chief mourned Guan Junyi and blamed the Runyu Sect.

Guan Village mourned Guan Junyi’s death and faced mounting pressure from the Rainmoist Sect as First Elder Feng emerged from seclusion. Li Yan and Bai Rou overheard the village’s plight, and as they prepared to leave, Feng declared that the time had come to act despite not having broken through.

• The villagers learned that the Rainmoist Sect cultivator who killed Guan Junyi had also stolen the spirit stones from the transaction, and Xiao Yu demanded revenge.
• First Elder Feng emerged from seclusion and warned that the village would soon face questioning, while the village chief described how the factions’ control had made their situation worse.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou listened from outside as Bai Rou recognized Guan Village’s predicament as similar to the Woodflow Sect’s suppression over its puppet arts.
• Bai Rou urged Li Yan to leave rather than trade with the village, and Li Yan agreed despite regretting that he could not obtain its puppet techniques.
• Feng announced that the time had come to act, and the fair-skinned young man protested that Feng had not yet broken through.

Guan Feng ordered Guan Village to flee west before the Runyu Sect tightened its control, while he prepared to activate a formation that could draw the sect’s Void Refinement cultivators away. The villagers escaped under cover of their protective formation, and Guan Feng followed them in a bird-shaped puppet.

• Guan Feng decided to send the villagers west immediately, giving Guan Hong'an and the others twenty breaths to gather everyone and take Little Yi’s spirit stones.
• Guan Feng went to the hidden formation to activate its false Heavenly Tribulation, hoping to create chaos and improve the villagers’ chances of escape.
• Guan Hong'an and the other leaders placed Guan Man in the spirit storage space and gathered the clansmen according to their long-prepared plan.
• Four figures flew west from Guan Village, while two hidden figures followed them through the village-protecting formation.
• The two hidden figures recognized that the village’s active formation and puppet patrols could conceal the escape and retaliate against attackers.
• Guan Feng entered a mysterious bird-shaped puppet and silently flew west after the others.

Guan Feng hurried to escort Guan Hong'an and the other survivors away while recalling how Guan Village had declined from a powerful, protected settlement into a target of surrounding sects. The village’s fate remained precarious as they raced west, pursued by the Rain Nourishing Sect and abandoned by the first-rate sect that had once sheltered them.

• Guan Feng activated a hidden puppet to trigger a formation near the market and create confusion while Rain Nourishing Sect forces were drawn toward Guan Village.
• Guan Feng caught up with Guan Hong'an and four other survivors, carried them on the black mystic bird, and continued toward a destination thirty thousand li westward.
• Guan Feng received Guan Hong'an’s spirit storage ring and kept the four survivors outside his spirit storage space so they could help him break through if needed.
• Guan Feng recalled how Guan Village’s founder had earned land and protection from a first-rate sect, and how the village later flourished through its powerful mechanism and puppet arts.
• After the founder disappeared, the first-rate sect’s protection faded, the Guan Clan declined, and surrounding powers—especially the Rain Nourishing Sect—sought its techniques while the first-rate sect tolerated the pressure.

Guan Feng led Guan Village’s attempted escape from the Rainmoist Sect, but four Spirit Transformation cultivators intercepted them before they could reach the territory’s edge. As Guan Feng and the others engaged the pursuers, Xiaoyu suddenly turned his puppet’s sword against Guan Feng’s black mystic bird puppet.

• Guan Feng led the village’s escape, hoping the formation’s disturbance would draw away Rainmoist Sect experts.
• Four Rainmoist Sect Spirit Transformation cultivators intercepted Guan Feng and his companions.
• Guan Feng ordered the group to split up, with him and Guan Hong’an and Guan Tianxi engaging the pursuers while Guan Yuanxiang and Xiaoyu broke through.
• Guan Feng attacked three enemies as Guan Hong’an and Guan Tianxi moved to hold off the fourth.
• Xiaoyu halted his puppet and swung its dark-blue greatsword at the neck of Guan Feng’s black mystic bird puppet.

Guan Xiaoyu revealed his betrayal and ambushed Guan Feng with a sword powerful enough to cripple the black mystic bird puppet. As the Guan clan fighters were overwhelmed and Guan Feng’s allies fell, he decided to destroy his puppet and body in a final attack.

• Guan Xiaoyu struck Guan Feng’s black mystic bird with a dark-blue greatsword, damaging its formations, but Guan Feng evaded his follow-up strike and counterattacked.
• Guan Yuanxiang attacked Xiaoyu in fury, and Xiaoyu defended his betrayal by arguing that the Guan clan should return to the Xuan Ying Sect or merge with the Runyu Sect.
• Guan Feng realized Xiaoyu had leaked the village’s plans and guided their enemies to the escape route while secretly studying the black mystic bird’s weaknesses.
• Guan Feng struggled against two late-stage Spirit Transformation cultivators as Guan Hong'an and Guan Tianxi were knocked down with their puppets badly damaged.
• Guan Feng told Guan Hong'an and the others that he intended to self-destruct his puppet and body, and Guan Hong'an agreed to go with him.

Li Yan intervened when Guan Xiaoyu’s betrayal and the Runyu Sect’s attack left Guan Village on the brink of destruction. He killed the four Spirit Transformation cultivators and carried the immobilized villagers away, warning them that a Void Refinement cultivator was heading toward Guan Village.

• The Runyu Sect cultivators tried to seize Guan Feng’s puppets and threatened his clansmen, but Guan Feng refused to surrender and prepared to fight to the death.
• Guan Xiaoyu fled as Guan Yuanxiang attacked him in a desperate bid to hold him in place.
• Li Yan’s power immobilized everyone, and he killed the four Runyu Sect Spirit Transformation cultivators before carrying Guan Feng and the others away.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou appeared before the villagers and warned them not to make a sound because they were still in Runyu Sect territory.
• Li Yan told the villagers that the western route was sealed and a Void Refinement cultivator was heading toward Guan Village.

Li Yan rescued Guan Feng and the others, then saw through Guan Feng’s plan to use their plea for help to test him and kill Guan Xiaoyu. As the Runyu Sect’s grand formation erupted, Guan Feng kept pleading while Li Yan left the choice of whether to intervene unresolved.

• Li Yan freed Guan Feng, who checked the others and ordered Guan Yuanxiang to treat the badly injured Guan Hong'an and Guan Tianxi.
• Guan Feng thanked Li Yan and Bai Rou, but a pillar of light rose as the grand formation erupted, prompting him to beg them to escort the clan to safety.
• Li Yan refused Guan Feng’s request, and Guan Feng and Guan Yuanxiang prostrated themselves and continued pleading.
• Bai Rou questioned Li Yan’s decision to leave, and Li Yan explained that Guan Feng was testing them and intended to seize an opportunity to kill Guan Xiaoyu.
• Guan Feng was shaken that Li Yan had exposed his plan and continued denying it as he kowtowed.

Li Yan collected Guan Feng, Guan Yuanxiang, and the others into Tuban, then fled west with Bai Rou. They were stopped by Qian Feng of the Rain-Moistening Sect, who had been waiting to intercept Guan Village’s fleeing puppet masters.

• Bai Rou urged Li Yan to take the captives away or leave quickly, and Li Yan collected them into Tuban before departing with her.
• Guan Feng and Guan Yuanxiang found themselves in Tuban’s small, spirit-rich space and saw that Guan Xiaoyu remained sealed inside his puppet.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou flew west with their auras exposed, and Qian Feng appeared ahead and asked them to stop.
• Qian Feng revealed that the Rain-Moistening Sect had sent out its disciples to search for Guan Village’s fleeing puppet masters, and he had been stationed to watch the western route.

Qian Feng stopped passing cultivators on behalf of the Rain-Soothing Sect while searching for Guan Village’s people, but he let Li Yan and his companion go after inspecting their spirit-storage treasures and finding Gu insects. The next day, a report about Guan Village and the disappearance of four Spirit Transformation cultivators left Qian Feng facing an unexpected development.

• Qian Feng had his subordinates search passing cultivators and personally intercepted Li Yan, a Void Refinement cultivator, and his Nascent Soul companion.
• Qian Feng asked Li Yan and his companion to open their spirit-storage spaces, offering a jade slip that granted discounts at Rain-Soothing Sect markets in exchange for their cooperation.
• Qian Feng found Gu insects in their spirit-storage treasures but no people from Guan Village, so he gave them the jade slip and let them continue on their way.
• Qian Feng searched another Void Refinement cultivator overnight and gave that cultivator a jade slip as compensation for the inspection.
• Qian Feng received a report that Guan Village had left behind only worthless puppets, the strange phenomenon had been caused by human hands, and four Spirit Transformation cultivators who pursued the villagers had disappeared.

Li Yan and Bai Rou escaped Rainmoist Sect’s search and brought Guan Feng and three other survivors to a mountain cave. Li Yan asked what they planned to do next, then unsettled them by saying he would let them leave—but asking whether they could actually do so.

• Rainmoist Sect failed to find Guan Village or the missing Spirit Transformation cultivators and reported the disaster to Mystic Heroic Sect.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou reached a mountain cave without being pursued, after Li Yan used numerous gu insects to mislead anyone inspecting their spatial treasures.
• Li Yan learned through a Snow Mosquito that Guan Feng had exposed Guan Xiaoyu’s betrayal, tortured and killed him, and separately confined several of his relatives.
• Li Yan brought Guan Feng, Guan Hong'an, Guan Tianxi, and another survivor out of the spatial treasure and met them with Bai Rou in the cave.
• Guan Feng and the others greeted Li Yan and Bai Rou as Seniors and wondered whether the pair had rescued them because of their ties to Guan Junyi.
• Li Yan asked what the survivors planned to do now that they had left Rainmoist Sect’s territory, then said he would let them go and questioned whether they could leave.