Chapter Summaries

Qi Yun learned that the gold ring was one of seventy-two keys to an ancient sword cultivator inheritance coveted by the Seven Kills Sect, whose assassins had ambushed him to recover it. To escape their pursuit, he changed his appearance and methods, took the name Zhang Mazi, and entered the Wuji Sacred Sect’s purge squads, where he could secretly collect corpses and cultivate amid the fighting.

• Qi Yun drugged and questioned two Seven Kills Sect assassins, learning that the gold ring opened an ancient inheritance site and that the sect had gathered nearly thirty of the seventy-two keys.
• Qi Yun burned the interrogated assassins’ bodies, then planned to conceal his identity and use Wu Yushan’s Storage Ring to hinder divination.
• Qi Yun traveled into Wuji Sacred Sect territory and prepared a new identity by changing his appearance, Law Techniques, and presence.
• Qi Yun became Zhang Mazi, a pockmarked disciple wielding a Soul Refining Banner, and joined the Holy Sect’s attack on Yin Bone Market.
• During the battle, Zhang Mazi secretly swept corpses into his banner to conceal his Essence Devouring and gather resources for his Nether Spring White Bone Method.

Qi Yun refined a blood-red coffin nail into his Soul Refining Banner, speeding up its resentful-soul cultivation, then considered joining the growing crisis at Teapot Valley for possible gains. There, ten Holy Sect True Persons held the entrance to the Yin Ruins against nearly a thousand Yellow Springs Netherworld cultivators, while the sect’s disciples stayed away.

• Qi Yun collected the bodies and Storage Bags of fallen Yellow Springs Netherworld cultivators with his Soul Refining Banner, then found a blood-red coffin nail that triggered an update to the Law Technique.
• The Law Technique Panel upgraded Soul Refining Banner 2.0, increasing its resentful soul refinement speed and reducing the expected time for its first combat-ready soul to form to about ten days.
• Qi Yun learned that ten Holy Sect True Persons had sealed the entrance to the Yin Ruins at Teapot Valley, trapping Yellow Springs Netherworld cultivators inside while the sect’s other disciples avoided the confrontation.
• Qi Yun considered the dangerous standoff a possible opportunity and headed toward Teapot Valley with his banner, cultivation guide, and inheritance ring in mind.
• At Teapot Valley, ten Holy Sect True Persons faced nearly a thousand Yellow Springs Netherworld cultivators, and several True Persons remarked that their absent disciples were wisely avoiding a risky fight with little reward.

The Wuji Sacred Sect distracted the Yellow Springs Netherworld at Teapot Valley while its cultivators raided the Netherworld’s rear, and Qi Yun paid Ning Feng for information about an ancient sword cultivator inheritance site. Qi Yun read the scroll and was surprised and pleased by what he learned.

• A Wuji Sacred Sect True Person challenged the Yellow Springs Netherworld’s claim to the Yin Ruins Remnant Realm, and the two sects’ True Persons argued on the verge of battle.
• Wuji Sacred Sect cultivators raided the Yellow Springs Netherworld’s markets, resource sites, and outlying strongholds while its leaders remained focused on Teapot Valley.
• Ning Feng gave Qi Yun information about the inheritance site in exchange for five hundred Thousand Cranes Talismans and a promise of two thousand five hundred more.
• Qi Yun recalled that his divination about disposing of the Seven Kills Sect’s gold ring had been highly favorable, then read the scroll and reacted with surprised delight.

Qi Yun entered Sword Inquiry Forest and passed its first trial by recognizing that his deepest goal was to control his own destiny and make his Dao his own. He crossed the rainbow bridge toward the forest’s next trials with his resolve strengthened.

• Qi Yun learned that Sword Inquiry Forest held countless sword inheritances and opened to anyone bearing one of its golden rings, then destroyed the scroll describing it.
• Qi Yun found a dry well, threw the golden ring into it, and entered Sword Inquiry Forest through a vortex of light.
• Qi Yun arrived on a cliff above a vast sea of clouds filled with ancient swords and began the first trial, which tested whether entrants understood their true desires.
• Qi Yun rejected slaughter, protection, longevity, and carefree freedom as his ultimate goals, realizing instead that he sought freedom to control his own destiny.
• The sea of clouds settled, a single sword embodying Qi Yun’s resolve appeared, and a rainbow bridge formed.
• Qi Yun stepped onto the bridge and advanced toward Sword Inquiry Forest’s next trials.

Qi Yun entered the Sword Inquiry Forest’s Reflection Pool and rejected the three sword paths it offered, choosing instead to follow his own pursuit of freedom. In the sword forest, he resonated with an unremarkable ancient sword and obtained the incomplete Nameless Swordsmanship, which he intended to improve with the Law Technique Panel.

• Qi Yun examined the Reflection Pool, whose shifting image could not settle on a clear measure of his sword potential.
• The inheritance presented Qi Yun with Deceptive Mist, Layered Peaks, and Flowing Light, but he rejected all three preset paths.
• Qi Yun entered the sword forest without a sword-intent seed and released his Dao heart’s pursuit of freedom.
• A dull, bent dark-gray sword responded to Qi Yun’s intent, and he drew it from the earth.
• Qi Yun received the incomplete Nameless Swordsmanship and resolved to develop it with the Law Technique Panel.

After emerging from the Sword Inquiry Forest, Qi Yun learned that more than two months had passed outside and that a battle at Teapot Valley had exposed an Earth Temple inside the Yin Ruins. He chose to avoid the dangerous struggle for the temple and continued cultivating, while the northwestern powers converged on Teapot Valley.

• Qi Yun discovered that time had passed far more slowly in the Sword Inquiry Forest than in the outside world.
• Qi Yun read reports that a battle between the Wuji Sacred Sect and the Yellow Springs Netherworld had torn open the Yin Ruins and revealed an Earth Temple.
• Qi Yun recognized that the Earth Temple could provide abundant pure Qi of Earth Sha, but decided the danger of fighting over it outweighed the benefits.
• Qi Yun disguised himself as Zhang Mazi and resumed traveling to Earthly Sha sites to cultivate and open apertures.
• The Azure Sect, Phoenix Helm, and other powers sent forces toward Teapot Valley as the struggle over the Earth Temple intensified, while Qi Yun remained away and continued his cultivation.

After spending six months opening fifty-three Earth Sha apertures, Qi Yun entered Teapot Valley’s Yin Ruins to seek a new source of cultivation. He reached the rift and prepared to absorb its Earth Sha, while a mysterious Daoist watched him enter with apparent expectation.

• Qi Yun learned that the Wuji Sacred Sect, Yellow Springs Netherworld, Azure Sect, and Phoenix Helm had divided control of Teapot Valley and restricted access to the Earth Temple.
• After failing to find unoccupied Earth Sha caves, Qi Yun decided to risk entering Teapot Valley under his Zhang Mazi disguise.
• Qi Yun obtained a thirty-day passage token at a Holy Sect entrance, where a middle-aged Daoist watched him and remarked that he had been waiting for him.
• Qi Yun passed through the light screen and saw the ruined Yin Ruins, the spatial rift, and the ancient Earth Temple within it.
• Qi Yun sensed the unopened apertures stirring and walked toward the rift to find a place to cultivate.

Qi Yun agreed to seize control of the Earth Temple after True Person Qianxin offered him a Wind-Calming Pill and the Holy Sect’s Foundation Establishment method. The Yin Ruins were then sealed, and Qianxin turned suspicion toward the Yellow Springs Netherworld by claiming the seal resembled its technique.

• Qi Yun absorbed the Earth Sha in the Yin Ruins until True Person Qianxin contacted him and assigned him to seize the Earth Temple’s core during an impending seal.
• Qi Yun initially resisted the dangerous mission, but agreed after Qianxin promised him a Wind-Calming Pill and the Holy Sect’s Foundation Establishment method.
• Half a day later, the Yin Ruins were enclosed by a dark-gray sealing barrier that cut off communication and access between the valley and the outside.
• Foundation Establishment True Persons from the four sects gathered outside the barrier to investigate, and a Yellow Springs Netherworld True Person recognized patterns resembling his sect’s Ghost Gate Pass Sealing Great Art.
• True Person Qianxin called attention to the resemblance, prompting the Azure Sect and Phoenix Helm True Persons to turn their suspicion toward the Yellow Springs Netherworld.

Qi Yun entered the Earth Temple fissure after planting the Soul Refining Banner outside to keep the other sects away. When a Phoenix Helm disciple attacked the banner, its resentful souls overwhelmed her, while an Azure Sect disciple watched with interest.

• Qi Yun failed to use Gather Form and Disperse Qi to slip into the fissure, so he approached it carrying the Soul Refining Banner.
• A Phoenix Helm disciple rushed past Qi Yun, and one sweep of his banner sent her flying and shattered both her arms.
• Qi Yun planted the Soul Refining Banner beside the fissure and leaped into the Earth Temple.
• The Phoenix Helm disciple recovered with secret medicine and attacked the banner with a rainbow radiance formed from a hundred spiritual birds.
• The banner unleashed pale ghost hands that tore apart the rainbow radiance and dragged the Phoenix Helm disciple toward its darkness.
• The Azure Sect disciple watched the banner’s power with growing interest as its resentful souls prepared to seize their attacker.

Qi Yun entered the Earth Temple and discovered that its dense Earth Sha could corrupt his talismans and power hidden clay monks. One clay monk’s Buddhist chanting began forcing Earth Sha into Qi Yun and tempting him to surrender, but the Soul Refining Banner disrupted the chant and helped him escape.

• The cultivators of the three sects attacked the Soul Refining Banner, but its hundred resentful souls formed a ghost domain that held them back.
• An Azure Sect disciple shattered the banner’s formation with his ancient sword, and the damaged banner fled into the Earth Temple fissure after Qi Yun.
• Qi Yun entered the dusky-yellow temple, where the surrounding Earth Sha quickly corroded his Thousand Cranes Talismans.
• Qi Yun trapped a clay monk with iron-sand chains, but the monk’s chanting caused his earth sha acupoints to absorb Sha Qi and began tempting him to submit.
• The Soul Refining Banner drowned out the chanting, allowing Qi Yun to break the gathered Sha Qi in his body and flee with the banner.

Qi Yun fought the Earth Temple’s Buddhist intent with the Soul Refining Banner and his ghost army, seeking a way to reach the temple’s core. He broke through the golden Buddhist light and entered the crack, leaving his fate inside the main hall unknown.

• Qi Yun examined the Sword Qi lodged in his Soul Refining Banner and suspected an Azure Sect cultivator had wounded it.
• As Qi Yun explored deeper into the Earth Temple, clay monks repeatedly blocked his way and instantly restored themselves when destroyed.
• Qi Yun realized that overwhelming the Buddhist intent with pure yin-baleful power might force the temple to recognize him and open the way to its core.
• Qi Yun planted the Soul Refining Banner and unleashed the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts, forming a nether ghost domain against the temple’s Buddhist manifestations.
• Qi Yun replenished his True Essence with pills and drove the Soul Refining Banner’s black Qi into the golden Buddhist light, opening a crack.
• Qi Yun swept up the banner and plunged through the crack.

Qi Yun agreed to accept Mingxin’s Buddhist inheritance, but Mingxin began forcibly cleansing his Devil Cultivation Methods after empowering him to the Qi Refining Eighth Layer. True Person Qianxin then appeared in Qi Yun’s Sea of Consciousness and suppressed Mingxin’s Buddhist light, preparing to grant Qi Yun another benefit.

• Mingxin appeared in the Earth Temple’s empty main hall and offered Qi Yun the Great Radiance Glazed Treasure Scripture, purification, cultivation advancement, and the role of Buddha Son in exchange for returning his relic to the Great Radiance Temple.
• Qi Yun agreed, and Mingxin entered his Sea of Consciousness to begin the inheritance.
• Mingxin opened Qi Yun’s remaining apertures with Buddhist light, advancing him to the Qi Refining Eighth Layer, Hundred Apertures Spirit Connection.
• Mingxin prepared to erase Qi Yun’s Devil Cultivation Methods, but True Person Qianxin appeared in Qi Yun’s Sea of Consciousness and sealed it with azure light.
• Qianxin praised Qi Yun for drawing benefits from two True Persons and said he would lend him a hand.

True Person Qianxin defeated Mingxin’s remnant thought in Qi Yun’s Sea of Consciousness, leaving Qi Yun with a sarira and Buddhist prayer beads that could aid his cultivation. After Qianxin departed, Qi Yun revealed he had risked the confrontation because his Nether Spring White Bone Method could resurrect his soul, and prepared to make use of his gains.

• True Person Qianxin used his Devil Cultivation Method to overwhelm Mingxin’s remnant thought, which self-immolated and left behind a sarira.
• True Person Qianxin gathered Mingxin’s scattered Buddhist power into twelve prayer beads and gave them to Qi Yun, explaining that the struggle had improved Qi Yun’s aptitude and cleansed his body.
• True Person Qianxin praised Qi Yun’s gains, said he would handle the Earth Temple and the people outside, and questioned whether Qi Yun had truly gambled; Qi Yun stayed silent.
• After True Person Qianxin vanished, Qi Yun’s soul weakened from the clash and he revealed that White Bone Regeneration could restore his body and soul if the gamble went wrong.
• Qi Yun steadied himself, held the prayer beads, and turned his attention to digesting his gains.

Qi Yun reached the Qi Refining Eighth Layer, gained improved aptitude and twelve prayer beads filled with divine resonance, then tried to leave the Earth Temple. Outside, disciples from three sects attacked him, but he fought them off long enough to escape into the shadows.

• Qi Yun discovered that all 108 apertures in his body had opened and that his True Essence recovered far faster than before.
• Qi Yun sensed that the Buddhist baptism had improved his aptitude and left a protective mystical power in his bloodline.
• Qi Yun examined the twelve prayer beads and found that each contained a vast lake of refined divine resonance that could help him reach the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.
• Qi Yun disguised himself as Zhang Mazi and opened the hall door, where disciples of the Yellow Springs Netherworld, Azure Sect, and Phoenix Helm confronted him.
• The three sects attacked, but Qi Yun used the Soul Refining Banner and Nether Spring White Bone Method to withstand their assault and drive them back.
• Qi Yun stopped the Azure Sect disciple from drawing his sword with a flicker of intent, then vanished into the shadows and escaped.

Qi Yun escaped the Earth Temple with the central sarira already in True Person Qianxin’s hands, then concealed his strength as the four sects’ True Persons broke into the Yin Ruins and searched for the people behind the upheaval. With the Wuji Sacred Sect’s True Persons shielding him from karmic divination, Qi Yun left the ruins and vanished at the temporary market.

• Qi Yun left the Earth Temple, returned to the Yin Ruins, and sat aside to tend his damaged Soul Refining Banner.
• The four sects’ Foundation Establishment True Persons shattered the Yin Ruins’ sealing screen and began tracing the upheaval through karma.
• Qi Yun sensed the divination closing in, but the Wuji Sacred Sect’s True Persons blocked the search and concealed his karmic traces.
• Qi Yun sealed most of his opened apertures and suppressed his cultivation from the eighth layer to the seventh, fooling the other sects’ Divine Sense scans.
• After the True Persons entered the Earth Temple, True Person Qianxin signaled Qi Yun to leave, and Qi Yun exited the Yin Ruins.
• Qi Yun used [Gather Form and Disperse Qi] to conceal himself at the temporary market.

Qi Yun returned to the Wuji Sacred Sect after a year away, having advanced to the Qi Refining Eighth Layer, and learned that the old True Person had arranged his dangerous mission in the Teapot Valley Yin Ruins as both protection and a test. The old True Person offered to guide Qi Yun through his next cultivation hurdle, then revealed he had at most fifty years before beginning a new life through reincarnation.

• Qi Yun returned to the Wuji Sacred Sect and visited the old True Person at the Green Mountain Daoist Temple.
• Qi Yun reasoned that the old True Person had arranged for him to undertake the mission involving the Earth Temple's core, and the old True Person admitted it had been a test as well as an investment in him.
• The old True Person urged Qi Yun to remain in the sect and approach the dangerous Qi Refining Ninth Layer with caution, offering to answer his cultivation questions.
• The old True Person told Qi Yun he had at most fifty years before undergoing Liberation by Violence and entering reincarnation.
• Qi Yun promised to meet the old True Person's expectations, and the old True Person cautioned him not to let the deadline disrupt his cultivation.

After a month of preparation, Qi Yun began cultivating the Qi Refining Ninth Layer and sensed his three souls on his first attempt. Facing debts and an empty purse, he started teaching his resentful souls to draw talismans, hoping to build a ghostly production force.

• Qi Yun spent a month strengthening his foundation and then began cultivating the Divine Soul Realm, using the Bright Lamp Single-Mind Method to quiet his thoughts and sense Fetal Light, Bright Spirit, and Hidden Essence.
• Qi Yun found the Mystic Nether One Qi Bottle technique and its artifact blueprint in the Holy Sect Treasure Market, but lacked the Sacred Yuan to afford them.
• Qi Yun remembered his debts to Ning Feng and for the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha Diagram, and decided to earn money by making talismans.
• Qi Yun summoned intelligent resentful souls from his Soul Refining Banner and guided one to draw a Baleful Intent-Breaking Talisman, but its Yin Qi ruined the paper.
• Qi Yun switched to the Mystic Yin Slashing Law Talisman and continued guiding the souls through repeated attempts, aiming to create a tireless talisman-making force.

Qi Yun negotiated a better commission with Ning Feng and began selling a large batch of Mystic Yin Slashing Law Talismans made by resentful souls in his Soul Refining Banner. After receiving an advance payment, he repaid his Holy Sect loan and bought materials to upgrade the banner, leaving its minor version update complete.

• Qi Yun insisted on a twenty-eighty split, and Ning Feng agreed after learning Qi Yun had another unusual type of talisman to sell.
• Qi Yun gave Ning Feng the 2,500 Thousand Cranes Talismans he owed and entrusted him with a large batch of Mystic Yin Slashing Law Talismans, receiving an advance payment.
• Qi Yun inspected the resentful souls’ talisman production line in the Soul Refining Banner and decided to improve the banner’s capacity and output.
• Several days later, Qi Yun received Ning Feng’s advance payment and repaid his 20,000-Sacred-Yuan Holy Sect loan in full.
• Qi Yun spent much of the remaining payment on materials to strengthen the Soul Refining Banner and accelerate the creation of resentful souls.
• Qi Yun refined the purchased treasures into the Soul Refining Banner until its minor version update was complete.

Qi Yun upgraded the Soul Refining Banner into a talisman-producing tool, used the profits to acquire the Mystic Nether One Qi Bottle, and spent nearly three years cultivating steadily. The chapter ended when he received a visiting card from someone who had also entered the Inner Mansion and wondered whether to meet him.

• Qi Yun strengthened the Soul Refining Banner, repeatedly bred and refined its resentful souls, and began selling their Mystic Yin Slashing Law Talismans through Ning Feng.
• With the resulting income, Qi Yun redeemed the Mystic Nether One Qi Bottle technique and commissioned its Law Artifact from a sect artifact refiner.
• Qi Yun received the completed bottle and began cultivating Mystic Nether Erosion while continuing to stabilize and unite his three souls.
• Over nearly three years, Qi Yun’s cultivation and talisman business progressed steadily, though his three souls did not fully merge into a divine soul.
• Qi Yun received a visiting card from someone who had entered the Inner Mansion and considered whether to meet him.

Li Chong visited Qi Yun and asked him to help kill Chang Qing, an Inner Mansion cultivator nearing the ninth Qi Refining Layer, offering the Three Lives Glazed Treasure Mirror as payment. Qi Yun reserved his answer for three days and then asked Ning Feng to investigate Chang Qing, but Ning Feng said he did not know him.

• Li Chong visited Qi Yun after years apart, and both recognized that their cultivation and positions had changed.
• Li Chong asked Qi Yun to help kill Chang Qing, explaining that Chang Qing was powerful, hard to catch, and close to reaching the ninth layer.
• Li Chong offered Qi Yun the Three Lives Glazed Treasure Mirror, which Qi Yun recognized as a valuable aid to cultivating his divine soul.
• Qi Yun questioned Li Chong's motives and risks, then asked for three days to decide whether to help.
• After Li Chong left, Qi Yun summoned Ning Feng and asked him to investigate Chang Qing; Ning Feng said he did not know him.