Chapter Summaries

Fang Lin and Jiang Wangxuan descended beneath Jinping Mountain and discovered an underground wilderness inside the roots of an ancient dead tree, where the Spider Mother guarded the Cicada Immortal’s legacy. Jiang Wangxuan learned the tree’s name was Yin, while Fang Lin realized his connection to Him had been severed; the two then faced the Spider Mother’s warning.

• Fang Lin and Jiang Wangxuan followed the dead tree’s roots underground and realized they formed the foundation of Jinping Mountain and a vast spider nest.
• Jiang Wangxuan’s Cicada Immortal thumb ring reacted, and Fang Lin gave him a Hearth Stone before they continued into the depths.
• Fang Lin and Jiang Wangxuan passed through a ruined door and found a vast underground wilderness beneath the tangled roots.
• Jiang Wangxuan sensed the Black Tide’s nostalgia and learned through his bloodline that the ancient dead tree was named Yin.
• Fang Lin discovered that his connection to Him had faded and his karma could no longer be seen in the underground wilderness.
• The Spider Mother hissed at the intruders, and Fang Lin and Jiang Wangxuan criticized its failure to pursue the immortal path.

Jiang Wangxuan and Fang Lin found the Cicada Immortal’s sanctuary in Jinping Mountain, where the Southern Fire spider mother accused the Jixia Fang Clan of destroying her people and attacked them. The pair fought back in the spider mother’s blood-infested domain, but she engulfed Fang Lin’s Cooking Radiance Kindling King Body in Blood Yang Spirit Fire, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Jiang Wangxuan and Fang Lin followed the frostbell flowers to the Cicada Immortal’s small temple and realized the winter cicada had once made Jinping Mountain its home.
• Fang Lin explained that True Person Shouhui’s attempt to use the incense-fire path to restore the withered tree had failed, and a spider mother mocked them for discussing his Dao.
• The spider mother revealed she was the last surviving Empty Shrine Blessing-Bestowing Spider of Punishment Yang Peak and blamed the Jixia Fang Clan for the deaths of its 1,352 souls.
• Fang Lin offered to take the spider mother back to Jixia and have his clan shoulder her grievances, but she and the voices within her rejected his offer and attacked.
• The spider mother’s blood-red peach shoots penetrated the pair’s defenses, drained Fang Lin’s kindling fire, destroyed Jiang Wangxuan’s flood dragon spirit, and turned the stream into a river of blood crawling with Blood Spiders.
• Fang Lin and Jiang Wangxuan launched a coordinated assault, but the spider mother ignited the peach branches and blossoms on the Cooking Radiance Kindling King Body with Blood Yang Spirit Fire, engulfing it in flames.

Jiang Wangxuan and Fang Lin subdued the broodmother after Fang Lin unleashed the Soaring Luan’s Ascending Soar Fire, but the broodmother revealed how Punishment Yang Peak’s elders had sacrificed themselves to preserve their inheritance. She consumed the Cicada Immortal’s slough and transformed, trapping Fang Lin in the reborn frost-covered peach grove as Jiang Wangxuan faced the new threat.

• Fang Lin summoned the Soaring Luan’s Ascending Soar Fire, which burned through the valley and scattered the broodmother’s blood-shadow guardians, including her last surviving attendant.
• Jiang Wangxuan bound the wounded broodmother with Clear Water while Fang Lin explained that he could not fully unleash the fire’s soul-burning power without Foundation Establishment.
• The broodmother told Jiang Wangxuan and Fang Lin that Punishment Yang Peak’s elders had merged into her bloodline and sacrificed themselves to preserve their inheritance.
• The broodmother broke free of Jiang Wangxuan’s water prison as frost spread from the ruined temple, then consumed the Cicada Immortal’s slough and began transforming.
• The transformed broodmother restored the peach grove as a frozen thicket and trapped Fang Lin inside, while he urged Jiang Wangxuan to run.

The Spider Mother used the Cicada Immortal’s molt and Radiant Wish to forge the Sacrificial Offering, Fortune and Descendants Immortal Foundation, while Jiang Wangxuan revealed his Grand Yin cultivation and attacked her. Fang Lin held back the Radiant Wish, and Jiang Wangxuan’s true body appeared behind the Spider Mother as her counterattack began.

• Fang Lin realized that the Spider Mother’s bloodline and the Radiant Wish could let her purify her lineage and forge an Immortal Foundation.
• Jiang Wangxuan revealed his Autumn Frost sword and Grand Yin spells, destroyed much of the peach grove, and rescued Fang Lin.
• The Spider Mother summoned a golden-red great axe and a headless great shaman to defend herself against Jiang Wangxuan’s attacks.
• Fang Lin used Stove Inviting the Lord Instruction to halt the Radiant Wish before the Spider Mother could swallow it.
• Jiang Wangxuan’s moon shadows froze the great shaman’s axe, and his Sword Qi wounded the Spider Mother.
• The Spider Mother turned her abdomen toward Jiang Wangxuan, who appeared behind her in his true body.

Jiang Wangxuan killed the Spider Mother, spared the unconscious Fang Lin, and left Jinping Mountain with the golden-red blood bead. Fang Lin woke at home and learned that a Grand Yin Qi Refining cultivator had been murdered in Lüyu, leaving him fearing Jiang Wangxuan was the victim.

• Jiang Wangxuan used Silver River Moonlight to kill the Spider Mother, who condensed her remaining bloodline and shattered Immortal Foundation into a golden-red blood bead and revealed that his original surname was Jiang.
• Jiang Wangxuan ignored Big Fat Fish's warnings and spared Fang Lin, then left Jinping Mountain while planning to investigate the mountain's hidden hollows and the Spider Mother's outside connections.
• Fang Lin woke in the Jixia Fang Household study and told Fang Xiu that his Immortal Foundation had merged with a remnant wish and that he wanted to go to Yuanhuai Heaven to visit Jiang Wangxuan.
• Fang Xiu told Fang Lin that Luyu Port was closed after a Grand Yin Qi Refining cultivator was murdered while attempting Foundation Establishment, and that Luyu University's recruitment qualification was under threat.
• Fang Lin erupted with Hearth Fire and asked Fang Xiu whether the murdered cultivator had been surnamed Jiang.

After waking at the Jiang household, injured Fang Lin urged the family to move to Jixia and then asked Jiang Wangxuan to return there with him. Jiang Wangxuan had not answered by the chapter’s end.

• Fang Lin woke in Jiang Wangxuan’s home and found the Moon-Worshipping Spirit-Calming Benediction was helping stabilize his injured Qi Sea and dimmed six wheels.
• Jiang Wangxuan returned home with Ms. Wang and Jiang Dezhao, who had received the fifth-grade Mystic Horn Spring-Abiding Scripture from Huaqi.
• Fang Lin encouraged Ms. Wang to move the Jiang household to Jixia, but Jiang Dezhao and his mother rejected the idea.
• Jiang Wangxuan urged Fang Lin to return to Jixia for treatment, and Fang Lin asked him to escort him there rather than contact the Fang Clan.
• After sharing the evening breeze on the balcony, Fang Lin asked Jiang Wangxuan to go back to Jixia with him.

Fang Lin warned Jiang Wangxuan about the dangers surrounding Luyu University and tried to protect him from a future death, but Jiang Wangxuan cautioned Fang Lin that his obsessive deductions were harming him. After Fang Lin left Luzhou, Jiang Wangxuan returned to Jinping Mountain and discovered that a hidden secret realm between two peaks held the Radiant Wish and the true secret of the Jiang Household’s bloodline.

• Fang Lin urged Jiang Wangxuan to make his Foundation Establishment breakthrough in Jixia, but Jiang Wangxuan refused to abandon Luyu University and its teachers.
• Fang Lin warned Jiang Wangxuan that the former Dongyuan lineage and the conflict surrounding Yuanhuai Heaven could threaten him, then became consumed by his deductions about Jiang Wangxuan’s future death.
• Jiang Wangxuan noticed Fang Lin’s true essence and Law Power going out of control, calmed him with moonlight, and warned him that wisdom taken to extremes harmed the body.
• The next morning, Fang Lin said farewell to Jiang Wangxuan and left Luzhou by high-speed train for Jixia.
• Jiang Wangxuan watched the station throughout the day, then returned to Jinping Mountain and found a hidden secret realm between two peaks that contained the Radiant Wish and the Jiang Household bloodline’s true secret.

Jiang Wangxuan entered the hidden realm in Jinping Mountain and witnessed Martial Uncle Yin’s memories of the Jiang clan’s bloodline and his attempt to defy its fate. The realm awakened the dead tree, which transformed into a demonic giant and turned the thunder and flames against Jiang Wangxuan.

• Jiang Wangxuan used Autumn Frost and the Black Tide to open the illusory entrance to the secret realm between Jinping Mountain’s peaks.
• Jiang Wangxuan found a tiny cicada sheltered inside an ancient tree’s stump and learned that the realm preserved Jinping Mountain after a catastrophic disaster.
• Jiang Wangxuan witnessed projections of Punishment Sacrifice Peak survivors, including Martial Uncle Yin, who told Tao Yao to leave and warned that the realm must not be reopened.
• Martial Uncle Yin revealed that he had changed his surname from Jiang to Yin and sought a Renewed Wood demonic-path Divine Ability to investigate and defy the Jiang bloodline’s fate.
• Martial Uncle Yin accused the Jiang bloodline of seeking his Horn Wood and restoring Renewed Wood, then the dead stump revived into a monstrous tree that absorbed lightning and transformed the flames as it faced Jiang Wangxuan.

Jiang Wangxuan witnessed the demonic tree consume Jinping Mountain and the secret realm before the frost cicada drew on his power to summon a phantom Jinping Mountain. The mountain crushed the black sun, with Martial Uncle Yin’s [Horn Wood] shoot helping weaken it, and landed as a seven-colored mountain poised between illusion and reality.

• Jiang Wangxuan learned from Big Fat Fish that True Person Shouhui had made the secret realm a cage for the demonic tree and intended Jinping Mountain to suppress it with a newborn spirit.
• The frost cicada appeared and shattered the demonic tree with mysterious frost soul light, but black slime swallowed Jinping Mountain and the rest of the secret realm.
• The frost cicada froze the rising black sun beneath an ice mirror and asked Jiang Wangxuan to lend his strength, drawing moonlight from his Qi sea to complete the cold moon almost fully.
• The frost cicada transformed into seven-colored light, which summoned a translucent, half-real Jinping Mountain from the sky.
• Jinping Mountain pressed down on the black sun, while a [Horn Wood] shoot from Martial Uncle Yin drew away some of its presence.
• The black sun burst beneath the mountain, and Jinping landed amid swirling ice dust and seven-colored light.

Jiang Wangxuan absorbed the Black Tide and obtained the Cicada Immortal’s high-grade Cultivation Method before returning to Luyu. After demonstrating the Moon-Worshipping Spirit-Calming Benediction, he persuaded Lin Tongjiang to help him attempt Foundation Establishment at the Clear Frost Osmanthus Garden.

• Big Fat Fish ate the black residue, absorbed the Black Tide, and gained a pitch-black shadow in the Rising Yang Mansion.
• Jiang Wangxuan received the Cicada Immortal’s Cultivation Method, the Cicada Molting Under the Moon, Seeking Purity Epistle, but closed it before he could comprehend it.
• Jiang Wangxuan left the collapsing secret realm and headed back to Luyu after receiving a barrage of messages from Lin Tongjiang.
• Lin Tongjiang met Jiang Wangxuan at Luyu Station and discovered that his Grand Yin presence had vanished.
• Jiang Wangxuan displayed the Moon-Worshipping Spirit-Calming Benediction and declared that he was ready to establish his foundation.
• Lin Tongjiang agreed to take Jiang Wangxuan to the Clear Frost Osmanthus Garden for his Foundation Establishment attempt.

Lin Tongjiang brought Jiang Wangxuan to the parent Plain Shadow Cold Moon Osmanthus tree and prepared him to attempt Foundation Establishment beneath its platform. After Jiang Wangxuan entrusted him with his final arrangements, Lin Tongjiang left him the White Hair Moon-Illuminating Pill and let him begin forging his Immortal Foundation.

• Lin Tongjiang directed Jiang Wangxuan to enter seclusion beneath the parent osmanthus tree, where the garden's Spirit Vein converged.
• Jiang Wangxuan welcomed news that professors had taken an interest in his younger sister, Jiang Jinyi, and explained how his own cultivation had prepared him to forge an Immortal Foundation.
• Lin Tongjiang gave Jiang Wangxuan a soul casket, and Jiang Wangxuan recorded how his possessions and family should be cared for if he died.
• Lin Tongjiang promised to delay news of Jiang Wangxuan's death and to support Jiang Jinyi if she later pursued an Immortal Foundation.
• Lin Tongjiang declared that Jiang Wangxuan's affairs were settled and left the White Hair Moon-Illuminating Pill beside him as he began his breakthrough.

Jiang Wangxuan attempted Foundation Establishment with the White Hair Moon-Illuminating Pill, but its tainted lunar essence unleashed a blood moon that transformed his body and emotions into monsters. As his last trace of self faced being consumed, Big Fat Fish appeared and ordered the red moon out of his home.

• Jiang Wangxuan swallowed the White Hair Moon-Illuminating Pill beneath the moon and began forming an Immortal Foundation as six streams of spiritual light merged into his silver-white lunar disk.
• A scarlet crescent moon appeared in his Rising Yang Mansion, and the pill's lunar essence turned red and invaded his sea of Qi.
• Jiang Wangxuan realized the pill had been tainted and suspected someone had targeted him, possibly through the pill rather than Lüyu University itself.
• The blood moon activated Jiang Wangxuan's flesh and negative emotions, turning his body and feelings into monstrous forms that threatened to consume his Spiritual Sense.
• Jiang Wangxuan entered an indifferent state close to comprehending the Dao and examined the red moon as a corrupted Grand Yin lunar phase.
• Big Fat Fish appeared and roared at the red moon to get out of her home.

Jiang Wangxuan subdued the contaminated crimson waxing crescent moon by copying its moon phase and absorbing it into his sea of Qi, but the impact sent his Spiritual Sense into a mysterious vision. In a vision spanning centuries, a ritual dance faded from human memory before a giant bird rediscovered a moon-shaped carving and revived the dance.

• Big Fat Fish fought the crimson moon with her broom and fists, then used the Black Tide to wear it down as Jiang Wangxuan studied its waxing crescent phase.
• Jiang Wangxuan formed a matching moon phase in his sea of Qi, drawing in moonlight and absorbing blossoms from the Plain Shadow Cold Moon Osmanthus as the tree weakened.
• Jiang Wangxuan pulled the crimson moon into his sea of Qi, where it merged with his copied phase and shattered it, sending his Spiritual Sense into a mysterious realm.
• Jiang Wangxuan watched a tribe worship at a desert altar and perform a ritual dance across many centuries, until the shrinking oasis and passing generations brought the custom to an end.
• A giant bird found a small moon-shaped stone carving beneath the sand, began performing the ancient ritual dance, and flew east with the carving under a waxing crescent moon.

Jiang Wangxuan awakened the ancient moon-bound statue and forged the Immortal Foundation “Immortal Moon Township,” a world in his Qi sea shaped by the moon’s passage through time. He learned that he had to complete the moon’s cycle, but his cultivation stalled just short of a full moon.

• An old river tracker found a faceless stone statue and took it home, where it remained through generations as Jiangbei transformed around it.
• The statue’s consciousness awakened in a moon palace and, during a Go game with a white-haired immortal, placed a stone that changed the board from nineteen-by-nineteen to twenty-five-by-twenty-five.
• Jiang Wangxuan awakened and instinctively slapped Big Fat Fish aside before examining the transformed world in his Qi sea.
• Jiang Wangxuan recognized that Immortal Moon Township was both an Immortal Foundation and a Dao Foundation, containing a world beneath an ever-changing moon.
• Jiang Wangxuan made the moon wax almost to fullness, then stopped when he reached the limit of his current cultivation.

After awakening from Foundation Establishment, Jiang Wangxuan understood how his Immortal Moon Township related to the Autumn Moon Osmanthus Immortal Foundation and discovered he had gained the Spirit Awakening ability. He strengthened the Plain Shadow Cold Moon Osmanthus, learned that the Black Tide had returned under Big Fat Fish’s suppression, and put off investigating his enemies and bloodline until he grew stronger.

• Jiang Wangxuan awoke more than a month after Foundation Establishment and realized that his Immortal Moon Township had cultivated a trace of Grand Yin’s true essence resembling the Autumn Moon Osmanthus Immortal Foundation.
• Jiang Wangxuan recognized that a hidden enemy had arranged the White Hair Moon-Illuminating Pill and decided to conceal his knowledge while waiting for the enemy to act again.
• Jiang Wangxuan used Spirit Awakening and the Moon-Worshipping Spirit-Calming Benediction to strengthen the Plain Shadow Cold Moon Osmanthus and forge its spirituality into a starburst.
• Big Fat Fish demanded more moonlight as a reward, then told Jiang Wangxuan that the Black Tide had returned and that she could suppress it for now.
• Big Fat Fish revealed that the Black Tide had produced the sixth-grade True Explanation of Sloughing Wood, Crossing Tribulations, and Transforming Spirits, which Jiang Wangxuan sealed away without examining.

Lin Tongjiang approved the appointments of Gu Changhuai and Fu Zhaohua while worrying about the risks of Jiang Wangxuan’s unsanctioned Foundation Establishment attempt. When Jiang Wangxuan’s jade-green box signaled a breakthrough, Lin rushed to the Clear Frost Osmanthus Garden and found him safely established with the Autumn Moon Osmanthus Immortal Foundation.

• Lin Tongjiang signed the employment forms for Gu Changhuai and Fu Zhaohua, whose arrival threatened to strengthen Lüyu’s Water Virtue department.
• Lin Tongjiang watched the jade-green box and reflected that Jiang Wangxuan’s Foundation Establishment attempt could bring consequences for him and True Person Chonghuan.
• The jade-green box released Lunar Essence and Grand Yin presence, prompting Lin Tongjiang to fly toward the Clear Frost Osmanthus Garden and send sound transmission talismans for True Person Chonghuan.
• A True Person ordered the academic affairs office and campus administration office to fine Lin Tongjiang for flying through the Central Palace.
• Lin Tongjiang reached the garden and found Jiang Wangxuan seated peacefully after forging the Autumn Moon Osmanthus Immortal Foundation.
• Jiang Wangxuan invited Lin Tongjiang to join him for tea, and Lin smiled as they sat together.

After Jiang Wangxuan emerged from seclusion having established his foundation, True Person Chonghuan praised his effect on the Plain Shadow Cold Moon Osmanthus and tested Lin Tongjiang’s understanding of cultivation. Jiang Wangxuan’s insight into spirit deepened his Immortal Foundation, and True Person Chonghuan began a trial for Lin Tongjiang.

• Jiang Wangxuan celebrated his Grand Yin Foundation Establishment with Lin Tongjiang, who asked about his plans for cultivation.
• True Person Chonghuan arrived and declared Jiang Wangxuan the foremost Grand Yin cultivator Yuanhuai Heaven had seen in centuries, noting that the osmanthus had begun to harbor gold and gather spirit.
• True Person Chonghuan challenged Lin Tongjiang to explain the osmanthus’s transformation, and Lin described its Grand Yin nature and the need to purify its cold Qi.
• Jiang Wangxuan explained that the osmanthus had connected with spirit, and his insight into essence, Qi, and spirit filled in nearly half the missing portion of his Immortal Foundation’s full-moon phase.
• Jiang Wangxuan stabilized his Foundation Establishment cultivation and advanced toward the Middle Stage, while Lin Tongjiang reflected on his student’s insight.
• True Person Chonghuan summoned a vast river-and-mountain spectacle and asked Lin Tongjiang if he was ready.

Jiang Wangxuan endured True Person Chonghuan’s test of his newly forged Immortal Foundation and revealed the power of Silver River Moonlight. After Chonghuan explained the history and stakes surrounding the Autumn Moon Osmanthus, he asked whether Jiang Wangxuan was afraid.

• True Person Chonghuan manifested Flow Eastward, and Lin Tongjiang tried to shield Jiang Wangxuan from its raging river before being swept away.
• Jiang Wangxuan used Autumn Moon Osmanthus and Silver River Moonlight to turn the river’s waves into a lake of stars and moon, but Chonghuan unleashed a storm and a second Flow Eastward to test him further.
• Chonghuan praised Jiang Wangxuan’s progress, sampled his osmanthus tea, named it Osmanthus Rain Flower Essence, and pocketed the tea box.
• Chonghuan told Jiang Wangxuan that Vast Cold Heaven and Jielin Hall would seek him out after he emerged from seclusion and explained Yuanhuai Heaven’s conflict with them.
• Chonghuan described the few cultivators who had formed the Autumn Moon Osmanthus Immortal Foundation and asked Jiang Wangxuan whether he was afraid.

True Person Chonghuan revealed the Autumn Moon Osmanthus lineage’s troubled history and offered Jiang Wangxuan a choice between transferring to Jielin Hall or taking him as an advisor at Lüyu University. Jiang Wangxuan heard that Chonghuan’s offer would protect his freedom and resources but would offend Jielin Hall, which controlled the later Purple Mansion cultivation methods.

• True Person Chonghuan told Jiang Wangxuan that Wei Jinghong had vanished in Jiangnan sixty years earlier, leaving the Grand Yin lineage divided and the disappearance unsolved.
• True Person Chonghuan explained that Yuanhuai Heaven could send Jiang Wangxuan to Jielin Hall as its Dao child, severing his ties to Lüyu and guaranteeing his safety.
• Jiang Wangxuan hesitated because he distrusted the Grand Yin lineages after receiving the potentially compromised White Hair Moon-Illuminating Pill.
• True Person Chonghuan offered to become Jiang Wangxuan’s academic advisor at Lüyu University, and Lin Tongjiang explained how their formal teacher-student bond would work.
• True Person Chonghuan warned Jiang Wangxuan that choosing him would offend Jielin Hall and leave Jiang Wangxuan dependent on Huaqi for only one later Purple Mansion cultivation method.

Jiang Wangxuan chose to stay in Lüyu as True Person Chonghuan’s student, then discovered that he bore [Grand Yin] fate, which had already empowered Chonghuan and Lin Tongjiang. Chonghuan ordered urgent measures to conceal Jiang Wangxuan’s fate and protect him, leaving Lin Tongjiang to carry out the arrangements while Jiang Wangxuan remained behind.

• Jiang Wangxuan weighed the risks of staying in Lüyu against going to Xuantian and chose to accept True Person Chonghuan as his teacher.
• Jiang Wangxuan explained his decision to Chonghuan, citing Lin Tongjiang’s guidance, his desire to strengthen his Dao foundation, and his wish to experience ordinary life.
• True Person Chonghuan accepted Jiang Wangxuan as his student and promised to devote himself to both Jiang Wangxuan’s and Lin Tongjiang’s Dao Paths.
• A surge of moonlight revealed Jiang Wangxuan’s [Grand Yin] fate, empowering Chonghuan and stirring Lin Tongjiang’s Immortal Foundation.
• True Person Chonghuan ordered Lin Tongjiang to secure Jiang Wangxuan’s records, move him into Clear Frost Osmanthus Garden, summon their junior sister, and seek help concealing his fate.
• True Person Chonghuan granted Lin Tongjiang authority to handle matters at Luyu University while he was away, then left; Jiang Wangxuan stayed behind drinking tea.