Chapter Summaries

Ox-Head and Horse-Face secretly entered Su Yao’s name into the Yin Register after an unseen power granted their request, then delayed their return to the Netherworld. Su Yao watched them leave and waited in the Great Void for heavenly envoys, meeting a grand procession with his Sword Intent quietly spreading.

• Ox-Head and Horse-Face feared returning after failing to enter Su Yao’s name and decided to claim that a great figure had detained them.
• Horse-Face appealed to unseen powers, who granted permission to record Su Yao’s name in the Yin Register and ordered them to bring Yellow Springs mud and track Judge Ding’s meals for a hundred years.
• Horse-Face and Ox-Head agreed to postpone their report and head toward Golden Ao Mountain, while Su Yao watched them disappear.
• Su Yao considered the Netherworld’s competing powers and waited in the Great Void for heavenly envoys to arrive.
• A silver-armored procession drawn by five flood dragons approached Su Yao, who quietly released his Crimson Dawn Unstained Night-Illuminating Clear Light Sword Intent.

Su Yao confronted a Dipper Department procession that brought an order commanding him to go to Purple Tenuity, and fought Zhi Nu when challenged. Before the order could be enforced, an old man from the Hall of Complete Illumination arrived and declared it a private decree that could not be proclaimed or enforced as a heavenly edict.

• Su Yao challenged the heavenly envoy’s authority and fought Zhi Nu, whose Heavenly Net was melted by Su Yao’s Rainbow Clouds power and whose attack was nearly pierced by Su Yao’s sword.
• The envoy read the Emperor Lord’s decree ordering Su Yao to go to Purple Tenuity for secluded cultivation without delay or refusal.
• An old man from the Hall of Complete Illumination arrived with a decree and congratulated Su Yao on reaching the Purple Mansion.
• The old man told the procession that the Emperor Lord’s edict had not passed through Lingxiao or the Hall of Complete Illumination, making it a private decree that could not be enforced.

Su Yao witnessed a clash between Daozheng and the Sovereign Lord’s heavenly procession before receiving a decree appointing him acting master of Qixia Temple. The decree empowered his talismanic order, and he left the encounter troubled by the growing conflict among the Heavenly Court’s leaders.

• The white-robed old man warned the Sovereign Lord’s attendant that he acted under the Star Lord’s orders, and the procession departed.
• Five-colored smoke Qi and Wu Earth light struck the procession; Daozheng’s attack destroyed Zhi Nu and the carriage before the North Star intervened and a bright moon shielded the envoy.
• After the heavenly forces vanished, the white-robed old man read the decree naming Su Yao acting master of Qixia Temple and ordering him to pacify Nanzhao before returning to complete the rites.
• The old man explained that Su Yao’s talismanic decree could now communicate with the Hall of Complete Illumination and summon divine officials and generals.
• The white-robed old man departed, and Su Yao suspected the decree reflected an intensifying conflict in the Heavenly Court that would end in ruin.

Su Yao received Jade Void Palace’s decree appointing him to lead Proclaiming Earth’s journey through Nanzhao and granting him the Daoist name Qingyan. He returned to Golden Ao Mountain as Qixia Temple’s rightful master and celebrated with the disciples.

• A child bearing the Taiji Talisman Edict delivered Jade Void Palace’s decree to Su Yao, ordering him to oversee Proclaiming Earth’s journey through Nanzhao and granting him the name Qingyan.
• The child privately told Su Yao that Jade Void Palace recognized him as Qixia Temple’s rightful head and would support him if trouble arose.
• The edicts from Jade Void Palace and the Hall of Complete Illumination entered Su Yao’s Daoist Gate Talisman Edict, transforming it into Qixia Temple’s Law Seal.
• Su Yao returned to Golden Ao Mountain, where Liu Yunhe, Zhang Ziyan, and the others welcomed him as Qixia Temple’s master.
• Su Yao hosted a feast in the Pear Garden, toasted those he remembered, and called for more wine.

After breaking through to the Purple Mansion, Su Yao discussed Nanzhao’s worsening drought and the political turmoil around Proclaiming Earth with Liu Yunhe. He ordered Liu Yunhe to invite guests to a Dharma banquet five months later, then considered how the world and his fellow cultivators had changed during his nine years in seclusion.

• Su Yao learned from Liu Yunhe that Nanzhao had gone three years without rain and that True Person Ciyuan had died while seeking Gold, worsening the drought through his Great Yang cultivation.
• Su Yao told Liu Yunhe that morality could not be used as a universal measure and admitted that he wanted the Qixia lineage to prosper and to attain the Dao, then ordered him to invite guests to a Purple Mansion Dharma banquet.
• Su Yao checked on the three sleeping birds in his cave abode and reflected on the crown prince’s prolonged stay in Qingzhou and the court’s growing pressure on Nanzhao.
• Su Yao noted that a Five Laws True Person of the Langcao Wu Tribe had also died in secret, and suspected that both deaths were connected to Proclaiming Earth.
• Su Yao reviewed his fellow cultivators’ seclusions and learned that the Flower-Shifting Palace of Highest Clarity had abandoned its Nanzhao branch residence five years earlier.

Su Yao began cultivating his Divine Ability and discovered the Prism’s forty-eight innate restrictions, which he could not refine until he obtained the fruit of heaven and earth. At Cibi Lake, True Person Kuiwu persuaded Ao Xiao to work with him to pursue Li Chaoxue and Ni Polu and their Spirit Treasures.

• Su Yao decided to drive Proclaiming Earth west or north after it brought chaos to Nanzhao, then began studying Purple Mansion cultivation and the long process of perfecting his Divine Ability and condensing more talismans.
• Su Yao explored the Prism’s vast interior and saw its forty-eight restrictions, but the Prism pushed his mind out and told him to return after obtaining the fruit of heaven and earth.
• True Person Kuiwu visited Ao Xiao at Cibi Water Palace, and Ao Xiao challenged him over his past actions.
• Kuiwu argued that Li Chaoxue and Ni Polu had no viable ties to the Nanzhao royal family or the Mountain God of Cang Mountain that could protect them.
• Kuiwu showed Ao Xiao evidence that Li Chaoxue and Ni Polu possessed the Dusk Snow Flute and Morning Mist Drum, and warned that they would give the Spirit Treasures to the mountain god if they learned their role in opening the Purple-Blue Secret Realm.

Kuiwu persuaded Ao Xiao to join him in targeting Li Chaoxue and Ni Polu for their Spirit Treasures and the Lu Household bloodline needed to open Wu Nuo’s Purple-Blue Secret Realm. They agreed to strike together, though each secretly planned to claim the realm’s best treasures for himself.

• Kuiwu explained that two Spirit Treasures and Lu Household descendants who could cultivate Witch Talismans might open Wu Nuo’s Purple-Blue Secret Realm during Longchuan Heaven’s descent.
• Kuiwu and Ao Xiao discussed how Purple Mansions in Nanzhao had been manipulated into becoming expendable pieces, and Ao Xiao described the pressure he faced from his South Sea clan over Su Yao.
• Kuiwu argued that Su Yao would not oppose them if they avoided provoking Qixia Temple and gave him the treasures taken from the two Rogue Cultivators.
• Ao Xiao agreed to cooperate and demanded the Dusk Snow Flute, while Kuiwu accepted and secretly intended to claim the Morning Mist Drum and the realm’s finest treasures.
• Kuiwu said he had narrowed down the whereabouts of the Morning Mist Drum and Dusk Snow Flute with seventy percent certainty, and the two departed separately.

Xue Min emerged from seclusion and learned that Qixia Daozi Su Yao had attained the Purple Mansion and predicted Nanzhao would lose its statehood. Xue Min and Meng Shixi were summoned to meet Nanzhao’s ruler, whose grotto-heaven revealed the kingdom’s ancient ties to Nüwa and Subterranean Water.

• Meng Shixi told Xue Min that Qixia Daozi had attained the Purple Mansion, received the Daoist name Qingyan, and planned a Dharma banquet on Golden Ao Mountain.
• Meng Shixi recounted that Su Yao had refused her gift and said he would personally visit the royal court to pay respects to the descendant of the Orthodox God.
• Xue Min learned that the ruler had not responded, the old priest was away in the West Sea, and the princess had been in seclusion for seven years.
• A stairway of light appeared, and Xue Min and Meng Shixi climbed it after the ruler summoned them.
• Xue Min and Meng Shixi entered the ruler’s grotto-heaven and reached the Nüwa Temple at the heart of its islands.
• The chapter explained Nanzhao’s royal origins and that its present ruler followed the path of Subterranean Water.

Meng Shixi and Xue Min met Nanzhao’s ruler, Cangyuan Runze, in the Nüwa Temple, where the ruler asked what had happened during his twenty years in seclusion. After hearing of growing threats and Qixia Daozi’s rise, he lamented a prophecy that Nanzhao would perish by his own hand and wondered who would sacrifice to its ancestors afterward.

• Palace maids led Meng Shixi and Xue Min to the Nüwa Temple, where they entered the hall and paid their respects to Cangyuan Runze.
• Cangyuan Runze asked what had happened during his twenty years in seclusion, listing ominous forces gathering in every direction.
• Meng Shixi reported the Proclaiming Earth True Lord’s reincarnation, the deaths of True Persons from Yang Palace and Langcao, and Qixia Daozi’s advancement to the Purple Mansion.
• Meng Shixi explained that she had offered Qixia Daozi two mountains in the ruler’s name, but he had refused them.
• Cangyuan Runze said Qixia Daozi had likely refused because he knew of the prediction that Nanzhao would ultimately perish by the ruler’s hand, then asked who would sacrifice to the ancestors afterward.

Xue Min and Meng Shixi received the sovereign’s charge to use ancient treasures to confront Nanzhao’s drought and witch plague while preparing for the Purple-Blue Secret Realm. The sovereign lamented pressure to abandon Nanzhao’s name, and the two returned from the grotto-heaven with their missions and treasures.

• The sovereign gave Xue Min the Abyss-Bearing Guixu Bowl and ordered him to place it in Erhai Lake to keep the water veins from drying up.
• Meng Shixi explained that Ao Xiao and Kuiwu had tried to seize the Morning Mist Drum and Dusk Snow Flute, and the sovereign ordered the pair killed and Qixia Temple brought into the Purple-Blue Secret Realm expedition.
• The sovereign explained that the Dragon Palace of the South Sea, the Witch Hall, and Nanzhao each held a role in opening the secret realm, and that Wu Nuo’s bloodline was cultivating Witch Talismans.
• The sovereign gave Meng Shixi the Hundred Spirits Flower to combat the witch plague and ordered that the Zhao Household of Red Rock’s True Person could be killed but his lineage must survive.
• The sovereign insisted that Nanzhao’s ancestral name could not be abandoned, then sent Xue Min and Meng Shixi out of the grotto-heaven with their treasures.
• Meng Shixi asked Xue Min to take charge, and he comforted her as a song about Nanzhao drifted from the royal city.

At a Mid-Autumn banquet, Su Yao asked his disciples about their cultivation and urged them to establish firm foundations without comparing their progress. He also assessed which of his companions were ready to seek the Purple Mansion after his Dharma Banquet.

• Su Yao asked Ren Han, Lu Yuan, and Zichuan to report their progress, and each said he had reached the Qi Refinement Seventh Layer.
• Su Yao reassured Zichuan that his progress on the Great Yang path was exceptional and told him to follow his own path.
• Yang Zhao, Li Xu, Lin Shuang, and Xu Qingluo reported reaching the Qi Refinement Sixth Layer, and Liu Yunhe said their foundations and Law Techniques were solid.
• Su Yao warned the seven disciples not to rush Foundation Establishment or compare their Dao Paths with one another.
• Su Yao told Zhang Ziyan and Liu Yunhe to prepare for Purple Mansion breakthroughs after his Dharma Banquet, and said Han Ziyi, Zhu Xuejie, and Li Siyi would seek breakthroughs within five years.

Su Yao questioned Ren Han about the future he had mistaken for a past life, learning that it was only a Heavenly Governance calculation. Ren Han recounted disasters and political upheaval in Nanzhao, while Su Yao resolved to prevent the predicted events now that he had intervened.

• After the feast, Su Yao kept Ren Han behind and explained how Heavenly Governance produced portents of calculated future events.
• Ren Han realized his supposed past life had been an illusory future and told Su Yao he had cultivated Dui Metal and wielded Resounding White Sound.
• Ren Han described a future of fallen True Persons, disasters across the western regions, and an uprising in Nanzhao led by a miner who gained power after eating a flat peach.
• Ren Han revealed that the uprising ended with Great Qing abolishing Nanzhao's throne and making its ruler the hereditary Duke of Baili.
• Ren Han said Qixia Mountain would be attacked after Su Yao's death in the calculation, and that the South Sea demonic calamity would break out again; Su Yao said his intervention would prevent the predicted attack.

Su Yao reassured Ren Han that Qixia would support him and revealed why he had taught him Cold Qi, while explaining Zichuan’s different circumstances. After Ren Han pledged himself to Qixia, Su Yao checked the spiritual embryo he had been nurturing and found that it would hatch within days.

• Su Yao told Ren Han he would seek a way for him to continue his Dao Path after reaching the Purple Mansion, and explained that he had taught him Cold Qi because he intended to take him in.
• Su Yao explained that Zichuan’s condition involved a True Lord’s designs and that Qixia could not tell him the truth directly.
• Ren Han accepted that Qixia had guarded against the risks of his Heavenly Element nature and pledged himself to Qixia alone.
• Su Yao explained that Qixia disciples could enter the lineage only after reaching the Purple Mansion, then watched Ren Han leave.
• Su Yao checked the three birds in his cave abode, then examined the spiritual embryo nurtured on the divine altar and determined it would hatch within three to five days.

County Magistrate Zheng Qingci weighed whether to attend Qixia Temple's master's Purple Mansion banquet after Lu Mingtang presented gift lists from Langqiong Zhao's clans. Zheng Qingci realized the local families were waiting for his decision, and he accused Lu Mingtang of trying to force his hand.

• Zheng Qingci recalled Zheng Xuanzhi's warning that Qixia Daozi's power would eventually make it unwise to oppose him.
• Lu Mingtang considered how Langqiong Zhao's clans wanted to attend the banquet but were waiting for Zheng Qingci to declare his position.
• Lu Mingtang presented Zheng Qingci with three gift lists from the gentry clans, the Yang and Li families, and the Yin and Wang families.
• Zheng Qingci asked whether Patrol Inspector Yin and Registrar Wang were still in seclusion, and Lu Mingtang said their descendants would attend only with his permission.
• Lu Mingtang asked Zheng Qingci to decide whether the county magistrate's office would attend the banquet and whom it would take.
• Zheng Qingci looked at the gift lists and asked Lu Mingtang whether he was trying to force his hand.

Zheng Qingci faced a dilemma over whether to attend True Person Qingyan’s banquet, while Qixia Temple prepared a lavish welcome for the guests at Golden Ao Mountain. Su Yao learned that Qingzhu had arranged for his old attendants and Daoist Zheng to join him there.

• Lu Mingtang warned Zheng Qingci that skipping the banquet would leave Langqiong Zhao conspicuously absent, then left after reminding him that even Prefect Yang had shown courtesy to Qixia Temple.
• Zheng Qingci realized he had no real freedom to choose whether to attend and suspected the real Lu Mingtang had already been murdered.
• Liu Yunhe welcomed Nanzhao’s household representatives at Golden Ao Mountain, where a Rainbow Bridge carried the guests up to the banquet.
• Su Yao learned that Qingzhu had sent lavish food, treasures, and the Flowing Rosy Clouds Pavilion for the banquet, including provisions for visiting Mysterious Gate cultivators.
• The gray-robed man told Su Yao that Liu Chan, Yingge, Nannuo, Jueming, and Daoist Zheng had come to assist him and would remain on Golden Ao Mountain.

Su Yao received gifts from Qixia Mountain and welcomed a vast assembly of Dao lineages and other powers to celebrate his attainment of the Purple Mansion. As the banquet began, Shan Xian announced that he would seek the Golden Core at the Miao Frontier–Nanzhao border.

• Hu Bugui delivered Qingzhu’s gifts to Su Yao, including Spirit Artifacts, pills, a Sacrificial Earth spiritual object, and a ritual altar.
• Su Yao asked Hu Bugui to tell Qingzhu that Gui Hong should use the Qi of Mysterious Clarity to prepare for seeking the Golden Core.
• Hu Bugui revealed the Flowing Rosy Clouds Pavilion, and envoys from Dao lineages and other powers arrived to congratulate Su Yao.
• The Lesser Yang Dao Lineage from Purple Mansion Continent and the Lesser Yin Dao Lineage from Jade Lake arrived, drawing the guests’ attention.
• As Su Yao approached the banquet, miasma spread across the eastern sky and Shan Xian announced that he would seek the Golden Core.

Su Yao reunited with Daoist Zheng, Nannuo, and Jueming on Golden Ao Mountain after more than twenty years apart. Their gift of two preserved Qixia pears brought back memories of his childhood and the bonds they shared.

• A profound voice erased the Geng Wood miasma that had struck the Soul-Losing Radiant Fire Formation.
• Su Yao went to the rear hall and found Yunsong tending to Daoist Zheng, Nannuo, and Jueming.
• Daoist Zheng explained that he had come after hearing the Dawn-Holding Bell and learning Su Yao was safe.
• Jueming gave Su Yao two pears he had preserved from Qixia Mountain for more than twenty years.
• Su Yao invited Daoist Zheng, Nannuo, and Jueming to stay on Golden Ao Mountain and shared a pear with Daoist Zheng.
• Su Yao bit into the pear and remembered the pear groves and his life on Qixia Mountain.

Su Yao reunited with Daoist Zheng on Golden Ao Mountain while Qixia Temple hosted a lavish Dharma banquet. As distant observers described the disasters ravaging Nanzhao, County Magistrate Zheng Qingci denounced the celebration as defiance of the crown prince’s mourning decree and prepared to act against the temple.

• Su Yao recalled his childhood with Daoist Zheng over a pear and arranged for him to rest on Golden Ao Mountain, assigning Nannuo and Jueming duties at the temple.
• Guests from many powerful sects and realms attended Qixia Temple’s Dharma banquet while Hu Bugui and Yingge served them and Liu Chan welcomed Nanzhao’s powers.
• Two distant observers discussed how Qixia Temple’s gathering contrasted with widespread disasters across Nanzhao, and the older man called the banquet the opening gongs and drums of a great play.
• A report told Zheng Qingci that local gentry families’ younger members had gone to Qixia Mountain while Patrol Inspector Yin and Registrar Wang remained in seclusion.
• Zheng Qingci accused Qixia Temple of violating the crown prince’s hundred-year ban on celebrations and declared that he would enforce the state’s laws against it.

Zheng Qingci tried to enforce the imperial ban against Qixia Temple, but the court offered him no support and Cang Mountain's god defended the local officials. A mysterious power killed two commandants as a warning, leaving Zheng Qingci terrified of what would happen to him.

• Zheng Qingci waited with the county officials all day for imperial backing against Qixia Temple, while the officials hesitated to choose sides.
• True Persons Xuanping, Heyin, and Mujian arrived after the Dharma feast and told Zheng Qingci they had come privately, adding that neither the education inspector nor the court seemed concerned about the celebration.
• Realizing he had been used by the education inspector, Zheng Qingci nonetheless ordered his guards to act against Qixia Temple.
• Xue Min, the mountain god of Cang Mountain, interrupted Zheng Qingci and warned that his royal court would protect the local gentry and native chieftain families.
• A five-colored smoke appeared and a profound voice warned against disturbing Qixia's celebration; the Wu Earth Calamity then reduced Zheng Qingci's two commandants to earth.
• The mysterious voice spared the rest as a warning, and Zheng Qingci regretted ignoring the person who had impersonated the education officer.

After the five-colored smoke appeared, Xue Min immobilized three Purple Mansion True Persons and warned Zheng Qingci that he had acted recklessly. Zheng Qingci chose to die for his official reputation, while observers in the Great Void revealed that the court wanted Nanzhao’s entrenched interests wiped clean.

• Xue Min dismissed the clerks and stopped Xuanping, Heyin, and Mujian from fleeing.
• Mujian protested, Xuanping offered the Luoping Sect’s submission, and Heyin asked Xue Min to warn the Song Household to seal its mountain.
• Xue Min rebuked Zheng Qingci and warned that two of the three True Persons might live, then vanished.
• Zheng Qingci accepted his fate, declared that he had acted alone to uphold the law, and stood ready to die.
• Observers in the Great Void said the court had sent the superintendent of studies and the three True Persons to help Qixia Temple establish its authority, as part of a plan to clear Nanzhao of its old power structures.