Chapter Summaries

After the gathering on Golden Ao Mountain, Su Yao reunited with Daozheng, who teased him about his new role as Qixia Temple’s Temple Master and revealed that someone had injured his eye. Their reunion ended in laughter, though Su Yao vowed to avenge the injury and was left longing for their former days together.

• Su Yao watched five-colored smoky Qi dissipate over the southern shore and guessed that Daozheng had intervened behind the scenes.
• Daozheng appeared after overhearing Su Yao and Jueming, then teased Su Yao about the elaborate gathering and his fondness for showing off.
• Daozheng reminded Su Yao that Qingzhu had arranged the invitations to spare him consequences for decorating the Pear Garden Branch Temple.
• Daozheng struck Su Yao with a pebble after catching him cursing inwardly, and Su Yao noticed the hollow where Daozheng’s left eye had been.
• Daozheng said he had severed his attacker’s arm and would seek Xicheng’s help to make a Law Treasure, while Su Yao vowed to avenge him.
• Daozheng calmed Su Yao’s Sword Intent to protect Mount Lao’s disciples, and the two laughed together.

Daozheng privately warned Su Yao about the dangerous Proclaiming Earth affair and gave him instructions for his work in Nanzhao. After Daozheng departed, Su Yao reflected on the burdens ahead and on Zilin’s seclusion at Golden Ao Mountain.

• Daozheng dismissed Jueming and Nannuo, then sealed the pavilion with layered barriers before speaking privately with Su Yao.
• Daozheng explained how the Proclaiming Earth True Lord’s reincarnation and the fall of Spirit Witch Dao Lord’s Longchuan Heaven had unfolded, warning Su Yao to act cautiously in Nanzhao.
• Daozheng told Su Yao to wait for the reincarnation to unsettle the region and break its old constraints, then drive it out of Nanzhao, with help expected if the True Lord became too powerful.
• Daozheng instructed Su Yao to keep his distance from the Nanzhao royal family, preserve the lineage northeast of Pear Garden, retrieve Witchcraft Dao items from Cibi Lake, and deal with the county magistrate and three Purple Mansions.
• Daozheng teased Su Yao about the Mount Lao disciple in seclusion, then vanished after urging him to dare when circumstances became difficult and to follow his heart when either choice was reasonable.
• Su Yao remained alone in the pavilion, considered his many responsibilities, and hoped his breakthrough might help Zilin in seclusion below.

Su Yao visited Yang Nan at Fengyu Mountain to recruit the Yang Household’s help in killing three Purple Mansion cultivators and Langqiong Zhao’s magistrate, Zheng Qingci. Yang Nan agreed to hold Song Heyin off and took a token instructing him to join Su Yao at Golden Ao Mountain when it lit up.

• Su Yao approached Fengyu Mountain in disguise and entered after displaying the Greater Yin power of his robe.
• He revealed himself to Yang Nan and named Xuanping, Song Heyin, Mujian, and Zheng Qingci as his targets.
• Yang Nan warned Su Yao about the targets’ powerful connections and the consequences of killing a court-appointed official.
• Su Yao used Yang Zhao’s progress at Qixia Temple and the offer of a nearby spirit mountain to persuade Yang Nan to help.
• Yang Nan agreed to hold Song Heyin off and accepted Su Yao’s token, which would signal when to leave for Golden Ao Mountain.

Su Yao sought Ao Xiao’s help to kill four people in the city, but the Lake God refused to get involved in matters tied to Proclaiming Earth or the imperial court. At the Langqiong county office, Su Yao pressed Zheng Qingci to make up his mind, and Zheng answered with a calm rebuke about fate.

• Su Yao used the Prism to examine the secrets within Cibi Lake before asking Ao Xiao for help.
• Ao Xiao refused to interfere in the conflict over Proclaiming Earth or the imperial court, though he promised to notify Su Yao when it was time to open the Purple-Blue Secret Realm.
• Su Yao left Cibi Lake, deciding to seek help from two others instead.
• After five days outside the Langqiong county office, Zheng Qingci remained silent while Mujian and Heyin pleaded for their lives and Xuanping waited anxiously.
• Su Yao asked Zheng Qingci three times whether he had made up his mind, and Zheng finally said the sage’s words about fate had been meant for Su Yao.

Su Yao used the Vermilion Radiance to overwhelm Mujian and Zheng Qingci in the Great Void while Li Chaoxue and Yang Nan kept Xuanping and Heyin occupied. After exhausting Mujian’s defenses, Su Yao struck from behind and pierced her between the brows.

• Su Yao revealed the Vermilion Radiance and struck at Zheng Qingci, then wounded Mujian with Morning Clouds Crossing as she fled into the Great Void.
• Zheng Qingci pursued Su Yao and Mujian, while Li Chaoxue and Yang Nan blocked Xuanping and Heyin and then pursued them into the Great Void.
• Mujian and Zheng Qingci attacked Su Yao with Kan Water, artifacts, and borrowed Human Dao power, but he countered their assaults with his sword and techniques.
• Su Yao used Golden Light Across the Land to appear behind Mujian after her defenses had been worn down.
• Su Yao pierced Mujian between the brows with the Vermilion Brightness Sword.

Su Yao killed Mujian and Xuanping, destroying their bodies and Rising Yang spirits, while Li Chaoxue went to keep Zheng Qingci trapped. Su Yao then flew toward Heyin, leaving Zheng Qingci’s fate unresolved.

• Su Yao destroyed Mujian’s Dharma Body and pierced her fleeing Rising Yang with a filament of rainbow light, killing her in both body and spirit.
• Su Yao trapped Zheng Qingci with Golden Palace Morning Clouds and told Li Chaoxue to keep watch over him.
• Xuanping begged Su Yao to spare him, then fled after attacking with Geng Metal Qi.
• Su Yao intercepted Xuanping, countered his attacks, and used the Forest of All Beings to guide him into a sword strike that pierced his chest.
• Su Yao destroyed Xuanping’s Dharma Body and Rising Yang, then flew toward Heyin.

Su Yao cornered Heyin after Yang Nan and Ni Polu helped cut off his escape, while the two Nanzhao cultivators left to assist Li Chaoxue and Zheng Qingci. Su Yao caught Heyin again with the Transforming Azure Bracelet and offered him a chance to die to spare his descendants, leaving Heyin shaken by the mountain god’s earlier prediction that two of the three would survive.

• Yang Nan and Ni Polu joined Su Yao in blocking Heyin’s escape, and Ni Polu rebuked Heyin for abandoning Li Chaoxue and him when outsiders attacked.
• Yang Nan told Heyin that everyone had chosen their own road and that he accepted whatever consequences followed his choice.
• Su Yao sent Yang Nan and Ni Polu to help Li Chaoxue and watch the county magistrate, then pursued Heyin as he fled.
• Su Yao used the Transforming Azure Bracelet to overtake Heyin and demanded that he take his own life in exchange for sparing his descendants.
• Heyin wondered why Su Yao would kill them over their earlier speculation and recalled the mountain god’s words that two of the three would live.

Heyin realized the Song Household had wronged the Cang Mountain Mountain God and sacrificed himself with his Xun Wind Dao, leaving a life-giving spring breeze across the region. Su Yao kept the palm-leaf fan as payment, returned the other treasures to the Song Household, and flew toward Zheng Qingci.

• Heyin offered Su Yao four treasures and asked him to spare the Song Household, but Su Yao accepted only the palm-leaf fan and said he would return the others as the Mountain God had requested.
• Heyin reflected on his alliance with the Confucian School and recognized that his own greed had endangered his family's generations-long friendship with the Mountain God.
• Heyin used his Xun Wind sword to destroy his Divine Ability, Spirit Platform, and Rising Yang, then dispersed into a gentle spring breeze that nourished the land.
• Su Yao recalled that the Mountain God had asked him to kill Heyin to give the Song Household a chance to survive the calamity, while preserving the old family's keepsakes and granting Heyin dignity.
• Su Yao put away the Xun Wind Pearl, feather robe, and wooden hairpin, kept the palm-leaf fan, and flew toward Zheng Qingci.

Su Yao returned to confront Zheng Qingci, and Xue Min invoked the ruler of Nanzhao’s authority to strip him of his office and honors. Su Yao then killed Zheng Qingci, whose final moments brought him clarity rather than fear or regret.

• Su Yao returned to the battle site, where Li Chaoxue, Ni Polu, and Yang Nan had trapped Zheng Qingci in heavy snow and their abilities.
• Su Yao told Zheng Qingci to wait until his official status was revoked, then asked the others to keep him restrained until a decree arrived.
• Yang Xuanye and Xue Min arrived, and Xue Min declared that the ruler of Nanzhao had authority under Taizu to dismiss Zheng Qingci immediately for treasonous conduct.
• Xue Min stripped Zheng Qingci of his post and scholarly honors, then told Su Yao to execute him before reporting the matter to the crown prince.
• Su Yao drew his sword and killed Zheng Qingci, whose summoned phantom figures dissolved as his body vanished in rosy light.

After Su Yao and his allies defeated Zheng Qingci and the other enemies, a surge of Geng Wood Qi drew them to Wumeng Mountain, where Mo Chen began fusing his five Divine Abilities in an attempt to seek gold. They watched as his dangerous breakthrough began.

• Su Yao thanked Yang Xuanye and Xue Min for their help, then gave Zheng Qingci’s official seal to Yang Xuanye and Heyin’s possessions to Xue Min.
• A vast tide of Geng Wood Qi and miasma erupted southeast, and Xue Min identified Mo Chen as the source.
• Su Yao, Yang Xuanye, Xue Min, Li Chaoxue, Yang Nan, and Ni Polu followed the surge to Wumeng Mountain.
• The group found Mo Chen poised at the boundary between the mortal world and the Great Void, with five Divine Ability orbs behind him.
• Mo Chen drew the five orbs together and began using his golden nature to fuse them.

Mo Chen began transforming his five Geng Wood Divine Abilities into treasures, completing the first two and beginning the third. As the wooden pole formed within the third orb, the surrounding decay started to settle into an ordered rhythm.

• Su Yao identified Mo Chen’s first Divine Ability as Miasma-Filling Haze, and Mo Chen condensed its miasma into a dark green bead that unsettled the observers’ minds.
• Su Yao explained the Treasure Transformation and Gold Seeking Method as Mo Chen held the first treasure and began refining his second Divine Ability.
• Mo Chen transformed Rotten Grass Firefly into a crystal filled with emerald firefly lights, drawing admiration from Su Yao and the others.
• Xue Min identified the third Divine Ability as Erecting Wood to Establish Trust as Mo Chen began refining the third orb.
• Su Yao recognized the wooden pole’s connection to the Ancestor of Law, while the Geng Wood miasma around it began to recede and circulate in an orderly rhythm.

Mo Chen completed the third and fourth Geng Wood Divine Ability treasures, establishing order and changing the world's old rules. He then began forming the fifth Divine Ability, "Renew All Under Heaven," as its light filled the Great Void with vitality.

• Xue Min, Ni Polu, Su Yao, and Yang Xuanye watched as Mo Chen formed the blue-black wooden pole and established trust through law.
• Mo Chen completed the third treasure, whose righteous light suppressed the foul, rotting Qi.
• The fourth cluster split open, and Mo Chen reshaped its ancient lines into an ancient mirror that embodied changing rules.
• Mo Chen approached the fifth cluster, and the power of his four completed Divine Abilities flowed into it.
• Mo Chen's robe crumbled as green lines spread across his skin, and the fifth Divine Ability began to emerge in a pure, renewing light.

Mo Chen failed to gain the Geng Wood Fruition Position, and his corrupted Golden Nature swallowed him before becoming a fiend. A newly appointed judge of the Netherworld sealed the fiend, while signs that Radiant Fire and Geng Metal seekers had begun their attempts sent Su Yao back toward Golden Ao.

• Mo Chen’s five treasures joined with his Golden Nature to reach the Geng Wood Fruition Position, but the gateway rejected him and closed.
• Mo Chen’s Golden Nature turned evil, swallowed him, and became a hundred-zhang fiend as Su Yao, Xue Min, and the others fled.
• A pale man with an old book sealed the fiend and disappeared; Su Yao identified him as a likely new judge of the Netherworld.
• A stream of fire fell toward Nanzhao Royal City while Geng Metal Qi surged north of Wumeng Mountain, signaling that two more seekers had begun.
• Xue Min hurried toward Nanzhao Royal City, while Su Yao returned toward Golden Ao with Yang Nan and the others, leaving the new seekers alone.

Xue Min encountered Mo Yan in the Great Void while hurrying toward Nanzhao’s royal city, but Mo Yan urged him to let the kingdom’s troubles worsen rather than intervene. Their argument over Nanzhao’s rulers and foreign cultivators ended with both men preparing to fight.

• Xue Min sensed the Great Void had grown sluggish and used his mountain god’s scepter to reveal Mo Yan.
• Mo Yan dismissed Xue Min’s concerns about the falling fire and metal-seeking cultivators, arguing that Nanzhao was already rotten and should be left to collapse.
• Mo Yan condemned the sovereign for allowing the court, the Mysterious Gate, and the Confucian School to meddle in Nanzhao, and he accused Xue Min of previously enabling those intrusions.
• Xue Min urged Mo Yan to stand aside or help protect Nanzhao, but Mo Yan called for the board to be overturned and everyone involved to die.
• Xue Min threatened Mo Yan, who summoned the Human Dao Body Divine Ability, Aspects of Fleeting Life, as scarlet light flared from Xue Min’s scepter.

Zhao Shouzhi confronted Prefect Yang Xuanye about the court’s plan to make him the scapegoat in the Proclaiming Earth matter and urged him to flee. Yang Xuanye revealed he had long understood his fate but stayed out of loyalty to the late emperor, and the two prepared to fight.

• Zhao Shouzhi explained that he was acting to protect Nanzhao’s people and urged Yang Xuanye to stop enabling the court’s plans.
• Zhao Shouzhi warned Yang Xuanye that the Proclaiming Earth matter would make him a scapegoat, and Yang Xuanye recalled learning this after Su Yao emerged from seclusion.
• Yang Xuanye revealed that he had considered fleeing but stayed because the late emperor had trusted him to serve the people and watch over Nanzhao.
• Yang Xuanye refused to leave and said he would fight Zhao Shouzhi if necessary.
• Zhao Shouzhi summoned the lights of households, common people, and farming proverbs, while Yang Xuanye manifested his jade tablet, bronze gnomon, and established codes.

Su Yao encountered Cang Lan, who demanded that he leave Nanzhao to protect its people from the turmoil caused by the Five Virtues. After they argued over whether the world’s great trend justified sacrificing Nanzhao, they prepared to fight.

• Su Yao stopped when Cang Lan blocked his path toward Golden Ao Mountain, and Yang Nan recognized the young Great True Person.
• Cang Lan sent Yang Nan, Li Chaoxue, and Ni Polu ahead after asking them to help Nanzhao’s people if they had the chance; Su Yao agreed and told them to return to Golden Ao.
• Cang Lan urged Su Yao to leave Nanzhao, warning that its disordered earth veins and turbid spiritual atmosphere would harm its people first.
• Cang Lan revealed that Mo Yan had gone to intercept Xue Min and Zhao Shouzhi had gone to intercept Yang Xuanye, while the Three Heroes of Nanzhao planned to shut the door between Nanzhao and the great orthodoxies.
• Cang Lan challenged Su Yao over treating living beings as expendable, and Su Yao argued that the Five Virtues’ change was a trend no one could stop.
• Cang Lan declared that he would defy the trend, and Su Yao raised his hand as they prepared to fight.

Cang Lan used the Qi of the mortal world to weaken Su Yao’s cultivation and stain his Dao, while insisting he wanted Su Yao to leave Nanzhao. Su Yao realized the attack was part of a larger plan to keep Qixia sealed, but the identity of the person directing the Three Heroes remained unknown.

• Cang Lan used Mulberry and Hemp Proverb to fill the Great Void with a tranquil rural scene, and Su Yao recognized the Divine Ability and cut through it with the Vermilion Brightness Sword.
• Cang Lan countered with Ten Thousand Households' Wishes, and the Qi of the mortal world seeped through Su Yao’s defenses, dulling his Sword Intent and the Vermilion Brightness Sword.
• Su Yao fled with Golden Light Across the Land, but Cang Lan used Gather a Trillion People to block his path and further stain his rosy light with the wishes of the people.
• Cang Lan told Su Yao he would not kill him and urged him to consider what he cultivated his Dao for, while Su Yao questioned why Cang Lan was trying to corrupt his Dao Path.
• Su Yao concluded that Mo Yan, Zhao Shouzhi, and Cang Lan had coordinated their attacks under someone’s direction to prevent Qixia from recovering and keep the mountain sealed.

Cang Lan pursued Su Yao across the Great Void, using the Qi of the mortal world and the wishes of the people to wear down his Immortal Dao. Su Yao fled toward Golden Ao Mountain, but the turbid Qi entered his Purple Mansion Dharma body and began drawing him toward the mortal world.

• Su Yao tried to escape Cang Lan, but Cang Lan explained that the Qi of the mortal world could defile the Immortal Dao and countered Su Yao’s attacks.
• Su Yao changed from the Vermilion Brightness Sword to Zhengji and unleashed Morning Clouds Crossing, but Cang Lan’s Ten Thousand Households' Wishes absorbed its power.
• Cang Lan said he would not kill Su Yao but would keep pursuing him as long as he remained in Nanzhao, so Su Yao fled toward Golden Ao Mountain.
• The Qi of the mortal world seeped into Su Yao’s Purple Mansion Dharma body as Cang Lan followed close behind, tugging the immortal toward the mortal world.

Su Yao used the Great Yin Feather Robe to hide first his existence and then his traces from Cang Lan’s Ten Thousand People Sieve. Cang Lan countered by revealing a Great Yang treasure, leaving Su Yao’s concealment under threat.

• Su Yao fled Cang Lan for five days using Golden Light Across the Land, while Drinking from the Marsh and Bearing the Abyss replenished his Law Power.
• Cang Lan stopped pursuing and cast the Ten Thousand People Sieve over Su Yao, dissolving his Law Power and slowing his escape.
• Su Yao concealed his existence with the Great Yin Feather Robe, but Cang Lan used the sieve to expose the traces he had left in the human world.
• Su Yao drew on the robe’s Spring and Autumn mysteries to hide his traces within history, causing the sieve to lose its target.
• Cang Lan revealed a red-gold wheel of light, declaring that Great Yang could expose whatever Greater Yin and Spring and Autumn concealed.

Cang Lan broke Su Yao’s concealment with the Manifest First Light Wheel, but Su Yao revealed that he had spent five days refining a sword strike. He cut open Cang Lan’s mortal-world Qi and escaped on Qingyang, though Cang Lan caught up and prepared a fatal attack.

• Cang Lan used the Manifest First Light Wheel to expose Su Yao and scorch the Great Yin Feather Robe, forcing Su Yao to withdraw it.
• Su Yao drew on five days of accumulated Sword Intent and slashed open the mortal-world Qi surrounding him.
• Su Yao used the Transforming Azure Bracelet to summon Qingyang, whose Qingxuan power shielded them as they fled through the opening.
• After pursuing them for most of a day, Cang Lan caught up as Qingyang’s protective azure light began to fade.
• Cang Lan raised the Manifest First Light Wheel over Su Yao and aimed a Geng Metal longbow at his back.