Chapter Summaries

Ye Jinyu collected the Zhu Nantian Yin Fire and gave Xie Qingying its origin and three portions of Bifeng Qi in return for her help. After Xie warned him about Sima Ruiming and secretly named him, Ye planned to spread rumors of their closeness before entering seclusion to establish his Bifeng Yin Fire Dao foundation, while Xie resolved to strengthen herself and resist her arranged marriage.

• Ye Jinyu used the Zhu Yin Heavenly Fire Manual to calm and seal the Zhu Nantian Yin Fire in his Mystic Yin Jade Purification Bottle.
• Ye Jinyu gave Xie Qingying a wisp of Yin Fire origin and three portions of Bifeng Qi, and she said they could help advance her Heavenly Luan Spirit Physique.
• Xie Qingying teased Ye Jinyu, gave him her jade pendant, and traced the name Sima on his palm before warning him that Sima Ruiming would seek revenge.
• Ye Jinyu ordered his attendants to settle affairs with the Azure Luan Clan and spread rumors that he and Xie Qingying had grown close, then announced he would enter seclusion to break through to Foundation Establishment.
• Xie Qingying reflected on her arranged engagement to Sima Ruiming and resolved to rely on her own cultivation and bloodline to gain freedom from her clan's demands.

Ye Jinyu endured the Bifeng and Yin Fire to reach Foundation Establishment, then emerged to congratulations from Ye Anlan, Qing Lingxi, and the others. Rumors about his closeness with Xie Qingying reached Sima Ruiming, who outwardly dismissed them but secretly seethed and ordered the rumor spreaders seized.

• Ye Jinyu refined the Azure Luan king's blood and swallowed Zhu Nantian Yin Fire to prepare for Foundation Establishment.
• Ye Jinyu endured the Bifeng and Yin Fire for more than a year as strange phenomena gathered over South-Pacifying City.
• Ye Jinyu formed a two-level Dao foundation of Bifeng and Yin Fire, completed Foundation Establishment, and emerged to congratulations from Ye Anlan, Qing Lingxi, and the others.
• Rumors that Xie Qingying had fallen for Ye Jinyu spread through Cangxuan and reached Sima Ruiming near Great Qi's royal capital.
• Sima Ruiming ordered his subordinates to seize the rumor spreaders, canceled the day's ceremony, and privately declared his hatred for Ye Jinyu and Xie Qingying.

Sima Ruiming consolidated control over Great Qi while plotting to win Xie Qingying and fulfill his father’s plan to forge the sword of emperors. Li Tian secretly issued a blood edict to rally loyalists, but Sima Ruiming revealed that he had anticipated the move and intended to use it as a pretext to purge his opponents.

• Sima Ruiming’s subordinate reported that most of Great Qi’s noble clans and senior officials had pledged loyalty and delivered gifts, and Sima ordered officials who withheld support removed while sparing Li Tian.
• Sima Ruiming planned to pit Great Qi against Great Yin to draw the realm’s favor and forge the sword of emperors, then ordered gifts and a public message sent to Xie Qingying.
• Sima Ruiming privately admired Xie Qingying’s portrait while vowing to make her his captive once he gained power.
• A disguised old eunuch told Li Tian that loyal ministers planned to activate a royal contingency, and Li Tian wrote a blood edict using his own blood and the eunuch’s destroyed robe.
• The old eunuch delivered Li Tian’s blood edict to Sima Ruiming, who revealed that he had arranged the scheme and planned to use the edict to justify eliminating his opponents.

Sima Ruiming used a forged opportunity to lure Great Qi’s loyal ministers into a palace ambush, killing them and crushing resistance. He then dominated the court and ordered preparations for war against Great Yin, while Crown Prince Li Tian secretly planned to exploit the coming clash between Sima Ruiming and Ye Jinyu.

• The old eunuch presented Li Tian’s blood edict to loyal officials, and Grand Tutor Jiang Zhong persuaded them to attack the palace despite Zhang Qing’s suspicions.
• After the ministers gathered forces and stormed the palace, Sima Ruiming’s trap sealed them inside; Zhang Qing revealed his betrayal, and the loyalists were slaughtered or nailed to the palace walls.
• At court, Sima Ruiming forced Li Tian to bow, then accused the officials of disloyalty until they knelt to the crown prince.
• Sima Ruiming ordered Great Qi to assemble elite troops for a campaign against Great Yin one month later.
• Li Tian concealed his hopes that the sacrifices and the coming war would help his lord and bring Sima Ruiming into conflict with Ye Jinyu.

Xie Qingying rejected Sima Ruiming’s gifts and warning over her cooperation with Ye Jinyu, then suspected that Sima’s attention was fixed on a hidden imperial inheritance. She left the mystery of the Ye Clan’s plans and Ye Jinyu’s knowledge unresolved.

• A report told Xie Qingying that Ye Jinyu had established an extraordinary Dao foundation, consolidated the Azure Plume forces, and might be preparing to invade the Northern Region.
• Sima You arrived with gifts from Sima Ruiming and warned Xie Qingying to avoid idle people, especially Ye Jinyu, because their cooperation had sparked rumors.
• Xie Qingying declined the Nine-Leaf Waterheart Lotus and Shark-Silk Cloud Garment, defended her cooperation with Ye Jinyu, and dismissed Sima You.
• Xie Qingying told the Xie Clan elders that Sima Ruiming’s behavior was suspicious and that he might be seeking the kingly and hegemonic inheritances of Wei Wu Mingyang.
• Xie Qingying and the elder considered whether the Wind Abyss Ruin Realm’s rapid rise was connected to Wei Wu Mingyang’s Decoy Tomb, and she wondered what the Ye Clan was plotting and whether Ye Jinyu knew.

After emerging from seclusion, Ye Jinyu learned about the shifting power struggles across the Wind Abyss Ruin Realm and Sima Ruiming’s overture to Xie Qingying. He intercepted Sima You and seized the rejected gifts, then left the envoy helpless beneath his power in South-Pacifying City.

• Ye Jinming reported that Sima Ruiming had seized control of Great Qi, Great Yin had clashed with Cangxuan cultivators, and the Western and Central Regions remained divided.
• Ye Anlan told Ye Jinyu that Xie Qingying had rejected Sima Ruiming’s costly gifts and invitation.
• After a messenger reported that Sima Ruiming’s envoy sought an audience, Ye Jinyu ordered Ye Anlan to bring Sima You and the gifts to South-Pacifying City.
• Ye Anlan intercepted Sima You and his party at the Southern Region border, and Sima You agreed to accompany him rather than risk a fight.
• Ye Jinyu opened Sima You’s gift boxes, declared the treasures his, and said he would deliver the garment to Fairy Qingying himself.
• When Sima You protested, Ye Jinyu suppressed him with his presence and formed a dark blue dragon that roared toward him.

Ye Jinyu humiliated Sima Ruiming’s envoys, kept their gifts, and drove them from the Southern Region. He intended to provoke Ruiming into acting rashly, declaring that this was only the beginning.

• Ye Jinyu overwhelmed Sima You with his dragon-shaped power, stripping away most of his Foundation Establishment Law Power.
• Ye Jinyu ordered Ye Anlan to show Sima An the gifts and gave him the Shark-Silk Cloud Garment to deliver to Xie Qingying as a gift from Sima Ruiming.
• Sima An protested that Ye Jinyu was humiliating Ruiming and threatened that Great Qi would attack the Ye Clan, but Ye Jinyu dismissed the threats and sent Sima You crashing into his arms.
• Ye Jinyu ordered Sima An to leave the Southern Region within three breaths and keep Sima You from his sight.
• Ye Anlan watched the Sima Clan cultivators flee as Ye Jinyu said he wanted Ruiming’s anger to make him lose his reason.

Zhang Chen of Cangxuan’s Great Peace Temple overwhelmed Wind Abyss’s nine Purple Mansion cultivators and forced them to choose between submission and death; after they refused, he destroyed their Dao foundations and gave Li Heng and Yin Xuan three days to settle their affairs. Cangxuan’s hidden figures revealed plans to absorb Wind Abyss’s realm origin, while two swords and a faint resonance headed into the realm; to the outside world, the battle still appeared to continue.

• Zhang Chen appeared on the battlefield, suppressed Wind Abyss’s nine Purple Mansion cultivators, and demanded their submission to Cangxuan or their deaths.
• Luan Tian, Li Heng, and Yin Xuan rejected submission, so Zhang Chen shattered the cultivators’ Dao foundations, gave Li Heng and Yin Xuan three days of life, and gathered the others into his robes.
• The fall of Li Heng and Yin Xuan caused ominous signs across Great Qi and Great Yin, and their heirs sensed their deaths.
• Indistinct figures in Cangxuan watched the events and discussed their plan to merge Wind Abyss’s realm origin into Cangxuan after the Purple Mansion cultivators’ presence faded.
• Zhang Chen sent two subsidiary swords, Zhanlu and Tai'e, into Wind Abyss, while a faint spiritual resonance descended toward two locations.
• The outside world continued to see the nine Wind Abyss cultivators fighting Cangxuan’s thirteen, with the ten-year period still underway.

After the Yin Emperor and Qi Emperor accepted their defeat, they shared wine and prepared to entrust the future to those who came after them. In the Qi ancestral temple, Li Heng told Li Tian that he and Yin Xuan would die in three days and warned that the victor from Cangxuan might have a further plan for their dynasties.

• Yin Xuan and Li Heng exchanged wine in the Wind Abyss Ruin Realm, reflecting on their lost homelands and leaving the future to those who came after them.
• A sword that had descended from the heavens chose Li Tian, preventing an immediate usurpation in the Qi capital.
• Li Tian entered the ancestral temple and found Li Heng, who told him that the Yin Emperor and he had been defeated and would fall within days.
• Li Heng recalled Li Tian’s coming-of-age vow and reassured him that he had been happy when his son accepted the burden of ruling.
• Li Heng explained that the Cangxuan victor had granted them three days before destroying their bodies, Daos, and souls, and warned that the victor might intend further harm to their dynasties.
• Li Tian wondered whether the sword was part of the victor’s plan.

The Qi Emperor and Yin Xuan passed their respective kingly and hegemonic legacies to their heirs before dying. In the Southern Region, Ye Jinyu recognized the celestial signs and prepared South-Pacifying City for war while ordering courtesy toward visitors from Great Yin.

• The Qi Emperor awakened Zhanlu, charged Li Tian to bear the people’s burdens as emperor, and died as the spectral figures of Great Qi’s people faded away.
• The people of the royal capital awoke in tears, while Sima Ruiming sensed that something had gone wrong with his father’s supposedly certain undertaking.
• Yin Xuan addressed his soldiers and Crown Prince Yin Huan, entrusted him with Great Yin, and died, leaving behind the sword Tai'e.
• Ye Jinyu watched the fading celestial signs and golden light, then ordered South-Pacifying City placed under martial law and prepared for war.
• Ye Jinyu ordered that anyone arriving from Great Yin be received with courtesy, and Ye Jinming left to carry out her orders.

Yin Huan took the throne after his father’s death and imposed sweeping wartime requisitions across Great Yin, crushing resistance with brutal force. As resentment spread, Yin Ji urged him to seek help from the Ye Clan, but Yin Huan refused to yield to Great Yin’s enemies.

• After waiting half a month for Great Yin’s envoy, Ye Jinyu told his companions to keep preparing resources and said Yin Huan was too stubborn to ask for help.
• Yin Huan ended his vigil for his father, declared himself emperor without a formal ceremony, and ordered cultivators and powerful groups to surrender resources to the state.
• Yin Huan vowed that Great Yin would neither pay tribute nor make peace, while Yin Ji warned that his decrees would provoke rebellion and urged him to send an envoy to the Cangxuan Ye Clan.
• Yin Huan rejected Yin Ji’s advice and insisted he would defend Great Yin himself, even if he had to die doing so.
• Cai Yan opened the Spirit Kun Sect’s storehouse and surrendered its accumulated wealth to the court, while other sects and Rogue Cultivators also submitted to requisitions and registration.
• After thirty-seven sects and eighty-two clans defied the decree, Yin Huan sent imperial forces to destroy them and execute their leaders, leaving Great Yin trembling with anger and unrest.

Sima Ruiming, cut off from his father and other Cangxuan cultivators, ordered an all-out invasion of Great Yin to seize its fortune and strengthen his position. Meanwhile, Ye Jinxuan pressured Yin Ji to open Great Yin’s capital gates the following night, and Yin Ji agreed to help plan the entry.

• Sima Ruiming failed to contact his father through the Firmament Luo River Mirror and feared that he was being used as a pawn in a larger scheme.
• After hearing that Great Qi had taken a hundred cities, Sima Ruiming ordered an all-out attack to destroy Great Yin within three months and seize its fortune.
• Sima Ruiming resolved to watch the Southern Region closely and vowed to take revenge on Ye Jinyu after dealing with Great Yin.
• Ye Jinxuan confronted Yin Ji in his residence and urged him to help bring someone into Great Yin’s capital to confront the new emperor.
• Ye Jinxuan threatened Ye Clan retaliation if Yin Ji refused, and Yin Ji agreed to carefully plan how to open the capital gates and prepare the city’s protective formations.

Ye Jinyu’s forces used Yin Ji’s betrayal and a Formless Thousand Faces disguise to raid Great Yin’s capital, pretending to be Sima Ruiming. Yin Huan refused to flee and fought back, but the disguised attackers overwhelmed him and began crushing the eight hundred soldiers defending him.

• Ye Jinxuan learned that Yin Ji had agreed to help, while Ye Anlan prepared to loot the palace’s hidden stores when the attack began.
• Ye Jinming led more than a hundred water-attribute cultivators toward Great Yin with the Formless Thousand Faces, intending to impersonate Sima Ruiming.
• Yin Ji arranged for the south gate’s guards to leave and opened the city to the attackers, then sent Ye Anlan and another accomplice to search the palace’s hidden stores.
• The disguised Ye Jinming and his cultivators attacked the capital with Mystic Origin Heavy Water, destroyed buildings, and killed the imperial guards who answered the alarm.
• Yin Huan rejected Yin Ji’s offer to help him flee and fought the disguised Sima Ruiming, but the Marsh Dragon Treasure Pearl’s flood dragon and water arrows wounded him.
• The eight hundred armored soldiers joined their strength with Yin Huan’s Tai'e Sword, but the attackers combined their Mystic Origin Heavy Water to crush them as Yin Huan cried out for them to stop.

Yin Huan watched Sima Ruiming crush Great Yin’s defenders and was urged by Yin Ji to bow his head and seek the Ye Clan’s help. After Ye Jinxuan intervened and drove Sima Ruiming away, Yin Huan agreed to go to the Southern Region and beg the Ye Clan’s forgiveness, while suspecting that the Ye Clan had arranged the attack.

• Sima Ruiming used the Mystic Origin Heavy Water to kill Great Yin’s eight hundred soldiers and break Yin Huan’s resolve.
• Yin Ji urged Yin Huan to bow his head and ask the Ye Clan for help, and Yin Huan formally begged the Ye Clan to save Great Yin.
• Ye Jinxuan attacked Sima Ruiming, shielded the ruined palace city, and declared Great Yin under the Ye Clan’s protection.
• Sima Ruiming withdrew his forces after learning that Ye Jinyu had named Yin Huan as someone to protect.
• Ye Jinxuan told Yin Huan to go to South-Pacifying City and beg forgiveness, and Yin Huan vowed to visit the Ye Clan with Yin Ji at his side.

Yin Huan submitted Great Yin to the Ye Clan and accepted Ye Jinyu’s orders to prepare for war against Sima Ruiming. At the Great Peace Temple, Zhang Chen revealed his plan to unify the swords and reshape imperial authority, then prepared to leave and pursue his vision despite Zhang Xuan’s concerns.

• Yin Huan waited three days before Ye Anlan brought him to meet Ye Jinyu.
• Ye Jinyu ordered Yin Huan to put Great Yin’s territory, military, fate, and sects at the Ye Clan’s disposal while remaining its ruler.
• Yin Huan pledged Great Yin’s obedience, received a Ye token, and agreed to muster troops for a war against Sima Ruiming within a month.
• Zhang Chen and Zhang Xuan examined the Wind Abyss Ruin Realm’s political struggles, and Zhang Chen explained his aim to unify Zhanlu and Tai'e and establish an emperor whose authority was granted by heaven.
• Zhang Chen declared he would leave the Great Peace Temple to pursue his plan, while Zhang Xuan worried about the risks to his junior brother and their lineage.

Zhang Xuan let Zhang Chen follow his own path, while they discussed the Wei Imperial House and the Sima Clan’s plans for Mingyang. As the war between Qi and Yin neared a decisive turning point, Wei Ming received a strange omen of Greater Yin and wondered what his Master meant.

• Zhang Xuan told Zhang Chen that he would not stop him, though he would always protect him as his senior brother.
• Zhang Chen and Zhang Xuan discussed Mingyang’s false tombs, the Ye Clan’s plans, and the Sima Clan’s desire to eliminate him.
• After two years of war, Li Tian and Yin Huan clashed as Sima Ruiming and Ye Jinyu watched the battle unfold.
• Sima Ruiming urged Ye Jinyu to reconcile for Cangxuan’s unity, and Ye Jinyu challenged him about Fairy Qingying.
• Wei Ming refined the battlefield’s Blood Qi and saw a vision of a blue-robed figure reciting a sorrowful poem.
• Wei Ming recognized the vision as an omen of Greater Yin and questioned why his Master had spoken of it instead of Mingyang’s favor.

Xie Qingying witnessed a blue-gray mist engulf the Central Region, then Chen Yi entered the Yuanming Sword-Playing Sect and met its last surviving disciple, Wei Ming. Wei Ming led him into the mist toward the thing Chen Yi had come to find.

• Xie Qingying discussed the warring clans, Chen Yi’s Yin-aligned Dao, and the possibility of a Greater Yin inheritance before mist rose from the Yuanming Sword-Playing Sect.
• The mist spread across the Central Region, swallowing its colors, sounds, and landmarks, and Xie Qingying and the Xie Clan elders escaped using movement talismans.
• Wei Ming grieved for the people of his sect, then noticed a guest below Sword Peak.
• Chen Yi arrived at the sect gate, pushed back the mist with yellow sand, and followed a ghostly lantern whose light revealed traces of the sect’s past.
• Chen Yi met Wei Ming, who said he was the last person in the Yuanming Sword-Playing Sect and that the others had been killed.
• Wei Ming led Chen Yi deeper into the mist and asked whether he had come looking for that thing.

Xie Qingying recognized the mist around the Mingyang Decoy Tomb as a Greater Yin formation tied to the legend of Divine Lord Mingyang and a goddess who had waited for him. As Chen Yi emerged from the mist and asked whether she believed in a next life, Xie Qingying saw a remnant of Mingyang’s spirit traveling endlessly through the void, revealing that he had not broken his promise.

• Xie Qingying retreated with the Xie Clan elder and identified the mist as a gateway to the Mingyang Decoy Tomb, possibly the real imperial mausoleum.
• Xie Qingying connected the mist, labyrinth, and other formations to the Greater Yin goddess’s lingering attachment to Divine Lord Mingyang.
• The Xie Clan elder urged Xie Qingying to focus on the inheritances and treasures, and she agreed that entering the tomb was their priority.
• A stone stele appeared in the mist, and the Xie Clan read its inscription about illusions, yellow sand, moonlight, and the true path.
• Chen Yi emerged through the mist on a path of yellow sand and asked Xie Qingying whether she believed in a next life.
• Xie Qingying saw a remnant of Mingyang’s spirit traveling through the void and realized he had not broken his promise to the goddess.

Chen Yi used his [Yellow Sand Cold Moon] foundation to break the Moonlight Labyrinthine Crossing and lead Xie Qingying’s group to the pavilion, where he revealed that five chosen cultivators were needed to pass Greater Yin’s illusions. Xie Qingying suspected Chen Yi’s motives as her clan suffered heavy losses, and the chapter ended with a mysterious woman urging Mingyang not to break his promise again.

• Xie Qingying deduced that the Greater Yin Divine Maiden had created the false paths to preserve Emperor Mingyang’s Dao resonance, and Chen Yi used his soul-projection technique and heavy ruler to reveal the true crossing.
• Chen Yi led the group across the path, where Xie Qingying saw the bones of cultivators who had died in the illusions; the phrase “sought but could not obtain” triggered a deadly sorrow that killed nine Xie Clan members.
• Xie Qingying became suspicious of Chen Yi and secretly prepared her surviving clansmen to attack or flee if necessary, while they followed him to the pavilion.
• Chen Yi explained that five special immortal foundations were required to break the five layers, identifying Ye Jinyu, Sima Ruiming, Xie Qingying, Wang Maohong, and himself as the destined participants.
• Chen Yi said they had to wait for the other three to arrive, while an illusory woman in the pavilion told Mingyang that the people he wanted were ready and asked him not to break his promise again.

Ye Jinyu secretly took the Heavenly Will Sword Soul Grass from the battlefield, then sent it to Yin Huan, who used it to defeat death, recover, and break through during his duel with Li Tian. That night, Ye Jinyu was summoned to an unfamiliar palace and came face to face with Divine Lord Mingyang.

• Ye Jinyu saw the Heavenly Will Sword Soul Grass grow amid the clash between Li Tian and Yin Huan, then secretly took it from the battlefield.
• Li Tian defeated Yin Huan, but just before Li Tian could kill him, a mysterious light delivered the grass to Yin Huan.
• Yin Huan ate the grass, comprehended the deeper meaning of the hegemonic sword, healed his wounds, and advanced to the threshold of the Purple Mansion.
• The armies withdrew, and Ye Jinyu suspected that Mingyang had arranged for the grass to appear and shape the two swords.
• Divine Lord Mingyang summoned Ye Jinyu to a palace, where Ye Jinyu bowed and introduced himself.