Chapter Summaries

Liu Yunan and the others officially began the Lingxian Sect's recruitment, opening the Heart-Questioning Road to the eager crowd. As the road repeatedly neared capacity, Liu Yunan kept upgrading it at escalating Spirit Stone costs until the prompts finally stopped.

• Liu Yunan announced that the Lingxian Sect's entrance examination had begun, and applicants entered the Heart-Questioning Road in an orderly fashion.
• Liu Yunan's identity token alerted him to activity in the main control room, where he found an upgrade prompt because the road was nearing capacity.
• Liu Yunan upgraded the Heart-Questioning Road for one thousand Spirit Stones and then received another capacity warning soon after.
• Liu Yunan repeatedly approved further upgrades as the Spirit Stone cost rose by five hundred each time, relying on his and his brothers' savings to cover the expense.
• After the prompts stopped, Liu Yunan returned to the General Affairs Hall to finish his remaining work.

The Lingxian Sect’s recruitment assessment ended at midnight, and Shen Yingzi entered the Heart-Questioning Road’s trial, where he relived his mother’s death anniversary and heard a woman’s voice at her grave. The chapter leaves him staring at the faint outline of a young woman above the gravestone.

• Qin Jianghe discovered that a large section of the Spirit Stone mine was empty, but Liu Yunan explained that Lin Xiao’s main console had used the stones to upgrade the Heart-Questioning Road.
• Tong Jialiang entered the Heart-Questioning Road with Baojian as crowds watched entrants overlap inside and failed candidates emerge.
• The Heart-Questioning Road stopped accepting entrants at midnight, ending the recruitment event.
• Shen Yingzi woke in his bedroom, remembered his mother’s death anniversary, and learned that his father had been summoned to the palace.
• Shen Yingzi visited his mother’s grave alone and played the bamboo flute for her.
• A woman’s voice spoke to Shen Yingzi, and he saw the faint outline of a young woman above the grave.

Shen Yingzi saw his dead mother accuse him of failing to save her and beg him for blood. Xuanyuan Haoyue’s plans to pursue Mo Yuanjiao were upended when her family was stripped of its property and sent into exile, where she trudged through the wasteland in despair.

• Shen Yingzi’s mother appeared at her grave and told him she had died after losing too much blood during childbirth.
• She restrained Shen Yingzi in a pool of blood and asked him to give her his blood so she could live.
• Madam Xuanyuan told Xuanyuan Haoyue she wished she could marry into the Mo Household, and Xuanyuan Haoyue decided to pursue Mo Yuanjiao.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue and Madam Xuanyuan returned to the Situ Residence and received an imperial decree confiscating their property and exiling them.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue trudged through a desolate landscape as a prisoner and wondered why her toes remained plump despite her suffering.

Xuanyuan Haoyue and her mother adjusted to life in exile, while at Xiushui Village Bai Zhu became the first person to pass the Lingxian Sect's Heart-Questioning Road. Yuan Qing welcomed Bai Zhu into the sect and settled him in the newcomers' lodging as the other disciples gathered to hear what had happened.

• Xuanyuan Haoyue and her mother learned to manage their household in the borderland, and she hoped her father and half-brother would be too exhausted from hard labor to scheme over her marriage.
• Yuan Qing welcomed Bai Zhu, the first person to successfully ascend the mountain and pass the Heart-Questioning Road assessment.
• Bai Zhu gave his name, agreed to join the Lingxian Sect, and followed Yuan Qing into the sect.
• Yuan Qing brought Bai Zhu to the newcomers' lodging on the First Path and told him to rest until the admission procedures and master-taking ceremony.
• Yuan Qing returned to the General Affairs Hall and recounted every detail of Bai Zhu's arrival to the gathered disciples.

The Lingxian Sect’s members worried whether their arrangements would welcome new recruits, then learned Bai Zhu had quickly passed the Heart-Questioning Road and hurried to investigate a possible incident. The chapter revealed that Tong Jialiang had killed his grandparents as a child after they planned to sell his cousin.

• Liu Yunan and Mo Yuanjiao wondered whether making newcomers wait in a thatched shed seemed unwelcoming, but Qin Jianghe said the sect had done what it could and settled their concerns.
• Liu Yunan and Mo Yuanjiao noted that Bai Zhu had passed the Heart-Questioning Road unusually quickly, in about the same time as Mo Yuanjiao.
• Sun Yigao received a voice transmission from Fang Tuantuan about trouble on the Heart-Questioning Road, so the young members hurried to the mountain entrance.
• Tong Jialiang grew up in poverty after his parents were sold away, and his grandparents later planned to sell his cousin.
• When Tong Jialiang was ten, he tricked his grandparents into approaching a cliff and pushed them to their deaths; his uncle and aunt told the village chief they had fallen while looking for wild vegetables.

Tong Jialiang recalled his peaceful childhood before the poisonous stones in an abyssal mine turned him and the captured mountain folk into grotesque, dying creatures. After he killed them at their desperate pleas and failed to take his own life, a familiar voice called to him from the sealed mine entrance, leaving him overwhelmed by guilt and helplessness.

• Tong Jialiang remembered how his uncle and aunt raised him after his grandparents disappeared and how his cousin Baojian supported the household.
• After Tong Jialiang and the mountain folk were forced to mine poisonous stones, the adults tried to protect the children while digging to earn their release.
• The stones inflicted horrifying changes on everyone, and the sickened mountain folk begged Tong Jialiang to kill them before they lost their humanity.
• Tong Jialiang took an iron pickaxe and killed the old man, then killed the others as they pleaded for the same release.
• Tong Jialiang hesitated to use the pickaxe on himself because he still wanted to live for his uncle and aunt.
• A familiar voice called “A-Liang” from the sealed mine entrance, and Tong Jialiang anguished over his failure to save the others.

Tong Jialiang struggled against a voice urging him toward destruction in a dream, while black Qi spread from him to others taking the Heart-Questioning Road. Liu Yunan confirmed he could shut down the trial but found no way to stop what was happening.

• Tong Jialiang endured a voice telling him that destruction and extinction were the only truths as a dark mass grew around him.
• Liu Yunan saw black Qi spreading around the people on the Heart-Questioning Road and went to check the control room while Qin Jianghe and the others monitored them.
• Qin Jianghe called Sun Yigao to examine Tong Jialiang, whose body was nearly engulfed by black Qi seeping from his eyes, ears, mouth, nose, brow, and heart.
• Sun Yigao found nothing wrong with Tong Jialiang's body, and his Heart Purification Technique did not dispel the black Qi.
• Liu Yunan confirmed that the Heart-Questioning Road could be shut down, but he found no control option that would resolve the current situation.

Shen Yingzi’s dead mother turned hostile when he refused to surrender his life, and a blood swamp began swallowing him. Elsewhere, Xuanyuan Haoyue was sold by her father to Master Wei and assaulted.

• Shen Yingzi hesitated to let his mother take over his life, and the sky filled with thunder, lightning, and dark clouds.
• His mother transformed and dragged Shen Yingzi into a spreading swamp of blood.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue’s father presented her deed of bondage to Master Wei, and the men bound her and carried her away.
• Madam Xuanyuan tried to stop the abduction, but Xuanyuan Haoyue’s father struck her as the carriage left.
• Master Wei entered the bedroom where Xuanyuan Haoyue had been taken and forced himself on her despite her resistance.

Third-party interference connected the Heart-Questioning Road examinees’ dreams, forcing the sect to end trials early as Liu Yunan suspected Tong Jialiang’s illness was involved. While he hesitated over spending 500,000 Spirit Stones to stop the interference, thunderclouds gathered over the Lingxian Sect, and its members realized their sect master was coming out.

• Sun Yigao and Qin Jianghe organized checks on the many examinees expelled from the Heart-Questioning Road, and Sun Yigao sent Liu Yunan news of the situation.
• The console warned Liu Yunan that third-party interference had connected the examinees’ dreams, triggered emergency protection, and could be stopped by spending 500,000 Spirit Stones.
• After hearing Sun Yigao’s reports, Liu Yunan suspected Tong Jialiang’s illness, linked to the Execution Stone mine, had caused the interference, but he hesitated over whether to stop the assessment.
• Dark clouds and lightning gathered over the Lingxian Sect and the surrounding hundred li, drawing everyone’s attention and filling them with hope.
• Sun Yigao, Liu Yunan, and the other Lingxian Sect members recognized the signs and realized their sect master was coming out.

Lin Xiao endured the Lightning Tribulation and formed a golden pellet within his Nascent Soul, releasing a vast tide of Origin Qi across the North Mountain Range. The Origin Qi weakened the Heart-Questioning Road’s black Qi and changed the nightmares of those still trapped within it.

• Lightning struck the Nature Platform, and Lin Xiao endured the tribulation as his Nascent Soul condensed and absorbed Origin Qi.
• A golden film confined the Origin Qi within Lin Xiao’s Nascent Soul, where it formed a pellet that began converting surrounding Spiritual Qi into Origin Qi.
• Lin Xiao’s breakthrough released Origin Qi across the North Mountain Range, nourishing plants, easing mortals’ illnesses, stirring cultivators’ techniques, and fading the black Qi around people on the Heart-Questioning Road.
• The transformed dream world’s darkness cleared, giving those trapped in nightmares courage to fight back.
• Shen Yingzi used his protective talisman to destroy the woman’s soul and escape the blood swamp.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue stopped struggling, gathered her strength, and bit through the middle-aged man’s neck.

Tong Jialiang overcame the darkness of his dream and awoke among the survivors of the Heart-Questioning Road, who learned they had passed and were invited to join the Lingxian Sect. Lin Xiao welcomed 132 new disciples, while Qin Jianghe, Sun Yigao, and the others realized the road had ended and returned to the sect.

• Tong Jialiang heard a voice urge him to stand, saw sunlight, and felt black substance mixed with radiant light enter his body before he lost consciousness.
• Tong Jialiang awoke in white mist with the other survivors, and Wen Yuejun explained that failures would have been sent back to the mountain’s foot.
• The mist cleared to reveal Lin Xiao in a peach blossom tree, and Third Miss He and the other candidates agreed to join the Lingxian Sect.
• Lin Xiao received the system reward for reaching one hundred sect members and brought the new disciples to the sect plaza, counting 132 recruits.
• Qin Jianghe and Sun Yigao discovered that everyone had vanished from the Heart-Questioning Road, and Sun Yigao concluded Lin Xiao had emerged from seclusion.

Lin Xiao gathered the new disciples and formally welcomed them into the Lingxian Sect, while Liao Pantu and Liu Yunan helped establish the sect’s new order. The chapter ended with Liu Yunan introducing the elders as Lin Xiao watched from the sect master's seat.

• Lin Xiao noticed only 131 newcomers in the square, found Bai Zhu left behind in the living quarters, and brought him to the group with spiritual power.
• Liao Pantu led the sect members in welcoming Lin Xiao out of seclusion, and the new disciples followed their example.
• Lin Xiao thanked the recruiters, welcomed the newcomers, and urged them to cultivate and live in harmony at the Lingxian Sect.
• Lin Xiao handed the proceedings to Liu Yunan, who introduced himself and the elders to the new disciples.

Liu Yunan led the new disciples through their first sect orientation, introducing them to the elders and showing them how to collect supplies and use their identity tokens. The tour continued through the Lingxian Sect’s facilities, where the newcomers watched Sun Yigao refine pills in the Alchemy Chamber.

• Liu Yunan introduced the Lingxian Sect’s elders, and Xiaoluan startled the new disciples with a thunderous cluck and proudly displayed her identity token.
• Yang Jinshu appeared onstage, and an old woman in the crowd quietly celebrated that her daughter was well.
• Liu Yunan organized the new disciples into groups, led them to the General Affairs Hall, and explained how their identity tokens handled exchanges and sect matters.
• Liu Yunan took the newcomers on a tour of the sect as its halls prepared demonstrations for them.
• Sun Yigao refined successive furnaces of low-grade pills while Liu Yunan explained the Alchemy Chamber and its opportunities for disciples to study pill refinement and earn Spirit Stones.

Liu Yunan showed the new disciples around the Lingxian Sect, including its cultivation arts, spirit fields, and Beast Garden. The tour ended with Liang Zhonghuai realizing that the Beast Garden contained far more space than the small valley outside suggested.

• Liu Yunan and Qin Jianghe arranged demonstrations at the Artifact Refining Hall, Formation Hall, and talisman-making room, where Liu Yunan revealed Liu Chun's flashy Fire Trees and Silver Flowers Talisman.
• Liu Yunan showed the disciples the sect's spirit fields and praised the flavor of its spirit rice.
• Liu Yunan pointed out the sect's main hall and Returning to the Garden Mountain Dwelling, then took the disciples to view the Beast Garden from outside.
• Xiaoluan used the Mirror of Surveillance to show the disciples the many Demon Beasts inside the Beast Garden.
• Liang Zhonghuai noticed that the Beast Garden's interior was much larger than the small valley containing it.

Liang Zhonghuai and the former Shangyang Sect cultivators were astonished by the Lingxian Sect’s beast garden, while Liang mistakenly assumed the sect had hidden its wealth for years. The new disciples toured the sect’s grounds, and the chapter ended with Liu Yunan postponing an explanation of the four secret realms until they were assigned.

• Liang Zhonghuai wondered how Myriad Connections had overlooked the Lingxian Sect, unaware that its reports had downplayed the sect’s power and that Li Zhanying had helped keep its deeds quiet.
• Liang Zhonghuai and the former Shangyang Sect cultivators were stunned by the beast garden, which far surpassed anything they had seen before.
• Liu Yunan persuaded Xiaoluan to show the newcomers the beast garden by promising that the interested disciples could later work for Xiaoluan.
• Xiaoluan gave the new disciples a detailed tour and smugly concluded that they would be eager to help in the garden.
• Lin Xiao had brought back two more ownerless Golden Core-restricted secret realms, bringing the garden’s total to four, but Liu Yunan postponed explaining them because he was tired and the disciples were not ready to enter.

Liu Yunan ended the new disciples’ tour early and brought them to temporary grass shelters, where they settled in and began adjusting to life in the sect. Zhu Xiurong helped Tong Wan make her bed, then met Liang Zhonghuai outside, who asked when she planned to see her daughter.

• Liu Yunan postponed the tour of Yaoguang Floating Island and led the new disciples to the residential area to rest.
• Liu Yunan showed the disciples their grass shelters and pointed out the cultivation hall, then left them to settle in.
• The new disciples divided into men’s and women’s shelters and began arranging their bedding from their Storage Bags.
• Zhu Xiurong helped Tong Wan arrange her mattress, and Tong Wan introduced herself as Wanwan.
• Liang Zhonghuai checked on Zhu Xiurong, saw that she was in better spirits, and asked when she planned to see her daughter.

Zhu Xiurong and Liang Zhonghuai settled in at the Lingxian Sect while Feng Xuanqie praised his new home. Tong Jialiang grappled with strange memories and a warmth in his chest, then Han Weishu invited him to visit his cousin Baojian, and Mo Yuanjiao decided to join them.

• Zhu Xiurong declined to meet her daughter Yang Jinshu immediately, and Liang Zhonghuai offered her a meat bun.
• Feng Xuanqie excitedly told Liang Zhonghuai about leaving the Shangyang Sect and praised the Lingxian Sect’s freedom and kindness.
• Tong Jialiang reflected on his hazy memories, the warmth in his chest, and his wish to see his cousin again.
• Han Weishu told Tong Jialiang that they could leave the sect to visit Baojian, and Mo Yuanjiao joined them to learn why Baojian had failed the Heart-Questioning Road.

Lin Xiao discovered that Tong Jialiang had gained the rare Execution-Conduit Physique and resolved to keep it secret. That night, the new disciples gathered fires and shared food before someone spotted a flickering object in the sky.

• Lin Xiao examined Tong Jialiang’s disciple panel and asked the system about his Execution-Conduit Physique.
• The system explained that Tong Jialiang could resist Execution Stone, convert Spiritual Qi into Origin Qi, and cultivate Execution Qi.
• Lin Xiao decided to conceal Tong Jialiang’s physique, but the system entered a 24-hour upgrade and stopped answering questions.
• The new disciples gathered firewood, lit fires, and shared food with those who had none.
• A new disciple pointed out a flickering object in the sky.

The Lingxian Sect delivered a lavish, spiritually nourishing dinner to its new disciples in specially designed flying food baskets and insulated lunch boxes. Yuan Jinsheng gained hope that the sect could help his son Yingzi cultivate, while Xie Rong and Yin Xiaoxiao worried about Hua Xiao'er and Xu Duojin, who had gone home.

• A remotely controlled basket marked "dinner" landed, and the hungry newcomers carried it to the stones and opened it.
• Tietou, Lin Lei, Mo Yuanjiao, and others had made insulated lunch boxes and the flying food basket in the Artifact Refining Hall.
• The new disciples ate Jiang Youfu's Spirit Cuisine and felt it warm and restore their bodies; Yuan Jinsheng also felt his ailments ease.
• Yuan Jinsheng compared the meal's Spiritual Qi to Spirit Stones and hoped the Lingxian Sect could help Yingzi cultivate.
• Xie Rong and Yin Xiaoxiao worried that Hua Xiao'er and Xu Duojin might be whipped at home, and Yin Xiaoxiao said she had notified their parents before leaving.

Ma Changlong and the other new disciples enjoyed dinner while the sect’s senior members gathered to celebrate Lin Xiao’s return from seclusion and his advance to the Nascent Soul stage. After dinner, Lin Xiao asked how the sect would assign and teach its new disciples, and Liu Yunan presented their plans.

• Ma Changlong enjoyed the sect’s food, while two unclaimed meals were set aside for absent new disciples.
• Jiang Youfu prepared a celebratory dinner, and Liu Shengsheng summoned the sect’s members to the Spirit Cuisine Hall.
• Qin Jianghe and the others congratulated Lin Xiao on advancing to the Nascent Soul stage, and Lin Xiao thanked them.
• Lin Xiao asked who would take disciples, and Liu Yunan named Yigao, Mo Yuanjiao, Fuzi, Tietou, Liao Pantu, and Liu Chun as prospective teachers in their respective fields.
• Liu Yunan explained that instructors would teach rotating morning classes and showed Lin Xiao the instructor list and schedule.