Chapter Summaries

Lin Xiao discovered Execution Stone’s presence in Cloud Gathering City, where its spread activated an unknown array and brought on an early Cloud Burst. The city-protecting array sealed the city as dark clouds descended, trapping the panicked residents inside.

• Lin Xiao sensed Execution Stone in a secluded alley and searched for the Execution Cultivators responsible.
• Lin Xiao found unfamiliar array points outside Cloud Gathering City, and the array activated, shaking the ground and drawing the clouds downward.
• Lin Xiao learned from an elderly Golden Core cultivator that the descending clouds signaled a Cloud Burst that had come early.
• Lin Xiao tried to return to the city but found its defensive array had sealed it, trapping residents inside.
• The trapped cultivators attacked the city-protecting array as black Qi gradually enveloped them.

Lin Xiao warned Cloud Gathering City's residents about the Execution Qi, but most ignored him as the city descended into chaos over the absent city lord and the sealed gate. After the crowd stopped attacking the city-protecting array and tried to recover, they discovered their Spiritual Power would not replenish and was becoming harder to circulate.

• Lin Xiao warned the people inside Cloud Gathering City to stop using Spiritual Power and protect their meridians, but most ignored him while Jiang Qu listened.
• The crowd learned that the city lord had been secluded in an undisclosed cave abode for fifty years, and people outside the city left to summon their elders.
• Three array masters stayed outside to study the city-protecting array, and Lin Xiao joined them despite the system refusing to break it for him.
• Lin Xiao told Jiang Qu to conserve his strength and protect his Dantian, then searched elsewhere for array points as people inside continued attacking the array.
• The residents eventually stopped bombarding the array and tried to recover their Spiritual Power, only to find they could not replenish it and struggled to circulate it.

The Execution Qi trapped the cultivators inside the city, draining their Spiritual Power and the surrounding Spiritual Qi while the protective formation held firm. As Lin Xiao searched for a way to stop the crisis, Jiang Qu succumbed to the black Qi and walked toward a strange, gleaming darkness.

• A Nascent Soul Cultivator explained that the black Qi was not a normal effect of the Cloud Burst, leaving the crowd frightened and uncertain.
• The Execution Qi thickened, draining the cultivators’ Spiritual Power and the Spiritual Qi around them while weakening their supplies and defenses.
• Lin Xiao realized that outside cultivators might not be able to break the city’s formation in time, and he worried that too few Void Returning Realm cultivators would answer the call for help.
• Lin Xiao went to a formation point in the Execution Cultivator’s formation and reached toward its center.
• After more than two hours, Jiang Qu’s Spiritual Power was gone, and he began walking toward a gleaming black void he saw in the darkness.

Lin Xiao used the Execution Cultivator formation’s array point to capture Execution Qi and store it in his private vault, slowing its spread through Cloud Gathering City while trying to rouse the affected cultivators. As he continued working, he questioned whether the city lord or the early Cloud Burst was connected to the attack.

• Jiang Qu heard a humming sound, lost sight of the black hole that had called to him, and briefly thought he saw Fellow Daoist Lin before returning to awareness amid the black Qi.
• Lin Xiao poured Origin Qi into the formation’s array point and first tried to block the openings releasing Execution Qi, but the formation forced his barriers apart.
• After confirming that his private vault could store nonliving things collected through his Spiritual Power, Lin Xiao began enveloping Execution Qi and putting it into the vault.
• Lin Xiao captured Execution Qi quickly enough to halt its growing concentration in the city, while sparing small amounts of Origin Qi to try to wake the affected cultivators.
• As he continued converting Spiritual Qi into Origin Qi and capturing Execution Qi, Lin Xiao wondered whether the city lord was involved and why the Cloud Burst had arrived early.

Lin Xiao continued reducing the Execution Qi in Cloud Gathering City while wondering about the Cloud Burst’s timing and the protective array’s resistance to Execution Qi. After three two-hour periods, powerful elders and ancestors arrived to investigate the Execution Qi and help the trapped cultivators.

• Lin Xiao questioned whether the early Cloud Burst and the city’s unharmed protective array were connected to the Execution Cultivators or the city lord.
• Lin Xiao gradually reduced the Execution Qi, though the array continued producing more than he could clear quickly.
• As the third two-hour period approached, Lin Xiao sensed powerful cultivators arriving outside Cloud Gathering City.
• More than ten elders, grandmasters, sect leaders, and ancestors entered the city, and some reassured the younger cultivators before asking what had happened.
• The elders explained that they had come after hearing reports of Execution Qi, while delays in communication across Chongxiao Domain’s layers had taken three two-hour periods.

Thirty-two Void Return cultivators arrived outside Cloud Gathering City and worked to break its sealed city-protecting formation after discovering that Execution Qi had appeared inside. They broke more than a hundred nodes, but the formation remained strong, and the two formation masters began using their tools to locate the remaining nodes.

• Thirty-two Void Return cultivators gathered outside Cloud Gathering City, assessed the Execution Qi and Cloud Burst, and decided to break the formation.
• Lu Changming and Gongsun Jingge took charge of finding and breaking formation nodes while the other thirty cultivators followed their directions.
• The cultivators learned that the early Cloud Burst had triggered the formation’s defensive mode and sealed the city, trapping its residents inside.
• The thirty-two cultivators broke more than fifty formation nodes in two hours, but the city-protecting formation showed little sign of weakening.
• After the hundredth node was broken, Lu Changming and Gongsun Jingge used their natal formation tools to search for the remaining nodes.

After the city-protecting array broke, rescue teams evacuated Cloud Gathering City while Lu Xunfeng destroyed an array point releasing Execution Qi. Impressed by Lin Xiao, he gave him a Silver Moon Longbow, leaving Lin Xiao surprised by the unexpected gift.

• Rescue teams arrived outside Cloud Gathering City, organized medical stations, and prepared to evacuate the injured once the array broke.
• The city-protecting array shattered, and cultivators rushed in to carry the weakened residents to safety.
• Lu Xunfeng found Lin Xiao at an array point, destroyed it, and removed the black crystal hidden beneath it.
• Lin Xiao admired Lu Xunfeng's display of power, and Lu Xunfeng gave him the Silver Moon Longbow.
• Lin Xiao, who had expected to be questioned or seized, accepted the unexpected gift in surprise.

Lin Xiao received a Silver Moon Longbow from Lu Xunfeng, then returned to the wounded outside the city to rescue Jiang Qu. He secretly treated Jiang Qu's severe injuries with Origin Qi, and Jiang Qu vowed to repay him.

• Lu Xunfeng gave Lin Xiao a Silver Moon Longbow and urged him to leave before the Cloud Burst.
• Lin Xiao went outside the city to find Jiang Qu among the wounded and carried him away from the crowded treatment area.
• Lin Xiao brought Jiang Qu to a secluded spot by a large tree and began treating his injuries with Origin Qi.
• Jiang Qu felt his pain ease and told Lin Xiao he would face any danger for him in return.

Lin Xiao fled Cloud Gathering City with Jiang Qu after a senior ordered everyone to retreat, then stopped to treat him as a monstrous black humanoid emerged from beneath the ruined city. The thirty-two Void Return cultivators watched the creature, whose presence left weaker cultivators frozen.

• A senior warned everyone to retreat, and Lin Xiao carried Jiang Qu away from Cloud Gathering City.
• An explosion and dreadful roars destroyed the city and sent nearby spirit ships crashing; Lin Xiao protected one ship, but most of its gravely injured passengers died.
• Jiang Qu vomited blood, so Lin Xiao landed nearby to treat him while keeping watch on the city.
• Lin Xiao saw an enormous black head rise from underground and realized it belonged to a gigantic humanoid made of black fog.
• The black humanoid emerged completely, and its presence caused cultivators with lower cultivation to lose their senses and freeze.

The Annihilation Immortal’s avatar overwhelmed Cloud Gathering City, fought off thirty-two Void Return cultivators, and drained the life force from those afflicted by Execution Qi. Lin Xiao tried to save Jiang Qu, who was left with only one breath, as the battle continued.

• The Void Return cultivators formed a star-shaped net over Cloud Gathering City, but the Annihilation Immortal’s avatar drained its Spiritual Power and destroyed it.
• Lu Xunfeng, Gongsun Jingge, and the other cultivators attacked the avatar, which re-formed and sent Execution Qi pythons against their protective Law Treasures.
• The cultivators unsealed their Law Treasures to create a multicolored barrier that scattered the Execution Qi, while Yun Qianxin secretly made an extra movement during the technique.
• The avatar recalled the Execution Qi and drained the life force of the wounded cultivators, leaving Jiang Qu alive only because Lin Xiao had protected him with Origin Qi.
• Jiang Qu urged Lin Xiao not to waste his strength, but Lin Xiao kept pouring Spiritual Power and Origin Qi into him in a desperate attempt to save him.

The Annihilation Immortal's clone escaped Cloud Gathering City after killing more than a hundred thousand people, then struck at Lin Xiao, whose emergency defense saved him but could not save Jiang Qu. The Void Return cultivators tried to track the clone, but disagreed over whether sending people to investigate its shifting locations was too dangerous.

• The Annihilation Immortal's clone absorbed Execution Qi and life force, mocked the thirty-two Void Return cultivators, and escaped before their Law Treasures could trap him.
• The clone sent a strand of Execution Qi at Lin Xiao, but his system activated an emergency defense and deducted ten thousand Spirit Stones.
• Jiang Qu gave Lin Xiao a Jade Slip pointing him toward his hometown, then died in Lin Xiao's arms.
• The battle left Cloud Gathering City completely destroyed, and Yun Qianxin used the Cloud Water Sect's secret technique to trace the clone's intermittent, shifting signal.
• Lu Xunfeng proposed investigating the locations where the clone appeared, while Gongsun Jingge and others warned that sending people could expose them to danger or a trap.

Lu Xunfeng persuaded the spiritual cultivators to investigate the Annihilation Immortal themselves, and Yun Qianxin assigned them locations. After Duan Weixue arrived at the ruined Cloud Gathering City, he demanded to know what had happened.

• Lu Xunfeng proposed that the cultivators investigate in person, and Yun Qianxin supported him until the group agreed.
• Yun Qianxin gave the cultivators target locations, and they set off while Lu Xunfeng, Yun Qianxin, and Gongsun Jingge waited outside Cloud Gathering City.
• Duan Weixue arrived and wailed over the destruction of Cloud Gathering City and its protective grand formation.
• Yun Qianxin struggled to explain the destruction, while Lu Xunfeng avoided answering.
• Duan Weixue turned to Gongsun Jingge and asked him to tell the truth.

After learning why Gongsun Jingge and the others broke Cloud Gathering City's defensive formation, Duan Weixue accepted that they had done so to save people from Annihilation Immortal and set out to gather the dead. He found Lin Xiao beside Jiang Qu's body and offered to bury him in a Ten Thousand Souls Mound.

• Duan Weixue became furious when Gongsun Jingge revealed that they had broken Cloud Gathering City's defensive formation, but let the others hold him back and explain what had happened.
• After hearing that Annihilation Immortal had used the Cloud Burst and Execution Qi to trap and hunt the city's cultivators, Duan Weixue asked whether he could avenge the victims and learned he had no chance.
• Duan Weixue went to the crashed rescue spirit ships, gathered the bodies, and noticed Lin Xiao sitting beside Jiang Qu's corpse beyond the hundred-li radius.
• Duan Weixue urged Lin Xiao to leave before the Cloud Burst and comforted him, then asked whether he wanted Jiang Qu buried in the Ten Thousand Souls Mound he planned to build.

After Cloud Gathering City was destroyed, Lin Xiao vowed to cultivate so he could stop the Annihilation Fiend, which Duan Weixue revealed was truly an immortal. As the Cloud Burst began, Lin Xiao stayed behind to endure it and investigate the coordinates Jiang Qu had left him, but the merging clouds suddenly unleashed vastly stronger lightning.

• Lin Xiao carried Jiang Qu toward Cloud Gathering City and told Duan Weixue he wanted to stop the Annihilation Fiend because its attacks caused needless deaths.
• Duan Weixue urged Lin Xiao to cultivate and revealed that the Annihilation Immortal was truly an immortal.
• Duan Weixue buried the dead at the Ten Thousand Souls Mound, while Gongsun Jingge and Lu Xunfeng left to search for the Annihilation Immortal and Yun Qianxin departed after lighting incense.
• Duan Weixue left Lin Xiao to endure the Cloud Burst, and Lin Xiao examined Jiang Qu's Jade Slip and found coordinates he planned to follow afterward.
• Lin Xiao took shelter in a cave as the clouds merged, causing the lightning currents to surge into enormous thunderstorms.

Lin Xiao endured the first stage of Cloud Burst in a cave and resumed cultivating after recovering from his exhaustion. Across Chongxiao Domain, cultivators fled aboard evacuation ships as the disaster intensified, while Lin Xiao remained unaware that a much more dangerous third stage awaited.

• Lightning and exploding clouds stripped away Lin Xiao’s disguise and destroyed his market-bought robes, so he changed into his sect robes.
• Lin Xiao realized the ground-level clouds had taken Chongxiao Domain’s plants underground, and he resumed meditating after considering what to do with the Execution Qi in his private vault.
• Remembering Senior Duan’s warning, Lin Xiao focused on cultivation without knowing Cloud Burst had three increasingly powerful stages.
• Evacuation ships carried refugees away from Chongxiao Domain, and some extended boarding ladders to people fleeing without ships.
• Cloud Burst entered its second stage, and the lightning eventually merged across every layer of Chongxiao Domain.
• When Lin Xiao opened his eyes again, the cave was gone.

Lin Xiao encountered the third stage of the Cloud Burst, where immense thundercloud pillars raced across the sky. After saving a damaged relocation ship from the pillars, he was caught in their collision and pulled through a spatial rift.

• Lin Xiao abandoned cultivation and fled from approaching thundercloud pillars.
• Lin Xiao found a damaged relocation ship carrying several thousand people and pushed it clear of two oncoming pillars.
• The pillars caught Lin Xiao, whose Origin Qi shield struggled against their violent currents and explosions.
• The colliding pillars burst apart, and spatial power tore open a rift that sucked Lin Xiao inside.
• Lin Xiao kept his Spiritual Power supply connected to the Lock Ring as he entered the rift.

After Lin Xiao was swallowed by a spatial rift and lost consciousness, the Lingxian Sect’s summer camp team watched the Southern Spirit Domain’s sect recruitment gathering in Yuanling City. The chapter leaves them chatting about Mo Yuanjiao’s past and Mo Que’s absence while the recruitment tests continued.

• Lin Xiao was swept into a spatial rift along with the energy from colliding thundercloud currents, and the rift closed after he fell unconscious.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue scheduled the Lingxian Sect team’s secret-realm explorations so they could attend Yuanling City’s recruitment gathering without delaying their assignment.
• The eight Lingxian Sect members watched children undergo Spirit Root tests from a reserved teahouse room as sect disciples announced their results.
• Han Weishu remarked that competition was fierce after a child with Four Spirit Roots was rejected, and she praised their own sect.
• Mo Yuanjiao told the group that an elder of the Shangyang Sect had tried to direct him to that sect, but he had instead found the Lingxian Sect.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue teased Mo Yuanjiao about his childhood and Mo Que’s absence, prompting him to insist that Mo Que had stayed behind to cultivate.

Xuanyuan Haoyue and Mo Yuanjiao challenged each other to a cultivation contest while their companions watched and discussed their group assignments. As the group observed a sect recruitment assembly, Yuan Jinsheng explained his family history, and Xuanyuan Haoyue prepared a trial order for the Lingxian Sect’s new products after learning the Yuan Household had agreed to sell them.

• Xuanyuan Haoyue and Mo Yuanjiao bickered and agreed to compete, with Haoyue vowing to catch up to him within five years.
• Han Weishu explained to Tong Jialiang that she had invited Xuanyuan Haoyue into Mo Yuanjiao’s group because she enjoyed watching the pair bicker; the group had been divided into two teams of four.
• Yuan Jinsheng told Bai Zhu that most sects recruited disciples by testing Spirit Roots, unlike the Lingxian Sect, and explained why he had attended a selection without intending to join a sect.
• Yuan Jinsheng told Gu Yuxiao that Shen Yingzi had taken his mother’s surname because she could not cultivate and he expected to live for centuries.
• Ling Hui told Xuanyuan Haoyue that the Yuan Household had agreed to try selling the Lingxian Sect’s new products, and Haoyue prepared a list of goods for a trial run.

Xuanyuan Haoyue explained why the Lingxian Sect’s tools for low-level cultivators and mortals could help workers at the bottom, but warned that selling them widely would be difficult. The group understood that the products needed trusted buyers and access to large organizations’ supply channels, while Su’s General Store could not move them in sufficient volume.

• Xuanyuan Haoyue described how workers often had to use unsuitable tools supplied by employers and could not afford to research or replace better ones.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue explained that the Lingxian Sect’s products could address those needs but would first have to earn the trust of buyers.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue warned that large-scale sales to sects and Aristocratic Clans would challenge established supply chains and the interests tied to them.
• Bai Zhu, Yuan Jinsheng, and Mo Yuanjiao discussed why the Yuan Household and Heavenly Profound Sect might not be able to easily secure broad sales channels.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue revealed that Boss Su had struggled to sell the products because they were basic, low-priced goods unsuited to black-market distribution.

Mo Yuanjiao proposed that the group open shops and establish a temporary sect base in the Immortal Cultivation Realm, recruiting suitable Rogue Cultivators while they awaited the sect master's plans. When none of them could reach the sect master through their Lock Rings, they agreed to wait three days before alerting Elder Liao.

• Mo Yuanjiao suggested opening their own shops in the Immortal Cultivation Realm, and the others discussed their shortage of staff.
• Mo Yuanjiao proposed recruiting Rogue Cultivators for a pseudo-base, then seeking the sect master's approval afterward.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue and the others tried contacting the sect master with their Lock Rings, but none received a response.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue confirmed that the Lock Rings showed the sect master's life was not in danger, and Yuan Jinsheng advised them not to act rashly.
• Mo Yuanjiao agreed to wait three days and said he would notify Senior Liao if the sect master remained unreachable.