Chapter Summaries

Chu Tianshu told Yungu that a group of martial artists had gathered to summon him from the Grotto-Heaven, while Yungu trained Cui Douri and Choi Dong-ju. The martial artists’ resonance spell began as they called for the old general to return home.

• Yungu corrected Cui Douri’s fist technique and explained that his habitual smile kept his intent and movements from fully aligning.
• Chu Tianshu offered Cui Douri a foundation in Laughing Arhat Fist, and Yungu agreed to be summoned out of the Grotto-Heaven.
• Lin Chucheng showed Yungu the gathered martial artists, whose elders demonstrated Pigua Fist and Taizu Long Fist before Lin told them to prepare for the spell.
• The crowd learned that Cui Douri was Yungu’s disciple and urged Lin Chucheng to summon the General before he took more Goryeo disciples.
• Lin Chucheng raised his fist as more than a thousand martial artists circulated their Qi and blood, forming a White Rainbow vortex and calling for Yungu to return home.

The Mist-and-Rosycloud Wanderer and Lin Chucheng used a ritual to bring Yungu from the cave-heaven ruins into the secret realm, while Chen Ying unexpectedly became the ruins’ master. Chu Tianshu refined his understanding of the Sun-Chasing True Art, and Chen Ying revealed that she could guide the cave-heaven back to their homeland in about four months.

• The Mist-and-Rosycloud Wanderer drew talismans with an incense staff and began a Great Sacrifice to the Big Dipper, using the vital essence of the gathered martial artists to summon Yungu.
• As Yungu faded in Busan, he warned Cui Douri to care for his sisters, then vanished after taking a drag from a cigarette.
• When the cave-heaven’s vortex began to contract, Lin Chucheng used the Sun-Chasing True Art to restore its power, and the gathered martial artists helped draw Yungu into the secret realm.
• Chen Ying’s soul entered an unfathomable realm, where vast wills sensed that a Grotto-Heaven had acknowledged a master and discussed stopping its reconstruction.
• Chu Tianshu studied the flow of underground vital essence and refined how his internal power moved through the Tianshan terrain; Chen Ying then returned and confirmed she controlled the cave-heaven ruins.
• Chen Ying said she could move the cave-heaven back to their homeland in about four months, while Chu Tianshu realized he would have to leave within ten days.

Chu Tianshu examined the corpses of his enemies and prepared to leave Goryeo, while Yungu arrived to take the bodies back. Chu Tianshu departed by walking across the sea, leaving the officials hoping he would someday return as a tourist.

• Chu Tianshu studied the corpses of the state preceptor, White Dragon, Lady Wang, and the pirate, considering how their traits and remains could be used.
• Yungu arrived from the northwest, and Chu Tianshu asked him to transport the corpses back for the Special Investigation Bureau.
• Chu Tianshu decided to leave that day and asked Yungu to pass along his farewells to Teacher Little Yuan and the others.
• At the docks, a legislator offered Chu Tianshu a new ticket, but Chu Tianshu declined and said he hoped to return someday as a tourist.
• Chu Tianshu rose above the sea and walked across it on lotus-like waves until he disappeared from sight.

Chu Tianshu watched a Daoist master and his disciple expose a village shaman’s crimes before leaving the village. As he followed them, he discovered that the essence of heaven and earth in this world carried an alien presence that could harm him over time.

• Chu Tianshu arrived in a mountain village and watched the villagers accuse the old Daoist Lu and his disciple Shitou of poisoning them and swindling them.
• Lu repelled the villagers with purple qi, then had Shitou bring the shaman to him and revealed that she had poisoned his teapot.
• Lu forced the shaman to drink the poisoned water, then left with Shitou carrying his bamboo chair while the villagers watched in fear.
• Chu Tianshu followed the Daoists beyond the village and sensed an alien presence in the essence of heaven and earth entering his body.
• Chu Tianshu examined essence drawn from plants, earth, and stone and wondered whether local experts could counteract its harmful effects.

Chu Tianshu met the crippled Daoist Lu Yuande and his disciple Shitou, then learned how the Northern and Southern Dynasties had been shaped by people who attained the Dao. Lu Yuande explained why Denglai Mountain Market, also called Penglai in the Mortal World, had flourished as a contested trading hub, and Chu Tianshu eagerly decided to visit.

• Chu Tianshu caught up with Lu Yuande and Shitou on a mountain path, praised their cultivation, and introduced himself as a physician of the Ghost Gate lineage.
• Lu Yuande recounted the rise and fall of dynasties after Jin, including Dai Faxing's attainment of the Dao and the spread of Dao-attained figures across the land.
• Lu Yuande told Chu Tianshu that he and Shitou were heading to Denglai Mountain Market, known as Penglai in the Mortal World.
• Lu Yuande explained that competing powers profited from the market's trade and secrecy, making it too costly for any one force to plunder.
• Chu Tianshu said he liked places like Penglai in the Mortal World and wanted to see it for himself.

Chu Tianshu reached Denglai Mountain Market with Lu Yuande and offered to treat his crippled limbs in exchange for learning his cultivation methods. Lu Yuande explained the dangers of moonlight and the Moon Refining methods, leaving Chu Tianshu wondering whether this world's Spirit Realm was on the moon.

• Chu Tianshu and Lu Yuande surveyed the thriving Denglai Mountain Market, and Lu Yuande said he and Shitou planned to stay at a village temple.
• Chu Tianshu invited Lu Yuande to lodge with him, then demonstrated his skill by sending internal force through the old Daoist's damaged meridians.
• Chu Tianshu diagnosed Lu Yuande's injuries and offered to heal his left leg in exchange for learning his cultivation methods.
• Lu Yuande explained that moonlight had changed the Qi of heaven and earth and that Moon Refining methods helped practitioners handle its hidden dangers.
• Lu Yuande described his school's medicinal Moon Refining methods, and Chu Tianshu wondered whether the world's Spirit Realm was on the moon.

Chu Tianshu brought Lu Yuande and Shitou to the Pengcheng Tavern, where he treated Lu Yuande’s leg while studying the tavern’s legendary weapons. As Lu Yuande explained the three paths for resisting Moon-Turbidity, Chu Tianshu considered using the materials listed on his token and decided to take the medicinal path first.

• Chu Tianshu followed Lu Yuande’s recommendation to the Pengcheng Tavern, where he admired the seventy-three weapons said to belong to experts defeated by Xiao Liang.
• Chu Tianshu used twenty-nine silver needles and threads of Qi to treat Lu Yuande’s left leg while Shitou carved medicinal formulas onto bamboo slips.
• Lu Yuande explained that his Dao-Seeking Shennong path used complex medicinal formulas and that his former sect could rarely afford to use them.
• Lu Yuande described the External Dharma Nexus path, which relied on magical treasures but limited cultivation, and the Primordial Heart Transmission path, which passed excess turbid intent and evil thoughts between people.
• Chu Tianshu examined the materials listed on his token, formed an idea, and decided to take the medicine first.

Chu Tianshu made and used a medicinal roll that eased the discomfort caused by the world’s contamination, then noticed a wandering soul attacking a family. He caught the scholar and learned that the man was using a sarira and a secret demonic technique to cultivate; Chu Tianshu suspected he was turning himself into an evil spirit.

• Chu Tianshu prepared a Cloud-Rolling Sleeve medicinal roll and used it to neutralize the contamination affecting his body.
• After meditating and sleeping, Chu Tianshu sensed a wandering scholar’s soul drifting toward Carpenter Zhou’s home.
• The scholar used a sarira to send yellow Qi into Carpenter Zhou, driving him to attack his wife so the scholar could harvest his anguish and remorse.
• Chu Tianshu stopped Carpenter Zhou from strangling his wife by using silver needles to break the influence, then seized the scholar’s soul.
• Under Chu Tianshu’s questioning, the scholar admitted he used the sarira and a secret demonic technique with Human Furnaces to advance his cultivation.
• Chu Tianshu examined the scholar and concluded that he seemed to be cultivating himself into an evil spirit.

Chu Tianshu interrogated Tan Yu and learned how the Celebration of the Sage Temple used sariras and human victims to cultivate through lunar turbidity. He resolved to use the Youdu Edict and Sect Leader Yeming’s trait to create an immortal path, then judged Tan Yu unworthy of being an evil demon and prepared another use for him.

• Chu Tianshu returned to his room with Tan Yu’s soul, shrank it, trapped it in an oil lamp, and questioned him.
• Tan Yu explained his background, how he found the sarira, and how the Celebration of the Sage Temple’s secret art turned people into Human Furnaces.
• Tan Yu described how demonic cultivators selected ordinary people with strong wills, drove them to commit atrocities, and harvested power from their emotional breakdowns.
• Chu Tianshu considered the demonic path’s growth and decided to combine the Drifting Tumbleweed Sun-Chasing True Art with Sect Leader Yeming’s Manifesting Medicinals trait to develop an immortal path.
• Tan Yu confessed that he had killed three Human Furnaces and was cultivating seventeen others.
• Chu Tianshu told Tan Yu that he did not yet qualify as an evil demon and would contribute to the immortal path in another way.

Tan Yu delivered medicine to Carpenter Zhou and his wife after explaining that an evil demon had harmed them, while an artifact spirit in his body compelled him to follow Chu Tianshu’s instructions. After discussing Shen Minglai’s demonic cultivation with Lu Yuande, Chu Tianshu went out to test how strong Shen was.

• Tan Yu told Carpenter Zhou and his wife that an evil demon had caused Carpenter Zhou’s recent behavior and gave them medicine to help them recover.
• Tan Yu felt the artifact spirit in his body punish him with head pain whenever malicious thoughts or disobedience arose.
• Chu Tianshu treated Lu Yuande with needles, then used a dose of the Cloud-Rolling Sleeve formula to protect himself from Moon Turbidity.
• Chu Tianshu told Lu Yuande that Shen Minglai practiced a demonic secret technique and had contacted people from the Celebration of the Sage Temple.
• Despite Lu Yuande’s warning about Shen Minglai’s strength, Chu Tianshu left to see how he measured up.

Shen Minglai brooded over his craving for Human Furnaces and the missing monk from the Celebration of the Sage Temple before Chu Tianshu confronted him at his estate. Shen Minglai’s Demonic Dao techniques failed to stop Chu Tianshu, who struck him down and left him helplessly falling into unconsciousness.

• Shen Minglai walked through his garden while considering contacting the Celebration of the Sage Temple because its monk had gone missing and his dungeon had been empty for nearly two years.
• Shen Minglai entered a wooden building and sensed that the doors behind him had been stopped by an invisible force.
• Shen Minglai reflected a flash of light from his short sword at Chu Tianshu, but Chu Tianshu deflected it with one finger and shattered the sword.
• Shen Minglai unleashed his Demonic Dao True Qi, transforming the building into a charging bull-shaped attack against Chu Tianshu.
• Chu Tianshu stepped across the wooden bull, severed Shen Minglai’s control over it, and stamped through the structure toward him.
• Shen Minglai blocked Chu Tianshu’s foot and tried to counterattack, but Chu Tianshu trapped his claws and drove them into his head with a palm strike.

After defeating Shen Minglai, Chu Tianshu optimized and practiced the Mountain Hermit's Sun-Boiling True Scripture, then brought Lu Yuande and Shitou to treat the people harmed by the demonic path. He taught them the Thirteen Longevity Swords, offering the first three swords for healing and all thirteen to those willing to become his disciples.

• Chu Tianshu returned after killing Shen Minglai and completed a second optimization, creating the Mountain Hermit's Sun-Boiling True Scripture.
• Chu Tianshu treated Lu Yuande's acupuncture needles and urged him to remain calm so he could recover.
• Chu Tianshu practiced the new scripture through the night, melting the snow and poison gathered in his body and awakening a sunlike light within himself.
• Chu Tianshu took Lu Yuande and Shitou to Tan Yu's residence, where the seventeen harmed people and their families had gathered.
• Chu Tianshu offered to teach the gathered people swordsmanship, naming his reorganized art the Thirteen Longevity Swords and distinguishing between those seeking healing and those willing to become his disciples.

Chu Tianshu discussed his plans to train many disciples without treating them as disposable soldiers, then introduced Lu Yuande to the Internal Elixir tradition and suggested he pursue it. When the sarira in Chu Tianshu’s possession began transmitting a signal, he cut off its connection and left to investigate.

• Dozens of disciples practiced the Thirteen Death-Claiming Swords, while Lu Yuande observed that most would take years to develop internal force.
• Chu Tianshu said he planned to recruit many disciples and train them for lasting livelihoods rather than dismiss them as expendable clan soldiers.
• Lu Yuande reflected on the difficulty of following the righteous path, and Chu Tianshu recognized his words as resembling a verse by True Person Ziyang.
• Chu Tianshu explained the Internal Elixir tradition and suggested that Lu Yuande’s Dao-Seeking Shennong might benefit from turning toward it.
• The sarira from the Celebration of the Sage Temple began to glow, so Chu Tianshu blocked its signal with primordial Qi and left to investigate.

A yellow-haired man attacked Fa'en’s procession and rescued the girl in red from the iron-plated rear carriage, while other martial artists joined the fight. He revealed that the girl was his daughter and accused the Xiao family of taking her from him, leaving Fa'en and the Xiao family woman facing his claim.

• A yellow-haired man killed a monk in Fa'en’s procession and cut through the rear carriage’s iron plate to seize the girl in red.
• Fa'en attacked the yellow-haired man, who broke through his palm strikes with pale Sword Qi as the monks prepared their formation.
• A group of martial artists rushed into the street, and a youth in white offered to help the yellow-haired man escape with the girl.
• Chu Tianshu watched from the tavern gatehouse and recognized the yellow-haired man’s Sword Qi as a form of Demonic Dao cultivation fueled by pain and hatred.
• The Xiao family woman leaped from the front carriage, and the yellow-haired man declared that the girl was his daughter, whom the Xiao family had taken after he raised her for fourteen years.

Chu Tianshu intervened as Fa'en and the monks trapped their opponents in the Great Mount Sumeru Formation, rescuing the little girl and turning the formation against its own members. The girl recognized the yellow-haired man as her father, and the chapter ended with their captors kneeling before them.

• The Xiao family woman freed the unconscious girl from the yellow-haired man, but Fa'en and the monks completed their formation and trapped their opponents.
• Chu Tianshu arrived, took the girl from the Xiao family woman, and hurled her at a weak point in the formation, where a burly monk was forced to block her.
• The girl woke and called the yellow-haired man her father, while Chu Tianshu struck Fa'en and seized his place in the formation.
• Chu Tianshu pulled the formation's power toward himself as he retreated, forcing the monks and the other trapped fighters to their knees.
• Chu Tianshu pointed out the kneeling crowd to the girl and her father.

After Chu Tianshu rescued Zhuo Xinlan and Zhuo Yuan, he learned that Xinlan possessed a Spirit Body and that the East Sea Xiao Family had abducted her mother in an effort to cultivate one. The group headed to Pengcheng Tavern, where the old scholar revealed his poison expertise and left Chu Tianshu wary of eating there.

• Zhuo Xinlan reunited with Zhuo Yuan after Chu Tianshu defeated the people holding her, and Zhuo Yuan collapsed when his extreme anguish and cultivation cycle faltered.
• Chu Tianshu stabilized Zhuo Yuan’s meridians and agreed to take the captives to Pengcheng Tavern after the old scholar offered help and explained that his marquis opposed the East Sea Xiao Family.
• The old scholar revealed that Zhuo Xinlan possessed a Spirit Body and explained how the Xiao Family’s attempt to cultivate one had led to her abduction and the tracking of her bloodline.
• Zhuo Yuan learned that Xinlan’s mother was probably not a member of the Xiao Family and that she had been carried away during the escape of abducted martial-world people.
• The old scholar said he had planned to use poison against the Demonic Dao experts, prompting Chu Tianshu to decide not to eat at his tavern.

At Pengcheng Tavern, Chu Tianshu and Zhuo Yuan learned that the Heart-Moon Two Aspects Art had been used in a deadly experiment by an unknown Daoist. Zhuo Yuan revealed where he had met the Daoist, while Chu Tianshu turned his attention to a group of monks entering the tavern, many of whom were evil spirits.

• The old scholar and the musicians welcomed Chu Tianshu and explained how the Marquis of Pengcheng had taught them a weapon-refining method.
• The old scholar gave Zhuo Yuan restorative medicinal tea and asked where he had learned the Heart-Moon Two Aspects Art.
• The old scholar and the musicians said the art had harmed many people years earlier and that the Marquis suspected a Demonic Dao expert had been testing it.
• Zhuo Yuan recounted meeting a Daoist after the Xiao family gravely wounded him and gave the others the place where it happened.
• Chu Tianshu stopped Zhuo Yuan from dwelling on painful memories and condemned the art's deliberate spread.
• Chu Tianshu noticed that nine monks being brought into the tavern were evil spirits and decided to address his own confusion before confronting them.

Chu Tianshu questioned Fa'en about Fahui, then followed him to the place where Fahui had disappeared. There, he discovered a powerful pine tree that had driven away the village and asked it to discuss cultivation techniques.

• Chu Tianshu questioned Fa'en about Fahui's sarira and learned that Fa'en could sense Fahui's remaining fingers.
• Fa'en restored some strength, sensed Fahui's fingers, and led Chu Tianshu toward their location.
• Chu Tianshu asked Zhuo Yuan and the others to sell the captured monks' horses at the market.
• Fa'en led Chu Tianshu through the spice and medicinal-herb markets and into a secluded valley, where they found an abandoned village.
• Chu Tianshu deduced that a pine tree had erased the Demonic Dao presence from Fahui's sarira and caused the villagers to flee.
• Chu Tianshu addressed the pine tree as a fellow Daoist and invited it to discuss cultivation techniques.

Chu Tianshu sparred with the pine tree, recognized its martial techniques, and learned how it had protected the valley’s villagers. After discovering Fahui’s corpse beneath a rock, Chu Tianshu offered to send people to keep the lonely tree company before he faced whoever came to drive him away.

• The pine tree exchanged blows with Chu Tianshu, who defeated its branch without breaking it and impressed it with a sword technique he improvised from its movements.
• Chu Tianshu explained how his ability to turn martial intent into concrete forms let him read and extend the pine tree’s techniques.
• The pine tree recalled the humans who had lived in the valley over the centuries and how it had begun cultivating and protecting villagers.
• The pine tree revealed Fahui’s corpse beneath a rock and explained that it had dispersed the strange power inside the village chief.
• Chu Tianshu offered to send people to keep the pine tree company and said he would hide those he had been cultivating before confronting the people who might come after him.

Song Zixian and Xiao Shexin learned that Fa Wendao would join them in confronting the mysterious Attaining the Dao cultivator at Denglai Mountain Market. They met Fa Wendao near Shen Minglai’s estate, sensed the cultivator openly releasing his presence, and went down the mountain together to persuade him.

• Song Zixian killed two sword fighters from afar by disrupting their Qi, and Xiao Shexin rebuked him for wasting their lives.
• Xiao Shexin told Song Zixian that the Celebration of the Sage Temple had arranged for Fa Wendao, a surviving Dai Clan expert, to join their mission.
• Song Zixian and Xiao Shexin hurried out of Jiankang, while other clans watched their departure and considered recruiting the mysterious cultivator.
• Fa Wendao met Song Zixian and Xiao Shexin near Shen Minglai’s estate and explained that the cultivator’s immense presence made him reluctant to approach alone.
• Fa Wendao led the three experts down the mountain to persuade the cultivator, who was waiting at Denglai Mountain Market.