Chapter Summaries

After the Immortal Capture Operation ended, Chen Yang and the others secured its gains and arranged for the captured Upper Cultivator souls to be studied. Suspecting the Sea Pavilion Upper Cultivator had hidden plans involving the future, Chen Yang ordered Xiao Yao to contact the participants and erased the Upper Cultivator aura from them, leaving the story with preparations for an uncertain threat.

• Ling Shuang took charge of recording Xiao Yao and Li Huazhong's merits and planned to deliver the captured Upper Cultivator souls to the Dark Underworld Venerable after the Secret Realm ended.
• Chen Yang gave a remnant soul fragment to Xu Cang, allowing it to detect concealed spell fluctuations within the Sky Curtain more precisely.
• The New Heaven cultivators gained soul power from the fleeing Upper Cultivator ghosts, and the Immortal Capture Operation ended successfully.
• Chen Yang suspected the Sea Pavilion Upper Cultivator had other hidden arrangements that could create future threats for Canglan.
• Chen Yang ordered Xiao Yao to contact every New Heaven cultivator who had joined the operation, then used Yan Ming's divine ability to erase their Upper Cultivator aura, sparing only Xiao Yao and Li Huazhong.

Xuanyuan Rongchuan and Wen Zhiyu praised their son Xuanyuan Jun’s ambition and discussed his destiny after he stirred the ancestral leyline at birth. They learned that pills for both Xuanyuan Jun and Wen Zhiyu had been secured, leaving the family grateful to the Xuanyuan Clan’s ancestors.

• Xuanyuan Jun admired Xiao Yao and promised to work hard enough to match her achievements.
• Xuanyuan Rongchuan told Xuanyuan Jun that the ancestral leyline’s inheritance could help him advance alongside Xiao Yao.
• Xuanyuan Rongchuan announced that the ancestor had secured pills for Xuanyuan Jun and Wen Zhiyu.
• Wen Zhiyu rejoiced that her medicine and Xuanyuan Jun’s Meridian-Opening Spirit Pill had been arranged.
• The narration explained that Xuanyuan Jun’s birth had stirred the ancestral leyline, making him the Xuanyuan Clan’s foremost cultivation priority.

The Central Region factions speculated about the Yang Clan’s internal situation after Heaven-Clearing Academy announced it would accept its first disciple. They focused on Yang Lingshu, an old member of the Ling generation, and wondered whether the new sect announcement signaled a power struggle or a declaration by the clan’s old guard.

• The Yang Clan had remained silent for nearly five years after the lightning tribulation, and its absence from the latest Pill Origin Ceremony had fueled speculation.
• Heaven-Clearing Academy announced that it would establish itself as a sect and accept its first disciple, drawing the attention of Central Region factions.
• Cultivators learned that Yang Lingshu had joined the Myriad Transformation Sect decades earlier and later become its sect master without returning to the Yang Clan.
• The factions noted that Yang Lingshu belonged to the senior Ling generation, alongside figures such as Yang Lingqing and Yang Lingrui, and that he had once been considered a possible future patriarch.
• Central Region cultivators suspected that Yang Lingshu’s return to the ancestral lands and the academy’s recruitment drive were connected to tensions within the Yang Clan after the former patriarch’s death.

Central Region powers interpreted the Yang Clan’s internal divisions and the Lingxiao Dao Academy’s distance as signs of weakness, while the Yang Clan deliberately fostered that impression to conceal the New Heaven Project. The chapter left those powers preparing to send juniors northwest as the Upper Realm cultivators’ preference for chaos shaped the conflict.

• Central Region cultivators concluded that the Yang Clan’s fortunes had declined after its calamity and anticipated further turmoil when its reclusive peak cultivator attempted to ascend.
• Several powers began choosing young cultivators to send northwest for the Heaven-Clearing Academy’s recruitment.
• The Yang Clan continued to let rumors of its weakness spread, maintaining a deliberate illusion to protect the New Heaven Project.
• Bai Di’s strategy called for showing the Upper Realm cultivators the discord and disorder they expected to see among lower-realm cultivators.
• The Lingxiao Dao Academy declined to send cultivators northwest, signaling that it had reached little agreement with the Yang Clan.

Murong Xu, Tiger Chasing's gifted crown prince, reported his studies and cultivation progress to Murong Tianyang and Li Qingwan. With Heaven-Clearing Academy recruiting disciples, his parents had to consider his next opportunity for further training.

• Murong Tianyang ordered Tiger Chasing's clans, families, and sects to recommend outstanding juniors for Heaven-Clearing Academy's disciple selection.
• Murong Xu reported that he had studied three historical records and cultivated two methods to the introductory level.
• Li Qingwan and Murong Tianyang had arranged for Zi He, the Evil Extermination Division's Deputy Commander and their imperial brother-in-law, to guide Murong Xu's cultivation.
• Murong Xu reached the Seventh Level of Qi Gathering before age fifteen and earned the Evil Extermination Division's praise for his combat talent and victories against stronger enemies.

Murong Xu and several talented youths from the Tiger Chasing Realm’s factions prepared to travel to the Yang Family Sacred Land or Heaven-Clearing Academy to cultivate. Jia Huarai departed with Murong Xu, while Xuan Zhou, Zi He, and Feng Lan set out with their chosen youths.

• Murong Xu eagerly accepted a jade pendant from Li Qingwan before Jia Huarai escorted him from the palace toward the Barbarian Land.
• Xuan Zhou selected three promising children from the Immortal Patrol Division’s reserves to take to Heaven-Clearing Academy.
• Zi He traveled with Zi Mo, warned him not to underestimate the Yang Clan, and heard him promise to behave.
• Feng Lan departed east with his thirteen-year-old daughter, whose cultivation had reached the Sixth Level of Qi Gathering.

Young cultivators from the Northwest arrived in the Barbarian Land for Heaven-Clearing Academy’s entrance trial, where the Yang Clan secretly assessed their conduct while they explored the cities. Feng Weiran and He Shuping encountered a shopkeeper inviting them into his jewelry shop.

• The Yang Clan and barbarian cultivators began observing the young candidates as they arrived in the barbarian city-states.
• The candidates’ elders left them to explore on their own, deliberately allowing the Yang Clan to assess them without warning them.
• Feng Weiran stayed close to He Shuping as they wandered through an unfamiliar city.
• A shopkeeper called out to the two Great Cang girls and advertised jewelry unique to the Sacred Land.
• He Shuping showed interest in the shop and suggested that she and Feng Weiran look around.

Dalom revealed that the Yang Clan had arranged eight powerful spirit treasures as a trial for He Shuping and Feng Weiran. He Shuping urged Feng Weiran to demonstrate her talent for breaking restrictions, and Feng Weiran began examining the weakest one.

• Dalom used his bone-supported scepter to reveal eight restricted spirit treasures.
• He Shuping and Feng Weiran recognized that the treasures were far more powerful than ordinary jewelry-shop wares.
• Dalom explained that the Yang Clan’s craftsmen and Sacred Clan experts had forged the treasures, and suggested they could help the women enter the Sacred Land Technique Academy.
• He Shuping asked whether they would be free to leave after breaking the restrictions, and Dalom encouraged them to take as many treasures as they could.
• He Shuping reassured Feng Weiran that her skill at breaking barriers made her one of the best in the Northwest.
• Feng Weiran steadied herself and began examining the weakest restriction, while Dalom watched her with new interest.

Yang Lingrui welcomed Zi He and Jia Huarai, who reflected on how their lives and responsibilities had changed since their youth. Jia Huarai recalled how a conversation with Emperor Murong Tianyang had eased his obsession with advancing his cultivation, as the chapter ended with Tianyang explaining why the Dynasty could not expand without conflict with the Yang Clan.

• Yang Lingrui greeted Zi He and Jia Huarai, and they formally saluted him as the Yang Clan’s Mandate Official.
• Zi He and Jia Huarai remembered their earlier encounters with Yang Lingrui and considered how far each of them had come.
• Zi He reflected on how he had grown from an ambitious young cultivator into a dependable deputy commander who shared the Dynasty’s burdens.
• Jia Huarai recalled reaching the limits of his talent and taking on the responsibilities of Imperial Preceptor after proving his Dao at Heavenly Sword Mountain.
• Jia Huarai remembered that Emperor Murong Tianyang had persuaded him to abandon the idea of withdrawing from public life by reminding him that human strength and circumstances had limits.
• Murong Tianyang recalled that the Yang Clan’s rise made further territorial expansion by the Tiger Chasing Dynasty likely to lead to conflict with the Yang Clan.

Yang Lingrui revealed to Zi He and Jia Huarai that the Yang Clan's long seclusion was part of a larger secret connected to a senior cultivator and the New Heaven Project. After accepting stone tokens and learning the truth, both friends remained committed to the cause.

• Yang Lingrui reunited with Zi He and Jia Huarai, and they discussed the Yang Clan's affairs during its years of seclusion.
• Zi He guessed that the Yang Clan's seclusion had been staged, and Yang Lingrui confirmed it had followed Sister Qing's arrangements and concealed a greater secret.
• Yang Lingrui sealed off the surrounding space and explained that the secret involved a senior cultivator, powerful forces, and all living beings of Azure Waves.
• Yang Lingrui gave Zi He and Jia Huarai stone tokens and asked them to place drops of vital blood on them.
• Zi He and Jia Huarai received the tokens' methods and the New Heaven Project's secrets, then resolved not to retreat.

Central Region powers sent young disciples toward Heaven-Clearing Academy, while a Five Directions Immortal Mansion cultivator warned the children aboard his vessel about the Yang Family Sacred Land. He noticed that the Jiang Clan’s gifted girl, Jiang Pu, was absent.

• Central Region middle-tier powers split between token participation and sending promising juniors to seek ties with the Yang Clan through Heaven-Clearing Academy.
• A white-haired cultivator aboard the Five Directions Immortal Mansion vessel warned the children to behave carefully when they reached the Yang Family Sacred Land.
• The children thanked the cultivator, then dispersed to look around the vessel.
• The cultivator noticed Jiang Pu was missing and recalled the gifted Jiang Clan girl’s emergence more than a year earlier.

Jiang Pu struggled against the Ascendant Will, unaware that it had planted her belief in the Demonbane Immortal Treasure to manipulate her into finding the Creation Origin. Sheng Jiaoyang visited her cave and said he intended to end their engagement.

• Jiang Pu recovered her strength and resolved to find the Immortal Treasure, believing it could free her from the demon possessing her.
• The Ascendant Will’s scheme was revealed: it had invented the treasure’s power to drive Jiang Pu toward the Creation Origin and eventually break her will.
• Sheng Jiaoyang came to Jiang Pu’s cave to discuss the relationship between their households.
• Sheng Jiaoyang told Jiang Pu their marriage was unlikely to happen and said he would formally decline the engagement after entering the Heaven-Clearing Academy.

Sheng Jiaoyang visited Jiang Pu and recognized her determination to rebuild her cultivation, though he believed her damaged foundation limited her future. The chapter revealed that the evil demon Jiang Pu blamed for her failed breakthrough was real, but no one—including an Immortal Mansion Venerable—could detect it, leaving Jiang Pu doubting her own memories.

• Sheng Jiaoyang left Jiang Pu's Immortal Estate after seeing that she was drawing qi into her body and rebuilding her cultivation.
• Sheng Jiaoyang recalled how Jiang Pu had blamed a sinister entity for disrupting her breakthrough and damaging her Dao foundation.
• Immortal Mansion cultivators and clan elders examined Jiang Pu, but found no evidence of an outside force and concluded that she had experienced Qi Deviation.
• Sheng Jiaoyang felt glad that Jiang Pu had recovered her resolve, but believed their different paths and her limited aptitude would end their bond.
• Jiang Pu continued to hear the real evil demon laughing in her mind, while those around her dismissed her claims and she began to doubt what had happened.

Heaven-Clearing Academy recruited disciples with a focus on character and loyalty rather than talent, admitting many overlooked young cultivators from the Central Region. The selected children began their next test: climbing Clear Sky Peak to reach the summit hall.

• The Yang Clan admitted junior disciples from allied Central Region powers while screening out many candidates from factions that had only come to watch.
• The Yang Clan selected several young cultivators with poor aptitude, whose elders had expected them to be merely a pretext and not true academy disciples.
• Murong Xu, Zi Mo, He Shuping, Feng Weiran, Jiang Pu, and Sheng Jiaoyang advanced to the next round of selection.
• The candidates were told to climb Clear Sky Peak by any means and reach the great hall at its summit to qualify for Heaven-Clearing Academy.

Yang Yuanwen and Yang Yuanliu descended before the children gathered for a mountain-climbing selection, and Luo Yunheng explained Yang Yuanwen’s standing as the northwest’s foremost talisman cultivator. Murong Xu identified Yang Yuanliu as a former Tiger Chasing Archives director, leaving Zi Mo and Feng Weiran reassured that she meant them no harm.

• Yang Yuanwen and Yang Yuanliu appeared before the children, who bowed to the two seniors.
• Luo Yunheng told his junior sister that Yang Yuanwen was the northwest’s leading talisman cultivator and a Chuyun Pavilion ally.
• Luo Yunheng’s junior sister excitedly hoped to meet the Dragon Sovereign and Fate Official, and Luo Yunheng reminded her to pass the selection first.
• Zi Mo and Feng Weiran wondered why Yang Yuanliu had been watching them and feared they had done something wrong.
• Murong Xu identified Yang Yuanliu as a former director of Tiger Chasing’s Archives and reassured Zi Mo and Feng Weiran that she bore them no ill will.

Murong Xu and Jiang Pu entered the magical book that contained the mountain-climbing trial. Jiang Pu found herself in thick fog among unseen creatures, while the three Treading-Void Split Souls inside her planned to stay hidden and let another Ascendant Will explore first.

• Murong Xu pressed his palm to the book and vanished into the trial realm.
• The three Treading-Void Split Souls discussed the Yang Clan's factions and decided to enter Heaven-Clearing Academy while concealing their presence.
• The split souls identified two other Ascendant Wills among the children and chose to let the one controlling a body explore the Book-Within Grotto-Heaven first.
• Jiang Pu touched the book and appeared in thick fog, where she heard growls and hisses from unseen creatures.

Yang Lingshu, Yang Yuanliu, and Yang Yuanwen discussed avenging Yang Lingqing while carefully preparing the Yang Clan for its struggle against Upper Realm cultivators. They learned that Yang Yuan Zhen and Xuan Cang had entered the Book-Within Grotto-Heaven together, where the two young heirs were poised to turn the hunters into prey.

• Yang Yuanliu and Yang Yuanwen praised Yang Yuan Zhen’s extraordinary birth and agreed that Upper Realm cultivators could become opportunities for the Yang Clan’s younger generation.
• Yang Lingshu reminded them to strengthen the New Heaven Grand Plan patiently before pursuing their blood-deep feud over Yang Lingqing’s death.
• Yang Lingshu asked whether Yang Yuan Zhen had secretly taken Xuan Cang into the Book-Within Grotto-Heaven, surprising Yang Yuanwen.
• Yang Yuanliu explained that he had allowed the two children to enter after Ying Cai spoke on their behalf, and Yang Lingshu said Second Brother and Yang Yuan Hong had likely approved.
• Yang Yuanwen reasoned that Xuan Cang could use the Upper Cultivators’ methods to temper his Innate Azure Dragon Physique, while Yang Yuanliu’s book showed the two children moving furtively inside the grotto-heaven.
• Yang Lingshu described Xuan Cang as bait and Yang Yuan Zhen as the blade, as the pair prepared to lure and strike their targets.

Jiang Pu hid on Clear Sky Peak and watched two Six-Legged Jackals investigate a rock-like exotic beast. The beasts began testing each other’s hunting defenses while Jiang Pu stayed concealed nearby.

• Jiang Pu discovered that Six-Legged Jackals made distant calls through the dense fog and hid when two passed by.
• Jiang Pu heard scurrying and saw a rock-like exotic beast approach, with small creatures seemingly hiding in cracks across its body.
• The sound lured the two Six-Legged Jackals back, and Jiang Pu hid under damp leaves to observe them.
• The Six-Legged Jackals cautiously split up and approached the rock beast from opposite sides.
• One Six-Legged Jackal spat saliva onto the stone to test whether the beast could sense its temperature, but the rock beast remained still and made its cries sound more frightened.

Jiang Pu used the Six-Legged Jackals’ sharp hearing against them as she made her way toward someone calling for help. After killing one jackal and confusing the other two, she continued toward the cries.

• Jiang Pu decided to investigate the cries for help, hoping to rescue someone and gain a companion for the climb.
• When three Six-Legged Jackals tracked her to the trees, Jiang Pu used strips torn from her sleeves to create misleading sounds.
• Jiang Pu dropped onto one jackal and killed it with a stone.
• Jiang Pu climbed back into a tree and tugged the cloth strips, filling the forest with sounds that confused the remaining jackals.

Jiang Pu rescued Hu Zhinian and Hu Zhiyue from a pack of Six-Legged Jackals by using beast heads and rustling branches to frighten the beasts away. She warned the siblings that following her meant they might be used as scouts, and they accepted her terms.

• Hu Zhinian and Hu Zhiyue fought the Six-Legged Jackals together, hoping their struggle would draw a rescuer to them.
• Jiang Pu arrived and prepared a ruse using the heads of three Six-Legged Jackals, cloth strips, and beast hides tied among the trees.
• Jiang Pu threw the beast heads toward the pack and rustled the branches, frightening the Six-Legged Jackals into fleeing.
• Hu Zhinian and Hu Zhiyue thanked Jiang Pu and introduced themselves as siblings from the Hu Family under Fuyao Sect.
• Jiang Pu said the siblings would have to accept being used to scout ahead if they followed her, and they agreed.