Chapter Summaries

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox mourned Senior Brother Le Feng, then honored him with elaborate rites and hunted for a feast. The chapter ended with them returning to the Spiritual Herb Garden after felling trees and performing a ceremony that promised Le Feng a supreme Heavenly Spirit Root in his next life.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox visited the crowd gathered to see off Le Feng, who had passed away after a life devoted to urging fellow disciples to value their time.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox left for the Contribution Hall, where Chen Xun exchanged for Qi Condensation Stage pill formulas while secretly seeking the Three Yuan Pill formula.
• On their way, Chen Xun and Big Black Ox felled a Crane Spirit Tree, then returned to the Spiritual Herb Garden and held funeral rites for Le Feng with a suona, bells, and a coffin.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox hunted and gathered timber, then Chen Xun discovered they had no merit left and decided they would owe Heaven and Buddha for Le Feng’s rites.
• Chen Xun performed an altar ceremony while Big Black Ox assisted, wishing that Le Feng would be reborn with an unrivaled Heavenly Spirit Root.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox returned to the Spiritual Herb Garden carrying timber and wild beasts.

Twenty years after Le Feng’s ascension, Chen Xun and Big Black Ox learned that Qian Kingdom and Wu Kingdom were preparing for war over cultivation resources. They planned to fight if they could, while choosing the west as their escape route if they had to flee.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox continued their quiet life and visited Le Feng’s grave each year at Immortal Seclusion.
• The Southern Dipper Mountain Secret Realm closed for five hundred years, intensifying calls for war as sects faced the loss of cultivation resources.
• At a Council Hall meeting, the Sect Master ordered Foundation Establishment cultivators to prepare to follow the Ten Great Immortal Sects into the coming war.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox studied a map of Qian Kingdom and agreed that they would flee west if they could not withstand the conflict.
• Big Black Ox excitedly began packing their belongings, but Chen Xun reminded it that they would fight first and flee only if necessary.

A rain of meteors filled the sky over the Qian Kingdom, alarming the Five Elements Sect and the wider Cultivation World as a possible omen of great calamity. While Chen Xun and Big Black Ox celebrated the spectacle with friends, Ji Kun received a message and flew off with a rare smile.

• Tens of millions of meteors streaked across the sky above the Jade Bamboo Mountain Range, prompting Five Elements Sect disciples and Golden Core Stage cultivators to fear an evil omen.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox excitedly welcomed Shi Jing and Liu Yuan, roasted a mountain chicken, and set out to find Ji Kun.
• People across the Qian Kingdom and the Ten Great Immortal Sects witnessed the phenomenon, while sect ancestors speculated that it might concern a distant place from an Ancient Legend.
• Ji Kun watched the meteor shower, received a message through his Sound Transmission Talisman, and flew away smiling.

Chen Xun, the Big Black Ox, and their companions watched a spectacular meteor shower and shared a carefree evening on a mountain cliff. After learning that Qian Kingdom’s centennial grand meet would take place in Imperial Void City, Chen Xun and the Big Black Ox realized they had not heard about it.

• Chen Xun joked with Liu Yuan, Shi Jing, and Ji Kun while the Big Black Ox joined him on the cliff beneath the meteor shower.
• Chen Xun and the Big Black Ox made wishes, teased Shi Jing and Liu Yuan about their feelings, and persuaded everyone to shout at the sky.
• The meteor shower lasted for an hour and caused turmoil across the kingdoms while Five Elements Sect disciples discussed the event and returned to cultivation.
• Shi Jing, Liu Yuan, and Ji Kun told Chen Xun that they would attend Qian Kingdom’s centennial grand meet in Imperial Void City, which would host auctions and other events.
• Chen Xun and the Big Black Ox admitted that they had never heard of Imperial Void City or the grand meet.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox learned where Imperial Void City was but declined to attend its Auction Convention and Battle of the Chosen, then spent the night remembering their friends beneath the stars. The next morning, a herb cultivator stopped them outside the Spiritual Herb Garden to discuss something, and Chen Xun agreed to speak there.

• Shi Jing showed Chen Xun and Big Black Ox Imperial Void City’s location and invited them to travel there with the sect, but Chen Xun declined and asked Liu Yuan to bring back an auction list.
• Ji Kun stayed with Chen Xun and Big Black Ox on the cliff before leaving for a meeting at the Outer Sect Elder Hall.
• Chen Xun told Big Black Ox his wishes and said the meteor shower was the spirits of their departed friends coming to see them.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox spent the night gazing at the stars, then raced toward the Spiritual Herb Garden the next morning.
• A middle-aged Foundation Establishment cultivator stopped Chen Xun outside the garden, and Chen Xun asked to discuss the matter there rather than at the man’s place.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox took over the Frost Lake Spiritual Herb Garden and cared for it while the Five Elements Sect prepared to attend the grand assembly. Fifty years later, as war loomed over the Qian Kingdom, they prepared to leave the garden for the battlefield.

• Xu Wenlin asked Chen Xun to manage the Frost Lake Spiritual Herb Garden, and Chen Xun agreed after Xu promised to report the arrangement and credit him with the annual contribution.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox inspected the garden with the Pill Refining Hall, completed the handover, and began tending its herbs each day.
• After a year, Chen Xun and Big Black Ox watched the Five Elements Sect's cultivators depart west aboard giant ships and spirit beasts for the grand assembly.
• Fifty years after the Qian Kingdom Grand Assembly was announced, the Five Elements Sect recalled its traveling cultivators, prepared its war artifacts, and barred people from leaving.
• As war approached, Big Black Ox packed their belongings, and Chen Xun and Big Black Ox allocated their Longevity Points to Essence of All Things and speed.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox prepared to fight for Qian Kingdom, despite knowing they could only safely face weaker cultivators. When the Ten Great Immortal Sects issued the Immortal Extermination Order against Wu Kingdom, they eagerly readied themselves to depart with the Five Elements Sect.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox improved their cultivation, pill-making, and escape techniques while tending spiritual herb gardens and gathering supplies.
• Chen Xun told Big Black Ox that they would defend their home and the Five Elements Sect, but would flee rather than face a stronger opponent.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox sharpened their weapons and prepared their equipment for the coming battlefield.
• Liu Yuan announced that the Ten Great Immortal Sects had officially begun war against Wu Kingdom and that the Five Elements Sect would depart in three days.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox armed themselves and declared their willingness to fight for Qian Kingdom.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox learned they would not be allowed to join the Five Elements Sect’s campaign against the Wu Kingdom, so they prepared a way to support the departing forces. As the sect’s warships set out, they cheered Ji Kun and Shi Jing from a mountain peak.

• Liu Yuan told Chen Xun and Big Black Ox that the Five Elements Sect was attacking the Wu Kingdom and that the Spiritual Herb Garden’s residents would stay behind.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox accepted that they could not join the battle, then went outside and saw the sect preparing for war.
• Chen Xun told Big Black Ox they would make something, and they spent the next five days preparing it.
• Sect Master You Yuanhua ordered the Five Elements Sect to depart, and three Five Elements Treasure Ships rose from the valleys carrying the army.
• Ji Kun and Shi Jing spotted Chen Xun waving a battle flag and Big Black Ox cheering in an Invincible cloak as the ships set out.

Ji Kun and Shi Jing departed with the Five Elements Sect’s forces as Qian Kingdom’s sects mobilized for war against Wu Kingdom. While the kingdoms’ armies clashed at the border, Chen Xun and Big Black Ox stayed behind, worrying about their friends’ safety.

• Ji Kun and Shi Jing joined the Five Elements Sect’s departing forces, leaving Chen Xun and Big Black Ox behind.
• Half a month later, Zhiyang Province’s sects assembled under a Nascent Soul Ancestor of Purple Cloud Sect and marched north.
• The united cultivators of Qian Kingdom advanced to Wu Kingdom’s border, where Wu Kingdom’s Nascent Soul Ancestors rallied their defenders.
• Tens of thousands of cultivators collided, beginning the long-brewing war between the two kingdoms.
• At the Spiritual Herb Garden, Chen Xun struggled to meditate and asked Big Black Ox whether Ji Kun, Shi Jing, and the others would return safely.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox watched the war’s grim toll while reconsidering whether they should ever take part in such conflicts. They returned to cultivation and began refining silk from their ten-thousand-year Thousand Silk Spiritual Vine.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox tested their thousand-year Thousand Silk Spiritual Vine and kept stripping its silver hair while watching the distant front lines.
• Over the next ten years, the war continued, and the Five Elements Sect brought home the remains of fallen cultivators; Chen Xun and Big Black Ox heard no news of Shi Jing or Ji Kun.
• Chen Xun admitted he had been too impulsive about joining the war and decided they should avoid such conflicts in the future; Big Black Ox agreed.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox opened their concealed medicine box and revealed their ten-thousand-year Thousand Silk Spiritual Vine.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox entered the medicine box and used enhanced pill fire to refine blackened silk from the vine.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox continued their quiet lives at Five Elements Sect as the war devastated Wu Kingdom and brought the wounded and dead home. Shi Jing returned gravely injured, and Chen Xun and Big Black Ox accepted that they could not change the war as they carried on with their funeral rites; their time at the sect seemed to be nearing its end.

• Chen Xun planned to cultivate a Crane Spirit Tree coffin for Big Black Ox and continued tending herbs, gathering war news, and performing funeral rites for merit.
• Twenty-five years passed as the war intensified, Qian Kingdom mourned fallen Nascent Soul Ancestors, and the Ten Great Immortal Sects prepared to seal Wu Kingdom.
• A Giant Ship from Purple Cloud Sect brought Shi Jing back to Five Elements Sect, his foundation damaged and his body shrouded in Killing Intent.
• Liu Yuan wept as Shi Jing reassured her that he was alive, while Chen Xun and Big Black Ox watched from a mountain peak and worried about Ji Kun.
• Chen Xun told Big Black Ox that they were not saviors and urged it to focus on their future plans; they then went to perform rites for the returned dead.
• Chen Xun later visited Shi Jing, and Liu Yuan told him that even their master could not heal Shi Jing; Big Black Ox grieved and no longer wished to join the war.

Over a hundred years, the Qian Kingdom’s Immortal Sects defeated Wu Kingdom, and Chen Xun and Big Black Ox spent the war refining Thousand Silk Spiritual Vine and watching the losses from afar. After Ji Kun returned maimed and the war ended, Chen Xun and Big Black Ox laughed together on a mountain path and declared themselves free.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox waited in the Five Elements Sect for news from the front while deaths mounted, and they gathered Thousand Silk Spiritual Vine to craft protective gear and experimented with artifact refinement.
• A hundred years passed, and Wu Kingdom’s Immortal Gates were defeated as Qian Kingdom’s Ten Great Immortal Sects divided its cultivation resources.
• Ji Kun returned to the Five Elements Sect with a severed arm and lasting injuries, then spoke with Chen Xun and Big Black Ox for three days before saying he was glad they had not gone to war.
• After the war ended, Chen Xun and Big Black Ox walked a mountain path, shared their unease and laughter, and shouted that they were free.

Over a hundred years, Chen Xun and the Big Black Ox advanced to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, developed their artifact crafting, and gathered rare herbs while learning what it would take to reach the Golden Core Stage. With the five required Five Elements Pills within reach, they returned to the Spiritual Herb Garden to prepare for Core Formation.

• Chen Xun and the Big Black Ox cultivated a Crane Spirit Tree to one hundred thousand years, then Chen Xun carved it into a Big Black Coffin for the Big Black Ox.
• Chen Xun and the Big Black Ox advanced to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage by taking high-grade Three Yuan Pills.
• Chen Xun learned that cultivators with Five Elements Mixed Spirit Roots needed five middle-grade or better Five Elements Pills to force a breakthrough to the Golden Core Stage.
• Chen Xun used his accumulated contributions to obtain the Five Elements Pill Formula, while he and the Big Black Ox gathered rare spiritual herb seeds from across the sect.
• Chen Xun and the Big Black Ox returned to the Spiritual Herb Garden and decided it was time to prepare for Core Formation.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox completed their Bandit Sets and prepared to leave the Five Elements Sect after realizing that their cultivation had no hope of advancing to the Golden Core Stage. They said goodbye to the Gathering Spring Stream Spiritual Herb Garden and departed.

• Chen Xun put on the complete Bandit Set, whose Thousand Silk Spiritual Vine made him invisible to Big Black Ox’s divine sense, and the two tested their outfits by fighting in the cave dwelling.
• Chen Xun fitted Big Black Ox with its own Bandit Set, and they posed with their black coffin and Mountain-Splitting Axe before returning to their preparations.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox visited Ji Kun and Shi Jing, who remained changed by the war, while the Five Elements Sect treated the wounded and the sects divided territory.
• Twenty years passed, and the Five Elements Sect expanded into the Wu Kingdom as Chen Xun and Big Black Ox exchanged their remaining contributions for books and materials and packed their belongings.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox reminisced about their early days at the sect, tended the Spiritual Herb Garden one last time, and left.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox left the Five Elements Sect after reporting their departure, then spent several days resting in a Maple Leaf Forest they had never discovered before. Liu Yuan found them there and learned that Chen Xun planned to seek a quiet, carefree life rather than serve in the Wu Kingdom.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox reported their departure from the Five Elements Sect, and the Pill Refining Hall returned Chen Xun’s Restriction Token.
• They wandered through the sect’s mountains and found a beautiful Maple Leaf Forest, where Chen Xun unfolded a map of the Qian Kingdom before falling asleep.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox rested in the forest for three days, while sect disciples who came to meet secretly fled when they spotted them.
• Liu Yuan came to the forest, saw Chen Xun and Big Black Ox resting, and reflected on the losses she and Shi Jing had endured.
• Liu Yuan asked about Chen Xun’s future plans and mentioned opportunities in the Wu Kingdom, but Chen Xun said he wanted only a breeze and time to idle; Liu Yuan accepted his choice and left.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox stole the Azure Cliff Eagle’s egg before leaving the Five Elements Sect and saying farewell to Shi Jing, Liu Yuan, and Ji Kun. As they set off into the wider cultivation world, Ji Kun entrusted Chen Xun with an ancient Ji Clan book, and Big Black Ox charged off before Chen Xun could climb onto its back.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox stole an Azure Cliff Eagle egg, then secretly returned it three days later and left the mountain with their belongings.
• Chen Xun handed in his sect robes and token, and he and Big Black Ox solemnly departed the Five Elements Sect.
• Shi Jing, Liu Yuan, and Ji Kun met them outside the sect gate to say farewell, and Chen Xun joked that he planned to return to the countryside.
• Ji Kun gave Chen Xun an ancient Ji Clan book he had forced open at the cost of turning his hair white, and Chen Xun accepted it as a gift between friends.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox said their farewells and set off, but Big Black Ox rushed ahead before Chen Xun could mount it.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox traveled through Zhiyang Province as ordinary mortals, then helped a village by destroying a ghost haunting its ancestral tomb. After the villagers celebrated them, Chen Xun shared food with a lonely boy who believed they were immortals.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox lowered their cultivation to mortal levels and walked toward the mountains on the border of Zhiyang Province and Kaiyang Province.
• Two months later, Chen Xun used a Mountain-Splitting Axe to destroy a ghost in a village's ancestral tomb while Big Black Ox rang its bell.
• The villagers praised Chen Xun and hosted a feast, where he declined requests to take disciples and ate with Big Black Ox away from the crowd.
• A little boy approached Chen Xun and asked if he was an immortal, explaining that the other children excluded him for looking strange.
• Chen Xun reassured the boy and invited him to eat, and the boy joined Chen Xun and Big Black Ox for a meal.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox left a village and spent a year cultivating in a remote mountain cave while living as ordinary mortals. When Wang Chuan attacked them, they revealed their power and killed him, then erased all traces of the encounter.

• Chen Xun encouraged the bullied little boy to help the villagers clean up, and the boy later watched Chen Xun and Big Black Ox depart with steps that seemed to span ten thousand paces.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox wandered through mortal lands, then settled in a remote forest to cultivate until Foundation Establishment Great Perfection.
• After a year of cultivation, Chen Xun and Big Black Ox relaxed outside their cave when Wang Chuan hid nearby and launched a flying sword at Chen Xun.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox appeared behind Wang Chuan, suppressed him, and sealed him inside the Big Black Coffin.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox burned Wang Chuan to ashes, then restored the surroundings and removed every trace of the killing.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox abandoned their old cave to avoid the Wang Family’s search for Wang Chuan, then settled in a remote mountain range. Chen Xun realized he could make a Mountain-Splitting Axe from a Crane Spirit Tree, but decided to prioritize cultivating spirit herbs before refining it.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox concealed their old cave, and the Wang Family’s search for Wang Chuan found no trace of him.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox opened a new cave in a remote mountain range and set up a hidden place to grow spirit herbs.
• Chen Xun realized a Crane Spirit Tree could be used to make a Mountain-Splitting Axe, like Big Black Ox’s Black Coffin.
• Chen Xun decided to cultivate the spirit herbs to Core Formation before refining a Natal Magic Treasure, and considered the limits of their other techniques and materials.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox periodically left their cave to hunt fierce beasts, while the mortal realms remained orderly under the Ten Great Immortal Sects.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox spent decades cultivating and laboriously refining the Five Elements Pill, eventually completing it with pill patterns. With all five attributes at their limit, they headed toward the border between two provinces, hoping to break through in a safer place.

• Chen Xun spent eight years learning how to refine a Gold Essence Pill while Big Black Ox guarded him, and he finally succeeded.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox rested by a river, talked about seeing the sea someday, and decided to leave after completing the Five Elements Pill.
• Chen Xun continued refining pills while Big Black Ox cultivated herbs and studied formations, and another fifty years passed amid rising conflicts across the Qian Kingdom and Wu Kingdom.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox completed the Five Elements Pill with pill patterns, filled all five attributes to their limits, and set off toward the border between the two provinces.