Chapter Summaries

Chen Ning won the alchemy gathering after refining a Heaven-Envied Pill that could immediately advance its user to the Heavenly Martial Realm. As the crowd dispersed, Daoist Qishan blinded himself to beg for forgiveness, but Chen Ning walked past without responding.

• Grandmaster Mo declared Chen Ning the champion of the alchemy gathering, and the crowd celebrated his divine-level alchemy.
• Chen Ning told Bai Cangtian to pass a message to Chu Xuanyuan and complimented Bai Cangtian's alchemy before Bai left without collecting his reward.
• Chen Ning persuaded Grandmaster Mo to give him Bai Cangtian's Holy Soul Pills as well as his own reward.
• Daoist Qishan knelt, begged Chen Ning for forgiveness, and swallowed a poison pill that left him blind in both eyes.
• Chen Ning walked past Daoist Qishan without speaking, and Daoist Qishan concluded that the gesture had at least saved his life.

After winning the pill convention, Chen Ning met Mu Tianji, the Heavenly Lake Holy Lord, and learned that Heavenly Lake had helped the Asura Divine Sect drop its grudge against the Dragon-Seeking Sect. Mu Tianji warned that powerful forces still threatened Chen Ning’s sect and offered Heavenly Lake’s protection and support if it joined him.

• Chen Ning reflected that Medicine King Valley had supplied enough rare ingredients for only one Heaven-Envied Pill and that he would not take it himself.
• Chen Ning followed Grandmaster Mo to meet the Heavenly Lake Holy Lord, then waited while the old man slept.
• The Heavenly Lake Holy Lord woke and revealed himself as Mu Tianji, inviting Chen Ning to speak with him informally.
• Chen Ning thanked Mu Tianji for helping the Asura Divine Sect let go of its grudge against the Dragon-Seeking Sect, and Mu Tianji praised his judgment.
• Mu Tianji warned Chen Ning that Central Province’s major powers could threaten the Dragon-Seeking Sect and offered protection and full support if the sect attached itself to Heavenly Lake.

Chen Ning refused the Heavenly Lake Holy Lord’s offer to make the Dragon-Seeking Sect a subordinate, then traded the Heaven-Envied Pill and its formula for information about the Heavenly Lake Secret Realm. Learning the realm’s origins completed his first legendary quest stage and earned him a reward, while a public announcement about his gift was arranged to deter threats against his sect.

• Chen Ning declined the Heavenly Lake Holy Lord’s offer of protection, saying the Dragon-Seeking Sect had never submitted to another power.
• Chen Ning asked about the Heavenly Lake Secret Realm and offered the Heaven-Envied Pill and its formula in exchange for an explanation.
• The Heavenly Lake Holy Lord revealed that the realm was a prison for dangerous beings and souls from High Antiquity, built by his ancestor and several Saints to contain them and train later generations.
• Chen Ning completed the first stage of his legendary quest, received the reward [Shadow of Chaos], and unlocked the second stage: finding the token left by the first sect master.
• Chen Ning presented the pill and the Qian-Origin Creation Golden Pill formula to the Heavenly Lake Holy Lord, who agreed to announce the gift publicly to cloud outsiders’ understanding of their relationship.

After earning the Shadow of Chaos Divine Ability, Chen Ning learned that the Heavenly Lake Holy Lord seemed unusually well-disposed toward him, while news of his Heaven-Envied Pill spread across the Nine Provinces. Upon returning to Azure Cloud Mountain, Chen Ning was summoned by Zhuge Bai to the Star God Palace for an urgent meeting with his grandfather.

• Chen Ning learned the Shadow of Chaos Divine Ability, which let him summon copies of himself whose strength weakened as their numbers increased.
• The Heavenly Lake Holy Lord's kindness left Chen Ning wondering whether Senior Mu had a hidden connection to the Dragon-Seeking Sect.
• News of Chen Ning's Heaven-Envied Pill spread throughout the Nine Provinces, and the All-Under-Heaven Inn named him the number one of the younger generation.
• Chu Xuanyuan praised Chen Ning's decision to present the pill to the Heavenly Lake Holy Land, then ordered Jia Two to kill him if the chance arose without revealing his identity.
• Chu Xuanyuan promised Bai Cangtian that he would help him take Chen Ning's wondrous flame after they captured Chen Ning alive.
• Zhuge Bai took Chen Ning aboard a crescent-shaped void warship and headed for the Star God Palace to discuss an urgent matter with his grandfather.

Chen Ning accepted Zhuge Yu’s request to enter the Heaven-Swallowing Bag and rescue the people trapped inside. The bag swallowed Chen Ning and two Star God Palace attendants, beginning their attempt to recover the North Pole Region’s residents.

• Zhuge Yu told Chen Ning that the sentient Heaven-Swallowing Bag had swallowed several cities and hundreds of thousands of people, while three Nine-Star Martial Venerables sent inside had not returned.
• Chen Ning received a system decision offering a Nine-Star Martial Venerable advancement for accepting Zhuge Yu’s request, and he chose to help.
• Zhuge Yu assigned two young attendants who had cared for the Heaven-Swallowing Bag to accompany Chen Ning into its inner world.
• Zhuge Yu opened the Heaven-Swallowing Bag, and its suction pulled Chen Ning and the two attendants inside.

Chen Ning and the boys entered the Heaven-Swallowing Bag’s inner world and found Scarlet Flame City in chaos after its spirit unleashed people’s desires and removed the restraints of law. Chen Ning decided to draw out the spirit and stop the disaster at its source, while a child sneaked up on Shouming late at night.

• Chen Ning arrived inside the Heaven-Swallowing Bag with Shouming and Shouxin and learned that its spirit ruled the inner world.
• Shouxin stopped Lei Bao from killing a baby, and Chen Ning subdued the fighters with the power of the Poison Dao.
• A woman told Chen Ning that the spirit’s will had unleashed chaos in Scarlet Flame City and that Autumn Water City had not yet fallen.
• Chen Ning and the boys entered Scarlet Flame City, saw its devastation, and resolved to draw out the spirit to end the disaster.
• Late at night, a young child crept up behind Shouming with a short blade, but Shouming’s words startled the attacker into dropping it.

Chen Ning confronted the Spirit of the Heaven-Devouring Bag in Scarlet Flame City and exposed the contradiction in its claim to offer absolute freedom. After it attacked him with the power of its world, Chen Ning sealed it, leaving the childlike spirit bound in the sky.

• Shouming warned the Spirit of the Heaven-Devouring Bag that Zhuge Yu had brought someone to confront it, and the spirit agreed to appear.
• After another night of bloodshed in Scarlet Flame City, Chen Ning sensed the spirit and demanded that it release the people and Star God Palace experts it had swallowed.
• Chen Ning challenged the spirit’s claim that its subjects were free while demanding their obedience, leaving it speechless and enraged.
• The spirit attacked Chen Ning with a giant hand and falling rocks, but Chen Ning dodged and countered with Sword Heart Barrier and Heaven-Sealing Instruction.
• The spirit summoned the sun, moon, and stars of its world against Chen Ning, who completed his seals and bound the spirit’s childlike figure in the sky.

Chen Ning revealed that he had faked his apparent death to expose Shouming as Jia'er, a Heaven Martial Realm infiltrator from Three Quarters Past Noon. Jia'er admitted defeat but claimed Chen Ning had misjudged what would happen next.

• After the Spirit of the Heaven-Devouring Bag fell, Shouming stabbed the wounded Chen Ning with a black dagger and announced he would kill Shouxin too.
• Shouming revealed his Heaven Martial Realm strength and prepared to silence Shouxin, while the Spirit of the Heaven-Devouring Bag approached the apparently dying Chen Ning.
• Chen Ning's supposed corpse clung to Shouming and begged for help, but Shouming realized it was a trick as the real Chen Ning appeared unharmed from afar.
• Chen Ning explained that he had suspected a Three Quarters Past Noon member had given the Heaven-Swallowing Bag intelligence and had set a trap to identify the culprit.
• Chen Ning called Shouming Jia'er and described how the similarities to Chu Xuanyuan's beliefs and the group's mysterious methods had raised his suspicions.
• Jia'er admitted that Chen Ning had outplayed him but insisted Chen Ning was wrong to think this would be his last taste of victory.

Chen Ning fought Jia'er, who unleashed artifact spirits and then summoned the true spirit of the Heaven-Swallowing Bag. Jia'er lay gravely wounded and urged the uncontrollable spirit to kill Chen Ning, leaving Chen Ning facing a Divine Artifact's true spirit.

• Jia'er revealed his Heavenly Martial Realm First Heaven cultivation and sent dozens of artifact spirits to attack Chen Ning.
• Chen Ning summoned ten Shadows of Chaos, which overwhelmed Jia'er's artifact spirits.
• Jia'er used a forbidden method that exposed the young child as a spirit from a broken bronze object fused with the Heaven-Swallowing Bag.
• Jia'er summoned the true spirit of the Heaven-Swallowing Bag, which blasted him into a bloody mess.
• Jia'er offered to help the true spirit deal with the Star God Palace if it killed Chen Ning, and the spirit turned toward Chen Ning.

Chen Ning used Steal the Heavens and Swap the Sun to overcome the Heaven-Swallowing Bag's spirit, bind it, and defeat Jia'er. He left the inner world with Shouxin and the rescued Star God Palace experts, bringing the spirit and Jia'er's treasures under his control.

• The Heaven-Swallowing Bag's spirit attacked Chen Ning with black vortexes, but he erased them and restored the collapsing space with Steal the Heavens and Swap the Sun.
• Chen Ning created Spirit Binding with the Heaven-Stealing Ghost Hand and took control of the Heaven-Swallowing Bag's spirit.
• Jia'er admitted defeat and died, and Chen Ning used the Eternal Fire to ensure he was dead.
• Chen Ning found spirit artifacts, a half bronze mask that the weakened young child attached itself to, and a scroll of Rejuvenation Technique in Jia'er's storage ring.
• Chen Ning led Shouxin and the three trapped Star God Palace experts out of the inner world, where Zhuge Yu thanked him.

Zhuge Yu gave Chen Ning the Heaven-Swallowing Bag and used the Star God Palace's Stargazing Technique to help him seek the first Dragon-Seeking Sect leader’s token. Their first two questions yielded no answers, and Zhuge Yu urged Chen Ning to ask a third before he ran out of strength.

• Zhuge Yu thanked Chen Ning for exposing the scoundrel at his side and saving the Star God Palace from danger.
• Zhuge Yu gave Chen Ning the Heaven-Swallowing Bag, hoping to build an alliance with the rising Dragon-Seeking Sect.
• Chen Ning received a cultivation increase to Venerable Martial Ninth Layer and asked Zhuge Yu to divine the location of the first sect leader’s token.
• Zhuge Yu entered the Heaven-Questioning Realm with Chen Ning, but neither the secret the first sect leader had investigated nor the token’s location could be divined.
• As Zhuge Yu struggled to maintain the technique, he urged Chen Ning to ask a third question, and Chen Ning suddenly had an idea.

Chen Ning received the clue “Go south” from the Star God Palace’s Heaven-Questioning Technique and set out toward the Southernmost Region. There, a limited sect mission tasked him with finding the Nine Li Demon Race’s king and recruiting the Nine Li Royal Clan and its tribe.

• Chen Ning asked heaven how to find the token, received the clue “Go south,” and gave Zhuge Yu a Holy Soul Pill after the effort left him haggard.
• Zhuge Yu recalled that a prophecy had identified Chen Ning as the Dragon-Seeking Sect’s ninth-generation sect leader, but the Heavenly Lake Holy Lord had concealed the prophecy’s contents.
• Chu Xuanyuan and a bewitching woman discussed Jia’er’s death, and Chu Xuanyuan warned her not to provoke Chen Ning.
• Chen Ning left the Star God Palace and traveled south, reflecting on the strength of Central Province’s ancient superpowers and the need to develop his sect.
• The system triggered a limited recruitment mission for Chen Ning to find the Nine Li Demon Race’s king in the Southernmost Region and recruit the Nine Li Royal Clan and its tribe.

Chen Ning learned about the Nine Li Royal Clan and found an old man and his granddaughter being threatened by a group seeking the clan’s location. After they attacked him, he killed their leader and the rest of the group, leaving the rescued pair to face him.

• Chen Ning asked Zhuge Bai about the Nine Li Demon Race and learned that the Nine Li Royal Clan’s bloodline made its members targets for capture.
• Chen Ning discovered a group of human cultivators threatening an old man and his granddaughter to force them to guide the group into the Nine Li Demon Race’s territory.
• The black-robed man attacked Chen Ning, but Chen Ning’s Feipeng Battle Robe nullified the demonic Qi.
• Chen Ning killed the black-robed Seven-Star Martial Venerable with one strike of Sword Qi.
• Chen Ning used his Setting Sun Sword Intent to age the remaining attackers to death and collected their spoils, recognizing them as members of the Demon Battle Saint Sect.

Chen Ning accepted the Fox Demon elder’s invitation and stayed at the Fox Demon encampment, where he learned about A Yao and the clan’s history. That night, the Demon Battle Saint Sect attacked, believing someone of the Nine Li Royal Clan was hiding there, and the outnumbered fox demons faced a powerful assault.

• Chen Ning agreed to accompany the old fox demon home, where he met A Yao and learned that her parents had died fighting to protect the Nine Li Royal Clan.
• The Fox Demon clan welcomed its elder back but regarded Chen Ning with suspicion, while A Yao and the elder trusted him because he had helped them without asking for anything.
• Chen Ning sensed cultivators surrounding the encampment that night and realized the Demon Battle Saint Sect had not abandoned its pursuit.
• Elder Wu and a long-faced elder led more than thirty Earth Martial Realm fighters to attack the Fox Demon encampment, aiming to find and seize someone with Nine Li Royal blood.
• The old fox demon fought back but faced a Seven-Star Martial Venerable while Elder Wu threatened to slaughter the clan.

Chen Ning intervened to save A Yao and the Fox Demon Race, killing the long-faced elder of the Demon Battle Saint Sect in a sudden attack. Elder Wu mistook Chen Ning’s motives and proposed that they share the search for the Nine Li Royal Clan’s bloodline, leaving the fox demons unsure whether their benefactor was also their enemy.

• The Demon Battle Saint Sect’s Seven-Star Martial Venerable attacked the fox demon elder, while the elder’s people tried to protect him and help A Yao escape.
• The fox demon elder raised pillars of fire to hold off the attackers, but Elder Wu weakened them with demonic Qi.
• The long-faced elder struck Xiao Liuzi aside and moved to seize A Yao, but Chen Ning appeared and cut him apart with sword light.
• Elder Wu recognized Chen Ning as the Dragon-Seeking Sect’s leader and asked why he was interfering in the Demon Battle Saint Sect’s affairs.
• Chen Ning said the Fox Demon Race’s safety concerned his sect, and Elder Wu proposed cooperating to find the Nine Li Royal Clan’s bloodline.
• The Fox Demon Race grew tense, wondering whether Chen Ning had come to help them or to claim the royal bloodline.

Chen Ning protected the fox demon clan by killing Elder Wu and capturing the surviving Demon Battle Saint Sect fighters. After the fox demons thanked him, he urged their elder to contact the demon king of the Nine Li Demon Race, hoping to recruit the race into the Dragon-Seeking Sect.

• Chen Ning rejected Elder Wu's offer and reaffirmed that the fox demon clan's safety concerned the Dragon-Seeking Sect.
• Elder Wu attacked Chen Ning with Primordial Demon Qi Great Grappling, but Chen Ning burned through the attack and killed him with Eternal Fire.
• Chen Ning put the long-faced elder, the surviving Seven-Star Martial Venerable, and the Earth Martial Realm cultivators into the Heaven-Swallowing Bag.
• The fox demons thanked Chen Ning, and he told their elder to contact the demon king of the Nine Li Demon Race.
• The elderly fox demon said the Nine Li Demon Race would soon hear of the battle and take action, while Chen Ning considered recruiting its branches into the Dragon-Seeking Sect.

The Black Bear King delivered the Demon King's command that the fox demon clan be handed over to the Demon Battle Saint Sect to protect the rest of the Nine Li Demon Race. The Monkey King and Green Snake King rejected the order and declared they would confront the Demon King.

• The Monkey King and Green Snake King arrived at the fox demons' encampment and learned Chen Ning had saved the Fox King and the clan.
• The Black Bear King arrived and relayed the Demon King's command, blaming the fox demons for provoking the Demon Battle Saint Sect.
• The Black Bear King said the fox demon clan had to be sacrificed to prevent the sect from destroying the Nine Li Demon Race.
• The Monkey King condemned the plan, and the Green Snake King said she and the Monkey King would go see the Demon King.

Chen Ning accompanied the fox demon clan to meet the Demon King, who argued that the Nine Li Demon Race had to sacrifice the fox clan to avoid war with the stronger Demon Battle Saint Sect. Chen Ning offered to negotiate compensation and exposed his suspicion that the Demon King himself wanted the fox clan destroyed.

• The Black Bear King led the demons, including Chen Ning, to the Demon King's mountain dwelling, where the Demon King received them.
• The Demon King claimed Feng Moxiu demanded punishment for the fox demon clan and said the Nine Li Demon Race was too weak to fight the Demon Battle Saint Sect.
• The Demon King knelt before the Fox King and pleaded for the fox clan to sacrifice itself, while promising to protect A Yao.
• Chen Ning offered to compensate the Demon Battle Saint Sect with Spirit Artifacts or divine fruit, or to apologize himself, but the Demon King refused to involve him.
• Chen Ning asked whether the Demon Battle Saint Sect or the Demon King wanted the fox demon clan destroyed.

Chen Ning exposed the young Demon King's suspected plot to eliminate the Fox Demon Clan and seize control of A Yao, whose royal bloodline made her the Nine Li Demon Race's future ruler. The Demon King denied the accusations, urged the other kings to kill Chen Ning, and summoned the Black Bear King.

• Chen Ning deduced that the Fox King had hidden A Yao's royal bloodline and explained why the Demon King wanted the Fox Demon Clan destroyed.
• Chen Ning accused the Demon King of planning to isolate A Yao and control or harm her so he could keep the throne.
• The Fox King confronted the Demon King, who denied the accusations and claimed he regarded A Yao as his own sister.
• The Demon King called Chen Ning an outsider seeking the royal bloodline and urged the other kings to kill him.
• The Demon King summoned the Black Bear King, one of the Nine Li Demon Race's three Heaven Martial Realm experts.

Chen Ning used the Demon God's Eye to subdue the Nine Li demons and persuade them to join the Dragon-Seeking Sect, while exposing the young Demon King's scheme and installing A Yao as their ruler. After losing his throne, the former Demon King sought help from the Demon Battle Saint Sect, but its black-robed leader killed him.

• The young Demon King ordered the Black Bear King to kill Chen Ning, but Chen Ning revealed the Demon God's Eye and forced the demons to kneel.
• Chen Ning invited the Nine Li Demon Race to join the Dragon-Seeking Sect and promised to protect them from the Demon Battle Saint Sect.
• The Fox King, Green Snake King, Monkey King, and Black Bear King agreed to submit, and the demons deposed the young Demon King for plotting against his own kind.
• A Yao became the new ruler of the Nine Li Demon Race, with the Fox King, Green Snake King, and Monkey King guarding her.
• The former Demon King told the black-robed leader of the Demon Battle Saint Sect that Chen Ning had ruined his plan and asked for Heavenly Martial Realm experts to be sent.
• The black-robed leader declared the former Demon King useless and pierced his chest with black light.