Chapter Summaries

Di Jun gathered Taiyi, Kunpeng, and Minghe to plan an ambush on Hong Yun and seize his Primordial Violet Qi. While they prepared to intercept him outside Wuzhuang Temple, Hong Yun remained troubled by a premonition urging him to leave, and Zhen Yuanzi's suggestion to publicize his ties to the Western Teachings failed to persuade him.

• Di Jun stopped Taiyi from acting rashly and explained that they needed to recover Taiyi's Primordial Violet Qi by cautiously targeting Hong Yun.
• Di Jun recruited Kunpeng and Minghe for the operation; Kunpeng welcomed the chance to avenge his grudge against Hong Yun, while Minghe agreed to help but insisted they each pursue the Primordial Violet Qi for themselves.
• Di Jun learned from a subordinate that Hong Yun was hiding at Wuzhuang Temple and would likely leave within days, so the group set out to intercept him rather than challenge Zhen Yuanzi's Earth Book defenses.
• At Wuzhuang Temple, Hong Yun told Zhen Yuanzi that a strange premonition kept urging him to go out for a walk.
• Zhen Yuanzi suggested that Hong Yun spread word that he had obtained a Venerable Fruit Position in the Western Teachings, but Hong Yun shook his head and rejected the idea.

Hong Yun was ambushed by Kunpeng, Minghe, and hidden Demon Race allies while away from Longevity Mountain, and the Two Sages of the West intervened when his life was in danger. Zhunti began treating the gravely wounded Hong Yun, while Kunpeng and Minghe were trapped by the Sages’ power.

• Hong Yun left Wuzhuang Temple despite Zhen Yuanzi’s warnings and was caught in a concealed formation beyond Longevity Mountain.
• Kunpeng confronted Hong Yun over the Zixiao Palace seat and Primordial Violet Qi, while Minghe attacked him from behind.
• Kunpeng and Minghe overwhelmed Hong Yun as Di Jun and Tai Yi watched from the shadows, and the formation concealed the attack from Sages.
• Jieyin and Zhunti traced the Western Teachings’ Fortune fluctuations to Hong Yun and rushed to his aid.
• The Two Sages destroyed Di Jun’s formation and immobilized Kunpeng and Minghe, while Zhunti carried Hong Yun to safety and treated his wounds.

After the Western Sages intervened to save Hong Yun, he settled his grievances with Kunpeng and demanded compensation from Minghe, while deciding how to deal with Di Jun and Taiyi. Hongjun watched the conflict among his disciples with anger, and Fuxi foresaw that Houtu’s time had come as the six Sages gathered and the Great Dao appeared.

• Jieyin and Zhunti summoned Di Jun and Taiyi and accused the four attackers of offending Hong Yun, a Venerable of the Western Teachings.
• Hong Yun declared his karmic debt to Kunpeng repaid, and Kunpeng departed for the northern reaches of the Primordial World.
• Hong Yun demanded an accounting from Minghe, who gave him a lotus seed from his Twelve-Grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus and promised more treasures later.
• Hong Yun considered how to punish Di Jun and Taiyi, who had led the attempt to seize his Primordial Violet Qi.
• Hongjun watched the clash among his disciples and grew angry that they had turned against one another.
• Fuxi observed that the six Sages had gathered and the Great Dao had appeared, then said Houtu’s time had come.

Di Jun pushed the Demon Race into a war of attrition against the Witch Clan while preparing the nearly complete Zhou Tian Star Dou Great Array. The Twelve Ancestral Witches gathered at Pangu Hall and, suspecting Di Jun and Tai Yi were planning a major assault, faced the growing threat.

• Bai Ze told Di Jun that the Demon Race was holding its ground against the Witch Clan, though he knew its victories came at the cost of enormous casualties.
• Di Jun explained his ambition to defeat the Witch Clan and unite the myriad races, then asked whether the Lesser Zhou Tian Star Banners had been completed.
• Bai Ze confirmed the Lesser Zhou Tian Star Banners were ready and the Star Officials were in position, prompting Di Jun to declare that the array would be stronger this time.
• The Twelve Ancestral Witches gathered at Pangu Hall and described the Demon Race's increasingly reckless attacks across their territories.
• Dijiang said his instincts warned him that Di Jun and Tai Yi were preparing a major move.

The Witch Clan and the Demon Race escalated their fighting across the Primordial World until a decisive battle became inevitable. Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi revealed the Demon Race’s star formation against the Twelve Ancestral Witches and began to deploy it.

• The Witch Clan and the Demon Race fought increasingly bloody battles, while Fuxi watched the spreading baleful Qi and Hongjun declared that both clans were destined to be swept away.
• Dayi wounded Demon Saint Ji Meng with a returning arrow, and Ji Meng answered with fierce winds and driving rain as their duel continued.
• Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi led the Demon Race’s forces out of the Heavenly Court to confront the Ancestral Witches.
• Zhurong blasted away the black clouds hiding the Demon Race’s army, revealing the Star Officials, heavenly soldiers, and the Zhou Tian Star Banners.
• Di Jun shouted for the Zhou Tian Stars Great Array to form as he held the River Diagram and Luo Book, with the Chaos Bell hovering over Eastern Emperor Taiyi.

Di Jun deployed the full Zhou Tian Stars Great Array, summoning the stars and their overwhelming power over the Primordial World. Dijiang answered with the Twelve Dutian Divine Fiends Great Array, which formed a gigantic figure that Hongjun and the Three Pure Ones recognized as Pangu.

• Di Jun’s Zhou Tian Stars Great Array descended across the sky, astonishing the mighty figures throughout the Primordial World.
• Zhen Yuanzi used the Earth Book to shield Wuzhuang Temple while Hong Yun called the array fierce.
• Dijiang judged that the Witch Clan needed its own trump card and ordered the Twelve Ancestral Witches to form the Twelve Dutian Divine Fiends Great Array.
• The Twelve Ancestral Witches vanished into boundless baleful Qi, which gathered into a gigantic figure.
• Hongjun recognized the figure as Pangu, and the Three Pure Ones nearly called him Father God.

The Twelve Ancestral Witches summoned Pangu’s phantom, and Hongjun stopped its battle with Di Jun before it could devastate the Primordial World, ordering the Demon Race to rule heaven and the Witch Clan to govern earth. Fuxi challenged Hongjun’s decree as unfair to the Witch Clan, and Hongjun secretly lifted the pressure he had placed on the Demon Race.

• The Twelve Ancestral Witches summoned Pangu’s phantom, which raised its axe against the heavens as Di Jun countered with the power of the stars.
• Hongjun appeared between the attacks, neutralized them, struck the phantom back into its original form, and forbade the Witch Clan and Demon Race from fighting for ten thousand years.
• Hongjun decreed that the Demon Race would rule heaven and the Witch Clan would govern earth, suppressing the Ancestral Witches so they could not object.
• Fuxi challenged the decree, arguing that the Witch Clan belonged to Pangu’s orthodox lineage while the Demon Race was unworthy of ruling heaven.
• Yuanshi, Laozi, and other mighty figures echoed Fuxi’s criticism, and Fuxi accused Hongjun of favoring the Demon Race.
• Hongjun hid his anger while secretly releasing the pressure he had placed on the Demon Race.

Fuxi challenged Hongjun’s ruling that the Demon Race would rule the heavens while the Witch Clan ruled the earth, then revealed overwhelming strength by defeating Di Jun and Tai Yi. Hongjun withdrew from the dispute, leaving the Demon Race routed and Fuxi’s power newly apparent to the Primordial World.

• Di Jun welcomed Hongjun’s ruling but became furious when Fuxi declared the Demon Race unworthy.
• Di Jun and Tai Yi used the Star Dou Great Array to launch a stellar attack at Fuxi.
• Fuxi calmly dispersed the attack with a wave of his hand, astonishing the powerful figures watching.
• Fuxi called Di Jun and Tai Yi noisy and sent them flying, shattering the starry sky and scattering the Demon Race’s forces.
• Hongjun acknowledged Fuxi’s hidden strength and withdrew his intervention after Di Jun and Tai Yi were carried away wounded.
• Hong Yun watched from Wuzhuang Temple and envied Fuxi’s strength.

After the Witch Clan defeated the Demon Race again, Houtu sought Fuxi’s help over a troubling vision of wandering souls that had stalled her cultivation. Fuxi realized she had glimpsed the Dao of Reincarnation and concluded that creating Reincarnation was her destiny, even though the Witch Clan had not yet reached the desperate state he expected.

• The Witch Clan celebrated its victory while the Ancestral Witches resolved to grow stronger after Hongjun had suppressed them.
• Zhu Jiuyin asked Xuanming where Houtu was, and Xuanming said she had gone to speak with Fuxi.
• Houtu told Fuxi that, after seeing wandering souls on an old battlefield, she had felt restless and her cultivation had stopped advancing.
• Fuxi recognized Houtu’s experience as an insight into the Dao of Reincarnation and concluded that transforming herself into Reincarnation was her destiny.

Fuxi deduced that Reincarnation was necessary to preserve heaven and earth, but sought a way to spare Houtu from losing her existence. After hundreds of years in seclusion, he emerged with a formation that needed only ten Ancestral Witches and told Houtu to travel with him.

• Houtu told Fuxi about her stalled cultivation, and he reassured her that what she faced was a good thing before entering seclusion.
• Fuxi deduced that without Reincarnation, heaven and earth would collapse, and resolved to find a way to protect Houtu.
• After hundreds of years, Fuxi gave Dijiang a version of the Twelve Dutian Divine Fiends Great Array that ten Ancestral Witches could deploy.
• Fuxi told Houtu he would explain her situation during a journey through the Primordial World, and that she would go with him.

Fuxi took Houtu across the Primordial World, where she witnessed death, suffering, and souls left to wander or disperse. Her cultivation rose as she approached an understanding of her Dao, and she accepted the cost of pursuing it; Fuxi ended by asking where the dead should go.

• Fuxi left the Witch Clan's territory with Houtu after telling the Ancestral Witches to practice the formation he had given them.
• The Ancestral Witches speculated about Fuxi and Houtu's relationship, and Dijiang warned Zhurong not to speak carelessly.
• Fuxi led Houtu through the Primordial World, where she saw creatures die and souls disperse or wander without a destination.
• Houtu's insights deepened and her cultivation reached the Late Quasi-Sage Stage, transforming her bearing.
• After watching a wandering soul disperse, Houtu told Fuxi that souls should not be left to roam or vanish and said she understood what she would face.
• Fuxi recognized that Houtu had chosen her Dao and asked where living beings should go after death.

Houtu discovered that the dead needed a place to go and, with Fuxi, traveled to the Netherworld Blood Sea to establish Reincarnation. After Ancestor Minghe agreed to clear the Blood Sea, Houtu summoned the Six Paths of Reincarnation, with Merit gathering as she began her undertaking.

• Houtu realized that ghosts needed Reincarnation, and Fuxi took her to the Netherworld Blood Sea.
• Ancestor Minghe emerged to greet Fuxi and Houtu, then feared Fuxi had come to seize his Blood Sea.
• Fuxi explained that they only wanted to borrow the Blood Sea and offered Minghe a great opportunity.
• Minghe ordered the four great demon kings to lead the Asura Race out of the Blood Sea, then stayed with Fuxi to watch Houtu.
• Houtu declared that she would establish Reincarnation to complete heaven and earth, and called forth the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

Houtu established the Underworld and the Six Paths of Reincarnation in the Blood Sea, creating a realm and system to govern the dead. As she began to merge with the Netherworld, Fuxi urgently called on her to give him a portion of her origin.

• Houtu began establishing the Six Paths of Reincarnation in the Blood Sea, where resentful souls tried to bewitch her.
• A colossal resentful-soul giant emerged, and Fuxi destroyed it with a single palm strike.
• Houtu declared that the dead would enter the Underworld and created Fengdu City, the Ghost Gate, the Yellow Springs Road, and the bridge with the Stone of Seeing One's Hometown and Meng Po Soup.
• Houtu established the Six Paths, described their forms and destinations, and declared the Netherworld established.
• Merit descended, with sixty percent going to Houtu, twenty percent to Minghe, and twenty percent to Fuxi's Fuxi Qin.
• As Houtu grew illusory and began merging with the Netherworld, Fuxi called for her to give him a portion of her origin.

Fuxi used Houtu’s severed origin and a clay doll made by Nuwa to shield her from the Blood Sea’s resentment and take over the duty of holding up the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Houtu gained great merit and three Netherworld treasures, then turned to deal with the wandering souls.

• Houtu gave Fuxi a portion of her origin, which he placed inside Nuwa’s clay doll and paired with the Twelve-Grade Pure World White Lotus.
• The doll absorbed the Blood Sea’s resentment and karmic force, stabilizing Houtu and purifying the baleful Qi.
• When the Six Paths of Reincarnation began sinking, the doll held them up in Houtu’s place, and Houtu received boundless merit that raised her cultivation close to a Sage’s.
• The Thousand Autumns Reincarnation Brush, the Human Book, and the Twelve-Grade Reincarnation Purple Lotus emerged from the Blood Sea, and Houtu claimed them.
• Houtu thanked Fuxi and offered him the Reincarnation Purple Lotus, but he refused and told her to deal with the wandering souls.

Houtu and Fuxi organized the Netherworld to receive, judge, punish, and reincarnate wandering souls, with help from Ancestor Minghe and his Asura Clan. Houtu left remaining Netherworld affairs with Minghe and departed with Fuxi for Buzhou Mountain.

• Houtu appointed thousands of Ancestor Minghe's Asuras as Netherworld Constables to guide wandering souls along Yellow Springs Road.
• Houtu stationed Shen Tu and Yu Lei at the Ghost Gate, where Shen Tu destroyed a soul that tried to escape.
• Fuxi proposed ten courts to judge souls, and Houtu created the Ten Yama Kings and gave them copies of the Judge's Brush and Book of Life and Death.
• Fuxi described the Eighteen Levels of Hell, and Houtu summoned ghosts from the Blood Sea to prepare their punishments.
• Fuxi explained the final steps of reincarnation, and Houtu created an old woman to serve Meng Po Soup at Naihe Bridge.
• Houtu discussed the Netherworld's remaining affairs with Ancestor Minghe, then set off with Fuxi for Buzhou Mountain.

Houtu returned to Buzhou Mountain with Fuxi after establishing Reincarnation, bringing great Merit and power but explaining that she was still a Quasi-Sage. Hongjun learned that Houtu had left the Netherworld and concluded that, despite this unexpected change, she was no longer an Ancestral Witch and his plans could still succeed.

• Houtu and Fuxi returned to Pangu Hall, where the Ancestral Witches marveled at Houtu's Merit and powerful cultivation.
• When Zhurong and Gonggong proposed calling Houtu Sage Houtu or Empress Houtu, Houtu punched Zhurong into the ground and clarified that she was still a Quasi-Sage.
• Houtu recounted the dangers of her journey and told her brothers that she could no longer travel as the Earth Ancestral Witch after establishing the Netherworld.
• Dijiang said the remaining Ancestral Witches had mastered Fuxi's improved ten-person Grand Formation, and Fuxi warned that Houtu's success would anger some people.
• In Zixiao Palace, Hongjun discovered that Houtu had left the Netherworld and, after further calculations, decided that she was no longer an Ancestral Witch and that the Demon Race and his Dao could still succeed.

The Demon Race avoided conflict with the Witch Clan after Houtu became a Sage, frustrating Hongjun’s plan to make the two races destroy each other. Hongjun began a new scheme and summoned the Three Pure Ones and the Two Sages of the West to Zixiao Palace.

• Di Jun and Taiyi consulted the ten great Demon Saints about how to respond to Houtu’s rise, but Bai Ze warned them against testing the Witch Clan.
• Taiyi requested secluded cultivation on the Sun Star, and Di Jun ordered the Demon Race to avoid conflict with the Witch Clan unless necessary.
• Hongjun realized the Demon Race would not attack the strengthened Witch Clan and blamed Fuxi for disrupting his plan to eliminate both races.
• Hongjun began a new plan after deciding to counter Fuxi’s influence.
• Laozi, Yuanshi, and Tongtian went to Zixiao Palace after Hongjun summoned them, where they encountered the Two Sages of the West.

Hongjun summoned the Five Saints to Zixiao Palace and revealed that the third immeasurable Tribulation had begun, with the Witch and Demon races at its center. He warned that their sudden halt in fighting threatened the Tribulation’s course, while the Five Saints considered what the races’ destruction could mean for their own teachings.

• Jieyin and Zhunti asked Tongtian why Hongjun had summoned them, but Tongtian said he did not know.
• Hongjun told the Five Saints that the third immeasurable Tribulation had begun and that the Witch and Demon races had to be eliminated.
• Laozi, Tongtian, Yuanshi, Jieyin, and Zhunti questioned Hongjun about the Tribulation and the races’ halt in fighting, and Hongjun said they could not stop their march to war.
• Laozi considered using the races to spread his Taiji Sect, Yuanshi wanted their removal to advance the Chan Sect, and Jieyin and Zhunti saw a chance to convert their survivors.
• Tongtian alone focused on the mystery troubling Hongjun as the Five Saints sat in thought.

Inside Zixiao Palace, Hongjun’s disciples debated how to make the Witch Clan and Demon Race fight, and Hongjun proposed giving the Demon Race a Sage. He began addressing Laozi, leaving his intention unclear.

• Zhunti argued that the two factions needed an irreconcilable hatred, ideally caused by the death of a leading member.
• Yuanshi suggested luring a Great Witch to a Demon Race tribe, but Hongjun and Laozi explained that the Witch Clan had Houtu’s backing and the Demon Race would avoid a fight without comparable power.
• Tongtian proposed that Hongjun openly send both groups into the Tribulation, but Hongjun rejected the idea as too disruptive.
• Hongjun said they only needed to give the Demon Race a Sage, and then addressed Laozi as his first disciple.

Hongjun assigned Laozi to support the Demon Race and ordered Jieyin and Zhunti to provoke a devastating conflict between the Demon Race and the Witch Clan. Tongtian objected to their scheme targeting Dijun’s ten sons, leaving him disappointed in his elder brothers as they were disappointed in him.

• Hongjun told Laozi to hold the fort for the Demon Race, and Laozi accepted after Hongjun explained his reasons privately.
• Hongjun said the other disciples also had to contribute to driving the Witch Clan and Demon Race into a full-scale war.
• Zhunti proposed luring Dijun’s ten sons away from the Fusang Tree so their deaths could spark retaliation, and Jieyin presented the plan as letting them see the world.
• Laozi and Yuanshi recognized that the scheme would make both sides suffer heavy losses, and Hongjun assigned Jieyin and Zhunti to carry it out.
• Tongtian condemned the plan for involving innocent children, while Laozi and Yuanshi looked at him with disappointment.