Chapter Summaries

Yuanchen lured the diviner Heavenly Star into a trap with Li Yan and Huang Yu, then learned that Luoyang Dao Palace’s Earth Official True Person, Wei Xuancheng, had come to Southern New Circuit. Li Yan warned that Wei Xuancheng’s presence could threaten both their group and the allied army, leaving them fearing they were already caught in his plans.

• Heavenly Star followed Yuanchen from Fang Prefecture to Thorn Wilderness, believing his divination promised a safe journey and a major discovery.
• Yuanchen met Li Yan and Huang Yu in a hidden cave abode, and they discussed the mysterious Spirit Transformation cultivator aiding Su Xing'an.
• Yuanchen revealed that Heavenly Star was following him and proposed capturing the diviner so Huang Yu could use his identity.
• Yuanchen, Li Yan, and Huang Yu trapped Heavenly Star and subdued him with ice, water, and Huang Yu’s parasitic transformation technique.
• Huang Yu indicated that the hidden cultivator was Wei Xuancheng, the Earth Official True Person of Great Tang Dao Palace, and Li Yan warned that his arrival endangered them and the allied army.

Wei Xuancheng failed to divine the Southern New Circuit’s chaotic spiritual resonance but discovered a hidden dragon and a person bearing both fortune and merit who could save the circuit and Great Tang. Meanwhile, Huang Yu controlled Heavenly Star’s body and arranged for his disguised arrival in Fang Prefecture City.

• Wei Xuancheng recalled how calamity aura had clouded Li Jianzhang’s mind, prompting the Tang Emperor to beg the Dao Palace’s six officials to find hope for Great Tang.
• Wei Xuancheng told Su Xing'an that a hidden dragon had arisen in the south and that someone with both fortune and merit might resolve Great Tang’s peril.
• Su Xing'an left the Dharma Boat troubled by the possibility of finding the extraordinary person Wei Xuancheng had described.
• Yuanchen brought the wounded Heavenly Star back to Fang Prefecture City, while Gao Liqun and Ouyang Chun celebrated his retreat into seclusion.
• Huang Yu revealed that he controlled Heavenly Star, then arranged with Li Yan to enter the Fang Prefecture Daoist temple in disguise.

Jiang Sheng’s attempt to create a Four Symbols Dao Wheel without earth nearly injured him, so he resumed his experiments with earth as a stabilizing element. Meanwhile, Fang Lan persuaded the allied Spirit Transformation cultivators to harass Southern New Circuit while he sought a way to kill Wei Xuancheng, whose divinations were thwarted by the gold-and-purple aura of the person he was trying to find.

• Jiang Sheng’s Four Symbols Dao Wheel destabilized and exploded with Nascent Soul-level destructive power, scorching his fingertips before he healed them.
• Jiang Sheng concluded that earth was needed to stabilize wind, thunder, water, and fire, and began practicing with the earth element.
• Fang Lan told the allied Spirit Transformation True Persons that Wei Xuancheng had arrived in Southern New Circuit and claimed he could find a way to kill him.
• The allied army agreed to split nine Spirit Transformation cultivators into three groups and harass Southern New Circuit for seven days while Fang Lan searched for Wei Xuancheng.
• Wei Xuancheng’s attempt to divine the figure with a gold-and-purple aura failed, and he told Su Xing’an to strike back against the rebels while he handled the rest.

Daoist Yuanchen learned that Li Yan and Huang Yu regretted helping the allied forces target Wei Xuancheng, and Li Yan offered Great Tang’s secret cultivation scriptures in exchange for a warning. Yuanchen accepted and set out to deliver the news without exposing their identities, ending as he sent a paper crane toward Southern New City.

• Yuanchen drew a fourth-rank Rain-Overturning-Waves Talisman while Li Yan and Huang Yu visited him to discuss the fighting at the border.
• Li Yan revealed that she and Huang Yu had helped the allied forces learn Wei Xuancheng’s whereabouts, but she now wanted to prevent his death because he had aided the Hidden Dragon Society.
• Li Yan offered Yuanchen the Seven Tribulations Dragon-Slaying Scripture and the Earth Origin Profound Heaven Record in exchange for warning Wei Xuancheng, and Yuanchen verified the jade slips and agreed.
• Yuanchen left to find a discreet, rapid way to reach Wei Xuancheng without exposing Li Yan or sacrificing Heavenly Star’s identity.
• One day later, Yuanchen activated a Paper Crane Spirit Talisman outside Southern New City and sent it flying.

Daoist Yuanchen sent a living paper crane carrying Penglai spiritual resonance to Wei Xuancheng, who recognized the Clear Wind Transformation Art and prepared for a contest of divination against Fang Lan. Fang Lan obtained Wei Xuancheng’s aura and began a blood sacrifice to seal Great Tang’s dragon qi and destroy Wei Xuancheng’s destiny star, leaving the attack underway.

• Daoist Yuanchen sent a paper crane into Southern New City, where Wei Xuancheng recognized the Penglai spiritual resonance it carried.
• Fang Lan performed a star-reading rite to find Wei Xuancheng, and his Three-Origin Star Lord Dharma Image drew a wisp of Wei Xuancheng’s aura.
• Wei Xuancheng sensed Fang Lan’s attempt to lock onto him and used his own rites to resist, but Fang Lan succeeded in identifying him.
• Fang Lan told the allied army’s Spirit Transformation cultivators that he would strike Wei Xuancheng’s destiny star during the next day’s battle.
• Yuanchen told Li Yan and Huang Yu that the allied army would gain nothing and watched Southern New City in expectation of a trap.
• Fang Lan released blood baleful energy from the earlier massacres, sent a blood flood dragon toward Southern New Circuit, and directed the energy at a straw figure bearing Wei Xuancheng’s details.

Wei Xuancheng awakened Great Tang’s dormant dragon qi and defeated Fang Lan’s attempt to curse him to death, forcing the allied army to retreat. Fang Lan survived and recovered in the Song Kingdom, but his faith in celestial divinations had been shaken, and he considered contacting Ao Bing.

• Fang Lan used a blood-fiend ritual to attack Wei Xuancheng through a straw effigy, sealing Southern New Circuit’s dragon qi and suppressing Wei Xuancheng’s life star.
• Wei Xuancheng invoked his merits, official qi, the Mandate Sword, and a strand of xuanhuang qi to awaken Great Tang’s dragon qi from Chang’an.
• Great Tang’s dragon qi overwhelmed Fang Lan, but a surge of Divine Path qi and sunlight rescued him before the dragon could kill him.
• Jiang Sheng witnessed Great Tang’s strength and decided to visit Chang’an and Luoyang and advance from the Golden Core Realm to the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Fang Lan lost the duel and vanished as the allied army retreated five thousand li; Wei Xuancheng returned to Luoyang to recover.
• Fang Lan met Zhang Qing in the Song Kingdom, reflected on his failed divinations, and considered contacting Ao Bing.

Jiang Sheng studied the Earth Origin Profound Heaven Record and continued refining his cultivation method, while Yuanchen learned that Li Yan was waiting in Southern New Circuit for a prophesied opportunity. After Yuanchen connected her prophecy to the rising Ming Kingdom, Li Yan decided to investigate it, and Yuanchen offered to go with her.

• Jiang Sheng chose the Earth Origin Profound Heaven Record as the basis for a revised cultivation method and tested a more stable Wheel of Four Symbols, but it still collapsed.
• Zhang Luyi learned that Wei Xuancheng had survived a Dharma Image Realm enemy in Southern New Circuit with help from someone who gave him black-and-yellow qi.
• Three years passed as Fang Prefecture remained peaceful, and Yuanchen invited Li Yan and Huang Yu to tea to ask when they would leave Southern New Circuit.
• Li Yan revealed that she was waiting for an opportunity in the south, following the Celestial Master's prophecy, while Huang Yu recounted the inscription: “Southern Bright flowing fire, phoenix cries from the western mountain.”
• Yuanchen identified Southern Bright as possibly referring to Ming Kingdom, which Zhu Jiu had founded after overthrowing Huainan Kingdom.
• Li Yan decided to investigate Ming Kingdom, and Yuanchen agreed to accompany her.

Jiang Sheng, Li Yan, and Huang Yu entered Vulture Ridge on their way to the Ming Kingdom, but its strange mist separated them and trapped them in an uncanny landscape. Li Yan exposed and attacked two impostors, while Jiang Sheng destroyed two other apparent companions with Wu Earth True Thunder and discovered they were dead people.

• Jiang Sheng set out in his true body and met Li Yan and Huang Yu before Vulture Ridge as they traveled toward the Ming Kingdom.
• The three entered Vulture Ridge, where restrictive wards, thick mist, and a complete absence of life made their passage unsettling.
• After traveling for hours without finding an exit, Li Yan recognized that the Huang Yu and Jiang Sheng beside her were impostors and attacked them with her Ice-Soul Jade Sword.
• Elsewhere, the real Huang Yu wandered through the ridge with two blank, terrifying figures following him, while Jiang Sheng followed impostors of Li Yan and Huang Yu.
• Jiang Sheng stopped following the impostors and struck them with Wu Earth True Thunder, reducing them to ash and confirming they had been dead people.

Jiang Sheng, Huang Yu, and Li Yan discovered that Vulture Ridge contained a Western Religion Land of No Life, where the dead were trapped and used to nourish a Ming King statue. Jiang Sheng confronted He Chong, the monk overseeing the Pure Land, and ended the chapter facing him in the sky above the yin city.

• Jiang Sheng sensed earth aura and followed strange music to a village where he reunited with Huang Yu and Li Yan.
• Huang Yu identified the region as a Land of No Life, and Jiang Sheng concluded that the Western Religion had created it to support its plans for Huainan Kingdom.
• The villagers told the trio that the Ming King ruled the region and that the dead could earn rebirth by worshipping; Jiang Sheng, Huang Yu, and Li Yan then headed for the Pure Land.
• The trio found a vast city surrounded by a river, and Jiang Sheng resolved to investigate the Ming King and free the dead trapped there.
• He Chong oversaw the dead as their offerings nourished a Ming King statue tied to Zhu Jiu’s role in the coming tribulation.
• Jiang Sheng attacked He Chong with sword light, then confronted him in the sky and challenged the claim that he was a Ming King.

Jiang Sheng defeated He Chong in Yin City and discovered the Buddhist Sect was preparing a Wisdom King Golden Body. He Chong revealed that a True Disciple had ordered the work, but his nascent soul was destroyed when he began naming the worshipped Wisdom King.

• He Chong attacked Jiang Sheng with Buddhist arts, but Jiang Sheng’s Sword Pellets broke through his domain and destroyed his Wisdom King form and body.
• Huang Yu and Li Yan captured He Chong’s fleeing nascent soul and found a Wisdom King Golden Body hidden in the palace.
• Jiang Sheng identified the golden body as a vessel for a Buddhist incarnation and learned that the worship of it had turned Yin City into a Land of No Life.
• He Chong said a True Disciple from the Great Heavenly Dragon Temple had ordered him to establish Yin City, though the Land of No Life had existed beforehand.
• When He Chong began to identify the Wisdom King worshipped there as the Prison-Suppressing Wisdom King, his nascent soul split apart and vanished.

Jiang Sheng used the Wisdom King Golden Body to establish a formation that began freeing the wrongfully dead in Yin City. After Li Yan reflected on her past and her role in helping them, Jiang Sheng set out for Ming Kingdom to confront the Great Heavenly Dragon Temple’s True Disciple.

• Jiang Sheng identified the unnamed True Disciple as the nearby threat and decided to use the Wisdom King Golden Body to guide Yin City’s wrongfully dead into reincarnation.
• Jiang Sheng told Huang Yu that he still remembered the slaughter of ten million innocents in Fang Prefecture City and warned him not to mistake their partnership for trust.
• Li Yan admitted that revenge for Prince Zhaoyuan's Residence mattered more to her than the lives of countless others, then helped Jiang Sheng prepare the formation.
• Jiang Sheng activated the Earth Profound Primordial Azure Rebirth Formation, freeing the wrongfully dead from the Land of No Life and sending them into reincarnation.
• Jiang Sheng told Li Yan that helping the dead had earned her merit, then announced he would go to Ming Kingdom to find and test himself against the True Disciple.

Jiang Sheng confronted Jue Kong at Ming King Temple and challenged the Buddhist teachings behind the Ming Kingdom’s growing faith. Jue Kong fled into the sky to fight him, where both revealed their techniques and prepared to clash.

• Zhu Jiu reflected on his dependence on Jue Kong and the Great Heavenly Dragon Temple, then continued cultivating as Ming Kingdom’s ruler.
• Jue Kong ordered an investigation into Vulture Ridge and worried that he had overlooked something important.
• Jiang Sheng entered Ming King Temple and asked He Jing how to liberate the spirits of those who had died wrongful deaths.
• Jue Kong offered the Ming King Reincarnation Scripture, and Jiang Sheng answered with the Pure Boundless Deliverance Scripture before challenging him.
• Jue Kong and Jiang Sheng flew high above the ground, acknowledged their previous encounter, and prepared to fight as Jue Kong manifested the Eightfold Heavenly Dragon Art.

Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong fought above Fengyang City, then agreed to meet at Vulture Ridge in seven days to enter a secret realm tied to the Land of No Life. Jue Kong secretly prepared a contingency to test Calamity Aura on Jiang Sheng, while Jiang Sheng considered recruiting Zhu Jiu to Penglai.

• Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong exchanged powerful attacks, and their clash created the falling fire witnessed by Huang Yu and Li Yan.
• Jue Kong revealed that Great Heavenly Dragon Temple had not created the Land of No Life and offered to explain Vulture Ridge’s history if Jiang Sheng joined him in a secret realm.
• Jiang Sheng agreed to meet Jue Kong outside Vulture Ridge in seven days, and Jue Kong returned to Ming King Temple.
• Jiang Sheng considered persuading Zhu Jiu to serve Penglai and vanished from Fengyang City.
• Jue Kong told He Jing that he had prepared a contingency involving Calamity Aura and planned to test it on Jiang Sheng.

Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong entered the secret realm beneath Vulture Ridge by following the yin river to its source and crossing the Yellow Springs. They reached the Wraith Demon Domain and saw the abandoned City of Unjust Death, their destination.

• Jiang Sheng met Jue Kong at Vulture Ridge, and Jue Kong agreed to lead him into the secret realm.
• Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong entered the yin river and followed it west to a spring that served as the secret realm's entrance.
• Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong plunged through the spring into the true Yellow Springs and crossed its dangerous waters using their respective techniques.
• Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong emerged beside the Wraith Demon Domain and saw the City of Unjust Death at its center.

Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong entered the ruined City of Unjust Death, each intending to claim its hidden opportunity and betray the other. Jue Kong revealed the Underworld Judge’s Token and tried to trap Jiang Sheng, but Jiang Sheng evaded him and counterattacked, leaving their fight underway inside the city.

• Jiang Sheng agreed to accompany Jue Kong into the City of Unjust Death, and they crossed a decayed iron-chain bridge to reach its sealed gates.
• Jue Kong’s attack and Jiang Sheng’s sword strike failed to damage a smaller gate, so they combined their strength to force it open and enter.
• Jue Kong produced the Underworld Judge’s Token and revealed that he intended to claim the city’s opportunity for himself by leaving Jiang Sheng behind.
• Jue Kong used Buddhist light from his Purple-Gold Alms Bowl to pin Jiang Sheng, but Jiang Sheng’s figure scattered like ripples as his true body appeared elsewhere.
• Jiang Sheng attacked Jue Kong with the Azure Duckweed Sword, and Jue Kong summoned the Majestic Virtue Heavenly Dragon to block the strike.

Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong fought fiercely in the City of Unjust Death, but Jue Kong escaped while four Nascent Soul Realm Dharma-Protecting Vajras trapped Jiang Sheng. Jue Kong pursued earth mother qi in Yama Palace as an ancient presence awakened, while Jiang Sheng prepared a devastating three-colored thunder attack against his captors.

• Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong traded powerful attacks, and Jiang Sheng’s combined wind, water, lightning, and fire techniques damaged Jue Kong’s defenses without defeating him.
• Jue Kong summoned four Dharma-Protecting Vajras to trap Jiang Sheng in the Demon-Subduing Vajra Formation, then fled deeper into the city with the Prefect Lord Token.
• Jue Kong entered the Prefect Lord’s divine manor seeking the Prefect Lord’s Seal, intending to use it to enter Yama Palace and find earth mother qi.
• A presence awakened in Senluo Hall, where a crown, imperial robe, vermilion brush, and treasured seal rested around the Yama Heavenly Son’s throne.
• Jiang Sheng formed a Waterlike Sword Formation and attacked the four Vajras with wind, lightning, water, and fire, wounding them but failing to bring them down.
• Jiang Sheng gathered Ren Water, Bing Fire, and Wu Earth True Thunder with more than half his magical power and hurled it at the four Vajras.

Jiang Sheng killed Jue Kong’s four Vajra Protectors and pursued him into Yama Palace, while Jue Kong obtained the judge’s seal and opened the treasury in search of Earth Mother Qi. Jiang Sheng caught up with him at the treasury, and their confrontation began with a clash of sword and body.

• Jiang Sheng destroyed the four Vajra Protectors with three-colored thunder and collected their Vajra relics, but Jue Kong escaped.
• Jue Kong found the judge’s seal in the Judge’s Residence, resisted its enchantment, and placed it in a jade box.
• Jue Kong used the judge’s seal and Prefect Lord Token to enter Yama Palace and open the treasury doors.
• Jiang Sheng was pulled into Yama Palace, followed Jue Kong’s dark-gold aura, and tracked him to the treasury.
• Jue Kong’s Indestructible Diamond Body blocked Jiang Sheng’s sword strike, and Jiang Sheng answered with the Azure-Heaven Sword and Whitewater Sword.

Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong fought through Yama Palace’s treasury, where they discovered the Earth Mother Qi was gone. Jiang Sheng trapped Jue Kong in his Waterlike Sword Formation and killed him, sending him into reincarnation.

• Jiang Sheng broke Jue Kong’s Arhat Golden Bell and fought against his Buddhist weapons and techniques.
• Jue Kong withdrew toward the treasury, and Jiang Sheng pursued him as they continued their battle inside.
• Jiang Sheng and Jue Kong found twelve empty jade boxes, and Jiang Sheng realized the Earth Mother Qi was no longer there.
• Jiang Sheng formed his Waterlike Sword Formation while Jue Kong unleashed his power and charged at him.
• Jiang Sheng’s four swords broke Jue Kong’s golden body, subdued his soul, shattered his golden core, and sent him into reincarnation.

Jiang Sheng survived Jue Kong’s apparent death only to face a divine descent, and he fled into Senluo Hall, where the remnant soul of Yama Heavenly Son took control of him. Using Yama Heavenly Son’s authority, Jiang Sheng defeated the descended Buddhist being, then remained seated on the throne overlooking the City of Unjust Death.

• After Jiang Sheng departed, Jue Kong rose, revealed he had faked his death, and triggered a divine descent that raised his power to the early stage of spirit transformation.
• Jue Kong pursued Jiang Sheng through Yama Palace, but Jiang Sheng detonated his Sword Pellets to escape and raced toward Senluo Hall.
• The remnant soul of Yama Heavenly Son sheltered Jiang Sheng, then used its power to place him on the throne and dress him in the Yama Heavenly Son’s crown and imperial robe.
• Jue Kong entered Senluo Hall and unleashed the Majestic Virtue Heavenly Dragon, which Jiang Sheng destroyed with a single command.
• Jue Kong manifested the Namo Awe-Virtue World-Pacifying Revolving Wisdom King Aspect and battled Jiang Sheng’s Netherworld Yama Great Prison Son of Heaven Dharma Image.
• Jiang Sheng used the ledger to sentence Jue Kong to the Prison of Wrongful Death, causing the Wheel-Turning Wisdom King Dharma Image and Jue Kong to vanish.

A brilliant new star appeared over the Eastern Region, and diviners across the Great Tang failed to interpret the celestial omen. Fang Lan recognized it as a sign that a True Lord of the upper three realms had set out.

• A new star appeared in daylight above the East Sea and Eastern Domain Continent, alarming cultivators who studied astrology.
• Zhang Luyi and Wei Xuancheng could not decipher the omen at the Luoyang Dao Palace, and they reported that the Celestial Master had also found heaven's secrets unfathomable.
• The Great Tang's Celestial Observatory director failed to interpret the star and left the celestial terrace without reassuring Chang'an's officials.
• Fang Lan observed the star in Dreamcloud Marsh and explained to Zhang Qing that it signaled a True Lord of the upper three realms had set out.