Chapter Summaries

Jiang Sheng traveled through war-ravaged Flame Continent, where Daoist Yuchen shared a scripture he had composed while aiding the people with Bright Moon. Jiang Sheng helped Huang Jian and taught his grandson Huang Ping'an before meeting a mysterious man on Jade Blossom Mountain and explaining that he hoped to plant a seed of peace through the boy.

• Daoist Yuchen gave Jiang Sheng his newly compiled scripture and said he would continue protecting Bright Moon as they helped people across Flame Continent.
• Jiang Sheng disguised himself as an ordinary Daoist, rescued Huang Jian from a slippery mountain path, and heard how war and oppression had destroyed the old man's family.
• Jiang Sheng taught Huang Ping'an to read and write, stayed with the grandfather and grandson for over a month, and urged the boy to remember people's goodness if he gained power.
• Jiang Sheng left Huang Jian and Huang Ping'an and climbed Jade Blossom Mountain, where a plainly dressed man questioned him about his responsibility for Flame Continent's suffering.
• Jiang Sheng said he had taught Huang Ping'an hoping the boy might bring a hundred years of peace to one region, and he would try elsewhere if the effort failed.

After decades of traveling and teaching, Jiang Sheng clarified his Dao of severance and settled in a village, where he taught Li Jianchun and passed on the Scripture of Salvation, Relief, and Sin Eradication. The chapter ended when Li Jianchun spared a pregnant doe and met a woman surnamed Ye, who said she was acquainted with his master.

• Jiang Sheng traveled through the continents, observed mortal life, and revised Ling Yuan True Person's Yin-Yang Calamity Scripture into his own Dao of severance.
• Jiang Sheng taught children in a Mystic Continent town about destiny, virtue, and understanding the Dao.
• Li Jianchun challenged Jiang Sheng with questions about good deeds going unrewarded, and Jiang Sheng agreed to teach him arts that protected the Dao.
• Jiang Sheng taught Li Jianchun reading by day and the Scripture of Salvation, Relief, and Sin Eradication by night for three years.
• Li Jianchun spared a pregnant doe while hunting, then encountered a beautiful woman surnamed Ye, who said she was acquainted with Jiang Sheng.

Ye Wenshu offered Jiang Sheng a divine rank from the Golden Palace Heavenly Emperor, allowing his incarnation to enter the Divine Path as the True Lord Who Answers Prayers and Relieves Suffering. Jiang Sheng accepted the seal, recognizing the favor’s ties to the Penglai Dao Sect, and reassured Li Jianchun that he had support against whatever obligations the karmic affinity might bring.

• Ye Wenshu visited Jiang Sheng’s schoolhouse with Li Jianchun and challenged him about teaching children while hiding his identity and cultivation.
• Ye Wenshu offered Jiang Sheng a place in the Heavenly Court if he intended to enter the Divine Path.
• Ye Wenshu presented Jiang Sheng with the Treasure Seal of the True Lord Who Answers Prayers and Relieves Suffering, a Void Refinement divine rank bestowed by the Golden Palace Heavenly Emperor.
• Jiang Sheng accepted the seal and realized the Heavenly Emperor’s gift would benefit his cultivation while creating a favor tied to the Penglai Dao Sect.
• After Ye Wenshu left, Jiang Sheng told Li Jianchun that karmic opportunities must eventually be repaid, but the Penglai Dao Sect would stand behind him.

Jiang Sheng continued traveling across Panfeng World's ten lands, observing mortal suffering and refining his understanding of the Dao. After meeting Ye Wenshu in Ancestral Province, he declared that his heart was devoted to his own Dao, and his Dao Fruit began to manifest.

• The Golden Palace Heavenly Emperor defended honoring Jiang Sheng for aiding the ten lands and invited him to serve as a heavenly official so he could observe the Divine Path.
• Jiang Sheng told Li Jianchun that his cultivation method was incomplete, but Li Jianchun chose to continue practicing it; Jiang Sheng urged him to follow his own path and remain with his parents.
• Jiang Sheng left Mystic Continent and traveled through Eternal Continent, where years of observing mortal life led him to reflect on birth, aging, sickness, and death.
• Jiang Sheng entered Phoenix-Qilin Continent and recognized that the Demon Race also suffered from frailty, sickness, aging, and death.
• Jiang Sheng reunited with Ye Wenshu in Ancestral Province and explained that he cultivated for his own Dao rather than for heaven and earth or all living beings.
• As Jiang Sheng clarified his understanding, a flawless halo appeared behind him, revealing the faint spiritual light of his Dao Fruit.

Daoist Yuchen attained the azure-decree fruition of the True Lord Who Answers Cries and Relieves Distress, while Bright Moon became the Devout Goodness Celestial Maiden. Back in Ancestral Province, Jiang Sheng told his avatar to enter the Netherworld and gather incense offerings to condense a true fruition of the Heavenly Dao.

• After sixty years of traveling and relieving suffering, Daoist Yuchen challenged Bright Moon to consider how her neglect of cultivation limited her ability to help others, then taught her to observe the complexity of human nature.
• In Mystic Continent, Daoist Yuchen received an azure-decree seal, broke through to Void Refinement, and became the True Lord Who Answers Cries and Relieves Distress.
• Daoist Yuchen elevated Bright Moon to the Devout Goodness Celestial Maiden, raising her cultivation to the golden core realm as people gathered to worship them.
• Jiang Sheng discussed his progress with Ye Wenshu, who warned that peerless cultivators might soon break through to Void Refinement.
• Daoist Yuchen cautioned Jiang Sheng about those potential breakthroughs, and Jiang Sheng ordered his avatar to enter the Netherworld and become its True Lord Who Answers Cries and Relieves Distress.

Jiang Sheng sent Daoist Yuchen into the Netherworld to establish an Eastern Radiant Pure Land where confused departed souls could hear the Dao and prepare for reincarnation. As Daoist Yuchen began relieving their suffering, ghost deities arrived and accepted his teaching.

• Jiang Sheng considered combining Divine Path incense offerings with a nascent Heavenly Dao True Fruition to refine Taiyi Treasure Pills, while revising his cultivation method toward a union of immortal and divine Taiyi.
• Daoist Yuchen entered the eastern Netherworld and used Heaven-Cutting to clear a ten-thousand-li area of chaos, establishing the Eastern Radiant Pure Land.
• Daoist Yuchen promised to expound the Dao every forty-nine days and help departed souls dissolve their karma and enter reincarnation.
• Bright Moon welcomed ghost deities who came to see the new pure land, and Daoist Yuchen permitted them to enter and hear his scripture.
• The ghost deities witnessed the peaceful departed souls and bowed to Daoist Yuchen, accepting his teaching.

As the hundred-year deadline arrived, Fahui and Ye Wenshu became the only prodigies to reach Void Refinement before Shanhe, Hengsha, and Panfeng Worlds merged. Their worlds and the Divine Path united with Shanhe World, transforming its continents, seas, Nine Heavens, and Netherworld as the newly formed world's will fell back into slumber.

• Daoist Yuchen gathered and refined incense offerings in the Netherworld while Jiang Sheng developed his cultivation scripture and prepared to pursue a path joining the immortal and Divine Paths.
• Fahui attained Void Refinement at the Great Lingyin Temple ten years before the merger, becoming the first prodigy of his generation across the Three Realms to break through.
• Ye Wenshu reached Void Refinement five years before the merger and received an imperial decree appointing her the Golden Register Incarnation Mysterious Lady, Heavenly Lord Who Patrols the Ten Lands.
• When the deadline arrived, Jinjue Buddha drew Hengsha World toward Shanhe World, and Daoist Lord Shangyang ordered the Pure Yang powers to begin merging the continents and worlds.
• Panfeng World's landmasses, Nine Heavens, and Netherworld joined Shanhe World, while the seas, spirit veins, and landscapes transformed and spiritual energy grew richer.
• The awakened will of Shanhe World merged with the wills of Hengsha and Panfeng before sinking back into slumber, and the three worlds formed a new order in chaos.

Ten years into the Three Realms’ merger, the Shanhe World continued to expand as its stronger laws restricted Dao-Entering Pure Yang cultivators from wielding the Dao freely. The chapter leaves the new realm’s powers adjusting to their reduced influence, with Xuanmen holding the richest Eastern Region Continent and the Demon Race retaining the North Region Continent.

• The three Dao-Ruling True Yang cultivators estimated that the Shanhe World would eventually grow to more than ten times its original size, while its increasingly complete laws began to restrain cultivators across the Three Realms.
• Star Dragon Ancestor sensed the new restrictions and chose to remain asleep in his North Sea Cave Heaven until the Three Realms stabilized.
• Azure Dragon sensed the changes in the East Sea but remained untroubled, relying on his Dao-Wielding cultivation and accumulated merit to protect the Eastern Sea Dragon Clan.
• Arhat Zuolu, Laughing Lion Arhat, Bodhisattva Baoguang, Chaoyin Bodhisattva, Yuan Hong, and Huang Xiao discovered that Dao-Entering cultivators could no longer draw upon the Dao as freely as before.
• Kong Xuan had anticipated the changes and cooperated with the three Dao-Ruling True Yang cultivators, who granted the Demon Race the North Region Continent in return.
• Daoist Lord Shangyang prepared the Eastern Region Continent, formed from lands of the Shanhe and Panfeng Worlds, as Xuanmen’s foundation.

The Three Realms’ upheaval completed the Great Dao, allowing Daoist Lord Qingyan and Mingyang Daoist Lord to break through into the Dao-Wielding Realm and become True Yang Perfect Men. As the realms neared stabilization, Daoist Lord Shangyang announced he would depart beyond Chaos and offered to teach the Dao during his remaining hundred years.

• The Three Realms’ new laws burdened recent Void Refinement breakthroughs Ye Wenshu and Fahui, while many lower-realm cultivators benefited from the renewed world and broke through their cultivation barriers.
• At Penglai Immortal Island, Daoist Lord Qingyan and Mingyang Daoist Lord seized the completed Great Dao’s opportunity and advanced from the half-step Dao-Wielding Realm.
• Their breakthrough stirred the Great Dao and produced auspicious signs throughout the Three Realms, revealing their status as Dao-Wielding True Yang Perfect Men.
• Golden Palace Heavenly Emperor and Jinjue Buddha congratulated Daoist Lord Qingyan and Mingyang Daoist Lord, and Daoist Lord Shangyang praised their advancement.
• Daoist Lord Shangyang said the Three Realms would stabilize in another hundred years, then announced he would leave beyond Chaos and would expound the Dao for all who wished to listen before departing.

Thirty years after the Three Realms united, Daoist Lord Shangyang announced a sermon at the Ninefold Heaven Palace, and the chapter described the new realms and Heavenly Court barriers. In Little Penglai, Jiang Sheng’s companions worried that Fahui had reached Void Refinement before him, but Jiang Sheng remained untroubled.

• Daoist Lord Shangyang announced that he would expound the Dao at the Ninefold Heaven Palace thirty years later, drawing cultivators across the Three Realms to seek a way there.
• The chapter described how the Great Lingyin Temple, Taiyi Qinghua Grotto-Heaven, and Penglai Grotto-Heaven had become seats of power between illusion and reality for their Dao-Ruling True Yangs.
• The Heavenly Court restricted access to the Ninefold Heaven Palace with the Astral Wind Thunderfire Layer and four Heavenly Gates, while Xuanmen’s Daoist Tradition controlled the South Heaven Gate.
• True Disciples and other cultivators gathered in Lesser Shanhe Land because Jiang Sheng was there.
• In Little Penglai’s Cloud Palace, Guanghe, Juezhen, Kong Zhen, Jin Qiong, and the others urged Jiang Sheng to worry that Fahui had become a Void Refinement cultivator ahead of him, but Jiang Sheng calmly drank tea.

Jiang Sheng dismissed calls for him to challenge Fahui’s standing and prepared to enter the Netherworld to meet the True Lord Who Answers Cries and Relieves Distress. He traveled through the Nine Heavens and arrived at the South Heaven Gate.

• Guanghe and Jin Qiong argued that Jiang Sheng, not Fahui, deserved to be considered the foremost cultivator of their generation, while Jiang Sheng said he cared little for the title.
• Jiang Sheng told Tian Ming'an and Qiu Buyu to prepare the Cloud Carriage and announced he would enter the Netherworld in seven days to meet the True Lord Who Answers Cries and Relieves Distress.
• Seven days later, Jiang Sheng and his two disciples departed Little Penglai Island in a Cloud Carriage drawn by two golden-maned lions.
• Jiang Sheng shielded the carriage as it crossed the million-mile Astral Wind Thunderfire Layer and entered the Star Sea.
• Jiang Sheng directed the lions thirty million miles forward, revealing the South Heaven Gate, where the Cloud Carriage came to a halt.

Jiang Sheng traveled through the South Heaven Gate to the Netherworld’s Eastern Radiant Pure Land, where he met his avatar, Daoist Yuchen. He brought treasures to begin refining immortal pills and asked whether the Dragon-Phoenix Pearl and Vermilion-Purple Immortal Fruit could make a demon immortal pill.

• Jiang Sheng met True Lord Long Yi at the South Heaven Gate and received permission to travel to the Netherworld, with instructions to return within twenty-five years.
• Jiang Sheng and his two disciples traveled through the South Seven teleportation array to the Netherworld’s Eastern Extremity, where many Xuanmen avatars had established pure lands.
• He met Bright Moon outside the Eastern Radiant Pure Land and learned that the True Lord Who Answers Cries and Relieves Distress was his avatar, Daoist Yuchen.
• Jiang Sheng and Yuchen discussed nurturing a new station of heaven and earth with merit before the Three Realms stabilized.
• Jiang Sheng brought the Vermilion-Purple Immortal Fruit, the Dragon-Phoenix Pearl, and other treasures to prepare a batch of pills, then asked Yuchen whether the two treasures could refine a demon immortal pill.

Jiang Sheng and Yuchen used the Dragon-Phoenix Pearl and the Vermilion-Purple Demon Fruit to refine a powerful immortal pill. Jiang Sheng stabilized the pill and named it the Seven-Star Sun-Moon Pill, while an inexplicable aura from the rear hall startled Tian Ming'an, Qiu Buyu, and Bright Moon.

• Jiang Sheng and Yuchen prepared for three days before beginning their alchemy with the pill furnace Jiang Sheng had taken from Faxian.
• Jiang Sheng balanced Five Elements Spiritual Qi in the furnace and added the Trigram-Fire Wutong Branch, trigram-water dragon-scale grass, alchemy-spirit nine-ray flower, and Dragon-Phoenix Pearl.
• Jiang Sheng added the purple fruit, releasing its solar, lunar, and stellar powers into the pill liquid as the furnace shook.
• Jiang Sheng used Heaven-Cutting, Break Ten Thousand Laws to erase an unstable aura and restore the spiritual pill's balance.
• Jiang Sheng caught the finished azure pill, recognized its power to grant a Demon Race Divine Ability and help cultivators advance, and named it the Seven-Star Sun-Moon Pill.
• Tian Ming'an, Qiu Buyu, and Bright Moon felt an inexplicable aura sweep through the True Lord's hall while Jiang Sheng and Yuchen completed the pill.

After spending decades studying and refining his cultivation, Jiang Sheng traveled alone to the ninth tier of the Ninefold Heaven Palace for Ancestor Shangyang’s lecture on the Dao. He arrived at the heavenly palace where the lecture would take place.

• Jiang Sheng spent ten years discussing the Void Refinement Stage with Yuchen before returning to Little Penglai and entering seclusion.
• Jiang Sheng studied scriptures and revised his cultivation method for more than a decade until Tian Ming'an and Qiu Buyu reminded him that Ancestor Shangyang’s lecture was three years away.
• Jiang Sheng dressed in his formal robes and departed Little Penglai alone in a Cloud Carriage pulled by two golden-maned lions.
• Travelers recognized Jiang Sheng as Lingyuan of the Penglai Dao Sect and moved aside as his carriage approached the South Heaven Gate.
• Jiang Sheng passed through the South Heaven Gate’s teleportation formation and arrived on the ninth tier of the Ninefold Heaven Palace, where Ancestor Shangyang would lecture.

Jiang Sheng joined cultivators from across the Three Realms as they gathered at the Azure Profound Celestial Palace for Daoist Lord Shangyang’s lecture. Shangyang opened by declaring the worlds united as one Great Thousand World and began teaching the method of Qi Refining.

• Jiang Sheng met True Lord Yangyan Yuanyi and heard the True Lords discuss the Heavenly Court’s request for cultivators to fill its offices.
• The gathered cultivators formed groups by allegiance, and Jiang Sheng greeted Mysterious Lady Ye Wenshu and Bodhi Buddha Child Fahui.
• Daoist Lord Shangyang opened the palace and seated everyone by the aura of their Meditation Cushions, placing Jiang Sheng between Ye Wenshu and Fahui.
• Shangyang declared that the Shanhe, Panfeng, and Hengsha Worlds were now one Great Thousand World and announced a thirty-year lecture spanning the realms of cultivation.
• Shangyang began his lecture on Qi Refining as celestial flowers and golden lotuses appeared in the Heavenly Palace.

Daoist Lord Shangyang lectured on the higher realms, while Jiang Sheng refined his own scripture and realized that the Daoist Lord’s Mahayana path was not his. After Jiang Sheng declared that his path lay within himself, Shangyang acknowledged it and gave him a copy of his scripture.

• Daoist Lord Shangyang explained Void Refinement and Integration, and many listeners left the Azure Profound Celestial Palace as they reached the limits of what they could understand.
• As Shangyang began teaching Mahayana, Jiang Sheng increasingly sensed that the method did not suit him, even as his Primordial Spirit and True Spirit grew clearer.
• After twenty-eight years of listening and refining Ling Yuan True Person's scripture, Jiang Sheng completed the Yin-Yang Calamity Three-Transformation Five-Element Method Expounded by Lingyuan True Person.
• Shangyang challenged Jiang Sheng to identify his own path, and Jiang Sheng pointed to himself and answered, “Here.”
• Shangyang recognized Jiang Sheng's path and gave him The Supreme Cavern-Truth Scripture of Illuminating One's Nature and the Orthodox Dharma, Expounded by Daoist Shangyang.

Jiang Sheng studied Daoist Lord Shangyang’s Supreme Cavern True Great Dao Scripture and prepared to advance to Void Refinement while the Three Realms’ cultivators made rapid breakthroughs. After rumors spread that he had fallen behind, Jiang Sheng revealed to his disciples that his cultivation had reached perfection and departed to undergo his breakthrough.

• Jiang Sheng studied Daoist Lord Shangyang’s scripture and learned its account of the Taiyi realms, including the supreme Cave True realm.
• As cultivators across the Three Realms broke through, Jiang Sheng prepared for Void Refinement and sent Tian Ming'an to retrieve a world-beacon from the Tianhe Dao Sect.
• Xuanyi and Kong Zhen advanced to Void Refinement, while rumors claimed Jiang Sheng had been excluded from Mahayana and had stagnated in seclusion.
• Luo Tianze welcomed the rumors about Jiang Sheng, hoping that his many enemies would eventually seek revenge for those he had killed.
• After more than thirty years of seclusion, Jiang Sheng heard from Tian Ming'an and Qiu Buyu about the breakthroughs and rumors, then declared his cultivation complete and left Little Penglai to break through.

Jiang Sheng entered the doomed Little Liuguang Realm to comprehend the final calamity, claim its destruction fruit, and take responsibility for its cause. He later joined Daoist Yuchen in refining a grand Dao fruit pill, while Golden Palace Heavenly Emperor recruited cultivators across the Three Realms and the pill’s completion drew the attention of heaven and the Netherworld.

• Heavenly Emperor Donghua gave Jiang Sheng the White Night Interstice to aid his comprehension of yin and yang.
• Jiang Sheng studied the destruction of the Little Liuguang Realm, shattered fragments of its laws, and strengthened his understanding of the final calamity.
• Jiang Sheng claimed the realm’s pulsing destruction fruit, vowing to protect its former inhabitants for three thousand years and accepting its karmic cause.
• Jiang Sheng and Daoist Yuchen spent three years using merit to refine the embryonic true fruition and the Vermilion-Purple Demon Fruit into a grand Dao fruit pill.
• Golden Palace Heavenly Emperor issued a decree offering fruition ranks to recruit cultivators, and heterodox practitioners entered heaven in large numbers.
• The completed pill triggered thunder over the Eastern Radiant Pure Land, and Golden Palace Heavenly Emperor sensed that a fruition rank had escaped his control.

Jiang Sheng used the Dao Fruit pill’s tribulation to attempt his own breakthrough to Void Refinement in the eastern Netherworld. After rejecting the Great Dao’s offers of established methods, his True Spirit shattered beneath the heavenly lightning, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Jiang Sheng cut through the first wave of tribulation lightning, then seized the Dao Fruit pill and drew the intensified tribulation away from the Eastern Radiant Pure Land.
• Jiang Sheng reached the eastern Netherworld’s unopened chaos, revealed his immortal eyes, and exposed his Primordial Spirit and True Spirit to the five-colored Cave Void lightning.
• Jiang Sheng endured days of heavenly lightning, allowing his True Spirit to crack and approach collapse as he followed his own method instead of relying on treasures.
• Jiang Sheng heard the Great Dao offer methods leading toward Pure Yang and higher realms, but rejected them as paths belonging to others.
• Jiang Sheng’s True Spirit shattered completely beneath the lightning, and no trace of him remained.

Jiang Sheng reconstructed his shattered True Spirit and clarified his Dao of Cutting, then used the White Night Interstice to balance a Divine Path Dao Fruit pill against an immortal-path calamity fragment. After more than three months in the Netherworld, he was still struggling to unite the opposing powers within himself.

• Jiang Sheng rejected regret over his chosen path and realized that yin and yang could embody both creation and tribulation annihilation.
• Jiang Sheng recalled his battles and travels, defined his own Dao of Cutting, and named his sword Heaven-Cutting.
• Jiang Sheng used Heaven-Cutting to break the illusion, restored his True Spirit, and consumed the Dao Fruit immortal pill and calamity fragment.
• The opposing divine and immortal powers shattered Jiang Sheng's True Spirit again, but the White Night Interstice gathered and stabilized its fragments.
• Jiang Sheng circulated the Yin-Yang Calamity Three-Transformation Five-Element Method to balance the powers, while more than three months passed in the Netherworld with no trace of him.