Chapter Summaries

The Spirit Emperor formed a baleful dragon from the Yellow Springs and drove it through the barrier into the mortal world, unleashing a catastrophe in Lingyou Prefecture. As the dragon emerged near Jinhua County and threatened its people, Gao Bai called for Lord Who Hears Cries and Saves the Suffering.

• The Spirit Emperor and the ghosts and gods polluted an incense-born ghost dragon with wild ghosts and Yellow Springs filth until it became a colossal baleful dragon.
• The Spirit Emperor opened a passage to the mortal world and sent the baleful dragon surging through the barrier with torrents of filthy Yellow Springs water.
• Gao Bai witnessed Jinhua Mountain split apart as the dragon's broken horns emerged and evil ghosts poured from the widening fissures.
• The dragon's enormous head emerged near Jinhua County, filling the area with malice and leaving its residents helpless before the natural disaster.
• Gao Bai saw Azure Profound Temple remain unharmed and shouted for everyone to invite Lord Who Hears Cries and Saves the Suffering.

The Yellow Springs erupted as the Sin Dragon broke into the human world, unleashing floods, ghosts, and Mud Flood Dragons across Lingyou Prefecture and nearby regions. Jiang Sheng protected Azure Profound Temple as Gao Yan led efforts to rescue civilians, while the chapter ended with the Sin Dragon fully escaping into the skies.

• The Sin Dragon's emergence shattered Jinhua County, and Jiang Sheng assured Gao Yan that Azure Profound Temple could shelter millions as the ghost gods went out to rescue people.
• Gao Yan found Gao Bai and Gao Yulan amid the ruined county and brought them toward Azure Profound Temple, while Gao Bai realized the Gao Family had abandoned him.
• The Sin Dragon's power spread black clouds, vicious ghosts, and Mud Flood Dragons across Lingyou Prefecture and surrounding counties.
• The Azure Crossing County Magistrate and the Law-Bending God concluded that the Wang Family had abandoned Lingyou Prefecture, and the Law-Bending God suspected its ancestors had become sustenance for the Sin Dragon.
• The Spirit Emperor stripped the Wang Family's ancestors and other ghost gods of their divine offices and offered them as sacrifices to the Yellow Springs.
• The Sin Dragon broke free into the human world, while Jiang Sheng watched from Azure Profound Temple and resumed carving.

The Yellow Springs calamity devastated Lingyou Prefecture, while Azure Profound Temple sheltered survivors inside Xiangyu Immortal Monarch’s Fatian Thousand-Lustre Pearl. Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch prepared to summon a True Immortal to defeat the baleful dragon, and prayers from millions of beings sent a clear light through the severed passage between worlds.

• The Spirit Emperor completed the sacrifice that drew sludge from the Yellow Springs, then went into seclusion as calamities struck the mortal world.
• Zhao Yanling led her disciples through the dangerous wilderness to Azure Profound Temple, where they entered its Cave Heaven and worshiped the Xiangyu Divine Lord of Heaven's Law.
• Survivors from several counties took refuge in the Fatian Thousand-Lustre Pearl, and their worship strengthened Xiangyu Immortal Monarch’s connection to the Mountain Sea Realm.
• Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch agreed to eliminate the baleful dragon, and the Xiangyu Divine Lord urged more than two million beings to summon a True Immortal.
• Gao Yan and the county ghosts and gods built an altar as Jiang Sheng’s avatar and the assembled beings chanted prayers, sending a ray of clear light beyond the world.

Jiang Sheng descended into the Mountain Sea Realm as a true immortal and began suppressing the evil dragon rampaging through Lingyou Prefecture. He sealed the dragon within the Four Spirits Demon-Sealing Formation and brought down a thunderfire sword to slay it.

• The prayers of living beings opened the Heavenly Gate, allowing Jiang Sheng to enter the Mountain Sea Realm and manifest his true immortal body.
• Jiang Sheng summoned four divine beasts to the cardinal directions and formed the Four Spirits Demon-Sealing Formation across Lingyou Prefecture.
• The evil dragon attacked Jiang Sheng, but his Five Elements Divine Lightning blasted apart its mouth and forced it to flee.
• The formation stopped the dragon at Lingyou Prefecture's border, and Jiang Sheng used spiritual-resonance chains to drag it back and suspend it in the air.
• Jiang Sheng formed a sword of thunder and fire and declared that he would slay the dragon and seal its soul in jinhua.

Jiang Sheng destroyed the Evil Dragon and cleared most of Lingyou Prefecture’s sinister beings before heading to the Netherworld to hunt ghost gods. There, Binmou sought the Seven-Marvel Ink Lotus and the Return Ruins, but the Qian Emperor rejected the Mystic Sovereign’s offer and turned Binmou into an incense candle.

• Jiang Sheng slew the Evil Dragon, formed its head into a barren mountain range, and used thunder and heavenly fire to wipe out nearly all the sinister beings in Lingyou Prefecture.
• Jiang Sheng left Xiangyu Immortal Monarch to develop Lingyou Prefecture as their power base and went into the Netherworld to slay ghost gods.
• Binmou climbed to Senluo Hall to meet the Qian Emperor and seek the Return Ruins and Seven-Marvel Ink Lotus on behalf of the Mystic Sovereign.
• Binmou offered the Qian Emperor help in turning the Mountain Sea Realm into an eternal Netherworld domain, but the Qian Emperor dismissed the offer and declared the realm his own.
• The Qian Emperor immobilized Binmou and transformed him into a black incense candle among the many candles lining Senluo Hall.

Jiang Sheng entered the Netherworld through the ghost gate and struck down the Spirit Emperor with the Zhu-Xian Sword. As other Great Yu ghost emperors rushed toward Yinling City, Jiang Sheng turned his sword on the remaining ghosts and gods.

• Binmou emerged from a white lotus in the Yellow Springs and predicted that Jiang Sheng had arrived in the Netherworld, where Lingyuan would challenge the arrogant ruler of the Ghost Capital.
• Jiang Sheng plunged through the fissure at the former Jinhua Mountain site and entered the Netherworld through the ghost gate.
• Jiang Sheng’s Azure radiance illuminated Yinling City, alarming the Spirit Emperor and drawing ghosts and gods from their dwellings.
• Jiang Sheng struck the Spirit Emperor with the Zhu-Xian Sword, destroying his ghost-dragon form and extinguishing his True Spirit.
• Several Great Yu ghost emperors hurried toward Yinling City after the Spirit Emperor fell, while Jiang Sheng confronted the surviving ghosts and gods.

Jiang Sheng revealed himself as a Daoist Heavenly Immortal and faced the Yu Dynasty Ghost Emperors who had gathered at Yinling City. After testing their strength, he unleashed the Zhu-Xian Sword’s Three Calamities Final Tribulation Sword Intent and began his decisive attack.

• Yu Dynasty Ghost Emperors and their armies converged on Yinling City, but Jiang Sheng’s sword light stopped them and destroyed dozens of ghosts and deities.
• Jiang Sheng appeared beneath his natal Heavenly Star, and the Ghost Emperors recognized him as a Daoist Heavenly Immortal.
• Jiang Sheng declared that the Netherworld’s ghosts and deities would not leave, while the Ghost Emperors ordered their forces to attack and sent for reinforcements.
• Jiang Sheng fought several Ghost Emperors with Thunder Arts, endured their combined assault, and devastated the surrounding Netherworld in their clashes.
• Jiang Sheng drew out the Zhu-Xian Sword’s Three Calamities Final Tribulation Sword Intent, cowing the assembled ghosts and deities before he invoked the Jie Character Sword Art and struck.

Jiang Sheng defeated the Yellow Springs Flood Dragon and expanded Azure Profound Temple’s influence across Lingyou Prefecture and neighboring regions. As he prepared a Ghost God Scroll to secure the loyalty of the ghosts and gods joining his temple, Xiangyu Immortal Monarch explained how it would help them command the Netherworld.

• A Yellow Springs Flood Dragon attacked Jiang Sheng to protect the Yu Dynasty Ghost Emperors, but Jiang Sheng used Heaven-Cutting, Break All Laws to slay it.
• Gao Yan announced that ghosts and gods joining Azure Profound Temple could keep receiving incense offerings, and the temple expanded through Lingyou Prefecture and surrounding counties.
• Gao Yan warned Jiang Sheng that Yu Dynasty-aligned ghosts and gods might not be loyal, but Jiang Sheng said both sides needed time to develop.
• Xiangyu Immortal Monarch explained that Jiang Sheng was carving a Ghost God Scroll from Yellow Springs Jade Stone to record and control the true names of ghosts and gods who joined Azure Profound Temple.
• Jiang Sheng said the scroll would be shaped in ten days, after which Xiangyu Immortal Monarch would fuse the Myriad Laws Bewildering Mirror into it.

Jiang Sheng explained that the Netherworld’s unchecked ghost gods were draining the Mountain Sea Realm and proposed using the Judicial Heavenly Monarch’s Jade Seal to restore heavenly law. He planned to awaken the dormant Heavenly Dao by spreading Daoist teachings, establishing an immortal lineage, and holding a Luotian Grand Offering to conduct an Investiture of the Gods.

• Jiang Sheng told Xiangyu Immortal Monarch that the Netherworld’s ghost gods had flourished while the mortal world declined, upsetting the balance of yin and yang and threatening the Mountain Sea Realm’s survival.
• Xiangyu Immortal Monarch suggested that the Mountain Sea Realm’s earlier calamity and the ghost path’s rise might have resulted from upheaval in the realm’s foundations.
• Jiang Sheng showed Xiangyu Immortal Monarch the Judicial Heavenly Monarch’s Jade Seal and explained that it had responded to the Mountain Sea Realm’s heaven and earth.
• Jiang Sheng declared that he would become the law-enforcing Heavenly Monarch and bring heavenly tribulations against the unrestrained ghost gods.
• Xiangyu Immortal Monarch agreed to help Jiang Sheng, who revealed his plan to establish an immortal lineage, hold a Luotian Grand Offering, and invite a Heavenly Venerable of the Daoist Tradition to conduct the Investiture of the Gods.

Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch planned to reopen the Xuanmen orthodoxy by establishing a Daoist mountain gate and training cultivators for the Luotian Grand Offering, which would prepare them to invite the Heavenly Venerable to confer godhood on Heaven’s behalf. Jiang Sheng then promised Gao Yan a chance to become an Orthodox God if he spread news of an upcoming Daoist arena on Evil Dragon Mountain.

• Jiang Sheng explained his plan to establish a Daoist mountain gate on the Evil Dragon’s mountain, use Xiangyu Immortal Monarch’s Fatian Thousand-Lustre Pearl as a cultivation realm, and train disciples for the Luotian Grand Offering.
• Xiangyu Immortal Monarch agreed to help prepare the mountain range while Jiang Sheng stayed behind to carve the Yellow Springs Jade Stone.
• Gao Yan tried to lift and chisel the Yellow Springs Jade Stone, but its immense weight and hardness overwhelmed him, and Jiang Sheng explained the stone’s origins and the chisel’s materials.
• Jiang Sheng offered Gao Yan an opportunity to become an Orthodox God and told him to announce a Daoist arena on Evil Dragon Mountain three months later.
• Jiang Sheng instructed Gao Yan to spread the announcement across the Yu Dynasty, Qian Dynasty, northwest, and overseas nations, promising him a share of True Fruition if he succeeded.

News of Jiang Sheng’s plan to establish a Daoist sanctuary in Lingyou Prefecture spread across the Yu Dynasty, stirring cultivators and ghost god clans. Jiang Sheng took three fifth-grade spiritual veins from Blessed River Prefecture and offered its people ten years to seek the path to immortality in Lingyou.

• Gao Yan, ghost gods, and cultivators spread word that Jiang Sheng would transmit orthodox Daoist teachings in Lingyou, while great clans watched the Yu Dynasty’s response.
• Jiang Sheng surveyed Evil Dragon Mountain and decided to bring spiritual veins there to cultivate a blessed land.
• Jiang Sheng arrived in Blessed River Prefecture and announced that he would take three spiritual veins, offering its living beings a chance to become immortal in Lingyou.
• Jiang Sheng used the Sleeve Cosmos Technique to uproot the three veins and repaired the earth, though the prefecture’s spiritual energy fell sharply.
• Jiang Sheng declared that his offer would remain valid for ten years, prompting cultivators to prepare for the journey and ghost god clans to deliberate.

The Universal Emperor considered how Jiang Sheng’s emergence and the destruction of five Yu royal mausoleums had shattered the belief that ghost emperors were safe in the Netherworld. Though afraid to enter the Netherworld himself, he resolved to keep honoring his ancestors while finding a new path for his descendants.

• Jiang Sheng drained spirit veins across several Yu Dynasty prefectures, and the Yu court ignored his actions as the great ghost and god clans grew uneasy.
• The Universal Emperor postponed entering his planned mausoleum in Universal Peace Prefecture after five Yu royal mausoleums collapsed and their ghost emperors were destroyed.
• The Universal Emperor paid homage in the Solemn Emperor’s hall, where the Solemn Emperor accused him of fearing Jiang Sheng and sacrificing the dynasty’s prestige.
• The Universal Emperor admitted he feared the Netherworld’s dangers and said ghosts and gods were no longer deathless.
• The Universal Emperor vowed to continue making offerings to his ancestors while finding a new path for his descendants.

Jiang Sheng transformed Jinhua Mountain into a spiritual stronghold, built an immortal palace complex, and established its defenses and sect-entry trials. With the mountain gate soon to open, he hoped to find cultivators worthy of joining him in the Mountain Sea Realm.

• Jiang Sheng moved spiritual veins into Jinhua Mountain, cultivated its landscape, and oversaw construction of halls modeled on Little Penglai.
• Jiang Sheng buried Xiangyu Immortal Monarch’s Fatian Thousand-Lustre Pearl and two stars in the mountain, making an Azure sun rise above Jinhua Mountain.
• Jiang Sheng awakened four demonic spirits and joined them to the Azure sun in a formation that protected the mountain.
• Jiang Sheng created sect-entry trials to test aspiring cultivators’ innate bones, comprehension, and dao hearts, while relaxing their standards to recruit enough people for the Luotian Grand Offering.
• Jiang Sheng said he would take a disciple if someone in the Mountain Sea Realm was fated to him.

Shen Yao woke from another disturbing nightmare and joined his fellow outer disciples as they climbed Jinhua Mountain for the True Lord’s second lecture. The True Lord appeared before the gathered cultivators, who bowed to welcome him.

• Shen Yao woke from his recurring nightmare, which had recently changed to include a watching eye in the darkness.
• Shen Yao left his bamboo hut and joined the other outer disciples as the bronze bells called them up the mountain.
• Shen Yao reflected on the trials that had admitted only a few thousand cultivators and on the demanding cultivation required to enter the inner sect.
• Several thousand disciples assembled on the jade plaza, and a female cultivator in azure robes announced their welcome.
• True Lord Yuchen Lingyuan formed from a ray of light, and the disciples bowed and paid their respects.

Jiang Sheng expounded the Dao to Penglai’s new disciples and planned another recruitment for the Luotian Grand Offering. In the Abyssal Ruins, Binmou searched for the Seven-Marvel Ink Lotus but was seized by a hidden figure he recognized.

• Jiang Sheng lectured Shen Yao and the other new disciples on heaven and earth, while considering how to recruit enough cultivators for the Luotian Grand Offering.
• Binmou decided to seek the Seven-Marvel Ink Lotus himself after the Qian Emperor and Yu Emperor ignored Jiang Sheng’s actions.
• Binmou used the Seven Demonic Desire Lotus to enter the Abyssal Ruins and searched through their filthy sludge.
• Binmou sensed an Immortal Deity’s aura, but a sludge-covered arm seized and crushed the white lotus he had become.
• Binmou recalled the familiar figure he had glimpsed in the Return Ruins and realized, “It was you.”

A mysterious crowned figure discussed a long-term plan involving the Netherworld, the Abyssal Ruins, and changes in the mortal world. After emerging in the Netherworld, Binmou sought refuge with Emperor Yu but realized the meeting was a trap and destroyed himself, leaving behind a white lotus petal.

• In a divine tomb, a crowned figure told the voice inside an enormous coffin that a heavenly demon had reached the Abyssal Ruins, but the grand plan would continue and the mortal world was key.
• The coffin’s voice agreed that the time for change had come, and children’s chants filled the mausoleum as the figure departed.
• A crowned figure emerged from the forbidden mountains dividing the Netherworld and remarked that much time had passed.
• Binmou emerged from a white lotus in the southern Netherworld, recalled the danger he had seen in the Abyssal Ruins, and headed for the Yu Dynasty Ghost Capital to meet Emperor Yu.
• After entering Emperor Yu’s hall, Binmou recognized something was wrong and destroyed himself with his own heavenly demon power, leaving a white lotus petal behind.

Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch sensed that a crisis was approaching, prompting Jiang Sheng to accelerate his plans and search the Eastern Sea for clues about the ancient upheaval. He discovered a ruined divine palace beneath the dead sea, identified by its plaque as the Violet Empyrean Imperial Palace.

• Jiang Sheng ordered Zhao Yanling to prepare a second recruitment of cultivators, giving applicants one year to reach Jinhua Mountain.
• Xiangyu Immortal Monarch told Jiang Sheng that a sudden lapse had nearly ruined his work refining the Ghost-God Diagram, confirming their shared sense of foreboding.
• Jiang Sheng set a ten-year deadline to gather and train the cultivators he needed, then asked Xiangyu Immortal Monarch to watch over Jinhua Mountain while he traveled east.
• Jiang Sheng searched the lifeless Eastern Sea with countless phantoms and found a ruined divine palace buried beneath its waters.
• Jiang Sheng read the palace plaque, which named it the Violet Empyrean Imperial Palace of Heaven-Opening, Prosperity-Establishing, Sovereign-Commanding, Auspicious Radiance.

Jiang Sheng entered the Violet Empyrean Imperial Palace and spoke with the lingering image of its Emperor Lord, learning that the Ancestral World had shattered and the heavens scattered. After hearing Jiang Sheng’s account of Mountain Sea Heaven, the Emperor Lord rejected the accepted story of the ancient calamity and began revealing that the heavenly gods had sacrificed themselves to save their world.

• Jiang Sheng entered the Violet Empyrean Imperial Palace and encountered the lingering image of its Emperor Lord.
• The Emperor Lord questioned Jiang Sheng about the world beyond the palace, and Jiang Sheng explained that he came from Shanhe Heaven.
• The Emperor Lord described how the Ancestral World shattered and the heavens scattered, a history largely forgotten in Mountain Sea Heaven.
• After Jiang Sheng recounted what he knew of the present, the Emperor Lord erupted in anger at the accepted account of the calamity.
• The Emperor Lord claimed the heavenly gods had willingly sacrificed themselves to save Mountain Sea Heaven and began to reveal what had really happened.

Jiang Sheng learned that the Mountain Sea Realm's Immortal Deities had sacrificed themselves and the celestial realm to delay its destruction, and the imperial lord offered him a vast treasury in exchange for helping save the world. After accepting the storage pouch, Jiang Sheng told Xiangyu Immortal Monarch that the offer had come far too easily and might be a trap.

• The imperial lord's lingering shade explained how the Heavenly Emperor and the Immortal Deities sacrificed themselves and the celestial realm to protect Mountain Sea Heaven from the void hollow for one more yuanhui.
• Jiang Sheng explained that Shanhe Heaven now called Supreme Unity Golden Immortals Pure Yang and had dozens of them after merging with Panfeng Heaven and Hengsha Heaven.
• The imperial lord offered Jiang Sheng the Violet Empyrean Imperial Palace's treasures if he helped restore Mountain Sea Heaven, and Jiang Sheng agreed.
• After Jiang Sheng left with a storage pouch, the imperial lord and an unseen voice discussed whether Jiang Sheng believed the offer and why he might take the resources and leave.
• Jiang Sheng told Xiangyu Immortal Monarch what had happened, then said the opportunity had come too smoothly and that the storage pouch was too dangerous to hold.

Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch suspected that someone was arranging events in the Mountain Sea Realm to make Jiang Sheng nurture a chosen person and destroy the realm’s heaven and earth embryonic membrane. They identified the promising Shen Yao as the likely intended piece and Jiang Sheng decided to have Zhao Yanling train him while considering teaching him personally.

• Jiang Sheng watched Zhao Yanling guide three thousand cultivators and reflected on why he was reluctant to accept disciples amid the Mountain Sea Realm’s hidden dangers.
• Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch discussed how suspiciously convenient his discoveries and opportunities had been, and suspected the realm was part of a long-running scheme.
• Jiang Sheng proposed remaining inactive for ten years before holding the Luotian Grand Offering, but warned that the schemers would not let them act freely.
• Jiang Sheng pointed out Shen Yao, a gifted fifteen-year-old cultivator from Anqing County, as the person the hidden planners likely wanted him to nurture.
• Jiang Sheng said he had instructed Zhao Yanling to focus on Shen Yao and considered personally teaching him the art of slaying dragons.