Chapter Summaries

Jiang Sheng tested the cultivators at Xuanqing Hall, and Shen Yao impressed him with his interpretations of the Azure Yuan Talisman Scripture and Qingyuan Sword Scripture. As chaos spread through the Mountain Sea Realm, Jiang Sheng sent inner-courtyard cultivators to aid people and spread Jinhua Mountain’s name, laying the groundwork for the Mountain Sea Dao Court.

• Shen Yao answered Jiang Sheng’s questions about the scriptures and argued that uniting essence, qi, and spirit with the sword’s intent, resonance, and momentum could lead to immortality.
• Jiang Sheng admitted Shen Yao and other cultivators with fresh insights to Jinhua Mountain’s inner courtyard, appointing Shen Yao eldest senior brother.
• Jiang Sheng planned further trials for the remaining cultivators and told Zhao Yanling to recruit another group in three months.
• Disasters and supernatural disturbances multiplied across the Mountain Sea Realm, including an Evil Dragon emerging in the northern Qian Dynasty and ghosts overrunning parts of the southeastern Yu Dynasty.
• Jiang Sheng dispatched inner-courtyard cultivators to deal with sinister entities and malevolent ghosts, intending to test them and spread Jinhua Mountain’s reputation.
• Jiang Sheng resolved to establish Jinhua Mountain as the Mountain Sea Dao Court when the mortal world needed its aid.

Jiang Sheng expanded Jinhua Mountain into a refuge and growing force amid the Mountain Sea Realm’s spreading calamities. He sent Ji Hong to the Yu Capital with a letter asking the Universal Emperor whether he would honor Heaven.

• Jiang Sheng established halls, merit missions, and a system of cultivation resources as more cultivators sought refuge on Jinhua Mountain.
• Ji Hong and other aristocratic scions joined Jinhua Mountain, while its influence spread across the Yu Dynasty and its contacts with clans of ghosts and deities grew.
• Jiang Sheng summoned Ji Hong and asked what he had witnessed of the calamities; Ji Hong recalled nearly dying during a mission and seeing Anping destroy a ghostly domain and slay a mud flood dragon.
• Jiang Sheng told Ji Hong he sought no dominion over the mortal world and entrusted him with a letter for the Universal Emperor.
• The Universal Emperor received Jiang Sheng’s eight-character message: “You are an emperor—will you honor Heaven?”

Jiang Sheng tested whether the Universal Emperor would cooperate with Jinhua Mountain and continued preparing for the Luotian Grand Offering. The emperor agreed to attend the offering, while Jiang Sheng arranged Cave Heaven access for Zhao Yanling and Shen Yao.

• Jiang Sheng assessed the Universal Emperor’s willingness to make plans for the Yu Dynasty, and Ji Hong urged his father to trust the True Lord and prepare for the coming calamity.
• Jiang Sheng appeared behind Ji Hong, prompting the Universal Emperor to reconsider Jinhua Mountain and announce that he would attend its grand Daoist ritual offering.
• Jiang Sheng reflected on the Luotian Grand Offering’s role in establishing Xiangyu Immortal Monarch as an Orthodox God and strengthening the Azure Profound Temple.
• Zhao Yanling presented the register of more than a thousand new inner-court disciples, and Jiang Sheng promised her a place in the Cave Heaven next year.
• Jiang Sheng granted Shen Yao a Cave Heaven place and invited him to attend lectures on advancing through the Nascent Soul Realm and Spirit Transformation.

Jiang Sheng taught Shen Yao and the others the superior methods of forming a Nascent Soul and revealed that the Dao of Taiyi could be reached through true Heaven-Clearing Qi and Earth Mother Qi. Meanwhile, Binmou was compelled to explore Myriad Forms Nether Mountain, where he discovered a guarded Netherworld palace.

• Jiang Sheng explained that the Golden Core should be condensed into a Nascent Soul and taught the Heavenly Dao Nascent-Soul Condensation Method.
• Shen Yao correctly identified condensing the core into a Soul, asked whether a method surpassed the Heavenly Dao Nascent Soul, and learned about attaining Taiyi.
• Jiang Sheng promised to find Heaven-Clearing Qi or Earth Mother Qi for anyone who found the other, and offered to preside over Shen Yao's capping ceremony if he first reached Nascent Soul.
• Binmou entered Myriad Forms Nether Mountain under the influence of an unseen force and passed through a formation into a cavern filled with wards and ghost talismans.
• Binmou found a guarded Netherworld sacrificial site and read the palace plaque: Myriad Forms Imperial Palace.

Binmou discovered that he had been maneuvered into finding Emperor Qian’s former bedchamber, then fled a Tomb Guardian Beast and led it to Xiangyu Immortal Monarch’s ghost city. As the beast attacked Xiangyu’s formation and threatened the Ghost-God Diagram’s refinement, Jiang Sheng arrived and struck it with a vast sword technique.

• Binmou decided he had to tell Lingyuan what he had seen, but a Tomb Guardian Beast emerged and chased him through the caves.
• Binmou failed to harm the beast with his demonic techniques and fled south, using ghosts and gods in Yu Dynasty cities to slow its pursuit.
• Xiangyu Immortal Monarch entered the Netherworld and began refining the Ghost-God Diagram with Gao Yan and tens of thousands of ghosts and gods.
• Binmou arrived at Xiangyu’s ghost city with the Tomb Guardian Beast behind him, and the beast repeatedly battered the city’s protective formation.
• Xiangyu sent Jiang Sheng a message for help, and Jiang Sheng descended with a vast sword strike that blasted the Tomb Guardian Beast backward.

Jiang Sheng intervened when a powerful Tomb Guardian Beast threatened Xiangyu Immortal Monarch and the ghost gods, while Binmou offered information about the Netherworld in exchange for protection. After striking the beast and evading its counterattack, Jiang Sheng appeared behind Binmou and exposed the weakness of his restored True Spirit.

• Jiang Sheng arrived to help Xiangyu Immortal Monarch and found a formidable Tomb Guardian Beast overwhelming the ghost gods.
• Jiang Sheng confronted Binmou, who claimed to know the beast's origin and secrets of the Mountain Sea Realm's Netherworld.
• Jiang Sheng drew the Zhu-Xian Sword to keep Binmou from fleeing, then attacked the Tomb Guardian Beast with Heaven-Cutting.
• The Tomb Guardian Beast withstood Jiang Sheng's strike and smashed the space where Jiang Sheng had stood with a powerful claw.
• Jiang Sheng appeared behind Binmou and explained that Binmou's damaged True Spirit left his apparent strength deceptive.

Jiang Sheng battled the Tomb Guardian Beast while Binmou wrestled with suspicions about the Mystic Lord’s motives and ultimately warned Jiang Sheng that the beast was immune to ordinary attacks. Jiang Sheng enlarged his true form, struck the beast with the Judicial Heavenly Monarch Seal, and began condensing the forces of wind, thunder, water, and fire into a four-colored lotus.

• Jiang Sheng kept the Tomb Guardian Beast occupied while Xiangyu Immortal Monarch resumed the sacrifice to awaken the Ghost-God Diagram.
• Binmou questioned why the Mystic Lord had restored his true spirit and given him the seven demons’ hearts and seeds, then warned Jiang Sheng that the stone beast resisted spells and weapons.
• Jiang Sheng used Heavenly Law, Earthly Form to expand his body and fought the charging Tomb Guardian Beast with the powers of wind, thunder, water, and fire.
• Jiang Sheng empowered the Judicial Heavenly Monarch Seal with Mountain-Shaking Earth-Trembling and struck the beast, sending it tumbling hundreds of thousands of li.
• Jiang Sheng gathered wind, thunder, fire, and water in his hand until they harmonized into a slowly blooming eight-petaled lotus of azure, violet, scarlet, and deep black light.

Jiang Sheng and Binmou fought the Tomb Guardian Beast in the Netherworld, but the beast recovered some of its reason and proved far stronger than expected. As the beast cornered Jiang Sheng, he transformed his four-colored lotus into a wheel of the three calamities and final tribulation and prepared to strike.

• Jiang Sheng formed a four-colored lotus from wind, lightning, water, and fire to threaten the Tomb Guardian Beast, which recovered some reason and flew toward Binmou.
• Binmou unleashed the Seven Demon Netherfire, but the Tomb Guardian Beast charged through the flames and seized him.
• Jiang Sheng struck the Tomb Guardian Beast with the Judicial Heavenly Monarch Seal, and the clash sent devastating shock waves against the ghost gods' formation.
• The Tomb Guardian Beast held Jiang Sheng in a stalemate, used its Nether Vulture shriek to cloud Binmou's mind, and opened its jaws to attack Jiang Sheng.
• Jiang Sheng spun the lotus into a four-colored wheel of the three calamities and final tribulation, prompting Binmou to beg him not to harm the innocent.

Jiang Sheng drove off the Tomb Guardian Beast and, with Xiangyu Immortal Monarch, confronted Binmou before bringing him to Jinhua Mountain to hear his secret. Binmou revealed that Immortal Deities from the previous cosmic cycle might still survive and warned that a great calamity was coming to the Mountain Sea Realm.

• Jiang Sheng used the Four-Symbol Radiant Wheel to wound the Tomb Guardian Beast, which fled before the wheel's power destroyed it.
• Jiang Sheng confronted Binmou, and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch revealed the newly empowered Deity-Rank Ghost-God Diagram, forcing Binmou to cooperate.
• Jiang Sheng brought Binmou to Jinhua Mountain, where Binmou said he had seen an Immortal Deity from the previous cosmic cycle in both the Abyssal Ruins and the Netherworld.
• Binmou explained that he had discovered a Ghost-God Mausoleum containing the Lunar Void-Returning Form-Refinement Formation, which could preserve heavenly gods until they could return during a great calamity.
• Binmou identified the mausoleum's palace and connected the Qian and Yu Dynasty Ghost Emperors to the divine body in the Abyssal Ruins.
• Binmou warned Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch that a great calamity was rising and that a Ghost Emperor was preparing to return to the human world.

Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch prepared Jinhua Mountain and Azure Profound Temple for the approaching Great Calamity while deciding to use Binmou until he was no longer needed. In the Netherworld, Senluo Heavenly Son recognized that calamities suppressed for a hundred thousand years were nearing eruption and believed he was destined to unleash them.

• Jiang Sheng told Xiangyu Immortal Monarch that Binmou had come for a scheme in the Mountain-Sea Realm, but they would cooperate until the Great Calamity passed and then eliminate him.
• Jiang Sheng expanded Jinhua Mountain and increased resources for inner-court disciples, while Xiangyu Immortal Monarch rapidly enlarged Azure Profound Temple.
• Ghost-god clans across the Yu Dynasty and even the Qian Dynasty began placing their hopes on Jinhua Mountain and Azure Profound Temple as unrest approached.
• Calamity Aura spread through the Yellow Springs as the Netherworld absorbed foulness from the mortal world and the Abyssal Ruins.
• Senluo Heavenly Son sensed that a hundred thousand years of suppressed calamities were about to erupt across the Mountain-Sea Three Realms and declared that he seemed destined to unleash them.

The Qian Dynasty’s war against the Yu Dynasty unleashed Calamity Aura, destabilized the Netherworld, and spilled into the mortal world, where Jiang Sheng and Jinhua Mountain helped protect the surrounding lands. As the Yu Dynasty’s Universal Emperor traveled to Jinhua Mountain to support the coming Luotian Grand Offering, Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch planned to unite Jinhua Mountain with Azure Profound Temple.

• The Senluo Heavenly Son ordered the Qian Dynasty’s ghost-gods to invade the Yu Dynasty, and Calamity Aura corrupted the fighting until the Netherworld’s barrier with the mortal world shattered.
• Calamity Aura and ghost-gods spread into the mortal world, provoking raids by Rogue Cultivators, self-protective alliances among ghost-god Aristocratic Clans, and widespread unrest.
• Jiang Sheng directed Jinhua Mountain’s cultivators, aided by Azure Profound Temple’s ghost-gods, to stabilize the prefectures around Lingyou Prefecture.
• The Yu Dynasty’s Universal Emperor declared Jinhua Mountain a sacred ground and set out from the capital to offer sacrifices there and support the Luotian Grand Offering.
• Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch agreed that Azure Profound Temple should join Jinhua Mountain, with Daoist disciples choosing guardian heavenly gods and sharing their fortunes and dangers.

The Universal Emperor led a vast eastern procession to Jinhua Mountain, using its journey to burden local Aristocratic Clans and suppress their ambitions. After reaching Lingyou Prefecture, he entered Jinhua Mountain in a ceremonial carriage and met Jiang Sheng, who introduced himself as Lingyuan.

• The Universal Emperor read the annotated "Azure Yuan Talisman Scripture" and ordered Golden Cloud Prefecture's officials dismissed while raising its tribute after Rogue Cultivators attacked his procession.
• The Universal Emperor explained to a young prince that his tour was meant to drain local Aristocratic Clans of resources and keep them from rebelling against Great Yu.
• After more than a year of travel, the Universal Emperor learned that Jinhua Mountain had incorporated Azure Profound Temple and unified their temples, offerings, ghosts, and gods.
• The Universal Emperor praised Lingyou Prefecture's stability and Jinhua Mountain's splendor, then accepted the Great Sun Golden Ceremonial Carriage sent by True Lord Yuchen Lingyuan.
• The Universal Emperor left his officials and entourage to camp in Lingyou Prefecture and rode the ceremonial carriage into Jinhua Mountain.
• Jiang Sheng greeted the Universal Emperor outside Qingyang Cloud Palace and introduced himself as Lingyuan.

Jiang Sheng explained the nature of immortal blessed lands to the Universal Emperor, who revealed that he had come to Jinhua Mountain to escape the danger threatening the Yu Capital. The chapter left Jiang Sheng realizing that the Great Yu Ghost Dynasty in the Netherworld could no longer contain the crisis.

• Jiang Sheng served the Universal Emperor spiritual tea and fruit, which impressed the emperor with their purity and power.
• Jiang Sheng described the hierarchy of immortal realms and conjured a vision of an Immortal Deity’s celestial dwelling.
• Jiang Sheng asked whether the Netherworld ghost deities’ path offered a lasting solution, and the Universal Emperor silently recalled disturbances in the Netherworld and ancestral tombs.
• The Universal Emperor admitted that he had come to Jinhua Mountain to save his life because the Yu Capital was no longer safe.
• The Universal Emperor revealed that the Yu Capital was turning into a ghost capital and that ancestral tombs and imperial ancestral halls across Great Yu had developed problems.
• Jiang Sheng understood that the Great Yu Ghost Dynasty in the Netherworld could no longer hold on.

The Universal Emperor entrusted the Yu Dynasty’s subjects and soldiers to Jiang Sheng and issued edicts making Xuanmen the state religion and summoning officials to the Luotian Grand Offering. After years of preparation, Jiang Sheng and Shen Yao stood ready to begin the ceremony outside Jinhua Mountain.

• The Universal Emperor asked Jiang Sheng to protect him and the people gathered outside Jinhua Mountain, and Jiang Sheng agreed to shelter them and invite the emperor to the Luotian Grand Offering.
• The Universal Emperor bowed twice to Jiang Sheng, and the Yu Dynasty’s dragon qi settled over Jinhua Mountain and coiled around the Azure Sun Grotto-Heaven.
• The Universal Emperor issued edicts naming True Lord Yuchen Lingyuan Celestial Master Who Upholds Yang and establishing Xuanmen as the state religion, provoking outrage among officials left in the Yu Capital.
• Jiang Sheng oversaw the final preparations for the Luotian Grand Offering, which involved tens of thousands of cultivators, ghosts, gods, and people across the surrounding prefectures.
• Jiang Sheng recited the Wind-Water Concord True Scripture before Patriarch Qingyan’s portrait, then learned from Shen Yao that the ceremony’s preparations were complete.
• Shen Yao arrived at the completed thousand-li ritual grounds and invited Grand Unity Cavern-Truth True Lord Yuchen Ling Yuan to commence the rites.

Jiang Sheng began the Luotian Grand Offering, drawing on Jinhua Mountain’s cultivators and the surrounding people’s trust to gather human fate and restore the stars to the sky. As the ceremony continued, the Xuanming Senluo Celestial Emperor and the Purple Empyrean Emperor watched from the Netherworld and the Eastern Sea, while a Great Vehicle appeared above the ritual to guard Jiang Sheng.

• Jiang Sheng descended to the ritual ground and began ascending the Ninefold Mystic Platform as Jinhua Mountain’s cultivators chanted in unison.
• Jiang Sheng’s rite gathered the fate and devotion of people across the surrounding provinces, and the azure-black energy formed a true dragon that merged with his talisman.
• As Jiang Sheng climbed the platform, people throughout the region joined the chants, gathering human fate and causing the hidden stars to reappear in the sky.
• The Xuanming Senluo Celestial Emperor saw the celestial phenomenon and wondered whether the Busi Imperial Lord or Ling Yuan was behind a plan to restore the Heavenly Palace.
• The Purple Empyrean Emperor and the Black Shadow saw a Great Vehicle guarding Jiang Sheng from the heavens and decided not to interfere.

Jiang Sheng completed the Luotian Grand Offering as the Universal Emperor pledged Great Yu’s fortune and future emperors to Xuanmen, awakening the Mountain Sea Realm’s Heavenly Dao. The Talisman of No Taboos then summoned the Heavenly Venerable into the mortal world.

• Jiang Sheng ascended the eighth tier as ghost-gods and cultivators chanted, gathering incense qi and strengthening the Deity-Rank Ghost-God Diagram.
• The Universal Emperor traveled to the Mystic Platform, joined Jiang Sheng on the ninth tier, and stood with him before the Black-Yellow Jade Seal.
• Jiang Sheng invoked the Qingyan Heavenly Venerable, and the cultivators and ghost-gods gathered their power into a pillar of light.
• The Universal Emperor, Ji Zhang, bowed three times, recognized Xuanmen as Great Yu’s state religion, and pledged the dynasty’s fortune to the Black-Yellow Jade Seal.
• The Universal Emperor entrusted Jiang Sheng with advancing Xuanmen, and Jiang Sheng offered the Talisman of No Taboos and called for the Heavenly Venerable to descend.
• A Heavenly Venerable manifested amid heavenly radiance and descended into the Mountain Sea Realm.

Heavenly Venerable Qingyan projected himself into the Mountain Sea Realm and invested Xiangyu Immortal Monarch and Jiang Sheng with new offices to stabilize the Three Realms. After Qingyan vanished, the Xuanming Senluo Celestial Emperor and Emperor Lord Zixiao Tianyi decided his projection’s limited reach left their plans untouched, while Qingyan watched the realm from beyond it.

• The Xuanming Senluo Celestial Emperor and Emperor Lord Zixiao Tianyi sensed Heavenly Venerable Qingyan’s arrival and hid from his attention.
• Jiang Sheng welcomed Qingyan and asked him to invest gods on Heaven’s behalf, as billions of beings bowed before the Heavenly Venerable.
• Heavenly Venerable Qingyan restored the Laws of heaven and earth and appointed Xiangyu Immortal Monarch Great Emperor Xuanji Dongyang, granting him authority to govern the Heavenly Palace and invest ghosts and gods.
• Heavenly Venerable Qingyan appointed Jiang Sheng True Lord of Justice and Dao Protection of the Three Realms, then vanished from the Mountain Sea Realm.
• The Xuanming Senluo Celestial Emperor and Emperor Lord Zixiao Tianyi realized Qingyan had sent only a projection and concluded they could still pursue their plans.
• Beyond the Mountain Sea Realm, Heavenly Venerable Qingyan watched the Three Realms within their embryonic membrane and smiled.

An unknown figure silently watched the Mountain Sea Realm from Jiang Sheng’s bone boat before vanishing, frightening Binmou in the Netherworld. Meanwhile, Xiangyu Immortal Monarch began investing the ghost-gods and revealed that those entered into the Deity-Rank Ghost-God Diagram would gain immortal true spirits and could return even if their souls were scattered.

• An unknown figure watched the Mountain Sea Realm from Jiang Sheng’s bone boat, froze the surrounding Chaos, and disappeared with a chuckle.
• Binmou heard the chuckle in the Yellow Springs, summoned a white lotus, and trembled in fear.
• After Heavenly Venerable Qingyan completed the Investiture of the Gods, Jiang Sheng yielded the ritual’s final stage to Xiangyu Immortal Monarch.
• Xiangyu Immortal Monarch invested Gao Yan as East Heaven Jingyu True-Law Divine Lord with the rank of an azure decree and recorded his name in the Deity-Rank Ghost-God Diagram.
• Xiangyu Immortal Monarch promised that the diagram’s registered gods would enjoy eternal life and could return even after their souls were scattered, prompting the ghost-gods to give thanks.

Jiang Sheng and Xiangyu Immortal Monarch learned that the Yu Dynasty’s forces in the Netherworld had rapidly collapsed and feared its remnants would bring the war into the mortal world. They divided their response, with Xiangyu sending Gao Yan and Orthodox Gods to reinforce the Netherworld while Jiang Sheng set out to investigate the tombs and Yu Capital.

• Jiang Sheng welcomed Xiangyu Immortal Monarch to Qingyang Cloud Palace and served him tea after Xiangyu finished organizing Jinhua Mountain’s ghost-god system.
• Jiang Sheng told Xiangyu that Binmou had reported the Yu Dynasty’s forces in the Netherworld had collapsed on every front.
• Xiangyu and Jiang Sheng realized the abandoned Yu forces might turn to the Yu Capital and the prefectural tombs, potentially transforming the mortal world into a realm of ghosts.
• Xiangyu agreed to send Gao Yan and Orthodox Gods into the Netherworld to reinforce the Yu Dynasty’s battle lines and recruit abandoned ghost-gods.
• Jiang Sheng decided to inspect the tombs and Yu Capital, vowing to cut down anyone who tried to turn the mortal world into a realm of ghosts.

Jiang Sheng led Shen Yao, Anping, and He An to investigate the apparently empty Qishan Mausoleum and taught them to read its formations. Inside Emperor Su’s palace, they discovered that the pool concealed a reflection rather than his true body, while Shen Yao’s inexplicable familiarity with the mausoleum hinted at something beginning to take shape.

• Jiang Sheng explained how the Yu emperors had exploited prefectures and their ghost-and-god clans to build mausoleums, then challenged Shen Yao and the others to study Qishan Mountain’s terrain.
• Anping and He An observed that Qishan Mountain’s spiritual energy and dragon veins had been disrupted, suggesting the changes to Emperor Su’s mausoleum were part of a wider pattern.
• Jiang Sheng brought the group through the mountain into the mausoleum, where Shen Yao felt an unsettling familiarity with its halls and formations.
• Jiang Sheng explained that the pool was the key to Emperor Su’s whereabouts and that the Three-Yin Convergence Formation combined with the Water-Mist Moon-Hiding Formation to conceal the truth.
• Shen Yao realized the figure in the pool was only a reflection and exclaimed, “Flowers in the mirror, moon in the water,” as something ethereal began to take form in the unseen void.