Chapter Summaries

Bodhisattva Mingji's Twelve Heavens Glazed Dharma failed to stop the chanting rising from the Scripture Pavilion. Bodhisattva Lingshu identified the awakening presence as a pure yang Buddha Fiend, leaving Mingji facing a threat that could consume Buddhist power.

• Bodhisattva Mingji summoned twelve Bodhisattva Dharma Images and unleashed the Twelve Heavens Glazed Dharma over Great Lingyin Temple.
• Wujue remarked that Mingji had used his powerful Buddhist art in the wrong place as chanting began within the destroyed Scripture Pavilion.
• The chanting swelled into countless voices as a terrifying presence began awakening and returning from the past.
• Bodhisattva Lingshu warned Mingji that Buddhist arts could not harm the presence and identified it as a Buddha Fiend.
• Bodhisattva Mingji realized the Scripture Pavilion's Buddha Fiend was pure yang because it could devour Buddhist light and magical power.

Azure Dragon, Zhenjiu, and their companions safely took the Buddhist Treasure and escaped the Great Lingyin Temple with Wujue’s help. In Jiuyou World, True Monarch Guanghan discussed the Buddhist Sect’s lost Glazed Path and warned that its weakened state could bring the Buddhist Calamity early, as the Ancestral World’s return drew the heavens toward the Three Realms.

• Wujue guided Azure Dragon, Zhenjiu, and their companions out of the Great Lingyin Temple without being detected, and they took the Buddhist Treasure safely.
• Profound Lord Zizai and the Human-Skin Buddha Emperor recalled Wujue’s and the Buddha Emperor’s former identities as Bodhisattvas and lamented the lost ten-supreme Glazed Path.
• Meng Hua Yuanjun told True Monarch Guanghan that Puhua Bodhisattva had sent someone to seek her help in fighting Jinjue Buddha.
• True Monarch Guanghan compared the Buddhist Sect’s former strength with its present divisions and argued that Jinjue Buddha’s forced unification had left its lineages estranged.
• True Monarch Guanghan concluded that the Xuanmen Great Calamity was part of an irreversible tide toward the Ancestral World’s return and that further calamities would draw the remaining worlds into the Three Realms.

Puhua Bodhisattva refused Jinjue Buddha’s effort to unite the Buddhist Sect, while Lingjue Bodhisattva and Lingding Arhat learned that a Buddha Fiend had trapped two monks and badly injured four others at the Great Lingyin Temple. With the temple’s senior leaders incapacitated and Jinjue absent, Fahui took command as they awaited Mingxian Bodhisattva and Bodhisattva Zhenque.

• Puhua Bodhisattva rejected Lingjue Bodhisattva’s plea to join the Buddhist Sect tournament and declared he would never submit to Jinjue Buddha.
• Lingjue Bodhisattva and Lingding Arhat reported that their efforts to persuade other Buddhist leaders had failed, then learned a Buddha Fiend had appeared in the Great Lingyin Temple’s Scripture Pavilion.
• Lingding Arhat told Lingjue Bodhisattva that Mingqing, Lingming, Lingchen, and Lingxi were seriously injured, while Mingji and Lingshu were trapped in the no-past illusory realm.
• Lingjue Bodhisattva rushed back to the Great Lingyin Temple as Mingqing told Fahui to maintain the temple’s defenses until Mingxian Bodhisattva and Bodhisattva Zhenque returned.
• Mingqing, Lingming, Lingchen, and Lingxi gave Fahui authority over the temple, and Fahui calmed its Venerables and King Mings by ordering them to return to their posts.

After learning that a powerful Buddha Fiend had attacked the Great Lingyin Temple, Mingxian Bodhisattva returned to face the threat. He reached the Scripture Pavilion and recognized the strange decay surrounding it as Dust of Years, the Realm Without a Past.

• Mingxian Bodhisattva concluded tense negotiations with Daoist Lord Juehua and learned from Bodhisattva Zhenque that the Great Lingyin Temple was under attack.
• Mingxian Bodhisattva and Bodhisattva Zhenque used the Western Heaven Gate to return to the Great Lingyin Temple, where Fahui had kept the temple calm and orderly.
• Mingxian Bodhisattva visited the injured Mingqing, Lingming, Lingxi, and Lingchen, then said he would investigate the Scripture Pavilion where Mingji and Lingshu were trapped.
• Mingxian Bodhisattva went to the Scripture Pavilion and sensed an ancient, decaying presence, identifying it as Dust of Years, the Realm Without a Past.

Mingxian Bodhisattva entered the Scripture Pavilion to rescue Mingji and Lingshu from the realm without a past, but a hidden Buddha Fiend trapped the pavilion between past and present. After escaping an attack that nearly cost him his arm and part of his Dao Fruit, Mingxian Bodhisattva hesitated as the Buddha Fiend remained concealed and a seated Buddha smiled within the past.

• Mingxian Bodhisattva entered the decayed Scripture Pavilion and burned away the souls that emerged from its broken statues with his wisdom light.
• Mingxian Bodhisattva used the Bodhi Wisdom Method to illuminate the Scripture Pavilions across spacetime and reached into the past to retrieve the pavilion and rescue Mingji and Lingshu.
• The hidden Buddha Fiend trapped Mingxian Bodhisattva's hand in the past and caused lamps throughout spacetime to drain his magical power, essence, qi, and spirit.
• Mingxian Bodhisattva summoned the Twelve Wisdom-Heart Swords, severed the links between past and present, and withdrew his arm before burning away its marks of the past.
• Mingxian Bodhisattva hesitated over whether to retreat as the Buddha Fiend remained hidden, while a Buddha seated upon a Lotus Throne smiled within the past.

A Buddha in the realm without a past sent more than a hundred Pure Yang Buddha Fiends to seize Mingxian Bodhisattva, who was trapped and overwhelmed in the Scripture Pavilion. As Zhenque sought help at the Great Lingyin Temple, the Great Sun Buddha appeared to answer her call.

• The Buddha in the realm without a past declared that Mingxian belonged to the past and ordered the Bodhisattvas and Arhats to bring him back.
• More than a hundred Pure Yang Buddha Fiends attacked Mingxian Bodhisattva in the Scripture Pavilion, binding him with the power of the past and driving him toward defeat.
• Bodhisattva Zhenque saw that the Buddha Bead entrusted by Mingxian was nearly dark and grew anxious about his fate.
• After receiving a message on her Buddhist Communication Disc, Zhenque went to the Great Spirit Tone Hall and asked the Great Sun Buddha to suppress Buddhism's enemy.
• The Great Sun Buddha appeared above the Great Lingyin Temple, and Mingqing, Lingming, and the other Bodhisattvas and Arhats sensed his vast Dharma power.

Jinjue Buddha projected his power through Shakyamuni Bodhi Great Sun Buddha to rescue Mingxian Bodhisattva and suppress the Buddha Fiends threatening the Great Lingyin Temple. He sealed the half-Buddha back in the past within ten breaths, then his projection vanished, leaving Mingxian safe in the restored Scripture Pavilion.

• Zhenque awakened Shakyamuni Bodhi Great Sun Buddha, whose golden-crimson flames destroyed the Buddha Fiends and restored the Scripture Pavilion to the present.
• Jinjue Buddha told Lingjue Bodhisattva and Lingding Arhat that he had sealed the Buddha Fiends in the past and could project his power back to the temple for ten breaths.
• Shakyamuni Bodhi Great Sun Buddha explained that a half-Buddha had escaped his seals and was trying to enter the present.
• The half-Buddha tore open a passage from the past, but Shakyamuni Bodhi Great Sun Buddha used karma and destiny to close it and seal him back onto his Lotus Throne.
• Shakyamuni Bodhi Great Sun Buddha's projection dissolved, and Mingxian Bodhisattva bowed farewell to the World-Honored One.

Jinjue Buddha returned to the Great Lingyin Temple and explained the origins of the Buddha Fiends before expounding a scripture that restored and strengthened the temple and the Xijue Hezhou Continent. He named it the Bodhi Daka Sutra of the Present World and invited beings from all worlds to come to Spirit Mountain to receive it.

• Jinjue Buddha returned to the Great Lingyin Temple with Lingjue Bodhisattva and Lingding Arhat, where the assembled clergy welcomed him.
• Jinjue Buddha recounted how he united the Buddhist lineages of Hengsha World and sealed the Buddha Fiends in the Scripture Pavilion rather than destroy them.
• Mingxian Bodhisattva asked how Buddhist disciples could protect themselves from the Buddha Fiends, and Jinjue Buddha promised to transmit a true scripture.
• Jinjue Buddha expounded the Three-Ages Suppression, restoring the Novice Monks and elderly monk and advancing the cultivation and understanding of the temple’s clergy.
• Jinjue Buddha taught for three hundred days, blessing the Great Lingyin Temple and countless beings across Xijue Hezhou Continent.
• Mingxian Bodhisattva asked what other worlds should do, and Jinjue Buddha invited them to Spirit Mountain to request the Bodhi Daka Sutra of the Present World.

At the Great Lingyin Temple, Jinjue Buddha rejected calls to punish Ao Jin and the other impostors, blaming the temple’s treatment of the fleeing Bodhisattvas for the crisis and ordering the innocents released. Venerable Fahui escorted Ao Jin toward the East Sea, while Jiang Sheng set out to meet him and learn why the Buddhist Sect’s foremost figure had come.

• Lingxi Arhat and several Bodhisattvas demanded that Ao Jin, a macaque, a vulture, and a lion be punished for helping Zhenlong and the others escape.
• Jinjue Buddha reminded the assembly to show compassion and forgiveness, and said the temple’s contempt for Zhenlong and the others had helped cause their departure and the Buddha Fiend uprising.
• Jinjue Buddha ordered the four released; the macaque, vulture, and lion chose to stay, while Ao Jin was told to return to the East Sea with Venerable Fahui.
• At the Western Heaven Gate, Fahui explained that Ao Jin had been deceived into serving as a substitute and escorted her through the Heavenly Court toward the East Sea.
• After learning that Fahui was bringing Ao Jin back, Jiang Sheng decided to meet him in person and traveled toward the Eastern Victory Divine Continent.

Fahui escorted Ao Jin to the Penglai Estate in Eastern Victory Divine Continent, where Jiang Sheng tested Fahui with a sword strike that ended in a draw. Jiang Sheng welcomed them and heard how Ao Jin had been used as an impostor Bodhisattva at the Great Lingyin Temple, while Fahui revealed that the Azure Dragon Ancestor had also been there.

• Fahui brought Ao Jin to the Penglai Estate to meet its host before escorting her home.
• Jiang Sheng and Fahui exchanged a sword aura and a Buddhist palm, and their powers dissipated without either gaining the upper hand.
• Jiang Sheng welcomed Fahui and Ao Jin to Little Inquiry Immortal Peak and served them Mist-Suspended Empty Tea.
• Fahui explained that the Great Lingyin Temple had erased Ao Jin's memories, implanted a Buddhist fruition, and placed her on a lotus throne as the Chaste Dragon Bodhisattva.
• Jiang Sheng noted that East Heaven had been searching for the Azure Dragon Ancestor, and Fahui admitted that the ancestor had been at the Great Lingyin Temple.

Daoist Lord Xuanming let slip that Penglai’s elders were occupied with major tasks, leaving Jiang Sheng to wonder what Patriarch Weiyu was doing in Chaos. As the Six Sects Grand Competition approached, the sect representatives finalized its events and rules, and the sects began preparing their disciples.

• Daoist Lord Xuanming told Jiang Sheng that Penglai’s Pure Yang Realm elders were busy, then departed before Jiang Sheng could learn more about Patriarch Weiyu’s work in Chaos.
• Representatives of the Xuanmen Six Sects gathered at the Heavenly Court to arrange the upcoming competition, with True Lord Yuanlin representing Penglai and Fuyun Immortal Monarch representing the Zhenxiao Dao Sect.
• The representatives agreed to include pill refining, talisman crafting, artifact refining, formation demonstrations, and combat, with changing conditions and no fixed arena for some events.
• The overseers finalized the competition procedures and sent the rules to their sects, which assigned participants and began preparations.
• Fuyun Immortal Monarch told True Lord Xiaogong that every sect would rehearse despite the earlier promise to keep arrangements secret.

Penglai sent its hundred top disciples to the Six Sects Grand Competition with an elaborate farewell ceremony, while Lingwei and Lin Fan speculated about Jiang Sheng’s absence. On the journey across the East Sea, the disciples prepared for the contest, and Zhou Huo noticed a strange, colorful light approaching the Dharma Boat.

• Lingwei addressed Penglai’s hundred competitors as elders offered them wine, and the disciples drank before boarding the Dharma Boat with Ling Yu, Lingyan, Lingxuan, and the elders.
• Lingwei and Lin Fan watched the boat depart and wondered whether Jiang Sheng was helping organize the competition.
• Ling Yu steered the Dharma Boat toward the East Sea venue as the competitors rested, trained, and prepared their equipment.
• Zhou Huo questioned Qian Yun about his enormous stockpile of explosive talismans, and Qian Yun explained that he relied on them to strengthen his combat ability.
• Zhou Huo spotted a colorful radiant light outside the Dharma Boat and realized that it was drawing closer.

Zhou Huo and the disciples of Penglai, Qinghua, and Tianhe were ambushed at sea by devastating attacks that killed or scattered their True Lords and disciples. Zhou Huo survived the void turbulence but woke alone in a forest with little spiritual energy, no working communication talisman, and no identity token.

• Zhou Huo warned Ling Yu of an incoming attack, but the azure-blue rainbow shattered her Dharma Image, gravely wounded her, and destroyed the Penglai Dharma Boat.
• Penglai’s disciples used their treasures and abilities to survive the wreckage, but a silver-white light swept Lingyan into the void turbulence and the azure-blue rainbow pierced Lingxuan.
• The void turbulence swallowed Zhou Huo and the other Penglai disciples, while attacks also devastated the Qinghua and Tianhe expeditions and killed their True Lords.
• Meng Yi charged the crimson rainbow to protect the Qinghua disciples’ retreat, and the Tianhe disciples’ escape from a killing formation ended when void turbulence engulfed them.
• Zhou Huo woke in a mountain forest wearing his damaged Azure Lotus Cloudsea Dharma Robe and found his Communication Jade Talisman broken and his identity token missing.

Xuanji and the other leaders of the East Heaven sects were ambushed by Jiang Sheng and rescued, then learned that the Six Sects Grand Competition was a staged trial designed to test the disciples under battlefield-like danger. The chapter revealed that the patriarchs had secretly arranged the attacks to prepare East Heaven’s next generation for the coming Buddhist Calamity.

• Jiang Sheng attacked the three East Heaven parties, grievously wounded their leaders, and swept the disciples into the void storm.
• Xuanji recognized Jiang Sheng as the attacker before Jiang Sheng gathered all nine leaders and took them to the Nine-Heaven Origin Mechanism Pool to recover.
• Daoist Lord Junming and Daoist Lord Xuanming explained to Xuanji that the competition had begun when the parties left their sects and was meant to test the disciples’ conduct and resolve in danger.
• Daoist Lord Xuanming told Jiang Sheng that the Pure Yang cultivators had secretly designed the competition and given the sects a false itinerary.
• Daoist Lord Xuanming and Daoist Lord Dejing tasked Jiang Sheng with ambushing the sect parties, testing their vigilance and awakening them before calamity returned.

After an attack on the Six Sects Grand Competition delegation stranded its survivors in a strange world, scattered disciples from several sects struggled to regroup and find a way to contact home. The chapter ended as Xie Liuxin explored a mist-shrouded stone forest and an unseen attacker struck at two Yaochi Sacred Land disciples.

• Hu Yan and Sun He sheltered in a cave, injured and without supplies, and planned to repair their Communication Jade Talismans to contact the Chixiao Dao Sect.
• Xu Xiao and Xu Xiang traveled through the forest and chose a dead ancient tree as a temporary shelter after Xiao Qing reported the area was safe.
• Meng Yi awoke beside He Jinnian and Shang Qian'ge, learned they had survived the void turbulence, and sent them to search for the other disciples.
• Xie Liuxin cautiously explored the Misty Stone Forest, where the mist and terrain restricted his spiritual sense.
• Two Yaochi Sacred Land disciples searched the stone forest together, and a sword suddenly pierced the mist as an unseen voice called for an attack.

Xie Liuxin fought Bai Li and her junior sisters, Yang Yirong and Yaoxing, in the trial grounds before they recognized each other as cultivators from the Tianhe Dao Sect and Yaochi Sacred Land. The injured True Lords watched the Six Sects Grand Competition from the heavenly realm as Xie Liuxin began to suspect that cultivators from several sects had been attacked and brought there.

• Bai Li, Yang Yirong, and Yaoxing sprang their trap on an attacker, but Xie Liuxin's sword light overwhelmed their defenses.
• Xie Liuxin recognized the Yaochi Sacred Land's sword-wheel techniques, and Bai Li identified his sword arts as those of the Tianhe Dao Sect.
• Bai Li introduced herself and her junior sisters, and Xie Liuxin revealed his identity and praised their coordinated ambush.
• Bai Li told Xie Liuxin that they had arrived after being attacked and had encountered no other cultivators.
• Xie Liuxin reasoned that members of several sects might have been attacked and brought to the realm, while eighteen injured True Lords watched the competition from two Nine-Heaven Origin Mechanism Pools.

The Xuanmen Six Sects’ Grand Competition began in a sealed Trial World where six hundred disciples faced a lethal test against demons drawn from the Heavenly Abysses. As the seals weakened and the demons prepared to emerge, the watching elders explained that the trial was meant to prepare future True Disciples for their duty to guard the Three Realms.

• The six sects’ disciples were scattered across more than a hundred regions inside a hidden Trial World while their elders watched from outside.
• Xuanjing Immortal Monarch explained that the disciples had few supplies and would soon face demons as the seals beneath the world weakened.
• True Lord Nanyi and Fairy Xiao Yuan recognized the imprisoned demons as fiends born from the Abyssal Ruins’ accumulated corruption and desire.
• The elders explained that the Three Realms’ powers could not eradicate demons, so they periodically released and purged their hordes to prevent a greater calamity.
• The elders had deliberately brought demons into the Trial World to test the disciples in real combat and prepare them for their mandatory duty to guard a Heavenly Abyss.

Xuanjing Immortal Monarch and Yuzhen Immortal Monarch escalated a wager over whether Tianhe or Yaochi’s disciples would kill more fiends and suffer fewer deaths. They staked eight and five Medium Thousand Worlds respectively, leaving the assembled sect leaders stunned as the trial’s fiends had yet to emerge.

• Xuanjing Immortal Monarch challenged Yuzhen Immortal Monarch to wager on whether Xie Liuxin or Bai Li’s trio would kill more fiends.
• Yuzhen Immortal Monarch broadened the wager to compare the disciples of Tianhe and Yaochi across twenty-three regions, counting fiend kills and deaths.
• Fairy Ningzhi and Fairy Quedi staked Yaochi gilded sands and jade pool golden flowers, prompting True Lord Zhaoye and True Lord Zhaohong to stake Tianhe Renchen iron and Eight-Turn Golden Pills.
• Xuanjing Immortal Monarch accepted Yuzhen Immortal Monarch’s wager and staked eight Medium Thousand Worlds against her five.
• Fuyun Immortal Monarch lamented that he lacked the resources to open a betting pool while Younger Brother Lingyuan was absent.

Beside the Nine-Heaven Origin Mechanism Pool, Lin Fan told Ling Qiu about the enormous wager between Yuzhen Immortal Monarch and Xuanjing Immortal Monarch. He explained that their feud began a thousand years ago during the Xuanmen Great Calamity, when a clash between their disciples drew the two immortals into lasting conflict.

• Lin Fan received news from True Lord Yuming that Yuzhen Immortal Monarch and Xuanjing Immortal Monarch had wagered a fortune on the Six Sects' contest.
• Lin Fan showed the secret message to Ling Qiu and warned her not to tell anyone else.
• Ling Qiu asked why the two allied immortal monarchs had made such a large wager, and Lin Fan described their sects' alliances in the East Heaven.
• Lin Fan revealed that a thousand years earlier, during the Xuanmen Great Calamity, a conflict between the immortals' disciples had started their enduring feud.

Qin Yan, Hu Yan, and their companions defeated a Three-Eyed Black Crow, then faced an onslaught of unnatural insects. Elsewhere, Bai Li and Xie Liuxin fought a Monstrous Tiger and an endless horde of monsters before discovering demonic fiends emerging from the world's Abyssal Ruins.

• Qin Yan lured the Three-Eyed Black Crow into revealing itself, and Hu Yan killed it with his Red Fire Gilt Shuttle.
• Sun He raised a wall of fire against a swarm of unnatural black insects, and the group recognized that evil spirits were behind the attack.
• Bai Li sent Yang Yirong and Yaoxing back, then used her Sword Wheels to behead the giant Monstrous Tiger.
• Bai Li and Xie Liuxin battled waves of bloodless monsters, with Xie Liuxin's sword light saving Bai Li when she began to tire.
• Xie Liuxin razed the forest, but the earth split open and demonic fiends began crawling out of the Abyssal Ruins.