Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yi destroyed a Sea Demon-orchestrated beast tide with his treasures, allowing the Fireseed to reach the deep East Sea unmolested. As the ship neared its destination, Zhang Yu rejected factional ambitions and continued pursuing a life as an electrician and student.

• Zhou Yi detected a massive beast tide ahead of the Fireseed, warned the passengers to return to their cabins, and prepared to fight.
• Zhou Yi used his treasures to slaughter wave after wave of sea beasts, while the Sea Demons called for reinforcements and then watched the survivors flee.
• Zhou Yi sent out the Myriad Souls Banner to consume the beasts' souls and corpses, and the Fireseed continued its voyage without further attacks.
• Six months later, Jiang Yong told Zhang Yu that President Niu had invited him to join the Cloud Province Society, and Zhang Yu advised him to be cautious as violence aboard the Fireseed increased.
• Jiang Yong urged Zhang Yu to establish his own faction, but Zhang Yu declined and left to study genetics with Professor Lu after pursuing electrical science.

Zhou Yi imposed brutal order aboard the Tinder, then settled its million passengers on a new island and departed. Han Chao returned to the Immortal Capital with evidence of the Bone Dragon Corpse Demon calamity, and Martial Saint Xiao recognized that its leader surpassed him.

• Zhou Yi ordered Luo Qiu to execute killers and expel bullies and other offenders from the Tinder, warning him not to use the purge to target rivals.
• After months of investigations and punishments, the Tinder reached a large island, where Zhou Yi disembarked its million passengers and had machines distributed to them.
• Zhou Yi confirmed that people had begun settling the island, then sailed west aboard the Tinder as the settlers watched it leave.
• Han Chao returned to the Immortal Capital and showed Martial Saint Xiao and the alliance's upper echelon recordings of the Bone Dragon Corpse Demon and its horde.
• Xiao Hong judged the ordinary corpse demons to be as strong as Foundation Establishment cultivators and said the Bone Mountain was stronger than him.

The Human Alliance learned that the Golden Corpse Demon Lord’s corpse demons threatened the Nine Provinces and ordered a retreat and preparations for invasion. Zhou Yi identified the Golden Corpse’s Immortal Corpse Pearl as the key to commanding the horde, while the Golden Corpse prepared to expand the Heavenly Corpse Sect across the provinces.

• Xiao Hong and the Alliance leaders reviewed Han Chao’s recording, identified the threat of the corpse demons, and activated their final plan.
• Golden Old Nine received orders to withdraw from Sky Fox Abyss, burn corpses, and defend Binhai, then obeyed after Marshal Yan warned that the dead must not be left for desecration.
• In Alliance Year 207, the Human Alliance fortified the Immortal Capital-Binhai line, while the Three Emperors died in Qiong Province and the Dragon Emperor fled.
• Ao Qin found the Dragon Race’s vaults empty, possessed a black fish with a natural Dao body, and began rebuilding his strength while vowing revenge on the Golden Corpse.
• Qingfeng and Mingyue brought Zhou Yi their recording, and he identified the Heavenly Corpse Sect’s Immortal Corpse Pearl as the source of the Golden Corpse’s power over the corpse demons.
• The Golden Corpse renamed Dragon Emperor Mountain the Heavenly Corpse Sect and ordered his Spirit Corpses to lead armies that would kill or recruit the living across the Nine Provinces.

A horde of corpse fiends overwhelmed Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple and spread across the Nine Provinces, forcing the Sky Wolf King and its Ferocious Beasts to seek refuge from the human army. At Dragon Coil Mountain, General Xu’s forces joined the demons to resist the advancing dead, then learned that millions more corpse fiends threatened the western front as the defenders vowed to hold the line.

• Bone Fiends and risen Ferocious Beasts overwhelmed Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, and the Lion Demon burned itself to death rather than become a corpse fiend.
• A Spirit Corpse arrived on a bone dragon, commanded the corpse fiends west, and unleashed a spreading war between the dead and the living.
• General Xu and Gu Chen learned that the Sky Wolf King and twenty-three demons were fleeing a corpse fiend army, and the Cabinet permitted them to take refuge outside the Northern Frontier Great Wall.
• The Sky Wolf King showed footage of corpse fiends consuming Ferocious Beasts and offered command of one hundred thousand beasts in exchange for shelter; General Xu agreed to let it enter human territory after the beasts died.
• The Northern Frontier Army joined the Ferocious Beasts in battle against the corpse fiends, then learned that more than ten million corpse fiends had appeared in the western section of Dragon Coil Mountain.
• General Xu and the officers pledged to hold the line to the death as reinforcements could not reach the western front soon.

The Alliance prepared to confront the spreading corpse fiends, and Zhou Yi returned from the East Sea to find the calamity already approaching Yun Province. After destroying a million corpse fiends, he tracked their mark to Zhengyang Abyss and confronted the Spirit Corpse Heavenly Baleful Intent.

• The Alliance’s leaders decided to contact the Dragon Emperor and prepare to strike at the Golden Corpse Demon Lord after corpse fiends attacked the Northern Frontier.
• Zhou Yi returned to Binhai aboard the Tinder vessel and learned that corpse fiends had appeared near the East Sea defense line.
• The Chief Minister asked Zhou Yi to hold the line against corpse fiends south of Binhai, and Zhou Yi flew there to investigate.
• Zhou Yi destroyed a million corpse fiends, discovered an ancient inscription marking Heavenly Baleful Intent, and divined its direction.
• Zhou Yi followed the trail to Zhengyang Abyss, entered the bone palace, and faced Heavenly Baleful Intent, who sensed his presence.

Zhou Yi confronted the Golden Corpse, who had lured him out to investigate his identity, and defeated the spirit corpse carrying the Devil Lord’s thought. After Zhou Yi tried to curse him, the Golden Corpse remained uncertain whether Zhou Yi was an ancient cultivator reincarnated or a genuine prodigy.

• Zhou Yi recognized the spirit corpse as the Golden Corpse and traded insults with him while the Devil Lord explained that he had arranged their meeting to investigate Zhou Yi’s origins.
• The Golden Corpse questioned how Zhou Yi had formed a Golden Core under the current world’s limits and suspected he had secretly aided Xiao Hong’s tribulation.
• Zhou Yi attacked with the Dividing Light Sword and sword formations, then used a tortoise-shell treasure and soul-binding divine light to destroy the spirit corpse and disperse the Golden Corpse’s thought.
• Zhou Yi gathered the thought’s remaining aura and cast the Black Witchcraft Curse, hoping to shorten the Golden Corpse’s life despite the slim odds.
• The Golden Corpse received the spirit corpse’s memories, rejected the idea that Zhou Yi was Jian Xuan, and analyzed his techniques and conduct for clues to his past identity.
• The Golden Corpse cleansed Zhou Yi’s curse and wondered whether Zhou Yi was truly a reincarnated cultivator or whether reincarnation existed.

Zhou Yi briefed his seven disciples on the difficulty of forming Golden Cores and pointed them toward Kunlun Grotto-Heaven, then helped Han Chao prepare to attempt tribulation. He joined Ao Qin and the Alliance leadership to discuss creating Azure Dragon Warriors, with Zhou Yi asked to assess the effects of dragon-blood serums.

• Zhou Yi told his disciples that thin spiritual energy made Golden Core formation difficult and identified Kunlun Grotto-Heaven and its Golden Scroll as a possible path to great opportunities.
• Zhou Yi instructed his disciples in cultivation and the Pseudo-Core realm, then gave Han Chao five core-forming spiritual objects and divined that he could attempt tribulation during the Double Ninth Festival.
• Han Chao revealed that his jade disc enabled enlightenment through sacrifices of demon beast and Ferocious Beast corpses, and Zhou Yi urged him to prepare carefully for tribulation.
• Zhou Yi met Ao Qin and the Chief Minister in the Inner Cabinet to discuss cooperation against corpse demons and the creation of Azure Dragon Warriors.
• Ao Qin proposed supplying dragon blood in exchange for monthly offerings of bloodline essence, and the Chief Minister asked Zhou Yi to evaluate the serums' effects on warriors' bodies and Spirit Souls.

Zhou Yi oversaw the dragon blood potion’s successful trial, while Han Chao passed his tribulation and became a Golden Core cultivator. As Dragon Blood Warriors multiplied, the Northern Frontier faced escalating corpse demon attacks amid growing signs that the alliance would need to unite with the demons.

• Zhou Yi agreed to inspect Ao Qin’s dragon blood potion and accepted a thousand jin of Azure Dragon Blood to begin cooperation.
• Han Chao used the jade disc and Ferocious Beast corpses to complete his tribulation, became a Golden Core cultivator, and received the Thunderfire Sword from Zhou Yi.
• Zhou Yi supervised the first dragon blood potion trial, in which thirty-nine of fifty soldiers succeeded, and the powerful subject Lin Lei impressed him in combat tests.
• The alliance developed the dragon blood potion, agreed that Dragon Blood Warriors would provide Azure Dragon blood essence, and recorded more than one hundred thousand warriors by the twelfth month of Alliance Year 209.
• At the Northern Frontier, General Xu and Gu Chen discussed the corpse demons’ advance and the need for cooperation as a horde attacked the Great Wall and was met with rockets and spiritual fire.

The human Alliance and Demon Race struggled to hold their defensive lines against the corpse demon onslaught while preparing for a longer war. Zhou Yi gave his students a final lesson before leaving with Xiao Hong, Han Chao, and Dragon Emperor Ao Qin to ambush the Golden Corpse Demon Lord in Qiong Province.

• General Xu and the Wolf King defended the Northern Frontier Great Wall against Blood Nether and his corpse demon army with annihilation weapons and mechanically modified Ferocious Beasts; Han Chao defeated Blood Nether, who fled after the Devil Lord took control.
• Corpse General attacks spread to the other defensive lines, and the human Alliance and Demon Race formally united as their resources dwindled.
• The Chief Minister announced that frontline supplies and laboratory resources would be cut by thirty percent to buy two years for a classified plan.
• Zhou Yi warned his students that they would soon face the battlefield, then gave them a final lesson on confronting what came and bade them farewell.
• Zhou Yi, Xiao Hong, Han Chao, and Dragon Emperor Ao Qin left for Qiong Province to ambush the Golden Corpse Demon Lord when a celestial anomaly weakened demons and monsters.

Zhou Yi and his allies trapped the Golden Corpse in a formation and fought him during a heavenly solar phenomenon, but the Devil Lord escaped after revealing his Bone Mountain form. Zhou Yi pursued him to the edge of Qiong Province, where the Golden Corpse brought out the Immortal Corpse Pearl.

• Zhou Yi distributed formation disks so Ao Qin, Han Chao, and Xiao Hong could seal off the area around Heavenly Corpse Mountain while he completed the formation.
• During the summer solstice, the enlarged sun burned away the demonic clouds as Zhou Yi activated the formation and his allies attacked the Golden Corpse.
• The Golden Corpse replaced himself with a Spirit Corpse, transformed into a massive Bone Mountain, and broke through the formation by detonating it.
• Zhou Yi pursued the fleeing Golden Corpse with the Blood Ignition Escape Technique, spending his lifespan as the devil deliberately slowed his escape.
• At the edge of Qiong Province, the Golden Corpse confronted the nearly spent Zhou Yi and produced the Immortal Corpse Pearl.

Zhou Yi defeated the Golden Corpse in battle by burning his lifespan, but learned that the Devil Lord had split his soul and possessed Han Chao through a companion treasure. With his life fading and the corpse demon calamity unresolved, Zhou Yi warned Xiao Hong and Ao Qin to prepare for the human race’s survival and explained the ancient events that had caused the disaster.

• Zhou Yi and the Golden Corpse fought for weeks, trading demonic arts, thunder, Buddhist power, and treasures until both unleashed secret arts to raise their strength.
• Zhou Yi broke the Immortal Corpse Core, but the Golden Corpse revealed that he had split his soul and that half had found a possession target before Zhou Yi killed him.
• Zhou Yi returned to Heavenly Corpse Mountain near death and learned that Han Chao had left to pursue him after handing the formation disk to the Dragon Emperor.
• Zhou Yi suspected the Golden Corpse had possessed Han Chao through his companion supreme treasure and warned Xiao Hong that the corpse demon calamity might grow worse.
• Zhou Yi explained that heaven and earth’s past interference in the Righteous-Demonic Sword Duel had helped cause the current calamity, then told Xiao Hong, "I am your ancestor!"

Zhou Yi left after revealing his connection to Dao Lord Xuanxiao, while Han Chao’s body remained possessed by the golden corpse, who sought the Corpse Immortal’s legacy. As the corpse demon army broke through the northern defenses and people fled the Nine Provinces, Zhou Yi secretly began destroying the region’s spirit veins.

• Zhou Yi told Xiao Hong that the Divine Fire Fan came from his tomb and entrusted him with Golden Core spiritual treasures, then asked Ao Qin to keep the Sea Demons from obstructing the human migration east.
• The golden corpse revealed that Han Chao’s jade disc had been formed from a Corpse Immortal’s skull and planned to conquer the Nine Provinces and reach the Void Return Realm.
• The corpse demon war exhausted the Alliance’s supplies, forced General Xu to order successive retreats, and ended with the Dragon Coil Mountain defenses collapsing.
• After news of the northern frontier’s fall spread, crowds packed ships at the harbor, including the Tinder, to flee the Nine Provinces.
• Zhou Yi emerged at the former Ghost King Sect site in Qiong Province and destroyed its newly formed spirit vein, marking it as the seventy-second vein he had severed.

Zhou Yi continued destroying spirit veins across the Nine Provinces, prompting the Golden Corpse to seek a way to stop him. After Zhou Yi divined a looming blood calamity and hid overseas, he returned to the Nine Provinces when no attack appeared.

• Zhou Yi destroyed spirit veins across Qiong Province, while the Golden Corpse learned that spiritual qi was dwindling and ordered an investigation.
• Zhou Yi escaped a massive corpse-demon formation and continued severing spirit veins across the Nine Provinces, evading the Golden Corpse's attempts to trap him.
• The Golden Corpse and Han Chao discussed releasing the seal on the Immortal Corpse Pearl to blanket the Nine Provinces in corpse qi and overcome Zhou Yi's defenses.
• After destroying a spirit vein in Yun Province, Zhou Yi divined a blood calamity within sixty-three days and fled across the East Sea.
• Zhou Yi hid inside Kunlun Grotto-Heaven behind layers of defenses, waited for several months without incident, and returned toward the Nine Provinces.

Zhou Yi surveyed the Nine Provinces’ corpse-qi barrier, learned from Ao Qin that the Ancient Demon Saint had reached another continent by flying west from Hong Mountain, and accepted Xiao Hong’s Divine Fire Fan in exchange for protecting humanity. After Xiao Hong and Ao Qin died, Zhou Yi left the East Sea and reached Hong Mountain, preparing to cross the Western Sea.

• Zhou Yi found that corpse qi engulfed the Nine Provinces and concluded that the Immortal Corpse Pearl had been unsealed.
• Ao Qin told Zhou Yi that the Ancient Demon Saint had traveled west from Hong Mountain in Buddha Province to find another continent.
• Xiao Hong gave Zhou Yi the Divine Fire Fan and asked him to protect humanity after his death.
• A hundred years later, Xiao Hong died, and Zhou Yi took the Divine Fire Fan; a month later, Ao Qin also died.
• Zhou Yi saw that Kindling Island’s people had fallen into war, then traveled west to Hong Mountain and set out toward the other continent.

After more than three thousand years crossing the sea, Zhou Yi found Divine Continent, investigated its ancient divine settlers, and continued northwest toward the overseas continent. He finally reached the Eastern Divine Continent, where he sensed abundant spiritual qi and met a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator.

• Zhou Yi spent centuries sailing, recording the endless sea, and reflecting on the distant journey while Qingfeng, Mingyue, and the Spirit Ginseng Child accompanied him.
• After a thousand years, Zhou Yi found Divine Continent, studied its histories, and traced its people’s origins to seventy-two divine beings who had descended from beyond the heavens.
• Zhou Yi searched the descendants’ tombs for ancient records, became a legendary tomb-raiding commander, and left Divine Continent sailing northwest toward the overseas continent.
• More than four hundred years after leaving Divine Continent, Zhou Yi mourned Qingfeng and Mingyue, whose trees had withered, and promised the Spirit Ginseng Child that he would remember its wish not to be revived through Nirvana Art.
• Zhou Yi reached mountains beyond the sea, sensed spiritual qi and a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator, and learned that the land was Mount Qiwu of the Eastern Divine Continent.

Zhou Yi investigated the Eastern Divine Continent, settled in Linyang County as a tavern keeper, and spent twenty years learning how its mortal and divine authorities operated. As drought, famine, and locusts devastated the county, he questioned why the immortals had not helped and went to the Land God Temple, where Master Huang claimed the court’s grain would soon restore order.

• Zhou Yi learned that Mount Qi Wu was ruled by a powerful demon emperor and fled before investigating further.
• Zhou Yi learned about Great Heng Dynasty and Linyang County’s gods, then opened Yu Jian Tavern and began observing the Land God.
• Zhou Yi entered the county’s Yellow Register under the alias Zhu Gang and learned how the court and City God tracked the population.
• Zhou Yi learned that Cloudreach River Lord had demanded child sacrifices during a drought, while the Land God had fought him without ending the famine.
• After a locust plague left refugees starving, Zhou Yi brought wine to the Land God Temple and asked Master Huang for a protective talisman.
• Master Huang took Zhou Yi’s payment but said the court had delivered grain and the county would soon be peaceful.

Zhou Yi investigated the Land God’s dealings with the Locust God, then used a curse to kill Red Luo and later recovered his cultivation treasures. Discovering that Wish Power Pearls could greatly aid cultivation breakthroughs, he left with a new understanding of how the Divine Path supported the Eastern Divine Continent’s cultivators.

• Zhou Yi learned that the Land God and Red Luo secretly cooperated to stage disasters and divide the offerings they collected from frightened villagers.
• Zhou Yi’s miniature mana avatar followed the wounded Red Luo and used Black Witchcraft Curse to drain his lifespan until he died.
• Zhou Yi waited two years before retrieving Red Luo’s belongings, which a bandit had hidden after entering the cave and burning the corpse.
• Zhou Yi examined Red Luo’s cultivation manuals and discovered Wish Power Pearls, condensed prayer power that could strengthen cultivation and improve breakthroughs.
• Zhou Yi concluded that the Divine Path’s prayer-power techniques supplemented the Path of Immortality and departed to continue his cautious cultivation.

As a plague spread through Linyang County, Zhou Yi recognized it as an evil art the dying Land God had unleashed to gather prayer power and secure a divine promotion. While the Land God distributed healing talismans, Zhou Yi put a plan in motion involving a fortunate orphan named Lin.

• Zhou Yi spotted black qi infecting people at Xiao Xiang House and suspected the Land God had spread a plague to gather Wish Power Pearls.
• Four years later, the plague devastated Linyang, and the Land God began distributing talismans that healed the afflicted in exchange for worship.
• Magistrate Zhao decided to withdraw his men and avoid interfering, believing the Land God was risking everything to buy a position as an underworld judge.
• Zhou Yi saw that the plague had won the Land God more gratitude than genuine faith and concluded that repeated disasters had worn down the people’s devotion.
• Zhou Yi found a dying orphan with a Heavenly Spirit Root and sent the Spirit Ginseng Child to approach him as the green snake he had once saved.

Lin Heng learned that the Land God had caused the plague and other disasters to harvest prayer power, then set out to seek justice through the imperial court. As Zhou Yi considered how to take control of Linyang’s divine positions, Imperial Inspectorate Administrator Jin Yangzi arrived to investigate the Land God.

• The Spirit Ginseng Child healed Lin Heng, gave him a bell to summon her, and later revealed that the Land God had caused disasters for prayer power.
• The people of Linyang mourned the Land God’s impending departure, while Magistrate Zhao suspected the authorities planned to let the god prosper before seizing his gains.
• Lin Heng reached Foundation Establishment, learned the truth about the Land God, and decided to report him to the court rather than attack him himself.
• Zhou Yi considered taking the Land God or Mountain God position and used the Supreme Clarity Talisman to conceal himself when a powerful divine sense swept through Linyang.
• Jin Yangzi announced that he had come by imperial decree to investigate the Land God for abusing his powers and poisoning the people, then demanded that the god appear.

Jin Yangzi investigated the Land God of Linyang for causing disasters and extorting the people, but used the inquiry to extort him before executing him. After the Land God’s soul dispersed, Zhao Tai arrived and presented evidence and Wish Power Pearls against him.

• Master Huang planned to increase offerings by claiming they would raise Yin Virtue, but the Inspectorate’s announcement frightened the worshippers away.
• The Land God met Jin Yangzi at the temple and offered him Wish Power Pearls in hopes of avoiding an investigation.
• Jin Yangzi accepted the bribes, then forced the Land God to open his Spirit Soul and confirmed his crimes.
• As Jin Yangzi escorted him away, the Land God’s dharma sword struck Jin Yangzi, who killed him and left his Spirit Soul barely intact.
• Jin Yangzi revealed that the complainant was a Foundation Establishment cultivator trained by the Mount Wu God and a newly accepted disciple of the capital’s City God, causing the Land God’s remnant soul to disperse.
• Zhao Tai, magistrate of Linyang County and disciple of the Left Censor, arrived and offered Wish Power Pearls gained through the Land God’s abuses as evidence.