Chapter Summaries

Chen Tang agreed to let Eunuch Feng bring poor families’ castrated children to the New Xiang Imperial Capital and asked the Eastern Depot to gather intelligence, while describing his plans for a new dynasty founded on academies and merit. Eunuch Feng exposed Bai Sihai and Yan Shuangtian’s attempt to kill him, defeated them, and declared that the Eastern Depot would serve against the Twelve Noble Families.

• Chen Tang rejected the Eastern Depot’s traditional role but agreed to give the children Eunuch Feng had taken in a future in the imperial capital.
• Chen Tang explained that the new dynasty needed academies, broader access to cultivation, and officials selected by merit and virtue.
• Eunuch Feng returned to Bluestone Alley and summoned Eastern Depot experts and forces to support Chen Tang.
• Bai Sihai and Yan Shuangtian arrived, claimed they had come to punish Eunuch Feng, and attacked him with transformations from the Great Sun Spirit Treasure True Scripture.
• Eunuch Feng recognized the scripture’s flaw, reversed its power, and refined Yan Shuangtian into a horsetail whisk and Bai Sihai into a jade pendant.
• Eunuch Feng resolved that the Eastern Depot would help oppose the Twelve Noble Families.

Chen Tang rejected the Fei family's offer to support Chen Shi in exchange for preserving their status, then fought his way out of their underworld trap. After surviving further noble-family assassinations, he returned to Imperial City on the eighth day of the ninth month, where the city’s chrysanthemum decorations and an ancient poem heralded coming upheaval.

• Chen Tang met Fei Jiu, the former head of the Fei family, who offered the family’s forces to Chen Shi in return for keeping its current status; Chen Tang refused.
• Fei Jiu attacked Chen Tang and trapped him in the underworld with the Fei family’s ghost and god armies, but Chen Tang fought through the encirclement and escaped after gravely wounding Fei Jiu.
• Chen Tang survived more attacks by noble families while searching for capable and loyal generals, and began carrying a wooden box wherever he went.
• On the eighth day of the ninth month in the 6648th year of Jiajing, Chen Tang returned to Xinxiang, now called Imperial City, which was decorated with chrysanthemums and lanterns.
• Chen Tang recited an ancient poem about chrysanthemums and declared that the unchanged sky would soon change.

As New Xiang prepared for Chen Shi’s enthronement, Yang Bi proposed using the ceremony as bait while the imperial forces attacked the Twelve Noble Families, and Chen Shi gave him command of the campaign. Chen Shi remained worried about the Heavenly Venerate, while Wu Qi’s recovery continued and the Grand Libationer revealed Chu Feng’s potential to corrupt true gods; the enthronement was set for the third day of the tenth lunar month, an inauspicious day for war.

• Chen Tang visited the newly established offices and temples in the imperial capital before joining Chen Shi and the others to debate how to face the Twelve Noble Families.
• Yang Bi proposed drawing the Twelve Noble Families to attack Chen Shi’s enthronement while the imperial forces struck their territories, and Chen Shi agreed to serve as bait.
• Chen Shi gave Yang Bi authority over all forces and told him he could decide which members of the Twelve Noble Families lived or died, then discussed the greater threat posed by the Heavenly Venerate.
• Chen Shi visited Wu Qi, whose body was slowly regenerating through the Undying Immortal Method, and worried that the Heavenly Venerate would soon attack.
• The Grand Libationer introduced Chu Feng, who was cultivating the Profound Yin Nine Heavens Art and could eventually use demonic Dao to pollute true gods.
• The enthronement was scheduled for the third day of the tenth lunar month in Jiajing 6648, a day considered inauspicious for waging war.

Little King of Hell Nannan restored the Eighteen Layers of Hell, appointed officials, and launched a campaign against the Thirteen Noble Families. As allies gathered for Chen Shi, Chen Yindu sought support from old acquaintances and learned that Nuns Huiyin still wondered who had made him stay in the mortal world.

• Nannan summoned Western Ox Continent ghost gods and ghost-tribe officials, bestowed magical treasures and authority, and reforged all eighteen hells with appointed judges.
• Nannan ordered Zhong Kui, Tie Chi, Wang Fu, Jia Yuan, and Zhu Shun to lead the underworld army and follow Yang Bi in the punitive expedition against the Thirteen Noble Families.
• Empress Houtu gave Sha Qiutong the Human Emperor Banner and A Zhuo the Demon Refining Needle, and Sha Qiutong then joined Ding Xiang and sought out Yang Bi, who explained that Chen Yindu had gone to persuade six sacred lands to remain neutral.
• At Taihua Qingyang Palace, Ancestor Qiongyang secured the True Martial Evil-Slaying Sword and the sect's support for Chen Yindu, while Daoist Changying summoned the spirits of past sect leaders to assist.
• Chen Yindu asked Nuns Huiyin for support at Bodhi Dojo, but she refused to enter the mortal world; as he departed, she asked which woman had made him stay.

Chen Yindu secured support for Chen Shi from several religious authorities while Yang Bi prepared to attack three noble families. Li Xiaozai armed the Li clan and the Underworld but refused to surrender the Ancestor's Daoist Robe, leaving him to wonder whether Chen Shi would dare crush the Twelve Noble Families when he became True King.

• Nuns Huiyin reflected on Chen Yindu and the limits of her teachings, while Chen Yindu visited Madam Ling Su, Fairy Biluo, Abbess Daoxian, and Saint Nun Kuchan to secure support for Chen Shi.
• Chen Yindu returned to Yang Bi, who said he planned to attack the Li, Xu, and Yang families as soon as war began.
• Li Xiaozai distributed magical treasures and medicines to his clan and sent twelve hundred-odd treasures to the Puming Palace, refusing to lend the Ancestor's Daoist Robe.
• Li Xiaozai descended into the Underworld with Li Qianyun and persuaded King Chu Jiang Li Tang to leave nine layers of hell behind to protect the Yang world Li family.
• After Li Tang departed, the Underworld judges refused to obey Li Xiaozai, who accepted his limits as clan head and wondered whether Chen Shi would dare defeat the Twelve Noble Families upon becoming True King.

As Chen Shi prepared to ascend as true king, the aristocratic lineages launched an underworld assault on the imperial capital, but Empress Houtu and Daoist Liu diverted the attackers into the Underworld. Yang Bi then sent Ministry of Rites envoys through portals to confront three lineages, where Little Dingxiang delivered the Xu lineage an ultimatum of subjugation.

• Gao Caiyun watched Gao Xiezhou depart with the underworld forces and reflected on her past with Chen Yindu, while other major lineages mobilized their ghosts and deities.
• Chen Shi began his ascension ceremony in the New Xiang Imperial Capital, but judges and towering ghosts and deities emerged from the Underworld and attacked the city.
• Empress Houtu and Daoist Liu confronted the underworld attackers, drawing them into the Underworld and leaving the imperial capital unharmed.
• Yang Bi ordered the Ministry of Rites to go first, and Li Tianqing, Yulingzi, and Little Dingxiang entered separate portals to visit the Li, Yang, and Xu lineages.
• Little Dingxiang presented Xu Yinglong with a subjugation ultimatum, and he challenged Chen Shi's authority while she insisted the Xu lineage obey the Great Ming Code.

The Xu family tried to kill Little Dingxiang after she delivered Chen Shi’s manifesto, but the Human Emperor Banner wiped out most of their forces and turned the battle at Lingzhou into a desperate struggle. As Chen Shi formally proclaimed his rule at the Altar of Heaven, his allies moved against the Li family of Quanzhou.

• Xu Yinglong recognized Dragon Roaming Rogue Cultivator and summoned the Xu family’s four ancestors, while the Underworld judges dragged Lingzhou into hell and brought forth hundreds of thousands of ghosts and gods.
• When two Xu elders attacked Little Dingxiang, she raised the Human Emperor Banner, which killed tens of thousands of Xu family members and swept away nearly all the ghosts and gods.
• Xu Yinglong attacked Little Dingxiang with the Sun and Moon Dual Pearls, but Ancestor Green Goat intercepted him, while Dragon Roaming Rogue Cultivator and the others engaged the judges and Tianchi Kingdom’s ghost tribe experts pursued the Xu clan.
• Yang Bi directed Red Mountain Hall’s talisman masters to attack the fleeing Xu family, while Chen Shi led his officials to the Altar of Heaven and proclaimed his succession to the throne.
• Li Xiaozai ordered the Li family to prepare for battle and seek reinforcements as Li Tianqing left the city; Chen Shi’s forces advanced on Quanzhou with Scholar Zhu and Fairy Xiaoduan leading the assault.

Yulingzi delivered Chen Shi’s manifesto to the Yang family, but Yang Wenfeng ordered his forces to attack him. As Qiongyang and Taihua Qing Palace’s ancestors joined the rebels gathering outside Tingzhou, Jueyangzi defeated Yang Pingcheng and entered the Yang World.

• Yulingzi fought off the Yang family experts and used the True Martial Evil-Slaying Sword to kill a Void Returning expert before Yang Wenfeng sent him flying.
• Qiongyang rescued Yulingzi and summoned Taihua Qing Palace’s past ancestors, while Chen Yindu and other rebel allies arrived outside Tingzhou City.
• Yang Wenfeng called for the Underworld gods to aid the Yang family as the rebels gathered.
• Jueyangzi blocked Yang Pingcheng from entering the Yang World and defeated him with a sword stroke that split Niu Keng Hell in two.

The Yama kings and noble-family ghosts and gods besieged Empress Houtu’s temple, but pleas for help forced the Xu and Li leaders to withdraw while Yang Tianhe stayed. In Quanzhou, Chen Real’s forces destroyed the Li family’s underworld stronghold, and Li Xiaozai fled with some survivors before confronting Chen Real so the others could escape.

• Daoist Liu fought off the judges while Little King of Hell used the three executioner blades against the Yama kings, whose immortal artifacts blocked the attacks.
• Empress Houtu repelled the Yama kings, but the noble families then joined their immortal artifacts to press toward her temple.
• Xu Luoying left to rescue the Xu family, and Li Tang followed after learning the Li family’s nine underworld hells had fallen; Yang Tianhe remained and accepted offers of reinforcements.
• Skeleton Chen Real and the Tianchi army overwhelmed the Li family’s underworld forces, while Fairy Xiaoduan injured Li Xiaozai and the two Li ancestors in Quanzhou.
• Li Xiaozai gathered Li family survivors and fled, gave the Ancestor's Daoist Robe to Li Qianyun, then turned back to face Skeleton Chen Real while the others escaped.

Li Tianqing spared Li Qianyun and the younger Li family members in exchange for the Ancestor's Daoist Robe, while Chen Shi defeated Li Tang and led the Tianchi Kingdom's forces onward. As the Xu family collapsed, Madam Huali killed Xu Changge, and the Dragon Roaming Rogue Cultivator allowed Cold Mountain Rogue to save a few survivors on the condition that the Xu family name ended.

• Li Tianqing let Li Qianyun and the younger Li family members leave after she surrendered the Ancestor's Daoist Robe, and he told them to conceal their surname.
• Yang Bi coordinated the battles as Li Tang arrived at Quanzhou's Underworld and confronted Chen Shi, who broke through his techniques and defeated him.
• Fairy Xiaoduan killed Li Lifang and the remaining Li family judge while the Tianchi Kingdom's forces advanced through the gateways Chen Shi opened.
• Madam Huali killed Xu Changge as he and his followers fled Quanzhou.
• Cold Mountain Rogue pleaded with the Dragon Roaming Rogue Cultivator to spare Xu She and the other Xu survivors, and the master agreed on the condition that the Xu family ceased to exist.

Cold Mountain Rogue explained why he refused to help the Xu lineage and used his sword to protect Yang Bi, who coordinated the battlefield from the heavenly court. Yang Bi saved his mother and sister from the Tingzhou slaughter, and Created Being Xiao Wu spared them after making Yang Bi thank him.

• Cold Mountain Rogue rebuked Xu Xiang Yun for the Xu lineage’s crimes, recalling how its members murdered Lu Song for his Divine Embryo and drove Lu Qing and his wife to suicide.
• After failing for decades to reform the Xu lineage, Cold Mountain Rogue left it and chose only to save those he considered worth saving.
• Cold Mountain Rogue realized Yang Bi was coordinating Chen Shi’s forces and sent his sword through a portal to protect him.
• Yang Bi used a hidden escape route to guide his mother and sister, Yang Qianqian, through the battle that was destroying the Tingzhou Yang lineage.
• Created Being Xiao Wu intercepted Yang Qianqian and her mother, then unexpectedly let them go and demanded that Yang Bi thank him.

Chen Tang and the Eastern Depot attacked the Zhang family while Black Pot led the Huo Dou army through the Zhang family’s underworld. Yang Bi coordinated the assaults on three noble-family battlefields, and Zhang You found him but refused to surrender, surrounded by the allied forces.

• Chen Yindu, Created Being Xiao Wu, Jueyangzi, and their allies destroyed the Yang family and marched toward the Xia family, while Dragon Roaming Rogue Cultivator, Green Goat, and the Tianchi Ghost Clan defeated the Xu family.
• Black Pot led the Huo Dou army in smashing through the Zhang family’s Ghost Gate Pass and rampaging through the levels of hell.
• Chen Tang unleashed thirty-seven Talisman God Heavenly Mechanisms and attacked Juzhou City alongside Eunuch Feng Tianhuan and the Eastern Depot’s Imperial Guard.
• Zhang Fucheng tried to escort Zhang You and other survivors out of Juzhou, but the Talisman Gods trapped him in a siege.
• Zhang You followed a Heavenly Court Token gateway and discovered Yang Bi coordinating the battles against the Zhang, Gu, and Xia families.
• Yang Bi offered Zhang You a place in the new court, but Zhang You refused to surrender and found himself surrounded by Red Mountain Hall’s talisman masters and the allied powerhouses.

Chen Shi consolidated his rule, organized plans for governing the Western Ox Continent, and asked Empress Houtu to protect its coasts from sea demons. The threat from Despair Slope and the recovering Celestial Venerable remained unresolved.

• Yang Bi watched Zhang You depart and mourned the loss of a fellow Daoist.
• Chen Shi completed the state ceremonies, met his ministers, and discussed local appointments, schools, disaster response, and coastal defenses.
• Chen Shi dismissed worries about the front lines, saying Yang Bi could defeat the Thirteen Noble Families, and granted Yang Bi discretion to spare some of his clansmen.
• Chen Shi went to Houde Palace, where the besieging ghosts and deities had largely withdrawn to support their clans, and sent Little King of Hell through the Lesser Heavens to reinforce them.
• Chen Shi asked Empress Houtu to seal the coastline against demon monsters, but she warned that the Celestial Venerable could still destroy her protection once he recovered.

Chen Shi and Empress Houtu traveled through the Sea of Darkness to find a celestial silkworm whose silk could help Houtu seal the Western Ox Continent’s coastline. Chen Shi found the silkworm living as a chained little girl on the Fusang tree and cut away her leaf to take her, prompting her warning that her master would kill him.

• Empress Houtu agreed to set up a barrier against marine demons and monsters, then took Chen Shi across the Sea of Darkness to seek a celestial silkworm for its silk.
• Chen Shi slew a giant sea creature attacking their willow-leaf boat and spotted a chained Daoist adrift on a wooden boat.
• The pair entered the Sea of Profound Yellow, where Houtu explained how human settlement and worship extended her Dao domain.
• Chen Shi searched the Fusang tree and discovered a little girl who revealed that she was the celestial silkworm.
• Chen Shi cut the mulberry leaf free and carried the girl and her cottage away, and she warned that her master would kill him.

Chen Shi stole the heavenly silkworm Silkworm from the Fusang Tree and learned that her former master, Immortal Lord Qin, would be a dangerous enemy. As the Willow Leaf Boat entered the Sea of Darkness, Chen Shi spotted a bound Daoist priest adrift among the waves and asked Empress Houtu to rescue him.

• Chen Shi carried Silkworm away from the Fusang Tree with mulberry leaves, while Immortal Lord Qin learned of the theft and ordered two fairies to watch for the thief.
• Empress Houtu freed Silkworm from her collar, but Silkworm chose to put it back on and thanked Chen Shi for treating her kindly.
• Chen Shi learned that Immortal Lord Qin was as powerful as a Heavenly Venerate, and Empress Houtu explained that she had taken revenge because Qin had slaughtered a family before becoming an immortal.
• Silkworm wove Chen Shi a set of heavenly-silk Daoist robes, and Empress Houtu revealed that the silk could encircle the Western Ox Continent.
• The Willow Leaf Boat sailed into the Sea of Darkness, where Chen Shi saw a Daoist priest bound to a drifting wooden boat and asked Empress Houtu to rescue him.

Chen Shi rescued Daoist Qingyuan from the Sea of Darkness and learned how Great Shang fell, how the Heavenly Lord gained access to the mortal world, and why Daoist Qingyuan had helped him. Qingyuan revealed that the Heavenly Lord was Xun Jiangmu and warned that the True King had died without defeating him.

• Chen Shi calmed the sea, burned the demon monsters that attacked, and questioned the bound Daoist, who identified himself as Qingyuan and said the Heavenly Lord had exiled him for refusing to reveal the locations of other Divine Continents.
• Chen Shi cut the chains with the Taiyi Demon-Dispelling Shuttle, rescued Qingyuan, and sailed toward the Western Ox Continent with him aboard the Willow Leaf Boat.
• Qingyuan recounted how the sun and moon vanished, evil corrupted the immortals, and the King of Shang sacrificed his Primordial Spirit to become the new sun and moon.
• Qingyuan described Witch Covenant and the Xuan Bird Heavenly Court battling Xun Jiangmu, then explained that Prince Shang Wangziyu waged war against Despair Slope and died behind the Bronze Great Wall.
• Chen Shi confronted Qingyuan for helping the Heavenly Lord build Heavenly Dao City and connect Despair Slope to the mortal world; Qingyuan admitted he had helped and said he had been exiled before warning the True King.
• Qingyuan said the Heavenly Lord was nearing the peak of his former power and that the True King had died without defeating him.

Chen Shi reflected on how the Heavenly Venerate’s plans had repeatedly been thwarted, then arranged for Empress Houtu to protect the Western Ox Continent’s coastline. As the immortals at Despair Slope debated whether Chen Shi’s campaign against the noble families warranted intervention, the story left their decision unresolved.

• Chen Shi recalled how the True God, Chen Yindu, and others had delayed the Heavenly Venerate’s plan to corrupt the Western Ox Continent, and realized the Heavenly Venerate had once pursued him as the Demon Emperor.
• Empress Houtu agreed to find targets for the Witch Covenant to grow, then laid a protective restriction along the Western Ox Continent’s coastline with Silkworm’s silk and her incense Qi.
• Chen Shi confronted Daoist Qingyuan about his role in freeing the Heavenly Venerate, then let him stay in the imperial capital without forcing him to fight.
• Chen Shi persuaded Daoist Liu to lend him all three willow leaves, which formed the Three Absolute Formations of Heavenly Immortals.
• Chen Shi watched the coastal restriction destroy demonic monsters attempting to land and concluded that the continent’s shores were protected.
• At Despair Slope, an immortal asked whether Chen Shi’s defeat of eight great families and his ascension as True God counted as atrocities requiring intervention.

Fairy Qiuningqiu sent three immortals from Despair Slope to find their missing companions, while Feng Ruotong revealed that the Heavenly Venerable had caused Immortal Kou’s death and Zhong Wuwang’s injury. After subduing the immortals who rejected his claims, Feng Ruotong led them to meet Chen Shi in the Yang World.

• Fairy Qiuningqiu warned three immortals that Despair Slope was vulnerable, then gave Daoist Wen the Yin Yang Qi Bottle before they departed to search for Feng Ruotong.
• Immortal Ping, Immortal Xi, and two others found Feng Ruotong in Yuji Town and told him that the Heavenly Venerable was injured and Immortal Kou had died while Zhong Wuwang had been reduced to a fool.
• Feng Ruotong concluded that the Heavenly Venerable had attacked Kou and Wuwang to prevent Wuwang from threatening him, and revealed that Chen Shi had wounded the Heavenly Venerable’s misty-moon eye with the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.
• When the four immortals rejected his claims and tried to take him back to Despair Slope, Feng Ruotong defeated them and had Heavenly Dao Walkers bind them.
• Feng Ruotong led the four bound immortals to the Yang World and then to the imperial capital of Xinxiang, where they saw Chen Shi and were stunned.

Chen Shi and Feng Ruotong confronted four immortals with evidence that the Celestial Lord was Xun Jiangmu, the culprit behind the world’s evil transformation. The immortals began to accept the truth after seeing Chen Shi’s Yin Yang Dao Field, and Daoist Wenshanwen arrived seeking an audience with Feng Ruotong.

• Chen Shi told Feng Ruotong that the Celestial Lord had murdered Immortal Kou and Zhong Wuwang and caused the world’s evil transformation.
• Chen Shi brought Feng Ruotong and the captured immortals to Daoist Qingyuan, who recounted how the Celestial Lord had killed the eighteen Shang ministers and admitted to being Xun Jiangmu.
• Immortal Ping rejected Daoist Qingyuan’s account, while Immortal Xi began to doubt the Celestial Lord.
• Chen Shi displayed his Yin Yang Dao Field, and the four immortals recognized that the Western Ox Continent could be saved when he merged with the Dao.
• Feng Ruotong released the immortals, who stopped calling Chen Shi the Demon Emperor but still questioned whether the Celestial Lord was Xun Jiangmu.
• Little Chenzi reported that Daoist Wenshanwen had arrived to request an audience with Feng Ruotong, and Chen Shi and Feng Ruotong suspected he had come to surrender.

Daoist Wen, Shen Liujun, and Lu Dingbo entered the imperial capital expecting to confront Chen Shi, but Feng Ruotong trapped them and revealed that the Heavenly Honored One had caused the heavenly demonic mutations. After Chen Shi comprehended the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and displayed his Void Realm, the immortals bowed to him as a Daoist Brother.

• Daoist Wen, Shen Liujun, and Lu Dingbo arrived at the imperial capital and declared their intention to execute Chen Shi and the false gods.
• Little Chenzi challenged the three immortals over Despair Slope’s failure to protect people during the disaster, leaving them unable to answer.
• Feng Ruotong activated the Yin Yang Qi Bottle, trapping and severely refining Daoist Wen, Shen Liujun, and Lu Dingbo before stopping to reveal the Heavenly Honored One’s role in the mutations.
• Feng Ruotong presented evidence about the Heavenly Honored One and urged the three immortals to witness Chen Shi’s Yin Yang Dao Field.
• Chen Shi awakened from contemplating the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and created a Void Realm of mountains, rivers, sun, moon, and stars that dispelled demonic qi across a thousand miles.
• Daoist Wen, Shen Liujun, Lu Dingbo, Feng Ruotong, Immortal Ping, and Immortal Xi bowed to Chen Shi and addressed him as Daoist Brother.