Chapter Summaries

After rescuing the sacrificial children and killing the spirit medium, Chen Feng led the villagers to destroy the River God Temple and confront her followers. Little Mi helped break their resistance, and the over-one-hundred defenders were routed.

• Chen Feng learned that the spirit medium had fed the sacrificial children a strange medicine and that human sacrifice had begun only after she took over thirty years earlier.
• Chen Feng gathered villagers from nearby places and led them to the temple where the spirit medium had lived.
• The spirit medium’s followers tried to hold out for reinforcements from the Divine Cult in Longjiang City, but the villagers surrounded the temple before help could arrive.
• Chen Feng sent Little Mi into the hall, where she possessed and killed more than a dozen defenders and frightened the rest.
• The villagers killed fleeing defenders, and Chen Feng entered and struck with a palm, causing the remaining followers to surrender or lose their nerve.

Chen Feng uncovered the Divine Cult's River God branch and let the villagers punish its members, then learned the cult's headquarters was in Longjiang City. As Chen Feng prepared to leave for the city, the Cult Leader ordered followers to watch for him.

• Chen Feng questioned the captured River God branch members and learned they served the Divine Cult in Longjiang City.
• Chen Feng ordered the villagers to judge and punish the captives for their crimes.
• A messenger told the Cult Leader at Hundred Fragrance Tower that Chen Feng had killed the River God, the spirit medium, and several other experts.
• The Cult Leader ordered followers to watch Chen Feng and report when he arrived in Longjiang City.
• Chen Feng meditated, noted he was three hundred Demon Suppression Value short of a breakthrough, and prepared to leave as the villagers urged him to stay.

After leaving the village, Chen Feng arrived in Longjiang City during the Lantern Festival and enjoyed the bustling celebrations. He spotted a crowd gathering for a performance and heard that Heroine Li Shi had arrived.

• Chen Feng declined the villagers’ invitation to stay and asked them not to erect a spirit tablet in his honor.
• After Chen Feng left, the villagers carved his likeness, built a temple, and planned to pass down the story of how he defeated the River God.
• Chen Feng reached Longjiang City and discovered that its crowded streets and riverbanks were celebrating the Lantern Festival.
• Chen Feng watched fireworks, performances, and street festivities as he explored the city.
• Chen Feng saw a crowd at a performance and heard people announce that Heroine Li Shi had arrived.

Chen Feng explored the Divine Cult’s prosperous southern district while its followers tracked him. Lord Zhang led one follower into a vast underground chamber, where they stopped before a huge black chain.

• Chen Feng arrived after Li Shi’s successful puppet show, and Li Shi spotted him and slipped away through the crowd.
• Chen Feng wandered through southern Longjiang City, a busy trading district controlled by the Divine Cult and used to gather intelligence.
• A follower who had been tracking Chen Feng reported to Lord Zhang, claiming the Daoist had not noticed him.
• Lord Zhang rebuked the follower for dismissing immortals, then promised to show him the Divine Cult’s power.
• Lord Zhang and the follower descended through a well and hidden passages into an underground world, where they entered a cavern lit by fire lamps and dominated by a thick black chain.

The Divine Cult fed slaves to its green Toad Divine Beast and planned to use it against Chen Feng if he became a threat. Unaware of the plot, Chen Feng was approached again by Li Shi, who hoped to learn from him and gather material for her stories.

• The lean man warned his subordinate not to look around as they passed through the Divine Cult's secret passages.
• The lean man and his subordinate watched Divine Cult disciples throw bound slaves into the abyss to feed the Toad Divine Beast.
• After the beast finished eating, the lean man told his subordinate to watch Chen Feng and guide the beast to him only if he attacked the Divine Cult.
• Chen Feng sensed that people had followed him but dismissed them as no threat to his strength.
• Li Shi overcame her embarrassment and returned to Chen Feng, hoping to learn demon-subduing techniques and find material for her puppet-play stories.

Chen Feng gave Li Shi a cultivation technique, then captured a Divine Cult subordinate and learned about the cult’s local branch and its Toad Divine Beast. After accepting a mission to eliminate the Divine Cult, he announced that he would investigate it at Hundred Fragrance Tower, where he arrived the next day with Li Shi.

• Li Shi flattered Chen Feng into giving her the Essence Qi Art, and he warned her not to use it to harm anyone.
• Chen Feng caught a man in black spying outside his room and forced him to reveal what he knew about the Divine Cult, including its Toad Divine Beast.
• Chen Feng accepted a system mission to eliminate the Divine Cult in exchange for a Five Thunder Curse secret technique and one thousand Demon Suppression Value.
• Chen Feng released the man in black and told him to report that he would investigate the Divine Cult at Hundred Fragrance Tower the next day.
• The lean man ordered his people to watch Chen Feng at Hundred Fragrance Tower rather than alert the Divine Cult headquarters.
• Chen Feng arrived at Hundred Fragrance Tower with Li Shi, who dressed as a young gentleman.

Chen Feng entered Hundred Fragrance Tower with Li Shi to investigate the Divine Cult, whose agents used the establishment to gather intelligence and carry out assassinations. After he killed a corpse puppet and the monster controlling it, more ships approached his boat, leaving him facing an imminent fight.

• Li Shi gave Chen Feng a token and a false scholar identity so they could enter Hundred Fragrance Tower.
• A beautiful woman lured Chen Feng and Li Shi onto a pleasure boat, where Chen Feng recognized her skill in seduction and illusion arts.
• The woman attacked Chen Feng with a dagger, but he struck first and pierced her chest with his sword.
• The woman was revealed to be a corpse puppet, and Chen Feng destroyed the strange monster controlling it with a slash of true qi.
• Chen Feng told Li Shi to leave before the fighting began, but she stayed close to him as several enormous ships sailed toward their boat.

Chen Feng fought the Divine Cult’s fleet and killed its Toad Divine Beast, breaking through to the middle stage of the True Qi Realm. He then led the attack against the remaining cultists, leaving their leader unable to withstand his True Qi Palm.

• The Divine Cult surrounded Chen Feng’s pleasure boat with eight ships and unleashed poisonous mist from the Toad Divine Beast.
• Chen Feng gave Li Shi an antidote, then confronted the toad and severed its tongue while blocking the Divine Cult’s arrows with his protective True Qi.
• Chen Feng killed the Toad Divine Beast, gained Demon Suppression Value, and broke through to the middle stage of the True Qi Realm.
• Chen Feng unleashed his True Qi Palm and blasted the toad’s body apart, terrifying the Divine Cult’s forces and the onlookers on shore.
• The Divine Cult’s leader ordered his men to keep attacking, but Chen Feng and Little Mi charged them, and Chen Feng struck the leader through the deck with his palm.

Chen Feng defeated the Divine Cult’s forces on the river, killed the Earth Dragon and its leader, and learned that the cult’s master had abandoned his followers. News of the destruction spread through Longjiang City as Chen Feng prepared to continue hunting the Divine Cult.

• Spectators recognized Chen Feng as the Young Immortal after he defeated the Toad Divine Beast and the lean man, while the lean man ordered an attack and fled into the river.
• A spear pierced the lean man’s leg underwater, and Chen Feng’s protective aura repelled arrows fired by the remaining Divine Cult disciples.
• The Earth Dragon Divine Beast and its branch leader emerged on the opposite shore, but Chen Feng killed them with a single Sword Light.
• The lean man told Chen Feng that the Divine Cult’s leader had discarded his followers and was nowhere to be found, then killed himself; Chen Feng eliminated the remaining cult members aboard the ships.
• Chen Feng gained eight hundred Demon Suppression Value and vowed to keep pursuing the Divine Cult, while news of the branch leaders’ deaths spread and a richly dressed man hurried toward a large residence.

Chen Feng uncovered the Centipede God branch beneath the Prince's Mansion and exposed its use of captives as sacrifices. He killed the prince and the Centipede God Beast, then sent Little Mi to eliminate the branch underground.

• The prince learned that Earth Dragon, Lord Min, and their allies had been killed, but welcomed the Divine Cult's possible destruction as a chance to seize control of the riverway.
• Chen Feng split open an artificial mountain with a divine sword, revealing a cave filled with captives being kept as food for the Divine Cult's beasts.
• The prince claimed his imperial title protected him, but Chen Feng seized him and threw him into the cave, where a centipede devoured him.
• The Centipede God Beast emerged and attacked Chen Feng, who cut it in two and gained four hundred Demon Suppression Value.
• Chen Feng sent Little Mi into the cave to eliminate the branch's members, then saw the guests vomit black worms.

After Chen Feng freed the captives and exposed the Prince's Mansion’s ties to the Divine Cult, the mansion burned down and the cult master quietly left Longjiang City. The next morning, the city praised the Immortal, and Li Shi reconsidered what gave a person’s deeds lasting meaning.

• Chen Feng spared the frightened people at the Prince's Mansion, warned them, and left as they fled and the captives reunited with their families.
• The Prince's Mansion erupted in flames and collapsed, while the Divine Cult's cult master watched before departing by ship with his subordinates.
• Word of the prince's crimes and the Immortal's rescue spread through Longjiang City, and storytellers recounted Chen Feng's deeds to admiring crowds.
• Li Shi listened to the praise for the Young Immortal and reflected that his demon-slaying deeds inspired a gratitude her stories had never earned.

As Longjiang City and the surrounding region hunted down the Divine Cult, officials and townspeople blamed the cult for the prince’s crimes, protecting the Great Tang Dynasty’s reputation. Lord Yuan gathered the surviving Toad branch members and proposed betraying the Fire God branch to the immortal in exchange for a chance to survive, but they did not know how to find him.

• A public notice accused the Divine Cult of murdering the prince, plotting rebellion, and sacrificing people, while residents accepted the claims that the cult had controlled the prince.
• The Great Tang Dynasty ordered Divine Cult worship sites and strongholds destroyed, and surrounding communities began hunting down its members.
• Lord Yuan gathered the injured survivors of the Toad branch in a ruined house and proposed founding the Wind Cloud Pavilion.
• Lord Yuan suggested revealing the Fire God branch’s location to the immortal in exchange for a chance to live and become wandering martial heroes.
• The survivors worried that the immortal might kill them anyway, and they asked how they could find him.

The man in black offered to lead Chen Feng to the Divine Cult’s Fire God Division in exchange for clearing his group’s names, and revealed clues about the cult’s main altar and fleeing leaders. Chen Feng agreed to the deal and set out the next morning with Li Shi.

• The man in black told his companions he would find Chen Feng and bargain for their survival, while they waited for his answer.
• Chen Feng considered how destroying the final branch might fulfill his mission to eliminate the Divine Cult.
• The man in black visited Chen Feng and offered information about the Fire God Division and the suspected main altar at Huayu Tower, along with clues that the cult’s leaders might have traveled toward the Capital City of the Great Tang Dynasty.
• The man in black gave Chen Feng the Divine Cult’s evil manuals, and Chen Feng memorized some of their contents before burning the books.
• Chen Feng promised to clear the group’s names if they helped destroy the Fire God branch, and told the man in black to lead him there the next morning.
• Chen Feng left the inn with Li Shi the next morning.

Chen Feng left Longjiang City amid the people’s worship and gratitude, then parted ways with Li Shi as they chose different roads. After traveling away from the city, he called the man in black and his followers out of hiding.

• The people of Longjiang City knelt before Chen Feng, thanked him for defeating the Divine Cult, and offered him gifts, which he declined.
• Chen Feng gave the crowd a few comforting words and departed as the city’s dignitaries and common people came to see him off.
• Li Shi told Chen Feng she would travel north and write about the world’s suffering and encourage people to do good, while Chen Feng planned to go south.
• Chen Feng and Li Shi parted at a fork in the road, and Li Shi found that Chen Feng had given her silver and high-level martial arts manuals.
• After traveling some distance, Chen Feng called out to the man in black and his followers, who emerged from a grove and greeted him respectfully.

Chen Feng traveled to Luori County and wiped out the Divine Cult’s stronghold, killing its leader and Fire God before eliminating the remaining cultists. After receiving the Five Thunder Curse as a mission reward, he upgraded it to Mortal Thunder and demonstrated his lightning technique; he then considered whether to return to Yangzhou City or continue exploring.

• Chen Feng entered Luori County with the men in black and found the Divine Cult’s stronghold, where its leaders debated whether to flee or defend their base.
• The Divine Cult leader summoned the Fire God, but Chen Feng swiftly killed him and severed the fire snake’s head before defeating the cult members.
• Chen Feng spared the surrounding soldiers and gave the man in black a letter clearing his group’s names in exchange for their help.
• The panel awarded Chen Feng 1,000 Demon Suppression Value and the Five Thunder Curse, which he upgraded to Mortal Thunder.
• Chen Feng summoned lightning to strike down several men, then told the man in black and his subordinates to leave with the letter.
• The county authorities arrived to welcome Chen Feng, who considered whether to return to Yangzhou City or travel elsewhere.

Chen Feng traveled toward the ancient city of Loulan, taking a dangerous shortcut despite a local man's warning. After reaching a small town, he watched a Daoist priest try to sell Great Strength Pills to a young man troubled by weakness and ringing ears.

• Chen Feng asked an old man for directions to Loulan and chose the shorter, dangerous route despite the warning.
• Chen Feng bought a horse and continued south, while a letter and a stone containing his true qi reassured Xiao Li that he would return and could sense if she needed help.
• Chen Feng arrived at a small town and noticed a Daoist priest questioning a richly dressed young man about his symptoms.
• The Daoist priest attributed the young man's weakness and ear buzzing to overindulgence after marriage and offered him Great Strength Pills.

A Daoist tricked a young man into believing the red dye on his neck was a deadly curse and persuaded him to pay for help. A passing Young Daoist exposed the dye, and the fraud disappeared as his customers sought refunds.

• The Daoist sold Great Strength Pills, then claimed the young man had a deadly Severed Head Evil Curse on his neck.
• The Daoist frightened the young man and the crowd with a story about the curse, then agreed to dispel it for money.
• The Young Daoist rode past and told the young man that sweat had made the red dye from his pendant cord run onto his neck.
• The young man washed off the dye, and the crowd laughed when they realized the Daoist had deceived him.
• The Daoist vanished, and the buyers of his Great Strength Pills searched for him to demand their money back.

Chen Feng arrived in Jushi County and learned that its mysterious Giant Rock drew martial artists from across the region. When the rock emerged from Giant Rock Lake beneath thick fog the next morning, Chen Feng joined the crowds heading to see it.

• The disguised master escaped the townspeople searching for him and returned to his residence, still angry that Chen Feng had disrupted his scheme.
• Chen Feng checked into the finest inn, where he met the Shadowless Blade Guest and Whip Soul Knight and heard how the Giant Rock was linked to reports of immortals and the Heaven-Shaking Swordplay.
• That night, the lake water receded and revealed the Giant Rock as thick fog spread around the lake and over the county.
• After people shouted that the fog had risen and the rock had appeared, Chen Feng and the two heroes followed the crowd toward the city gates.

Chen Feng uncovered a mist-producing magic treasure hidden inside a stone and secretly took the jade pendant. As he prepared to leave the inn, hundreds of refugees arrived, fleeing a worsening disaster in the south.

• Chen Feng struck the mist-shrouded stone with lightning, revealing a jade pendant hidden inside.
• Chen Feng took control of the pendant, identified its water-mist formation, and hid it beneath his clothes.
• The inn waiter returned and told Chen Feng an exaggerated story about an immortal splitting the stone with lightning.
• As Chen Feng prepared to leave, hundreds of refugees arrived, and local constables worried about how the county would cope.

Chen Feng saw a long line of starving refugees approaching the city as the county magistrate struggled to find enough grain to feed them. Young Master Zhuang agreed to persuade his father to contribute, but his father refused and drove him off for asking.

• Chen Feng flew to the city wall and saw many destitute refugees heading toward the city.
• The county magistrate learned that wealthy households, including the Zhang Family and Yu Family, would not provide grain, and decided to seek help from Young Master Zhuang.
• Young Master Zhuang agreed to persuade his father to donate grain for the refugees.
• Young Master Zhuang's father scolded him for risking the family's chance to profit from rising grain prices and refused to give more.
• Young Master Zhuang argued that the refugees might starve and that the family would lose its reputation, so his father grabbed a stool and chased him.