Chapter Summaries

Ding Xie endured mounting blame over the deaths and injuries caused by a recent incident while waiting for the sect’s investigation. After the Enforcement Hall cleared him and rewarded him, he faced an angry crowd and wounded himself to show that he accepted responsibility, while demanding that they stop blaming him for everything.

• Ding Xie avoided the disciples demanding answers and continued meditating at Canglan Peak as rumors and resentment spread.
• True Person Canglan gave lectures and arranged for Ding Xie to stay at the training ground, while his fellow disciples tried not to add to his troubles.
• Ding Xie received a voice transmission from his grandmaster and went to the Enforcement Hall, where the investigation declared him uninvolved and credited him with meritorious service.
• The sect awarded Ding Xie sixty thousand merit points, a sect-entry token, two top-grade magical artifacts, and half-price Golden Core spiritual materials.
• As Ding Xie left the Enforcement Hall, an angry crowd accused him of causing deaths and injuries and blocked his way.
• Ding Xie allowed the crowd’s magical artifacts to wound him, cut off his little finger, and declared that he would bear his share of responsibility but would not accept further blame.

Ding Xie endured his fellow disciples’ anger at the Law Enforcement Hall by injuring himself and severing his little finger, reaching the False Core state of mind and showing signs of core formation. After his grandmaster explained that the ordeal had been an opportunity and gave him guidance, Ding Xie learned that the sect would soon assign him a mission.

• Ding Xie’s fellow disciples gradually left after seeing his injuries, and Li Shengli arrived with other disciples to find him gravely wounded.
• Ding Xie admitted that he had stabbed himself, removed the artifact, destroyed his severed finger, and walked toward the Law Enforcement Hall.
• Golden light surged around Ding Xie as he descended the steps, revealing signs of core formation and astonishing Li Shengli.
• True Person Canglan told Daoist Cangyun that the Law Enforcement Hall’s Golden Core cultivators had stayed out of Ding Xie’s ordeal so they would not ruin his opportunity.
• Ding Xie thanked True Person Canglan, who credited several people with speaking for him, gave him a jade slip about core formation, and told him to prepare for a sect mission.

Ding Xie retrieved the Soul Banner and reunited with Tu Shan Jun after leaving Eastern Abyss City, then returned to Myriad Dharma Sect and sought passage toward Sun City. The chapter left him waiting two months for a large spirit vessel so he could continue his journey.

• Ding Xie learned that Li Shengli had been spared Reflection Cliff confinement and that the sect had arranged rewards and care for those affected by the crisis.
• Ding Xie visited Crimson Cloud Patriarch in Eastern Abyss City, left him spirit tea, and received warnings about trusting others, including Tu Shan Jun.
• Ding Xie dug up the Soul Banner and reunited with Tu Shan Jun, who noticed that Ding Xie had lost a finger.
• Ding Xie told Tu Shan Jun how his situation with Myriad Dharma Sect had ended and gave him the token for the sect's promised gift.
• Ding Xie returned to Myriad Dharma Sect, traveled to its market, and learned that a large spirit vessel bound for Sun City would not depart for two months.

Ding Xie and Tu Shan Jun explored the East Ward market, buying a collection of captured ghosts and monsters to strengthen the soul banner. They finished their circuit without finding any hidden bargains, and Tu Shan Jun turned his attention to gathering ten thousand souls.

• Ding Xie passed on buying an expensive moon fox and bought a Spirit-Taming Ring while browsing the market.
• Tu Shan Jun spotted jars of captured ghosts and monsters, so Ding Xie bought the entire stall’s stock, including an early Foundation Establishment Blade-Exhaling Ghost.
• Ding Xie transferred the ghosts and monsters into the soul banner, but Tu Shan Jun found that Soul Inquiry yielded no useful information from them.
• Tu Shan Jun asked about places where ghosts gathered, and Ding Xie told him about the Netherworld Land south of the Little Desolate Domain.
• Ding Xie and Tu Shan Jun completed their circuit of the East Ward without finding hidden treasures, and Ding Xie mentioned the reputable Ancient Immortal Tower and its North Ward branch.

Ding Xie and Tu Shan Jun left the Myriad Dharma Sect market aboard a spirit ark, avoiding Zi Shaoqing by changing Ding Xie's appearance. After a year of travel and reflection, Ding Xie returned to Sun City, where he faced the emotions of going home after three years away.

• The spirit ark arrived at the Myriad Dharma Sect market, where Sun City's clerks checked passengers and questioned a nine-fingered young man about Ding Xie.
• Ding Xie, disguised on Tu Shan Jun's advice, boarded the ark and escaped Zi Shaoqing's search.
• Tu Shan Jun rested during the journey, improved his talisman-making, and showed Ding Xie the developing world inside the soul banner.
• Ding Xie spent a year meditating and resolving the affairs that might become heart demons, reaching the peak of Foundation Establishment.
• Ding Xie stepped off the spirit ark in Sun City after three years away and hesitated at the thought of returning home; Tu Shan Jun told him, "There are no ifs!"

Tu Shan Jun and Ding Xie returned to Northfall Mountain, where they discovered that the Ding Family ancestor had formed a Golden Core. Ding Xie reunited with his parents, only to learn that they had already died and had used a hidden array to let him see them one last time.

• Tu Shan Jun and Ding Xie learned in Sun City that Hou Jingyan had left to travel and gain experience.
• During their journey, Tu Shan Jun discussed Ding Xie's stable cultivation and his prospects for Core Formation.
• At the Ding Family residence, Tu Shan Jun sensed that the family ancestor had formed a Golden Core.
• Ding Xie entered his family courtyard and joyfully reunited with his parents, who appeared to be making talismans and ink sticks.
• Ding Xie's parents revealed that they were already dead, explained that the courtyard's array had awakened when he entered, and gave him the Spirit Demon Death-Defying Art.
• Ding Xie cried out in grief as Tu Shan Jun remained outside the courtyard, realizing an array had been operating there.

After Ding Xie found his parents dead, he confronted Patriarch Ding and demanded their souls, while Tu Shan Jun guarded his side. Patriarch Ding denied holding the souls but said the matter involved the Ding Lineage’s hidden foundation, leaving Tu Shan Jun and Ding Xie facing a possible fight.

• Tu Shan Jun entered the courtyard and found Ding Xie grieving beside his dead parents as the Ding Lineage gathered outside.
• Ding Xie seized Patriarch Ding and demanded to know why his parents had died, nearly falling into demonic deviation before Tu Shan Jun suppressed it.
• Ding Xie remembered agreeing to his parents’ final wish not to seek trouble with the Lineage after they died.
• Ding Xie demanded his parents’ souls and said he wanted nothing to do with the Lineage afterward.
• Patriarch Ding denied detaining the souls and said he was powerless because they concerned the Lineage’s hidden foundation.
• Tu Shan Jun asked Ding Xie whether he wanted the Lineage dead or alive.

Tu Shan Jun confronted Ding Chuanli at Northern Fallen Mountain and defeated the Ding family patriarch in a battle of domains. Ding Chuanli then agreed to lead Tu Shan Jun and Ding Xie to the souls of Ding Xie's parents.

• Tu Shan Jun opened the Unlit Realm and pursued Ding Chuanli into the clouds, leaving Ding Xie to face the Ding family elders.
• Tu Shan Jun and Ding Chuanli exchanged attacks, and Tu Shan Jun's sword pellet was damaged by Ding Chuanli's Azure Lotus treasure.
• Tu Shan Jun and Ding Chuanli cast their domains, and Tu Shan Jun's shrine overwhelmed Ding Chuanli's half-formed Purple Palace.
• Ding Chuanli fell back to Northern Fallen Mountain and admitted defeat to the lineage elders.
• Ding Xie demanded the return of his parents' souls, and Ding Chuanli led him and Tu Shan Jun toward the rear mountain.

Tu Shan Jun and Ding Xie followed Ding Chuanli into a hidden ancestral hall, where they encountered a chained monster fused with a broken magical treasure. Tu Shan Jun identified the creature as a parasitic symbiosis, but Ding Xie's search for his parents' souls remained unresolved.

• Ding Chuanli led Tu Shan Jun, Ding Xie, and two elders across a formation-hidden bridge to an ancestral hall in the back mountain.
• Ding Chuanli opened a concealed cave by performing seal arts, and an invisible creature approached amid chains and eerie roars.
• The creature appeared beneath the moonlight as a four-eyed monster bearing a broken wine goblet fused to its head.
• Tu Shan Jun stopped Ding Xie from approaching and tested the monster with blood from his Bloodslaying Art, which the creature absorbed.
• Tu Shan Jun used his Realm of No Illumination to inspect the monster and concluded that a ghost creature and a broken high-grade magical treasure had fused through parasitism.
• Ding Xie asked Brother Li where his parents' souls were.

Tu Shan Jun and the others examined a chained ghost whose embedded magical treasure drained its power and fed it bloody liquid. As they wondered how to extract its soul, Ding Xie approached and inspected the object in its head.

• Tu Shan Jun identified the ghost as the source of the calm voice and observed its grotesque, chained body.
• The group saw that a magical treasure was embedded in the ghost, drawing on its power and feeding it bloody liquid.
• Tu Shan Jun recognized inscriptions on the wine vessel as resembling the Spirit-Demon Bloodslaughter Art.
• The clan elder recoiled as the group considered how to extract the ghost's soul.
• Ding Xie approached the ghost and examined what was embedded in its head.

Tu Shan Jun and Ding Xie searched the records for a way to destroy the ghostly creature in the Ding Lineage’s ancestral hall, but found no clues about its origins. They returned at night with Ding Chuanli and summoned the creature, leaving it revealed beneath the moonlight.

• Tu Shan Jun and Ding Xie studied the Spirit Demon Death-Defying Art and records about the ghostly creature, and Tu Shan Jun wondered whether the Ding Lineage’s old ancestor had consumed the spiritual liquid.
• After searching through the records for another day, Tu Shan Jun and Ding Xie settled on destroying the creature by brute force, while Ding Xie wept silently over the jade slips.
• Tu Shan Jun, Ding Xie, and Ding Chuanli returned to the ancestral hall, where Ding Chuanli thanked Tu Shan Jun and asked him to help the Ding Lineage.
• Ding Chuanli opened the formation, and Tu Shan Jun used his blood to scatter clouds that blocked the moonlight.
• The moonlight fell into the ancestral hall and revealed the towering ghostly creature.

Tu Shan Jun, Old Ancestor Ding, and Ding Chuanli attacked the two-faced ghostly creature, but its inscription-covered chains protected it from their blows. They unsealed the chains, freeing the creature to tear away its restraints and reveal its full power.

• Old Ancestor Ding stirred Northfall Mountain’s earth veins while the Ding clan elders activated the clan’s grand formations.
• Tu Shan Jun, Ding Chuanli, and Ding Xie attacked the ghostly creature, but its chains repelled their weapons and spells while it wounded Tu Shan Jun.
• Ding Xie proposed unsealing the chains, and Tu Shan Jun agreed to try despite the risk of freeing the creature completely.
• Old Ancestor Ding performed the unsealing rite, causing the inscriptions on the chains to fade.
• The ghostly creature tore off its bound shoulder blades, regrew its arms, and rose to its full height with its terrifying aura unleashed.

Tu Shan Jun and Ding Chuanli fought the freed ghost monster in the Ding ancestral hall, using Golden Core talismans and sword arts to restrain it. Just as Ding Chuanli seemed to land a decisive strike, the monster revealed another form, hurled him aside, and broke Tu Shan Jun’s ritual seal.

• The freed ghost monster took on a handsome male-bodied, female-faced form whose power surpassed Ding Chuanli’s, and Tu Shan Jun prepared for a prolonged battle.
• Tu Shan Jun raised a Daoist ritual altar and used Golden Core talismans to still the wind, dispel the mist, and strengthen Ding Chuanli.
• Ding Chuanli attacked with the Azure Lotus sword while Tu Shan Jun suppressed the ghost monster with talismans, a binding net, and the Formless Darkness Realm.
• Tu Shan Jun trapped the ghost monster long enough for Ding Chuanli to strike its neck with the Azure Lotus divine sword.
• The ghost monster caught the sword with tiny black hands, threw Ding Chuanli into the formation, and broke Tu Shan Jun’s hand seal as an infant crawled from its body.

Tu Shan Jun and Ding Chuanli fought a middle Golden Core demon ghost inside the Ding ancestral hall, but it overwhelmed them as dawn approached. With Ding Xie supplying the Soul Banner’s power, Tu Shan Jun invoked Ghost King Reborn and unleashed his Divine Spirit Death Realm against the monster.

• The demon ghost shattered the ritual altar and Wind-Calming Banner, wounded Tu Shan Jun, and beat down Ding Chuanli.
• Tu Shan Jun restored Ding Chuanli’s talisman armor and the Wind-Calming Banner, then decided they had to risk everything before dawn strengthened the ghost.
• Tu Shan Jun told Ding Xie to prepare the Soul Banner’s final technique, and Ding Xie fed it mana and two Golden Core-grade Yin Soul Pills.
• Ding Chuanli used his Dharma Domain to restrain the demon ghost briefly, but it defeated him and pierced through his domain.
• More than nine hundred Yin Spirits entered Tu Shan Jun, raising him to the middle Golden Core stage as Ghost King Reborn took effect.
• Tu Shan Jun invoked the Heavenly Dao Seal, Dharma Domain, and Divine Spirit Death Realm, and the demon ghost charged into the black light.

Tu Shan Jun used his domain and the Yin gods in his shrine to battle the three-bodied demon ghost, eventually pulling its yin spirit free. Just as the Ding clan ancestor believed they had won, Tu Shan Jun’s borrowed cultivation collapsed and the shrine began to fail.

• The demon ghost struck Northfall Mountain’s grand formation, injuring its nine Foundation Establishment cultivators, and Ding Chuanli entered the formation to stabilize it.
• Tu Shan Jun trapped the demon ghost in his domain and summoned the shrine’s Yin gods to help restrain it while Ding Xie supplied magical power.
• Tu Shan Jun and the Yin gods used their dharma seals to separate most of the demon ghost’s Yin god from its body and bind it with black threads.
• The demon ghost chanted a spell, drew power from its wine cup, and tore free of the threads, prompting Tu Shan Jun to force his incomplete domain back into action.
• Tu Shan Jun’s attack pulled the demon ghost’s yin spirit from its body, but Tu Shan Jun then fell from the sky as his cultivation dropped and the shrine began to flicker and unravel.

Ding Xie formed a Golden Core to stop the three-bodied demon ghost from breaking through the formation, sacrificing his life with the Death-Enduring Art. He then returned as a Golden Core cultivator within the Soul Banner and joined Tu Shan Jun to fight the demon ghost.

• Ding Xie swallowed a Yin Soul Pill and began forming his core while the Ding Lineage patriarch and the elders held the formation against the demon ghost.
• The three-bodied demon ghost broke free of the Red-Haired Ghost cultivator and repeatedly attacked the formation as Ding Xie condensed his Golden Core.
• Ding Xie formed a cracked Golden Core, then used the Death-Enduring Art to restore his Yin Spirit and perfect the core at the cost of his life.
• Tu Shan Jun awoke and discovered Ding Xie's Golden Core Yin Spirit had entered the Soul Banner.
• Ding Xie appeared alive as a Golden Core cultivator, took up the Soul Banner, and joined Tu Shan Jun to slay the demon ghost.

Ding Xie used the Soul Banner to trap the escaped three-bodied demon ghost in the Ten-Direction Ghost King Slaughtering Formation, where its powers battered and weakened it. Tu Shan Jun urged Ding Xie to capture rather than kill the demon ghost so they could claim its Yin God and protect Ding Xie's parents' souls, and the Ding family ancestor prepared earth-vein fire for Tu Shan Jun.

• Ding Xie wielded the Soul Banner after advancing to Golden Core, while the three-bodied demon ghost broke the Ding family ancestor's formation and sent him flying.
• Ding Chuanli urged Ding Xie to drive the demon ghost away, and Ding Xie used ten phantom soul banners to trap it in a formation.
• Tu Shan Jun spent his stored Yin Soul Pills to recover, and the formation suppressed the demon ghost's senses and Golden Core.
• Ding Xie commanded the Yin Gods to unleash bone-eroding yin wind and dantian yin fire, injuring the demon ghost as it tried to escape.
• The Yin Gods struck the demon ghost down with water viscera thunder, and Tu Shan Jun told Ding Xie not to kill it so they could seize its Yin God and safeguard his parents' souls.
• Tu Shan Jun asked the Ding family ancestor to draw earth-vein fire for artifact refinement, and the ancestor complied.

Tu Shan Jun used the Ding family’s earthfire grand array to melt the Three-Bodied Demon Ghost and broken wine goblet, recovering Ding Xie’s parents’ souls. He forged the materials into the soul banner, which advanced to a magical treasure and pushed Tu Shan Jun into the middle Golden Core stage.

• Ding Chuanli activated the artifact-refining grand array and raised a magical treasure-grade furnace from the magma.
• Tu Shan Jun put the sealed Three-Bodied Demon Ghost and broken wine goblet into the furnace and used his Dharma Eye to locate Ding Xie’s parents’ souls.
• Tu Shan Jun extracted the souls, and Ding Xie received them before giving Tu Shan Jun the soul banner.
• Tu Shan Jun melted the demon ghost and wine goblet, then refined their materials into the soul banner instead of restoring the broken treasure.
• The soul banner advanced into a magical treasure, Tu Shan Jun broke through to the middle Golden Core stage, and he placed the demon ghost’s Yin Spirit inside the banner.

Ding Xie’s jade box reached Gale Valley, where the soul banner landed and began attracting local spirits. Tu Shan Jun remained trapped inside until a scaled hand from the river creek touched the banner and offered a chance to bind a new Banner Master.

• Ding Xie’s jade box was delivered to Gale Valley, and the soul banner burst from it into its full size.
• Tu Shan Jun surveyed the valley and waited for an intelligent sprite or a chance to find a body to inhabit.
• A drowned Yin ghost approached the soul banner, was absorbed, and became an enslaved soul.
• A young man urged his father to search the valley for the fallen object, and his father agreed to go after sunrise despite the River Creek Master’s territory.
• A scaled cyan hand gripped the soul banner, and Tu Shan Jun accepted the prompt to bind a new Banner Master.

Tu Shan Jun possessed a crocodile spirit, looted its underwater lair, and gathered wandering souls while seeking a way out of Yinwind Valley. After killing two black bears who pursued the fallen Soul Banner, he followed their tracks through the rain toward a distant mountain fire.

• Tu Shan Jun took control of a crocodile spirit and searched its underwater cave, where he found and collected a hundred-year Beryl Water Flower.
• He gathered five wandering souls into the Soul Banner while leaving Yinwind Valley and wondered whether the cultivation world had an underworld.
• Tu Shan Jun encountered a young black bear and his father, revealed the Soul Banner, and killed them when the young bear seized it.
• He turned the old bear's hide into a cloak, then followed the bears' tracks in search of a main road.
• After half a day of wandering, Tu Shan Jun saw firelight on a mountain through the torrential rain and hurried toward it.