Chapter Summaries

Liang An entered Giant Ridge Prefecture and found its streets peaceful, unaware that Chi Xuan had secured Chu Ge's allegiance. The chapter ended with Chu Ge reappearing before Liang An after three years missing, prompting Liang An's suspicion.

• Liang An surrendered his longsword at the city gate and registered before entering Giant Ridge Prefecture.
• Chi Xuan told Chu Ge about his expanding influence and the court's failure to protect Mu Chenyong's family.
• Chi Xuan persuaded Chu Ge to defect by promising to bring his family out safely, and Chu Ge pledged himself to Chi Xuan.
• Liang An visited the Demon Subjugation Office, learned that Gu Ming was away, and decided to wait for him before investigating his order.
• Chu Ge appeared before Liang An, who recognized him as a missing man and became wary.

Chu Ge learned from Liang An that the imperial court planned to purge incense-worshipping groups in Xuzhou, putting the Scarlet Heaven Society at risk, and the two cultivators confronted each other. In Senzhou, Dharma Practitioner Chen Zhengcai arrived to preach and arrange refugees’ relocation to Xuzhou, but an unseen attacker severed his hand and then his head.

• Liang An told Chu Ge that the court was mobilizing Demon Subduing Colonels to hunt the Heavenly Principle Sect’s leader after Colonel Mu’s death.
• Liang An revealed that the Left Commandant would arrive in Xuzhou in a little over a month to purge groups tainted by incense offerings.
• Chu Ge crushed his wine cup and challenged Liang An, who said he was not afraid of death despite Chu Ge’s superior strength.
• Zhang Cheng and another worldly walker went to a Senzhou stronghold to hear Dharma Practitioner Chen Zhengcai preach.
• Chen Zhengcai told the altar master that merchant caravans would bring grain and take devout believers to Xuzhou.
• An unseen attacker severed Chen Zhengcai’s hand and then his head as he prepared to preach.

Chi Xuan learned that the court’s campaign against the Heavenly Principle Cult had devastated the Red Heaven Society and was spreading to other associations. When a Golden Core True Person arrived at Giant Ridge Commandery and offered him a chance to submit, Chi Xuan refused and prepared to stand by his people.

• A man in official boots killed Chen Zhengcai, but the spellcaster’s head exploded and blasted him away as soldiers began capturing and killing Red Heaven Society believers.
• Zhang Cheng escaped through a dog hole into an underground drainage channel while the Demon Suppression forces ordered the believers killed and gathered their incense power.
• Chi Xuan read intelligence reports that the Heavenly Principle Cult had been crushed and that the Red Heaven Society had lost over one hundred thousand people, including sixteen spellcasters.
• The Red Heaven Society’s leaders disagreed over whether to retaliate against the court or keep a low profile as its forces suffered losses across several provinces.
• A Golden Core cultivator arrived above Giant Ridge Commandery and offered Chi Xuan a chance to submit, but Chi Xuan refused to betray his people.

Chi Xuan faced Demon-Subduing Chief Commandant Zuo Qianshan as the Scarlet Heaven Association gathered incense offering power across three prefectures to support him. Zuo unleashed the Great Que God-Slaying Sword, and its Geng Metal sword rain began falling over Giant Ridge City.

• Chi Xuan blocked the Scarlet Heaven Association cultivators from approaching while Liang An and other demon-subduing commandants arrived to join Zuo Qianshan.
• Zhou Hui ordered talisman soldiers to mobilize and mages to gather believers’ incense offering power across the three prefectures.
• Zuo Qianshan offered Chi Xuan a chance to disperse his cultivation, then attacked him with the Demon-Extinguishing Divine Palm.
• Chi Xuan countered with the Ten Thousand Laws Shattering Peak Palm, took heavy internal injuries, and used incense offering power to shield Giant Ridge City and heal himself.
• Chi Xuan drew on the believers’ power to form a vast incense offering Daoist field, while Zuo Qianshan condemned his defiance and summoned the Great Que God-Slaying Sword.
• Zuo Qianshan sent the sword through the river of incense offering power, unleashing Geng Metal sword rain over Giant Ridge City.

Chi Xuan called upon Lord Scarlet Heaven to protect Giant Ridge City from Zuo Qianshan’s sword attack, then controlled the divine body to fight back. As the battle was interrupted by a sun falling from the sky, Lord Scarlet Heaven proclaimed that the scarlet heaven would rise.

• Chi Xuan summoned phantom soldiers and raised the Soul Banner to shield Giant Ridge City from Zuo Qianshan’s Geng Metal sword rain.
• Zuo Qianshan’s giant sword broke through Chi Xuan’s defenses, so Chi Xuan called on Lord Scarlet Heaven for help.
• Lord Scarlet Heaven’s ninety-foot divine body appeared and shattered Zuo Qianshan’s sword attack.
• Chi Xuan entered Lord Scarlet Heaven’s body, trapped Zuo Qianshan in incense clouds, and prepared to continue the fight.
• A sun fell from the western sky, the spiritual qi emptied, and Zuo Qianshan fell from the clouds.
• Lord Scarlet Heaven rose above the altar and declared, “The azure heaven is dead; the scarlet heaven shall rise!”

As the sun shattered and destroyed much of Great Cang, Chi Xuan gathered the people of Xu Province beneath Lord Red Heaven, whose incense-fire power surged dangerously. Chi Xuan resisted being assimilated, realized his path to the False Core realm, and faced Zuo Qianshan as the chapter ended with Lord Red Heaven striking him.

• The sun fell, draining spiritual energy and unleashing fiery fragments that erased Yan Guan and devastated provinces across Great Cang.
• A cultivator in You Province met a mysterious man who said their grotto-heaven was dying, then watched his city and much of the province vanish in the flames.
• Chi Xuan proclaimed that the Azure Heaven had died and the Red Heaven would rise, drawing vast numbers of believers across Xu Province's three prefectures.
• As incense-fire transformed Lord Red Heaven into a towering divine body, Chi Xuan nearly lost himself until Tu Shan Jun cleared the polluted incense-fire and urged him to use his visualization technique.
• Chi Xuan suppressed the divine body's influence, formed a False Core, and declared that he would keep leading people toward survival and peace.
• Zuo Qianshan attacked Chi Xuan with his Que sword and Geng Metal sword rain, but Lord Red Heaven dispelled the attack and struck with Peak-Shattering Palm.

Chi Xuan faced the Great Cang Emperor, who had possessed Wang Jin and sought the secret behind Chi Xuan’s scripture and Chi Tianjun’s divine body. When the Emperor attacked with incense offering power, Tu Shan Jun intervened through the Soul Banner and destroyed the Emperor’s descended divine consciousness.

• Zuo Qianshan used a golden talisman to defend himself against Chi Tianjun, but Chi Xuan’s palm strike wounded him severely.
• Wang Jin appeared, revealed that the Great Cang Emperor had executed him and borrowed his body, and ordered Zuo Qianshan to return to the yamen.
• The Emperor explained how visualization methods had transformed generations of officials into monstrous beings and questioned Chi Xuan about his scripture.
• The Emperor recognized Tu Shan Jun’s presence, and Tu Shan Jun warned Chi Xuan to kill him before his divine consciousness could learn more.
• Chi Xuan attacked Wang Jin with Raging Flame Torrent, but the Emperor reformed from incense offering power and turned the people’s incense against Chi Tianjun.
• Tu Shan Jun used a ghost hand from the Soul Banner to seize the Emperor’s divine consciousness, compress it into a sphere, and burn it away for nourishment.

Tu Shan Jun saved Chi Xuan from the Great Cang Emperor’s first attack, but the Emperor then sent a devastating strike from the Imperial Capital and drained the life force of his own people to empower it. As the attack overwhelmed Lord Chitian, Tu Shan Jun began channeling Chi Xuan’s magic power into the Soul Banner and asked for five breaths.

• Tu Shan Jun confirmed his identity after catching the Emperor’s blazing sun, while Lord Chitian healed and protected the Scarlet Heaven Society’s believers.
• The Great Cang Emperor’s golden figure appeared over Juling Prefecture and used a divine statue to drain court believers of their incense, essence, qi, and spirit, killing them.
• Chi Xuan commanded Lord Chitian to attack the statue with Godfire Lawbreaking Slash, but the Emperor’s incense power dispersed his saber and overwhelmed him.
• Chi Xuan realized he could not survive the Emperor’s descending giant palm and regretted dying before victory.
• Tu Shan Jun asked for five breaths and drew Chi Xuan’s remaining magic power into the Soul Banner as an azure-gray hand emerged from its mist.

Tu Shan Jun emerged from the Soul Banner and confronted the emperor’s devastating attack on Giant Ridge Commandery. He protected the city with his Soul-Devouring True Intent, while the emperor’s fading divine sense recognized the scarlet seal before being destroyed.

• Tu Shan Jun appeared from the Soul Banner, and the emperor’s divine sense redirected its attack toward him.
• Tu Shan Jun realized his power could not shield Giant Ridge Commandery from the strike’s aftermath, so he ordered Chi Xuan to protect the people with the scarlet seal.
• Chi Xuan raised the scarlet seal and formed an incense Dharma domain over the Daoist ground.
• Tu Shan Jun unleashed Soul-Devouring True Intent and shattered the emperor’s giant palm with one punch.
• The emperor’s divine sense recognized the seal, then its remaining consciousness and great art were devoured by Tu Shan Jun’s true intent.

Tu Shan Jun helped Chi Xuan complete the victory over their enemy and strengthen Scarlet Heavenly Lord, while Chi Xuan’s divine power healed believers across Juling Commandery. As the grotto-heaven began to collapse, Chi Xuan chose to remain and bring peace to the realm, and he and Tu Shan Jun resolved to rise in revolt.

• Tu Shan Jun crushed the incense phantom with his Soul-Devouring True Intent, refined incense and wish-power into a pellet, and gave it to Chi Xuan.
• Scarlet Heavenly Lord absorbed the pellet, stabilized, and descended into Juling Commandery as Chi Xuan’s Daoist domain spread across the city.
• Chi Xuan basked in the people’s praise, while Scarlet Heavenly Lord’s blessings healed Er Leng and the other believers before the incense power faded.
• Chi Xuan observed that spiritual energy had returned even as the grotto-heaven grew colder and its remaining sun dimmed.
• Tu Shan Jun warned Chi Xuan that the grotto-heaven could not endure much longer, and Chi Xuan refused to leave before bringing peace to the realm.
• Chi Xuan and Tu Shan Jun agreed to rise in revolt.

Chi Xuan’s Crimson Heaven Society seized Xu Province, gathered its forces, and held an uprising ceremony under Crimson Heaven Lord’s divine presence. He appointed lineage leaders to command armies and marched toward Li Province, while Zhang Cheng reached the Forest Province branch altar after inheriting Chen Zhengcai’s cultivation and incense register.

• Chi Xuan ordered the Crimson Heaven Society to rise, and its practitioners captured Xu Province in three days, assembling 150,000 talisman soldiers.
• In Forest Province, Zhang Cheng escaped a raid with Chen Zhengcai’s statue and incense register, inherited his cultivation, and traveled to the branch altar to seek a lineage leader position.
• The Society withdrew its merchant associations and escort agencies from seventeen provinces as the imperial court intercepted believers and killed practitioners and lineage leaders.
• Chi Xuan held the heaven-sacrificing ceremony at Giant Ridge Prefecture, summoned Crimson Heaven Lord, and granted incense divine registers to the lineage leaders.
• Crimson Heaven Lord assigned Zhou Hui and Li Asheng armies to seize neighboring prefectures, ordered Li Yuanzhen to defend Xu Province and recruit troops, then led the remaining forces toward Li Province.

The Scarlet Heaven Society’s forces advanced against several prefectures as Chi Xuan’s army faced the fortified West Pass. Chi Xuan learned that breaking its formation would take ten days unless Tu Shan Jun obtained a personal medium from its defender, Huang Jian.

• A wounded ritualist in Oxhoof Village healed his followers and told them that the Grand Ritualist’s army would soon arrive in Li Prefecture.
• Chi Xuan raised an altar before West Pass, while Zhang Cheng and Qiu Su voiced their belief that Scarlet Heaven would bring peace.
• Zhou Hui told his officers that an insider would detonate the Julou branch altar and open the city’s formation at midnight, despite Xu Bo’s objections.
• Li Asheng led thirty thousand talisman soldiers toward Jugu Prefecture as the Scarlet Heaven forces pressed their advance.
• Huang Jian refused to surrender West Pass, and Chi Xuan learned from Tu Shan Jun that breaking its formation would take ten days without Huang Jian’s hair, blood, or birth date.

Chixuan and Tu Shan Jun used Huang Jian’s son’s hair and blood to curse Huang Jian, pulling his yin spirit from West Pass and trapping it in the Soul Banner. With Huang Jian gone, the grand formation faltered, and Chixuan led the attack on the city.

• Chong Pang and a ritual leader cursed Huang Jian from outside West Pass, but Huang Jian sealed his senses and kept the formation running on incense and wish power.
• Zou Che was sent to retrieve Huang Jian’s son, while officers secretly arranged to follow them and seize the son’s hair and essence blood.
• The Chitian Society confronted the White Sect woman and demanded Young Master Huang’s hair and blood; she agreed in exchange for meeting Chixuan, but was left waiting at the camp.
• Tu Shan Jun used the son’s blood to trace Huang Jian’s lineage and prepare a soul-devouring curse with Chixuan’s Soul Banner.
• The curse tore Huang Jian’s yin spirit from his body and drew it into the Soul Banner; Huang Jian’s son was killed in the ensuing outburst.
• With Huang Jian gone and the grand formation faltering, Chixuan ordered his forces to attack West Pass.

Tu Shan Jun refined a Seven Emotions Pill while the Red Heaven Society captured West Pass, where Chi Xuan punished soldiers who violated his orders. After taking the pill, Tu Shan Jun confronted the danger of suppressing his emotions and exploiting others for power, then remembered the principles he had nearly abandoned.

• Tu Shan Jun captured Huang Jian's Yin Spirit and used its emotions to begin refining a Seven Emotions Pill as the battle formation at West Pass collapsed.
• Chong Pang led the Red Heaven Talisman Soldiers into West Pass, and Chi Xuan ordered his forces to protect civilians and occupy the city.
• Zhang Cheng brought more than a hundred Talisman Soldiers accused of rape, murder, and looting before Chi Xuan, who ordered their execution.
• Tu Shan Jun swallowed the Seven Emotions and Six Desires Pill and felt his suppressed emotions and desire for power surge.
• Tu Shan Jun resisted the urge to devour the city and its people for strength, recognized that using people as medicine was a sin, and remembered his original convictions.

Tu Shan Jun emerged from the Soul Banner with a gentler, more youthful presence and urged Chi Xuan to stop neglecting cultivation for military campaigns. After Chi Xuan agreed to prepare for Core Formation, he turned to an unresolved captive from the White God Sect.

• Tu Shan Jun restored the ruined temple and city, then returned to the Soul Banner after swallowing a radiant pill; Chi Xuan feared for him until he reappeared unharmed.
• Chi Xuan noticed Tu Shan Jun seemed younger and warmer, while Tu Shan Jun absorbed spiritual opportunity into the Soul Banner.
• Tu Shan Jun advised Chi Xuan to leave the campaigns to his subordinates and cultivate until he reached the Grandmaster Realm.
• Chi Xuan agreed to return to Great Ridge Commandery in ten days and asked Tu Shan Jun to prepare a grand formation for his Core Formation.
• He San reported that Commander Zhou had taken Giant Deer Commandery, and Chi Xuan decided to meet the woman from the White God Sect held in the camp.

Wu Ruoshui of the White God Sect summoned Old Monster Jing before Chixuan and Tu Shan Jun, revealing the ancient cultivator’s connection to the grotto-heaven and its imperial seal. Old Monster Jing warned Tu Shan Jun that he would perish on the day he cultivated into a Golden Core grandmaster.

• Wu Ruoshui met Chixuan and said the White God Sect had sent her to help him take West Pass.
• Wu Ruoshui used a formation and a red gemstone to summon Old Monster Jing, who appeared in the image Chixuan most wished to cultivate into.
• Old Monster Jing told Tu Shan Jun that he had stabilized the grotto-heaven with a divine seed, died while bound to it, and had been betrayed by a wicked dragon.
• Old Monster Jing took the crimson seal from Chixuan and explained that the current emperor’s ancestor lacked the key to leave the grotto-heaven.
• Old Monster Jing warned Tu Shan Jun that reaching Golden Core cultivation would be the day he perished.

Old Monster Jing explained that the Great Cang Emperor could attack Chi Xuan’s destiny if he formed a Golden Core, and offered the art of Stealing Heaven and Exchanging Fate as a way to survive. Chi Xuan refused to sacrifice someone else, so Tu Shan Jun volunteered to take his place and urged them to learn the art while promising to explain his plan later.

• Old Monster Jing revealed that the Great Cang Emperor had tied the grotto-heaven’s citizens’ destinies to the divine body and would obstruct Chi Xuan’s Dao if he formed a Golden Core.
• Old Monster Jing offered to teach Chi Xuan the art of Stealing Heaven and Exchanging Fate, which would make another person bear the attack on Chi Xuan’s destiny.
• Chi Xuan refused to exchange his life for another person’s, and Wu Ruoshui volunteered to die in his place.
• Chi Xuan admitted his fear and inability to weigh another person’s life against his own, and Tu Shan Jun reassured him that he had not disappointed him.
• Tu Shan Jun volunteered as the candidate because he came from outside the grotto-heaven and possessed a death-substitution art.
• Old Monster Jing agreed to teach the art, while Tu Shan Jun told Chi Xuan to keep it and trust him until he could explain his plan.

Tu Shan Jun and Chi Xuan investigated Old Monster Jing’s warning and decided to verify his identity before attempting to exchange fates. As Chi Xuan arranged an inquiry into the White God Sect, the Great Cang Emperor learned that three prefectures had fallen.

• Old Monster Jing taught Tu Shan Jun the Heaven-Stealing Seal Arts and Fate-Exchange technique, then vanished when the fire crystal burned out.
• Wu Ruoshui explained that Old Monster Jing was the White God, whose true body was sealed after suffering backlash from the Sinful Dragon.
• Tu Shan Jun demonstrated that Soul Banner Yin Spirits could be destroyed and restored, then warned Chi Xuan to keep the Banner’s secrets hidden from the grotto-heaven.
• Tu Shan Jun told Chi Xuan to investigate the White God Sect, collect early Great Cang legends, and search for stones like Wu Ruoshui’s white meteorite.
• The Great Cang Emperor angrily confronted his court after learning that Western Pass, Giant Deer, and Giant Valley had fallen.

The emperor ordered a campaign against the Scarlet Heaven Association while secretly following the wooden dragon ancestor’s plan to destroy the White God Society and force Zhang Tianbao to form his core. As Chu Liangyong prepared to march against Chixuan and Tu Shan Jun promised to help Chixuan form his golden core, Zhang Cheng arrived in the northern lands to meet a waiting Law Chief.

• The emperor appointed Chu Liangyong General Who Conquers the South and ordered him to suppress the rebellion.
• At Buried Scenery Peak, the wooden dragon told the emperor to keep Zhang Tianbao alive, make him form his core, and march north against the White God Society.
• Chu Liangyong received the imperial edict and prepared his army to fight the Scarlet Heaven Association, while warning Chu Yun not to underestimate Chixuan.
• Chixuan told Tu Shan Jun that the court was assembling more than four hundred thousand troops, and Tu Shan Jun said it was time to help Chixuan form his golden core.
• Zhang Cheng reached the northern lands and was led by a Scarlet Heaven Association believer to a courtyard where Law Chief Zhang Cheng had been waiting.

Zhang Cheng carried the Qiang Province chief’s jade slip of White God Shrine records toward the Grand Mage while continuing through the northern lands. Tu Shan Jun learned from Old Monster Jing that a Nascent Soul could not form within the grotto-heaven, but received guidance on the True Immortal path and Old Monster Jing’s insights into forming one.

• Zhang Zaiyuan gave Zhang Cheng a jade slip containing items recovered from the White God Shrine and asked him to tell the Grand Mage that Qiang Province was ready to rebel.
• Zhang Cheng left for the northern lands, reflecting on the believers’ despair as he traveled to meet more Red Heaven Society chiefs.
• Chi Xuan reviewed six jade slips of White God Shrine records, and Tu Shan Jun asked him to arrange another meeting with Old Monster Jing.
• Wu Ruoshui used sunstones supplied by Chi Xuan to summon Old Monster Jing, who isolated himself with Tu Shan Jun to speak privately.
• Old Monster Jing explained that the grotto-heaven’s incomplete laws capped cultivation at Golden Core and described how a perfected Golden Core could give rise to a false infant.
• Old Monster Jing gave Tu Shan Jun a jade slip of his Nascent Soul formation insights and warned him that forming one depended on surviving the tribulation.