Chapter Summaries

Tu Shan Jun spoke with Old Monster Jing about grief, attachment, and the burdens of cultivation, then accepted his offer to pass on his knowledge without becoming his formal disciple. As Chi Xuan’s core-forming day arrived in Giant Ridge Prefecture, Tu Shan Jun had gained Old Monster Jing’s guidance for the path ahead.

• Old Monster Jing comforted Tu Shan Jun and told him to follow his own path rather than cling too closely to others’ teachings.
• Tu Shan Jun asked whether people should let go of their obsessions, and Old Monster Jing argued that cultivators’ desire for immortality made such advice hollow.
• Old Monster Jing revealed that he needed Tu Shan Jun’s help to face the sinful dragon and explained that Chi Xuan would have to uproot the incense seed to end the Great Cang Dynasty’s Incense Dao.
• Over the following half month, Tu Shan Jun learned to summon Old Monster Jing through the White Sun Stone and heard about the Eastern Wasteland Realm and the Yuanyang Domain.
• Old Monster Jing offered to pass his Dao arts to Tu Shan Jun, who declined a formal master-disciple bond but accepted the inheritance and instruction.
• Chi Xuan’s day to form his core arrived in Giant Ridge Prefecture.

Chi Xuan returned secretly to Red Mountain, where Tu Shan Jun prepared a spirit vein to support his attempt to form a Golden Core. As Great Cang’s armies advanced and Chu Liangyong breached Yi Pass, Zhou Hui chose to hold Giant Ridge Prefecture and draw the enemy’s attention away from Chi Xuan’s secluded breakthrough.

• Chi Xuan returned to Red Mountain and ordered news of his arrival kept secret while asking Zhou Hui and Li Yuanzhen to monitor the court’s armies.
• Tu Shan Jun revealed that he had planted a second-tier spirit vein beneath Red Mountain to help Chi Xuan form a Golden Core, while Old Monster Jing reflected on his depleted resources and fading memories.
• Chu Liangyong’s army bypassed Yan Gate and captured Yi Pass, prompting Zhou Hui and Li Yuanzhen to discuss how to defend Giant Ridge Prefecture.
• Zhou Hui refused to recall troops from the other provinces, saying the six prefectures’ defenses should hold and that retreat would damage morale.
• Zhou Hui privately hoped the battle would keep the enemy away from Red Mountain, then went to inspect Giant Ridge’s defenses as Chi Xuan visited the memorial tablets in Red Goat Palace.

As the imperial army approached Giant Ridge City, Chu Liangyong and the court’s cultivators prepared to break the Scarlet Heaven Society’s incense barrier and confront its defenders. Commandant Cao opened the barrier while Scarlet Profound began forming his core at Scarlet Mountain.

• Chu Liangyong surveyed Giant Ridge City and gathered the imperial court’s cultivators, including three Golden Core Grandmasters, to help destroy its incense barrier.
• The army rested, then assembled before the city as Zuo Qianshan reminded the cultivators to stay close and protect themselves from the incense.
• Commandant Cao sacrificed his blood to empower his saber and cleaved open the incense barrier, allowing Zuo Qianshan, the other Golden Core Grandmaster, and the cultivators to charge inside.
• Zhou Hui ordered the Dharma Chiefs to engage the attackers and rose from the city wall with his incense dharma body.
• At Scarlet Mountain, Scarlet Profound swallowed Tu Shan Jun’s core-forming pill and spiritual aids, then began forming his core as qi gathered into the formation.

Chi Xuan reached the crucial stage of forming his Golden Core as Tu Shan Jun exchanged their fates to shield him from the darkness of a tribulation. The Sinful Dragon summoned Zhang Tianbao’s fate, but Tu Shan Jun appeared in his place and was struck at the Imperial Capital.

• Chi Xuan’s mana gathered into an illusory golden core while Tu Shan Jun prepared the formation to protect him.
• The aged wooden dragon at Buried Scenery Peak summoned Zhang Tianbao’s fate, intending to use it to disrupt Chi Xuan’s core formation.
• Tu Shan Jun exchanged fates with Chi Xuan and used his incantation to shield Chi Xuan from the darkness pursuing him.
• The wooden dragon’s paper effigy transformed into Tu Shan Jun, who found himself before the dragon at Buried Scenery Peak.
• The wooden dragon struck Tu Shan Jun, but his body endured the blow and his mana remained strong.

Tu Shan Jun completed his Soul-Devouring True Intent while fighting the banyan wood dragon, then returned to Crimson Mountain badly injured as Chi Xuan finished forming his core. After learning that Giant Ridge City was under attack, Chi Xuan merged with the divine body and flew toward the battlefield.

• Tu Shan Jun fought the banyan wood dragon, whose Withering and Flourishing True Intent aged his body, and realized that his Soul-Devouring True Intent could consume others’ obsessions with immortality.
• Tu Shan Jun unleashed his completed True Intent in a punch that devoured several years of the wood dragon’s essence, energy, and spirit, before his body exploded and he reawakened at Crimson Mountain.
• Chi Xuan stabilized his newly formed core, while Tu Shan Jun used the soul banner’s Yin Soul Pills and Baleful Intent to repair his shattered Yin Spirit.
• He San delivered an urgent report that Chu Liangyong and three Grandmaster-realm cultivators were attacking Giant Ridge City and its incense offering sanctuary.
• Chi Xuan went to Red Goat Palace, awakened the divine body, merged with it, and flew toward the distant battlefield.

Great Cang’s cultivators attacked Great Ridge City, and the Scarlet Heaven Society’s defenders fought to keep the incense-offering domain intact. Captain Cao revealed his Grandmaster Domain and prepared to cut down the crimson canopy as Captain Zhuang headed toward the formation’s controller.

• Zuo Qianshan ordered the invading cultivators to kill everyone with incense-offering magic power after his blade failed to break the city’s domain.
• Zhang Cheng killed a Daoist who had slain the military commander, while Chu Ge confronted a Demon Subjugation Office captain over the massacre of civilians.
• Chang Xun died from his wounds, and Gu Ming helped Li Xiaoli kill the monk Ku Huai, whose Yin Spirit escaped.
• Zhou Hui ordered fallen defenders’ Yin Spirits and bodies to merge with the domain, strengthening it into a crimson canopy.
• Captain Zhuang set out to kill the formation’s controller while Zuo Qianshan kept the defenders occupied.
• Captain Cao formed his Azure Blade Demon-Slaying Domain and raised his blade to cut down the crimson canopy.

Zhou Hui trapped three Golden Core Grandmasters inside Giant Ridge City with the Heavenly Baleful Mountain-Sealing Array, believing he could protect Chi Xuan’s core formation. Commandant Zhuang revealed the Emperor had planned the campaign around Chi Xuan’s failure, but Zhang Tianbao emerged as a Golden Core cultivator in a colossal divine form and saved the city.

• Zhou Hui sent Li Asheng to help Zhao Jiang fight Zuo Qianshan, then activated the Heavenly Baleful Mountain-Sealing Array around Giant Ridge City.
• Zhou Hui told Commandant Zhuang that he had trapped the Grandmasters to keep them from disrupting the Grand Mage’s core formation.
• Commandant Zhuang revealed that the Emperor had ordered the campaign to force Chi Xuan to form his core before killing him, and declared that Zhang Tianbao would fail.
• Zhou Hui lost hope as believers’ true spirits and wish-power flowed into the sanctuary and people died around him.
• A golden sun appeared, shattered Commandant Cao’s domain and treasure, and healed the people of Giant Ridge City.
• Scarlet Heaven Lord appeared in a colossal divine body as Commandant Zhuang realized Zhang Tianbao had formed his Golden Core, while Chu Liangyong and the vast army stared in terror.

Chi Xuan used Red Heaven Lord to overwhelm the imperial forces in Giant Ridge City, but five Golden Core grandmasters destroyed the divine body and confronted him directly. He faced them alone, confident that his own cultivation—not the Incense God—could match their strength.

• Red Heaven Lord descended over Giant Ridge City, and Chi Xuan trapped Commander Cao and the attacking cultivators in its hands to refine them.
• Zuo Qianshan and Commander Zhuang tried to rescue Commander Cao, but Chi Xuan seized them as well and began refining the grandmasters and their forces.
• Two more Golden Core commanders arrived and broke open Red Heaven Lord's clasped hands, allowing the survivors to escape before Chi Xuan absorbed their fleeing yin spirits with the Soul Banner.
• The five Golden Core grandmasters attacked together and destroyed Red Heaven Lord's divine body with sword qi, blade qi, vines, and a great art.
• Chi Xuan appeared in crimson Daoist robes and prepared to fight the five grandmasters alone, while they demanded that he surrender.

Chi Xuan used the Fire Infusion Scripture and Scarlet Extreme Fire Dragons to defeat the five Golden Core grandmasters after Lord Scarlet Heaven’s destruction. The Great Cang Emperor intervened and carried the wounded grandmasters away, leaving Chi Xuan determined to go to the imperial capital and settle matters there.

• After Lord Scarlet Heaven dispersed, Zhou Hui rallied the Dharma practitioners, but Chi Xuan told them to leave the rest to him.
• When the five Golden Core grandmasters attacked, Chi Xuan unleashed the Fire Infusion Scripture and summoned a fire dragon against them.
• Chi Xuan raised a mountain-sealing formation to protect Giant Ridge City, then formed thirty-two Scarlet Extreme Fire Dragons to fight the weakened grandmasters.
• Chu Liangyong summoned the Great Cang Emperor with an Azurewood command talisman, but Chi Xuan’s fire dragons engulfed the Emperor’s phantom and the grandmasters.
• The Great Cang Emperor escaped with the scorched and injured grandmasters, and the army retreated from Giant Ridge City.
• Chi Xuan resolved to go to the imperial capital and settle everything once and for all.

Tu Shan Jinghong wanted to return to Black Mountain, but the Myriad Dharma Sect's Sect Leader persuaded her to wait for an expedition to a withering grotto-heaven. Meanwhile, Nie Quanjiu and Ma Lu faced demands from the Corpse Fiend Sect and Blood Fiend Sect and prepared to evacuate Black Mountain's people if necessary.

• Tu Shan Jinghong asked the Myriad Dharma Sect's Sect Leader for permission to leave the sect and return to Black Mountain, but he urged her to wait three to five years for the sect's grotto-heaven expedition.
• The Sect Leader worried that Tu Shan Jinghong's father's suspicious death remained unexplained and that powerful enemies might target her.
• Nie Quanjiu received a third letter from the Corpse Fiend Sect, which had joined the Blood Fiend Sect in demanding Black Mountain's surrender.
• Ma Lu and Nie Quanjiu refused the offer of positions and resources, and Nie Quanjiu forbade them from summoning Tu Shan Jinghong because doing so could expose her to the mastermind behind her father's death.
• Nie Quanjiu resolved to destroy Black Mountain rather than hand it over and to arrange an escape for its people if the sects attacked.
• Unaware of Black Mountain's predicament, Tu Shan Jun stood beside Chi Xuan as the Scarlet Heaven Association advanced after Great Cang's army retreated.

With the grotto-heaven close to withering, Tu Shan Jun, Chi Xuan, and Old Monster Jing decided to uproot the incense Dao seed and connect it to the outside world. Chi Xuan led the Scarlet Heaven Association toward the imperial capital, where the Emperor of Great Cang waited to destroy Zhang Tianbao.

• Old Monster Jing warned Tu Shan Jun and Chi Xuan that the grotto-heaven would wither within months or, at most, two years, and said removing the incense Dao seed could stabilize it.
• Tu Shan Jun and Chi Xuan agreed that they had to end the conflict quickly, and Old Monster Jing joined them in deciding it was time to act.
• Chi Xuan ordered the Scarlet Heaven Association to assemble and march on the imperial capital, then paid his respects at his master's memorial tablet before leaving Scarlet Mountain.
• The Scarlet Heaven Association army of two hundred thousand crossed Dragonhead Pass and advanced toward the imperial capital.
• At court, the Emperor of Great Cang dismissed his officials' concerns and said he would wait for Zhang Tianbao, confident he could defeat him.

Chi Xuan approached Great Cang’s imperial capital and accepted the Great Cang Emperor’s challenge to enter alone, despite his followers’ warnings. When the emperor transformed under the influence of a sinful dragon, Old Monster Jing revealed the dragon’s location and Chi Xuan flew toward Burial Scene Peak.

• The Great Cang Emperor opened the capital’s gates and challenged Chi Xuan to come inside, while Chi Xuan’s followers urged him to besiege the city instead.
• Chi Xuan rejected the emperor’s offer to surrender the imperial seal and told his followers to obey Zhou Hui if he did not return.
• Chi Xuan went alone to meet the Great Cang Emperor, who again offered him the realm and asked only for the imperial seal.
• Chi Xuan declared that he intended to destroy the incense-path seed, and the emperor warned that neither Chi Xuan nor the outer-realm cultivator could do so.
• The Great Cang Emperor transformed as a sinful dragon took control of him, and Old Monster Jing told Chi Xuan that the dragon was hiding at Burial Scene Peak.
• Chi Xuan raised a scarlet protective barrier and flew toward Burial Scene Peak.

Chi Xuan entered Burial Jing Peak and discovered the immense incense Dao tree sustaining the grotto-heaven, while Tu Shan Jun urged him to devour it. Old Monster Jing emerged to confront the wooden dragon and asked Chi Xuan and Tu Shan Jun to hold it off as he awakened his sleeping body, but the old dragon attacked Chi Xuan with overwhelming true intent.

• Chi Xuan reached Burial Jing Peak, triggered the imperial capital’s formation, and used his blood to strike the Great Cang Emperor away.
• Chi Xuan entered the mountain and found the colossal incense Dao tree, whose accumulated incense Baleful Intent could help Tu Shan Jun advance.
• Tu Shan Jun asked Chi Xuan to devour the tree, and Chi Xuan agreed to destroy it for the True Person’s sake.
• Old Monster Jing emerged from the White Sun Stone, confronted the old dragon, and asked Chi Xuan and Tu Shan Jun to buy him a quarter-hour to awaken his sleeping body.
• Chi Xuan attacked the wooden dragon with thirty-two fire dragons, but the dragon’s true intent reduced them to ash and its claw descended upon him.

Chi Xuan battled the old dragon and tried to destroy the banyan tree sustaining the cave-heaven’s suppression formation. When the dragon trapped him with a deadly spell, Lord Scarlet Heaven intervened, but the old dragon shattered his divine body as Chi Xuan countered with the Heavenly Dao Seal and Dharma Domain.

• Chi Xuan defended himself from the old dragon’s withering-and-flourishing true intent with the Soul Banner and advanced toward the banyan tree.
• Chi Xuan and Tu Shan Jun realized that the banyan tree anchored the suppression formation and that breaking it could expose the old dragon to the cave-heaven’s power.
• Chi Xuan transformed the Soul Banner into a flaming saber and attacked the banyan tree, forcing the old dragon to defend it.
• The old dragon trapped Chi Xuan and prepared the Azure King Annihilation, so Chi Xuan tore his command token to summon Lord Scarlet Heaven.
• Lord Scarlet Heaven blocked the attack but was seized and scattered by the old dragon’s True Intent Godslaying, while Chi Xuan formed the Heavenly Dao Seal and invoked the Dharma Domain.

Chi Xuan used the Ten Thousand Laws Judgment Domain to behead the old dragon’s wooden manifestation, but the dragon revealed that its true body was the banyan tree and trapped Chi Xuan. Chi Xuan survived and prepared to spring his next move as the old dragon took the Soul Banner.

• Chi Xuan unfolded his Ten Thousand Laws Judgment Domain and bound the old dragon with twelve fire-dragon chains on the Immortal-Slaying Platform.
• Chi Xuan burned his blood and mana to activate the Immortal-Slaying Guillotine, severing the old dragon’s head.
• Tu Shan Jun and Chi Xuan discovered that the severed dragon was made of wood and resembled the victims of the strange illness.
• The old dragon struck Chi Xuan down, swallowed him in the fallen dragon head, and revealed that its true body was the incense-gathering banyan tree.
• Chi Xuan broke free, told Tu Shan Jun he had learned the old dragon’s true nature, and began casting Myriad Ghosts Roam the Night after the dragon seized the Soul Banner.

Chi Xuan and Tu Shan Jun wounded the old dragon, but a bronze coffin restored the banyan tree. Tu Shan Jun trapped the old dragon in the Ten-Direction Ghost King Life-Slaying Formation before Old Monster Jing returned and opened the coffin.

• Chi Xuan unleashed the Soul Banner’s yin gods, whose strike damaged the banyan tree and forced him to spend mana recovering.
• The banyan tree opened to reveal a bronze coffin that replenished its primordial energy, and the old dragon restored most of its strength.
• Tu Shan Jun and Chi Xuan formed the Ten-Direction Ghost King Life-Slaying Formation, trapping the old dragon’s divine body in black mist.
• The old dragon activated a formation that drew incense-and-faith power from the imperial capital, while Chi Xuan diverted part of the influx with the Soul Banner.
• Old Monster Jing emerged from the white sun, rushed to the bronze coffin, and tore off its lid as the old dragon roared at him.

Tu Shan Jun and Chi Xuan discovered that Old Monster Jing had deceived them while trying to reclaim his original body, which crumbled away in the coffin. As the old dragon exposed their shared history and Old Monster Jing proposed using Chi Xuan’s seal to expel it, the dragon warned that Chi Xuan would die if he left the cave-heaven.

• Old Monster Jing reached for the body in the bronze coffin, but it crumbled into dust before he could reclaim it.
• The old dragon revealed that Old Monster Jing was a fragment of the Venerable’s divine consciousness and accused it of seeking the Venerable’s body, while Old Monster Jing accused the dragon of devouring its master.
• Tu Shan Jun realized the Venerable had reincarnated and considered the danger posed by Old Monster Jing’s uncertain allegiance.
• Chi Xuan offered to join Old Monster Jing in killing the old dragon, and Old Monster Jing agreed before proposing that Chi Xuan leave with the seal and throw it back to him.
• The old dragon’s condensed incense-offering god warned Chi Xuan not to trust Old Monster Jing and claimed Chi Xuan would die if he left the cave-heaven.

The old dragon revealed that the imperial court had used dragon blood and the life force of commoners to sustain the grotto-heaven, while Old Monster Jing explained that a remnant formation trapped everyone inside. After Chi Xuan offered his cultivation to save Tu Shan Jun, Tu Shan Jun refused and vowed to reclaim Chi Xuan’s lost soul thread, even if he had to destroy the old dragon’s chance to escape.

• The old dragon explained that the Dao Tree had recorded fragments of people’s souls and reclaimed the spiritual qi of anyone who tried to leave, while dragon blood forced commoners to drain their own life force.
• Tu Shan Jun steadied Chi Xuan when the revelations nearly caused his golden core to crack, then confronted Old Monster Jing for deceiving him and offered to help retrieve his soul thread.
• Old Monster Jing said a remnant formation trapped everyone in the grotto-heaven and revealed that he wanted Chi Xuan’s Dharma treasure so he could possess Tu Shan Jun and escape.
• Chi Xuan knelt before Tu Shan Jun, called him Master, and offered his cultivation, but Tu Shan Jun lifted him up and refused to accept the sacrifice.
• Tu Shan Jun vowed to recover Chi Xuan’s soul thread by force and threatened to take the old dragon’s chance to escape if the old dragon could not undo the formation.

Tu Shan Jun opened the grotto-heaven’s passage to force the old dragon and Old Monster Jing to reveal how they could escape, then fought to seize an ownerless body that could preserve his life. He unleashed Ghost King Descends into the World as the old dragon’s Nascent Soul power threatened to wither him.

• Tu Shan Jun removed a seal from Chi Xuan and sent it through Funeral Scene Peak’s formation, opening a fissure to the Little Desolation Realm.
• Tu Shan Jun demanded that the old dragon and Old Monster Jing reveal their means of escape before the passage closed.
• The old dragon recalled his incense-fire deity and revealed an ownerless late Golden Core body emerging from the banyan tree.
• Old Monster Jing tried to seize the shell, but the old dragon’s deity blocked him while the old dragon sent his Yang Spirit toward it.
• Tu Shan Jun smashed through the banyan’s branches and charged for the shell, but the old dragon’s Withering and Flourishing power aged him into a decayed state.
• Tu Shan Jun used Ghost King Descends into the World, drawing power from his Yin Spirits and other subordinates as he prepared to take the shell by force.

Tu Shan Jun fought the old dragon to stop him from possessing a cultivator, but Old Monster Jing invaded Tu Shan Jun’s sea of consciousness and disrupted the battle. Tu Shan Jun escaped into the Soul Banner, where Old Monster Jing was destroyed, while the old dragon completed his possession and fled into the vortex.

• Tu Shan Jun broke through the old dragon’s seals and forced his way toward the body the old dragon was trying to possess.
• The old dragon used his Withering and Flourishing Divine Ability, but Tu Shan Jun broke the possession formation and dragged the body out.
• The possessed cultivator struck Tu Shan Jun, and the old dragon’s incense god severed Tu Shan Jun’s wrist as the old dragon completed the possession.
• Old Monster Jing invaded Tu Shan Jun’s sea of consciousness, so Tu Shan Jun abandoned his fleshly body and returned his Yin Spirit to the Soul Banner.
• Old Monster Jing followed Tu Shan Jun into the Soul Banner and was destroyed, while Tu Shan Jun’s body emerged and he watched the old dragon flee into the vortex.