Chapter Summaries

True Person Falling Flame faced an assault by Little Wasteland’s righteous and demonic Grandmasters, who wanted the spirit treasure held by Tu Shan Jun. After trusting Tu Shan Jun, Zi Daoxu revealed a Golden Core peak cultivator’s Yin God, and Tu Shan Jun recognized it as the Heavenly Ghost King.

• True Person Purple Sun provoked the gathered Grandmasters and claimed Sun City would keep Tu Shan Jun and the spirit treasure, while Old Monster Profound Baleful urged everyone to unite and seize it.
• Master Shijian rallied the righteous sects to prevent the demonic path from obtaining the treasure, and the Grandmasters began attacking the Sunflame Grand Formation.
• Sun City’s Golden Core cultivators feared the formation would fail, while True Person Falling Flame struggled over whether to protect Tu Shan Jun.
• Tu Shan Jun urged True Person Falling Flame to trust him and said a Yin God from a late-stage or stronger Golden Core cultivator could resolve the crisis.
• True Person Falling Flame agreed to trust Tu Shan Jun, then opened a treasure box containing a Golden Core peak cultivator’s Yin God, which Tu Shan Jun identified as the Heavenly Ghost King.

Tu Shan Jun reunited with True Person Fallen Flame and took back the Heavenly Ghost King's Yin Spirit while Sun City's allies withdrew their support from the grand formation. After Tu Shan Jun devoured the Heavenly Ghost King's Yin Spirit, his Golden Core shattered and a Nascent Soul emerged, leaving his breakthrough underway as the formation faced attack.

• True Person Fallen Flame gave Tu Shan Jun the pearl containing the Heavenly Ghost King's Yin Spirit and apologized for the calamity threatening Sun City.
• True Person Purple Sun learned that the Sunflame Grand Formation would soon fail and arranged to evacuate resources toward the Eastern Wasteland.
• The four great Lineages agreed to withdraw their defensive forces, while Ding Chuanli and several Golden Core Attendants chose to leave rather than abandon True Person Fallen Flame.
• More than a hundred Grandmasters attacked the weakened formation, and True Person Fallen Flame merged with it to repair its cracks.
• Tu Shan Jun refined the pearl, revealed himself to the Heavenly Ghost King, and collected his Yin Spirit in the Soul Banner.
• Tu Shan Jun's Golden Core shattered, and his Nascent Soul emerged and flew toward his sea of consciousness.

Tu Shan Jun attained the Nascent Soul realm, contained the devil, and returned to his true body before Sun City's Solar Flame Grand Formation fell. He arrived in time to save True Person Falling Flame and revealed himself to the assembled cultivators as Soul Venerable, a cultivator who had transcended tribulation but lost his body.

• Tu Shan Jun reached the Nascent Soul realm, subdued the devil, and transferred it and Blood Origin into the Soul Banner while returning to his true body.
• Zi Shaoqing asked the gathered Golden Core cultivators to defend Sun City, but they refused unless True Person Falling Flame gave up the devil.
• The Solar Flame Grand Formation collapsed, and True Person Falling Flame faced more than a hundred Golden Core grandmasters alone.
• True Person Falling Flame fought off the attackers until their combined spells engulfed him, while True Person Purple Sun and Tu Shan Jinghong tried to reach him.
• Tu Shan Jun arrived on the Soul Banner, shielded True Person Falling Flame, and revealed his Nascent Soul aura to the assembled cultivators.
• After Old Monster Black Baleful identified him as the devil that had devoured Blood Origin's yin spirit, Tu Shan Jun said he was Soul Venerable, a cultivator who had succeeded in transcending tribulation but lost his body.

Tu Shan Jun faced a coalition of righteous and demonic cultivators after revealing his Nascent Soul strength and demonic true form. When the coalition attacked, he raised the Soul Banner to fight back, and the chapter ended with him vanishing amid the blast of his first move.

• Abbot Jianwen and the other sect grandmasters backed away from fighting Tu Shan Jun after recognizing that he had reached the Nascent Soul realm, while Feng Chengyin realized he resembled the lord of Great Black Mountain.
• True Person Falling Flame confirmed Tu Shan Jun’s strength, and Zi Shaoqing recognized him as the old acquaintance she had believed dead.
• Old Monster Dark Baleful recruited High Person Earth Corpse, Old Devil Desirejoy, and Spirit Gate into a plan to kill Tu Shan Jun and divide the spoils.
• A Spirit Gate cultivator used a treasured mirror to expose Tu Shan Jun’s true form, and Tu Shan Jun killed him, refined his body into Baleful Intent, and captured his yin spirit.
• The righteous and demonic cultivators joined forces to attack Tu Shan Jun, who blocked their spells with the Soul Banner and prepared to strike back.

Tu Shan Jun broke free of the sects’ formations and unleashed the Soul Banner’s divine ability against the assembled righteous and demonic cultivators. The alliance realized how dangerous the Soul Banner Devil Lord was and prepared to use every remaining trump card while betting that his mana would run out.

• The righteous and demonic sects joined forces to trap Tu Shan Jun, while Feng Chengyin’s allies planned to conserve their strength and wait for an opportunity to claim spoils.
• Tu Shan Jun burst through the Yi Wood formation, killed the corpse kings, and absorbed their souls and baleful intent into the Soul Banner.
• Tu Shan Jun released Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts, tearing apart the great formation and sending his evil ghosts and Golden Core yin gods against the cultivators.
• The assembled sects recognized Tu Shan Jun as the Soul Banner Devil Lord and understood that only another Nascent Soul True Lord could reliably kill him.
• Old Devil Desire Joy urged the cultivators to reveal their trump cards, arguing that Tu Shan Jun remained weakened by possession and could be defeated if his mana was exhausted.

Tu Shan Jun slaughtered the Grandmasters who had joined the assault, absorbing their remains and yin spirits into his Soul Banner while pursuing the survivors. As he turned on Old Devil Desire-Joy, the watching Nascent Soul True Lords debated intervening, and one of them ordered him to stop.

• True Person Wind-Stabilizing froze in fear as Tu Shan Jun passed, then True Person Clear Void rescued him and pursued Tu Shan Jun’s escaping light.
• Tu Shan Jun killed True Person Black Wind, absorbed him into the Soul Banner, and chased True Person Blood-Chant, who briefly escaped with help from the White Bone Dragon-Binding Spear.
• Tu Shan Jun used the Devour Soul divine ability to kill True Person Blood-Chant and send his yin spirit into the Soul Banner.
• Tu Shan Jun attacked the Spirit Demon Sect’s cultivators and beheaded High Person Earth Corpse, whose yin spirit escaped with spirit treasure protection.
• Tu Shan Jun confronted Old Devil Desire-Joy as the observing Nascent Soul True Lords discussed stopping the slaughter, and a Myriad Dharma Sect True Lord shouted, “Stop!”

Tu Shan Jun halted his assault after four Nascent Soul True Lords intervened and explained that mass deaths among the Little Desolate Region’s cultivators could cost the region its Central Origin Region quotas. He learned that the next allocation was thirty years away, while True Lord Wuya questioned whether Tu Shan Jun had been in the region long enough to count toward its strength.

• True Person Yuhuan welcomed the arrival of a Hehuan Sect True Lord, whose presence dispelled the black mist and ended the battle.
• Tu Shan Jun shattered the bed carriage and revealed True Lord Qingshang, then joined the Dragon Lord, True Lord Wuji, and True Lord Wuya in the sky.
• True Lord Wuya asked Tu Shan Jun to stop killing Golden Core cultivators and explained that their deaths could weaken the Little Desolate Region against invasion.
• True Lord Wuya revealed that regional strength determined access to the Central Origin Region and that the Little Desolate Region was expected to receive three ancient treasure keys.
• Tu Shan Jun asked whether he could count toward another key, and True Lord Wuya questioned whether he had remained in the Little Desolate Region for a full hundred years.

Tu Shan Jun negotiated the surrender of the righteous and demonic forces, securing an ancient treasure key and evil ghosts while sparing Sun City's mana. After retreating to study pill refinement, he received a brief request to meet from Tu Shan Jinghong and decided to see him.

• Tu Shan Jun told the gathered Nascent Soul True Lords that he would not exhaust his mana, then negotiated an ancient treasure key and evil ghosts in exchange for sparing the defeated cultivators.
• The righteous and demonic grandmasters withdrew after learning the negotiations were settled, and True Person Falling Flame welcomed Tu Shan Jun to Sun City.
• Tu Shan Jun accepted the Yuanyang Domain key and the Dragon-Pattern Nascent Transformation Pill formula, then began studying pill refinement in Sun City's Pill Pavilion.
• Two months later, Tu Shan Jun received a one-word calling card from Tu Shan Jinghong and decided to meet him for the child's sake.

Song Shu and his junior brother hunted fierce ghosts in East Abyss and learned that sects were gathering them after a defeat to the Devil Lord. In Sun City, a mysterious bamboo-hatted visitor waited for Tu Shan Jun, who finally arrived at the Pill Pavilion.

• Song Shu and his junior brother captured a late Qi Refining fierce ghost and returned to a nearby White Bone Temple base to exchange their haul.
• Song Shu told his junior brother that the sects were hunting ghosts to meet a condition imposed by the Devil Lord, and named Patriarch Chunjun and Patriarch Changshui among those involved in the siege.
• Zi Shaoqing escorted a veiled, bamboo-hatted visitor to the top floor of Sun City's Pill Pavilion, where the visitor waited for Tu Shan Jun.
• Tu Shan Jun arrived at the Pill Pavilion, and the trembling visitor faced him across the light and shadow.

Tu Shan Jinghong reunited with Tu Shan Jun, who had returned through cultivation anew, and they discussed how their paths had diverged as she grew up. She planned to go to the Upper Sect in half a year, while Tu Shan Jun urged her to choose her own path and she offered to help Aunt Long, Uncle Ma, and the others leave the Little Wilderness Domain.

• Tu Shan Jinghong removed her veil and conical hat, recognized Tu Shan Jun, and learned he was alive.
• Tu Shan Jun and Tu Shan Jinghong reunited, and he praised her growth and Golden Core cultivation.
• Tu Shan Jinghong proposed returning together to Great Black Mountain, but realized her responsibilities to the Myriad Dharma Sect complicated that plan.
• Tu Shan Jun urged Jinghong to follow her own path rather than live beneath his protection, and she said she still wanted to return to Great Black Mountain.
• Jinghong told Tu Shan Jun she would go to the Upper Sect in half a year and expected to remain there.
• Jinghong offered to speak with Aunt Long, Uncle Ma, and the others about leaving the Little Wilderness Domain, knowing they might refuse now that Tu Shan Jun had returned.

After the Blood Fiend Sect suffered heavy losses, True Person Dark Baleful faced defections and sought answers from the sect’s sealed Granduncle Master. Faceless Ghost of the Sacred Spirit Sect offered an alliance against Soul Venerable True Lord and True Person Fallen Flame in exchange for Sun City.

• True Person Dark Baleful visited the sealed old man beneath Artifact Refining Peak, who urged him to release his Nascent Soul and defended his Seven-Turn Demon Art.
• True Person Dark Balefal learned that more than two hundred people, including a Golden Core elder, had deserted the Blood Fiend Sect and ordered the defectors killed.
• While pursuing the defectors, Old Monster Dark Balefal met Faceless Ghost, who warned that Soul Venerable True Lord could help True Person Fallen Flame become a Nascent Soul True Lord.
• Faceless Ghost offered the Sacred Spirit Sect’s aid and proposed driving away Fallen Flame, asking for Sun City in return.

Tu Shan Jun said goodbye to Tu Shan Jinghong and gave her treasures and advice before she left for the Myriad Dharma Sect. He then focused on refining the Dragon-Pattern Nascent Transformation Pill, hoping to help True Person Fallen Flame reach Nascent Soul and prepare to strike back at their enemies.

• Tu Shan Jun strengthened the seal on Jinghong’s ghostly shadow and gave her an ancient coffin, cultivation resources, and guidance for the journey ahead.
• Jinghong asked whether she could visit again, and Tu Shan Jun assured her she could before she left Sun City without looking back.
• True Person Fallen Flame revealed that he had given Jinghong a lightning-attribute magical treasure, while Tu Shan Jun decided not to leave Sun City to inspect a devil from Jade Beauty River.
• Tu Shan Jun urged True Person Fallen Flame to refuse the request from Jade Beauty River, warning that taking action could trigger his lightning tribulation before the pill was refined.
• Tu Shan Jun questioned a captured Golden Core yin god about the Spirit Demon Sect, Spirit Gate, and the events at Great Black Mountain, but it could not answer.
• Tu Shan Jun left the yin god’s chamber and returned to studying the Dragon-Pattern Nascent Transformation Pill formula.

Tu Shan Jun identified a missing ingredient in True Person Yunyan’s Nascent Transformation Pill formula and learned it required Fire Phoenix blood, which Yunyan’s own bloodline supplied. After Yunyan left, Tu Shan Jun turned his attention to the Spirit Demon Sect’s past schemes and discovered the demon in his sea of consciousness wanted Yu Xiuchuan’s Yin Spirit.

• Tu Shan Jun deduced that the Nascent Transformation Pill formula lacked a balancing ingredient and would otherwise produce a dangerously fierce, ineffective pill.
• True Person Yunyan revealed that Fire Phoenix blood was the missing ingredient and that his own bloodline carried phoenix blood.
• Tu Shan Jun declined to pry into Yunyan’s private past and offered to help if Yunyan ever needed him.
• True Person Yunyan told Tu Shan Jun that Sun City concealed a mighty cultivator’s inheritance, but Tu Shan Jun showed little interest and asked only for a copy of the notes.
• Tu Shan Jun recalled the Spirit Demon Sect’s role in his past troubles and vowed to break the restriction on Yu Xiuchuan’s Yin Spirit memories.
• Tu Shan Jun noticed the demon in his sea of consciousness growing restless, and it indicated that it wanted to eat Yu Xiuchuan’s Yin Spirit.

Tu Shan Jun subdued the intelligent devil, learned it could extract memories by growing on devilish qi, and gained a possible way to uncover the Spirit Devil Sect's secrets. At Great Black Mountain, Nie Quanjiu revealed that the King had returned, and the gathered Golden Core cultivators were debating what to do when a familiar voice appeared at the hall entrance.

• Tu Shan Jun restrained the devil with Xue Yuan's ring and used Soul Search to discover that his Nascent Soul advancement had awakened its intelligence.
• The devil explained that it could gradually obtain memories by absorbing devilish qi, and Tu Shan Jun ordered it to absorb the qi from a Golden Core Yin Spirit.
• Tu Shan Jun found that the Yin Spirit had become an empty shell, placed it in his soul banner, and returned the devil to his sea of consciousness because it could be useful.
• Nie Quanjiu told Great Black Mountain's Golden Core cultivators that the King had returned as a True Lord after the battle at Sun City.
• Ma Lu urged the group to welcome the King, while Tun Chan argued that the King would return if he wished and said he wanted to leave with the Young Lord.
• A familiar voice sounded at the entrance of the Ghost King Hall, and Nie Quanjiu, Ma Lu, Tun Chan, and Wu Tou turned in shock.

Tu Shan Jun returned to Great Black Mountain and reunited with its remaining cultivators, but explained that he would not reclaim his throne or rebuild its power. He urged them to follow Jinghong beyond the region while he settled matters in the Little Wasteland and sought a path to advance further.

• Old Wu and Ma Lu recognized Tu Shan Jun when he entered the Ghost King Hall, and Nie Quanjii knelt to welcome him before Tu Shan Jun helped him stand.
• Tu Shan Jun found that the Dao Seed of Incense had been destroyed, ending his ability to draw on the land’s incense and wishes.
• Nie Quanjii reported that Great Black Mountain had only 319 registered cultivators remaining, including six Golden Core cultivators, after years of threats and departures.
• Tu Shan Jun refused to sit on the throne and said the Little Wasteland was too small for him to pursue immortality.
• Tu Shan Jun told the four cultivators to follow Jinghong beyond the region, gave each a storage pouch of cultivation resources, and asked them to keep advancing.

Tu Shan Jun left Ma Lu and Nie Quanjiu behind as he continued on, while the Corpse Fiend Sect turned High Person Earth Corpse into a living corpse and plotted revenge. On the clouds, Tu Shan Jun confronted a hooded peak Grandmaster, who said his master in the Netherworld wished to meet him.

• Ma Lu realized the gap between himself and Tu Shan Jun, and Nie Quanjiu admitted that neither of them had dared ask to follow the King.
• High Person Heaven Corpse used the Corpse Fiend Sect’s formation and corpse-refining art to merge High Person Earth Corpse’s yin spirit with a headless body bearing the Corpse Fiend’s hands.
• High Person Earth Corpse demanded to take revenge, but High Person Heaven Corpse ordered him to wait until their strength could match a Nascent Soul True Lord.
• Tu Shan Jun confronted a hooded peak Grandmaster on the clouds, and the man said his master was waiting deep within the Netherworld.

Tu Shan Jun met True Lord Taiyi, the hidden Nascent Soul cultivator protecting the Netherworld, who offered to buy his key to the Central Origin Domain and invited him to travel there together. Tu Shan Jun asked to exchange the key for Taiyi’s detailed artifact-refinement insights, and Taiyi hesitated over sharing his inheritance.

• Tu Shan Jun followed a black-robed cultivator to the Heaven-Piercing Tower and met its master, True Lord Taiyi.
• True Lord Taiyi offered Tu Shan Jun wine and revealed that he knew of Tu Shan Jun’s deeds at Great Black Mountain and his key to the Central Origin Domain.
• True Lord Taiyi offered precious materials for the key and invited Tu Shan Jun to journey with him to the Central Origin Domain.
• Tu Shan Jun asked True Lord Taiyi to exchange the key for a detailed manual of his artifact-refinement insights.
• True Lord Taiyi hesitated because the insights concerned his inheritance, and Tu Shan Jun left the matter open while he handled affairs in the Little Desolate Domain.

Tu Shan Jun returned to Sun City and strengthened his Soul Banner while collecting Yin Spirits and controlling a growing fiend. He ordered the fiend to devour a Golden Core Yin Spirit for its memories, but when the fiend hesitated to reveal what it learned, Tu Shan Jun decided to extract the information himself.

• True Lord Taiyi refused to pass his artifact-forging inheritance to Tu Shan Jun and discussed leaving the Little Wilderness Domain with Ah Fu.
• Tu Shan Jun returned to Sun City, guarded a fiend with a pale white ring, and continued filling the Soul Banner with Yin Spirits sent by the sects.
• Over the next three years, the Soul Banner neared one million Yin Spirits, and the fiend grew powerful enough to acquire a victim’s memories.
• Tu Shan Jun brought the fiend to a sealed Golden Core Yin Spirit from the Spirit Demon Sect and ordered it to devour him for information.
• The fiend asked for time to digest the Yin Spirit, but Tu Shan Jun threatened to take the memories himself, prompting the fiend to beg for mercy.

Tu Shan Jun searched the demon’s soul and uncovered Song Mingyun’s memories, learning how Spirit Gate had been infiltrated by the Spirit Demon Sect and drawn into its restoration scheme. He connected the sect’s plans to the events at Great Black Mountain and Sun City, then found a further secret about the black seal.

• Tu Shan Jun subdued the demon and used a soul-searching technique to find Song Mingyun’s memories.
• Song Mingyun’s memories revealed that his master had passed him the Spirit Demon Sect’s inheritance and the Spirit Demon Life-Absorption Art under a divine soul restriction.
• Song Mingyun learned that Spirit Demon Sect agents had infiltrated Spirit Gate, raised his cultivation, and assigned him tasks tied to restoring their sect.
• Tu Shan Jun inferred that the Great Black Mountain plot had been meant to open a treasure vault beneath Sun City, and that the black seal was its key.
• Tu Shan Jun reflected that the Spirit Demon Sect’s scheme had caused the deaths of people he cared about, then noticed the black seal had another purpose beyond opening the vault.

Tu Shan Jun confirmed the Spirit Demon Sect’s plan to restore the sect and discovered that the black seal was the genuine key to a great power’s inheritance. He and True Person Meteorflame entered the inheritance grounds, where Tu Shan Jun easily reached the thousandth step and opened the bronze gate.

• Tu Shan Jun tested the demon’s account against the memories of the Spirit Sect Grandmaster and confirmed the black seal’s importance.
• Tu Shan Jun told True Person Meteorflame that the Spirit Demon Sect planned to retrieve its treasures beneath Sun City, and Meteorflame recognized the black seal as the true key to the inheritance grounds.
• True Person Meteorflame led Tu Shan Jun beneath Sun City’s spiritual vein to the inheritance grounds and explained the trials recorded on its thousand and one steps.
• Tu Shan Jun passed the steps without encountering any trials and reached the thousandth step, leaving True Person Meteorflame astonished.
• Tu Shan Jun placed the black seal in the bronze gate’s groove, and the gate began to open.