Chapter Summaries

Zhang Tie studied auxiliary formations in Palm Mountain before Elder Lan Ji sent the group to attack the Green Ghost Tribe. As the assault began, Zhang Tie watched Night Clan cultivators unleash a massacre on the city's inhabitants.

• Zhang Tie explored Palm Mountain's cave heaven and began studying the Outline of Auxiliary Formations his master had given him.
• After half a month, Elder Lan Ji transported the group to a valley and ordered the Void Refinement cultivators to encircle the Green Ghost Tribe while the Nascent Soul cultivators advanced directly.
• Zhang Tie and the Nascent Soul cultivators reached a vast city containing hundreds of millions of inhabitants.
• Zhang Tie recoiled at the thought of killing innocent mortals, while the Night Clan cultivators eagerly readied their treasures.
• The Night Clan leader hurled an ice sphere above the city gate, raining down spikes that froze and shattered the people below.

Zhang Tie secretly watched as Elder Lan Ji attacked the City Lord's Mansion and battled three Green Ghost Tribe cultivators who had united through the secret art Three Souls Merged. The fight continued as the trio's unusual techniques and treasures countered Elder Lan Ji's attacks, while Zhang Tie noticed something strange about them.

• Zhang Tie reached the City Lord's Mansion, concealed his presence in a nearby pavilion, and watched the city's grand formation activate as an explosion shook the mansion.
• Elder Lan Ji faced three Green Ghost Tribe cultivators whose combined secret art let them withstand his attack, and he summoned a massive yellow cauldron against them.
• The bald cultivator summoned a golden cicada phantom that swallowed Elder Lan Ji's cauldron before bursting apart.
• Elder Lan Ji sent three Wind Dragons at the trio, and the bald cultivator used a green banner to unleash black thunderballs that battered the dragons.
• Elder Lan Ji attacked one of the Green Ghost Tribe men with a black scissors-shaped treasure, and the man struck it with a huge red-lit arm extending from his chest.
• Zhang Tie noticed something unusual about the three Green Ghost Tribe cultivators as he watched the battle.

Zhang Tie watched Elder Lan Ji attack the three Green Ghost Tribe members and realized their coordinated technique relied on sharing power. The Green Ghost Tribe members survived a three-pronged assault with a barrier powered by the city’s formation, but Elder Lan Ji summoned a towering golden Buddha phantom and began to reveal his true strength.

• Zhang Tie noticed that the Green Ghost Tribe members transferred power among themselves whenever one of them attacked, and he suspected their strength would eventually fail against Elder Lan Ji.
• Elder Lan Ji summoned a blue fire phoenix and joined forces with a winged panther demon beast and Zhang Tie’s Six-winged Scorpion Puppet Beast to attack the three Green Ghost Tribe members.
• The bald Green Ghost Tribe member recalled his green banner and used it to raise a barrier that endured all three attacks without weakening.
• Elder Lan Ji identified the banner as the city formation’s control core, and the bald man said they only needed to hold out until reinforcements arrived.
• Elder Lan Ji dismissed the threat of reinforcements, summoned a towering golden Buddha phantom, and raised his palm as an image of a mountain and a bustling city formed above it.

Elder Lan Ji’s descending palm-world clashed with the Green Ghost Tribesmen’s desperate transformation, devastating the city and leaving the bald man to attack Elder Lan Ji in monstrous form.

• Elder Lan Ji pressed his enormous golden palm-world down toward the Green Ghost Tribesmen’s cyan barrier.
• The three Green Ghost Tribesmen sat together and began a transformation; the two crimson-lit men burst into liquid while the bald man’s lower body changed into a cyan python’s.
• The bald man’s aura surged to the mid Integration stage as he formed giant dragon claws and struck the palm-world, while Zhang Tie escaped underground with an Earth Evasion Talisman.
• The collision shattered the barrier and devastated more than half the city, killing countless residents and cultivators as the dragon claws broke apart.
• The bald man appeared above Elder Lan Ji as a towering half-human, half-python monster and breathed cyan flames at him.

Zhang Tie secretly watched Elder Lan Ji battle a Green Ghost Tribe man wielding the soul-targeting Candle Dragon Flame. Elder Lan Ji revealed that the Night Clan had ordered the Green Ghost Tribe to surrender the flame’s secret art and provide clansmen with its bloodline, while the man began a desperate final attack.

• Zhang Tie observed the battle through a concealed surveillance formation and saw the Green Ghost Tribe man's green flames pass through Elder Lan Ji's umbrella and kill living things inside his palm world.
• Elder Lan Ji severed his hand to contain the flames, sacrificing the palm world and its nearly thousand years of work.
• Elder Lan Ji accused the Green Ghost Tribe of defying its vassal duties and said the Night Clan had demanded the Candle Dragon Flame art and clansmen with its bloodline.
• The Green Ghost Tribe man vowed revenge, then exploded his body and arms and engulfed himself in green flames.
• Elder Lan Ji recognized the danger and sent his scissors-shaped magic treasure, wreathed in the shadow of a black dragon, toward the flame-covered man.

Zhang Tie watched the Green Ghost Tribe man destroy Elder Lan Ji and escape north, then collected Elder Lan Ji’s storage bracelet and talisman-covered hand before fleeing the city. As he prepared to leave on his Hexagonal Formation Disk, someone stopped him and said the mission was not over.

• Elder Lan Ji’s scissor-shaped magic treasure shattered the city’s formation banner, but the Green Ghost Tribe man bit the treasure in two and gravely injured Lan Ji.
• The Green Ghost Tribe man cloaked the area in darkness, killed Elder Lan Ji, and flew north from the city.
• Zhang Tie retrieved Elder Lan Ji’s storage bracelet and talisman-covered hand, removed tracking items, and stored them away.
• Zhang Tie used an Earth Evasion Talisman to travel more than two hundred li from the city, then prepared to depart on his Hexagonal Formation Disk.
• An unseen speaker told Zhang Tie that the mission was not finished and asked where he was hurrying off to.

Zhang Tie killed the Void Refinement cultivator who tracked him through the Hexagonal Formation Disk, then escaped the Night Clan’s territory and examined his spoils. He removed the disk’s tracking restriction and discovered a secret art for refining a Cave Heaven Treasure into a world in his palm.

• A purple-robed Void Refinement cultivator confronted Zhang Tie and revealed that he had tracked him through the Hexagonal Formation Disk.
• Zhang Tie used Witch’s Domain to distract the cultivator while his Nascent Soul clone ambushed and killed him with the Void Extinguishing Soul Spear.
• Zhang Tie took the cultivator’s storage ring, burned the body, and fled on the Hexagonal Formation Disk.
• Two days later, Zhang Tie reached the barren region between the Black Confucian Tribe and the Night Clan and erased the tracking restriction from the disk.
• Zhang Tie examined Lan Ji’s storage bracelet and the dead cultivator’s ring, finding abundant spirit stones and other resources, then gave them to Little Turtle to sort.
• Zhang Tie found a secret art for refining a Cave Heaven Treasure into a world in his palm, which could attack or defend by using the world and its inhabitants to withstand attacks.

Zhang Tie refused to use living beings to protect himself and instead planned to turn the refined Cave Heaven Treasure into a palm hell for housing malicious ghosts. After purchasing formation and yin-attributed materials in Dansu Kingdom, he arrived at Carefree Pavilion and met its shopkeeper under the assumed name Han.

• Zhang Tie decided to replace the cave heaven’s spirit veins with yin veins and release the souls from his Hundred Thousand Souls Banner into the palm hell.
• Zhang Tie’s Nascent Soul clone spent nearly thirty years refining the Cave Heaven Treasure in Lan Ji’s palm while Zhang Tie studied formations.
• Zhang Tie bought formation supplies and yin-attributed materials from a shop in Dansu Kingdom for one hundred thirty-five thousand low-grade Spirit Stones.
• Zhang Tie entered Carefree Pavilion and followed a maid through a glowing doorway to meet the floor’s shopkeeper, Gu Linfan.
• Zhang Tie introduced himself to Gu Linfan as Han, and she activated an Isolation Array around their private room.

Zhang Tie visited Carefree Pavilion, a branch of the Helian Merchant Alliance, to purchase formation materials and asked Gu Linfan about rare yin veins. Gu Linfan promised to seek them through her superiors, and their conversation about their origins and the surrounding region was interrupted by a knock at the door.

• Zhang Tie gave Gu Linfan a jade slip listing the items he wanted, and she said the store had most of them but would need to inquire about the rare yin veins.
• Gu Linfan gave Zhang Tie a communication jade talisman and said she would contact him within several days to over ten days if she found any yin veins.
• Gu Linfan served Zhang Tie spiritual tea from Soul Severing Cliff, and Zhang Tie praised its fiery taste.
• Gu Linfan asked whether Zhang Tie was human; after he confirmed it, she explained that she was human too and that her Gu family lived among the Black Confucian Tribe under the Helian Merchant Alliance.
• Zhang Tie asked Gu Linfan about Fengyuan Continent and the Thirteen Tribes of Tianyun, but a knock at the private room interrupted their conversation.

Zhang Tie completed his purchase of formation and Immortal Spirit Puppet materials from Gu Linfan, then received news of a chance to obtain a mid-grade yin vein. Gu Linfan offered him compensation for winning his own matches in a contest for the ruler of Great Time Country, and Zhang Tie questioned how she knew he was the person the senior sought.

• Zhang Tie paid Gu Linfan 163 high-grade spirit stones for most of the materials he had ordered from the Carefree Pavilion.
• Zhang Tie focused on refining Immortal Spirit Puppets after his formation studies reached a bottleneck.
• Gu Linfan sent Zhang Tie a message that the remaining materials were ready and that she had information about a yin vein.
• Gu Linfan explained that factions in Great Time Country would compete for the throne through an arena contest among Spirit Transformation stage cultivators.
• Gu Linfan offered Zhang Tie a mid-grade yin vein if he won each of his matches, and Zhang Tie asked how she had identified him as the senior's intended candidate.

Zhang Tie considered joining a ruler-contesting combat, then spent months refining and improving scorpion puppets. After deciding to participate and receiving his entry token and directions, he finished preparing and set off for the Great Time Country.

• Gu Linfan explained that the arena’s formations would suppress contestants to the Spirit Transformation stage, gave Zhang Tie information about the combat, and sold him materials for ninety-three top-tier spirit stones.
• Zhang Tie studied the combat rules, decided to participate, and later received an entry token and a map jade slip from Gu Linfan.
• Zhang Tie rented a secluded grotto-heaven and spent six months refining a six-winged scorpion puppet and three four-winged scorpion puppets.
• Zhang Tie improved the puppets’ power, speed, and spirit-stone efficiency with new restrictions and formations.
• Zhang Tie finished preparing his six-winged scorpion puppet and set off for the Great Time Country.

Zhang Tie entered Great Time Country to replenish his supplies and buy materials for refining a Three-headed Demon Snake Puppet Beast, but Carefree Pavilion lacked three crucial ingredients. Following Lord Tong’s arrangement, he went to Longevity Pavilion and learned that its shopkeeper was waiting below a well.

• Zhang Tie arrived at Great Time Country, showed a red token at the right gate, and was told to go to Longevity Pavilion.
• Zhang Tie visited Carefree Pavilion to buy supplies and materials, and obtained a spirit beast ring for Little Turtle.
• Zhang Tie discovered that Carefree Pavilion had none of the Crimson Treasure Crystal, Cold Marrow Stone, or seventh-rank demon beast soul needed for the Three-headed Demon Snake Puppet Beast.
• Zhang Tie went to Longevity Pavilion, showed his token to a Daoist-robed boy, and followed him into the rear courtyard.
• The boy pointed Zhang Tie toward the well and said the shopkeeper was below.

Zhang Tie discovered a hidden passage into the Longevity Pavilion and met the other candidates for the ruler competition. He was shown to his resting place after declining Fellow Daoist Yi’s invitation to spar.

• Zhang Tie identified the formation concealing a well that led to an independent space and entered it.
• A veiled attendant welcomed Zhang Tie to the Longevity Pavilion and guided him through its garden to a side hall.
• Zhang Tie met Tong Gensheng, Fellow Daoist Yi, and Fellow Daoist Xiang, the other candidates gathered before the competition.
• Fellow Daoist Yi invited Zhang Tie to spar, but Zhang Tie declined because he had urgent matters to handle.
• An attendant escorted Zhang Tie toward his resting place.

Zhang Tie joined Tong Gensheng and his other allies at the combat arena for the contest to become the nation’s ruler. After learning their first opponents were the contestants who drew lot number eight, they gathered at the Ding-character Combat Arena as the adjudicator called for the match to begin.

• Zhang Tie stopped refining puppets and joined Tong Gensheng, Old Woman Xiang, and the masked man surnamed Yi for the competition.
• Tong Gensheng promised each ally a place in the Hundred Nations Battlefield if he became ruler of the nation.
• The group traveled through a bronze mirror to the floating combat arena, where Tong Gensheng learned they had drawn lot number seven and would face lot number eight at the Ding-character Combat Arena.
• Tong Gensheng and the purple-robed Fellow Cultivator Cheng exchanged barbs about their contestants before the match.
• Gu Dao arrived as adjudicator and ordered contestants from lots seven and eight onto the stage.

The masked man with a ghost face battled Number Eight’s young man in white, trading illusions and saber strikes against a freezing flying sword. The duel remained unresolved as an ice-covered shield exploded and a blue sword shadow shot toward the masked man.

• The masked man with a ghost face volunteered to fight first, and Number Eight sent a young man in white to face him.
• The young man in white launched a freezing blue flying sword, but the masked man dodged with an illusion and struck him with a black saber.
• The masked man split into four phantoms and attacked from different directions, while the young man in white divided his sword and raised his expanding fan as a shield.
• The masked man unleashed a massive saber shadow, and the young man in white answered with a storm of blue sword shadows that froze the air.
• The masked man blocked the sword shadows with a black barrier and silver shield, but the ice surrounding him and the shield exploded, sending a blue sword shadow toward him.

The young man in white trapped the masked man with a ghost face in a nine-sword formation, but the masked man countered with a divine-sense attack and escaped its grasp. As the young man in white defended against the masked man’s icy and black-qi attacks, a second man in black suddenly emerged beneath him and struck with a saber.

• The young man in white’s nine blue flying swords enclosed the masked man with a ghost face in a formation that shattered his shield and wounded him.
• The masked man with a ghost face unleashed an eerie divine-sense cry, creating an opening in the formation and sending black qi toward the young man in white.
• The young man in white raised a sword-qi barrier and opened a golden gourd, whose frigid qi froze the ghost-face mask as it fell.
• The young man in white recalled his swords and reached for a golden talisman, while a man in black emerged beneath him and slashed upward with a black saber.

The masked man with a ghost face defeated the young man in white, who conceded after his legs were shattered. In the second match, Zhang Tie used four powerful puppet beasts to overwhelm the black-robed man and his corpse puppet, forcing him to concede.

• The young man in white used defensive armor and healing talismans after the masked man with a ghost face shattered his legs, then conceded the first match.
• Gu Dao declared Number Seven the winner and called the second-match participants into the arena.
• Zhang Tie volunteered to fight after Old Woman Xiang stayed silent.
• The black-robed man summoned a Nascent Soul-stage corpse puppet, and Zhang Tie answered by summoning four Four-winged Demonic Scorpion puppet beasts.
• Zhang Tie's puppet beasts drove the black-robed man and his corpse puppet into a losing position, and the black-robed man conceded.

Zhang Tie and his team advanced after winning their first two matches, then prepared to face team number five in the Grade B arena. The chapter ended as the judge called the first participants to the stage.

• Gu Dao declared that Zhang Tie's team had won and advanced after the opposing side conceded.
• Tong Gensheng gave Zhang Tie and the others jade slips with information about the competitors and submitted their lineup for the next round.
• Tong Gensheng told the team that they would face number five in the Grade B arena, with Xiang fighting first, Han second, and Yi third.
• Zhang Tie examined the opposing team, led by Fairy Lu, and noted the scarred matron, the white-browed old man, and the injured yellow-robed young man among its members.
• Tong Gensheng and Fairy Lu exchanged greetings before the judge called the first participants from teams five and seven to the stage.

Old Woman Xiang fought the white-browed old man in the dueling arena, using black mist and her twin-winged centipede to counter his five mirrors. The white-browed old man brought out a golden toad, and Old Woman Xiang’s centipede coiled around her to defend against his renewed attack.

• The white-clad referee began the duel between Old Woman Xiang and the white-browed old man.
• The white-browed old man arranged five mirrors around the arena and fired colored pillars of light at Old Woman Xiang, whose black mist swallowed the attack.
• Old Woman Xiang’s black mist and cane struck at the white-browed old man, while his mirror shield and golden light pillar blocked her blows.
• Old Woman Xiang revealed her early fourth-rank twin-winged centipede, and the white-browed old man summoned a golden toad that eyed it hungrily.
• The white-browed old man sent another barrage from his mirrors, and Old Woman Xiang commanded the twin-winged centipede to coil around her as a shield.

The white-browed old man’s Golden Lightning Frog defeated Fellow Daoist Xiang’s twin-winged centipede, forcing her to concede before the mirror formation could harm her. After Number Five was declared the winner, Tong Gensheng warned Zhang Tie to prioritize his safety in the next duel, and Zhang Tie flew to the arena.

• The Golden Lightning Frog pulled the twin-winged centipede into the beam of light while the white-browed old man blocked Fellow Daoist Xiang’s cane and defended against her green winged snake.
• The white-browed old man trapped Fellow Daoist Xiang and the green snake in six mirrors, and Xiang conceded before the beams struck her.
• The mirror beams turned the green snake to ashes, and the Golden Lightning Frog killed and partly swallowed the centipede before the white-browed old man stored them away.
• The adjudicator declared Number Five the winner, and Fellow Daoist Xiang thanked the white-clothed maiden for protecting her before returning to recover.
• Tong Gensheng comforted Fellow Daoist Xiang, warned Zhang Tie to be cautious, and Zhang Tie flew to the central arena.