Chapter Summaries

Zhang Tie fought two masked men who tried to kill him, killed the red-masked man, and drove the white-masked man into flight. He took the dead man’s saber and pouch of purple metal fragments and continued down the road.

• Zhang Tie faced the white-masked and red-masked men, who demanded that he acknowledge them as masters before the red-masked man attacked.
• Zhang Tie dodged the red-masked man’s blade qi and the white-masked man’s freezing attack.
• Zhang Tie struck the red-masked man with the Soul Piercing Thorn, then smashed his head with a punch.
• The white-masked man fled after realizing Zhang Tie had underestimated neither his own strength nor the danger.
• Zhang Tie took the red-masked man’s saber and pouch of purple metal fragments, then continued down the road.

Zhang Tie reflected on the differences between this world's Martial Artists and cultivators from the Spirit Realm before accepting an escort from General Zhu to a Taoist temple for the night. After settling into a guest room, he sensed an unusual aura and frowned.

• Zhang Tie concluded that the local Martial Artists had powerful attacks but weaker bodies and untempered spiritual senses, and that their cultivation system lacked the acupoints and meridians found in the Spirit Realm.
• Xie Guichang arrived with General Zhu and a group of riders, who recognized Zhang Tie as the Exalted Immortal and paid their respects.
• Zhang Tie asked for a place to rest, and General Zhu led him and the riders toward a nearby Taoist temple.
• The group reached the temple, where an elderly Taoist welcomed them and General Zhu arranged a guest room for Zhang Tie.
• After General Zhu left, Zhang Tie sat down to rest, sensed an unusual aura, and frowned.

Zhang Tie discovered that the Taoist temple had been turned into a blood-and-vitality refining array designed to drain his strength while he rested. As the array activated, he resolved to retaliate, and a violent explosion shook the imperial palace where Li Huang and the white-haired old man were playing chess.

• Zhang Tie sensed that General Zhu and the other visitors had left the Taoist temple and found thirty-six stone lions hidden around it.
• Black-armored soldiers uncovered the stone lions, then cut their palms and offered their blood to activate the array at midnight.
• The soldiers died as the stone lions turned crimson, and the array began drawing the blood and vitality from Zhang Tie.
• Zhang Tie recognized that the array had been altered to refine blood and vitality, realized his enemies meant to cripple him, and vowed to retaliate.
• At the imperial palace, Li Huang worried that the plan would fail, but the white-haired old man dismissed his concerns before a violent boom shook the palace.

Li Huang learned that the Morning Daoist Temple had been destroyed and received a threat promising his death, while Zhang Tie entered Dengxian City and absorbed its power of fortune to restore his strength. By morning, Zhang Tie had recovered most of his power and decided to focus on restoring the rest before investigating the realm’s mysteries.

• Li Huang ordered a soldier to investigate what had caused the destruction and tremors.
• The soldier reported that the Morning Daoist Temple had been razed, a vast crater surrounded it, and a threatening message had been left on a stone tablet.
• Li Huang panicked, and his Imperial Uncle urged him to prepare a successor so Dengxian City would not be vulnerable to Profound Ice City and Burning Heaven City.
• Zhang Tie arrived outside Dengxian City, noticed its abundant power of fortune, and slipped over the city wall to absorb it through the night.
• Zhang Tie recovered most of his strength by morning and chose to keep absorbing the city’s pure power of fortune rather than dwell on why it was so unusual.

After recovering at Cloud Stream Inn, Zhang Tie learned that Li Huang had named a Crown Prince after Dawnwatch Temple was destroyed, then infiltrated the palace library to search for clues about the Vermilion Bird True Spirit and the Extreme Ice Blood Butterfly. He began searching Wen Yuan Pavilion’s books with his divine sense.

• Zhang Tie completed two days of cultivation and recovered his strength.
• Zhang Tie overheard diners say Li Huang had chosen a Crown Prince after an explosion destroyed Dawnwatch Temple.
• Zhang Tie left the inn and headed toward the imperial palace, sensing its dense power of fortune but finding no way to advance his sorcery.
• Zhang Tie used Conceal to pass through the city gate unseen and made his way to the Sage Academy.
• Zhang Tie entered Wen Yuan Pavilion undetected and searched its books for clues about the Vermilion Bird True Spirit and the Extreme Ice Blood Butterfly.

After finding no information about the Vermilion Bird True Spirit or the Extreme Ice Blood Butterfly in Wen Yuan Pavilion, Zhang Tie entered the imperial palace and confronted Li Huang. Li Huang offered to lead him to a place where the secrets he sought could be found.

• Zhang Tie searched Wen Yuan Pavilion for clues about the Vermilion Bird True Spirit and the Extreme Ice Blood Butterfly but found nothing.
• Li Huang told three generals to support the inexperienced Crown Prince and defend Profound Ice City and Burning Heaven City if he died.
• Zhang Tie entered Li Huang's hall and sealed away Li Huang's blood and qi.
• Li Huang admitted that he had approved the plan to ambush Zhang Tie and asked him not to implicate others.
• Zhang Tie spared Li Huang in exchange for answers and shared a meal with him.
• Li Huang offered to take Zhang Tie to a place containing information about the previous outsiders and the two mysterious creatures.

Zhang Tie explored Li Huang’s hidden archive, finding records of his ancestors from beyond the world but few useful clues. After returning to Cloud Stream Inn, he studied the martial manuals and derived a new body art, Blood Qi Manifestation Sword, though the effort exhausted his soul.

• Li Huang opened the secret chamber beneath his bed, where Zhang Tie searched the ancient books and learned that Li Huang’s ancestors had come from beyond the world and created a Body Refining system for its people.
• Zhang Tie told Li Huang that he might be the last outsider to arrive and that no more people from beyond the world would interfere; Li Huang bowed but appeared saddened.
• After Zhang Tie left, Li Huang’s cultivation returned to normal, and Zhang Tie went back to Cloud Stream Inn with more than a dozen martial technique manuals.
• Zhang Tie spent a day and night studying the manuals and deducing their techniques, then created the body art Blood Qi Manifestation Sword.
• Zhang Tie found that his new technique could form short, weak blood qi swords in his current state, then meditated to recover from the strain on his soul.

Zhang Tie traveled toward Profound Ice City at a leisurely pace to change his impatient approach to cultivation. After witnessing an elderly couple’s selfless affection, he questioned whether longevity was worth more than human warmth, then woke to find five ragged people blocking the road.

• Zhang Tie left Cloud Stream Inn, bought a Broad-backed Ox, and set off toward Profound Ice City while reflecting on his dependence on external aids and his need to understand the world anew.
• After more than a month on the road, Zhang Tie stopped at a small-town restaurant and saw a white-haired old woman crying over noodles.
• The waiter explained that the woman’s husband had saved coins to buy her noodles and watched her eat from across the street because he refused to eat himself.
• Zhang Tie realized that a long life without human warmth might be meaningless and spent the night thinking over his experiences.
• At dawn, Zhang Tie woke to find stones blocking the road and five ragged people ordering him to get down from the ox.

Zhang Tie agreed to help a village whose people had been taken by bandits after its remaining elderly and infirm villagers pleaded for aid. He reached the bandits’ stronghold and announced that he would punish them, while the one-eyed First Boss prepared to confront him.

• Zhang Tie blew the five villagers off the road, then listened as the cane-bearing man explained that bandits had taken everyone from their village who could work.
• After hearing that the villagers would build him a temple, Zhang Tie agreed to help and gave the five buns before following them to their deserted village.
• Zhang Tie gave the villagers the rest of the buns and rode toward the mountain forest to find the bandits.
• A bandit reported to the one-eyed First Boss that someone had destroyed their gate and killed several men.
• Zhang Tie’s voice rang across the mountain forest, identifying himself as Immortal Wu and declaring that he would send the bandits to hell.

Zhang Tie rescued the captives from the bandit stronghold and declared himself the Witch Immortal to the survivors. After returning to Black Dog Village, he established a divine statue and planted the message of belief in the villagers’ minds before departing into the mountains.

• Zhang Tie killed the First Boss and the bandits with blood on their hands, then ordered two spared men to gather everyone in the stronghold.
• Zhang Tie killed more people with blood on their hands, told the survivors to believe in the Witch Immortal, and vanished from the platform.
• Zhang Tie returned to Black Dog Village as the captives escaped, and the villagers celebrated their survival through the night.
• Zhang Tie entered the villagers’ consciousness and imprinted the Taotie Nascent Soul's avatar and the words, "Believe in the Witch Immortal, and you will gain peace."
• Zhang Tie refined a divine statue, installed it inside a stone carving in the village, and rode the Broad-backed Ox into the mountains.

Zhang Tie reached Baiyang County to destroy the Wind and Cloud Gang, whose crimes had brought misery to the locals, and to strengthen the Witch Immortal’s reputation. After he announced that the gang’s guilty members would be executed within a cup of tea, the county gathered to watch and the gang panicked, especially its leader, Duan Fengyun.

• Tavern patrons traded stories about Zhang Tie’s past killings and the spread of Witch Immortal worship.
• Zhang Tie reflected on how far the Witch Immortal’s reputation had traveled as he approached Profound Ice City.
• Zhang Tie arrived in Baiyang County, where the Wind and Cloud Gang controlled local businesses and oppressed the people.
• Zhang Tie reached the gang’s headquarters and announced that its guilty members would be executed within a cup of tea.
• The announcement stirred the county, and the Wind and Cloud Gang’s members reacted with fear or relief while Duan Fengyun grew especially nervous.

Zhang Tie used the Witch Immortal Envoy's power to judge the Wind and Cloud Gang and gave its members a chance to repent. The survivors became the Taiping Army, and Duan Fengyun received a Taiping Token.

• Duan Fengyun tried to escape through a hidden passage but was sent back to the council hall, where he warned the gang's leaders that they could not resist the Witch Immortal Envoy.
• Liu Datou tried to kill himself, but his saber turned into metal particles, and the Witch Immortal Envoy threatened anyone else who tried to flee or die by their own hand.
• Zhang Tie arrived at the Wind and Cloud Gang's training grounds and summoned nearly a thousand gang members before the watching local forces.
• Zhang Tie offered the gang members a chance to swear an oath to protect Baiyang County, and several hundred who were judged insincere burned to ash.
• Zhang Tie renamed the survivors the Taiping Army and granted Duan Fengyun a Taiping Token.

After the Witch Immortal faith spread through Poplar County, Zhang Tie searched Profound Ice City's Imperial Academy for a particular book and then forced the Ice Emperor to lead him to the city's hidden collection. Inside the underground palace, Zhang Tie realized the Ice Emperor had lured him into a trap, and an unknown ancestor intervened to save the emperor from his sword qi.

• Duan Fengyun and the Taiping Army worshiped the Witch Immortal statue after sharing a dream in which the Witch Immortal promised a cultivation legacy to his most loyal believers.
• Duan Fengyun and the Taiping Army revised their rules, shut down gambling dens, brothels, and slave markets, aided disaster victims, and repaired refugee homes, winning support across Poplar County.
• After Profound Ice City's court debated how to respond to the Taiping Army and Witch Immortal Envoy, the city chose to wait and observe.
• Zhang Tie searched every book in the Imperial Academy but found nothing, so he visited the Ice Emperor late at night and demanded to see the hidden book collection.
• The Ice Emperor led Zhang Tie into an underground palace and opened a massive ice gate, but Zhang Tie accused him of setting a trap and attacked with golden sword qi.
• The Ice Emperor called for his ancestor, who replaced him with an ice sculpture and moved the real emperor dozens of zhang away.

Zhang Tie battled Profound Ice City’s Martial God ancestor and discovered that the underground palace shielded its inhabitants from the Heavenly Dao to help them evade heavenly tribulation. After the ancestor surrendered, he revealed the source of the shielding and Zhang Tie demanded to see it.

• Profound Ice City’s ancestor appeared and attacked Zhang Tie after identifying himself as a Martial God.
• Zhang Tie found that the underground palace weakened his ability to freeze the ancestor, but his Words Manifestation wounded him repeatedly.
• The ancestor begged for mercy, and Zhang Tie pressed him to explain why Martial Gods did not conquer the other cities.
• The ancestor revealed that Martial Gods faced a deadly heavenly tribulation after a hundred years and used the underground palace to isolate themselves from the Heavenly Dao.
• The ancestor said the palace’s core was forged from a divine beast’s skeleton and its shielding power was fading, so Zhang Tie ordered him to take him to see it.

Zhang Tie entered Profound Ice City's Inheritance Hall, unaware that its ancestor had sent him there as a death trap. Inside, he encountered an Extreme Ice Blood Butterfly phantom and attacked it with his bronze bell and sword qi.

• The middle-aged man gave Zhang Tie a token and directed him toward the side hall, then Zhang Tie used it to open the ice door and entered the dark Inheritance Hall.
• The middle-aged man returned to Ice Emperor and admitted he had sent Zhang Tie into the hall, where he believed all entrants would die.
• Inside the hall, Zhang Tie sensed dense cold Qi and a strange, spatial-rift-like emptiness before an Extreme Ice Blood Butterfly phantom appeared.
• Zhang Tie rang his bronze bell to immobilize the phantom, then launched more than a dozen lightning-wrapped golden sword qi at it.

Zhang Tie survived the Extreme Ice Blood Butterfly phantom and swore to deliver the Source of Extreme Ice to its clan in exchange for an imprint of insight into the Extreme Ice and Time laws. He returned through the ice gate and left the hall after confronting the middle-aged man, who had warned that anyone entering would die.

• The two Extreme Ice Blood Butterfly phantoms merged into one powerful phantom and asked Zhang Tie whether he could return to the Spirit World.
• The phantom asked Zhang Tie to swear a Dao Heart Oath to deliver the Source of Extreme Ice to its surviving clan in the Insect Realm, and gave him an imprint of insight into the Extreme Ice and Time laws.
• Zhang Tie swore the oath, received the Source of Extreme Ice, and learned that the phantom could not leave the icefield where it had fused its body.
• Zhang Tie passed through the lighted passage, collected the blue token outside the now-shut ice gate, and returned to the main hall.
• Zhang Tie confronted the middle-aged man over his warning, returned the token, and vanished as the man and the Ice Emperor bid him farewell.

After restoring his fortune power in Profound Ice City, Zhang Tie traveled toward Burning Heaven City and encountered a youth fighting a giant leopard. Impressed by the youth, he offered to carry the prey and used sorcery to bring them both to the youth’s village, leaving the youth stunned.

• Zhang Tie restored his fortune power in Profound Ice City and then traveled for more than a month toward Burning Heaven City.
• Zhang Tie watched a youth use the terrain and precise attacks to wear down and kill a giant leopard.
• Zhang Tie offered to carry the leopard in exchange for a meal, and the youth accepted.
• Zhang Tie made the leopard’s corpse vanish and asked whether the youth lived in a nearby village.
• Zhang Tie used sorcery to bring himself and the youth directly to the village entrance, then explained Words Manifestation to the astonished youth.

Zhang Tie healed Leng Zi’s mother and restored his father’s severed arm, then left the family a leopard carcass and told Leng Zi to meet him at the crooked tree. He was unsettled that healing the mother had consumed more than thirty percent of his fortune power.

• Leng Zi agreed to become Zhang Tie’s disciple if Zhang Tie could cure his mother, and led him home despite his father’s doubts.
• Zhang Tie used Vitality Blooms to cure Leng Zi’s mother, but the treatment consumed more than thirty percent of his fortune power.
• Leng Zi’s mother recovered quickly and thanked Zhang Tie, while Leng Zi and his father also knelt in gratitude.
• Zhang Tie used Grow to restore Leng Zi’s father’s severed arm, consuming almost no fortune power.
• Zhang Tie left a leopard carcass in the courtyard and told Leng Zi to meet him at the crooked tree before vanishing.

Zhang Tie took Zhao Lengzi as his disciple, renamed him Zhao Daosheng, and taught him witchcraft and the Nine Revolutions Undying Body. After half a year of training, Zhao Daosheng showed extraordinary Body Refining talent, while Zhang Tie worried that the technique’s dangers and his own uncertain future would complicate whether he could take the youth with him.

• Zhao Lengzi came to Zhang Tie, thanked him for treating his parents, and accepted him as his master.
• Zhang Tie warned Zhao Lengzi to sever his ties to his former life, renamed him Zhao Daosheng, and passed down two Dao arts before the youth fainted from the transmission.
• After Zhao Daosheng recovered, Zhang Tie told him he would guide him for three years, and the two traveled through the mountains as Zhao Daosheng began cultivating.
• Half a year later, Zhao Daosheng defeated a Scaled Pig with his bare fists, having reached the Aperture Opening Realm through the blood of a few low-level demonic beasts.
• Zhang Tie recognized Zhao Daosheng’s exceptional Body Refining talent but worried that the Nine Revolutions Undying Body could harm him because his divine sense talent was ordinary.
• Zhao Daosheng brought Zhang Tie a roasted pork leg and, mistaking his master’s worried looks for disappointment, resolved to cultivate harder.

Zhang Tie and Zhao Daosheng encountered five cultivators who had been driven to the brink by a Golden Horned Rhinoceros. After the group deliberately lured the beast toward them, Zhang Tie used his ability to redirect the Bamboo Pole Man into its path, then mocked him as he was struck down.

• Zhang Tie and Zhao Daosheng approached a valley where five injured cultivators were struggling against a Golden Horned Rhinoceros.
• Zhao Daosheng asked whether they should help, but Zhang Tie warned that the cultivators might turn against them.
• The five cultivators fled toward Zhang Tie and Zhao Daosheng, deliberately leading the rhinoceros to them, and the Bamboo Pole Man mocked them as he passed.
• Zhang Tie used his power to shift the Bamboo Pole Man into the rhinoceros's path and vanished with Zhao Daosheng.
• The rhinoceros shattered the Bamboo Pole Man's flaming shield and sent him crashing into the forest, while Zhang Tie taunted him.