Chapter Summaries

Chu Qing demanded that the Great Qian Divine Court personally cultivate wild Gods and Devils for him, seeking to test its resolve and provoke another confrontation. As he forced his way into its mountain headquarters, Nangong killed the city lord who had reported his demand, and Chu Qing continued carving a path through the mountains toward the officials.

• The Seventh Generation Officials refused Chu Qing's demand and contacted the Innate Gods and Devils for help.
• Chu Qing told the city lord he wanted the Divine Court's higher-ups to personally order the cultivation of wild Gods and Devils, then declared he would risk another war with the Divine Court.
• The city lord reported Chu Qing's demand to headquarters, and Nangong killed him with a strike that he could not heal.
• Chu Qing reached the Divine Court headquarters and punched through its mountain entrance instead of looking for a way in.
• Chu Qing ignored a mountain god's directions, smashed the god into a wall, and kept punching a path straight toward the Divine Court officials.

Chu Qing forced the Seventh Generation Officials to announce that the Great Qian Divine Court would create wild Gods and Devils for him, but they refused under orders from the Innate Gods and Devils. He killed two officials, and the survivors mobilized the Divine Court against him as they fled.

• Chu Qing reached the Seventh Generation Officials and demanded that they use the Divine Court Law Net to announce they would custom-create wild Gods and Devils for him.
• One official offered to arrange the Gods and Devils privately, but Chu Qing crushed his head and killed him for bargaining.
• When another official charged at Chu Qing, Chu Qing struck him dead and demanded the survivors explain their authority.
• An official revealed that the Innate Gods and Devils had forbidden them from publicly cultivating wild Gods and Devils for Chu Qing and had revoked their messaging authority.
• Chu Qing said he had been too soft-hearted, prompting the surviving officials to flee and order Divine Court members across the Great Gan Empire to kill him.

Chu Qing fought off the Great Gan Empire’s Divine Court members after the Law Net compelled them to kill him, while the Innate Gods and Demons debated how to respond. God and Devil Pan eventually ordered the Divine Court to reveal that it had raised wild Gods and Devils for Chu Qing and revoked the attack order, leaving Chu Qing convinced that strength could overcome the Divine Court.

• The Divine Court Law Net compelled its branded members across Great Gan to charge toward Chu Qing, and a duke-minister who turned back to attack him was killed by Chu Qing.
• Chu Qing slaughtered the attackers on a mountain as the Innate Gods and Demons watched through the Law Net.
• God and Devil Pan argued that Great Gan’s forces could not kill Chu Qing and compared him to the Undefeated Demon God, prompting many Innate Gods and Demons to seal themselves into slumber.
• God and Devil Pan convinced the remaining Innate Gods and Demons to disclose that the Divine Court had raised wild Gods and Devils for Chu Qing, then revoked the order to kill him.
• The Divine Court’s members retreated from Chu Qing, who took their withdrawal as proof that sufficient strength could overcome the Divine Court.

After Chu Qing forced the Divine Court to yield, major organizations began debating whether they could resist Heaven’s coming Great Unification, while Yellow Heaven Dao saw a chance to revive its campaign against Heaven. At Stone Ridge Mountain, Chu Qing explained his plans to weaken the Divine Court, then announced he was going to the Imperial Capital of Great Zhou.

• The Martial Academy Alliance and other major organizations debated resisting Great Unification after hearing that Chu Qing had made the Divine Court yield.
• Chu Qing's Daoist Nun friend argued within Yellow Heaven Dao that Chu Qing's success showed they could make Heaven yield as well.
• At Stone Ridge Mountain, construction Gods and Devils began building the Twelve Palaces as Chu Qing returned and told Nangong how he had compelled the Divine Court to compromise.
• Nangong offered to spread news of wild Gods and Devils through the Thousand Eyes Alliance, while Chu Qing warned her that the Otherkind might eventually stop opposing the Innate Gods and Demons.
• Chu Qing asked Nangong to hold the fort and said he was going to the Imperial Capital of Great Zhou.

Chu Qing arrived in the ruined Great Zhou Imperial Capital and demanded that the Last Empress submit to him or die. She faced his ultimatum after discovering that he was a powerful enemy of more than a thousand empires.

• The Last Empress worked to reclaim farmland and rebuild Great Zhou, despite believing the empire lacked the resources to resist its eventual annexation by Chimon.
• A maid told the Last Empress that a handsome young man had taken her Emperor Seat, and she returned to the Imperial Palace to meet him.
• The Last Empress rebuked Chu Qing for sitting on her seat and warned him that he would make himself the enemy of the world.
• Chu Qing revealed that he was already enemies with more than a thousand empires and demanded that the Last Empress submit to him or die.

The Last Empress agreed to submit Great Zhou to Chu Qing after learning of his reputation and power. She chose to rebuild the empire gradually under his protection, and Chu Qing questioned whether any foundation could truly last ten thousand generations.

• The Last Empress demanded that Chu Qing help Great Zhou regain its lost territories and restore its former greatness.
• Chu Qing promised he could reclaim Great Zhou’s territory, and the Last Empress hurried to obtain information about him.
• After reading Chu Qing’s dossier, the Last Empress submitted Great Zhou to him and handed him a letter of submission.
• Chu Qing returned the letter, explaining that he wanted her loyalty rather than written proof, then offered two plans to restore Great Zhou.
• The Last Empress chose Chu Qing’s offer of long-term protection and support so she could build Great Zhou’s foundations gradually.
• Chu Qing reflected that even the most powerful empires and eras had fallen, questioning whether any foundation could last ten thousand generations.

Chu Qing secured Great Zhou’s submission and promised the last Empress resources to help her rebuild. Zhao Hongxiu chose to stay in Great Zhou and build it into a foundation for Chu Qing, leaving him to support her ambition.

• The last Empress agreed to make Great Zhou submit to Chu Qing and planned to have the entire population practice martial arts.
• Chu Qing left to seek an Innate God and Demon’s kneecap, then returned to Stone Ridge Mountain and summoned Zhao Hongxiu.
• Chu Qing told Zhao Hongxiu to send the Golden Toad Silver Coins to Great Zhou and help the last Empress as much as she could.
• After delivering the Silver Coins, Zhao Hongxiu told Chu Qing that the last Empress wanted her to stay and help strengthen Great Zhou.
• Zhao Hongxiu explained that she wanted to build Great Zhou into a foundation for Chu Qing, and he agreed to let her go.
• Zhao Hongxiu described using the Earth Vein Scripture to strengthen Great Zhou and offered to establish a Lineage with Chu Qing.

Chu Qing and Nangong discussed the Earth Mother Chapter and the dangers of fighting Innate Gods and Demons while he sought a kneecap for his ritual. As Aries Palace was completed, Nangong eagerly showed Chu Qing its wonders and invited him to be intimate there, despite the workers outside.

• Chu Qing declined to build a Lineage, and Zhao Hongxiu resolved to cultivate harder before studying the Earth Mother Chapter with him and Nangong.
• After three days of sharing insights, Zhao Hongxiu left for Great Zhou, while Mingyue and Nangong went off to chase bees and butterflies.
• Nangong proposed seeking an Innate God and Demon kneecap, but Chu Qing warned her about the danger and described his own near-fatal fight with a God and Demon's finger.
• Nangong vowed to retrieve a kneecap once her Twelve Palaces were complete and examined Chu Qing's injuries.
• The Divine Court drudges and wild construction Gods and Devils completed Aries Palace, and Nangong toured it before inviting Chu Qing to be intimate there.

Nangong completed the first of her Twelve Zodiac Palaces, binding the White Sheep Palace to her life, and Chu Qing urged her to wait until all twelve were finished before challenging Cui Moyang. As the couple remained on Stone Ridge Mountain, Mingyue naturally entered a new realm and began cultivating the Golden Core Dao, while Chu Qing continued advancing his cultivation.

• Nangong performed a ritual that drew starlight into the White Sheep Palace and explained that the palace would repair itself while she lived and collapse if she died.
• Nangong danced beneath the starlight with Chu Qing for three days, completing the White Sheep Palace and greatly increasing her strength.
• Nangong wanted to confront Cui Moyang, but Chu Qing persuaded her to wait until all Twelve Palaces were complete.
• Mingyue entered a new realm without secret medicine, opened the Golden Core Dao through the Earth Mother Chapter, and then returned to playing and rarely cultivating.
• Nangong and Chu Qing stayed on Stone Ridge Mountain as she built the Twelve Palaces and he accelerated his cultivation and developed methods beyond the Emperor Seat.

Chu Qing and Nangong Xiao discovered that their Fish Dragon Dance dragon sinews grew stronger after entwining and biting each other, and they theorized that dragon sinews might form a realm beyond the established limits. Mingyue obtained dragon sinews and successfully refined them, revealing a Fish Dragon Dance of her own.

• Chu Qing studied Nangong Xiao's dragon sinew and found that it had nine claws and a small, dragon-like head.
• Chu Qing pressed his back to Nangong Xiao's, and their dragon sinews emerged, entwined, and bit each other while their Spirit and Energy grew.
• Chu Qing and Nangong Xiao found their dragon sinews briefly weakened, then recovered stronger, and they discussed whether dragon sinews constituted an additional realm.
• Mingyue left to find dragon sinews, returned with two, and swallowed them so she could refine her own.
• Mingyue revealed her newly formed dragon sinew to Chu Qing and Nangong Xiao.

Nangong, Chu Qing, and the others studied Mingyue’s dragon tendon and Golden Core, discovering that it could unleash devastating Blade Qi. Mingyue learned to control its range, and Chu Qing planned for her to train with Cui Moyang when she returned.

• Nangong noticed that Mingyue’s dragon tendon was unlike anyone else’s, and Mingyue said it had wrapped around and branded itself onto her Golden Core.
• Mingyue brought out her Purple Gold Golden Core, and its Blade Qi ground away Nangong’s Heavenly Demon Power when she tried to touch it.
• As the group studied the Golden Core, Mingyue learned to send it flying and destroy rocks; it also chopped up Chu Qing’s fingers.
• Mingyue narrowed the Blade Qi’s range, making it dense enough to turn Chu Qing’s finger to flying ash, and Chu Qing suggested she learn attack techniques from Cui Moyang.
• Nangong lamented that Mingyue’s power surpassed what she had gained through trials and sacrifice, then decided she would ask Cui Moyang to test the Golden Core.

Chu Qing and Nangong studied Mingyue’s Golden Altar Path, then completed the ritual linking Nangong to the Twelve Palaces as Great Gan collapsed and its Martial Academies shut down. In Stone Cauldron Prefecture, Shi Tiezhu decided he wanted to go to the Imperial Capital to find Zhao Hongxiu, despite Sister Lan and the Senior Student warning him against it.

• Chu Qing and Nangong discovered that the Golden Altar Path was easy to cultivate, powerful, and required few resources, but Chu Qing left the decision to promote it to Mingyue.
• Mingyue refused to become a remembered Golden Altar ancestor because she did not want future practitioners to curse her, then tried using her Golden Altar to help Chu Qing cultivate without success.
• Nangong completed her connections with the Twelve Palaces through a ritual, and her condition and strength improved.
• In the spring of Year 992 of Great Gan, the empire continued to collapse as the Divine Court held the Imperial Seal, the Princess fled, and Martial Academies closed across the country.
• Sister Lan and the Senior Student sealed the Stone Cauldron Prefecture Martial Academy and planned to return to Stone Rock County, but Shi Tiezhu insisted he wanted to reach the Imperial Capital and see Zhao Hongxiu.

Shi Tiezhu set out for the Imperial Capital and stopped for the night in ruins outside Shi State City, where he encountered two beggars claiming to be King Shiyu and his Chief Subordinate. Meanwhile, Sister Lan and Senior Student Secret Pearl secured Tang Wuming’s help in building a Wu Fortress at the old He Family Fortress.

• Sister Lan and Senior Student Secret Pearl returned to Stone Rock County and asked Tang Wuming to help them build a Wu Fortress.
• Tang Wuming agreed to arrange construction, and Lan Lan chose the site of the old He Family Fortress.
• Shi Tiezhu reached the ruins outside Shi State City and challenged the two beggars living in a pit.
• Shi Tiezhu fought the tall beggar, while the other beggar claimed to be King Shiyu and called the tall man his Chief Subordinate.
• Chief Subordinate explained that Chu Qing had destroyed his carrier-pigeon messengers and asked Shi Tiezhu to become a messenger.
• Shi Tiezhu asked the beggars for money and information about the Imperial Capital, leaving Chief Subordinate unsure how he could serve as a messenger from there.

Shi Tiezhu took King Shiyu and Chief Subordinate toward the Imperial Capital, while Chu Qing and Nangong left Stone Ridge Mountain to confront an Innate God and Demon. They reached the astral battlefield above the Imperial Capital and found it far less terrifying than Chu Qing had described.

• Shi Tiezhu slapped King Shiyu and Chief Subordinate out of their despair, recruited them as his servants, and set off with them for the Imperial Capital.
• Two Third Limit martial artists decided King Shiyu had no future and left to seek standing with Great Lord Qing at Stone Ridge Mountain.
• After Nangong settled a Fire Seed, she and Chu Qing set out to find Cui Moyang and planned to target an Innate God and Demon.
• The Innate Gods and Demons learned that Chu Qing had entered the Imperial Capital and complained about being disturbed.
• Chu Qing and Nangong flew above the Imperial Capital into the astral winds, saw the battlefield, and questioned whether they had reached the right place.

Chu Qing discovered that a tongue from Heaven was harvesting Outsiders and Innate Gods and Demons, while Cui Moyang warned him to stay away from the battlefield. The tongue attacked Chu Qing, who cut it and prepared to fight the strange threat.

• Chu Qing found the White-eyed God Demon and the Outsiders drinking together, then noticed faint gleams on their necks that suggested they had been harvested.
• Chu Qing failed to reach the Princess Consort at first, then heard from Cui Moyang that she was fleeing with the Princess Consort, Goddess King Bai Lu, and Chuxia.
• Cui Moyang warned Chu Qing to stay at Stone Ridge Mountain and described a tongue from Heaven that descended silently and burrowed into its victims.
• Chu Qing discovered a tongue behind his own head and unleashed his powers, cutting it with a divine blade as blood fell from nowhere.
• Chu Qing told Cui Moyang to stay safe and promised to avenge her if she died, then prepared to kill the strange things around him.

Chu Qing and Nangong fought through the human skins in the Divine Treasury and discovered the skins and invisible tongue could return after being destroyed. Nangong helped Chu Qing locate and pin down another tongue with a Sound Wave Skill, and they prepared to test what would happen after killing the human skins again.

• Nangong spotted an invisible tongue above Chu Qing, and Chu Qing destroyed it with his saber and Golden Toad Money as the human skins closed in.
• Chu Qing and Nangong fought back-to-back and burned hundreds of human skins to ash, finding them far weaker than Yue Manlou.
• The human skins reappeared from an icy wind, and Nangong spotted another tongue hanging above Chu Qing.
• Chu Qing used a Sound Wave Skill to sense the tongue, then pierced it with his divine spear and locked it in place with the Divine Treasury's mechanisms.
• Chu Qing stopped Nangong from burning the tongue and proposed killing the human skins first to see whether another one would appear.

Chu Qing and Nangong used Golden Toad Money to destroy the human skins, then tested fire seeds on the tongues that kept appearing. After learning the tongues returned faster when burned, Chu Qing proposed using a forbidden zone’s Fire Pit to burn one continuously, and the Princess Consort agreed to head there.

• Chu Qing and Nangong summoned Golden Toad Money and used it to destroy the Otherworlder and Innate God and Demon human skins, which did not recover.
• Nangong burned a descending tongue with a fire seed while Chu Qing contacted the Princess Consort, who warned that burning the tongues made them return more frequently.
• The Princess Consort told Chu Qing that eyeballs and a huge mouth were pursuing the escapees, though they did not harvest them.
• Chu Qing burned another tongue and proposed taking it to a forbidden-zone Fire Pit to burn it without pause.
• The Princess Consort praised Chu Qing’s idea and said they were heading to the forbidden zone.

Chu Qing traveled to the forbidden zone to burn away the tongue that kept attacking him, but discovered that the Fire Pits along the frontier could barely withstand it. After he destroyed the tongue and left, the defenders recognized him as Emperor Liuli of Peak of Mountains and fled in terror.

• Chu Qing told Nangong he was going to the forbidden zone, and Nangong urged him to consider having children with her.
• Chu Qing reached the frontier and criticized the defenders for expanding their fire line across barren land too quickly.
• A tongue descended over Chu Qing, terrifying the Primordial Spirit experts and nearly extinguishing a Fire Pit.
• Chu Qing pierced the tongue with his divine spear and burned it to ashes before continuing toward the forbidden zone.
• The defenders identified Chu Qing as Emperor Liuli of Peak of Mountains and fled, afraid he would return and kill them.

Chu Qing reunited with Madam Jin and the others at Mirror Moon Lake, where Madam Jin used her strange treasure to burn away recurring tongues from the darkness. After hearing Chu Qing’s account of the battlefield, Madam Jin learned the tongues grew stronger with each attack, while Chu Qing ended the chapter riding a Bronze War Horse with Madam Shi as the chariot’s canopy burned away the surrounding evil.

• Yu Ji complained that Madam Jin had made her refine fire seeds for a year without rest as Chu Qing arrived at the chariot.
• Madam Jin used her strange treasure to burn an attacking tongue, and Chu Qing explained that the tongues repeatedly revived and grew stronger.
• Chu Qing told Madam Jin, Yu Ji, Zuo Yan, and Consort Mei about the tongues, eyeball, mouth, and human skin from the battlefield between the Others and the Innate Gods and Demons.
• Madam Jin set her canopy above the chariot to burn each new tongue, while Chu Qing tried and failed to contact the Princess Consort.
• After Madam Jin whispered to Chu Qing, he grabbed Madam Shi and rode away with her on a Bronze War Horse as the canopy burned through the surrounding darkness.

Chu Qing learned that restricted zones were appearing across the Endless Sea and arranged for the Princess Consort, Cui Moyang, and Hongyi to join his group. He then entered his calamity again and found that a hundred years had passed since his last visit, where Liuli welcomed him.

• The Princess Consort told Chu Qing that tongues at her group’s strongholds were reappearing too quickly for the Fire Pit to destroy, and Chu Qing described the half-finished treasure Madam Jin and the others had made.
• Chu Qing sent the Princess Consort coordinates and agreed that she could bring Hongyi, who was traveling with her on an island in the Endless Sea.
• The Princess Consort explained that restricted zones on separate islands could be linked, while Cui Moyang asked about Nangong and Chu Qing reassured him.
• Madam Jin reflected on her past after learning about Hongyi, then resumed refining the treasure as Chu Qing prepared to face his approaching calamity.
• Chu Qing entered the calamity and found that his tribe had grown larger, its people worshipped him as a Heavenly God, and Liuli appeared carrying an Incense Burner.