Chapter Summaries

After the Innate Gourd Vine’s gourds were divided, Yang Mei sought a way to comprehend the Time Great Dao and entered the River of Time. His unrestrained Space Great Dao resonance blocked others from sensing or entering the river, and the Heavenly Dao soon taught him a lesson.

• The Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, the Eastern Emperor, and Hong Yun each obtained a gourd from the Innate Gourd Vine, while Yang Mei took the unripe gourd and Nuwa took the vine.
• Yang Mei gathered several ownerless time-attribute innate spiritual treasures and traded with Hongjun for a high-grade one, but he could not obtain a time-attribute top-grade treasure.
• Yang Mei entered the deepest reaches of the River of Time to comprehend the Time Great Dao, following Bai Yu’s precedent.
• Yang Mei’s unrestrained Space Great Dao resonance prevented living beings from sensing the River of Time and stopped the Daluo golden immortals from entering it.
• The River of Time became accessible again before long after the Heavenly Dao taught Yang Mei a lesson.

Yang Mei was suppressed by the Primordial Heavenly Dao for reopening the River of Time, while Bai Yu remained exempt, leaving Hongjun and Yang Mei puzzled by the Heavenly Dao’s double standards. The chapter explained that the Heavenly Dao feared Bai Yu, and Bai Yu chose to stay apart from the Primordial World’s affairs as he quietly pursued its Origin Great Daos.

• The Primordial Heavenly Dao suppressed Yang Mei for allowing living beings to sense and enter the River of Time, so Yang Mei restored access except to its deepest reaches.
• Hongjun and Yang Mei wondered why Bai Yu could do the same without being punished, but chose not to investigate a possible connection between him and the Heavenly Dao.
• The Primordial Heavenly Dao tolerated Bai Yu because attempts to suppress him filled it with a sense of imminent death, and it feared the unknown forces he might represent.
• Bai Yu remained unaware of the Heavenly Dao’s fear and continued avoiding the Primordial World’s karma and fate because its treasures offered him little benefit.
• The Primordial Heavenly Dao and Bai Yu maintained their peaceful coexistence, with Bai Yu focused on comprehending the Primordial World’s forty-nine complete Origin Great Daos.

After the Second Sermon, the Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace returned to the Primordial Continent and spent the long interval before the next sermon traveling and discussing the Dao. Hong Yun went with Zhen Yuanzi to Wuzhuang Temple to eat Ginseng Fruit, while Bai Yu remained wary of Origin Blue Star but knew he had no way to escape its reach.

• Bai Yu considered Origin Blue Star's invitation and recognized that its immense power and karmic connection meant he could not truly hide from it, though he could flee there if the Primordial Heavenly Dao attacked.
• After Hongjun's Second Sermon, the Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace returned to the Primordial Continent without entering seclusion, since most had failed to understand the profound Way of Great Luo.
• The Three Pure Ones traveled together and discussed the Dao with familiar fellow guests while they waited for the Third Sermon.
• Hong Yun followed Zhen Yuanzi to Wuzhuang Temple rather than returning to Fire Cloud Cave, saying he longed to eat Ginseng Fruit.
• The chapter explained that the Ginseng Fruit Tree yielded only thirty fruits every ten thousand years and that its fruit mainly served as a delicacy for Daluo Golden Immortals, since its lifespan-extending effect was unnecessary for beings in the Primordial World.

The Primordial Heavenly Dao regarded the Primordial World as its own and sought to erase Pangu’s outward traces, despite being unable to remove his fundamental Great Dao imprints. It had altered the Twelve Ancestor Witches and created a vast Cave Heaven World above Buzhou Mountain, while Pangu’s fate remained unknown.

• The Primordial Heavenly Dao explained that it managed the Primordial World but could never truly own it while Pangu remained its creator.
• Unable to sense Pangu through the Origin Great Dao, the Primordial Heavenly Dao concluded that he had likely perished and dismissed the possibility that he had transcended.
• The Primordial Heavenly Dao mixed Earthly Fiend Turbid Qi into the Twelve Ancestor Witches’ Pangu Blood Essence, impairing their primordial spirits and chances of attaining the Dao.
• The Primordial Heavenly Dao opened a vast Cave Heaven World above Buzhou Mountain to obscure the mountain’s significance as Pangu’s Spine.

Di Jun and Tai Yi began laying the groundwork for the Demon Race by traveling the Primordial World and recruiting powerful allies. They offered founding shares to Daluo Golden Immortals who brought their clans with them, while the greater conflict between the Witch Clan and Demon Race had yet to begin.

• The Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace stirred the Primordial World, and the number of cultivators rose, though Daluo Golden Immortals remained rare.
• Hongjun, Yang Mei, and Bai Yu paid little attention to the disturbances, while the Witch Clan and Demon Race had not yet been founded.
• Di Jun and Tai Yi began visiting fellow Daoists and building ties with powerful figures across the Primordial World.
• Di Jun and Tai Yi sought out Bai Ze, Ji Meng, Jiu Ying, Fei Lian, and other future Great Sages of the Demon Race.
• Di Jun and Tai Yi offered founding shares to these Daluo Golden Immortals, who brought their clans along when they joined.

Di Jun and Tai Yi gathered Daluo Golden Immortals around their planned force, with Di Jun leading and Tai Yi focused on combat strength. They postponed formally building the Demon Race until after the Sage's Third Sermon, which they and the Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace planned to attend.

• Di Jun and Tai Yi sought to establish a force to gather providence and support their cultivation while eventually leaving its day-to-day work to others.
• Bai Ze, Ji Meng, and other Daluo Golden Immortals joined Di Jun and Tai Yi, seeing them as the most promising leaders to follow.
• Di Jun and Tai Yi gathered a loose force but had not yet chosen a suitable headquarters, since the Sun Star's Solar True Fire made it unfit for most beings.
• Di Jun took the force's highest seat while Tai Yi, despite possessing the Chaos Bell and greater strength, focused on cultivation and fighting.
• Di Jun and Tai Yi set aside further development of their force until after attending the Sage's Third Sermon at Purple Firmament Palace.

Di Jun and Tai Yi continued building their unnamed faction and decided to bring its newly advanced Daluo Golden Immortals to Purple Firmament Palace for the Sage’s third sermon. In Chaos, they discovered that some of their companions lacked the qualification to find the palace, and Di Jun and Tai Yi resolved to stop investing heavily in those who could not enter.

• Di Jun and Tai Yi shifted their recruitment efforts toward small races and factions after few Daluo Golden Immortals accepted their offers.
• Di Jun and Tai Yi left instructions and traveled toward Purple Firmament Palace with Bai Ze, Ji Meng, and more than a dozen newly advanced Daluo Golden Immortals.
• The group could not sense Purple Firmament Palace while the newly advanced Daluo Golden Immortals accompanied them, so Di Jun explained the problem and sent them to search separately.
• Di Jun and Tai Yi eventually sensed the palace’s location and realized that some of their companions were unqualified to enter.
• Di Jun and Tai Yi decided that anyone who could not enter Purple Firmament Palace would no longer receive heavy support or be considered for the Demon Race’s core leadership.

Di Jun and Tai Yi wondered why only two of their Daluo Golden Immortals qualified to hear Hongjun’s third sermon, while some Golden Immortals did. As the sermon began, Hongjun’s glance at the six seated on meditation cushions deepened everyone’s suspicions about their significance.

• Di Jun and Tai Yi saw that several attendees had brought Golden Immortal juniors, and Zhunti concluded that the young cultivators had extraordinary providence.
• The narration revealed that Hongjun selected listeners according to providence, while Di Jun and Tai Yi’s unnamed faction had not gained collective providence because it had not been proclaimed to heaven and earth.
• The gates of the Purple Firmament Palace opened, and the guests entered and took their seats before Hongjun appeared.
• Hongjun glanced at the six seated on meditation cushions, prompting the other guests to wonder what made the cushions special.
• Hongjun began his third sermon without addressing the guests’ suspicions.

During the Third Sermon, Hongjun explained how difficult it was to perfect an origin Great Dao and prepared to teach the Method of Slaying Three Corpses. He left the listeners stunned and offended by his blunt assessment of their chances.

• Hongjun delivered the Third Sermon, which most listeners struggled to understand, while Bai Yu’s comprehension of the Creation Great Dao reached seventy percent.
• In the fifth thousand years of the sermon, Hongjun paused and reviewed the cultivation realms of the Primordial World.
• Hongjun explained that comprehending seventy percent of an origin Great Dao made one a late-Daluo Golden Immortal, while reaching perfection was exceptionally difficult.
• Hongjun told the Three Thousand Zixiao Guests that none of them could comprehend an origin Great Dao to perfection, and they silently endured his rebuke.

Hongjun ended his lecture by revealing the Method of Slaying Three Corpses, which aided in comprehending the Great Dao, and agreed to teach it to his disciples as the orthodox tradition of the Mysterious Gate. Bai Yu watched as the Mysterious Gate’s destiny bound itself to the Primordial World, leaving the story with the Mysterious Gate above the Great Teachings and the Heavenly Court.

• Hongjun explained that he had created the Method of Slaying Three Corpses to clear the Dao heart and aid in comprehending the Great Dao.
• The listeners asked Hongjun to bestow the method, and he agreed, declaring it the orthodox tradition of his Mysterious Gate.
• The Three Pure Ones and the other listeners addressed Hongjun as Teacher and accepted the method, taking on ties to the Mysterious Gate.
• Bai Yu watched from the East Sea as the Mysterious Gate’s destiny formally joined with that of the Primordial World.
• Bai Yu observed that the Western Sect remained partly bound to the Mysterious Gate, while future powers such as the Witch and Demon Clans and the Heavenly Court would remain beneath it.

Hongjun stopped teaching the Method of Slaying Three Corpses after discovering that Six-Eared Macaque was eavesdropping from the Primordial World. He barred the method from ever being passed to Six-Eared Macaque and crippled the range of his hearing ability, leaving the macaque trembling and unable to listen across the world.

• Six-Eared Macaque used his six-eared divine ability to listen to Hongjun's sermon from the Northern Continent.
• Hongjun stopped teaching when Six-Eared Macaque continued eavesdropping after being told he had no destined opportunity.
• Hongjun declared that the Method of Slaying Three Corpses must not be passed to Six-Eared Macaque, and heavenly might struck fear into living beings throughout the Primordial World.
• Six-Eared Macaque trembled for a thousand years before realizing he could no longer hear the Sage's sermon.
• Six-Eared Macaque discovered that his divine ability's range had been reduced to hundreds of millions of li, preventing him from freely eavesdropping on others.

Hongjun finished explaining the Method of Slaying Three Corpses, including its cultivation thresholds and the need for Innate Spiritual Treasures as vessels. The Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace learned that treasures were scarce and rushed to seize them, while Hongjun withheld the secrets of merging the corpses and raising them beyond Daluo Golden Immortal perfection.

• Hongjun explained that one had to comprehend seventy percent of one's Origin Great Dao to slay a first corpse, eighty percent to slay two in succession, and ninety percent to slay all three.
• Hongjun explained that each corpse required an Innate Spiritual Treasure as its vessel, and the Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace resolved to seize the scarce treasures.
• Hongjun's teaching described the Three Corpses as powerful avatars, but did not reveal that their cultivation limits depended on the vessels' grades.
• Hongjun had used Fragments of the Jade Plate of Creation to slay his Three Corpses and achieve Merging of the Three Corpses.
• Hongjun withheld the crucial details because he knew the Primordial World's beings could not prove the Dao and become Primordial Daluo Golden Immortals under the Heavenly Dao.

Hongjun concluded his third lecture by teaching the Method of Slaying Three Corpses and defining the Quasi-Saint stages, while withholding the method’s flaws. He clarified which treasures could serve as vessels, leaving the listeners to consider how they might obtain enough suitable treasures to pursue the method.

• Hongjun explained that slaying one, two, or three corpses brought someone to the early, middle, or late Quasi-Saint stage, while merging all three brought perfection and a chance to attain the Dao of Hunyuan.
• Taiqing Laozi asked whether Innate Spiritual Treasures were required as vessels, and Hongjun answered that Postnatal Merit Supreme Treasures could also be used, but ordinary postnatal supreme treasures could not.
• Laozi was pleased to learn that he could use his Heaven and Earth Profound Yellow Exquisite Pagoda alongside an Innate Spiritual Treasure to slay corpses.
• The listeners considered their limited supply of suitable treasures, while none of them could yet slay a corpse because they had not reached seventy percent comprehension of their Origin Great Dao.

Hongjun ended his preaching and announced that he would establish the Mysterious Gate, choosing direct disciples to teach in his stead. He accepted the Three Pure Ones and Nuwa, then considered whether to accept Zhunti and Jieyin because of his debt to the Western Continent.

• Hongjun declared that his preaching had reached completion and announced the establishment of the Mysterious Gate and its direct disciples.
• The Three Pure Ones and the other guests pleaded to become Hongjun’s disciples.
• Hongjun named Laozi and Yuanshi as the first and second direct disciples, and the Three Pure Ones bowed to him.
• Hongjun asked Nuwa to join his Mysterious Gate, and she accepted as his fourth direct disciple.
• The guests, including Tai Yi, felt disappointed that Hongjun had chosen only four disciples, while Hongjun weighed accepting Zhunti and Jieyin to repay his karmic debt to the Western Continent.

Hongjun accepted Zhunti and Jieyin as disciples in name after their cushion seats revealed his choice, then appointed Wood Duke and Golden Mother to govern all immortals. The appointment stunned the assembly, while Kunpeng, Hong Yun, and Zhen Yuanzi regretted the choices that had cost them a chance to become Hongjun’s disciples.

• Hongjun accepted Zhunti and Jieyin as disciples in name, and the others began pleading to become his disciples too.
• Hongjun declared that the six cushion seats had determined who had an affinity with him as master and disciples, leaving Kunpeng and Hong Yun to regret their lost chances.
• Zhen Yuanzi realized that he had helped Hong Yun get a seat and had pushed Di Jun aside, drawing Di Jun’s angry glare.
• Hongjun summoned Wood Duke and Golden Mother and ordered them to govern all immortals because they were born from innate Yin-Yang Qi.
• Wood Duke and Golden Mother accepted the appointment, while the assembly questioned whether the two early-stage Daluo Golden Immortals could govern everyone.

Hongjun appointed Wood Duke and Golden Mother as the Heads of Male and Female Immortals, respectively, and gave each a top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure. Wood Duke embraced his new authority with growing arrogance, while Golden Mother worried about the resentment they had provoked; Hongjun then began speaking about Sages arising from his Mysterious Gate.

• Hongjun appointed Wood Duke Head of Male Immortals and gave him the Dragon Head Staff, a top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure.
• Hongjun appointed Golden Mother Head of Female Immortals and bestowed the top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure Kunlun Mirror upon her.
• The gathered immortals resented the appointments, and Golden Mother noticed their hostility and worried that she lacked the strength and backing to govern them.
• Golden Mother resolved to keep her distance from ambitious Wood Duke, while Wood Duke dismissed the other immortals and thought he would eventually capture Di Jun and Tai Yi.
• Hongjun had Wood Duke and Golden Mother withdraw, then declared that Sages would arise from his Mysterious Gate.

Hongjun explained that seven seats of Sagehood existed in the Mysterious Gate and bestowed six wisps of Purple Qi of Hongmeng on the Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, Zhunti, and Jieyin. The others realized the six meditation cushions had marked the recipients, while the final wisp remained undistributed as they begged Hongjun for it.

• Laozi asked how many seats of Sagehood the Mysterious Gate had, and Hongjun answered that there were seven.
• Hongjun gave Purple Qi of Hongmeng to the Three Pure Ones, then to Nuwa, and then to Zhunti and Jieyin.
• The assembly realized that the six meditation cushions had marked Hongjun’s six disciples and the first six recipients of Sagehood.
• Kunpeng seethed at Zhunti for taking the cushion he had once occupied, while Hong Yun lamented how close he had come to Sagehood.
• Hongjun closed his eyes without distributing the last wisp, and those still without Purple Qi of Hongmeng prostrated themselves and pleaded for it.

Hongjun released the final Purple Qi of Hongmeng to choose its recipient, while Zhunti convinced himself it was destined for the Western Continent. It chose Hong Yun instead, provoking Di Jun and the others with its promise of a Sage seat.

• Hongjun released the final strand of Purple Qi of Hongmeng and said its recipient would be chosen by affinity.
• Zhunti hoped the strand would go to someone from the West and resolved that he and Jieyin would protect or recruit its recipient.
• Zhunti reasoned that the strand's connection to Hongjun and the Mysterious Gate made it fated for the Western Continent.
• The Purple Qi of Hongmeng descended before Hong Yun and vanished between his brows.
• Di Jun and the others reacted with fury and killing intent, questioning why Hong Yun had received the chance to become a Sage.

Hong Yun received the Purple Qi of Hongmeng but, overwhelmed by excitement and hostile stares, failed to thank Hongjun or seek protection. Zhunti decided Hong Yun was too foolish to be useful to the West, while recalling how he had secured the prayer cushions for himself and Jieyin by forcing Kunpeng to give up his seat.

• The immortals resented Hong Yun for possessing the Purple Qi of Hongmeng and eyed him with murderous intent because he lacked powerful allies or a strong background.
• Hong Yun sat dazed after receiving the Purple Qi of Hongmeng and did not rise to thank Hongjun, who ignored his failure to do so.
• Zhunti judged that Hong Yun needed the Sage or the Mysterious Gate to protect him, but decided he did not want such a foolish person joining the West.
• Hong Yun remembered touching the prayer cushion before Zhunti shoved him aside, and believed he had yielded it to Zhunti.
• Zhunti recalled targeting Kunpeng for his prayer cushion and winning when Yuanshi joined the attack, prompting Laozi and Tongtian to follow and forcing Kunpeng to give up his seat.

Kunpeng regretted surrendering his meditation cushion and swallowed his resentment toward the Three Pure Ones and Zhunti, whom he feared to oppose. After Hong Yun received Purple Qi of Hongmeng, Kunpeng and the other Daluo Golden Immortals who had received none decided to target him, while the Sage’s disciples remained protected by their status.

• Kunpeng blamed the Three Pure Ones for blocking his path to Sagehood but chose to swallow his anger because he feared their strength and their standing as the Sage’s disciples.
• The Three Pure Ones noticed Kunpeng’s resentment and dismissed it, accepting that their feud with him could not be resolved.
• Kunpeng feared Zhunti might attack him, then turned his attention to Hong Yun as someone he believed he could overpower.
• Kunpeng decided to seize Hong Yun’s Purple Qi of Hongmeng despite knowing that Zhen Yuanzi would defend his close friend.
• The other Daluo Golden Immortals without Purple Qi of Hongmeng also targeted Hong Yun, while none dared consider attacking the six recipients who were the Sage’s disciples.