Chapter Summaries

Zhao Sheng survived his Nascent Soul tribulation but was demonized by the Heavenly Dao, leaving him with a Demonic Infant that he trapped inside the Hundred Lifetimes Book. Eight years later, he returned to find the Flame Blade Division’s city occupied by the Ghost Fox Tribe and began searching for his missing family.

• Zhao Sheng endured the Nascent Soul lightning tribulation, but the Heavenly Dao manifested during the Heart Demon tribulation and demonized one portion of his consciousness.
• Zhao Sheng hid his remaining consciousness in the Hundred Lifetimes Book, then used it to capture the Demonic Infant and received a Profound Grade achievement.
• Eight years later, Zhao Sheng returned to the Nine Demon Continent and found Dao Tribe City devastated and occupied by the Ghost Fox Tribe.
• Zhao Sheng avoided confronting the Ghost Fox Tribe and left his occupied cave abode without fighting its Golden Core High Priest.
• Zhao Sheng searched the Candlelight Mountain Range for several days but found no trace of his family.

Zhao Sheng captured Hu Canmang and learned that his family was safe in Heavenly Fox City, then agreed to go there. Meanwhile, Fox Fairy learned that Zhao Sheng had reached the Nascent Soul Realm and left to meet him, as the Nether God Sect’s allies struggled to refine a powerful treasure.

• Zhao Sheng tracked down Hu Canmang and captured him before he could resist.
• Hu Canmang told Zhao Sheng that his family had been taken to Heavenly Fox City but treated well, and Zhao Sheng agreed to accompany him there.
• Fox Fairy, Green Wood Old Monster, and Tong You failed to refine the Seven Stars As-You-Wish Scepter and argued over their plans and need for more helpers.
• Fox Fairy learned that Ascending Dragon had become a Nascent Soul cultivator and was already in Heavenly Fox City, then left to meet him.

Zhao Sheng met Fox Fairy in Heavenly Fox City and secured the release of his family and a halt to the Heavenly Fox Clan’s pursuit of the Flame Blade Division’s survivors. He left with his reunited family for Ascending Dragon Cave Abode, where the Ghost Fox Clan’s gifts and restored furnishings showed how much it valued his Nascent Soul status.

• Hu Canmang served Zhao Sheng Heavenly Fox White Down tea and said Zhao Sheng’s wife, children, and elders would arrive soon.
• Fox Fairy challenged Zhao Sheng with her Divine Sense, then promised to stop the Heavenly Fox Clan from exterminating the Flame Blade Division’s remnants if Zhao Sheng stayed out of the conflict.
• Dao Yanfeng, Hua Wen, Hua Wu, and the rest of Zhao Sheng’s family arrived, and Zhao Sheng reunited with them.
• Zhao Sheng and his family departed Heavenly Fox City aboard a flying saucer while Fox Fairy assured Hu Canmang that Zhao Sheng remained under her control.
• Zhao Sheng’s family reached Ascending Dragon Cave Abode and found it restored, along with gifts including valuable Heavenly Fox White Down and a Three-Thousand-Li Territory Map.

Zhao Sheng endured worsening Heart Demon attacks while rebuilding the Flame Blade Division and refining his body, then accepted Fox Fairy’s invitation to search the Divine Ruins. He joined her during the Nether Night Season and introduced himself to the powerful Nascent Soul cultivators gathered for the expedition.

• Zhao Sheng gave Dao Xiaodao the Thousand Li Territory Map and promised that the Ghost Fox Tribe would stop hindering the Flame Blade Division, allowing its survivors to rally under Dao Xiaodao and Hua Wen.
• Zhao Sheng spent six years cultivating in magma, discovered that his Undying Golden Body had become extremely rigid but brittle, and suppressed a renewed Heart Demon attack with a Soul Stabilizing Pill.
• After Hua Wen advanced to Foundation Establishment, he found Zhao Sheng gone from Ascending Dragon Cave Abode, leaving behind treasures and secret manuals.
• Fox Fairy offered Zhao Sheng a chance to search the Divine Ruins, and Zhao Sheng agreed, hoping to find a way to leave the Nether Night Realm.
• When the Nether Night Season began, Zhao Sheng and Fox Fairy arrived at a palace where Fuyou River Earl, the Left Protector of the Nether God Sect, Green Wood Old Monster, and Demon Fang Mushroom Mother were gathered.
• The Left Protector of the Nether God Sect questioned Zhao Sheng’s identity, and Zhao Sheng introduced himself as Ascending Dragon Free Man.

Zhao Sheng traveled with five Nascent Soul cultivators toward the God Ruins, enduring void dangers before entering its immense meteor sea. After more than a month of exploration, the group chose a dead meteor to rest and regroup.

• Blood Eyes gathered the six cultivators aboard the Lanyang Palace, and they agreed to divide the Spirit Stone costs of the journey, with Fox Fairy covering Zhao Sheng’s share.
• The Lanyang Palace crossed the outer void sea, where Zhao Sheng noticed that his Heart Demon and Heavenly Dao curse weakened as they moved farther from the Nether God Realm.
• The group fought off meteor-dust attacks and a swarm of Void Ghosts as the God Ruins drew near.
• After waiting for the twin suns to pass over the God Ruins, Zhao Sheng and the others entered the meteor sea and flew deeper into it for more than a month.
• A message instructed Zhao Sheng to head to a dead meteor so the group could rest and regroup.

Zhao Sheng and his companions crossed into the Profound Spirit Domain, survived dangerous void beasts, and struggled to locate the drifting Seven Stars Spirit Realm. After they settled on a meteorite to wait for the guiding starlight to turn, Zhao Sheng recovered his strength and advanced his cultivation, then Blood Eyes summoned him when the starlight finally changed.

• Blood Eyes used the Seven Stars As-You-Wish Scepter to guide the group toward the Seven Stars Spirit Realm, while Zhao Sheng watched the companions' tensions and grew suspicious of Demon Fang Mushroom Mother.
• The group entered the Profound Spirit Domain and fled a vast swarm of Golden Winged Tiger Beasts, then Blood Eyes secured Skyfall Essence during a later battle with Black Claw Beasts.
• After months of pursuing the shifting starlight, Blood Eyes explained that his sect knew little about the Spirit Realm, and Zhao Sheng persuaded the group to camp on a meteorite and wait for the signal to change.
• While the others waited, Zhao Sheng refined the Heart Demon, recovered his soul and mana, and advanced the Supreme Purity Nine Yang Skill to Five Yangs.
• Blood Eyes called Zhao Sheng after the guiding starlight finally turned.

Zhao Sheng and five other cultivators followed the Seven Stars As-You-Wish Scepter through the Divine Ruins and discovered the Seven Stars Spirit Realm, a formation of seven stars surrounded by a multicolored nebula. They pursued Demon Fang Mushroom Mother beneath the dark star and descended into a crystal-filled underground region, where Zhao Sheng suddenly fell through an area that blocked divine-sense detection.

• Zhao Sheng joined Blood Eyes, Fox Fairy, Green Wood Old Monster, Fuyou River Earl, and Demon Fang Mushroom Mother to follow the scepter’s guiding starlight into the depths of the Divine Ruins.
• The group endured years of dangerous travel through the dark meteorite sea, suffering injuries from flying debris as the guiding starlight repeatedly changed direction.
• Zhao Sheng noticed a sudden increase in spiritual energy, and Blood Eyes led the group to the Seven Stars Spirit Realm, where he opened a passage through the multicolored nebula with the scepter.
• Demon Fang Mushroom Mother rushed to the dark star and burrowed underground, prompting Blood Eyes and the others to follow her.
• Zhao Sheng descended with the group through increasingly spiritual-energy-rich crystals, grew wary of Green Wood Old Monster’s coughing, and entered a region that blocked divine-sense detection.
• The ground vanished beneath Zhao Sheng, and he fell as if he were mortal.

Zhao Sheng entered the crystal cave of the Seven Stars Spirit Realm, where a strange upheaval swallowed the other cultivators and left him trapped with a mysterious bald freak. The freak identified himself as Nameless, revealed that the realm was an inter-realm transit station, and began explaining its past.

• Zhao Sheng arrived in the crystal cave and saw the Demon Fang Mushroom Mother battling an Overlord Armor Bull Dragon around Crystal Peak.
• Blood Eyes vomited crystal-tainted blood, and the Seven Stars As-You-Wish Scepter flew into Crystal Peak as Fox Fairy, Blood Eyes, and Black Earl pursued it.
• Crystal Corpses attacked the three pursuers, while crystal hands seized Green Wood Old Monster and a bald freak appeared before Zhao Sheng, demanding that Zhao Sheng kill him.
• Crystal Peak released a scarlet barrier and a strange hum that made the other cultivators disappear; the freak protected Zhao Sheng and said the Devil Bacteria would otherwise have consumed him.
• The freak called himself Nameless, revealed that he was a Return to Void Half Immortal, and told Zhao Sheng that the Seven Stars Spirit Realm was actually an inter-realm transit station.

Zhao Sheng learned that Devil Bacteria had infected him and that the Nameless freak could offer him a chance to survive if he killed him. The freak brought Zhao Sheng to his crystal-bound true body and compelled him to strike, leaving Zhao Sheng’s sword light racing toward the freak’s head.

• The Nameless freak told Zhao Sheng that invisible Devil Bacteria had entered his body and would eventually turn him into a Crystal Corpse.
• The freak showed Zhao Sheng his own crystal-eroded body and led him into Crystal Peak, where Zhao Sheng saw Fox Fairy, Green Wood Old Monster, and Blood Eyes trapped among the Crystal Corpses.
• The freak brought Zhao Sheng to his true body, fused with the ancestral Devil Bacteria seed and a Crystal Tree bearing six Primordial Spirit Fruits.
• The freak offered Zhao Sheng the fruits and a way out if Zhao Sheng killed him, explaining that he feared reincarnating in the Blood God's realms.
• Zhao Sheng agreed to live, but the freak used the word “sever” to compel him to swing a sword light at the freak’s head.

Zhao Sheng escaped the crystal cavern after killing Senior Nameless’s Primordial Spirit Body, but emerged badly injured and infected by the Void Devil Fungus in the God Ruins Meteor Sea. After ten years refining the Seven Stars As-You-Wish Scepter, he used it to navigate the dangerous void and eventually reached the twin suns, leaving him poised to continue his journey before reincarnation.

• Zhao Sheng demanded a Dao Oath from Senior Nameless before destroying his Primordial Spirit Body with Golden Crow True Fire, triggering the Crystal Tree’s violent growth and the cavern’s collapse.
• Senior Nameless sent Zhao Sheng through a black hole, and Zhao Sheng awoke injured on a meteorite in the God Ruins Meteor Sea with crystal grains spreading through his body.
• Zhao Sheng recovered, hunted Thorn Armor Star Beasts, and searched the meteor sea, but became lost and carved out a hidden cave dwelling.
• Zhao Sheng spent ten years refining the Seven Stars As-You-Wish Scepter, then used its starlight to find his direction and travel through the meteor sea.
• Zhao Sheng reached the spiritless region at the edge of the Divine Ruins, where the Void Devil Fungus spread more slowly, and eventually saw the twin suns again.

Zhao Sheng returned to the Nether Night Realm after years of testing the Devil Bacteria and preparing for his death, with only a few years left to live. He entered an ice mountain to attempt a final method of preserving himself, and the chapter ended as his aura faded under a gray light.

• Zhao Sheng returned alone from the Meteor Sea, telling Mang Cha and Na Yan that Blood Eyes, Fox Fairy, Patriarch Qing Mu, and the others had died in Divine Ruins.
• Zhao Sheng studied the slow crystallization of his body and used Na Yan and other captives as experimental subjects for successive generations of Devil Bacteria.
• As Lanyang Palace neared the Nether Night Realm, Zhao Sheng killed Mang Cha, erased the palace’s traces, and flew to the Nine Demon Continent while the Heavenly Dao Blood Mask and his Heart Demon nearly overwhelmed him.
• Zhao Sheng secretly visited Hua Wen and his descendants, left hidden measures in Ascending Dragon Cave, and prepared treasure-hiding cave abodes across Candlelight Mountain Range and the Nine Demon Continent.
• Zhao Sheng traveled to an underwater ice cave, buried the Void Snatching Basket beneath an ice mountain, and used the bone pearl, Grand Sun Mirror, and his Nascent Soul Dharma Body to form a gray Light Sphere before his aura weakened.

After ending his sixth life, Zhao Sheng chose to inherit Gold Fire Dual Spiritual Roots and used his rewards to gain Phase Displacement and Limb Rebirth. Reborn as San Bao in the Secluded God Realm, he realized he needed to investigate the time since his previous life, then followed Bao Chen into a chamber where his master ordered him to give blood.

• Zhao Sheng received a Lower First Class evaluation for his sixth life, inherited Gold Fire Dual Spiritual Roots, and combined his rewards into three Earth Grade rewards.
• Zhao Sheng drew Shadow Shift, upgraded it to Phase Displacement, and drew the Earth Grade physique Limb Rebirth.
• Reborn as San Bao at Soul Calming Temple, Zhao Sheng recited the Heavenly Dao Salvation Scripture flawlessly and realized he was in the Secluded God Realm.
• Zhao Sheng refused a Rhino Horn Fighting match, left the scripture hall, and resolved to find out how much time had passed since his previous life.
• A temple-guarding martial master led Zhao Sheng to Bao Chen, who summoned him to a cave containing prison cells and ordered him to give blood beside a disemboweled body.

Zhao Sheng helped Bao Chen revive a boy with a tiger demon’s heart, then uncovered his master’s dangerous ambitions and prepared for his own furtive plans. When Bao Chen sent the temple’s Daoist children down the mountain to collect offerings from local families, Zhao Sheng arranged for them to visit each family in turn.

• Zhao Sheng supplied his blood to help Bao Chen revive a boy, then carried the boy to a locked cell and secretly left a drop of blood behind.
• Zhao Sheng reviewed San Bao’s memories and realized Bao Chen’s experiments were part of an ambitious attempt to overcome the limits of cultivation.
• Zhao Sheng used Phase Displacement to sneak into the Stone Room, tampered with spirit medicines, and prepared powders and poisons.
• Bao Chen ordered the Daoist children to descend the mountain for three days, claiming they would deal with demons and ghosts.
• Zhao Sheng recognized that the outing was meant to collect offerings and filial tributes from the children’s families, and he persuaded them to visit every family in turn.

Zhao Sheng and Gui Li traveled from Soul Calming Temple to the Zou Family estate, where the hosts staged a human-corpse death match for the visiting Daoist boys. Zhao Sheng saved a debt-bound youth from being forced to fight, but the spectacle continued, and several men died before a Zou Family young master killed the zombie.

• Zhao Sheng and Gui Li traveled through temple and Wu Family lands, and Zhao Sheng noticed the worsening condition of the Wu Family's tenant farmers.
• The Zou Family welcomed Zhao Sheng and the other Daoist boys with a banquet, then arranged a human-corpse death match.
• Zhao Sheng stopped the Zou Family from taking away a youth who had been promised debt relief and used talismans to cover the youth's family's debt.
• A middle-aged swordsman and three more fighters entered the arena and were killed by the White-haired Walking Corpse.
• A young master of the Zou Family beheaded the Walking Corpse, while the Daoist boys collected their wagers.

Zhao Sheng and Gui Li traveled to Liu Village to investigate a resentful ghost and uncovered the abuse behind a village custom. Gui Li captured the female ghost as a Spirit Ghost, while Zhao Sheng left the village’s remaining affairs to him.

• Zhao Sheng and Gui Li accepted parting gifts from the Zou family, and Zhao Sheng agreed to split the talisman profits with his senior brother.
• The two arrived in Liu Village and heard Liu Sanba describe how the former village head’s family had died after a new bride became a ghost.
• Zhao Sheng examined the bodies and questioned why the bride’s corpse had disappeared, while Gui Li used a Spirit Ghost to track the female ghost.
• Zhao Sheng tortured Liu Sanba until he admitted that the village head had abused the bride before she hanged herself.
• Gui Li returned with the female ghost sealed in a porcelain jar and said he would refine her into a top-grade Spirit Ghost.
• Zhao Sheng declined to handle the remaining affairs, and Gui Li prepared to leave for the next household.

Zhao Sheng turned a gambling trap set by Wu Shengshen into a huge victory, winning a Blood Contract for 1,400 Spirit Stones. Back at the mountain, Bao Chen promised him a treasure while continuing experiments that ended in another test subject’s death.

• Zhao Sheng followed Zeng Fang to a gambling gathering, where Wu Shengshen and the others expected to fleece him of his Spirit Stones and golden plaque.
• After losing his initial funds, Zhao Sheng proposed Nine Heavens and secured a Blood Contract with Wu Shengshen for the escalating bets.
• Zhao Sheng won the final four rounds and calculated that Wu Shengshen owed him 1,400 Spirit Stones, giving him a year to pay.
• Two days later, Bao Chen summoned Zhao Sheng and said he would requisition the Spirit Stones and give him a treasure in half a month.
• Bao Chen’s experiment to fuse a tiger demon’s heart into a human failed, and the young test subject died as Zhao Sheng watched.

After eight years of cultivation, Zhao Sheng reached Qi Refinement Perfection and became a leading disciple at the Soul Calming Temple. When Yuan Yang exposed the temple’s Black Market and seized its account books, Zhao Sheng urged Bao Chen to seek help at the prefectural temple, then lent him his savings while suspecting his master might turn against him.

• Zhao Sheng completed his cultivation in the Earth Soul Altar and reached Qi Refinement Perfection at sixteen.
• Zou Qi warned Zhao Sheng that Shen Bian had discovered their Black Market, and Zhao Sheng dismissed the threat while explaining that many temple members and county clans benefited from it.
• Zhao Sheng secretly altered the temple’s records to cover the spiritual-resource deficits caused by his and Bao Chen’s dealings.
• Yuan Yang raided the Black Market with Patrol Envoys, seized account books and arrested temple members and clan representatives, then took the prisoners to the prefectural temple.
• Bao Chen asked Zhao Sheng for advice, and Zhao Sheng told him to approach his old connections before the investigation uncovered the temple’s deficits.
• Zhao Sheng handed Bao Chen a Void Storage Seal containing at least ten thousand Spirit Stones while suspecting his master might eventually try to flee or kill him.

Zhao Sheng watched Bao Chen’s position collapse as Yuan Yang’s investigation and a prisoner convoy attack shifted support across Lake Peak County. Bao Chen then led Zhao Sheng through a hidden escape passage, but a faint bitter scent stopped them on Stone Mountain.

• Zhao Sheng reassured his associates that Bao Chen and their powerful allies could withstand Yuan Yang, while secretly doubting Bao Chen’s ability to prevail.
• Bao Chen met with county power brokers, made preparations for an inspection, and secretly traveled to Spirit River Temple as Zhao Sheng watched him leave.
• After attackers killed more than half the prisoners in a Prefectural Court convoy, blame fell on Bao Chen, and many temple followers and county families shifted their allegiance to Yuan Yang.
• Bao Chen returned to Soul Calming Temple, but Yuan Yang arrived with patrol guards who sealed important locations, and Zhao Sheng’s supporters deserted him.
• Bao Chen told Zhao Sheng that he planned to flee, opened a hidden passage, and led him out to Stone Mountain.
• Bao Chen started to leave, but a voice asked whether he had smelled something, and he noticed a faint bitter scent.

Zhao Sheng killed Bao Chen, escaped detection, and watched the resulting scandal reshape the Soul Calming Temple. Blamed by association and transferred to the Prison God Temple, he began work as a prison guard and received his first shift assignment.

• Zhao Sheng poisoned and subdued Bao Chen, killed him, burned his body, and scattered the ashes in the Ancient Azure River.
• Zhao Sheng returned to Qingyang Mountain and pretended to be a distressed disciple while Bao Chen's disappearance sparked an investigation and exposed massive embezzlement at the Soul Calming Temple.
• The Spirit River Temple purged temple officials, appointed Yuan Yang as high priest, and eventually left Zhao Sheng isolated because of his connection to Bao Chen.
• Zhao Sheng received a transfer order to the Prison God Temple because he was an orphan with strong spiritual-root aptitude and a disgraced former master.
• Zhao Sheng arrived at the Divine Prison as Ding Nine Five, met his bunkmates and prison officer Xiao Molo, and learned that Ding Four Six had died after contact with prisoners.
• Xiao Molo assigned Zhao Sheng's third row to patrol the third prison level.

Zhao Sheng learned the Divine Prison’s routines from Qi Peng, discovered that prisoners were kept as sources of value, and began cultivating amid its yin evil qi. A month later, he secured the right to handle a valuable Blood Soul Sutra prisoner and resolved to earn merit to advance the Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra.

• Qi Peng showed Zhao Sheng how prison guards collected corpses and tortured a wolf-headed prisoner, who revealed a possible location for an unorthodox Wolf God temple.
• Qi Peng explained that prison guards could escape their posts only by earning all Three Great Merits, and Zhao Sheng learned that prisoners were kept alive until their value was exhausted.
• Zhao Sheng ate with the prison guards at Merry Forest, gathered information, and then used the Spirit Gathering Array to cultivate with yin evil qi as fuel for his karma fire.
• A month later, Zhao Sheng intimidated other guards and won the right to handle a Blood Soul Sutra prisoner on the fourth level.
• After replacing the prisoner’s Bloodsucking Leech, Zhao Sheng judged the Heavenly Dao Sect to be corrupt and powerful and decided to accumulate merit to obtain more levels of the Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra.