Chapter Summaries

During his annual outing, Zhao Sheng scouted Chu Country City, found descendants of the Zhao Clan, and bought the Wu Family residence to bring them into his household. After returning to the Divine Prison, he was assigned to help escort a prisoner to the sixteenth level.

• Zhao Sheng spread phase imprints across Chu Country City and found a poor family descended from the Zhao Clan, including Wu San Liu and his infant grandson.
• Zhao Sheng bought the Wu Family residence, changed its servants’ surnames to Zhao, doubled their rice stipends, and arranged better positions for Zhao San Liu and his sons.
• Zhao Sheng continued scouting Chu Country City and its satellite cities before returning to the Divine Prison with Qi Peng.
• Xiao Molo assigned Zhao Sheng, Bing One, and two other guards to escort one prisoner to the sixteenth level of the Divine Prison.

Zhao Sheng escorted the unusual prisoner Qiu Santong into the depths of the divine prison, advanced to Foundation Establishment, and spent six years gathering information while rising through the guard ranks. The chapter ended with him ordered to accompany Daoist Yu Shu to the sixteenth prison level.

• Xiao Molo delivered Qiu Santong to the sixteenth prison level, where the prisoner hinted that he had recognized Zhao Sheng's blood.
• Zhao Sheng tortured a Local Mother Church missionary for information, then secretly arranged shops, work, and protection for Zhao Sanliu's family in Chu Country City.
• After three years of diligent cultivation, Zhao Sheng smoothly broke through to Foundation Establishment and learned that prison guards faced frequent deaths, corruption, and a twenty-percent salary cut.
• Another three years passed, during which Qi Peng died and the prison filled with prisoners linked to rebellion and strange religions.
• Daoist Yu Shu arrived from the main altar, blessed the prison guards, and Xiao Molo ordered Zhao Sheng to escort him to the sixteenth prison level.

Zhao Sheng received Qiu Santong’s Sound Reporting God and secretly learned the dying prisoner’s instructions, including a warning about Yu Shu and a message for the Defying Heaven Alliance. After two months in the Divine Prison, Zhao Sheng traveled to a temple in Chu Country City and discovered that its Daoist Shou Zhuo belonged to the Vast Righteous Sect.

• Qiu Santong recognized Yu Shu as his former junior brother, argued against the Heavenly Dao Sect, and died after secretly passing Zhao Sheng the Sound Reporting God and his instructions.
• Yu Shu questioned Zhao Sheng about his connection to Qiu Santong, let him continue working in the Divine Prison, and gave him a protective Purple Pearl bracelet.
• Zhao Sheng used the Sound Reporting God to learn the Divine Prison’s secrets and waited two months before secretly leaving his cultivation chamber.
• Zhao Sheng went to a temple near Peaceful Joy Ward in Chu Country City and used Qiu Santong’s code phrase to meet a hidden contact.
• Daoist Shou Zhuo emerged to meet Zhao Sheng, who identified his Vast Righteous Sect affiliation and prompted him to summon Wind Blades and demand Zhao Sheng’s identity.

Zhao Sheng continued gathering and trading secrets while investigating the Defying Heaven Alliance and protecting his interests in Chu Country City. He killed a Wandering Desolate Temple leader who threatened his estate, then met Lu Gongming in the Black Market and learned that a passage to another world still existed.

• Zhao Sheng delivered Qiu Santong’s final message to the Short-Bearded Old Daoist, escaped his pursuit, and sent the Sound Reporting God to watch him.
• Zhao Sheng gave Zhao Hongyun the Immeasurable Divine Skill, learned the Black Tin Society had submitted, and ordered Zhao Tai to keep watch for a target.
• Zhao Sheng overheard a plan to smuggle Li Jing out of the Divine Prison and suspected the speakers might be tied to the Heavenly Surveillance Division or the Defying Heaven Alliance.
• After learning the Wandering Desolate Temple wanted his estate, Zhao Sheng killed its high-crowned leader during a public ritual.
• Disguised as Wu Ying, Zhao Sheng traded intelligence with Lu Gongming and learned that a spacetime passage to another world still existed.
• A white-faced burly man asked Zhao Sheng for a Phantom Escape Talisman in exchange for intelligence about the Dragon Qiong Temple priest’s illegitimate son.

Zhao Sheng rose through the ranks of Divine Prison while concealing his abilities, then negotiated with Gu Yu for access to the Diancang Gu Family’s Precious Collection Pavilion. He agreed to become Gu Yu’s retainer in exchange for three hours to read its books and Jade Slips.

• Zhao Sheng refused Gu Yu’s first invitation and defeated Gu Jiu when he tried to force him to go.
• Xiao Molo promoted Zhao Sheng and Ding Shiliu to Grade C prison guards, transferring them to Avici Prison, where Zhao Sheng learned its dangers from Leng Sha.
• Zhao Sheng returned to Climbing Wind Tower as Wu Ying and waited for Gu Yu to meet him personally.
• Gu Yu apologized for Gu Jiu’s behavior and offered Zhao Sheng a chance to enter the Precious Collection Pavilion for three hours, provided he took nothing and revealed no secrets.
• Zhao Sheng demonstrated his Divine Sense, then accepted a retainer position with Gu Yu and requested to visit the Precious Collection Pavilion soon.

Zhao Sheng entered the Gu Clan’s Precious Collection Pavilion and copied the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core sections of the Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra. Later, he thwarted a plot in the Divine Prison, concealed his role in the snake demon’s death, and eventually returned to the pavilion at night.

• Gu Yu secured permission from the Gu Clan’s elder for Zhao Sheng to browse the Precious Collection Pavilion for three hours.
• Zhao Sheng found and read the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core sections of the Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra before leaving with Gu Yu.
• A Void Tunneling Rat tried to steal the snake demon’s heart in Cell Number Three, but Zhao Sheng caught and destroyed it after ripping out the demon’s heart.
• Zhao Sheng concealed the heart’s law fragment and let the prison guards believe the Void Tunneling Rat had escaped, prompting a fruitless search.
• After the Divine Prison’s investigation faded, Zhao Sheng disappeared from his cultivation chamber and reappeared in the Precious Collection Pavilion.

Zhao Sheng continued copying the Precious Collection Pavilion’s books, served in the Divine Prison, and developed a Karma Pill to feed the Sound Reporting God. After discovering a scripture used to recruit believers for the Heavenly Origin God, he left the Black Market, while the Ghost God Society prepared to question a captured veteran prison guard.

• Over two years, Zhao Sheng copied more than half the texts in the Precious Collection Pavilion and asked Gu Yu for access to its Secret Scripture Repository.
• Zhao Sheng learned that strange deaths among Divine Prison criminals had prompted an investigation, then joined the prison guards in welcoming new commandant Ren Zhong.
• Zhao Sheng was assigned to patrol the Divine Prison’s fifteenth and sixteenth levels and began refining a Karma Pill to reduce the Sound Reporting God’s need for his flesh and blood.
• At the Black Market, Zhao Sheng recognized the Heavenly Origin Descent Scripture as a bewitching recruitment tool, but Shopkeeper Liu defended his decision to chant it for a chance to advance.
• White-robed Heavenly Origin believers solicited offerings and clashed with shopkeepers, while Zhao Sheng collected his talisman goods and disappeared.
• At the Ghost God Society’s underwater Water Mansion, a dragon-headed divine being ordered his followers to bring in a captured veteran prison guard for questioning.

Zhao Sheng pieced together clues about the wars between realms and the Heavenly Dao Sect’s past, while three Wandering Gods plotted to seize the divine authority they believed he possessed. He arranged for Wei Chong to let him inspect the Divine Prison and then returned to his hidden archive, where a white rat appeared on his shoulder.

• The Flood Dragon Lake God, Tiger Head God, and Fish Head God interrogated a prisoner, learned that San Bao had handled the Snake God’s interrogation, and planned to capture the prison guard they believed held a fragment of the Heavenly Dao.
• Zhao Sheng studied Gu Clan records and inferred that the wars between realms had involved the Corpse Abyss and possibly Centipede Province, whose collapse had displaced Zhao Xiuchan’s ancestors.
• Zhao Sheng overheard Zhao Zhongque of the Defying Heaven Alliance welcome Daoist Friend Li and connected the Zhao Clan’s generation names to events roughly twelve hundred years earlier.
• Zhao Sheng persuaded Wei Chong to let him enter the prison’s seventeenth and eighteenth levels during an inspection, bribing him with a Void Storage Seal.
• Zhao Sheng entered the vast hidden archive beneath Zhao Estate, where a large white rat leapt from the bookshelves onto his shoulder.

Zhao Sheng refused Wang Hengxi’s demand to find a young man after recognizing Zhao Zhongque’s voice in the offered recording. He then approached Song Zhuizi at the Great Yang God Temple, claimed descent from the Southern Sky Zhao Clan, and faced the Daoist’s suspicion as Zhao Zhongque returned.

• Zhao Sheng studied a book on spirits and gods, then left his cavern after receiving an urgent summons to Climbing Wind Tower.
• Wang Hengxi hired Zhao Sheng to locate a young man, but Zhao Sheng recognized Zhao Zhongque’s voice in the recording and refused the job.
• Wang Hengxi ordered his red-clad attendant to attack Zhao Sheng, who evaded the punch and vanished from the tower.
• Zhao Sheng visited Song Zhuizi at the Great Yang God Temple and asked whether Zhao Zhongque was there.
• Zhao Sheng identified himself as Zhao Beixuan and claimed descent from the Southern Sky Zhao Clan, prompting Song Zhuizi to accuse him of possibly being a spy.
• Song Zhuizi summoned Wind Blades against Zhao Sheng, who shielded himself with a crimson flame lotus as Zhao Zhongque returned.

Zhao Sheng warned Zhao Zhongque that the Wang Family had targeted him, then continued building influence in Chu Country City and secretly planted a Ghost Gu in the Golden Lion King. Zhao Zhongque later trapped Wang Hengxi and shared information about the Zhao Clan and the unfinished war between worlds, leaving Zhao Sheng asking what had happened after the spatial rift was resealed.

• Zhao Sheng revealed his Zhao Clan bloodline to Zhao Zhongque, warned him about the Wang Family, and gave him intelligence on Li Jing before escaping with Karmic Fire Red Lotus.
• Zhao Zhongque ordered the Defying Heaven Alliance to abandon its stronghold and activate a backup location as Zhao Sheng’s warning helped him prepare against the Wang Family.
• Zhao Sheng returned to the Zhao Estate, guided Zhao Hongyun, and secretly extracted marrow blood from the Golden Lion King before implanting a Ghost Gu egg in him.
• Zhao Zhongque used Zhao Sheng’s warning to capture Wang Hengxi and covertly fed Li Jing misleading information while investigating him.
• Zhao Zhongque told Zhao Sheng that Zhao Xuanjing had become the Spirit Transformation ancestor known as Subduing Dragon and Vanquishing Demons Great True Lord, and explained that covert warfare had continued since the war between worlds officially ended.
• When Zhao Sheng asked whether the Sky Pillar World had lost the war, Zhao Zhongque said neither side had truly won and asked whether Zhao Sheng believed in true gods.

Zhao Sheng learned how the Star God’s fall helped the Secluded God Realm devastate the Shattered Star Sea, and Zhao Zhongque tried to recruit him into the Defying Heaven Alliance in exchange for more wartime secrets. After their meeting, Zhao Sheng returned to the Divine Prison and followed Wei Chong through the guarded entrance to its seventeenth level.

• Zhao Zhongque described how the Star God was manipulated into opening a spacetime vortex, allowing the Secluded God Realm and sea demons to ravage the Shattered Star Sea.
• Zhao Zhongque offered to reveal how Sky Pillar World turned the war around if Zhao Sheng joined the Defying Heaven Alliance, and Zhao Sheng said he would consider it.
• Zhao Sheng asked about the Star Gate and named Centipede Province as its location, startling Zhao Zhongque with his knowledge.
• Zhao Sheng returned to the Divine Prison, where Wei Chong secretly told him to await news after their connections had been cleared.
• Wei Chong led Zhao Sheng past the Divine Prison’s black-gold armored puppets and onto the seventeenth level, warning him to follow his footsteps exactly.

Zhao Sheng toured the Divine Prison’s deepest levels, noticed signs of a plot involving the Defying Heaven Alliance, and continued cultivating before joining Leng Sha and Liu on an outing to the Flying Immortal Boat. There, several lake beings trapped them in a fog-shrouded divine domain, and Zhao Sheng answered their demand to surrender by unleashing his sword.

• Wei Chong showed Zhao Sheng the prisoners on the seventeenth and eighteenth levels, including a white-clad woman and a chained iron coffin surrounded by ghosts.
• Wei Chong transferred away, and Ren Zhong appointed three new first-class guards; Zhao Sheng recognized one of them as a member of the Defying Heaven Alliance.
• Zhao Sheng cultivated with karma fire and advanced to the sixth level of Foundation Establishment, planning to refine a sinful ghost to break through further.
• Leng Sha and Liu invited Zhao Sheng to the Flying Immortal Boat, where mist and an ethereal song ensnared the party in a divine domain on Yue Shen Lake.
• Flood Dragon Lake God and two other beings demanded that Zhao Sheng surrender, but he called forth his sword and sent a hundred-zhang sword rainbow into the sky.

Zhao Sheng fought the Flood Dragon Lake God and Water Tiger God inside their divine domain, killed both, and took their remains and divine treasures. He left the Black Fish God's divinity untouched to avoid trouble with the Heavenly Dao Sect and flew toward the lakeshore.

• Zhao Sheng attacked the three gods with swords, talismans, and Red Lotus Karma Fire, killing the Black Fish God, while the Flood Dragon Lake God destroyed the Flying Immortal Boat and the Water Tiger God tore into Zhao Sheng.
• The Flood Dragon Lake God and Water Tiger God pressured Zhao Sheng within their divine domain, and Zhao Sheng stalled while questioning the Flood Dragon Lake God about the Snake God.
• Zhao Sheng stood atop the Flood Dragon Lake God's head and killed it with the Crimson Dragon Sword.
• Zhao Sheng pursued the fleeing Water Tiger God and destroyed its demon soul with a crimson fire lotus, then collected its spirit water and a fragment of Heavenly Dao law.
• Zhao Sheng recovered, harvested the Flood Dragon Lake God's corpse and divine authority, left the Black Fish God's divinity untouched, erased traces of the battle, and flew toward the lakeshore.

Zhao Sheng entered Cangmo City’s Ghost Market and found a headless statue that unleashed a fiendish remnant thought into his Soul Sea. He destroyed the fiend, uncovered a fragment of the Flying Underworld King’s Heart Core, and left the stall owner writhing as black smoke escaped his body.

• Zhao Sheng spent years infiltrating Chu Country City’s cultivation clans to gain access to their Scripture Pavilions while advancing to Foundation Establishment Late Stage.
• Zhao Sheng traveled to Cangmo City with Da Bai and passed a Daoist who was exploiting drought-stricken residents by pretending to pray for rain.
• Zhao Sheng entered the Ghost Market through a red willow tree and went to a stall Da Bai had noticed.
• Zhao Sheng touched a headless golden statue, and an eight-armed fiend claiming to be the Dragon Taming God Lord appeared in his Soul Sea.
• Zhao Sheng destroyed the fiend with a bolt of lightning, exposing a fragment of the Flying Underworld King’s Heart Core inside the statue.
• Zhao Sheng took the statue while the stall owner shriveled and screamed beneath his robes.

Zhao Sheng entered the Ghost Market’s hidden trading ground and offered valuable exchanges for Five Manifestations God statues and four kinds of spirit beasts. After completing a deal for a six-hundred-year spirit snake, he followed a trader who claimed to possess a Thousand-Year Hedgehog God Statue into the black mist.

• A one-armed burly man killed the accused stall owner, took the Dirt-Dispelling Crystal, and led Zhao Sheng to the true Ghost Market.
• Zhao Sheng and the one-armed burly man passed a Ghost Asura guard and entered a mist-filled trading hall, where they used aliases.
• The Ghost Market held trades for a Golden Core tiger bone and a Ghost Face Peach, which fetched a Low-Grade Magic Treasure.
• Zhao Sheng offered cultivation arts, pills, spirit stones, or magic tools for Five Manifestations God statues and bats, toads, hedgehogs, and snakes.
• Zhao Sheng traded the White Day Separating Fire Art for a nearly six-hundred-year-old spirit snake.
• A trader claimed to have a Thousand-Year Hedgehog God Statue, and Zhao Sheng followed him into the black mist for a private meeting.

Zhao Sheng traded with a Heavenly Heart Sect disciple for the Five Manifestations Hedgehog God Statue and delivered a message to Xin Wu Yan in the Divine Prison. After arranging a false Foundation Establishment attempt as cover, he began a ritual beneath Zhao Estate to summon the Hedgehog God.

• Zhao Sheng learned that the statue came from a temple destroyed by the Heavenly Heart Sect and traded information about Xin Wu Yan for its history and a promise of more spirit beasts.
• At the Ghost Market, Zhao Sheng traded secrets and later received four second-rank-or-higher Five Manifestations spirit beasts from the Heavenly Heart Sect in exchange for delivering a Message Talisman.
• Zhao Sheng delivered the talisman to Xin Wu Yan on the seventeenth level of the Divine Prison, but refused her plea to rescue her.
• Zhao Sheng persuaded Warden Ren Zhong to grant him a Foundation Establishment Pill and a Class B cave abode, using the opportunity to conceal his long-planned undertaking.
• Beneath Zhao Estate, Zhao Sheng performed a god-summoning ritual, sacrificed a spirit hedgehog, and sent its demon soul into the Hedgehog God Statue, which began to glow with divine radiance.

Zhao Sheng created the Chang Spirit Method by refining the Five Manifestations ghost god and joining its divine shell with his liver, gaining control over incense offerings and the god’s thorn art. He then bound a spirit hedgehog to serve as the first beast of his Five Manifestations Hedgehog God, while Gu Yu and a brocade-robed youth went to meet the reappeared Wu Ying at the Moon Invitation Tower.

• Zhao Sheng trapped the Five Manifestations ghost god in a cauldron, refined its divine thoughts, and merged its shell with his liver to create a Chang spirit.
• Zhao Sheng used incense offerings to repair the divine statue and explained that his Chang Spirit Method could gather and control their power.
• Zhao Sheng forced a white spirit hedgehog to sign a hundred-year Spirit Contract and made it the first spirit beast under the Five Manifestations Hedgehog God.
• Zhao Sheng tested the thorn divine art and discovered that the Chang spirit powered it with incense offerings, allowing its attacks to rival a top-grade first-rank spell.
• Gu Yu received Wu Ying’s message and arrived at the Moon Invitation Tower, where he met a brocade-robed youth who had received the same summons.
• Gu Yu and the youth entered the tower together and followed an attendant toward the Moon Gazing Pavilion to meet Wu Ying.

Zhao Sheng gathered promising cultivators to read the Five Virtues Treatise and Journey to the East, then invited them to lend him spirit stones in exchange for karmic blessings. He claimed the Five Manifestations God would help him reach Golden Core soon and vanished, leaving the attendees divided over whether to believe him.

• Gu Yu and Wu Yifan entered Zhao Sheng’s hall, where the other guests were reading his two books.
• Gu Yu read the Five Virtues Treatise and Journey to the East, becoming engrossed in their teachings and stories.
• The guests argued over whether Journey to the East was meant to spread faith in the Five Manifestations God, and Zhao Sheng admitted that it was.
• Zhao Sheng said he had gathered the guests to make deals and asked them to lend him spirit stones to form a thread of Karma; they emptied their purses and gave him what they had.
• Zhao Sheng denied that he had reached Golden Core but claimed he would do so soon with the Five Manifestations God’s help, then vanished after summoning his hedgehog.
• Gu Yu asked the remaining guests whether they believed Zhao Sheng, and they disagreed.

Zhao Sheng gathered eight aspiring cultivators at Moon Gazing Pavilion, accepted their Spirit Stones, and taught them how to pursue Foundation Establishment while striking down Wu Yifan’s spying Third Granduncle. After Que Yue failed to discover how Zhao Sheng had vanished, Zhao Sheng’s allies spread Journey to the East across Chu Country City to promote the Five Manifestations God.

• Wu Yifan and Gu Yu joined the other six invitees at Moon Gazing Pavilion and offered Zhao Sheng Spirit Stones in hopes of receiving help with Foundation Establishment.
• Zhao Sheng detected Wu Yifan’s Third Granduncle spying on the gathering and knocked him unconscious with his God Slaying Sword Intent, then spared him at Wu Yifan’s request.
• Zhao Sheng instructed all eight attendees through Divine Sense, and they left convinced by his Foundation Establishment guidance and promised assistance.
• Daoist Que Yue searched Moon Gazing Pavilion for clues to Zhao Sheng’s disappearance but found nothing and resolved to investigate him.
• Gu Yu, Wu Yifan, and the other families helped spread Journey to the East, whose stories and practical arts became popular among Chu Country City’s residents.

Zhao Sheng created the Golden Toad Child and returned to Zhao Estate, where he told Zhao Hongyun that his newborn grandson could cultivate. That night, hungry, blood-eyed monsters began killing people across the nearby Markets, and the next morning the townspeople realized a ghost calamity had begun.

• Zhao Sheng summoned and refined the Golden Toad Child, completing his second Five Manifestation Ghoul God in a little over a month.
• Zhao Sheng returned to Zhao Estate and told Zhao Hongyun that his newborn grandson, Xiao Shitou, possessed a spiritual root.
• Wei Lao Liu gave a meat bun to a starving stranger in an alley, but the blood-eyed figure seized and devoured him.
• Similar monsters attacked people in several nearby Markets, including Fang Xiaomu and his father.
• Night watchman Lao Liu entered a blood-soaked household and saw two blood-eyed figures and a huge rat before he was killed.
• Dozens of people were found dead in Chu Country City the next morning, and townspeople cried that the ghost calamity had arrived.