Chapter Summaries

Tang Lan and Long Yao discussed the injured Three-Eyed Macaque and agreed that Long Yao could make it her Soul Spirit, with Tang Lan sealing its excess power until she could withstand it. The chapter ended as Long Yao approached the macaque and offered it a choice.

• Tang Lan spared the weakened Giant Soul Whale and left the Sea of Death with Bell and Long Yao.
• Tang Lan gave the regenerating but lifeless Thousand-Faced Beast to Bell to craft Soul Tools.
• The group sailed to Wind Bird Island to rest, and Long Yao apologized to Tang Lan for blaming him over the Three-Eyed Macaque.
• Tang Lan advised Long Yao to make the injured Three-Eyed Macaque her Soul Spirit and offered to seal its excess power until she could absorb it.
• Long Yao summoned the Three-Eyed Macaque from its cage and told it she would give it two choices.

Long Yao agreed to form a Soul Spirit contract with the Three-Eyed Macaque, and Tang Lan performed the ritual to fuse the macaque’s soul with hers. Long Yao awoke with her fourth and fifth Soul Rings and thanked Tang Lan.

• Long Yao explained why she had saved the Three-Eyed Macaque and offered it a chance to become her Soul Spirit.
• The Three-Eyed Macaque agreed to cooperate, fearing the heavenly tribulation and other Soul Beasts would not spare it if it stayed in the Sea of Death.
• Tang Lan led the group to Wind Bird Island, where Bell set up warning Soul Tools around their cave for the night.
• Tang Lan prepared the supporting formation and instructed Long Yao and the Three-Eyed Macaque to recite the incantation as they began the Soul Spirit sacrifice ritual.
• The Three-Eyed Macaque’s soul merged with Long Yao’s, and Tang Lan used runes to control the surging power as its Soul Ring entered her body.
• Long Yao awoke by the beach, realized she had gained her fourth and fifth Soul Rings, and thanked Tang Lan.

Long Yao fused with the Three-Eyed Macaque’s External Soul Bone, the Samadhi Demon Eye, and discovered that her spiritual power and physical strength had greatly increased. After demonstrating her new power by shattering a massive boulder, she thanked Tang Lan, who suggested they get food and have her tidy the soul boat.

• The Three-Eyed Macaque thanked Tang Lan, gave him its body, and left behind the Samadhi Demon Eye soul bone for Long Yao.
• Long Yao absorbed the Samadhi Demon Eye while Tang Lan and Bell guarded her, enduring nearly three hours of fusion.
• Long Yao awakened with more than twice her former spiritual power and soul sense, and Tang Lan estimated she could challenge a Soul Saint.
• Bell told Long Yao to test her strength, and she shattered a massive boulder with one punch.
• Long Yao thanked Tang Lan, who said she could repay him by sorting out the soul boat and helping with their hunger.

Tang Lan, Long Yao, and Bell faced worsening weather as a golden lightning tribulation erupted deep in the Sea of Death, revealing a Soul Beast likely stronger than a five-hundred-thousand-year creature. Tang Lan offered to enter the dangerous depths alone while Long Yao and Bell waited on Wind Bird Island, but the chapter ended before they decided what to do.

• Long Yao cooked dinner for Tang Lan and Bell as the three returned to their cave.
• Tang Lan and Long Yao worried when Bell predicted trouble, recalling that his gloomy forecasts had repeatedly come true.
• A storm swept over the Sea of Death the next morning, and Tang Lan spotted golden heavenly lightning in the distance.
• Tang Lan judged that a Soul Beast over five hundred thousand years old was undergoing tribulation in the Netherworld Sea.
• Tang Lan offered to go into the depths alone while Bell urged him to leave them behind, and Long Yao hesitated rather than risk becoming a burden.

Tang Lan left Long Yao and Bell on Wind Bird Island and ventured alone into the heart of the Sea of Death. Beneath the sea, he discovered the petrified ruins of an ancient settlement and suspected that humans and soul beasts had once united against an unknown enemy.

• Tang Lan gave Long Yao the Merman King's Heart of Protection and told her and Bell to leave if he did not return within half a month.
• After staying on Wind Bird Island for three days, Tang Lan said farewell to Long Yao and Bell and flew toward the Sea of Death's inner waters.
• Finding no soul beasts in the inner sea, Tang Lan descended underwater and discovered the buried ruins of what seemed to be an ancient continent.
• Tang Lan found giant two-headed bird statues infused with petrification and sealing power, then opened a stone gate into a ruined, petrified complex.
• Tang Lan saw that the complex's remaining contents crumbled into ashes, and concluded that the ancient kingdom had likely fallen while humans and soul beasts fought a common unknown enemy.

Tang Lan explored a lost continent, learned that ancient gods had vanished and humanity had entered a dark age, then discovered a Hundred-Eyed Demon Kun feeding on the souls lingering in petrified statues. He fought the creature after it exposed his presence, and his Dragon God Overlord Spear finally pierced its tail.

• Tang Lan examined ancient chambers and discovered clues that Supreme Divine Beasts had once protected humanity before disappearing and leaving humans to face a long dark age.
• Tang Lan found petrified statues of ancient people and soul beasts, then sensed a huge creature approaching through the surging currents.
• A Hundred-Eyed Demon Kun devoured the statues’ remnant souls, and Tang Lan deduced that the near-death beast had cultivation close to a Million Year despite its reduced strength.
• Tang Lan followed the Hundred-Eyed Demon Kun to a vast sealed castle, where Ghost Lantern Fish detected him and exposed his presence.
• The Hundred-Eyed Demon Kun attacked Tang Lan with parasitic soul beasts, but he destroyed the weaker attackers and struck the demon kun with his Overlord Spear.
• Tang Lan fused the Ancient Dragon Spirit with the Overlord Spear and pierced the Hundred-Eyed Demon Kun’s tail.

Tang Lan fought the Hundred-Eyed Demon Kun until its Chaos Domain transported him to a hidden cave, where he discovered the Death God's Inheritance Land. After passing its first trial, he entered the inheritance grounds and continued deeper inside.

• Tang Lan struck the Hundred-Eyed Demon Kun with his spear, then planted more than twenty powerful Ninth-Rank Soul Tools in its tail to injure it.
• The Hundred-Eyed Demon Kun trapped Tang Lan in its Chaos Domain, where attacks were warped through disordered space, then swallowed him and the surrounding space.
• Tang Lan emerged on solid ground inside a cave and followed its passage to a stone plaque naming the Death Realm Grotto Heaven.
• Tang Lan pressed his palm against the sealed Stone Gate, heard that he had passed the Death God's first trial, and stepped through.
• Tang Lan entered the Death God's Inheritance Land and continued past walls covered in murals of strange beings and vicious beasts.

Tang Lan entered the Death God’s second trial, the Endless Thought Domain, and faced thousands of resurrected powerful beasts. He fought his way through the horde but was struck by a giant he identified as an ancient Sea Person.

• Tang Lan saw the Death God’s inheritance and decided he would pursue the powerful godhood despite resenting that the trial had begun without his consent.
• Tang Lan reached a ruined battlefield filled with petrified remains and learned that the second trial was the Endless Thought Domain.
• The remains revived, surrounding Tang Lan with thousands of beasts, each at least Rank 93.
• Tang Lan attacked with his Dragon God Overlord Spear, Baxia Right Palm Bone, and Ancient Dragon Breath, destroying many beasts that quickly regenerated.
• A humanoid giant charged Tang Lan and knocked him aside, and he recognized its gills as a sign that it was an ancient Sea Person.

Tang Lan defeated the remnants in the second gate of the Death God trial and learned that the trial had ten gates. He claimed the Slaughter Blade, whose demonic spirit awakened and announced its rebirth.

• Tang Lan fought the Sea Person's remnant, severed its arm and head, and destroyed it with his spear and a Water Control Fist.
• Tang Lan used three domains, water giants, and Evil Spirit Parasitism to defeat the swarm of petrified remnants, exhausting most of his soul power.
• The Death God's lingering consciousness declared the second gate passed, awarded Tang Lan the Slaughter Blade, and told him that the trial had ten gates.
• Tang Lan found the black saber pinned over a demonic dragon remnant and took it, awakening the Slaughter Blade's artifact spirit.

Tang Lan freed the Slaughter Blade’s spirit, Ning Xian, who revealed that the accepted history of the Soul Master World omitted a devastating ancient war. At the Death God trial ground, Tang Lan told Ning Xian that Nan Shan Continent had sunk beneath the sea, and Ning Xian refused to believe him.

• The black blade awakened and introduced itself as Ning Xian, a Slaughter God who had been sealed inside it by a blacksmith.
• Tang Lan described the known eras of the Soul Master World, and Ning Xian said its history was incomplete because an ancient war nearly wiped out human Soul Masters.
• Ning Xian insisted that, despite his title, he had killed monsters rather than humans, then fell silent.
• Tang Lan left the black sword outside his Storage Ring and continued through the trial ground, reaching a plaza filled with huge ice sculptures containing ancient Soul Beasts.
• Tang Lan told Ning Xian that Nan Shan Continent had fallen into the Ten Thousand Zhang Sea Abyss, but Ning Xian threatened him and rejected the claim.
• Tang Lan said the Slaughter Blade was soul-linked to him and argued that Ning Xian could not override its will or become a complete artifact spirit without merging with another naturally formed one.

Tang Lan and Ning Xian tried to escape a swamp that suppressed their powers, only to face a Great Earth Dragon guarding the valley. Tang Lan flew beyond the swamp under Slaughter’s protection, where he taunted the dragon as it continued to watch him.

• Ning Xian questioned Tang Lan about the Death God Trial and realized they needed to work together to escape the strange place.
• Tang Lan discovered that the swamp was surging upward and attacked the serpent-like creatures it formed before flying away from them.
• A Great Earth Dragon rose from the swamp and attacked Tang Lan with petrifying dragon breath, which Ning Xian warned could bypass defenses.
• Tang Lan used Slaughter’s protective soul light to block the dragon breath and flew out of the swamp valley.
• Tang Lan provoked the Great Earth Dragon from a distance, while the dragon watched him as a territorial invader.

Tang Lan summoned Ning Xian through the Slaughter Blade, and Ning Xian nearly killed the enraged Great Earth Dragon with a powerful axe strike. Tang Lan found the dragon alive in the canyon and offered it the chance to become his Soul Spirit, leaving its decision unresolved.

• Ning Xian warned Tang Lan that the Great Earth Dragon had more than eight hundred thousand years of cultivation and taught him how to summon his spirit form.
• Tang Lan used blood and Soul Power to summon Ning Xian, who manifested and unleashed a giant axe strike that drove the Great Earth Dragon into a canyon.
• Ning Xian said the attack had exhausted his strength and Tang Lan's borrowed Soul Power, then Tang Lan went into the canyon to check on the dragon.
• Tang Lan found the Great Earth Dragon dying with a severe wound at its seven inches and asked it to become his Soul Spirit, promising it rebirth if he became a god.
• Tang Lan revealed his Ancient Dragon Spirit, and the Great Earth Dragon recognized the ancestor but was too weak to respond beyond a roar.

Tang Lan formed a Soul Spirit Contract with the Great Earth Dragon and absorbed its eight-hundred-and-forty-thousand-year soul ring, gaining the Earth Rock Spear soul skill. As he awakened, Ning Xian warned him of a swarm of giant ants closing in through the ravine.

• Tang Lan released the Soul Spirit Contract’s power, and the injured Great Earth Dragon chose to become his Soul Spirit.
• Tang Lan summoned his Ancient Dragon Spirit and absorbed the Great Earth Dragon’s soul ring into his Overlord Spear.
• Tang Lan considered three possible sources for the Overlord Spear’s Seventh Soul Ring: Sky Pillar Island, the Far North Icefield, and the Desert of the Dead.
• After three hours, Tang Lan awoke and confirmed that he had gained the Earth Rock Spear soul skill, which let him command earth to form spears and ridges.
• Ning Xian urged Tang Lan to leave, and Tang Lan saw a swarm of palm-sized, earth-yellow giant ants advancing across the ravine walls.

Tang Lan escaped the ravine after the Soul Devouring Ant Swarm detected him, then fled for six hours before the ants abandoned their pursuit. The Death God Trial ordered him to rescue a Golden Winged Roc, and Tang Lan rejected the Death God’s authority over his will.

• Ning Xian identified the creatures as Soul Devouring Ants and told Tang Lan to cut off his Soul Power to evade their senses.
• Tang Lan halted his Soul Power and used Phantom Shadow and his footwork to race along the cliff, but a jade pendant began releasing Soul Power and attracted the ants.
• Tang Lan unleashed his Soul Power, flew out of the ravine, and used his spear to fight while fleeing, but the ants devoured most of his attacks.
• Tang Lan ran for six hours until the Soul Devouring Ants gave up, leaving him with only twenty percent of his Soul Power.
• The Death God Trial ordered Tang Lan to rescue the Golden Winged Roc and threatened penalties for abandoning the mission, but Tang Lan refused to let the Death God decide his will.

Tang Lan learned that the exit from the trial lay inside the Soul Devouring Ant's Nest and rested for seven days before confronting two powerful Soul Beasts outside his cave. He defeated and restrained them, leaving Ning Xian astonished by his strength.

• The Death God's voice told Tang Lan to go to the Soul Devouring Ant's Nest in the east, where the trial's exit lay, and allowed him to skip the remaining trials.
• Tang Lan carved out a cave, concealed its entrance with a soul array, and spent seven days restoring his Soul Power.
• After Tang Lan awoke, he found a Winged Black Tiger and a Three-Headed Demon Leopard waiting outside his cave.
• Tang Lan wounded the Winged Black Tiger and struck back against the Three-Headed Demon Leopard, then used his Ninth Soul Skill to leave a deep wound in it.
• Tang Lan bound the Winged Flying Tiger with his Eighth soul skill, Soul Control, and trapped the Three-Headed Demon Leopard with spiked stone pillars.
• Ning Xian praised Tang Lan's strength and wondered whether Soul Masters of Tang Lan's era were all so powerful.

Tang Lan killed the Winged Black Tiger and headed for the Soul Devouring Ant nest, hoping to find the passage out of the separate space. He lured most of the ants away with earth wolves, then slipped into the largest burrow to search for the trial exit.

• Tang Lan drained the Winged Black Tiger's life force with Black Knife Massacre and decided to enter the Soul Devouring Ant nest to find a way out.
• Tang Lan reached the canyon nest and observed its guard ants and burrows, but did not spot any queen ants.
• Tang Lan used Soul Control, Baxia Domain, and the power of earth to summon more than ten thousand earth wolves and draw the ants away from the nest.
• Giant flying Soul Devouring Ants emerged to guard the nest, so Tang Lan sent more earth wolves to keep the swarm occupied.
• Tang Lan concealed his aura, rushed into the canyon, and entered its largest ant burrow.

Tang Lan explored the Soul Devouring Ant Nest, collecting eggs and discovering several rare Blood Crystals while leaving an Earth Vein Soul Crystal untouched to avoid alerting the ants. He followed another passage into a cavern filled with ancient statues.

• Tang Lan entered the deepest cavern, collected several hundred Soul Devouring Ant eggs, and left the Earth Vein Soul Crystal in place after Ning Xian warned him it could alert the colony.
• Tang Lan searched the food storage cavern and found a Blood Crystal, which Ning Xian identified as a rare treasure with benefits for bodies and lifespan.
• Tang Lan searched three more food storage areas and collected five Blood Crystals in total.
• Ning Xian urged Tang Lan to leave quickly because he felt watched by the Death God, and Tang Lan chose the right-hand passage.
• Tang Lan reached a cavern lined with rows of damaged statues depicting Soul Beasts and humans.

Tang Lan awakened the ancient stone statue array in the cavern and discovered a voice inside a Stone Tablet belonged to a deceased human Demigod. The girl asked him to take her out of the sealed space in exchange for a great opportunity, but Tang Lan doubted her claims.

• Tang Lan failed to activate the statues with Soul Power at first, then made them glow by pouring dense Soul Power into one of them.
• The cavern shook as the statues awakened, and a three-headed lion statue roared until Tang Lan's Ancient Dragon Spirit aura calmed them.
• A childish voice from a Stone Tablet questioned Tang Lan about his ancient dragon aura and how he had arrived in the cavern.
• The girl inside the Stone Tablet said she had been a human Demigod who died in a great battle and asked Tang Lan to take her out of the sealed space.
• The girl offered Tang Lan a chance at godhood, a Million Year Soul Ring, or advances to his Spirit or soul bone, but Tang Lan challenged her claim that she could help him become a god.

Tang Lan learned that the Eight Desolations Stele housed He Xi, the former Eastern Domain Mystic Sovereign, and that Ning Xian, the spirit within his Black Knife Massacre, had once fought alongside her. He made the stele recognize him as its master and discovered its formidable powers and inner space.

• He Xi introduced herself as the Eastern Domain Mystic Sovereign, and Ning Xian revealed that he was the Northern Domain Mystic Sovereign and recognized her.
• Ning Xian explained that he and He Xi had fallen in a great battle and become artifact spirits after the Death God intervened to use their divine souls.
• He Xi told Tang Lan that he had to make the Eight Desolations Stele recognize him as its master before he could take it away.
• Tang Lan failed to lift the stele, then followed He Xi's instructions and dripped a drop of blood essence onto it.
• The Eight Desolations Stele recognized Tang Lan, who learned it could suppress enemies, defend and attack, and hold a private space spanning several miles.

Tang Lan claimed the Eight Desolations Stele and met its arrogant artifact spirit, He Xi, as he and Ning Xian prepared to leave before the Soul Devouring Ants returned. He Xi revealed that the Southern and Western Domain Mystic Sovereigns might be in Demigod Artifacts in later gates of the Death God Trial, leaving her angry that she and Ning Xian had been placed in the Third Gate.

• Tang Lan became the master of the Eight Desolations Stele, and He Xi agreed to protect him while insisting that strength determined who was senior.
• Ning Xian urged Tang Lan and He Xi to leave before the Soul Devouring Ants returned, and Tang Lan checked the altar area before heading for the next passage.
• Tang Lan saw Ning Xian and He Xi manifested in his sea of consciousness, with He Xi holding the shrunken Eight Desolations Stele.
• He Xi told Tang Lan that she had sensed the soul auras of the Southern Domain and Western Domain Mystic Sovereigns, who were likely in other small spaces.
• Tang Lan guessed that the two Mystic Sovereigns were in Demigod Artifacts at later gates of the Death God Trial, and He Xi angrily questioned why they had been assigned to the Third Gate.