Chapter Summaries

A gray-robed monk vanished after delivering Li Xuanxiao a message from the Heavenly Dao, leaving more than a hundred cultivators with shattered Dao hearts and damaged cultivation. Months later, Li Xuanxiao parted from Di Nüfeng and returned to Divine Grass Mountain, exhausted and resolved to rest.

• The gray-robed monk told Li Xuanxiao that death might return him to his own world, then vanished as the Heavenly Dao’s will spread through the crowd.
• More than a hundred cultivators suffered damage to their Dao hearts and cultivation, while Li Xuanxiao understood the monk’s words as a final warning to stop resisting fate.
• Di Nüfeng and Li Xuanxiao left the Flying Ship months later, with Di Nüfeng heading to the Heavenly Fiend Hall and Li Xuanxiao returning to Divine Grass Mountain.
• The Sword Spirit met Li Xuanxiao at the mountain gate, and he said he had finally returned and wanted to rest.

A caravan reached Divine Grass Mountain and used a special torch to pass through its deadly fog, where gophers exchanged goods with them. Li Xuanxiao tended his garden and crops while the Sword Spirit reflected on his dwindling lifespan and his refusal to seek a way to extend it.

• The caravan leader lit a torch given by the master of Divine Grass Mountain, forcing back the mist and weakening the beasts’ roars.
• The caravan followed the torch’s light through the fog to the mountain foothills.
• A group of gophers efficiently exchanged goods with the caravan without speaking.
• Li Xuanxiao carefully took seeds and other goods from the gophers and returned to tending his garden.
• The Sword Spirit watched Li Xuanxiao and recalled that he had repeatedly dismissed her suggestions to use heavenly treasures to extend his lifespan.

Li Xuanxiao focused on cultivating delicate flowers on Divine Grass Mountain while the Sword Spirit adjusted the environment to suit them. At Heaven's Secrets Pavilion, Gou Shengzi told Heaven's Secrets Old Man that the Heavenly Dao had declared the Shushan Disciple no longer a threat to them.

• Li Xuanxiao tested the soil and plants on Divine Grass Mountain and asked the Sword Spirit to create a hotter, more precisely controlled microclimate.
• The Sword Spirit teased Li Xuanxiao for spending his time gardening, but he ignored her and continued planting seeds.
• Heaven's Secrets Old Man worried that the Shushan Disciple might be the variable who had long obstructed his plans.
• Gou Shengzi told Heaven's Secrets Old Man that he had sensed the Heavenly Dao's will and that the Shushan Disciple no longer threatened either of them.
• Gou Shengzi revealed that he had touched the embryonic form of the Great Dao and believed he had advanced toward breakthrough ahead of Heaven's Secrets Old Man.

Gou Shengzi and Heaven's Secrets Old Man received the Heavenly Dao's judgment that Li Xuanxiao no longer posed a threat. In the Ghost Domain, Nangong Wan witnessed Li Xuanxiao suffer the Myriad Souls Banner's backlash and pleaded with him to stop using it.

• Gou Shengzi severed his connection with Heaven's Secrets Old Man and savored his communion with the Great Dao.
• Heaven's Secrets Old Man connected with the Heavenly Dao and learned that Li Xuanxiao had lost his edge and was no longer worth worrying about.
• The Heavenly Dao judged Li Xuanxiao an ordinary man who had abandoned his vengeance, and sensed that his Self Corpse would not live much longer.
• Nangong Wan found Li Xuanxiao convulsing as the wronged souls within the Myriad Souls Banner battered his body and spirit.
• Li Xuanxiao insisted that he would not die, while Nangong Wan knelt and begged him to stop using the banner because the Nine Great Regions had already submitted.

Li Xuanxiao recklessly refined the Myriad Souls Banner, telling Nangong Wan that his time was running out. After five years in seclusion, he emerged transformed and prepared to leave for Cangzhou, while Nangong Wan ruled the united Nine Great Regions.

• Nangong Wan begged Li Xuanxiao to stop refining the Myriad Souls Banner, but he told her his time was running out.
• Over five years, Li Xuanxiao dismantled the nine Spirit-Locking Grand Arrays and united the Nine Great Regions.
• Nangong Wan ruled the Nine Great Regions while Li Xuanxiao remained in seclusion.
• Nangong Wan visited Li Xuanxiao after he emerged from seclusion, and he asked whether she had investigated the matter he assigned her.
• Li Xuanxiao told Nangong Wan that he had prepared for a journey to Cangzhou and that they would depart at once.

Li Xuanxiao led a fleet of outcasts toward the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, where humans, tribes, and demons struggled for control. Nangong Wan crushed an escape attempt with a public execution and strict collective punishment as the fleet continued toward Cangzhou.

• A subordinate told Nangong Wan that eleven cultivators had tried to flee the fleet using Void-Escaping Talismans.
• Nangong Wan killed one captive, ordered the eleven heads displayed, and imposed death for future escape attempts, including collective punishment for groups of five.
• Li Xuanxiao ignored the crackdown and focused on reaching the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
• The chapter explained that the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains were home to Cangzhou's tribes and had been devastated by the Demon Race thirty years earlier.
• Li Xuanxiao's fleet continued toward the region, where human tribes, exiles, and the Demon Race remained locked in conflict.

Li Xuanxiao’s fleet crossed a sect’s territory, where he killed three Spirit Transformation cultivators who tried to stop and search them. At the outskirts of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, he waited for Cao Changjing, whom he greeted with unexpected warmth.

• Nangong Wan tried to secure passage for the Flying Ship fleet by offering a gift, but three Spirit Transformation cultivators demanded to search the ships.
• A giant hand formed from the black clouds annihilated the three cultivators, and Li Xuanxiao ordered the fleet to continue.
• Li Xuanxiao surveyed the Demon Race’s fortified territory in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains and told Nangong Wan to wait at the outskirts.
• After the fleet endured several small attacks while waiting for nearly two days, Cao Changjing arrived and called for Brother Li.
• Li Xuanxiao came out to greet Cao Changjing with an unusually warm smile.

Ling Xuanxiao arrived at Liuyun Sect with a vast fleet to help Cao Changjing, whose sect had been devastated by the demon tide. As the demons attacked again, Cao Changjing faced the choice of fleeing or protecting the tribes under Liuyun Sect’s care.

• Cao Changjing joyfully reunited with Ling Xuanxiao, then was stunned to see three enormous Flying Ships and twelve smaller ones arrive with him.
• Cao Changjing explained that the demon tide had devastated Liuyun Sect, while Ling Xuanxiao warned that his followers were a troublesome rabble who might not fight for the sect.
• Ling Xuanxiao said he knew how to keep his followers from turning on other cultivators, as beast roars rose outside the sect at nightfall.
• Cao Changjing and the Deputy Sect Leader surveyed the demon horde attacking Liuyun Sect.
• The Deputy Sect Leader urged Cao Changjing to flee using the Flying Ships, but Cao Changjing asked what would happen to the human tribes in the sect’s territory.

Liuyun Sect’s defenders struggled to withstand the growing demon tide as the Nine Regions cultivators’ disorder and cowardice brought the line close to collapse. Nangong Wan forced the fleeing fighters back, then Li Xuanxiao arrived with the Myriad Souls Banner and carved a path through the beasts.

• Wang Chongshan led Liuyun Sect’s defense alongside Li Xuanxiao’s Nine Regions cultivators as the demon tide attacked.
• The defenders repelled the first assaults, but the unruly cultivators killed allies and damaged the formation while fighting.
• As the demon tide intensified, cultivators began to retreat, and Nangong Wan killed one fleeing man and threatened the others into returning to the wall.
• The formation weakened under mounting attacks, casualties rose, and Wang Chongshan blamed Cao Changjing for bringing them into danger.
• Li Xuanxiao descended with the Myriad Souls Banner, drew souls and energy from the battlefield, and advanced through the demon horde, destroying beasts with black mist and Sword Qi.

After Li Xuanxiao repelled the demon tide, Liuyun Sect became a refuge and a rising regional power. Cao Changjing appointed Li Xuanxiao Chief Elder, and the sect began expanding through wars against nearby human factions.

• Li Xuanxiao's display of overwhelming strength drew the attention of powerful demons as the tide withdrew from Liuyun Sect.
• Over the next half month, Li Xuanxiao protected the sect from continued attacks, and refugees flocked to its gates.
• Cao Changjing appointed Li Xuanxiao Chief Elder and granted him authority over all matters inside and outside the sect.
• Liuyun Sect expanded under Li Xuanxiao's direction, targeting human factions to seize their resources and territory.
• Nangong Wan organized the sect's campaigns as its Nine Regions cultivators began raiding nearby strongholds.

The Liuyun Sect expanded through plunder under Li Xuanxiao’s command, provoking the Jiangshan Alliance to unite and halt its advance. After a year of stalemate, Shi Yan led a devastating attack on a Liuyun Sect force and targeted its commander, Nangong Wan.

• Li Xuanxiao used plundered resources and captured territory to build the Liuyun Sect into a ruthless war machine, while Cao Changjing listened to his justification for the conquest.
• The Jiangshan Alliance formed from ancient tribes, seven sects, and more than thirty smaller groups and factions, then ambushed Liuyun Sect convoys and attacked its forces until expansion stalled for a year.
• Shi Yan killed the Liuyun Sect spearhead force’s vanguard with his ebony longbow.
• Shi Yan shot down fleeing cultivators and aimed a blood-wreathed arrow at Nangong Wan as she tried to escape.
• Nangong Wan raised her longsword to block Shi Yan’s arrow, and the two weapons collided in a burst of sparks.

Shi Yan celebrated the Jiangshan Alliance’s victory over Nangong Wan, but poisoned wine and a surprise demon tide devastated the banquet and forced him to flee. As he hid in the silent forest, a gigantic claw of withered bones tore open the sky above him.

• Shi Yan severely wounded Nangong Wan, who escaped with a Smoke Escape Talisman, and the alliance celebrated its victory.
• At the victory banquet, Shi Yan and the alliance warriors drank poisoned wine, leaving many of them incapacitated.
• Demon beasts erupted from tunnels around the valley and overwhelmed the alliance’s core forces.
• Shi Yan fought through the demon tide and escaped into the primeval forest after the demon generals targeted him.
• A gigantic claw made of ghastly white bones tore open the night sky above Shi Yan.

After Shi Yan was killed and the Jiangshan Alliance collapsed, Li Xuanxiao’s Liuyun Sect established control over the southern outskirts of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains while maintaining a tense pact with five Demon Kings. Years later, the Demon Kings attacked at Luofeng Valley, where the nearly defeated Liuyun Sect’s fallen fighters rose as an Undead Army.

• The Demon Kings trapped Shi Yan, rejected his offer to serve them, and killed him, while blaming him for threatening their rule.
• The Jiangshan Alliance collapsed, and Liuyun Sect took control of the region through submission, conquest, and forced relocation.
• Li Xuanxiao’s health deteriorated as Nangong Wan reported that the Demon Kings were testing the boundaries of their nonaggression pact.
• Five Demon Kings allied and attacked Liuyun Sect forces at Luofeng Valley, where the A-Team held back and the main army was nearly destroyed.
• Black water spread through the battlefield and raised the dead Liuyun Sect cultivators into an Undead Army, shocking the Demon Kings.

Li Xuanxiao’s undead turned the battle at Luofeng Valley into a war of attrition, forcing the five Demon Kings to attack alongside the beleaguered A-Team. When the Withered Bone Demon King seized Nangong Wan, Li Xuanxiao finally revealed his power, rescued her, and challenged all five Demon Kings to a fight to the death.

• The demon tide slaughtered the undead, but the dead rose again as black water infected fallen demons and turned the battlefield into an endless cycle of resurrection.
• The five Demon Kings unleashed indiscriminate attacks to destroy the undead, and Liuyun Sect’s A-Team charged into battle but suffered devastating losses.
• The Withered Bone Demon King captured the badly wounded Nangong Wan and prepared to turn her into a spirit-bone puppet.
• Li Xuanxiao emerged amid a vast wave of black deathly aura and pierced the Withered Bone Demon King’s skeletal projection, forcing it to abandon Nangong Wan.
• Li Xuanxiao sent Nangong Wan away and declared that either the five Demon Kings would leave Luofeng Valley alive or he would walk out over their corpses.

Ling Xuanxiao defeated the five Great Demon Kings at Luofeng Valley, but the victory left him gravely weakened as the Myriad Souls Banner devoured the battlefield’s souls. With the Demon Kings’ power broken, Liuyun Sect began a ruthless conquest of the southern region.

• Ling Xuanxiao won the half-month battle at Luofeng Valley, where three Great Demon Kings died and the Withered Bone Demon King and Azure Scale Demon King were left shattered.
• The Myriad Souls Banner broke free of Ling Xuanxiao’s control and devoured the battlefield’s lingering souls, death qi, and resentment, including the Withered Bone Demon King.
• Liuyun Sect resumed its campaign after the Demon Kings’ defeat, ordering the remaining forces to submit or die.
• Liuyun Sect rapidly expanded across the southern outskirts, bringing territories under its command or destroying them.

Li Xuanxiao forcibly absorbed countless living beings’ power to break into the Integration Realm, but his new strength remained unstable. Meanwhile, a demon princess arrived to inspect the Liuyun Sect’s influence and ordered a curious Cang Tribe youth punished for looking at her.

• Li Xuanxiao used the Myriad Souls Banner to absorb magical power, essence blood, and soul origins, barely reaching the Integration Realm before collapsing and coughing black blood.
• The demon princess traveled through the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains with Old Demon, who explained that her father wanted her to see the human force challenging the region’s demon kings.
• Old Demon warned that Burial Soldier City prevented the demons from exterminating humanity and that human pressure could help unite the mountain powers.
• The demon princess’s party reached the Cang Tribe, where its people knelt before the demon visitors.
• A Cang Tribe youth raised his head to look at the princess, and she ordered Old Demon to punish him; the goshawk attacked as the crowd heard his screams.

Mingyu, King Ming’s fifteenth princess, demanded tribute from the Shang Tribe and then summoned Ling Xuanxiao to warn the Liuyun Sect to prepare an even greater offering for her father’s birthday. Ling Xuanxiao agreed to do his best, and Mingyu decided to stay at the stronghold and keep him at her side.

• Mingyu dismissed the Shang Tribe’s tribute list as inadequate and demanded that the tribe at least double its offering for King Ming’s birthday.
• After learning that Ling Xuanxiao led the Liuyun Sect, Mingyu ordered the Shang Tribe’s chieftain to summon him.
• Ling Xuanxiao met Mingyu at the Liuyun Sect stronghold, where he agreed to prepare a birthday gift after she threatened the sect.
• Mingyu told Ling Xuanxiao to follow the Shang Tribe’s gift list but provide an even more precious tribute, especially boys and girls for King Ming.
• Mingyu chose to stay at the stronghold, and Ling Xuanxiao sent Cao Changjing away to avoid conflict while Mingyu kept him as her guide and attendant.

Li Xuanxiao finally broke his restraint when Ming Yu ordered him to sacrifice Nangong Wan, killing the Demon Race princess and defeating Old Demon. Months later, Old Demon reached King Ming’s domain and reported Ming Yu’s death, stirring fury among the watching demons.

• Ming Yu declared that Nangong Wan would make ideal nourishment for her lotus pond and ordered Li Xuanxiao to throw her in.
• Nangong Wan knelt and began reversing her spiritual power to kill herself, but Li Xuanxiao knocked her into the pond and seized Ming Yu by the head.
• Li Xuanxiao devoured Ming Yu’s life essence and soul as Old Demon attacked him and threatened him with King Ming’s revenge.
• Li Xuanxiao defeated the giant Bull Demon, who retreated wounded and maimed after warning that King Ming would take vengeance.
• Several months later, Old Demon reached King Ming’s dark mountain domain and reported that Ming Yu had been killed, prompting shocked and furious reactions from the demons there.

After learning that Ming Yu had died, King Ming ordered the extermination of the Southern Human Race and Old Demon was killed for failing to protect his daughter. As the demons ravaged the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, a figure arrived at the scorched remains of the Shang Tribe and used the Myriad Souls Banner to harvest the dead.

• King Ming ordered the Southern Human Race wiped out and commanded that its blood and souls mourn Ming Yu.
• King Ming crushed Old Demon with a giant hand of darkness, leaving no trace of him behind.
• A tribe celebrating the birth of its chieftain's son was annihilated by meteors, while a giant bird and a colossal white ape continued destroying settlements.
• The Shang Tribe's chieftain learned the Toad Tribe had been destroyed and insisted King Ming would spare his loyal people.
• King Ming's forces attacked the Shang Tribe, and a fiery giant bird dismissed the chieftain's pleas before the tribe was destroyed.
• A figure arrived at the Shang Tribe's scorched ruins, where the Myriad Souls Banner harvested the dead.

Li Xuanxiao harvested the resentment of the dead across King Ming’s scorched battlefields and used it to force a breakthrough into the Body Integration Realm. His ascent shocked the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains and disrupted the heavenly secrets, leaving Gou Shengzi and Heaven's Secrets Old Man unable to read his fate.

• Li Xuanxiao gathered the wronged souls from the devastated battlefield with the Myriad Souls Banner while survivors mourned and King Ming’s forces continued their destruction.
• King Ming’s forces searched and slaughtered Liuyun Sect followers, but Li Xuanxiao, Cao Changjing, Nangong Wan, and their companions had vanished.
• Li Xuanxiao drove the banner into the scorched earth and used the souls’ power to shatter the barrier between God Transformation Peak and the Body Integration Realm.
• Powerful beings throughout the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains sensed Li Xuanxiao’s breakthrough and its immense pressure.
• Gou Shengzi and Heaven's Secrets Old Man deduced that Li Xuanxiao had reached the Body Integration Realm, then found the heavenly secrets obscured by chaotic fog.