Chapter Summaries

Wu Changming returned to his body after Zhang Chen helped him escape the Divine Might, while Zhang Chen explored the Second Heaven and found Buzhou Mountain barren. Zhang Chen discovered that corrupting the mountain with Blood Filth revealed a new skill, leaving him ready to collect it.

• Zhang Chen used his Divine Might to help Wu Changming return to his body, then flew deeper into the Spiritual World as a Vampire Bat.
• Wu Changming awoke in his Jiangnan courtyard and wondered whether the Zhang Chen he had met was real and could reach the Second Heaven.
• Zhang Chen reached Buzhou Mountain, and the Great Sovereign Demon King explained that the mountain had been drained of its creation and that its gateway to the Third Heaven required tenth-rank cultivation to open.
• Zhang Chen tried devouring the seawater with Ba Snake Space but gained only one hundred Experience Points after an hour of digestion.
• Zhang Chen dripped Blood Filth onto Buzhou Mountain, causing the stones to corrode and revealing a Golden Finger Interface prompt to collect a new skill.

Zhang Chen collected another portion of Divine Might in the Second Heaven, then returned to the camp and studied the third realm of cultivation. After the Great Sovereign Demon King explained Enlighten the Mind and See the Nature, Zhang Chen learned that he would need to choose a path and practice it steadfastly.

• Zhang Chen picked up a portion of Divine Might, which fused into the Buzhou Seal and raised its completion to two out of thirty-three.
• The Great Sovereign Demon King searched the foundation of Buzhou Mountain for traces of the Emperor's Daughter but found nothing, and Zhang Chen left the Second Heaven.
• Back at camp, Zhang Chen studied the Qi Refining Incantation and declined the Golden Finger's offer to upgrade it, deciding to comprehend the third realm himself.
• Zhang Chen asked the Great Sovereign Demon King how to Enlighten the Mind and See the Nature, and learned that it required subduing desire and preserving his innate nature.
• The Great Sovereign Demon King explained that Zhang Chen could follow a Great Dao, engrave it upon his heart, and practice it constantly in hopes of seeing his true heart.

After witnessing bandits slaughter a refugee family and the Blood God Sons briefly revive the father to avenge them, Zhang Chen understood how to cultivate by setting rules, testing them through action, and influencing others. He chose to follow the righteous path by confronting injustice within his power, and his Essence, Qi, and Spirit began to transform.

• Zhang Chen spent the night questioning what personal rules could guide his cultivation, rejecting the strict standards of the sages and the Hundred Schools.
• Cheng Yu identified a group of armed bandits as routed soldiers from the Pacifying Border Prince's Mansion as they attacked a refugee family.
• The Blood God Sons entered the slain father's body, killed the bandits, and left as the father's life ended again.
• Zhang Chen explained his understanding of establishing virtue, establishing merit, and establishing words as a process of setting rules, testing them, and validating one's Dao through influence.
• After seeing the family's suffering, Zhang Chen resolved to follow the righteous path and help the weak by addressing injustices within his ability.
• Zhang Chen's mana surged as Civil and Military Fire Timing and the Jade Liquid Returning Pill operated, beginning a transformation of his Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

Zhang Chen broke through to the third realm of Qi Refining through his own spiritual comprehension and began enduring the painful tempering of Civil and Military Fire Timing. He continued cultivating through the night and into the morning while traveling with his family, determined to strengthen himself before his remaining lifespan ran out.

• Zhang Chen's cultivation advanced without Experience Points, unlocking Civil and Military Fire Timing, though completing the skill would require one hundred million Experience Points.
• Zhang Chen realized that the new realm tempered his magical power and soul by exposing him to natural forces, and he accepted that he had to experience the process himself.
• Cheng Yu sensed Zhang Chen's transformation and stayed beside him, while Zhang Chen explained that the pain was a normal part of cultivation.
• Zhang Chen endured the cold of moonlight through the night, used the Heaven and Earth Treasure Mirror to learn that Du Guqiu had left the northern lands, and then faced the burning Great Sun Essence at dawn.
• After breakfast, Zhang Chen set out with his family, rejected Cheng Yu's fan because wind hurt his skin, and covered himself with a gauze robe and bamboo hat as he continued cultivating.

Zhang Chen joined a stream of refugees and learned from Zhu Ziqing that the Pacifying Border King had ceded the White Bone Great Wall to the Demon Race after the Yellow Heaven Dao was gravely weakened. When fighting erupted ahead, Zhang Chen sent a Blood God Son to scout and discovered the Yanluo Banner turning the tide of a battle between rebels and the Pacifying Border Prince's Mansion.

• Zhang Chen brought his family’s donkey cart to the rear of a refugee procession and decided to follow the group south.
• Zhu Ziqing joined Zhang Chen on the cart and explained that the Pacifying Border King had ceded territory after the Yellow Heaven Dao’s experts were injured fighting a Ghost King wielding the Yanluo Banner.
• Zhu Ziqing told Zhang Chen that rebels were gathering across the north and that the banner’s master had raised an army.
• Zhang Chen heard battle nearby and sent a Blood God Son ahead to investigate while the refugees tried to detour.
• The Blood God Son witnessed more than eighty thousand rebels fighting ten thousand troops from the Pacifying Border Prince’s Mansion.
• The rebels’ leader revealed the Yanluo Banner, whose three thousand vicious ghosts possessed the rebels and drove the mansion’s troops into retreat.

After Wang Heng’s Yanluo Banner turned the battlefield’s dead into power, he led his cavalry to conscript Zhang Chen’s refugee group. Zhang Chen concealed his strength and stayed close to Wang Heng, hoping to find a chance to take the banner while protecting his family.

• Wang Heng absorbed battlefield ghosts into the Yanluo Banner, gained power, and led three thousand cavalrymen toward a large group of living people.
• Zhang Chen’s group heard the cavalry approaching, and Zhang Chen recognized Wang Heng and the Nine Sons Ghost Mother formation behind him.
• Wang Heng conscripted the refugees, taking their supplies and dividing them between military service and logistics.
• Zhu Ziqing won a position as Wang Heng’s chief clerk and asked that Zhang Chen and his siblings be spared from ordinary conscription.
• Wang Heng appointed Zhang Chen to help with documents, then ordered him to massage his legs; Zhang Chen considered using the opportunity to steal skills from the Yanluo Banner.

While pretending to massage Wang Heng, Zhang Chen provoked the Yanluo Banner and was arrested on suspicion of harming the general. He collected the newly revealed Yanluo Authority, which could revive souls whose bodies remained intact, and wondered whether it might one day let him bring back Han Su Zhen and his family.

• Zhang Chen sensed Wang Heng’s powerful Yanluo bloodline and deliberately awakened the Yanluo Banner with his Golden Light of the Righteous God.
• Wang Heng kicked Zhang Chen down, questioned him, and ordered his guards to imprison Zhang Chen and his family.
• Zhang Chen collected a black bead as a skill, while his Blood God Son’s attempt to enter Wang Heng was destroyed by the Yanluo Banner.
• A guard controlled by Zhang Chen killed the other guards escorting him, and Zhang Chen waited for nightfall before acting on his family’s behalf.
• Zhang Chen discovered that Yanluo Authority could revive souls if their bodies remained intact, and considered using it to revive Han Su Zhen and his family.

Zhang Chen used a sandstorm to break Wang Heng’s army, free his family, and escape south with a stolen fifth-tier Demon Horse. After leaving Wang Heng stranded, Zhang Chen considered strengthening his Mind Realm before seeking the Buzhou Mountain foundation stone.

• Zhang Chen unleashed a powerful sandstorm that disrupted Wang Heng’s army and let the refugees flee.
• Zhang Chen freed his family, loaded their belongings and supplies into a carriage, and escaped through the storm.
• Zhang Chen kept the sandstorm going until his family had traveled far enough, then fled as a Vampire Bat.
• After the storm cleared, Wang Heng discovered that most of his soldiers, supplies, and fifth-tier Demon Horse were gone.
• Zhang Chen rejoined his family and continued south, while Wang Heng vowed to rebuild his army and punish the horse thief.
• Zhang Chen rested with his family and considered improving his Mind Realm before traveling to the Buzhou Mountain foundation stone.

Zhang Chen and his family reached Tiger Soul Pass after months of fleeing the northern lands, only to find the Pacifying Border King’s troops had sealed the pass and refused to let refugees escape. With demon beasts overrunning their homes and soldiers blocking the way, Zhang Chen faced an uncertain path forward.

• Zhang Chen conserved his Experience Points, continued south with the refugees, and noted that his Blood God Sons had reached the Seventh Order after slaughtering their enemies.
• Zhang Chen calculated that his Body Transformation Blood River still needed five hundred billion points and expected the Demon Race to invade human territories after completing their transformations.
• Zhang Chen used soul-nourishing incense to help Cheng Yu and the two children cultivate, while Cheng Yu advanced toward the Possession realm and the children learned to project their souls.
• Chen Ping endured humiliation from armed men who mocked him and kicked away meat, but he vowed to survive and reach Jinling for revenge.
• Zhang Chen’s family approached Tiger Soul Pass and learned that soldiers had sealed it by order of the Pacifying Border King, trapping the refugees inside the northern lands.
• The commander at Tiger Soul Pass ordered the refugees to return home and threatened to suppress anyone who tried to force their way through.

Zhang Chen found his old acquaintance Chen Ping among the starving refugees outside Tiger Soul Pass, healed him, and used his Blood God Sons to take control of the men who had abused him. After learning about the pass’s formidable guardian and a planned refugee assault, Zhang Chen prepared to use the coming chaos to cross.

• Zhang Chen saw the desperate refugees outside Tiger Soul Pass and decided he needed to help them find a way through.
• Zhang Chen recognized Chen Ping, who had been mutilated and tormented alongside the young girl Wei Wei, and gave him a pill that healed his injuries.
• Chen Ping told Zhang Chen that Jin Dou guarded the pass and that refugees planned to attack it the next day; Zhang Chen revealed that he had turned three of Chen Ping’s tormentors into puppets.
• A refugee organizer urged the crowd to attack Tiger Soul Pass, and thousands of desperate people rallied behind the plan.

Zhang Chen used Earth Authority to tear open Tiger Soul Pass, triggering a desperate battle between the refugees and the pass’s defenders. As he led his companions toward the breach, he discovered the refugees’ gathered Karma resisted Dragon Qi and began cutting through the enemy with his ice-control abilities.

• Zhang Chen assessed Tiger Soul Pass’s defenses and sent Vampire Bats to discover that two hundred thousand guards defended the pass.
• Zhang Chen used Earth Authority to tear a fifty-meter-wide breach through Tiger Soul Pass, and the refugees charged through it.
• The refugees’ Karma resisted the Pacifying Border Prince’s Mansion’s Dragon Qi as they fought the armored defenders, while Zhang Chen returned to camp and prepared to lead his group onward.
• Zhang Chen led the carriage toward the battle, using water vapor and ice control to kill soldiers and protect the refugees’ advance.
• A Tiger Soul Pass Martial Artist attacked Zhang Chen, but Zhang Chen froze his movements with Blood Control Technique and made him spit blood.

Zhang Chen fought through Tiger Soul Pass and defeated its defending general, Jin Dou, whose bloodline made his body living metal. He immobilized Jin Dou rather than kill him and continued onward, leaving the defenders in chaos as Chen Ping remained gravely wounded in battle.

• Zhang Chen killed the Martial Artist opposing him and used vapor turned to ice to slaughter armored soldiers as Chen Ping and the rioters advanced.
• Jin Dou confronted Zhang Chen and urged him to stay at Tiger Soul Pass to defend against the Demon Race, but Zhang Chen refused and told Chen Ping to protect the carriage.
• Jin Dou transformed into metal, pierced Zhang Chen through the throat, and was shocked when Zhang Chen’s wound healed.
• Zhang Chen struck Jin Dou with the ten-thousand-jin Elixir Furnace lid, crushing him into scrap iron, but Jin Dou reformed into liquid metal.
• A Blood God Son disguised as a soldier placed a Body Immobilization Talisman on Jin Dou, and Zhang Chen left him alive before leading the carriage onward.
• Zhang Chen saw Chen Ping fighting amid the soldiers, gravely injured and covered in wounds.

Zhang Chen defeated Jin Dou by sealing him, allowing the refugees and his family to cross Tiger Soul Pass into the Pacifying Rebellion Marquis's territory. After Chen Ping recovered from his wounds, Zhang Chen explained the weaknesses that had let him capture Jin Dou.

• Zhang Chen sealed Jin Dou, and the leaderless defenders of Tiger Soul Pass broke ranks as refugees flooded through the pass.
• Zhang Chen found Chen Ping gravely wounded, gave him a medicinal pill, and led the family through the pass while promising Chen Ping's daughter that her father would recover.
• Zhang Chen guided the family out of the border town and into the Pacifying Rebellion Marquis's territory, then stopped in the wilderness to camp for the night.
• Chen Ping woke that night, reunited with his daughter, and thanked Zhang Chen before eating the stew Zhang Chen had saved for him.
• Zhang Chen told Chen Ping that Jin Dou's weaknesses were his vulnerable soul and susceptibility to Sealing Techniques.

After Chen Ping parted ways with Zhang Chen to search for the lost escort item, Zhang Chen upgraded his Sun skill to the ninth rank and set off with his family toward Jiangnan. The group then struggled with their monotonous food and lack of directions to Jinling, so Zhang Chen decided to find a map in a city.

• Chen Ping thanked Zhang Chen, then left with the young woman to search for the lost escort item while Zhang Chen stayed by the fire.
• Zhang Chen upgraded A Speck of True Sun Fire Ember to the ninth-rank A Speck of Charcoal Fire Within the Sun and celebrated by going to sleep.
• The next morning, Zhang Fei complained about eating meat every day, and Zhang Chen said they could look for rice as they traveled.
• Zhang Chen realized he did not know the route to Jinling, and Zhang Shi suggested finding an escort master or merchant who knew the roads.
• Zhang Chen decided to enter a city the next day to buy a map and planned to sell hunted prey for money.

Zhang Chen reunited with Chen Sanliang, who argued that wars served the privileged class and proposed enslaving the Demon Race to make all humans privileged. Zhang Chen rejected Chen Sanliang’s plan as an impossible and dangerous delusion.

• Zhang Chen searched a neighboring city for a map but instead spotted Chen Sanliang dining in a restaurant.
• Chen Sanliang welcomed Zhang Chen, confirmed that Zhang had defeated Jin Dou at Tiger Soul Pass, and explained that his comfortable life came from the Demon Race’s captured servants and craftsmen.
• Chen Sanliang argued that nobles and other privileged people pursued their own interests across human and demon conflicts, while commoners bore the costs of war.
• Chen Sanliang claimed he could unite humanity by establishing a Demon Country and enslaving the Demon Race, making every human a privileged exploiter.
• Zhang Chen judged Chen Sanliang’s vision to be an impractical and dangerous fantasy.

Zhang Chen rejected Chen Sanliang’s plan to use the Demon Race to overturn the human hierarchy, despite learning that powerful human factions had already sided with the invaders. Chen Sanliang revealed that the Demon Race would soon attack the Pacifying Rebellion Marquis’s territory, leaving Zhang Chen alarmed but unable to warn the Marquis because his low status made him unbelievable.

• Zhang Chen refused to join Chen Sanliang’s plan, arguing that human nature would preserve exploitation even if humans ruled the Demon Race.
• Chen Sanliang explained that his strength would grow as the Demon Race conquered human territory, but Zhang Chen called his ambition a wild fantasy.
• Chen Sanliang said the rigid social order had driven the Privileged Class and great clans to betray humanity in exchange for self-governing territories.
• Chen Sanliang revealed that the Demon Race had promised the Pacifying Rebellion Marquis’s lands to the great clans under his command, who had already obstructed his support for the Inspection Directorate.
• Chen Sanliang confirmed that the Demon Race would soon invade the Pacifying Rebellion Marquis’s territory and said no one would believe Zhang Chen if he tried to warn the Marquis.

Zhang Chen parted ways with Chen Sanliang after agreeing to help mediate with Bai Cang and receiving a map, while Chen Sanliang set out to debate Confucian scholars and pursue another undisclosed goal. Zhang Chen then went to the Pacifying Rebellion Marquis with a warning about nobles conspiring with the Demon Race, but the Marquis attacked him for being a commoner.

• Chen Sanliang asked Zhang Chen to keep Bai Cang from obstructing his plans, and Zhang Chen agreed to negotiate with Bai Cang when needed.
• Chen Sanliang gave Zhang Chen a map of the Divine Continent, and Zhang Chen gave him incense he could use to send for help.
• Chen Sanliang revealed that he planned to travel south, debate the Dao, and defeat Confucian scholars, then accepted Zhang Chen's list of materials for refining a treasure.
• After Chen Sanliang left, Zhang Chen suspected he had a hidden purpose and went to the Pacifying Rebellion Marquis's residence to learn whether the world could still be saved.
• The Pacifying Rebellion Marquis learned that Tiger Soul Pass had fallen and the Demon Race might cross into his territory.
• Zhang Chen warned the Pacifying Rebellion Marquis that nobles were secretly colluding with the Demon Race, but the Marquis attacked him after learning he was a commoner.

Zhang Chen escaped Pacifying Rebellion Marquis’s attack and fled with his family, then learned that Chen Sanliang was challenging academies across the land. Great Sovereign Demon King explained that Chen Sanliang’s campaign was part of a struggle for Confucian fortune against Fifth Mister, whose Great Dao had grown from Zhang Chen’s phrase, “Unity of Knowledge and Action.”

• Pacifying Rebellion Marquis attacked Zhang Chen, who escaped and realized the marquis had intended to kill him rather than hear his message.
• Zhang Chen evaded soldiers searching the city, reunited with his family outside it, and led them toward the next city after scouting the route.
• In the next city, Zhang Chen heard that Chen Sanliang had defeated three academies and forced their teachers to abandon scholarship.
• Zhang Chen reasoned that Chen Sanliang’s challenges and humiliations were designed to break the academies’ resolve and spread his teachings.
• Great Sovereign Demon King told Zhang Chen that Chen Sanliang was fighting to stop Fifth Mister from claiming more Confucian fortune through Unity of Knowledge and Action.

Zhang Chen reflected on Chen Sanliang’s plan to use Dao debates to undermine humanity’s Confucian teachings, then continued traveling south as his body transformed and his Body Sense awakened. As autumn cold worsened, he turned the Elixir Furnace into a portable stove powered by Sun Charcoal Fire.

• Zhang Chen realized Chen Sanliang’s Dao debates could recruit Confucian disciples for the Demon Race and weaken human Confucian Dao, leaving him wary of Chen Sanliang’s schemes.
• Zhang Chen continued his family’s journey while refining treasures and cultivating, and told Cheng Yu that his awakening Body Sense was making him unusually sensitive to the cold.
• Zhang Chen gave Sun Dew Nectar to his dormant bumblebees and restrained the Demon Horse’s speed so the carriage would not jolt his family on the rough roads.
• Zhang Chen placed Sun Charcoal Fire inside the Elixir Furnace and used its Innate Restrictions to regulate the heat, discovering the furnace absorbed the fire’s power to operate.
• After adding more charcoal fire during the journey, Zhang Chen warmed himself with the Elixir Furnace, and Cheng Yu asked why the air around him was so warm.

Zhang Chen’s party sheltered from a blizzard and encountered fifteen stranded young scholars, who offered him a valuable pearl for food and warmth. The chapter also revealed that Chen Sanliang survived Tiger Strength Great Immortal’s test and went to White Tooth Academy seeking an Immortality Elixir, where a bloody tempest broke out.

• Cheng Yu sensed terrifying power inside Zhang Chen’s elixir furnace as the group continued its journey north through the worsening cold.
• Zhang Chen’s party stopped during the first heavy snowfall, used the furnace’s warmth to make a fire, and discussed how the Qinling Mountains shaped the climate.
• Tiger Strength Great Immortal tested Chen Sanliang over his failure to kill Zhang Chen, then told him a damaged ruler at White Tooth Academy might lead to the Spiritual World and an Immortality Elixir.
• Chen Sanliang reached White Tooth Academy three days later, where a bloody tempest erupted.
• Zhang Chen’s party spotted fifteen frozen scholars in the blizzard, and their leader offered a violet pearl in exchange for food and fire; Cheng Yu warned Zhang Chen they might not mean to give it to him.