Chapter Summaries

Chongguang negotiated with Sky Soaring for protection from Mu Changsheng, offering to delay Hongyun’s Ascend to Seek Gold and give Sky Soaring time to act. Sky Soaring agreed to shield Chongguang’s consciousness with the Sun-Shielding Golden Cup, and Chongguang fled into Non-Existent Heaven as his ritual drew the Fruit Position’s attention.

• Chongguang replaced Covered Lamp Fire with four Grand Void Divine Abilities and asked Sky Soaring to help him resist Mu Changsheng’s possession.
• Chongguang offered to use his Inversion ritual to draw the Fruit Position’s attention and delay Hongyun’s Ascend to Seek Gold by at least half an hour.
• Sky Soaring recognized that Chongguang had used his deal with Lu Yang to help draw him into the scheme and create leverage.
• Sky Soaring lit the Sun-Shielding Golden Cup, agreeing to conceal Chongguang’s consciousness from Mu Changsheng while its flame lasted.
• Chongguang sent Radiance toward the clouds to draw Covered Lamp Fire’s notice and fled into Non-Existent Heaven.

Daoist Hongyun began Golden Seeking as Chongguang’s interference drew Covered Lamp Fire’s attention, while True Lord Clear Serene Flying Snow refused to stop Chongguang. Sky Soaring sent his Retribution Dharma Outer Body to confront Hongyun, giving Lu Yang a chance to reincarnate and deliver Shen Metal to his true body.

• Daoist Hongyun sensed Chongguang’s ritual interfere with his Golden Seeking and questioned True Lord Clear Serene Flying Snow, who said people had to rely on themselves.
• True Lord Clear Serene Flying Snow revealed that she had allowed Chongguang to pursue his own path, frustrating Hongyun as he tried to reclaim Covered Lamp Fire’s attention.
• Sky Soaring prepared to send his Retribution Dharma Outer Body from the Netherworld to stop Hongyun, acknowledging that Chongguang had bought him time.
• Sky Soaring’s Purple Qi formed a vast eye over Jiangbei and fixed on Hongyun, pressuring cultivators across the world.
• Lu Yang recognized Sky Soaring’s intervention and decided to use the distraction to reincarnate and deliver Shen Metal to his true body.

Lu Yang secured the Shen Metal by using Patriarch Tingyou’s plan to transport it through the Ten Thousand Spirit Banner and the Qian Tian Total Control Myriad Forms Dharma Body. After refining it and reaching Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, he sensed a change in Non-Existent Heaven and suspected Chongguang.

• Lu Yang prepared to move the Shen Metal, but Patriarch Tingyou warned that his plan would leave a trail and offered a safer method.
• Patriarch Tingyou advised Lu Yang to hide the Shen Metal in the Ten Thousand Spirit Banner, transport it with the Dharma Body, and have his avatar die and reincarnate to erase its traces.
• Lu Yang sent the Dharma Body to his true body at Hidden Sword Manor, bringing the Shen Metal and other spoils stored in the banner.
• Lu Yang severed the Shen Metal’s Karma with Calamity Waves, inspected it, and refined it, reaching Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.
• Lu Yang’s Grand Void Divine Abilities began trembling, and he sensed a change in Non-Existent Heaven that he suspected Chongguang had caused.

Chongguang learned that Mu Changsheng had created Non-Existent Heaven not to pursue the True Lord position, but to give his reincarnated self a chance to escape the True Lords’ control. Chongguang accepted the fifth tribulation, Struggle for Freedom, and began his attempt to overturn the existing order.

• Chongguang met the Primordial True Person in Non-Existent Heaven and reviewed the hardships behind his first four tribulations.
• The Primordial True Person revealed that he had no soul and could not pursue Golden Seeking; he wanted his reincarnated self to begin again free from the True Lords’ influence.
• The Primordial True Person explained that Non-Existent Heaven could drain Foundation Establishment cultivators from other Fruit Positions, weakening the True Lords’ hold on the Real World.
• The Primordial True Person named Chongguang’s fifth tribulation Struggle for Freedom and offered him a sphere of light to begin it.
• Chongguang accepted and refined the sphere, declaring that the struggle was his opportunity to attain the Dao as the heavens and earth shook.

Chongguang used the Non-Existent Heaven and its growing tide of cultivators to seize Dao Foundation alignments from other Fruit Positions, weakening them as he climbed toward the highest step. His rise disrupted Hongyun’s Golden Seeking, causing the Covered Lamp Fire to vanish and his half-formed Blessed Land to collapse.

• Grand Void Divine Abilities across the world flared, and the True Lords fighting Sky Soaring sensed their Fruit Positions stirring.
• The Non-Existent Heaven opened above the Vault Sky, revealing Chongguang as True Lords paused to assess the upheaval.
• Cultivators who had passed the Non-Existent Heaven’s trials gathered beside Chongguang, and their tide lifted him step by step as the other Fruit Positions grew heavier.
• Patriarch Tingyou recognized that Chongguang was depriving other Fruit Positions of their Dao Foundation alignments through the Void Sacrificial Ritual Art.
• Vase Water Moon Bodhisattva attacked the Non-Existent Heaven, but her waters passed through it as Chongguang continued his ascent.
• Chongguang targeted the Covered Lamp Fire, making it vanish and causing Hongyun’s unfinished Blessed Land to collapse.

Chongguang used Non-Existent Heaven and his divine powers to make the True Lords withdraw their Fruit Positions from the world, declaring that heaven and earth would be at peace for One Sexagenary Cycle. After the remaining True Lords withdrew, Chongguang vanished, and concealed powers began to emerge across the world.

• Hongyun failed to seize Gold Nature, died, and fled into the Netherworld to reincarnate.
• Chongguang manifested Myriad Fragrance Marrow, Sea of Sorrow, and Lost Ferry, drawing cultivators into Non-Existent Heaven and causing Vase Water Moon Bodhisattva's Fruit Position to withdraw.
• Sky Soaring destroyed Chongguang's physical body and reclaimed the Sun-Shielding Golden Cup, but Chongguang continued to manifest divine powers, including Eternal Regret Song.
• Chongguang combined his powers in Struggle for Freedom, causing True Lords' figures to dissipate and their Fruit Positions to withdraw from the world.
• Chongguang declared Non-Existent Heaven established in Jiangnan and proclaimed peace for One Sexagenary Cycle; Sky Soaring and Xue Feihong then withdrew from the world.
• Chongguang vanished, and hidden Auras rose across Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Jiangbei, Jiangnan, and overseas.

Lu Yang used the chaos at the Southern Heavenly Gate to secure Sword Pavilion’s spiritual materials and earn a promise of rebirth as True Person Demon-Sweeping’s disciple. After killing his avatar to enter the Netherworld, he began scouting reincarnation through his soul fragment, only to encounter a mysterious figure watching him.

• Lu Yang reflected on the chance to gather the metals needed to complete his Spirit Immortal body and pursue Golden Core.
• Lu Yang injured his avatar and left the Southern Heavenly Gate with the Ancestor of the Yun Family and Xiu Xin True Person, while the returning Sword Pavilion True Persons confirmed Ye Guyue’s death.
• The Ancestor of the Yun Family and Lu Yang presented the expedition as a victory, and Lu Yang claimed he had killed the Peak Master of Heaven Mending and recovered spiritual materials.
• Lu Yang asked to join Sword Pavilion after reincarnation, and True Person Demon-Sweeping promised to take him as a disciple.
• Lu Yang entered the Netherworld through his soul fragment and found himself in a shadowy hall facing a mist-shrouded figure who addressed him as a Daoist.

Sky Soaring confronted Hongyun in Netherworld, but Lu Yang discovered Hongyun’s reincarnating soul and followed him into a new life. When Hongyun was reborn as a baby in the Yan Family, Lu Yang seized him and used the Hundred Lives Book to refine his soul.

• Sky Soaring sensed a watcher in Netherworld and argued with Hongyun, who recalled Sky Soaring’s ambush from five thousand years earlier.
• Sky Soaring realized the watcher was likely Lu Yang, while Lu Yang identified Hongyun’s soul and followed it through a reincarnation gate.
• Hongyun was reborn in the Yan Family of Flame City as one of a pair of twins and planned to restore his cultivation and pursue Golden Seeking.
• Lu Yang’s Dharma Body seized the newborn Hongyun, pulled out his soul, and let the Hundred Lives Book refine it.

Lu Yang used the Hundred Lives Book to consume Hongyun’s experiences and strip away his consciousness, then claimed the empty soul and Gold Nature to impersonate him. The Book revealed Hongyun’s Golden Talent, Fortune Drawing Sign, which let Lu Yang assess the likely outcome of an intended action.

• Lu Yang watched the Hundred Lives Book devour Hongyun’s Gold Nature and store his life trajectories, while Hongyun’s soul became an empty shell.
• Lu Yang learned that Hongyun’s fortune collapsed after he placed the gains from the Millennial Calamity into his Grotto-Heaven instead of his Fruit Position, leaving Heaven and Earth to punish him after Sky Soaring killed him.
• Lu Yang stored Hongyun’s empty soul in the Ten Thousand Spirit Banner, then wore its shell to impersonate Hongyun and considered using Hongju and the Same Fate Fortune-Shifting Ledger for his plans.
• The Hundred Lives Book granted Lu Yang the Golden Talent Fortune Drawing Sign, which revealed whether a chosen action would meet good or bad fortune.

Lu Yang used Fortune Drawing Sign to complete the Scripture of Sensing Mystery and Responding to Numen, gaining Destiny Critique and Precept Holding and learning how it could shape fortune through a binding precept. Several thousand days later, True Person Demon-Sweeping arrived to find Lu Yang’s eight-year-old Split Soul as Lu Yang prepared for the Heavenly Thunder Tribulation and noticed his earlier arrangements taking effect.

• Lu Yang drew a Minor Auspicious lot and used its boost to absorb Six Ding Divine Fire and finish cultivating the Scripture of Sensing Mystery and Responding to Numen.
• Lu Yang gained Destiny Critique and Precept Holding, learned of the Life Steward Fruit Position, and gave himself a Pomegranate Wood Destiny Pattern with a precept requiring daily dual cultivation.
• Several thousand days later, Lu Yang’s cultivation had reached the threshold before Foundation Establishment Late Stage, and he resolved to prepare thoroughly for the dangerous Heavenly Thunder Tribulation.
• True Person Demon-Sweeping came to find Lu Yang’s reincarnated Split Soul, who had turned eight, and Lu Yang noticed that his earlier arrangements had taken effect.

Lu Yang completed his avatar’s Fallen Genius Destiny Pattern by arranging for Yan Xiao to suffer a broken engagement before True Person Demon-Sweeping took him as a disciple. The avatar reached the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion, where it was about to offer incense to the founding patriarch and undergo its entry rites.

• Yan Xiao signed the Contract Paper dissolving his engagement after the girl and the middle-aged man scorned him.
• True Person Demon-Sweeping arrived, named himself Ye Guangji, and declared Yan Xiao his sole disciple and the Sword Pavilion’s true successor.
• Yan Xiao’s Fortune awakened, while Lu Yang watched through the Puppet on Strings and confirmed that his Destiny Pattern had been completed.
• True Person Demon-Sweeping taught the avatar the secret art of Eradicate Past Life and brought it to the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion.
• True Person Demon-Sweeping led the avatar to the Reception Hall and gave it incense to offer to the founding patriarch.

Lu Yang’s avatar passed Sword Pavilion’s Reception Hall trial and reached the Divine Shrine, where he received the First Grade True Art, Sword Lord's Secret Chapter of Mystic Gold. The shrine then converted his accumulated fortune into Sword Pavilion’s fortune, burdening him with its karmic debts and leaving him furious.

• Lu Yang’s avatar passed the three incense questions and entered the Reception Hall, where he saw other candidates struggle to advance toward the Divine Shrine.
• An ordinary-looking youth reached eighty steps, tried to go farther, and collapsed after cracks spread across his body.
• Lu Yang used his Fortune Drawing Sign and, with Great Auspicious fortune, walked within three steps of the Divine Shrine, startling True Person Demon-Sweeping.
• Lu Yang offered his incense and received the First Grade True Art, Sword Lord's Secret Chapter of Mystic Gold.
• The shrine took Lu Yang’s accumulated fortune and returned Sword Pavilion’s fortune in its place, saddling him with karmic debts and enraging him.

After being named a Sword Seed and given the Daoist name Minghe, Lu Yang discovered that the Sword Lord's Secret Chapter of Mystic Gold transformed outsiders' Dao Foundations to nourish the Sword Dao Fruit Position. Patriarch Tingyou then connected True Person Demon-Sweeping's cultivation to an earlier case involving Wall Earth.

• True Person Demon-Sweeping registered Lu Yang's avatar as a Sword Seed, gave him the Daoist name Minghe, and handed him a status token.
• Ye Cheng congratulated True Person Demon-Sweeping and said Lu Yang should repay the harm done to Xingfeng, worsening Demon-Sweeping's mood.
• Lu Yang studied the Sword Lord's Secret Chapter of Mystic Gold in his cave abode and found that its cultivation method ended at Foundation Establishment Perfection.
• Lu Yang realized the art remade cultivators into Eternal Observing World Golden Sword Foundations, using outsiders' talents and Dao Foundations to build the Sword Dao Fruit Position.
• Lu Yang wondered why True Person Demon-Sweeping cultivated the art, and Patriarch Tingyou asked whether Ye Guangji had previously cultivated Wall Earth.

Lu Yang uncovered the Sword Pavilion’s hidden risks in the Sword Lord’s Secret Chapter of Mystic Gold, but found that its Sword Case art could help his avatar gain Sword Divine Abilities. He turned to his next plan at Skull Mountain, where Patriarch Tingyou was soon due to escape the Witch Ghost Secret Realm.

• Lu Yang concluded that the Sword Pavilion’s First Grade True Art could make cultivators into sacrifices for the Sword Dao Fruit Position, though its Foundation Establishment power remained formidable.
• Lu Yang discovered that Sword Cultivators forged Sword Cases and gathered killing aura to form Sword Divine Abilities, or could transform abilities from a previous life instead.
• Lu Yang decided his avatar could transform Myriad Fragrance Marrow and Sea of Sorrow into Sword Divine Abilities to support its false Great True Person status.
• Lu Yang’s true body emerged from seclusion at Hidden Sword Manor and judged that his eight-year-old avatar had time to develop.
• Lu Yang prepared to head to Skull Mountain, expecting Patriarch Tingyou to escape the Witch Ghost Secret Realm soon.

Lu Yang sought a clue to the Xin Metal in Suheng Palace and decided to capture Arhat Fulong without alerting the World Honored One. He used Zhao Xuhe’s Foundation Establishment attempt as bait, but the Sacred Sect’s True Persons mistook the ambush for a fellow disciple’s scheme.

• Lu Yang spotted Zhao Xuhe at Skull Mountain Market and learned from the Peak Master of Heaven Mending that a clue to Xin Metal lay in Suheng Palace, where Arhat Fulong could help him obtain it.
• Wary of drawing the World Honored One’s attention, Lu Yang decided to capture Arhat Fulong first and interrogate him later.
• Lu Yang gave Zhao Xuhe a Foundation Establishment Spiritual Object and used Puppet on Strings to make him attempt Foundation Establishment, shaking Skull Mountain Market.
• Arhat Fulong emerged from Skull Mountain, while the Sacred Sect’s True Persons watched and chose not to interfere.
• Lu Yang ambushed Arhat Fulong with a streak of Radiance and captured him, leading the Sacred Sect’s True Persons to assume a fellow disciple had laid the trap.

Lu Yang subdued Arhat Fulong and learned that the monk could obtain Xin Metal from Wonder Suheng Palace through his disciple Guangming, the Pure Land’s newly descended Buddha’s Son. After storing Fulong away, Lu Yang met Hongju, whose respectful greeting did not hide his suspicions.

• Lu Yang used Solemn Mystic Frost to overpower Arhat Fulong and realized that Fulong’s Jia Wood Divine Ability had damaged his Dao Path.
• Lu Yang learned from Fulong that Wonder Suheng Palace held Xin Metal and demanded that Fulong retrieve it.
• Fulong offered to send his disciple Guangming, whom he identified as the Pure Land’s newly descended Buddha’s Son, to obtain the Xin Metal.
• Lu Yang suppressed Fulong, stored him in his sleeve, and sensed Hongju approaching.
• Hongju recognized Lu Yang’s Hongyun Gold Nature shell and bowed, but Lu Yang detected that Hongju doubted him.

Lu Yang convinced Hongju that he was the long-planning Lord Hongyun, then assigned him several tasks. When the Witch Ghost Sect Secret Realm emerged at Skull Mountain, Lu Yang realized Patriarch Tingyou should have appeared as well.

• Lu Yang revealed his Spirit Immortal body and three Innate Divine Abilities, persuading Hongju that his overseas plans had brought about Non-Existent Heaven.
• Hongju abandoned his suspicions and praised Lu Yang’s schemes, believing his repeated failures to obtain Covered Lamp Fire had been a disguise.
• Lu Yang ordered Hongju to gather qi in the Ten Thousand Martial Realm and later explore Suheng Palace, while Hongju admitted he knew nothing about Chongguang’s Xin Metal body.
• A roar came from Skull Mountain as the Witch Ghost Sect Secret Realm emerged, and Lu Yang realized Patriarch Tingyou should have emerged too.

Lu Yang watched the Sacred Sect overwhelm the Divine Martial Sect, then entered Skull Mountain and recovered a fragment of Patriarch Tingyou’s soul. Seeing a chance to restore him to life, Lu Yang offered him the Celestial Embryo Worldly Secret Record and asked whether he wanted to truly live.

• Xiang Ye concealed the Divine Martial Sect Leader with Star Concealing Radiance while the Sacred Sect’s True Persons besieged him, and Lu Yang judged that the Divine Martial Sect would be wiped out.
• Lu Yang avoided the battle, entered Skull Mountain, and found a False-Holding Foundation Establishment cultivator hidden in its earth vein.
• Patriarch Tingyou calmed the erupting earth vein, and Lu Yang killed the hidden cultivator and sent him into the Ten Thousand Spirit Banner to be refined.
• Patriarch Tingyou absorbed the cultivator’s innate energy and recovered a fragment of his soul from the Witch Ghost Secret Realm.
• Lu Yang considered using the Celestial Embryo Worldly Secret Record to create a body for Patriarch Tingyou, then handed him the Dao Book and asked if he wanted to truly live.

Lu Yang offered Patriarch Tingyou the Fruit Position Prototype so he could revive and pursue the Golden Core, then stole the Divine Martial Sect’s superior Spiritual Treasure during its defeat. The chapter ended with Lu Yang escaping while Hongju distracted Xiang Ye and took the blame for the theft.

• Lu Yang persuaded Patriarch Tingyou to accept the Fruit Position Prototype and revive, promising that they would help each other pursue the Golden Core and rebuild the Witch Ghost Sect.
• Xiang Ye overwhelmed the Divine Martial Sect Leader, who used the Divine Martial Flood Dragon Binding Axe to break through Star Concealing Radiance before falling.
• Xiang Ye realized the Divine Martial Sect had been looted while he fought, and Lu Yang caught the axe after it flew back to the sect.
• Lu Yang escaped by severing Karma with Calamity Waves as Hongju blocked Xiang Ye’s line of sight and became the apparent culprit.

Lu Yang refined a Celestial Embryo for Patriarch Tingyou and killed Arhat Fulong rather than risk entanglement with the Pure Land. His avatar overcame a sabotaged Foundation Establishment breakthrough with the help of a fortune sign, then awakened multiple Sword Divine Abilities and surpassed Lu Yang’s main body in strength.

• Lu Yang helped Patriarch Tingyou enter a newly refined Celestial Embryo, where he began recovering from Qi Refining Great Perfection.
• Lu Yang crushed the Mystic Pearl and killed Arhat Fulong, deciding to avoid Buddha’s Son Guangming and seek Xin Metal through Hongju instead.
• Lu Yang drew a Minor Auspicious fortune sign warning that someone would plot against his avatar’s Foundation Establishment.
• At Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion, Lu Yang’s avatar successfully established its foundation, while True Person Demon-Sweeping pondered the heads in his Storage Pouch.
• Lu Yang realized True Person Demon-Sweeping’s Foundation Establishment Spiritual Object had hindered the breakthrough, and suspected someone had tried to harm him.
• Lu Yang’s avatar transformed two Grand Void Divine Abilities into Sword Divine Abilities and reached Foundation Establishment Middle Stage perfected, surpassing Lu Yang’s main body.