Chapter Summaries

Mo Lingna and Zhuge Xiang battled the Black Flood Dragon, whose emerald dragon pearl let him rapidly heal. Zhuge Xiang devised a tactic to trap him and told Ying Wushuang he could help her land a fatal strike with the Dragon Slaying Sword.

• Mo Lingna used the Bull Demon Fist and Fox Demon Step to fight the Black Flood Dragon despite her lower cultivation.
• Zhuge Xiang struck the Black Flood Dragon with the Dragon's Judgment Sword, but the dragon healed rapidly with the emerald dragon's life ability.
• Zhuge Xiang ordered General Crab to have the aquatic cultivators cast fast spells around the Black Flood Dragon while Mo Lingna entangled him.
• Zhuge Xiang told Ying Wushuang he had a way to make her Dragon Slaying Sword hit the Black Flood Dragon and kill him.

Zhuge Xiang and his allies defeated the Black Flood Dragon with a coordinated attack that culminated in Ying Wushuang striking it with the Dragon Slaying Sword. After the kill, Ao Xiaoyao offered Zhuge Xiang the flood dragon’s corpse except for its dragon pearl, and Zhuge Xiang asked for one dragon horn.

• General Crab led more than a hundred aquatic cultivators in attacking the Black Flood Dragon while Mo Lingna, Lu Yuling, and Zhuge Xiang joined the fight.
• Mo Lingna’s Lion Demon Roar briefly immobilized the Black Flood Dragon, allowing Zhuge Xiang to wound it with Demon Subduing Sword Qi.
• Zhuge Xiang used Transfiguration Technique to disguise Ying Wushuang as a dagger, then unleashed Vast Sword Qi to pin down the Black Flood Dragon.
• Ying Wushuang emerged behind the Black Flood Dragon and struck it with the Dragon Slaying Sword, leaving it critically wounded before Zhuge Xiang’s Vast Sword Qi killed it.
• Zhuge Xiang gained experience, rewards, and a level increase, then asked Ying Wushuang and Ao Xiaoyao for one dragon horn from the corpse.
• Ao Xiaoyao offered Zhuge Xiang the Black Flood Dragon’s corpse except for its dragon pearl.

After the black flood dragon was slain, Zhuge Xiang and his companions left the East Sea Dragon Palace and examined their spoils aboard the Asura Warship. Zhuge Xiang recognized that Savage King True Body suited Mo Lingna and asked her about her Nine Beast Forbidden Canon.

• Zhuge Xiang gave the black flood dragon's pearl to General Crab, but Ying Wushuang took it and let Little Fire Phoenix swallow it.
• Zhuge Xiang and Lu Yuling declined General Crab's invitation and departed with the dragon horns, while Ao Xiaoyao and General Crab teased Ying Wushuang about Zhuge Xiang.
• Aboard the Asura Warship, Zhuge Xiang gave Xiao Yue the Armor Break Strike skill book and kept the Origin Returning Furnace.
• Zhuge Xiang considered Savage King True Body's restriction against using equipment and realized it might suit Mo Lingna.
• Mo Lingna told Zhuge Xiang that she had learned the Nine Beast Forbidden Canon from the Myriad Beast Sect and described its nine beast forms and how each increased her power.

Zhuge Xiang forged a Boundary Breaking Stone from the Black Flood Dragon’s horn and spent half a month training and improving his crafting skills while traveling with Mo Lingna and Lu Yuling. The group reached the place where the Ice Maiden was suppressed, and Lu Yuling told Zhuge Xiang and Mo Lingna to prepare.

• Zhuge Xiang gave Mo Lingna the Savage King True Body cultivation method to strengthen her defenses.
• Lu Yuling took the Black Flood Dragon’s horn, then asked Zhuge Xiang to forge it into a Boundary Breaking Stone.
• Zhuge Xiang used the Origin Returning Furnace to craft the Boundary Breaking Stone and added the crafting method to his smithing abilities.
• Zhuge Xiang and Mo Lingna trained together in the Asura Path for half a month, improving their combat coordination as Mo Lingna advanced her Nine Beast Forbidden Canon.
• Lu Yuling sensed that they had reached the Ice Maiden’s destination and told Zhuge Xiang and Mo Lingna to prepare.

Zhuge Xiang and Mo Lingna accompanied Lu Yuling to the East China Sea trench, where they freed the imprisoned Ice Maiden, the source of Lu Yuling’s seven physical souls. Ice Maiden revealed that their separation had been part of a conspiracy even the Asura Sect could not resist, but told Lu Yuling to return after reaching the Golden Core Stage.

• Lu Yuling sensed Ice Maiden beneath the East China Sea and guided the Asura Warship into a trench on the ocean floor.
• Zhuge Xiang, Mo Lingna, and Lu Yuling subdued the two Asura guards and entered the palace where Ice Maiden was imprisoned.
• Zhuge Xiang used the Boundary Breaking Stone to shatter Ice Maiden’s light-barrier, and Lu Yuling helped calm her frenzy.
• Lu Yuling asked why Ice Maiden had split off her three souls, and Ice Maiden said it had been done to survive a conspiracy targeting the Asura Sect.
• Ice Maiden defended the Great Elder’s role in the events and told Lu Yuling to return after reaching the Golden Core Stage, when their souls could merge and reveal the truth.

Lu Yuling completed her Ice Maiden memories but learned she still had to reach the Golden Core Stage before learning the truth behind the conspiracy. She, Zhuge Xiang, and Mo Lingna left the East China Sea for the Great Tang Dynasty, where Lu Yuling sought a Mysterious Yin Jade Heart and Zhuge Xiang planned to fulfill Bai Qi’s commission.

• Ice Maiden restored Lu Yuling’s fragmented memories and passed on her knowledge, cultivation techniques, and resources.
• Ice Maiden refused to leave her prison, explaining that she had deliberately caused her cultivation deviation so she would be sealed there.
• Lu Yuling left with Zhuge Xiang and Mo Lingna, promising to return after reaching the Golden Core Stage.
• Lu Yuling announced she would travel to the Great Tang Dynasty to find a mature Mysterious Yin Jade Mine and obtain its Mysterious Yin Jade Heart.
• Zhuge Xiang decided to accompany Lu Yuling because Bai Qi had tasked him with stopping the Great Qin Empire from stealing the Great Tang Dynasty’s national fortune, and Mo Lingna agreed to go with him.
• As the Asura Warship headed for the Great Tang Dynasty, Mo Lingna revealed she had once lived there while serving in the Myriad Beast Sect.

Zhuge Xiang, Mo Lingna, and Lu Yuling arrived in the Great Tang Dynasty and stopped at a restaurant in Yongling City, where they watched two scholars compete in painting. After Young Master Li won with an ingenious painting of lotus flowers in the rain, Zhuge Xiang invited him to share a drink.

• Zhuge Xiang reflected on the Great Tang Dynasty’s peaceful, scholarly culture as he traveled through it with Mo Lingna and Lu Yuling.
• Zhuge Xiang brought his companions to a restaurant in Yongling City, where they watched Young Master Zhu challenge Young Master Li to paint lotus flowers in the rain.
• Young Master Zhu completed a lifelike painting that won praise from the onlookers.
• Young Master Li painted a lotus pond, then sprayed wine onto the paper beneath the sunlight to create the effect of rain and defeat Young Master Zhu.
• Zhuge Xiang invited Young Master Li to share a few cups as he turned to leave.

Zhuge Xiang met Li Zhi while traveling through Yongling City, then encountered Wu Zhao rescuing Li Zhi from two cultivators after leaving town. He helped defeat the attackers and reunited with Wu Zhao, leaving the group together after Mo Lingna introduced herself as Zhuge Xiang’s wife.

• Zhuge Xiang invited Li Zhi to share a table, and they drank together after discussing Li Zhi’s painting and introducing themselves.
• Li Zhi departed for Chang'an City, and Zhuge Xiang, Mo Lingna, and Lu Yuling left Yongling City to search for the Mysterious Yin Jade Mine.
• Zhuge Xiang spotted Wu Zhao fighting two middle-aged cultivators who had captured Li Zhi, and he joined the battle.
• Zhuge Xiang quickly defeated the attackers and rescued Li Zhi, who thanked him and Wu Zhao.
• Zhuge Xiang recognized Wu Zhao as an old acquaintance, and Mo Lingna introduced herself as his wife while the two women exchanged compliments.
• Li Zhi thanked Wu Zhao for saving him, and Wu Zhao dismissed the deed as a small matter.

After Zhuge Xiang’s group rescued Li Zhi, he revealed that his family’s house slaves had chased him because he fled an arranged marriage. Li Zhi and Lu Yuling explained the Heaven-Piercing Tower and its dangerous Altar of Sacrifice, and Zhuge Xiang decided he wanted to face it.

• Zhuge Xiang asked Li Zhi why two Spell Control Stage cultivators had tried to capture him, and Li Zhi admitted they were his family’s house slaves pursuing him after he ran from an unwanted marriage.
• Li Zhi thanked Wu Zhao repeatedly, while Zhuge Xiang noticed Li Zhi seemed to have taken an interest in her.
• Li Zhi asked whether the group had come for the Heaven-Piercing Tower, and Lu Yuling explained that the tower was a small thousand world left behind after the fall of immortals and gods.
• Li Zhi and Wu Zhao described the Altar of Sacrifice on the ninth floor, where surviving the will of immortals and gods could bring Rebirth, while failure could leave lasting inner demons.
• Mo Lingna warned that many gifted cultivators had been ruined by failing the Altar of Sacrifice, but Zhuge Xiang said he still wanted to attempt it.

At Heaven-Piercing Peak, Zhuge Xiang and his companions encountered the Myriad Beast Sect’s Young Sect Master, Tie Zhan, who attacked Zhuge Xiang over Mo Lingna. Tie Zhan revealed that Mo Lingna was his wife, and the chapter ended as the story began recounting how they first met.

• Zhuge Xiang and his companions arrived at Heaven-Piercing Peak, where Mo Lingna reacted anxiously to seeing Tie Zhan and Zhuge Xiang embraced her before approaching him.
• Tie Zhan attacked Zhuge Xiang, but Mo Lingna blocked his claw with the Bull Demon Fist, matching his strength.
• Tie Zhan called Mo Lingna his wife, shocking the gathered cultivators and Zhuge Xiang’s companions.
• Li Zhi recalled that Mo Lingna was the fiancée who had stolen the Myriad Beast Sect’s Nine Beast Forbidden Canon, while Mo Lingna tried to explain herself to Zhuge Xiang.
• Tie Zhan heard Mo Lingna call Zhuge Xiang her husband and fixed him with killing intent as the narration began recounting Mo Lingna’s departure from Sea God Island and her first encounter with Tie Zhan.

Mo Lingna’s past revealed that she had agreed to marry Tie Zhan only to obtain the Nine Beast Forbidden Canon, then fled back to Sea God Island. On Heaven-Piercing Peak, Tie Zhan challenged Zhuge Xiang over her, but Zhuge Xiang sent Tie Zhan flying with a single sword strike and pursued him.

• Mo Lingna escaped a storm at sea, joined the Myriad Beast Sect, and rose to become Tie Shan’s true disciple through her talent and hard work.
• Tie Shan agreed to teach Mo Lingna the Nine Beast Forbidden Canon if she married Tie Zhan, and she accepted before fleeing with the technique after their engagement.
• Tie Zhan saw Zhuge Xiang holding Mo Lingna and challenged him, while onlookers mocked Zhuge Xiang for accepting the duel.
• Tie Zhan transformed into his Mad Lion form and lunged at Zhuge Xiang, who used Knockback to send him flying.
• Zhuge Xiang chased after Tie Zhan and began Three Consecutive Slashes.

Zhuge Xiang overwhelmed Tie Zhan in a fierce battle, but Tie Zhan began to unleash a sinister power as Zhuge Xiang prepared a finishing strike. Mo Lingna intervened, prompting Zhuge Xiang to divert his attack and leaving him confused about why she had protected Tie Zhan.

• Zhuge Xiang chained his skills together and repeatedly wounded Tie Zhan, reducing his health while suppressing him before the watching cultivators.
• Tie Zhan countered with a mental shock and a bite, but Zhuge Xiang's Sword Soul resisted the attack and he continued striking back.
• Zhuge Xiang used a Substitute Puppet to get behind Tie Zhan and unleashed Vast Sword Qi, while Tie Zhan's eyes filled with ominous black qi.
• Mo Lingna used Fox Demon Step to stand between the two fighters, and Tie Zhan leaped behind her to protect her from the descending sword.
• Zhuge Xiang diverted Vast Sword Qi into a neighboring peak, then asked Mo Lingna why she had protected Tie Zhan.

Zhuge Xiang and Tie Zhan stopped fighting when Mo Lingna revealed that she had used Tie Zhan to obtain the Nine Beast Forbidden Canon, while Tie Zhan still refused to give up on her. The Heaven-Piercing Tower opened, but its interior was filled with demonic Qi instead of spiritual Qi, and the closing entrance trapped everyone inside.

• Mo Lingna explained that she and Tie Zhan had only been engaged, and admitted she had used his feelings to obtain the Nine Beast Forbidden Canon.
• Tie Zhan forgave Mo Lingna and insisted he still hoped to marry her, while Zhuge Xiang reaffirmed that she was his wife.
• Li Buling greeted Zhuge Xiang and recognized Li Zhi as his cousin before the Heaven-Piercing Tower opened.
• Zhuge Xiang, Mo Lingna, Tie Zhan, Lu Yuling, Wu Zhao, Li Zhi, and tens of thousands of cultivators entered the tower.
• The cultivators discovered that the tower was saturated with demonic Qi rather than spiritual Qi and rushed for the exit.
• The spatial rift began closing before anyone could escape, trapping the cultivators inside.

Zhuge Xiang and the other cultivators were trapped in the Heaven-Piercing Tower as demonic qi filled the world and its exit vanished. When demonized Fire Control Tribesmen attacked, Zhuge Xiang’s group defended themselves and followed Lu Yuling toward the second floor.

• Lu Yuling explained that the Heaven-Piercing Tower had filled with demonic qi and its spatial passage had closed, trapping the cultivators inside.
• Zhuge Xiang and the others saw countless demonized Fire Control Tribesmen approach, and learned they had waited for the tower’s opening after ten years.
• The Fire Control Tribesmen attacked the cultivators with black demonic flames, burning many of them to ashes.
• Zhuge Xiang, Lu Yuling, Mo Lingna, Tie Zhan, and Wu Zhao formed a barrier around themselves and Li Zhi.
• Zhuge Xiang asked Lu Yuling for the way to the second floor, and she led the group toward it while Li Zhi witnessed the danger of the Cultivation World.

Zhuge Xiang and his companions reached the second floor of Heaven-Piercing Tower by entering a Henggong Fish and passing through the Weak Water River. They found the floor deserted except for a frail old man of the Fire Control Tribe, who warned that they should not have come.

• Lu Yuling explained that the entrance to the second floor lay beneath the Weak Water River and that they had to enter a Henggong Fish to reach it.
• Zhuge Xiang and the others entered a Henggong Fish, which carried them through the river and out beneath the suspended first floor.
• The group descended to the second floor and found its dwellings empty and its streets silent, with no people or beasts in sight.
• Zhuge Xiang spotted an old man among the ruins, and the old man told them they had come from the outside world and should not have come.

An old Fire Control Tribesman explained that human cultivators’ repeated visits had reignited his people’s hatred and driven many to demonic madness. Zhuge Xiang accepted a quest to deliver a rag doll to Fire Control King Ming Yan and led his companions toward the lower floors, where they prepared to search for a way down while fighting only as needed.

• The old man told Zhuge Xiang that the Fire Control Tribe had been imprisoned by Immortal Qibo and that human cultivators’ periodic visits had sparked a recent outbreak of demonic qi.
• The old man gave Zhuge Xiang a rag doll for a child named Ming Yan, and Zhuge Xiang accepted the system quest to deliver it to Fire Control King Ming Yan.
• Zhuge Xiang and his companions descended through the quiet floors and reached the seventh floor, where they found wounded and demonized Fire Control Tribesmen.
• Lu Yuling said she did not know the way to the eighth floor, so Zhuge Xiang ordered the group to fight while looking for Tribesmen who might still be lucid.
• Lu Yuling explained that lucid Tribesmen might know where the passage to the eighth floor was, while Tie Zhan reacted irritably to Zhuge Xiang’s insight.

Zhuge Xiang unleashed his full Demonic True Body to fight the Fire Control Tribesmen, but Lin Qingyu mistook him for a fiend and attacked. After Zhuge Xiang revealed his identity, the misunderstanding was cleared, though the Fire Control Tribesmen renewed their threat.

• Zhuge Xiang expanded his Demonic True Body to ten zhang and began cutting down the mindless Fire Control Tribesmen.
• Zhuge Xiang observed that the demonic Qi had strengthened Li Zhi and helped him enter the Body Tempering Realm.
• Lin Qingyu arrived and attacked Zhuge Xiang, accusing him of causing the Fire Control Tribe's demonization.
• Zhuge Xiang copied Lin Qingyu's Vajra Chain with his Purple Gold Demonic Eye, then dismissed his Demonic True Body and identified himself.
• Tie Zhan chided Lin Qingyu for his mistaken attack, and Lin Qingyu retorted by bringing up Tie Zhan's embarrassing fight with Tie Shan.
• The Fire Control Tribesmen interrupted the argument and threatened to kill the humans.

Zhuge Xiang tricked a partly sane Fire Control Tribe member into revealing the routes to the lower floors, and his group pressed onward through the Heaven-Piercing Tower. In Chang’an, the Great Tang Emperor learned that the Tower had abruptly closed with its entrants trapped inside, then considered whether the imperial family should intervene.

• Zhuge Xiang provoked a Fire Control Tribe member into revealing that the route to the eighth layer lay inside the northern volcano and that the route to the ninth was rumored to be in a giant banyan tree.
• Zhuge Xiang and his companions found the passage in the northern volcano and headed down, while Zhuge Xiang mocked Tie Zhan for failing to handle an insane opponent.
• Cultivators, including figures from major powers, continued descending through the Heaven-Piercing Tower as many entrants were killed or injured.
• An urgent dispatch informed the Great Tang Emperor that the Tower had closed soon after opening, trapping its entrants, and that pure demonic qi had been detected inside.
• A general asked the Great Tang Emperor to rescue the cultivators, but the prime minister warned against spending imperial resources amid strained relations with the major sects.

Zhuge Xiang’s group reached the ninth level of the Heaven-Piercing Tower and waited for other cultivators while scouting the Fire Control Tribe. He entered the Asura Path to learn more Heavenly Demon Zen Sound murals, reaching the fifth level of the Town Evil Pagoda.

• The Great Tang ruler ordered the three grand preceptors to enter the Heaven-Piercing Tower and rescue its trapped cultivators.
• Zhuge Xiang rejected Tie Zhan’s suggestion to ally with the demonized Fire Control Tribe, and the group hid to observe them and await other cultivators.
• Zhuge Xiang used Xiao Yue and the Phoenix Winged Black Tiger to scout while he repaired the group’s treasure artifacts over two days.
• Zhuge Xiang secretly entered the Asura Path and walked through the Town Evil Pagoda, where he told the Sky-Slaying Sword he had returned to learn more murals.
• Zhuge Xiang killed a Two-Star Hairy Zombie on the fourth level and spent a skill point to learn its Heavenly Demon Zen Sound mural.
• Zhuge Xiang reached the fifth level and used his Demonic True Body and King's Aura to quell the hostility of its powerful monsters.

After learning two more scrolls of the Heavenly Demon Zen Sound, Zhuge Xiang left the dangerous upper floors of the Heavenly Dragon Town Evil Pagoda and returned to the ninth floor of the Heaven-Piercing Tower. Xiao Yue and the Phoenix Winged Black Tiger reported that the Fire Control Tribe was preparing to attack the human cultivators and that an unknown mastermind was behind their demonization.

• Zhuge Xiang left the Heavenly Dragon Town Evil Pagoda after learning six scrolls, deciding the creatures on the sixth floor posed too great a risk.
• Liao Wufa reflected that Zhuge Xiang was nearing the final three scrolls and that his own release from the pagoda was close.
• Xiao Yue told Zhuge Xiang that the Fire Control Tribe planned to wipe out the human cultivators and might be using fire, and he reported seeing what could have been a winged Corpse King.
• The Phoenix Winged Black Tiger told Zhuge Xiang that it had pretended to submit to a Fire Control Tribe leader and overheard that a hidden mastermind had caused their demonization.
• The Phoenix Winged Black Tiger revealed that the mastermind had promised to help the Fire Control Tribe escape the tower if they slaughtered every human who entered.