Chapter Summaries

Shen Shuibi defeated Cha Xike and used gifts and a proclamation from Li Qi to reassure the Unreturning Disciples that the Shaman Path valued them. She then shared intelligence on the Human Path and began discussing how they would work together, leaving the group poised to plan its next moves.

• Shen Shuibi trapped Cha Xike's qilin phantom in a Universe in a Sleeve, and Cha Xike conceded after their brief fight.
• Shen Shuibi distributed magical artifacts and pills to the Unreturning Disciples, showing she knew their exact numbers.
• Shen Shuibi presented Li Qi's proclamation, which asked the Unreturning Disciples to offer advice and cooperate in the war against the Human Path.
• Shen Shuibi demonstrated how to make a Taiyin Treasure Bead and gave it to Cha Xike, impressing him with her insight into his technique.
• Shen Shuibi showed the Unreturning Disciples a star map of known Human Path deployments and began discussing future operations and logistics.

Shen Shuibi persuaded the Unreturning Disciples to help destroy the Nexus of All Realms' base station and began preparing them for the campaign. As a Human Path army offered surrender to a battered Shaman Path force, Unreturning troops suddenly arrived to attack.

• Shen Shuibi told Gouliu and Cha Xike that her true objective was to destroy the Nexus of All Realms' base station and open the way for a Shaman Path counteroffensive.
• Cha Xike and Gouliu agreed to join Shen Shuibi, and she promised to design a formation chart for the Unreturning Disciples.
• Shen Shuibi reflected on how life with Li Qi had changed her, then returned her attention to planning with the Unreturning Disciples.
• A Human Path assistant general offered surrender to the last surviving Shaman Path soldiers, but their leader chose to fight to the death.
• An unexpected force bearing the banner "Unreturning" burst onto the battlefield, catching the Human Path commander by surprise.

Shen Shuibi led the Unreturning Disciples in a surprise attack on Human Path armies to expose their formation and buy time for Li Qi. She stayed behind to face a fifth-rank Human Path cultivator, then recognized that his dust-like motes contained the knowledge of countless fifth-rank cultivators: he was the Plague Lord.

• The Human Path lieutenant general committed his auxiliary army to a suicide charge, forcing the Unreturning Disciples to reveal their enormous World Cluster Formation before the formation crushed his forces.
• Shen Shuibi learned that twenty-three of the twenty-six attacked armies had sent intelligence back, and she ordered the other Unreturning Disciples to withdraw while she remained to test the Human Path's reserves.
• Two fifth-rank Human Path cultivators arrived as the other Unreturning Disciples escaped, and one of them confronted Shen Shuibi alone.
• Shen Shuibi attacked with Yin Thunder, karmic wind, ghostly forces, and her Alchemy Furnace, but the Human Path cultivator neutralized her first assaults.
• Shen Shuibi poured out her Alchemy Fire and unleashed a powerful fire art, but the cultivator stopped it with countless motes of dust.
• Shen Shuibi realized the motes carried the abilities and knowledge of countless fifth-rank cultivators and identified her opponent as the Plague Lord.

Shen Shuibi struggled against Plague Lord, whose many independent minds let him match her in battle, until he recognized her as Li Qi’s wife and let her escape. Liu Junyi accepted Plague Lord’s decision to honor his oath to Li Qi and ordered him to return to the curtain before facing punishment in Chang'an.

• Shen Shuibi used a formation and powerful fire spells against Plague Lord, but his countless minds quickly adapted and pushed her into a disadvantage.
• Shen Shuibi steadied herself and continued fighting, but Plague Lord unexpectedly stopped attacking and addressed her as Madam Li.
• Plague Lord told Shen Shuibi he had promised Li Qi never to become his direct enemy, and she immediately left the battlefield.
• Liu Junyi arrived and questioned Plague Lord, who admitted allowing Shen Shuibi to escape and asked to be transferred rather than fight Li Qi.
• Liu Junyi agreed to take Plague Lord back to the curtain and told him to go to Chang'an to receive his punishment.

Shen Shuibi planned to investigate the missing Shaman Path reinforcements while the Unreturning Disciples raided Human Path forces and captured prisoners. When Goulou questioned a Human Path cultivator, the man defended the Human Path’s vision of a shared future, but Goulou answered that his own home still mattered to him.

• Shen Shuibi told Goulou and Cha Xike to capture Human Path prisoners for interrogation while she built a detector to search for the missing reinforcements.
• Over two months, the Unreturning Disciples ambushed Human Path squads and raided transport routes, capturing several auxiliary cultivators alive.
• Goulou entered the prison to interrogate a seventh-rank Human Path cultivator, hoping to break his resolve with questions and fifth-rank pressure.
• The prisoner condemned the Shaman Path for clinging to their home worlds and praised the Human Path’s goal of a freer, happier future for everyone.
• Goulou revealed his Martial Way Divine Intent as civilization and told the prisoner that, despite the Human Path’s ideals, he knew his home had been his own.

Gou Lou’s account of his destroyed civilization shook a Human Path prisoner, while Shen Shuibi and the Unreturning Disciples completed and activated a detector to search for Shaman Path reinforcements. The Human Path arrived in response, and Shen Shuibi prepared to confront them.

• Gou Lou revealed his civilization’s history through his Martial Way Divine Intent, which shattered when he recalled that the Human Path had destroyed his homeworld.
• A Human Path seventh-rank cultivator wept after experiencing Gou Lou’s grief, then argued that their peoples should have united; Gou Lou left the cell without changing the prisoner’s mind.
• Gou Lou told the Unreturning Disciples that they would need to fight and urged them to fear failure more than death.
• Shen Shuibi and Cha Xike completed a vast phased-array detector, and Gou Lou prepared the defensive line for the Human Path’s response.
• Shen Shuibi activated the detector to search for reinforcements, and the Golden Platform appeared in the void minutes later.
• Shen Shuibi drew Li Qi’s Water Jade hairpin and warned the arriving Human Path not to cross the Lightning Pool.

Shen Shuibi used the Lightning Pool to weaken the Human Path army, but its five armies forced her to expend nearly all her cultivation before the Cavalry General attacked. She sprang her counterattack and unleashed the Unreturning Disciples, yet the general’s Zhanmadao cut her in two.

• Shen Shuibi created a Lightning Pool around the Human Path Golden Platform and summoned the elite army led by six fifth-rank officers.
• General Bai led the western army into the Lightning Pool, where its coordinated Lightning Repelling Method deflected her lightning until Shen Shuibi disrupted their formation with thunderous sound.
• The Human Path general sent all five armies into the Lightning Pool in succession, forcing Shen Shuibi to maintain its power as the armies’ fluctuating Soldier’s Qi drained her cultivation.
• The Cavalry General attacked Shen Shuibi after testing the Lightning Pool’s limits, but she revealed her ferocious Mao state and dispersed the pool as Gou Lou and Cha Xike led the Unreturning Disciples into battle.
• Shen Shuibi took the Cavalry General’s Zhanmadao strike head-on and was cut in two.

Li Qi launched a full advance against the Human Path while Shen Shuibi used a sacrificial technique to pin down the Cavalry General and disrupt his command. The Unreturning Disciples gained a numerical advantage on the battlefield, leaving the Human Path facing likely defeat as the battle continued.

• Li Qi ordered the human worlds to abandon defensive positions, commit their reserves, and attack the Human Path's front while Shen Shuibi drew enemy forces into the rear.
• After the Cavalry General split her body, Shen Shuibi turned herself into an offering and trapped him in a sacrificial ground that fed his own Baleful Intent back into him.
• The Cavalry General realized Shen Shuibi had made him both officiant and target of the sacrifice, then calmed his killing intent and exposed her hidden presence inside his soul.
• Shen Shuibi intensified the Cavalry General's Baleful Intent to keep him occupied, while he sat down and began a battle of Dao hearts against her.
• Goulou and Cha Xike led the Unreturning Disciples against the Human Path's elite army, whose advantage was weakened by the Cavalry General's absence from command.

Lin Ya and the Unreturning Disciples helped drive back Human Path’s first hundred-thousand-strong army, but new reinforcements arrived and threatened their array. Shen Shuibi lured the Cavalry General into a killing-intent-fueled strike at the incoming Confucian General, then detonated her Golden Core among four Human Path Fifth Ranks.

• Lin Ya fought alongside the Unreturning Disciples, helping pin down a Human Path officer so Kal could fire a mountain-sized projectile that killed them all.
• The Unreturning Disciples traded heavy casualties for the collapse of Human Path’s first hundred-thousand-strong army, while Gou Lou worried about reinforcements.
• A second hundred-thousand-strong Human Path army arrived, and its Confucian General ordered five generals to attack the phased array before heading to aid the Cavalry General against Shen Shuibi.
• The Cavalry General warned the Confucian General to flee, then unleashed his full killing intent in a devastating strike at him.
• Liu Junyi forced an emergency Golden Platform transmission that brought three Fifth Rank specialists to help the Confucian General withstand the strike.
• Shen Shuibi slipped free as the Cavalry General died and detonated her Five Elements Inverted Dragon Tiger Heavenly Golden Core among the four Human Path Fifth Ranks.

Shen Shuibi sacrificed her body and Outer Elixir to kill four fifth-rankers, then fought five more while trying to protect the phased-array detector. A Mohist Knight joined the advancing Human Path army and began dismantling the detector as Gou Lou and Cha Xike remained occupied.

• Liu Junyi struggled to manage Li Qi’s frontal assault while redirecting reserves to stop Shen Shuibi’s detector.
• Shen Shuibi’s Yang Spirit blocked five Human Path fifth-rankers and fought their coordinated attacks near the detector.
• Shen Shuibi used calculation, transformations, and lunar radiance to withstand the five generals’ close-range assault.
• A Human Path Mohist Knight arrived with the army and divided its forces to locate the phased array’s formation eye.
• Gou Lou and Cha Xike sensed the new fifth-ranker but could not break free, leaving the detector at risk of being dismantled.

Shen Shuibi used her Taiyin rebirth Trump Card after the Unreturning Disciples intervened to save her from five fifth-ranks. With the enemy defeated, she went to stop a Mohist from dismantling the phased array, while the Human Way army began turning the tide elsewhere.

• Shen Shuibi realized the Plague Lord had not appeared and unleashed her Taiyin lunar radiance to restore her Yang Spirit and recover from her injuries.
• Gou Lou persuaded Cha Xike to divert half the Unreturning Disciples to defend the phased array, and nearly ninety percent of their units agreed to the dangerous plan.
• Gou Lou and Cha Xike led roughly one and a half million Unreturning Disciples into Shen Shuibi's battlefield, disrupting the five fifth-ranks and allowing her to fight back.
• Shen Shuibi and Gou Lou joined forces to annihilate the five fifth-ranks, though Gou Lou was wounded in their final resistance.
• Shen Shuibi went to confront the Mohist cultivator dismantling the phased array, while Gou Lou and Cha Xike led their troops away and the Human Way army began turning the tide.

Li Qi authorized the Shaman Path’s Blood Sacrifice to restore his forces, while Liu Junyi committed his reserves to counter it and reinforce Shen Shuibi’s battlefield. The Human Path’s unexpected arrival of another grand general destroyed the Unreturning Disciples’ position, leaving Gou Lou and Cha Xike’s group in danger.

• Li Qi permitted Blood Sacrifice, allowing the Shaman Path to turn battlefield dead into power and cutting them off from reincarnation.
• Li Qi anointed and struck a bell and drum, spreading Blood Sacrifice’s strength through the World Cluster Formation and increasing pressure on the front lines.
• Liu Junyi sent ten reserve armies to contain Li Qi’s strengthened forces and ordered General Zhou’s Seventh War Zone to destroy a detection phased-array.
• Gou Lou and Cha Xike’s group fought to eliminate a Human Path army, expecting to reinforce Shen Shuibi once the battle ended.
• A Human Path grand general arrived through the Golden Platform and wiped out the other Unreturning Disciples, forcing them to self-destruct as Gou Lou watched.

At the Void Battlefield, Shen Shuibi was trapped by a Mohist cultivator’s Dharma Form while the Human Path’s army advanced on the Unreturning Disciples. With time running out, Cha Xike sought a way to stop the army, and Gou Lou absorbed the Baleful Intent from a dried corpse before charging toward General Zhou’s formation.

• Shen Shuibi fought the Mohist cultivator, who trapped her inside his vast city-shaped Dharma Form when she tried to leave and support the others.
• Cha Xike and Gou Lou counted three remaining Human Path fifth-ranks and about forty thousand soldiers, then agreed Cha Xike would use the violent Primal Qi from the battlefield to increase his combat power while Gou Lou held the enemy back.
• Cha Xike left the formation, and Gou Lou intensified the attack as the Unreturning Disciples slowly wore down the Human Path army’s Soldier’s Qi.
• Gou Lou sent two squads to retrieve a dried corpse infused with Baleful Intent; the first squad was wiped out, and only one member of the second returned with the corpse.
• Gou Lou destroyed the corpse’s remains, absorbed its Baleful Intent, and charged toward General Zhou’s formation with his Martial Way Divine Intent stained by war and slaughter.

Gou Lou charged the Tang Kingdom’s forces while Li Qi and Liu Junyi maneuvered their armies in a struggle over whether to save Shen Shuibi or defend the seventh war zone. The chapter ended with both commanders committing reinforcements to opposing fronts and Shen Shuibi left to face two powerful opponents.

• Gou Lou, whose real name was Babu, charged General Zhou and the Tang Kingdom army, using his remaining strength to delay them despite being consumed by Killing Intent.
• Li Qi faced a choice between sustaining the siege to keep the Human Path occupied or reducing casualties and risking Shen Shuibi’s death.
• After learning that Zhou Ming had been absent from the seventh war zone, Li Qi slowed the other offensives and sent all sixth-rank-and-above worlds and Children of Destiny to attack there.
• Liu Junyi recognized Li Qi’s move and chose to reinforce the seventh war zone while leaving Shen Shuibi to face two opponents.
• Liu Junyi confirmed that General Zhou expected victory in Shen Shuibi’s theater, then ordered the remaining forces to hold their positions and resist Li Qi’s assault.

Shen Shuibi was overwhelmed after General Zhou joined the Mohist cultivator, while the Human Path encircled the Unreturning Disciples and began slaughtering them. The Unreturning Disciples’ resistance collapsed, and both battles left the Human Path poised to dismantle the detector before the array finished charging.

• Shen Shuibi and the Mohist cultivator remained locked in a stalemate until General Zhou defeated Gou Lou and arrived to aid the Human Path.
• General Zhou attacked Shen Shuibi alongside the Mohist cultivator, shattering her Dharma Form and forcing her to fight for survival.
• The Human Path’s deputy generals encircled the Unreturning Disciples, whose collapsing morale left them unable to hold out for the required three and a half quarters of an hour.
• Around two hundred thousand Unreturning Disciples self-destructed, killing more than ten thousand Human Path soldiers, but the two Human Path fifth-ranks then resumed their slaughter.
• Shen Shuibi rapidly accumulated injuries as General Zhou and the Mohist cultivator attacked together, leaving the overall battle effectively decided.

Cha Xike revived after consuming Babu’s remains and charged back into the chaotic Qi, while Liu Junyi learned that a karmic fluctuation on the battlefield suggested someone had developed a trace of a Third Rank trait. Li Qi revealed that he had manipulated coincidences from afar to aid Shen Shuibi, but the effort left him unconscious.

• A meteor redirected Gou Lou’s broken body to Cha Xike, who awoke and ate Gou Lou, whom he remembered as his friend Babu.
• Cha Xike recovered a little strength and charged once more toward the chaotic Qi.
• The Great General of the Right Martial Guard told Liu Junyi that a karmic fluctuation had appeared near the vanguard battlefield, and Liu Junyi warned General Zhou.
• General Zhou and the Mohist cultivator alerted each other to the fluctuation, while Shen Shuibi recognized that Li Qi was helping her and gained a moment to recover.
• Li Qi revealed that he had used the Blood Sacrifice’s power to manipulate coincidences, including the meteor and battlefield events, in the role of Heaven’s Will.
• After ordering the war zones to maintain their positions, Li Qi coughed blood, collapsed, and fainted from the strain of manipulating karma.

Cha Xike discovered the order within the chaotic qi and turned it into a precious pearl, then rushed to deliver it to Human Path’s army. Shen Shuibi trapped General Zhou and the Mohist cultivator to stop Zhou from intercepting him, just as an inconspicuous meteor fell from the horizon.

• Cha Xike comprehended the laws shared by the chaotic qi, condensed Shen Shuibi’s golden core and shattered inner heavens into a precious pearl, and placed it on his belt.
• Cha Xike’s dharma form burst apart, but he used his dying body to carry the explosive qi toward Human Path’s remaining army.
• General Zhou spotted Cha Xike racing toward the army and broke away to intercept him.
• Shen Shuibi abandoned her defenses and used the Polaris Golden Core Method to pin General Zhou and the Mohist cultivator in place.
• General Zhou and the Mohist cultivator unleashed their full power against Shen Shuibi, while an inconspicuous meteor fell from the horizon.

Li Qi and the Shaman Path forces tried to turn the battle around as General Zhou and the Mohist cultivator continued attacking the badly injured Shen Shuibi. With the detector activated and reinforcements racing toward the war zone, Li Qi began using Heaven's Will to save her.

• A passing meteor disrupted General Zhou and the Mohist cultivator's combined attack, allowing Shen Shuibi to escape certain death despite suffering severe injuries.
• Cha Xike transported a Golden Core detonation into the Human Way army, destroying himself and sweeping away the army and its remaining fifth-ranks.
• General Zhou and the Mohist cultivator resumed their assault on Shen Shuibi while the detector charged and Liu Junyi's messages went unanswered.
• The detector activated, its fluctuations revealed the war zone to the lost Shaman Path reinforcements, and they overloaded their flying vessel to reach it quickly.
• Li Qi woke injured at the Shamanic Way War Zone headquarters, used Blood Sacrifice and True Knowledge Dao Charm, and traced karma in an attempt to save Shen Shuibi.

Li Qi endured the Blood Sacrifice’s deathly energy and used the karmic web to trace Shen Shuibi’s fate, stopping when a new cause ensured she would survive. He then changed the Shaman Path’s strategy to wear down the Human Path, while Liu Junyi ordered his forces to hold until he advanced to fifth rank.

• Li Qi used himself as an anchor to explore the karmic web, but tracing Shen Shuibi’s connection to Lady Luofu brought him to a mist that warned him away.
• Li Qi traced Shen Shuibi’s surrounding karma, saw General Zhou, and stopped when a new cause formed that meant Shen Shuibi could survive.
• Li Qi ended the Blood Sacrifice and ordered the Shaman Path to reduce its intensity, rotate its forces, and keep the Human Path under pressure.
• Li Qi assigned combat forces to war zones and planned to exhaust the Human Path by besieging its positions in shifts.
• Liu Junyi ordered the Human Path to abandon its outer defensive line and hold on until he advanced to fifth rank.

Shen Shuibi returned with Yi Ben and the Executioner Squad, and Li Qi planned their deployment against the Human Path. After the squad departed, Li Qi learned that the Unreturning Disciples had died and ordered a memorial altar for them.

• More than a dozen Shaman Path reinforcements rescued Shen Shuibi by killing General Zhou and the Mohist cultivator, then followed her back to the front lines.
• Shen Shuibi led the reinforcements to Li Qi, who embraced her before greeting Yi Ben and the Executioner Squad.
• Li Qi and Yi Ben discussed the Human Path’s retreat, and Li Qi spent six days detailing the squad’s battle strategy.
• Yi Ben praised Li Qi’s apparent insight into karma and warned him that his insubstantial physical form risked fading from karmic backlash.
• After the Executioner Squad left to fight, Li Qi asked Shen Shuibi about the Unreturning Disciples, learned they had died, and ordered a public memorial altar for them.