Chapter Summaries

Xu Yang studied the Blackwater Divine Seal’s inheritance, learned that the gods remained weakened after a devastating war, and began cultivating the Earth Deity Method. He planned to develop Blackwater’s aquatic life and resources, then broke through to the fifth realm of body tempering as the Blackwater Divine Mansion announced its new master.

• Xu Yang learned that Blackwater Dragon Lord had died from wounds suffered during the Demon Realm’s invasion and suspected the Heavenly Court and surviving gods were still recovering from the war.
• Xu Yang examined the Earth Deity Method and learned that it required a divine seal, management of earth veins, spiritual energy, living beings, and civilization.
• Xu Yang decided to cultivate the method despite lacking a suitable divine seal in the real world, and planned to expand aquaculture, cultivate spirit herbs, and improve his alchemy.
• Xu Yang swallowed three chunks of Essence of Blackwater and used the seal’s gathered spiritual energy to prepare for a breakthrough.
• Xu Yang underwent another Fish-Dragon Transformation and broke through to the fifth realm of body tempering as the Blackwater Divine Mansion trembled and proclaimed Blackwater had a master.

After two centuries of developing Blackwater River, Xu Yang had become a Golden Core-level demon while struggling to advance his Earth Deity realm and find higher cultivation techniques. During the Dragon King temple fair, a blood moon appeared, and Mara announced that he had defeated Skyvault and claimed the world.

• Xu Yang’s disciples, aquatic army, and human worshippers flourished as he cultivated Dragon Fish Transformation and raised Blackwater River’s spiritual land.
• Xu Yang lamented that Earth Deity cultivation advanced slowly and that he lacked techniques beyond Foundation Establishment, so he sought ancient Immortal God Legacies.
• As crowds celebrated the Dragon King festival, baleful clouds darkened the sky and a blood moon spread overhead.
• Xu Yang flew from Blackwater River and looked up at the blood moon.
• Mara declared himself the Great Freedom Heaven Demon King, announced that Skyvault had lost, and claimed the world.

Xu Yang’s Blackwater World was invaded by Mara’s demonic forces, and he sacrificed himself to destroy an Asura Demon General and save his followers. He awoke in the real world shaken by the nightmare, holding a tiny crystalline speck sent back from the Blackwater Dragon Lord’s final self-destruction.

• Mara’s arrival triggered the retreat of sacred domains and the invasion of the Three Realms by demon gods and Asura Demon Generals.
• The Netherworld blood rain transformed the gathered mortals into demon soldiers, and Xu Yang fought an Asura Demon General that attacked him.
• Xu Yang and the Blackwater and Lightning Division forces dragged the Asura into the river, where they trapped him with formations and divine abilities.
• Xu Yang ordered his followers to flee, then detonated his dragon pearl and disintegrated the Blackwater Divine Seal, annihilating himself and the Asura.
• Xu Yang awoke from the nightmare and found a tiny crystalline speck in his palm, sent back from the Blackwater World at the moment of his destruction.

Xu Yang planted a fragment of a divine seal in his medicinal field and used it to condense a tiny Spiritual Land, beginning his Earth Deity cultivation. He reviewed the abilities gained from his century in the Blackwater World and resolved to develop his new territory rather than return to the world ravaged by Mara.

• Xu Yang used a fragment severed from the Blackwater divine seal to quickly condense a new divine seal in his medicinal field.
• Xu Yang found that his Spiritual Land covered less than fifty square meters, but accepted that it could grow with careful management and resources.
• Xu Yang reviewed his Spirit Roaming Myriad Worlds trait and decided not to return to the Blackwater World while Mara and the demon armies remained there.
• Xu Yang assessed the Beast Taming, Arrays, Spirit Plants, and Artifact Refining traits he had gained during his time as the Blackwater Dragon Lord.
• Xu Yang reviewed his Pill Refining, Talisman Drawing, and Earth Deity skills, including abilities to strengthen his Spiritual Land and raise aquatic soldiers.

After a restful night, Xu Yang reflected on the need to keep striving despite preferring a quiet life, then tended his spirit-rice fields and livestock on his island. He continued improving his cultivation and farming operation, demonstrating how his skills and Attribute Panel strengthened his work even in a place with little spiritual essence.

• Xu Yang woke refreshed, considered the danger of calamities, and decided he still had to work toward greater strength.
• Xu Yang inspected his abundant Blood Spirit Rice harvest, including a mutant Great Blood Spirit Rice, and fed one grain to his golden eagle.
• Xu Yang described how his beasts had grown stronger over ten years and sent the golden eagle to guard the field in exchange for more rice at harvest.
• Xu Yang buried fresh corpses in a fallow plot, then cast the Minor Cloud Rain Technique over his spirit fields.
• Xu Yang explained that his Spirit-Gathering Formation and Minor Cloud Rain trait let the spell work powerfully despite the island's thin spiritual essence.

After ten years of cultivation, Xu Yang used thunder techniques to refine a Top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill from herbs transmitted from the Blackwater River. He stored the pill for himself and began preparing to establish his foundation.

• Xu Yang inspected his flourishing Fish Farm and medicinal fields before bringing spiritual herbs to the Spiritual Land to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill.
• Xu Yang chose to refine the pill locally rather than transmit a finished one, preserving his divine soul power for valuable skill traits and a divine seal.
• Xu Yang used his Azure Jade Furnace and the innate divine ability Summon Lightning and Hold Electricity to refine the herbs with thunder.
• Xu Yang succeeded on his first attempt and produced a Top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill with powers that could protect a cultivator and strengthen them after Foundation Establishment.
• Xu Yang stored the pill for himself, planned to give any further successful pills to the Golden Condor and the Electric Eel King, and turned to preparing for his own Foundation Establishment.

Xu Yang used a top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill and the Electric Yuan Transforming Dragon Array to reach Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, then watched the Electric Eel King break through into a Half-Dragon. He assessed his newfound eight-hundred-year lifespan and resolved to continue his dream cultivation to improve his Longevity Method and Dao Protecting Techniques.

• Xu Yang entered East Bank Fish Farm, where three thousand electric eels formed the Electric Yuan Transforming Dragon Array around him.
• Xu Yang swallowed a top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill and combined his essence, qi, and spirit, breaking through to Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.
• Xu Yang bestowed intelligence on the Electric Eel King and gave it Beast Blood Pills after it showed an intense urge to break through.
• The Electric Eel King transformed into a Half-Dragon Demonic Beast, sprouting golden claws and a small horn as it soared through Dongting Sea of Clouds.
• Xu Yang saw that his lifespan had increased to eight hundred years and decided to continue dream cultivation to improve his Longevity Method and Dao Protecting Techniques.

Xu Yang sold rice and magic artifacts at White Dragon Island and learned that Liang Kingdom’s Three Golden Core Sects planned to open the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Unwilling to enter the coming conflict, he returned to Dongting Lake to enter seclusion and resume dream cultivation.

• Xu Yang finished drawing his 1,753rd Small Lightning Talisman and harvested spirit rice before flying to White Dragon Island.
• At White Dragon Tower, Yun Yan bought Xu Yang’s rice and magic artifacts and noticed that his aura suggested he had broken through.
• Yun Yan told Xu Yang that the Three Golden Core Sects planned to recruit cultivators to open the Hundred Thousand Mountains, causing combat supplies to rise in price.
• Xu Yang sold his artifacts at the current market price and bought double the listed cultivation materials.
• Xu Yang left for Dongting Lake, intending to avoid the conflict and enter seclusion.

Xu Yang awoke in the body of Ma Wencai, a scholar who had died under mysterious circumstances, and used the Martial Scripture to ease his severe soul injury. As the Ma Clan kept him confined in the ancestral hall until dawn, Xu Yang suspected murder and knew the unknown attacker might strike again.

• While keeping watch over Ma Wencai's body, Eighth Master warned the youths that violent deaths could lead to corpse transformations, and they fled when Ma Wencai sat up.
• Xu Yang recalled that Ma Wencai was an orphaned scholar from Guo Bei County whose memories ended on the eve of the county examination.
• Xu Yang concluded that someone had murdered Ma Wencai and considered disguising himself and fleeing, since he had no way to fight the unknown enemy.
• The Clan Chief and Ma Clan members surrounded the ancestral hall, mistook Xu Yang for a possible talking corpse, and agreed to leave him there until dawn.
• Xu Yang reassured the Clan Chief that he was alive and asked the clan members to bring him food.

Xu Yang practiced the Summon Lightning and Hold Electricity Technique despite this world’s scarcity of resources, slowly recovering from the frail body he had taken over. While writing, he investigated why books and writing supplies were so cheap and concluded that a powerful force must have enabled the flourishing Way of Literature and Ink, though its identity remained unknown.

• Xu Yang ate his last meal of rice and cured meat, then practiced the Summon Lightning and Hold Electricity Technique to convert food into qi and blood.
• Xu Yang reflected that the impoverished world lacked ordinary Origin Energy, had short lifespans, and severely limited his cultivation.
• Xu Yang recognized that his savings had run out and that three days of martial practice had raised his frail body only to an ordinary adult’s level.
• Xu Yang wrote with the Four Treasures of the Study and noted that books and writing supplies were unusually cheap and widely available.
• Xu Yang compared the flourishing Way of Literature and Ink with the policies he had imposed in Great Zhou and Great Tang, and inferred that an exceptionally powerful force had made it possible.
• Xu Yang considered whether that force was an overwhelming individual or a coalition of powerful groups, but remained unsure which.

Xu Yang deduced that this world's cultivation relied on the faith and Soul Power of the masses, gathered through Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist practices. He realized the original owner's soul wound suggested an evil cultivator, just as a curse began attacking him.

• Xu Yang tested his poems, essays, Buddhist scriptures, and Daoist classics, but none produced Literary Qi or other effects.
• Xu Yang concluded that faith, incense offerings, and the Soul Power of living beings were this world's cultivation resources, with literary works serving as vessels to gather them.
• Xu Yang reasoned that scholars gained Literary Qi through honors, fame, and study, while Spirit Monsters and evil cultivators could seek faster power by consuming people.
• Xu Yang noticed that the original owner's soul had been gravely wounded and recognized that an evil cultivator might have attacked him.
• An unseen voice began chanting a curse that threatened Xu Yang's head, body, feet, and back.

Xu Yang was killed by a curse technique in the world of Ma Wencai, but his death left him eager to learn that world's soul cultivation and curse arts. He decided to use Spirit Roaming Myriad Worlds to return there in a mortal avatar.

• An old woman cursed Ma Wencai by striking a straw effigy, inflicting unbearable soul pain on Xu Yang.
• Xu Yang used the Bloodburst Secret Art to regain control, grabbed a cleaver, and followed his sense of the curse caster toward Peach Blossom Mountain.
• Xu Yang collapsed and died on Peach Blossom Mountain as the curse overwhelmed him, and hazy figures carried away his corpse.
• Back in the real world, Xu Yang considered the world's soul cultivation and curse techniques valuable additions to his knowledge.
• Xu Yang resolved to use Spirit Roaming Myriad Worlds to return and investigate the world again.

Ten years after the scholar’s death, the Peach Blossom Daoist sensed danger during a thunderstorm just as Xu Yang broke into his hidden chamber. Xu Yang destroyed the Daoist’s ghosts with talismans and lightning, while the wounded Daoist unleashed his remaining spirits in a desperate final attack.

• During the storm, the Peach Blossom Daoist recalled how a scholar had survived his first curse before the Daoist finally killed him more than ten years earlier.
• Xu Yang burst into the hidden chamber and fought a yin ghost with his sword coated in foul substances.
• Xu Yang cut the ghost apart and struck the Peach Blossom Daoist with a Prajnaparamita talisman arrow followed by a lightning talisman arrow.
• The wounded Peach Blossom Daoist shattered his yin altars and sent his ghosts, including the nine Three Aunts and Six Mothers, against Xu Yang.
• Xu Yang charged into the ghost swarm with two Small Lightning Talismans as thunder erupted around him.

Xu Yang killed Peach Blossom Daoist with lightning during a storm and examined the scriptures left among his remains. He kept a genuine lightning magic manual and a ghost manipulation art, while concluding that the path’s true cultivation foundation remained beyond his reach.

• Xu Yang used lightning-powered punches to destroy the Nine Ghosts of the Three Aunts and Six Mothers, and Peach Blossom Daoist died from the backlash of his own ghost arts.
• The surviving yin ghosts fled into the yin altar and begged Xu Yang to spare them after his talisman power dissipated.
• Xu Yang searched Peach Blossom Daoist’s remains and found three scripture scrolls concealed in an inner book pouch.
• Xu Yang judged the Supreme True Void Spirit Condensation Cultivation Manual unsuitable for his aims and recognized that the root of this world’s cultivation methods lay in the core inheritances of the three teachings.
• Xu Yang discovered that the Collected Annotations on the Jade Pivot Treasure Scripture contained genuine, widely applicable lightning magic, and he took it as a valuable prize.
• Xu Yang rejected the Mysterious Nether Yin True Person Ghost Manipulation Art’s cruel cultivation method but kept its ghost-control spells and techniques.

Xu Yang posed as the righteous Daoist Shi Jian after killing the evil Peach Blossom Daoist, securing Peach Blossom Mountain as his temple and establishing a credible identity. He then planned to cultivate Daoist arts and Lightning Law while refining the dangerous Increase-Decrease Two Generals to build strength in the demon-ridden world.

• A group of young masters discovered corpses, skeletons, and yin altars inside Peach Blossom Temple and fled in terror.
• Xu Yang emerged and declared that he had slain the Peach Blossom Daoist, then demanded that the temple and mountain be renamed Roaring Firmament Temple and Accumulating Thunder Mountain.
• The official, Master Bai Shan, and Daoist Qing He accepted Xu Yang's claim after he demonstrated pure Lightning Law, and the official recognized his right to remain there.
• Xu Yang destroyed the temple's evil artifacts and remains with lightning, then returned to the temple to protect his cover and plan his cultivation.
• Xu Yang studied the Daoist realms and chose to refine the Increase-Decrease Two Generals, believing his Lightning Law could keep them under control.

Xu Yang returned to Guo Bei County as Li Jianchen, celebrated as the Provincial Examination Top Scorer, and heard reports of growing dangers around Lanruo Temple and across the realm. He reflected on how his academic rank had secured the Confucian Sect’s backing and helped him build an influence, but had also brought trouble, leaving him in urgent need of greater strength.

• Xu Yang returned to Guo Bei County, where townspeople praised Li Jianchen’s talent and works while some scholars denounced him and were driven out of local businesses.
• At Li Manor Residence, Xu Yang heard reports of new estates, an expanding ghost domain at Lanruo Temple, worsening royal health, and Daoist and Buddhist plans involving the crisis.
• Xu Yang recalled entering the world ten years earlier as Li Jianchen and choosing the Imperial Examination to gain protection from the Confucian Sect.
• Xu Yang explained that his academic rank and literary fortune allowed him to establish clinics, martial halls, shops, and farmland, but also attracted greater troubles.
• Xu Yang recognized that his cultivation had reached only the Three Passes realm after ten years and that he urgently needed to increase his strength.

Xu Yang explained why the Literary Path advanced too slowly to protect him from the dangers of the End of Dynasty, so he turned to martial training and ghost-commanding techniques. After painting the Increase-Decrease Two Generals, he learned that a visitor who might not be human had arrived and went to meet him.

• Xu Yang weighed the dangers of gaining fame without official status and concluded that neither the capital nor fleeing to another region could keep him safe.
• Xu Yang strengthened himself through the Martial Scripture, Literary Qi, and Small Lightning Talismans, but found orthodox cultivation too slow to face the growing threat of demons and ghosts.
• Xu Yang decided to use evil-path techniques for combat without cultivating evil methods that would change his nature, and painted the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts with the Increase-Decrease Two Generals.
• Xu Yang instructed his steward to mount the painting so he could give it to someone.
• A disciple reported that a visitor who seemed unlike an ordinary human had requested an audience, and Xu Yang went to receive him.

Xu Yang refused Old Man Xin’s request to marry Xin Shisiniang but offered her a place at his new academy and protection in Guo Bei County. Three months later, Xin Jun studied there among many female and spirit students, where the Demoness Alliance confronted her over her closeness to Xu Yang.

• Old Man Xin revealed that his family were righteous fox spirits hunted by demons and asked Xu Yang to take Xin Shisiniang as a concubine for her protection.
• Xu Yang declined marriage and the Imperial Examination but invited Xin Shisiniang to enroll in his academy, promising that he would protect her; Old Man Xin left her in Xu Yang’s care and gave the academy precious books as tuition.
• Xu Yang named the girl Xin Jun, and she entered his household as a student while her father departed to deal with their enemies.
• Three months later, Guo Bei Academy opened to crowds, and its lecture halls filled with students, including many young women posing as men and competing for Xu Yang’s attention.
• A group of spirit girls calling themselves the Guo Bei Academy Demoness Alliance confronted Xin Jun and warned her not to approach, seduce, or draw power from Xu Yang.

Nine years after Kuron Daoist established himself at Ku Rong Temple, Xu Yang used natural thunder and rain to launch a Five Thunders Destroying Spirit Curse against him. Kuron survived the initial strikes with his lineage’s protection, and Xu Yang flew toward Ku Rong Mountain to confront him directly.

• Master Bai Shan and Daoist Qing He watched Ku Rong Temple and hoped Shi Jian would destroy Kuron Daoist.
• At Roaring Firmament Temple, Shi Jian opened a thunder ritual that summoned naturally timed rain and lightning.
• Kuron used the Spirit Eye Profound Light Art to identify Shi Jian at Accumulating Thunder Mountain, then dismissed the threat of a fourth-realm mage.
• The Five Thunders Destroying Spirit Curse struck Kuron repeatedly, leaving him badly wounded and near death.
• Kuron summoned his patriarch’s protection and three ancestral Yin Spirit fragments to shield himself from the curse.
• Xu Yang put away his Dharma sword, rode a baleful cloud toward Ku Rong Mountain, and headed for Kuron Temple.

Xu Yang stormed Ku Rong Temple after surviving the thunderstorm’s attack and defeated Kuron Daoist with an overwhelming supply of thunder talismans and ghost-binding charms. He captured Kuron Daoist’s Yin Spirit, gathered the spoils, and left to rejoin White Mountain Monk and Qing He Daoist.

• White Mountain Monk and Qing He Daoist heard Kuron Daoist’s screams and prepared to help, but saw Xu Yang arrive at Ku Rong Temple riding a baleful cloud.
• Kuron Daoist survived Xu Yang’s Five Thunders Destroying Spirit Curse and raised several dozen corpse refinements to defend Ku Rong Temple.
• Xu Yang hurled over a thousand thunder talismans into the corpse refinement array and destroyed the corpse refinements with lightning and sword strikes.
• Kuron Daoist’s body withered away, and his Yin Spirit fled, but Xu Yang bound it with a hundred Soul Snatching Ghost Collecting Talismans and captured it.
• Xu Yang collected the corpses and Ku Rong Temple’s spoils, then rode a thundercloud toward White Mountain Monk and Qing He Daoist.