Chapter Summaries

Li Qingyun endured True Lord Peng Tai’s nine Thunder Jade points and steadily climbed the Great Dao Staircase despite the old Daoist’s full suppression. He reached the Thunder Emperor divine seat after Peng Tai withdrew, determined to remember their encounter and settle the score.

• Li Qingyun resisted five Thunder Jade points, but True Lord Peng Tai sent the remaining four down and forced him to slide far down the staircase.
• Li Qingyun halted his fall beneath the nine points of jade radiance, then shouldered their weight and began climbing again.
• True Lord Baoxi and True Man Lei Xian watched, recalling Peng Tai’s past suppression of Lei Xian and expecting Li Qingyun to fail.
• Li Qingyun climbed back to his former position and taunted Peng Tai, who identified himself as Peng Tai of Xushen Palace in Xu Kingdom.
• Li Qingyun vowed to remember Peng Tai and continued stepping upward until he reached the Thunder Emperor divine seat.
• True Lord Peng Tai dispersed and vanished, leaving Li Qingyun relieved of the jade radiance’s burden.

Li Qingyun ascended to the Thunder Emperor divine rank and discovered that his lightning arts now carried the laws of the Great Dao. When a powerful Nether Ghost emerged from the Anomaly Temple of Youjiang Hall, he confronted it with Miaoxuan and unleashed his Five Thunders Prison Suppression Great Array.

• Li Qingyun ascended to the Thunder Emperor divine rank, gaining lightning powers infused with the laws of the Great Dao.
• Li Qingyun speculated that the Thunder Venerable divine rank belonged to an ascended Dao Lord, then withdrew from the Great Dao Chaos.
• Miaoxuan visited Li Qingyun with spiritual tea, and they shared tea while waiting for the anomaly at Youjiang Hall to emerge.
• A terrifying Nether Ghost began manifesting in the Anomaly Temple of Youjiang Hall, and Li Qingyun and Miaoxuan went to confront it.
• Li Qingyun used Thunder Emperor's Divine Might to suppress the Nether Ghost's deathly aura and summoned the Five Thunders Prison Suppression Great Array to attack it.

Li Qingyun used his Thunder Emperor power to defeat and capture the Nether Ghost, which revealed that three-colored soil inside Youjiang Hall could suppress anomalies. After Miaoxuan identified it as Yama Soil and warned that only a powerful dead being could enter the temple, Li Qingyun sent in a wooden effigy carrying a wisp of his soul.

• Li Qingyun’s thunder barrage weakened the Nether Ghost, while Miaoxuan used spirit fire to contain the deathly energy leaking from the temple.
• The Nether Ghost tried to seize Li Qingyun’s soul, but his Thunder Emperor Divine Might broke its attack and his lightning drove it from the temple.
• Li Qingyun trapped the fleeing Nether Ghost in a thunder net and prepared to destroy it.
• The Nether Ghost offered to be sealed in a statue made from the temple’s three-colored soil, and Miaoxuan identified the soil as Yama Soil that suppressed anomalies.
• Miaoxuan warned that Youjiang Hall’s deathly energy could only be endured by a sufficiently powerful dead thing, so Li Qingyun sent a wooden effigy carrying a wisp of his soul inside.

Li Qingyun used a wooden effigy to enter Youjiang Hall and retrieve three-colored Yama Soil, despite the temple’s corrosive deathly aura. He molded the soil into a body for the Nether Ghost and forced it to inhabit the new form.

• The deathly aura destroyed the wooden effigy’s protections, so Li Qingyun transferred the force into the mysterious soul corpse and awakened circulation in a third finger.
• Li Qingyun sent the effigy into Youjiang Hall, where it saw a ghostly bronze lamp and rows of ancient clay figurines.
• The effigy found a collapsing three-colored Mud Person behind the lamp, scooped up its soil, and crumbled while crossing the threshold back out.
• Li Qingyun shaped the soil into a clay statue resembling True Lord Peng Tai and ordered the Nether Ghost to enter it.
• The Nether Ghost obeyed, and the statue became lifelike as the creature tested its new body and praised Li Qingyun’s craftsmanship.

Li Qingyun contained the Nether Ghost Dog Peng and learned that Moon Yin Palace planned to marry its Seventh Saintess, Wu Yue, to Martial Emperor Li Zuo. As True Lord Nian Meng prepared to bring Wu Yue to Southern You, Wu Yue resisted the match, but her distant ancestress insisted Li Zuo’s fortune made him the right choice.

• Li Qingyun named the Nether Ghost Dog Peng and confined it to the area around Anomaly Temple under threat of heavenly lightning.
• Over a month later, A'li told Li Qingyun that True Lord Nian Meng would arrive with Wu Yue to discuss a marriage alliance with Li Zuo.
• Li Qingyun recognized Wu Yue as a Supreme Realm cultivator’s great-granddaughter and agreed to personally receive True Lord Nian Meng.
• Wu Yue told her distant ancestress that she preferred Nan Zhongling of Biyou Palace to Li Zuo.
• Wu Yue’s distant ancestress insisted that Li Zuo’s connection to True Lord Qingyun and his national fortune made him Wu Yue’s destined husband.

Moon Yin Palace visited Li Qingyun to arrange Wu Yue’s marriage to Li Zuo and gave him a Soul-Hosting Lamp to protect his soul in the Death Gate underworld. After reaching Yang God Realm perfection, Li Qingyun prepared to enter the underworld again.

• True Person Nian Meng brought Saintess Wu Yue and Moon Yin Palace cultivators to meet Li Qingyun, who approved Wu Yue and Li Zuo’s match.
• True Person Nian Meng told Li Qingyun that True Monarch Wujun would ascend next July and invited him to attend the ceremony.
• True Person Nian Meng gave Li Qingyun Moon Yin Palace’s Soul-Hosting Lamp and warned him that Biyou Palace might target him in the Death Gate underworld.
• Wu Yue married the Martial Emperor of Southern You, and Li Qingyun’s cultivation advanced from the sixth layer of the Yang God Realm to perfection over the following year.
• Li Qingyun placed a wisp of soul thought in the Soul-Hosting Lamp, entered his Inner Mansion, and sent his Yang God toward the Sea of Ruins.

Li Qingyun returned to the black shore and drew the attention of cultivators from across the Ruin Sea with his formidable Yang God halos. As bronze fragments appeared, he prepared to lead the cultivators toward the Death Gate, while Nangong Fengchuan proudly recognized his fellow sect member.

• Li Qingyun greeted the cultivators on the black shore and explained that he was heading to the Death Gate rather than running ferryboats.
• Chaozi True Person offered divine weapon material to recruit Nangong Fengchuan and True Lord Fengyang to help him secure a ferryboat, but Nangong Fengchuan left to join Li Qingyun.
• Nangong Fengchuan apologized to Li Qingyun for his previously unused ferry reservation, and Li Qingyun agreed to honor it.
• More than a dozen bronze fragments drifted across the Ruin Sea, and Li Qingyun stepped into the shallow water as the other Yang God cultivators yielded the lead to him.
• Nangong Fengchuan watched Li Qingyun's radiant Yang God and felt pride in his sect.

Li Qingyun reached the Death Gate, suppressed True Lord Kunque of Xushen Palace to claim his entry slot, and entered first when the gate opened. Inside, he approached the Death Mandate Scroll to uncover how to find and cross out his name.

• Li Qingyun and Nangong Fengchuan took ferry boats, while Chaozi and Song Fengyang were defeated trying to seize a bronze fragment.
• Li Qingyun reached the Death Gate and found more than thirty Yang God cultivators waiting on its steps, including True Lord Yuejian, True Lord Wansheng, and True Lord Kunque.
• Li Qingyun demanded True Lord Kunque's entry slot and suppressed him with a thunder seal before he could finish threatening him.
• The Death Gate opened, and Li Qingyun entered first as the other cultivators surged forward behind him.
• Li Qingyun approached the opened Death Mandate Scroll and sought to learn how to find and cross out his name.

Li Qingyun failed to read the Death Mandate Scroll and followed True Lord Yuejian to another Nether God Hall, where he killed him and studied the inscriptions on a Nether God Bone. Up close, he discovered that the inscriptions moved in a rhythm of birth and death, revealing a new secret of the Death Gate.

• Li Qingyun touched the Death Mandate Scroll, but black ashes overwhelmed him before he could read it, so he withdrew and resolved to return after condensing ninety-nine Death Gate Inscriptions.
• Li Qingyun followed True Lord Yuejian through the Netherlands while three people in Biyou Palace discussed a plan to kill him with a Spirit Restraining Yin Talisman and a Nether Ghost.
• True Lord Yuejian entered another Nether God Hall to study a dark-golden corpse, and Li Qingyun followed him and demanded to know where the other halls were.
• True Lord Yuejian refused to reveal the locations, so Li Qingyun killed him with a treasure seal of lightning.
• Li Qingyun approached the corpse despite its murderous intent and discovered that its eleven Death Gate Inscriptions slowly writhed and flowed.

Li Qingyun studied the dark-gold corpse’s Death Gate Inscription and formed an enhanced inscription of his own before a Nether Ghost ambushed him. He subdued the creature, took control of its Spirit Restraining Yin Talisman, and questioned it about the Netherworld.

• Li Qingyun carefully studied the corpse’s tiny curse sigils and inscribed a dark-gold-tinted Death Gate Inscription on himself.
• A Nether Ghost crept up behind Li Qingyun, but six points of jade radiance exposed and suppressed it.
• Li Qingyun used a lightning seal to reveal the Spirit Restraining Yin Talisman inside the Nether Ghost and knocked the talisman away when it tried to flee.
• Li Qingyun returned the talisman to the Nether Ghost, added a lightning curse, and ordered it to obey Lingbao Sect cultivators.
• Li Qingyun questioned the subdued Nether Ghost about other strange creatures and the locations of Nether God Halls.

Li Qingyun refined Death Gate True Meaning Inscriptions and sought a way to contain the growing ominous intent they brought. As he prepared to ask Moon Yin Palace about a Bronze Secret Hall, he received an invitation to True Monarch Wujun’s ascension ceremony.

• Li Qingyun learned from the Nether Ghost that there were ten Nether God Halls, then ordered it to guard the hall and continued engraving Death Gate Inscriptions.
• True Lord Mingchan discovered that the Spirit Restraining Yin Talisman had lost its connection, and he, True Lord Nanchen, and True Lord Guanhai agreed not to rashly attack Li Qingyun again.
• Li Qingyun suppressed the ominous intent in his body and asked Nangong Fengchuan and Miaoxuan where Death Gate Realm seniors had cultivated in seclusion.
• Nangong Fengchuan explained that Bronze Secret Halls came from the Spirit God Palace, while Miaoxuan mentioned a senior who had used Coffin Mountain’s yin aura to contain ominous intent.
• Li Qingyun resolved to ask True Lord Nian Meng about Bronze Secret Halls when he visited Moon Yin Palace, then refined twelve True Meaning Inscriptions over the next half month.
• Moon Yin Palace invited Li Qingyun to True Monarch Wujun’s feathered transformation and ascension ceremony on the sixteenth day of the seventh month.

Li Qingyun attended True Monarch Wujun’s feathered transformation ceremony at Moon Yin Palace, where sect leaders and guests gathered to witness her ascension. As Wujun began to dissolve within the Jade Pure Moon Realm, Li Qingyun wondered whether she was abandoning even her physical body.

• Li Qingyun set out for Moon Yin Palace with a portion of Yin God Realm ape demon blood as his gift.
• True Lord Nian Meng and True Lord Yuan Hui welcomed guests from Luoxia Sect, Fire God Gate, Purple Gold Palace, Biyou Palace, and Rotten Moon Palace.
• Person Mu Bai of Rotten Moon Palace arrived in person from the Heaven Gate Realm and gave True Monarch Wujun a string of rare black-and-white copper coins.
• Li Qingyun arrived from Lingbao Sect and was escorted to Feifeng Peak by True Lord Fuyao, while Shangguan Wan'er watched him with complicated feelings.
• True Monarch Wujun thanked the guests and began ascending through feathered transformation, her figure crumbling into burning white feathers as Li Qingyun questioned whether she was discarding her body.

True Monarch Wujun sacrificed her body, past-life entanglements, karmic burdens, and Jade Pure Moon Realm Sky to ascend into the Pure Heaven. Li Qingyun sensed signs that her Dao Fruit was flawed and that ascension might lead to another imprisonment, then faced questions from Fuyao about his fear.

• True Monarch Wujun burned away her physical body and climbed toward a guiding rainbow light in the Void Sky.
• After halting twice, True Monarch Wujun severed her past-life entanglements, burned the karmic burdens of living beings, and used the resulting dragon-shaped aura to rise.
• True Monarch Wujun destroyed her Jade Pure Moon Realm Sky, entered the rainbow light, and declared that she was heading to the Pure Heaven.
• Li Qingyun heard his mysterious Daoist effigy warn of a flawed Dao Fruit and a taboo, then glimpsed a bronze chain behind True Monarch Wujun as she ascended.
• The Moon Yin Palace disciples and visiting cultivators celebrated True Monarch Wujun's ascension, while Li Qingyun suspected it might be a new imprisonment.
• Fuyao noticed Li Qingyun's fear and asked whether she had sensed it correctly.

Li Qingyun left Moon Yin Palace’s ascension banquet pondering the dangers and limits of ascension, while Dao Lord Wu Jun’s worship spread across Great You and Southern You. Months later, he completed all ninety-nine Death Gate True Intent Inscriptions, but sensed a faint, unexplained pull and summoned Quen Peng II.

• Li Qingyun declined Saintess Fuyao’s invitation to the ascension banquet and left to focus on cultivation.
• Li Qingyun reflected on Dao Lord Wu Jun’s ascension and resolved to avoid the mysterious bronze chain if he advanced beyond the mortal world.
• Great You and Southern You began enshrining statues of Divine Moon Wu Jun Jade Pure Dao Lord, while Li Qingyun accepted the change in incense offerings.
• Miaoxuan purified the baleful intent leaking from Li Qingyun’s sealed hall and advanced to become a second-rank Fire Siming.
• Li Qingyun inscribed his final Death Gate True Intent Inscription, completing all ninety-nine and unleashing the Great Dao of death’s divine might.
• Li Qingyun sensed a faint pull after completing the inscriptions and called Quen Peng II into the hall.

Li Qingyun followed a strange tugging sensation to a blood-yellow river in the Netherworld, where he discovered a chained tricolored corpse bearing nine unknown Death Gate Inscriptions. After recording them and reaching 108 inscriptions, he crossed out his name in the Death Mandate Scroll and achieved the Death Gate Realm, causing the Netherworld to expel him.

• Li Qingyun questioned the Nether Ghost about unusual places and had it lead him to a strange river near the Netherworld's ruins.
• Li Qingyun entered the river and found a massive tricolored corpse pinned to the riverbed by a bronze chain, but he could not pull it free.
• Li Qingyun studied and recorded the corpse's nine unfamiliar Death Gate Inscriptions, bringing his total to 108 and triggering a transformation.
• Li Qingyun traveled to the Death Mandate Scroll, found his entry, and crossed out his name.
• The Death Gate Realm breakthrough caused Li Qingyun to transcend death, and the Netherworld's force of rejection began expelling him.

After breaking through to the Death Gate Realm, Li Qingyun struggled to contain his lethal hostility and used Youjiang Hall to suppress it. A vision revealed the ancient Great Emperor Nanming’s fall to a white-haired wind, which then appeared in the hall and threatened Li Qingyun.

• Li Qingyun suppressed the Death Gate Inscriptions beneath his skin, but his hostility overwhelmed the temple’s protective arrays, so he left and apologized to Miaoxuan.
• Li Qingyun arrived at Youjiang Temple, where Dogpeng Number One woke in fear as the new aura spread across the wasteland.
• Li Qingyun entered Youjiang Hall and unleashed his hostility, shattering many mud sculptures and driving the hall’s ancient malice into hiding.
• Li Qingyun sat at the honored seat and saw a vision of Great Emperor Nanming and the lesser deities being turned into mud sculptures by a white-haired wind.
• Li Qingyun found that Youjiang Hall contained most of his hostility, but a white-haired wind appeared and dimmed his Death Gate radiance despite his inscriptions and Thunder Emperor crown.

After nearly dying to the white-haired wind in Youjiang Hall, Li Qingyun escaped to Coffin Mountain to suppress the Death Gate Realm ferocity on his body. He burned a Death Mandate Scroll bearing Gu Mingchan’s name, gravely injuring him, then sought information about the Bronze Secret Hall auction from True Lord Nian Meng.

• Li Qingyun survived the white-haired wind in Youjiang Hall when his Thunder Emperor divine rank shielded him, then fled the temple.
• Li Qingyun reached Coffin Mountain, carved a cave into a cliff, and decided to use the mountain’s yin energy to neutralize the ferocity on his body.
• Li Qingyun burned a Death Mandate Scroll bearing Gu Mingchan’s name and strengthened its curse with strange wind from Coffin Mountain.
• True Lord Mingchan spat out black blood and fragments of his heart at Biyou Palace, then guessed that a Death Gate Realm great-perfection cultivator had cursed him.
• Li Qingyun suppressed the returning death backlash and entered his cave, then sent a golden talisman to True Lord Nian Meng asking about the Bronze Secret Hall auction.

Li Qingyun entered the Life Gate region of his inner landscape and discovered a living world inhabited by Territorial Ghostly Creatures. He traveled toward Yama City with a wary cultivator who called himself Qian Fang, learning about work and the steep cost of Spirit God Palace auctions.

• Li Qingyun learned from True Lord Nian Meng that secret hall auctions used Yin-Yang Copper Coins obtained from the inner landscape, then assessed his Death Gate cultivation progress.
• Li Qingyun crossed into a misty world where his Shrink Ground into Inch ability was restricted and encountered Death Gate Realm cultivators heading for Yama City.
• Li Qingyun introduced himself as He Xiao and joined Qian Fang, who claimed to be a longtime resident and restaurant bookkeeper.
• Qian Fang offered to recommend Li Qingyun for waiter work, and Li Qingyun asked about Bronze Secret Hall auction prices.
• Qian Fang said a Bronze Secret Hall usually cost more than five hundred Yin-Yang Copper Coins and complained about the Spirit God Palace.

Li Qingyun learned from Qian Fang that survival in Living Ghost Heaven required cultivators to act like living ghosts rather than oppose them. As the carriage crossed into ghost territory and stopped at a tea stall, Li Qingyun noticed his own growing contempt and ferocity toward ghosts.

• Li Qingyun asked Qian Fang about earning money in Yama City, and Qian Fang warned that living ghosts punished cultivators who worked in skilled trades while offering to take half of Li Qingyun's tavern tips.
• The carriage crossed a barrier marking the end of the cultivators' safe zone and entered the world of living ghosts.
• Li Qingyun saw a towering ghostly village family watching the carriage and bared his fangs at a child, provoking the villagers' angry curses.
• Qian Fang told Li Qingyun to act from the living ghosts' perspective and avoid breaking character, or risk being swallowed and losing cultivation.
• The carriage stopped at a roadside stall called Old Wang's Herbal Tea, and Li Qingyun reflected that his unusual contempt for ghosts might stem from his achievement in the Death Gate Realm.

Li Qingyun and Qian Fang rode toward Yama City with three Living Ghosts, and Li Qingyun unsettled them by treating the little girl Xiao Ran boldly. The carriage continued on without anyone revealing a flaw.

• Several Living Ghosts hurried to board the carriage, but the old farmer and village woman claimed its remaining seats ahead of the landlord.
• The old farmer and village woman paid for the ride with Yin-Yang Copper Coins, which Li Qingyun found appetizing.
• The village woman asked Li Qingyun why he was going to Yama City, and he said he needed to find a way to make a living.
• Li Qingyun pinched Xiao Ran's cheek and teased the village woman about the girl's manners, shocking Qian Fang and the other passengers.
• The village woman slapped Xiao Ran and explained that they were traveling to seek refuge with a relative, while Qian Fang claimed his position as an accountant at Hundred Treasures Tower.
• The carriage passed other stops and continued toward Yama City with its passengers quiet and none revealing a flaw.