Chapter Summaries

At Yeyue’s Yang God celebration, Li Qingyun learned how cultivators discover the Lingtai secret lands and heard that another wave would emerge next year. Elsewhere, a White Robes Woman sensed his Jade Pure Vitality and decided to seek his acquaintance, believing it might help free her from the entanglement of her past life.

• Li Qingyun asked True Lord Ruoxi how sects found the Lingtai secret lands, and she explained that starlight from the Ancient Array Gate revealed their locations every ten years, with the next wave due in mid-January.
• Yeyue arrived at her celebration, greeted Li Qingyun and the other guests, and felt both awe and fierce competitiveness when she recognized his strength.
• True Lord Ruoxi invited Li Qingyun to her cave abode, and the two Life Gate Realm cultivators left the hall as Yeyue watched him go.
• After Li Qingyun and Ruoxi departed, the younger cultivators relaxed and performed their arts, while Yi Tianxing resolved to avoid antagonizing Li Qingyun.
• A White Robes Woman on Lan Yue Peak sensed Li Qingyun through space, but his Jade Pure Vitality blocked her probing; she then asked Ruoxi who he was and decided to meet him.

After leaving Moon Yin Palace, Li Qingyun was intercepted by True Lord Chengyuan of Biyou Palace, who challenged his Life Gate Realm strength and tried to imprison him. Li Qingyun destroyed Chengyuan’s first attack with thunder, but Chengyuan then opened heavenly gates to swallow the storm and pull Li Qingyun into a Heavenly Prison.

• Li Qingyun left Moon Yin Palace after speaking with True Lord Ruoxi, and Palace master Zhu emerged from seclusion and told Ruoxi to find ways to strengthen the sect’s ties with him.
• Li Qingyun continued through the Void Sky after divining that his journey would be half-auspicious and half-inauspicious.
• True Lord Chengyuan appeared before Li Qingyun, questioned whether he was concealing his strength, and criticized him for being discourteous.
• Li Qingyun answered Chengyuan’s first attack by summoning thunder that blasted away the incoming white light.
• True Lord Chengyuan dismissed Li Qingyun’s thunder magic, opened several heavenly gates to swallow the storm, and summoned another gate behind Li Qingyun to drag him toward the Heavenly Prison.

True Lord Chengyuan tried to imprison Li Qingyun for a hundred years, but Li Qingyun resisted with his vast mana and powerful lightning arts. Zhu Yuyan intervened to protect him and form a connection with him, while Chengyuan withdrew and Li Qingyun resolved to kill him after next year's Ancient Array Gate Spirit Platform Tide.

• True Lord Chengyuan attempted to suppress Li Qingyun in the Heaven Gate prison realm, but Li Qingyun resisted with his 108 qi channels and prepared to unleash his full lightning power.
• Zhu Yuyan appeared and used moonlight to dispel Chengyuan's Heaven Gates and Li Qingyun's thunderclouds, stopping their clash.
• Zhu Yuyan identified herself as Moon Yin Palace's Palace Lord and Clear Self Realm True Lord, and said she wanted to form a connection with Li Qingyun.
• Li Qingyun thanked Zhu Yuyan and withdrew his Jade Pure Vitality to avoid revealing his remaining trump cards.
• True Lord Chengyuan left after warning that Void True Lord would seek Zhu Yuyan out, and Li Qingyun resolved to kill Chengyuan after next year's Ancient Array Gate Spirit Platform Tide.

After True Lord Zhu rescued Li Qingyun from Biyou Palace, he began plotting retaliation against its cultivators in the Netherworld. He returned to Immortal Ghost Heaven to gather Heavenly Origin Bronze Tokens and met Xiao Ao, Gu Li, Zhao Xuan, and three cultivators bound for a Spirit Platform secret ground.

• Li Qingyun thanked True Lord Zhu for saving him and departed.
• Li Qingyun sent Nangong Fengchuan a soul-seizing talisman and ordered him to take it into the Death Gate Netherworld, where Quen Peng II would receive his edict.
• Li Qingyun gathered ten Heavenly Origin Bronze Tokens in Immortal Ghost Heaven and headed back toward the Ancient Array Gate.
• Li Qingyun found Xiao Ao, Gu Li, and Zhao Xuan at the Ancient Array Gate, then sent them southeast to search nearby ruins.
• Li Qingyun asked the three remaining cultivators whether they were heading to a Spirit Platform secret ground, and they exchanged uneasy glances.

Li Qingyun forced cultivators from the Three Divine Palaces to trade him the location of a mid-grade Spirit Altar secret realm, then continued studying the Ancient Array Gate. After traveling through it with a newly gathered group, he encountered an azure-robed ghost at another sixth-tier altar.

• Li Qingyun defeated True Person Kun Hong and took two of his Heavenly Origin Tokens, then traded ten tokens to Han Gu for the location Shangxuan Huayang.
• Li Qingyun studied the Ancient Array Gate’s bronze pillars while True Person Tong Shan remained with him, and True Person Hong Ling later joined him before leaving on the fifth day.
• The Ning Su couple, True Person Chu Ming, and other cultivators gathered enough Heavenly Origin Tokens to activate the Ancient Array Gate, with the Ning Su couple covering two tokens.
• Li Qingyun arrived in a ruined ancient temple and sensed malice surging from a sixth-tier altar, where an azure-robed ghost accused him of being stained with sin.

Li Qingyun confronted the blue-robed demon at the spirit altar and forced it to answer questions about its nature and the hierarchy of higher beings. When he asked why it had become such a ghastly thing, the demon began to answer but its eyes burst before it could finish.

• Li Qingyun resisted the demon's chanting and approached the spirit altar, then struck the blue-robed phantom until it agreed to talk.
• The demon said it could not remember why it was one of the higher ones, and claimed no other living being in its memories had ever destroyed one of its kind.
• The demon identified the lower grade as Spirits, the middle grade as Higher Ones, and the upper grade as Saints, but could not recall what lay above Saints.
• As the demon grew increasingly disturbed and bled heavily, Li Qingyun asked why it had become a ghastly thing.
• The demon started to answer, saying, "There is, there is..." before its pupils burst and blood poured from its eyes.

Li Qingyun survived a deadly eerie wind in the Shangxuan Huayang Spirit Altar by invoking Daoist exalted figures from his previous life, discovering a way to strengthen his Jade Pure Essence through visualization. After returning to the present world, he learned that True Lord Chihong had died in the dead-gate underworld and went to Ying Kingdom to burn talismans bearing names, suspecting Biyou Palace had helped bring down the Lingbao, Purple Gold, Falling Sunset, and Fire God Sects.

• The blue-robed Shangxuan Huayang phantom collapsed into Heavenly Origin Qi, but an eerie wind then threatened to extinguish Li Qingyun’s remaining vitality and drive him from the Spirit Altar.
• Li Qingyun invoked the supreme Daoist figures of his previous life, repelled the wind, and realized that visualizing himself as Jade Pure could increase his Jade Pure Essence.
• Li Qingyun gathered the ownerless Heavenly Origin Qi and used it to open his second Little Heaven Gate while beginning to open his third.
• Seven days later, the Shangxuan Huayang Spirit Altar collapsed and ejected Li Qingyun from Immortal Ghost Heaven.
• Nangong Fengchuan told Li Qingyun that True Lord Chihong had died after entering the dead-gate underworld, and Li Qingyun reassured him that the death had nothing to do with his talismans.
• Li Qingyun went to Ying Kingdom, burned talismans bearing names, and blamed Biyou Palace for the Lingbao, Purple Gold, Falling Sunset, and Fire God Sects’ fall into the broken stratum.

Biyou Palace blamed Fu Kingdom’s Rotten Moon Palace for a series of curses that killed True Lord Mingchan, while True Lord Chengyuan clashed with Mu Bai. Biyou Palace then summoned You Kingdom’s sects to discuss confronting the supposed threat, and Li Qingyun received the invitation with a faint smile.

• Biyou Palace’s leaders discussed the death of True Lord Chihong and the loss of the Spirit Restraining Yin Talisman, while True Lord Chengyuan rebuked Nan Chen and Ming Chan over their failed plot against Li Qingyun.
• The Death Mandate Scroll cursed Nan Chen and Ming Chan twice, and True Lord Chengyuan traced the curse first to a false trace in Ying Kingdom and then to Fu Kingdom.
• True Lord Chengyuan confronted Mu Bai of Rotten Moon Palace, and the two Heaven Gate experts fought across the skies of Fu Kingdom.
• True Lord Mingchan died after his accumulated curse injuries erupted, while strange winds and rumors of the Li family’s souls frightened the people of You Capital.
• Biyou Palace vowed to purge Rotten Moon Palace’s backed forces from You Kingdom and invited five sects to gather at Youlong Ridge; Li Qingyun received the invitation and burned it.

Li Qingyun learned that Fu Kingdom was preparing to invade You Kingdom on Rotten Moon Palace’s behalf, so he decided to join forces with the local sects to repel them. At the assembly on Youlong Ridge, he deliberately ignored True Lord Chengyuan and greeted the other attendees instead.

• Li Qingyun concluded that Fu Kingdom’s plans served Rotten Moon Palace’s ambition to ascend to the Supreme Realm and ordered Lingbao Sect to cooperate with You Kingdom’s sects against the invasion.
• Lin Weishuo’s father gloated over the coming turmoil and hoped a Rotten Moon Palace expert would kill Li Qingyun, while Lin Weishuo struggled to regain control of his body.
• Li Qingyun traveled to Youlong Ridge with Nangong Ting and Yue Changsong for the sects’ assembly.
• True Lord Chengyuan waited at Youlong Ridge with Biyou Palace’s allies as True Lord Kuixia, True Lord Fengyang, and True Lord Chihu arrived.
• Li Qingyun arrived last and greeted Kuixia, Chihu, Fengyang, and Yi Tianxing while pointedly ignoring True Lord Chengyuan.

Moon Yin Palace joined the Six Sects’ meeting, where True Lord Chengyuan proposed that Biyou Palace lead the struggle against Rotten Moon Palace. Li Qingyun challenged Biyou Palace’s leadership by blaming its past contest selections for You’s humiliating defeats, leaving the other sects questioning Biyou Palace’s authority.

• True Lord Ruoxi and Yeyue arrived with Moon Yin Palace representatives and greeted Li Qingyun warmly.
• True Lord Chengyuan declared that Rotten Moon Palace threatened You and said Biyou Palace would lead the Six Sects’ response.
• Li Qingyun interrupted Yi Tianxing’s plan and argued that another sect should lead this time.
• Li Qingyun recalled You’s crushing losses in the contest over forty years ago and criticized Biyou Palace’s selection of participants.
• The other sects began discussing Li Qingyun’s argument, while Biyou Palace’s leaders faced growing doubts about their authority.

At the Six Sects’ meeting, Li Qingyun challenged Biyou Palace’s leadership and secured responsibility for Lingbao Sect and Moon Yin Palace in four realms of the coming duel with Rotten Moon Palace. Back at Lingbao Sect, he reassured its leaders and considered how the contest could help him gather dynastic fortune for his future ascension.

• Li Qingyun offered to preside over the Six Sects’ preparations, but True Lord Fengyang argued that Biyou Palace should lead because of its experience.
• Li Qingyun threatened to withdraw Lingbao Sect unless the sects shared responsibility, then guaranteed victory in the Opening Mansion and Life Gate Realms.
• True Person Yeyue and True Lord Ruoxi backed Li Qingyun, with Moon Yin Palace taking the Yang Spirit and Golden Core Realms while Biyou Palace was left to organize the remaining realms with three other sects.
• Li Qingyun departed the meeting with Yue Changsong and Nangong Ting, and Ruoxi led Moon Yin Palace away; True Lord Chengyuan angrily left the remaining sects to make their own plans.
• Nangong Fengchuan and Miaoxuan questioned whether Lingbao Sect could win its assigned realms, and Li Qingyun said he could handle Life Gate while selecting Opening Mansion contestants through internal duels and divination.
• Li Qingyun reflected on how the contest might help him accumulate mortal dynastic fortune for his future ascension without severing all his worldly ties.

Li Qingyun received Rotten Moon Palace’s challenge and confronted the Twin Spirits of the Divine Palace in Immortal Ghost Heaven, demanding their superior-grade spirit platform secrets. He learned Su Yuhuang could harvest far more Heavenly Origin Qi than Ning Fenghe and began considering how his companions could improve their fire-law cultivation.

• Rotten Moon Palace demanded that the You Kingdom’s Six Sects yield some of the mortal dynasty’s dragon qi, then declared that a life-or-death spell battle would take place next March.
• Li Qingyun gathered twenty-three Heavenly Origin Bronze Tokens and encountered Ning Fenghe and Su Yuhuang at the Ancient Array Gate.
• Li Qingyun offered the couple twenty-one tokens in exchange for access to their superior-grade spirit platform secret realms.
• Ning Fenghe and Su Yuhuang resisted, but Li Qingyun summoned his fourth-tier Thunder Emperor divine rank and overpowered their fire-law divine ranks.
• Su Yuhuang revealed that she harvested over thirty-five strands of Heavenly Origin Qi from a superior-grade spirit platform, while Ning Fenghe obtained twenty.

Li Qingyun forced Su Yuhuang to reveal the location of a superior Spirit Platform, then finished studying all nineteen bronze array pillars and entered the Saint Illumination Eternal Truth secret ground. He faced a crazed female fiend within its decayed temple hall.

• Li Qingyun drove Ning Fenghe from the inner landscape and shattered Su Yuhuang’s fire seal with his Jade Pure Profound Light.
• Li Qingyun threatened Su Yuhuang into revealing the location of Saint Illumination Eternal Truth, then falsely explained his cultivation to her.
• Five days later, Li Qingyun completed his study of all nineteen bronze array pillars and strengthened his understanding of the laws of void.
• Li Qingyun and the gathered cultivators opened the Ancient Array Gate and entered the Saint Illumination Eternal Truth secret ground.
• Li Qingyun dispelled the female fiend’s frenzied contamination and strode toward her.

Li Qingyun questioned the sheng-ranked female fiend, Saint Illumination Eternal Truth, and learned that her spirit table could persist indefinitely. He then relied only on Jade Pure Profound Light to wear her down and deepen his Jade Pure Essence, leaving their contest ongoing after two days.

• Li Qingyun asked the female fiend whether spirit tables could exist indefinitely, and she claimed her eternal truth let her endure as long as she reappeared.
• When Li Qingyun asked what would happen if he destroyed her, the female fiend began to falter, so he affirmed that she cultivated eternal truth and the threatening ghostly wind subsided.
• Li Qingyun climbed to the ninth tier, withdrew his Thunder Emperor divine rank, and used only Jade Pure Profound Light to confront the female fiend.
• Li Qingyun and the female fiend chanted and clashed their respective lights for two days, gradually wearing each other down.
• The female fiend offered Li Qingyun sixty strands of heavenly origin qi to stop, but he ignored her and continued the contest.

Li Qingyun defeated Saint Illumination Eternal Truth in a prolonged discussion of the Dao, absorbed her Heavenly Origin Qi, and returned from Immortal Ghost Heaven with a stronger cultivation foundation. Back at Lingbao Sect, A'li won eight consecutive matches in the Opening Mansion Realm assembly before Nangong Zhenhuan challenged her.

• Li Qingyun outlasted the female fiend, whose strange light vanished and whose body crumbled into dust as she admitted defeat.
• Li Qingyun absorbed 287 strands of Heavenly Origin Qi and opened three small Heavenly Gates, bringing his total to five and a half.
• The secret spirit-platform land collapsed, and Li Qingyun returned to the present world with stronger Jade Pure Essence and Dao cultivation.
• A'li defeated Senior Brother Feng to claim her eighth consecutive victory at Lingbao Sect's Opening Mansion Realm Dao discussion assembly.
• Lin Weishuo praised A'li while secretly resenting her master, and considered Rotten Moon Palace's bounty on the Six Sects' battle cultivators.
• Nangong Zhenhuan flew onto the platform and challenged A'li.

A'li and Li Zuo won places in Lingbao Sect's selection to fight Fu Kingdom cultivators, while turmoil spread across Great Nether and the other sects held their own contests. On the fifteenth day of the new year, Li Qingyun arrived at Ancient Array Gate for the surging tide of Spirit Platform starlight and forcefully claimed the best position, shocking the gathered Life Gate Realm cultivators.

• A'li defeated Nangong Zhenhuan and secured a place representing Lingbao Sect in next year's battle against Fu Kingdom cultivators.
• Li Zuo defeated Yan Ruo'an and won one of the three places selected from Lingbao Sect's Opening Mansion Realm cultivators.
• Internal selection battles continued across the Six Sects as unrest spread through the western prefectures of Great Nether and Rotten Moon Palace plotted to seize Nether Kingdom's dragon qi.
• Li Qingyun arrived at Ancient Array Gate, where more than forty Life Gate Realm cultivators had gathered for the once-in-a-decade Spirit Platform opportunity.
• Li Qingyun's Jade Pure Profound Light pushed the Ning Su couple, Chu Ming, and other cultivators away from the central position, leaving the crowd stunned and wondering whether he intended to monopolize the opportunity.

Li Qingyun asserted control over the Ancient Array Gate and defeated the Three Divine Palaces cultivators who challenged him. After the remaining cultivators backed down, he turned his attention to the Rotten Moon Palace members, including Teng Su.

• The Ning Su couple, Chu Ming, and other Three Divine Palaces cultivators condemned Li Qingyun for controlling access to the Spirit Platform opportunity.
• Li Qingyun rejected their claims of authority and warned that he would decide the Ancient Array Gate’s order and opportunities.
• Li Qingyun used thunder-jade radiance to defeat Chu Ming, then scattered Ning Fenghe, Huang Shang, Tong Shan, and the other Divine Palace cultivators who attacked him.
• Su Yuhuang and the remaining Divine Palace cultivators chose not to challenge Li Qingyun, with Kun Hong and the others making excuses for their allies.
• Li Qingyun asked whether any Rotten Moon Palace cultivators were present, and Teng Su and the two people beside him stepped forward to greet him.

Li Qingyun took control of the cultivators gathered at the Ancient Array Gate, rearranged their positions, and announced that he would pursue middle- and upper-grade spiritual platforms. The gate began a spiritual platform tidal surge, and five lower-grade platforms emerged as Li Qingyun waited for the higher-grade ones.

• Li Qingyun killed Teng Su, Mu Qing, and Xu Dingshan, then explained that he had clashed with the Rotten Moon Palace in the Living Ghost Heaven.
• Li Qingyun moved Xiao Ao, Gu Li, Zhao Xuan, Ruoxi, and Hong Ling to positions near him at the Ancient Array Gate.
• Li Qingyun offered to trade generously for information about middle- and upper-grade spiritual platforms, while planning to seek Saint-character anomalies for Heavenly Origin Qi.
• The Ancient Array Gate activated without a Heavenly Origin Token, and its astral ring began to reveal the coming surge.
• Five lower-grade spiritual platforms shot from the gate, and Li Qingyun's Jade Pure Profound Light slowed three of them as his allies moved to intercept.

Li Qingyun dominated the Ancient Array Gate’s Spirit Platform surge, capturing nearly all of its upper- and mid-grade opportunities while directing lower-grade ones to his companions. After the Three Divine Palaces cultivators congratulated him with barely concealed resentment, Su Yuhuang asked whether his offer to trade two mid-grade Spirit Platforms for one upper-grade one still stood.

• Li Qingyun slowed and captured Spirit Platform starlight for himself and his companions, including two upper-grade opportunities in the first major wave.
• Li Qingyun intercepted later surges and secured nineteen upper-grade and thirty-five mid-grade Spirit Platforms in total, while Su Yuhuang and the other Three Divine Palaces cultivators received far fewer.
• Li Qingyun secretly directed passing lower-grade starlight toward Xiao Ao, Ruoxi, Hong Ling, Gu Li, and Zhao Xuan, who gathered several opportunities each.
• True Lord Ruoxi thanked Li Qingyun and hurried away, while Hong Ling, Xiao Ao, Gu Li, and Zhao Xuan stayed close to him as the other cultivators watched them resentfully.
• Su Yuhuang led the Three Divine Palaces cultivators in congratulating Li Qingyun, then asked whether he still intended to exchange two mid-grade Spirit Platforms for one upper-grade Spirit Platform.

Li Qingyun traded for nine superior-grade spirit platforms, then repeatedly entered Immortal Ghost Heaven and destroyed a Saint-tier spirit-platform guardian, strengthening his cultivation as he prepared for a breakthrough. As the Fu Kingdom–You Kingdom magic duel approached, attacks disrupted the Six Sects’ chosen fighters, while A'li received brief access to Linglu Peak’s Dao furnace after Miaoxuan intervened.

• Li Qingyun exchanged mid-grade spirit platforms with Su Yuhuang, Kun Hong, and other Divine Palace cultivators for nine superior-grade spirit platforms, then joined them in activating the Ancient Array Gate.
• Li Qingyun entered the Saint Path Sole Supremacy spirit platform and spent five days wearing down its guardian, gaining Heavenly Origin Qi, Jade Pure Essence, and four more tiny Heaven Gates.
• Li Qingyun continued cultivating in Immortal Ghost Heaven while Miaoxuan and Nangong Fengchuan stayed in the present world to protect him.
• As the magic duel neared, a Biyou Palace Nascent Soul cultivator died, a Moon Yin Palace saintess was gravely injured, and Martial Emperor Li Zuo survived an ambush when his Dao statue of Li Qingyun released clear light.
• Miaoxuan scolded Linglu Peak’s Feng clan into letting A'li cultivate in its Dao furnace for nine days.