Chapter Summaries

Li Qingyun reached the Fifth Fruit Position but was not drawn into the Black and Gray World, then learned he had to report to the Continental Temple. He prepared his Merfolk clone for the journey by advancing it to Ancestral Return Realm Stage Three.

• Li Qingyun consolidated his Fifth Fruit Position and wondered whether the Jade Pure Saint Body had made reality wary.
• Yuan Han delivered Saint Venerable Limò's customary summons for the lords of the four domains to report to the Continental Temple, along with news of an upcoming cordstone auction soirée.
• Li Qingyun divined that the journey would be half inauspicious and half auspicious, and resolved to strengthen his Merfolk clone before going.
• Li Qingyun practiced using crimson binding threads with the Merfolk clone's savage aura, then fused its ancestral blood to begin awakening its bloodline.
• The Merfolk clone endured a violent transformation that destroyed much of its body, then used crimson binding threads to restore itself and achieved Ancestral Return Realm Stage Three.

Li Qingyun arranged defenses around the regional temple before traveling to Langtian City to report to the prefecture temple. There, Míhuò and Zhòujué persuaded Saint Venerable Limò to aid the Mishin Dao, while Li Qingyun entered the city and began watching the temple’s movements.

• Li Qingyun instructed Houtu, Tushan Wenshan, Qing Nu, Spider Two, and his other subordinates to secure the regional temple, and he arranged for Golden Deer Daoist and the Three Pure Ones disciples to guard its jade body.
• Li Qingyun left for the Central Prefecture Temple with his merfolk clone Quan Lei, relying on the clone’s increased strength and leaving Houtu’s Ancestral Return Realm cultivation undisclosed.
• In Langtian City, Míhuò introduced himself to Saint Venerable Limò and pressed him to help the Mishin Dao after the prefecture temple’s questioning.
• Zhòujué cited the Mishin Dao’s losses in the Eastern Wastelands, and Míhuò hinted that he could share knowledge about sealing fruit qi and evading heavenly secrets.
• Saint Venerable Limò agreed to assist the Mishin Dao, and Li Qingyun arrived in Langtian City, settled into a teahouse, and monitored the prefecture temple.

Li Qingyun surveyed Langtian City before heading to the prefectural temple, where he refused formalities and was invited to a salon hosted by Saint Venerable Limò. As Feng Ji escorted him inside, Quan Lei clashed with the temple keepers, leaving the group on tense terms.

• Li Qingyun used his divine sense to survey Langtian City and noted its powerful cultivators, including a suspicious Dao Lord whose aura was concealed.
• After spending half an hour in a teahouse, Li Qingyun and Quan Lei headed to the prefectural temple.
• Feng Ji welcomed Li Qingyun and offered to take him to Saint Venerable Limò, but Li Qingyun asked to skip formalities and meet the saint venerable directly.
• Feng Ji urged Li Qingyun to stay for a winding-stone salon that night, and Li Qingyun appeared tempted to postpone his return.
• Quan Lei accused Feng Ji of disrupting their plans, then challenged the temple keepers who rebuked him.

Li Qingyun entered the continental temple to face Saint Venerable Limò, who challenged him over the Eastern Desolation’s recovery. Li Qingyun blamed Mishin Dao for the upheaval and openly confronted the Saint Venerable, leaving the hall tense.

• Daoist Lord Feng Ji carried Li Qingyun to the main hall and stopped Quan Lei from following him inside.
• Jiang Wang threatened to punish Quan Lei, while Dao Lord Zhòujué provoked him by recalling Quan Lei’s reputation.
• Li Qingyun entered the hall, saluted Saint Venerable Limò, and assessed the powerful figure as Limò examined him in turn.
• Saint Venerable Limò reprimanded Li Qingyun about the Eastern Desolation’s recovery and asked whether its louse race and abandoned temples had recovered.
• Li Qingyun blamed Mishin Dao for the upheaval and said the Eastern Desolation needed time to recover, provoking Saint Venerable Limò.

At the continent temple inquiry, Li Qingyun used the Ancestral Temple’s attention to present himself as a loyal defender of Dao Authority, unsettling Saint Venerable Limò and ending the inquiry without punishment. He accepted Limò’s invitation to a lei stone appreciation gathering and began preparing to advance his cultivation while he waited.

• Dao Lord Zhòujué accused Li Qingyun of disrespecting Saint Venerable Limò, but Li Qingyun defended himself and denounced the Mishin Dao’s persecution.
• Li Qingyun sensed a gaze from the Void Heaven and performed as a devoted follower of the Ancestral Temple, claiming his actions served Dao Authority and would restore the Eastern Desolation.
• Saint Venerable Limò interpreted the Ancestral Temple’s attention toward Li Qingyun as a threat to his rule, though he concealed his hostility and ended the inquiry.
• Limò invited Li Qingyun to a lei stone appreciation gathering at Treasure Flower Hall, and Li Qingyun agreed to attend.
• In the side hall, Li Qingyun cultivated while the Merfolk clone guarded him, sensing the Sixth Fruit Position and planning to collect blood-colored lei stones for the clone’s advancement.

Li Qingyun attended Saint Venerable Limò’s stone-appreciation gathering despite warnings that danger awaited him there. He recognized the gathering’s political undercurrents and examined ancient Lǚ stones as he assessed Limò’s ambitions.

• Feng Ji escorted Li Qingyun to Treasure Flower Hall, where Li Qingyun entered without acknowledging Feng Ji or the temple keepers.
• Luotan, Domain Lord of Ximo, warned Li Qingyun that he had heard the Saint Venerable say Li Qingyun was eager to return to the Eastern Desolation, and Li Qingyun accepted his goodwill.
• Li Qingyun used what he had learned with the Ear Connection Fruit to judge that Limò and remnants of the Mishin Dao might be plotting to ambush him, while Ruoxu and Zhenyi remained cold toward him.
• Saint Venerable Limò showed Li Qingyun three Lǚ stones containing traces of the Lightning Ancestor’s aura, and Li Qingyun asked whether Limò would part with them.
• Li Qingyun considered Limò’s history of collecting Lǚ stones and concluded that Limò was likely pursuing the divine seat of the Earth Ancestor after mastering fire arts.

Li Qingyun concealed his Earth Ancestor Bindings Stone from Saint Venerable Limò, who secretly planned to have him ambushed on his return journey. While Li Qingyun stayed at the salon, his merfolk clone Quan Lei began attacking their enemies inside the Continent Temple.

• Saint Venerable Limò asked Li Qingyun to exchange Earth Ancestor Bindings Stones, but Li Qingyun claimed he had none and kept his stone hidden.
• Saint Venerable Limò decided that Mi Huo, Zhòujué, and others should attack Li Qingyun on his return journey.
• Quan Lei lured Temple Keeper Qi into the dark side hall and killed him before heading for the disaster subordinate god hall.
• Daoist Lord Zhòujué told Xun, Ran, and Qi family leaders that the Saint Venerable approved their plan to ambush Li Qingyun.
• Quan Lei plunged Zhòujué's hall into darkness and killed the three clan leaders with bloody binding threads.
• Zhòujué defended himself with his six layers fruit realm clear light, and Quan Lei attacked him with a desolate strike.

Li Qingyun’s merfolk clone defeated Dao Lord Zhòujué and absorbed his cultivation, while Zhòujué’s dying curse failed to harm Li Qingyun. Li Qingyun left the Treasure Flower Hall after Saint Venerable Limò briefly obstructed his departure, as Limò’s plan to kill him remained in motion.

• Quan Lei trapped Dao Lord Zhòujué in a blood cocoon, shattered his defenses, and absorbed his cultivation with the bloody winding silk.
• Zhòujué unleashed a final gray curse that corroded Quan Lei’s scales, but the bloody winding silk consumed the curse and Quan Lei destroyed Zhòujué’s Primordial Spirit.
• Li Qingyun flicked away Zhòujué’s curse with his Jade Pure essence while speaking with Dao Lord Luotan in the Treasure Flower Hall.
• Saint Venerable Limò briefly stopped Li Qingyun from leaving, then gave him a thunder-intent winding stone before allowing him to depart.
• Several louse-clan powerhouses left the hall after Li Qingyun, while Dao Lord Luotan and the other domain lords suspected he would not survive the night.
• Limò reflected that he had arranged the Mishin Dao’s ambush and believed the ancestral temple would shield him from retaliation if Li Qingyun died.

Saint Venerable Limò discovered that Li Qingyun had outmaneuvered him and ordered Jiang Wang and Mishin Dao to kill Li Qingyun and his Merfolk servant. Li Qingyun raced toward the Eastern Desolation, where Mi Huo trapped Quan Lei and Mishin Dao surrounded Li Qingyun.

• Saint Venerable Limò realized Li Qingyun had concealed his actions in Treasure Flower Hall and learned that Zhou Jue and members of Mishin Dao had died.
• Saint Venerable Limò ordered Jiang Wang to act for the ancient Aristocratic Clans and keep Li Qingyun and the Merfolk Demon in the Middle Land.
• Li Qingyun and Quan Lei fled Langtian City toward the Eastern Desolation as Mi Huo and Mishin Dao moved to intercept them.
• Quan Lei transformed into an Eight-armed Naga and charged Mi Huo, who retreated into a strange-wind domain and trapped him in the Yellow Springs Wind Prison.
• Chen Ming and more than twenty Mishin Dao Dao Lords encircled Li Qingyun and attacked him.

Li Qingyun overpowered the Mishin Dao cultivators with his Fruit Position decrees, but Saint Venerable Limò intervened as Middle Land’s ancient clans joined the battle. As the clans surrounded Li Qingyun, Quan Lei’s blood-red binding threads pierced through Míhuò’s Netherworld Wind Prison and exposed him.

• Li Qingyun dispelled the attackers’ combined arts, stripped away their senses, and trapped them beneath Holy Thunder and Xuanhuang Earth Lotuses.
• Saint Venerable Limò dispersed much of Li Qingyun’s attack, while Jiang Wang and other ancient-clan cultivators confronted Li Qingyun in the name of their families.
• Li Qingyun evaded Jiang Wang’s strike and killed two Mishin Dao Dao Lords as they struggled with their lost senses.
• Jiang Wang, cultivators from the Xun, Ran, and Qi Families, and others surrounded Li Qingyun while Míhuò believed his enemy was cornered.
• Blood-red binding threads pierced Míhuò’s Netherworld Wind Prison and broke his Night Wanderer divine wonder, and Quan Lei attacked him.

Li Qingyun and Quan Lei killed Dao Lord Míhuò after the Shangqing Lingbao Sect Master extinguished Saint Venerable Limò’s intervention from across the Mother River. Li Qingyun then turned on the Mishin Dao and the gathered Ancestral Return Realm figures, leaving a Ran Family Old Ancestor being devoured by blood-colored winding threads.

• Saint Venerable Limò tried to save Dao Lord Míhuò with divine fire, but the Shangqing Lingbao Sect Master’s force from the Mother River extinguished the fire and Limò’s divine sense phantom.
• The blood-colored threads resumed draining Míhuò, and Quan Lei struck him down as Li Qingyun’s attack finished killing him.
• Li Qingyun used his fruit realm power to slay nearly half of the Mishin Dao Lords trapped in sensation loss.
• Quan Lei confronted Jiang Wang and wounded him with blood-colored threads, while Li Qingyun’s decree deprived the other Ancestral Return Realm figures of their senses.
• A Ran Family Old Ancestor lost his senses and was pierced by blood-colored threads that began devouring him.

Saint Venerable Limò invoked the Ancestral Temple to strike at Li Qingyun’s clone, driving it into the Time Ruin Mother River, while Li Qingyun slaughtered the Mishin Dao Lords. Limò then appeared on the battlefield and moved to suppress Li Qingyun.

• Quan Lei revealed the Eight-armed Naga’s Ancestral Return Realm Stage Three strength and attacked Jiang Wang, killing several louse clan cultivators as Jiang Wang tried to stop him.
• Jiang Wang called on Saint Venerable Limò to act, and Limò asked the Ancestral Temple to suppress the outer demon.
• The Ancestral Temple’s gray beam blasted Li Qingyun’s Eternal Soul Corpse clone into the depths of the Time Ruin Mother River.
• Li Qingyun killed several Mishin Dao Lords, including Dao Lord Chen Ming, while two survivors fled.
• Saint Venerable Limò appeared before Li Qingyun and pointed at him, commanding, “Suppress!”

Li Qingyun escaped Saint Venerable Limò’s crushing attack, but Limò trapped his true body in Reality with the Heavenly Eye Fruit. His Merfolk clone fought free of the Louse Clan and fled Middle Land, while Li Qingyun’s consciousness remained inside Reality.

• Saint Venerable Limò used the continent shrine’s Dao Authority to imprison Li Qingyun, but Li Qingyun shattered the prison and fled toward the Eastern Desolation.
• Limò used the Heavenly Eye Fruit to draw Li Qingyun into Reality, where Li Qingyun’s Primordial Spirit took on its monstrous true form and sensed the Jade Pure Essence growing stronger.
• Li Qingyun urged his Merfolk clone to return to the Eastern Desolation and protect the domain shrine’s Jade Body Divine Statue before Reality cut off their connection.
• The Merfolk clone unleashed its blood-colored binding threads, drove back Jiang Wang and the other Louse Clan fighters, and escaped Middle Land despite Limò’s offer of a subordinate-god position.

Li Qingyun escaped Saint Venerable Limò’s attack by breaking into the Eastern Desolation, where the Three Pure Ones’ forces protected his Merfolk clone. As Limò’s allies called for an invasion and the other domain lords fled, Limò decided to enter the real Black and Gray World himself.

• Saint Venerable Limò tried to immobilize the Merfolk, but blood-colored winding silk let it break free and flee into the Eastern Desolation.
• Li Qingyun’s Merfolk clone regrouped behind Xuanhuang Earth Qi waves, while disciples of the Three Pure Ones and Fifth Fruit Dao Lords blocked the border.
• Limò ordered Jiang Wang and the others not to pursue and had Middle Land forces surround the place where Li Qingyun had entered the real world.
• At the continent temple, Jiang and Ran family members urged Limò to attack the Eastern Desolation, while Luotan, Ruoxu, and Zhenyi privately discussed leaving.
• Zhenyi, Luotan, and Ruoxu departed the continent temple for their domains, and Limò resolved to enter the real Black and Gray World himself.

Li Qingyun explored deeper into the black and gray world and encountered a corrupted Dao Lord who tried to bewitch him with a tea invitation. After Li Qingyun recognized the danger and resisted the Dao Lord’s influence, he struck the creature at close range.

• Li Qingyun continued through the black and gray world as his Jade Pure Essence and inner comprehensions grew.
• A handsome Daoist appeared beneath a flower tree and invited Li Qingyun to sit and drink tea.
• The Daoist revealed a rotting, maggot-covered face and urged Li Qingyun to drink tea containing a worm-dragon, claiming it would make them friends.
• Li Qingyun identified the stranger as the corrupted Dao Lord of the Eighth Fruit Position, the Myriad Laws Fruit, and revealed that he had not been bewitched.
• Li Qingyun punched the Dao Lord’s corrupted face, then slammed down on his spinning head and threatened him.

Li Qingyun fought off a headless corrupted Dao Lord, but the creature escaped into the earth before he could destroy it. He entered the Black Mountain layer, where his Jade Pure stirring grew stronger and he discovered a method for refining a Supreme Dao Artifact.

• Li Qingyun used Jade Pure Radiance to corrode the headless Daoist, who escaped by severing his arms and fleeing underground.
• Li Qingyun entered the Black Mountain layer and headed toward the nearby Black Tower, sensing that his Jade Pure stirring was connected to the thing beyond the heavens.
• Li Qingyun killed a Seven-Fruit corrupted creature with brute force, making the stirring within him nearly burst forth.
• Li Qingyun discovered a method for refining a Supreme Dao Artifact and recognized it as the Exquisite Mysterious Yellow Pagoda, matching the Black Tower Dao Artifact above his head.

Li Qingyun learned a method for refining the Exquisite Mysterious Yellow Pagoda and returned to the black tower to claim it. After destroying the Yellow Tower Heaven Master’s wall-shadow, he began imprinting the tower with Jade Pure runes, leaving its hidden remnant thought struggling against the slow refinement.

• Li Qingyun gained mysterious insights into refining and subduing the Exquisite Mysterious Yellow Pagoda and wondered whether suppressing aberrations in the Black and Gray World had earned him a reward.
• Li Qingyun returned to the black tower’s nine hundred and ninety-ninth floor and found the Yellow Tower Heaven Master’s wall-shadow restored.
• Li Qingyun used Jade Pure radiance to corrode and disperse the wall-shadow despite the Yellow Tower Heaven Master’s threats.
• Li Qingyun manifested his Jade Pure True Body and began branding the tower with refining runes to claim it as his own.
• The Yellow Tower Heaven Master’s hidden remnant thought fled through the tower and pleaded with Li Qingyun to stop, but Li Qingyun continued the slow refinement.

Li Qingyun used his Jade Pure Primordial Saint Body to overcome the Yellow Tower Heaven Master's remnant thought and began refining the black tower, then hunted Fallen Ones to strengthen himself. The chapter ended with Saint Venerable Limò entering the Black and Gray World to check whether Li Qingyun had fallen or died.

• Li Qingyun covered the black tower with Jade Pure runes and drove the Yellow Tower Heaven Master's remnant thought into a desperate self-detonation.
• Li Qingyun restored the runes scattered by the blast and began refining the black tower, while reasoning that Wei Zu still kept the Great Thousand protected.
• Li Qingyun decided to hunt Fallen Ones throughout Black Mountain to raise his Jade Pure root body's realm, then reached power comparable to a Sixth Fruit Dao Lord after defeating the nineteenth Seven Fruits Realm Fallen One.
• Saint Venerable Limò entered the Black and Gray World to confirm whether Li Qingyun had been corrupted or killed.

Li Qingyun emerged from Black Mountain after slaughtering corrupted ones and confronted Saint Venerable Limò in the real land. Limò pursued him to destroy him, but Li Qingyun overwhelmed him in their first clash, leaving Limò desperate to flee.

• Limò searched the blood-red river and cautiously approached Black Mountain, suffering injuries while fighting corrupted ones.
• A dozen corrupted ones fled from Black Mountain in terror, followed by Li Qingyun, who had survived and grown stronger by killing them.
• Li Qingyun recognized Limò and attacked him, boasting that they were evenly matched in the real land.
• Limò fought back with his arms and six tails, but Li Qingyun struck him hard enough to cave in his chest and break two arms.
• Limò realized he could not win and tried to flee.

Li Qingyun brutalized Saint Venerable Limò in the Land of Truth, but the Ancestral Eye intervened and rescued Limò before Li Qingyun could finish him. As Li Qingyun was forced back to reality, he left Jade Pure runes refining the black tower and returned to find the Eastern Wasteland and Middle Land forces facing off; Limò’s scream then echoed from Langtian City.

• Li Qingyun pinned Limò down and battered him until Limò’s body was nearly destroyed, while Limò’s barbed tails were corroded by Li Qingyun’s fire.
• Limò summoned the Ancestral Eye, whose pale light erased one of Li Qingyun’s arms and gathered Limò’s remains before carrying him away.
• Li Qingyun’s arm regenerated, and he began leaving the Land of Truth, trusting that his Jade Pure runes would continue refining the black tower.
• Jiang Wang and the Middle Land Ancient Clan’s forces maintained their blockade as Quan Lei, Zhenhui, Chihun, Golden Deer, Water Hou, and the Eastern Wasteland forces confronted them across the boundary.
• The Middle Land’s gathered momentum scattered, and Jiang Wang and the others heard the Saint Venerable scream from Langtian City.