Chapter Summaries

Sect Master Tongtian and Demon Ancestor Luohu entered the Demon Capital and settled into the Eight Directions Guest Inn. A young woman in animal hide offered him Extraterrestrial Meteorite Iron for his room, but he accepted her animal hide instead, leaving their encounter poised to continue.

• Sect Master Tongtian and Demon Ancestor Luohu reached the Demon Capital, entered under the name Tian Zheng Yi, and took suites at the Eight Directions Guest Inn.
• A young woman in animal hide asked Sect Master Tongtian to give up his room and offered him Extraterrestrial Meteorite Iron as payment.
• Sect Master Tongtian offered the young woman and her companions three empty rooms, warning them to keep quiet.
• The young woman's tall male companion threatened Sect Master Tongtian, but she rebuked the man and sent him away.
• Sect Master Tongtian said he preferred the young woman's animal hide to the rare metal, so she removed the hide skirt and handed it to him.

Sect Master Tongtian discovered that the Great Array of Stealing Heaven and Changing Sun had developed an irreversible flaw, lowering the chances of obtaining the Demon God Lantern and of Sun Wukong’s progress succeeding. After accepting Human Heart Fruit from a local woman and giving her a Minor Golden Pill in return, he cultivated the fruit’s seeds, then sensed that something was wrong despite seeing nothing unusual outside.

• Sect Master Tongtian deduced that obtaining the Demon God Lantern had less than a thirty percent chance of success and Sun Wukong’s progress had only a fifty-fifty chance.
• Sect Master Tongtian traced the unfavorable odds to an irreversible flaw in the Great Array of Stealing Heaven and Changing Sun, caused by interference with a moment extracted from the past.
• A hide-clad young woman brought Sect Master Tongtian two Human Heart Fruits, and he gave her a Minor Golden Pill in return.
• Sect Master Tongtian shared one Human Heart Fruit with Demon Ancestor Luohu, ate the other, and planted its seeds after they rapidly sprouted.
• Sect Master Tongtian sensed impending trouble, but saw nothing amiss in the marketplace outside.

Sect Master Tongtian and Demon Ancestor Luohu investigated a sudden crack in the Demon Capital’s street and learned it might have been caused by the legendary Nine-Headed Demon Snake. Although workers quickly replaced the damaged stones and the Lantern Festival preparations continued, Sect Master Tongtian’s unease deepened.

• Sect Master Tongtian sensed something was wrong as the street outside grew noisy and a long crack appeared in its fortified stone pavement.
• Demon Ancestor Luohu said a similar disturbance had occurred ten thousand years earlier, when many powerful cultivators died dealing with the aftermath.
• Demon Ancestor Luohu suspected the legendary Nine-Headed Demon Snake had caused the crack, and Sect Master Tongtian feared the beast might be beneath the Demon Capital.
• Sect Master Tongtian wondered whether he was a jinx because bad things seemed to happen wherever he went.
• The Demon Capital Guard restored order, and craftsmen quickly replaced the cracked stones while the street returned to normal.
• Sect Master Tongtian remained increasingly uneasy despite the swift repairs.

Sect Master Tongtian learned where the Demon God Lanterns appeared and prepared to confront the Nine-Headed Demon Snake, whose attack on a military camp confirmed his foreboding. After buying strange, lifelike plastic toys across Demon Capital, he and Demon Ancestor Luohu went to investigate the marsh where the soldiers had vanished.

• Demon Ancestor Luohu explained that Demon God Lanterns grew on a tree at the end of the Demon River around midnight on Lantern Festival.
• Heishan Taoyao introduced herself and her companions, Heishan Taohua and Heishan Taoli, and asked Tongtian about the street cracks and how to kill the Nine-Headed Demon Snake.
• Tongtian sent his hundred thousand incarnations to prepare his own method for dealing with the Nine-Headed Demon Snake.
• Demon Ancestor Luohu told Tongtian that the Nine-Headed Demon Snake had swallowed more than ten thousand soldiers and their armor at a military camp east of Demon Capital.
• Tongtian bought every batch of oddly lifelike plastic toys he found, purchasing 108 batches with no identical contents, while he and Luohu suspected the sellers used a technique to hide their identities.
• Tongtian and Luohu reached the marsh where the soldiers had been swallowed and found it sealed off by the Demon Capital Guard.

Sect Master Tongtian and Demon Ancestor Luohu watched Yunmeng Marsh as a legendary Nine-Headed Demon Snake emerged, only to recognize it as Zhu Jiuyin. Zhu Jiuyin fixed its gaze on the people by the shore, freezing them in place, while Heishan Taoyao’s group waited for the right moment to act.

• Sect Master Tongtian and Demon Ancestor Luohu sensed a powerful aura brewing in Yunmeng Marsh, and Luohu ordered the Demon Capital Guard to evacuate the onlookers a hundred miles away.
• Tongtian spotted Heishan Taoyao and her group waiting tensely, with the hostile man standing behind her.
• At ten in the morning, Tongtian used his Insightful Eyes to see a nine-headed beast rise beneath the marsh’s surface.
• Tongtian recognized the creature as Zhu Jiuyin, and Luohu was shocked that it had come from the Primordial World.
• Zhu Jiuyin emerged from Yunmeng Marsh and immobilized everyone it stared at, while the man behind Heishan Taoyao said it was not yet time to act.

Heishan Taoyao survived Zhu Jiuyin’s attack with Mister Tian’s help, then fought back as the demon snake’s heads repeatedly erupted in flames and regenerated. The chapter ended with her blasting apart all nine heads, only for new ones to begin growing from Zhu Jiuyin’s neck.

• Zhu Jiuyin attacked Heishan Taoyao after a young man provoked him, but Mister Tian rescued her and the blue beam annihilated the young man.
• Heishan Taoyao fired nine flaming arrows into Zhu Jiuyin’s heads, setting the demon snake ablaze as it unleashed destructive beams at the onlookers.
• Greedy onlookers charged toward Zhu Jiuyin to claim its heads and cores, but its spreading flames killed most of them while Sect Master Tongtian, Demon Ancestor Luohu, and Heishan Taoyao’s group took shelter.
• Heishan Taoyao accused Zhu Jiuyin of stealing its heads from Black Mountain Old Demon, then froze and shattered its central dragon head with two arrows of light.
• Heishan Taoyao blasted apart Zhu Jiuyin’s remaining eight heads, but new heads began growing from its neck.

Sect Master Tongtian revived Demon Ancestor Luohu and created a second Zhu Jiuyin, which swallowed the original. By reading Zhu Jiuyin’s memories, Sect Master Tongtian discovered that the ancient creature had awakened in the Demon Realm with no memories of how it got there.

• Demon Ancestor Luohu severed Zhu Jiuyin’s newly grown head, but Zhu Jiuyin detached its eight remaining necks and used them to destroy Luohu’s body.
• Sect Master Tongtian reshaped Demon Ancestor Luohu’s body and restored him to his original strength.
• Sect Master Tongtian caught Zhu Jiuyin’s eight attacking necks and used the Supreme Art of Creation to make another Zhu Jiuyin.
• The created Zhu Jiuyin swallowed the injured original, causing most of the onlookers around Yunmeng Marsh to flee.
• Sect Master Tongtian used the Great Art of Soul Shifting to read Zhu Jiuyin’s memories and learned that it had awakened in the Demon Realm without memories of its earlier origins.

Sect Master Tongtian bought hundreds of thousands of mysterious eggs after sensing a bloody history within them, then entered the Heaven and Earth Restaurant with Demon Ancestor Luohu. The waiter offered them a thousand-year dream experience, and Sect Master Tongtian paid for it.

• Zhu Jiuyin returned to cultivating beneath Yunmeng Marsh while Sect Master Tongtian and Demon Ancestor Luohu left for Demon Capital City.
• Sect Master Tongtian impressed Demon Ancestor Luohu and the market merchants with his knowledge as he bought unusual items.
• Sect Master Tongtian spotted a figure resembling Demon Emperor Long Yuan, then bought about three thousand patterned eggs after seeing violent visions when he touched one.
• Sect Master Tongtian and Demon Ancestor Luohu went to Mount Baitou and bought more than three hundred thousand eggs from the seller at the docks.
• Sect Master Tongtian and Demon Ancestor Luohu entered the Heaven and Earth Restaurant, where the waiter offered them a thousand-year dream in the Yellow Millet Pavilion.
• Sect Master Tongtian handed the waiter one thousand Dao Coins, but the waiter did not accept them.

Sect Master Tongtian entered the Yellow Millet Pavilion to dream of the future, but found himself living as a poor sixteen-year-old boy in the past. After his father was killed by a corrupt city guard, Tongtian killed the guard and two beggars, then returned home and prepared to take his family to Youzhou.

• Sect Master Tongtian and Demon Ancestor Luohu entered separate Yellow Millet Pavilion rooms to experience dreams set a thousand years in the future and past.
• Sect Master Tongtian accepted the White-clothed Woman’s help, drank Thousand Year Drunk, and fell asleep with a familiar scent reminding him of White Emperor Bai Suzhen.
• Tongtian awoke in the body of Tian Zheng Yi, a sixteen-year-old boy riding into the city with his father to sell straw for tuition.
• A portly city guard killed Tian Zheng Yi’s father for refusing to pay a road toll and took the ox cart into a courtyard.
• Tongtian killed the guard, took his banknotes and dagger, then killed two beggars who tried to rob him in an alley.
• Tongtian returned to his rural home and told his younger brother and frail mother to prepare to seek refuge with their uncle in Youzhou.

Sect Master Tongtian lived as Tian Zheng Yi while he and his mother, Lady Tian, fled their village with Tian Zheng'er after his father’s death. At a roadside temple, he discovered a statue of his son Tianhai and began to suspect that the emotions in this unfamiliar life were affecting him.

• Lady Tian took Tian Zheng Yi and Tian Zheng'er away from their village after Tian Zheng Yi explained that their father had been killed and he had killed the culprit.
• Two village ruffians tried to stop the family, but Tian Zheng Yi killed them, took their silver, and sank their bodies in the river with Tian Zheng'er’s help.
• Lady Tian and her sons crossed the river by boat and traveled toward the official road, stopping at a dilapidated temple to rest.
• Tian Zheng'er cleared dust from a memorial tablet, and a gust revealed a statue of Tianhai that Sect Master Tongtian recognized by the mole on its forehead.
• Lady Tian asked whether Tian Zheng'er knew the background of the Supreme Sovereign, while Sect Master Tongtian thought about his wife and felt a sudden chill at the negativity of his emotions.

Sect Master Tongtian learned that ten thousand years after his disappearance, the Supreme Primordial World had sealed off the Outer Realm, lost much of its spiritual energy, and fallen into disunity and suspicion of the Supreme Sovereign. As a storm gathered over Tianhai’s neglected temple, he moved his mother and younger brother away from a scorched spot beneath a hole in the roof.

• Tian Zheng'er explained that the Supreme Sovereign had driven back the Outer Realm forces and sealed them beyond the Outer Heavens, leaving the Supreme Primordial World’s spiritual energy depleted.
• Tian Zheng'er said many cultivators had left the world and that rumors blamed the Supreme Sovereign for preventing future generations from cultivating.
• Sect Master Tongtian suspected that an Outer Realm remnant was spreading the rumors to weaken the world before another crisis.
• Lady Tian explained that the Supreme Primordial World had expanded to three thousand Great Dao Domains and that Tianhai had become the second Supreme Sovereign after Sect Master Tongtian and Niangniang Nuwa disappeared.
• Thunder sounded and dark clouds covered the sky, so Sect Master Tongtian led Lady Tian and Tian Zheng'er away from Tianhai’s statue to a corner beneath a roof hole marked by scorch marks.

Sect Master Tongtian encountered members of the Sacred Cult, who took Tian Zheng'er and Tianhai’s statue after offering him a chance to join them. He escaped the ruined temple with Lady Tian, while Cangwu became trapped in a golden light where the statue had stood.

• Lightning struck the ruined temple, and a vortex above Tianhai’s statue swallowed the bolt before the system offered Sect Master Tongtian a choice between the Interception Sect and the Sacred Cult.
• Tumi, Flower Soul, Cangwu, and two other Sacred Cult members appeared in the temple, and Tumi stopped Cangwu’s men from attacking the family.
• Tumi sealed Sect Master Tongtian’s primordial spirit as Flower Soul asked him and Tian Zheng'er whether they wanted to join the Sacred Cult.
• Tian Zheng'er chose to join the Sacred Cult, while Sect Master Tongtian said he wanted to stay with Lady Tian, and the Sacred Cult members departed with Tian Zheng'er and the statue.
• Sect Master Tongtian urged Lady Tian to leave before Cangwu returned, and they escaped the temple on the donkey.
• Cangwu returned to pursue them but became unable to move inside a golden light where Tianhai’s statue had stood.

After a mysterious attack left the long-haired man dead, he revived and chased in the wrong direction while Sect Master Tongtian and Lady Tian traveled to Youzhou. They reached her brother’s home and were warmly welcomed, where they learned that their uncle’s family was gravely ill.

• The long-haired man woke in a ruined temple, remembered pursuing the mother and son, and flew off in the opposite direction from them.
• Sect Master Tongtian and Lady Tian traveled along the main road, and Tongtian wondered about the strange events connecting his past and future.
• After seven days, the mother and son reached Youzhou and went to Lady Tian’s brother’s residence through its back gate.
• Lady Tian’s brother, Lan Xiao Se, greeted her and Sect Master Tongtian emotionally, then brought them inside.
• The family introduced the bedridden Auntie and her parents, and Old Master Zhu praised Lan Xiao Se for caring for them.
• Auntie welcomed Lady Tian and Sect Master Tongtian as family and apologized that her poor health had kept her from having children with Lan Xiao Se.

After Tian Zheng Yi urged his family to investigate his aunt-in-law’s suspicious death, a coroner confirmed she had been poisoned and the steward’s son was caught as the killer. Lan Xiao Se refused to remarry, and the chapter ended with Tian Zheng Yi hearing his dead aunt-in-law’s voice urging him to accept the match.

• Tian Zheng Yi warned Lan Xiao Se to summon a coroner, and the examination confirmed that Miss Zhu had been poisoned.
• The constable investigated Zhu Manor and found that the steward’s son had poisoned Miss Zhu after she caught him stealing to pay his gambling debts.
• Lan Xiao Se stopped Old Butler from taking his own life, and the Zhu elders made Tian Zheng Yi their grandson and heir after Miss Zhu’s funeral.
• The Zhu elders asked Lan Xiao Se to marry Second Miss Zhu, but he refused, and she left in tears.
• Tian Zheng Yi heard Yun Luo’s voice telling Lan Xiao Se to accept the marriage, though Lan Xiao Se insisted he would not remarry.

Sect Master Tongtian suspected Zhu Yunluo and her parents planned to use Second Miss Zhu’s body to return to life, so he arranged to join the family’s trip to Ciyun Temple and keep watch. On the journey, he prepared to enter the Qi Refiner cultivation stage.

• Zhu Yunluo persuaded Lan Xiao Se to take another wife, and Old Master Zhu and Old Madam Zhu pressured him until he agreed.
• Sect Master Tongtian suspected Zhu Yunluo and her parents intended to borrow bodies, and resolved to stop their plan without telling Lady Tian or Lan Xiao Se.
• After marrying Second Miss Zhu, Lan Xiao Se invited her to Ciyun Temple’s temple fair, but Sect Master Tongtian and Lady Tian persuaded him to bring them along.
• Lady Tian asked why Sect Master Tongtian wanted to attend, and he said he felt an urgent need to go out.
• Sect Master Tongtian traveled with Lady Tian, Lan Xiao Se, and Second Miss Zhu to Ciyun Temple, meditating as he prepared to enter the Qi Refiner stage.

At Ciyun Temple, Sect Master Tongtian broke through into the Spirit Condensation Realm and watched his uncle arrange for Second Miss Zhu to stay at the temple for fertility rituals. He then used a fortune-telling monk’s greed to set a trap, asking about his missing parents and probing for information about his father.

• Sect Master Tongtian climbed Mount Ciyun with Lady Tian, Lan Xiao Se, Second Miss Zhu, and his uncle, and broke through from Perception into the Spirit Condensation Realm upon reaching the summit.
• His uncle led the group to the western side hall, where an old monk told Second Miss Zhu she must stay at Ciyun Temple for seven days and nights for rituals to help her have a child, and that Lan Xiao Se must accompany her.
• Sect Master Tongtian asked the monk to tell him where his parents were, then drew a lot that supposedly pointed him southwest.
• Sect Master Tongtian offered the monk a hundred-tael banknote as a deposit for finding his parents, and the monk greedily promised accurate news within three days.
• Sect Master Tongtian asked the monk how his father was doing, beginning to probe the fortune-teller's claims.

Sect Master Tongtian exposed Old Monk Longxiang’s fortune-telling as fraudulent by revealing that his father had been dead for two months, prompting Constable Zhang to arrest him. But Longxiang’s sincere insistence that Tian Zheng Yi’s father was alive and imprisoned left Sect Master Tongtian wondering whether Tian Zheng Yi’s parents were truly his own, while two powerful local leaders offered to take him as a personal disciple.

• Sect Master Tongtian used the banknote and Constable Zhang’s presence to draw Old Monk Longxiang into making a prediction about Tian Zheng Yi’s parents.
• After Longxiang claimed Tian Zheng Yi’s father was in danger, Sect Master Tongtian revealed that his father had been dead for nearly two months, and Lady Tian confirmed her husband’s death.
• Longxiang insisted his prediction was correct, but Constable Zhang arrested him for cheating and returned the banknote to Sect Master Tongtian.
• Sect Master Tongtian worried that he had ruined Longxiang’s reputation and that Tian Zheng Yi’s parents might not be his biological parents.
• Lan Xiao Se introduced Chen Tang and Shan Hai, who gave Sect Master Tongtian gifts and each offered to take him as a personal disciple.

Tian Zheng Yi accepted Chen Tang and Shan Hai as co-masters, gaining access to both religions’ resources. At Ciyun Temple, he refused to bow to the Buddhist statues and demonstrated the consequence of a woman challenging him to accept her bow.

• Tian Zheng Yi chose to join both the Interception Sect and the Congruent Dao, and Shan Hai and Chen Tang agreed to take him as their personal disciple together.
• Tian Zheng Yi offered tea to his two masters, who gave him access tokens to their sects’ branches, headquarters, and Scripture Depositories.
• Tian Zheng Yi discussed Master Longxiang’s possible wrongful punishment with his uncle, then stood aside while his family bowed before the Buddhist statues.
• Tian Zheng Yi refused to kowtow, saying the Buddhas could not bear his bow, and accepted an old woman’s challenge after her family mocked him.
• Tian Zheng Yi bowed slightly to the old woman, who spat blood and collapsed, then caught her son’s punch and struck him with an elbow.

Sect Master Tongtian proved that his destiny could shatter Buddha statues by bowing, earning the old woman's gratitude and a reward from Hua Xu Yin. After Hua Xu Yin departed, a representative of the rising Purple Qi Coming East offered to trade for Tongtian's Foundation Establishment Pill.

• The old woman's elder son arrived with companions, and his younger brother accused Sect Master Tongtian of bullying him.
• Hua Xu Yin challenged Tongtian to bow before the Buddha statues, and Tongtian apologized to the old woman before accepting.
• Tongtian's bow shattered the Buddha statues, convincing the onlookers and the old woman that his destiny was extraordinarily powerful.
• The old woman thanked Tongtian and gave Lady Tian a plum-blossom token, which made Lady Tian's expression turn cold.
• Hua Xu Yin gave Tongtian refined gold and a Foundation Establishment Pill before leaving with his companions.
• A representative of Purple Qi Coming East offered Tongtian a workshop and a residence in Shendu in exchange for the pill.

Sect Master Tongtian refused Du Leng’s offer to join Purple Qi Coming East immediately, agreeing only to consider it if he established his foundation within three months. At Ciyun Temple, he confronted Monk Ciyun and destroyed a monk’s arm with the Great Fearless Seal, provoking the abbot.

• Sect Master Tongtian received a Supreme War Hammer from a system Lucky Draw, then rejected Purple Qi Coming East’s request to buy his Foundation Establishment Pill.
• Du Leng offered Sect Master Tongtian a seed position in Purple Qi Coming East, and Tongtian said he would consult Chen Tang and Shan Hai before deciding.
• Du Leng set a three-month deadline for Tongtian to establish his foundation and join Purple Qi Coming East, then entered Ciyun Temple with his men.
• As Tongtian prepared to leave the temple, Monk Ciyun confronted him over the shattered Buddha statues, and Tongtian admitted he had caused it.
• A middle-aged monk attacked Tongtian, who struck back with the Great Fearless Seal and turned the monk’s arm to dust.
• Monk Ciyun accused Tongtian of using demonic arts and faced him in anger.