Chapter Summaries

After Lin Bai used the Defend Kill Technique, he and Li Guxian discussed how his Killing Intent had become a white flame containing Devouring Power. The elders then gathered in the Dark Hall to discuss Lin Bai, while Lin Bai searched the Fourth Divine Hall’s Scripture Repository for records about the technique.

• Li Guxian asked Lin Bai whether he had used the Defend Kill Technique, and he confirmed it.
• Lin Bai and Li Guxian noted that his Killing Intent had taken the unusual form of a white flame connected to Devouring Power.
• Saint Elder Yao Daogu summoned the Council of Elders to the Dark Hall to discuss Lin Bai.
• Lin Bai agreed to let Lin Baixian take him to the Scripture Repository to investigate the Defend Kill Technique.
• Lin Bai and Lin Baixian found historical records about the technique, but none explained flame-shaped Killing Intent.

The Council of Elders debated whether Lin Bai should become the Imperial Son of the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace, a position left vacant for a hundred thousand years. Zhao Fengxia opposed the proposal, and the debate intensified when the First Divine Hall’s lord finally opened his eyes.

• Yao Daogu and Zhao Fengxia proposed making Lin Bai the Imperial Son, astonishing the elders in the Dark Hall.
• Elder Gong and Luo Yuanjing supported Lin Bai’s appointment, and more than half of the Eternal Elders rose in approval.
• Zhao Fengxia accused Elder Gong and Luo Yuanjing of backing Lin Bai to advance their own interests and undermine the First Divine Hall’s plans for its God Child.
• Several Eternal Elders continued to support the proposal, while Saint Elder Yao Daogu watched without revealing his stance.
• The First Divine Hall’s lord, who had remained silent, opened his eyes and swept the assembly with a piercing gaze.

The Nine Underworlds Demon Palace’s Council of Elders debated whether Lin Bai should become the Divine Son, with the elders split despite support from six divine halls. Ji Canghai called on Yu Linbai and Lin Bai Cheng to weigh in, and the meeting remained deadlocked as the ordinary elders held the deciding vote.

• Shi Renshan opposed Lin Bai becoming the Divine Son because Lin Bai lacked standing and had not defeated the nine Divine Sons, while Yao Daogu and Zhao Fengxia supported him for his identity and abilities.
• The elders divided into opposing and supporting factions, leaving both sides with roughly half the votes.
• Ji Canghai asked Yu Linbai and Lin Bai Cheng to share their views, hoping they would strengthen the case for Lin Bai.
• Yu Linbai praised Lin Bai’s courage, judgment, character, and talent but avoided mentioning his lack of attachment to the Devil Realm or desire to leave.
• Lin Bai Cheng agreed with Yu Linbai, and the council remained deadlocked as the ordinary elders prepared to decide the outcome.

The elders debated whether Lin Bai should become the Four Gloom Demon Palace’s Emperor’s Son, and Saint Elder Shi Renshan proposed making him prove himself on the Holy Lord’s Ancient Road. The elders agreed to the test, though the Holy Lord and Li Guxian remained wary of its difficulty and Lin Bai’s willingness to join.

• Manor Lord Mei said he was willing to support Lin Bai becoming the Emperor’s Son, and Saint Elder Luo Yuanjing said the Palace could nurture Lin Bai if he truly possessed the Holy Lord’s abilities and Supreme Avatar.
• Li Guxian asked whether Lin Bai wanted to become the Four Gloom Demon Palace’s Goddess, and the Holy Lord suggested forcing him out of the Chu Kingdom so he would have to submit.
• Saint Elder Shi Renshan proposed sending Lin Bai along the Holy Lord’s Ancient Road to reach the mausoleum and light the Eternal Night Ancient Lamp as proof he deserved the title.
• Zhao Fengxia objected that Lin Bai might refuse to submit, while Luo Yuanjing and Li Guxian hesitated because the ancient road was exceptionally dangerous.
• Shi Renshan asked the elders to accept his arrangement, and the gathered elders agreed to let Lin Bai attempt the ancient road.

Li Guxian proposed making Lin Bai the publicly declared imperial heir of the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace, turning him into a target of the Devil Palace’s martial artists and forcing the Chu Kingdom to give him up. Her plan left the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace elders impressed, though whether Lin Bai would willingly join remained uncertain.

• Li Guxian told Saint Elder Luo Yuanjing that she had a plan to make Lin Bai join the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace.
• Li Guxian explained that the Chu Kingdom would not willingly surrender Lin Bai, whom it had honored and given a fief.
• Li Guxian argued that Devil Palace martial artists already despised the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace and would reject Lin Bai if he were named its imperial heir.
• Li Guxian proposed announcing Lin Bai’s appointment publicly, making him a public enemy and leaving the Chu Kingdom unable to protect him without opposing the wider Devil Palace.
• Saint Elder Shi Renshan praised Li Guxian’s strategy, while Lin Baixian questioned whether it addressed the issue of Lin Bai’s willingness to join.

While staying in Nine Underworlds City, Lin Bai received front-line reports from Lin Baixian about the escalating war in the One Night Divine Sect's territory. The capital territories of the three great sects came under threat, and Shen Xinghe's ghost army left the One Night Divine Sect's capital in imminent danger.

• Lin Baixian gave Yang Zong a Jade Slip containing the latest reports from the Armory.
• Chu Tingxue issued an announcement demanding that Pure Northern Domain and Phoenix Valley stop their attacks, while threatening a Chu State invasion if they refused.
• Luan Tang joined Li Gu's forces in besieging the One Night Divine Sect's capital, while Pure Northern Domain and Phoenix Valley attacked the Overturning Heavens Sect and the Chu State army advanced through the territory.
• Elder He Gongji retreated from the Worship Heaven Sect's mountain gate after failing to break its formation and encountering an envoy delegation from the Qi Tian Sect.
• Shen Xinghe activated the Myriad Souls Banner, sending hundreds of millions of ghost soldiers across the battlefield and putting the One Night Divine Sect's capital in imminent peril.

Lin Bai read intelligence about Chu Tinghan and Princess Chenxian leaving the main army to enter the One Night Divine Sect’s territory, ostensibly to demand an explanation for his disappearance. Lin Baixian discussed the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace’s plans, while the two princesses’ true purpose remained unclear.

• Lin Bai read that Chu Tinghan and Princess Chenxian had taken tens of thousands of soldiers into the One Night Divine Sect’s territory after hearing he had vanished.
• Lin Baixian said the princesses had left the army to demand an explanation, but Elder He Gongji suspected they had another purpose.
• Lin Bai questioned whether the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace intended to seize the One Night Divine Sect’s territory and divide it among allied factions.
• Lin Baixian said the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace was ready to act as the war intensified and insisted its ten-thousand-year grand design could not fail.
• Lin Bai remained uncertain about what Chu Tinghan and Princess Chenxian were plotting.

Lin Bai agreed to join the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace for now, seeing it as his only chance to survive and leave Nine Underworlds City. Li Guxian arranged to publicize his defection and set up a trial on Holy Lord's Ancient Road, while the palace elders prepared to use him against the First Divine Hall's Divine Son.

• Lin Bai weighed the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace's offer and concluded that refusing it would leave him trapped in Nine Underworlds City with little chance of survival.
• Li Guxian asked Lin Bai whether he had decided, and he agreed to join the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace, while postponing any decision about becoming its Goddess.
• Li Guxian told Duan Ningqian to announce that the Emperor's Son had severed ties with the Chu Kingdom and Tianshui Sect and formally joined the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace.
• Li Guxian notified Zhao Fengxia, Holy Lord, Lin Brother, and other Eternal Elders, who welcomed the news and discussed whether Lin Bai would obey the palace's orders.
• Li Guxian arranged for the Council of Elders to prepare Lin Bai's Holy Lord's Ancient Road trial, which the elders hoped would help them confront the First Divine Hall's Divine Son.

False reports spread that Lin Bai had abandoned the Chu Kingdom and Tianshui Sect to join the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace, ruining his reputation across the Devil Realm. Unaware of the rumors, Lin Bai reached the Holy Lord’s Ancient Road with the palace elders, ready to face its trials and ignite the Eternal Night Ancient Lamp.

• The Nine Underworlds Demon Palace spread claims that Lin Bai had joined it and become a divine son, while the Chu Kingdom remained silent and Tianshui Sect denied the rumors.
• Martial artists across the Devil Realm condemned Lin Bai, and many factions began stirring against him.
• The people gathered in Nine Underworlds City watched projection screens and doubted Lin Bai could pass the Holy Lord’s Ancient Road or light the Eternal Night Ancient Lamp.
• Lin Bai traveled through the black fog with Li Guxian, Yao Daogu, Zhao Fengxia, Shi Renshan, Saint Elder Luo Yuanjing, and other elders until they reached the Holy Lord’s Ancient Road.

Lin Bai reached the Holy Lord’s Ancient Road in the Eternal Mausoleum and learned that crossing it would earn him the status and freedom of an emperor’s son of the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace. After his Demon Eyes revealed the bone-strewn mountains and awakened green flames in some skulls, he stood ready to begin the perilous trial.

• Saint Elder Luo Yuanjing explained that the Holy Lord’s Ancient Road led to the mausoleum and warned that it lay within the dangerous Burial Earth.
• Lin Bai asked whether crossing the road would restore his freedom, and Saint Elder Luo Yuanjing promised that the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace would no longer restrict him as an emperor’s son.
• Saint Elder Luo Yuanjing said the road had defeated generations of the palace’s prodigies, though it might be easy for Lin Bai if he truly possessed the Holy Lord’s abilities.
• Lin Bai opened his Demon Eyes and saw mountains piled with white bones, whose skulls stared at him from the darkness.
• Lin Bai’s gaze triggered green flames in some of the skulls, and he turned his solemn attention to the ancient road as Saint Elder Luo Yuanjing and the others watched.

Ming Jin entered the Holy Lord's Ancient Road and used his Demon Eyes to inspect its layered formations and restrictions as he advanced. Though the road's increasing weight began to burden him, he believed its known obstacles could not stop him, while the elders watched from the starting point.

• Ming Jin surveyed the mountains of animated bones before turning his attention to the Holy Lord's Ancient Road.
• Ming Jin activated the Seven Paths Scripture and stepped onto the road, triggering its formations and restrictions.
• Ming Jin used his Demon Eyes to identify visible runes, hidden restrictions, and an anti-air formation woven into the road.
• Ming Jin continued forward as the weight on his shoulders increased with each step, reaching a point where it felt like he carried a mountain.
• Shi Renshan noted that the road's first half was relatively easy and that its middle and rear sections held the real difficulty.
• Luo Yuanjing and the Four Gloom Demon Palace elders watched Ming Jin advance and said the road's formations seemed unable to stop him.

Lin Bai struggled along the Holy Lord's Ancient Road under crushing gravity and discovered that its paving bricks concealed a deadly formation. The formation unleashed countless golden strands of Sword Qi, leaving him dodging for his life as he searched for a way through.

• Lin Bai endured the Ancient Road's immense gravity, which strained his body and threatened to crush his organs.
• Lin Bai dodged a sudden strike that slashed his back and used his Demon Eyes to trace it to a shifting stone brick.
• Lin Bai considered the mausoleum's possible defenses, then recognized that the bricks triggered the attack when another golden strand nearly cut him.
• Lin Bai faced a barrage of golden strands from the Ancient Road's formations and realized they were Sword Qi transformed into threads.
• Lin Bai used his Demon Eyes to find gaps and evade the Sword Qi, but the strands continued to fill the road.

Lin Bai endured the Myriad Swords Sharp Metal Formation on Holy Lord's Ancient Road while the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace elders watched and assessed his strength. When the sword silk showed no sign of stopping and the poisoned ground blocked his escape, Lin Bai unleashed the Devouring Heaven Dao Method to break the prohibition.

• Saint Elder Luo Yuanjing and Shi Renshan watched Lin Bai reach the middle section without defensive treasures, and Shi Renshan acknowledged Lin Bai's formidable cultivation and body refinement.
• The Myriad Swords Sharp Metal Formation activated, sending golden sword silk at Lin Bai, who evaded it with Sword Control Art and Void Evasion Art.
• After dodging for a quarter of an hour, Lin Bai realized the formation's power was not fading and wondered what sustained it.
• Lin Bai avoided the poisonous ground beside the road, then landed and released black sharp light across his body.
• Lin Bai stomped the ground and sent black ripples toward the end of the road, using the Devouring Heaven Dao Method—Break the Prohibition.

Lin Bai used the Devouring Heaven Dao Method to suppress the arrays and restrictions on Holy Lord's Ancient Road, revealing an ability recorded as belonging to the Holy Lord. The Four Gloom Demon Palace's elders and onlookers became more convinced that Lin Bai was the Holy Lord's reincarnation as he continued along the road.

• Lin Bai released black ripples that suppressed the arrays and restrictions on Holy Lord's Ancient Road, making the golden sword radiance vanish.
• Qi Yuanfu, Luo Yuanjing, Yao Daogu, and the other elders recognized Lin Bai's restriction-breaking ability as one attributed to the Holy Lord in ancient texts.
• Lin Bai walked forward without the road's pressure or attacks, while martial artists throughout Four Gloom City reacted in shock.
• Lin Bai heard a clicking sound, stopped, and scanned his surroundings with his Demon Eyes.
• Stone bricks on Holy Lord's Ancient Road sank and then resurfaced with armored soldiers holding weapons.

Lin Bai and Tong Yun were trapped on Holy Lord's Ancient Road by hundreds of powerful Automaton Puppets guarding the route to Holy Lord's Mausoleum. As the puppets closed in and Lin Bai’s defenses began to fail, he chose to break through toward the mausoleum.

• Lin Bai saw armored soldiers emerge from stone slabs and recognized them as Automaton Puppets guarding both ends of Holy Lord's Ancient Road.
• The Automaton Puppets attacked Tong Yun and Lin Bai with coordinated melee strikes and volleys of fire arrows, overwhelming their defenses.
• Tong Yun dodged the first attack, but the puppets’ blades stopped just short of striking her.
• Lin Bai realized he could not defeat the puppets head-on and fixed his sights on Holy Lord's Mausoleum.
• Lin Bai broke out toward the mausoleum as twenty to thirty armed puppets charged after him.

Shi Dian entered the Sacred Hall and was mistaken for a disciple of the Lin Bai Immortal Sect, prompting its hostile guardian to trap him inside. The stone gate closed, leaving him three days to light the Eternal Night Ancient Lamp or remain there forever as a lingering soul.

• Shi Dian entered the Sacred Hall, where white mist revealed more than a thousand lingering souls and a woman warned him to leave before she counted to three.
• The woman recognized the Chaotic Seven Elements Sword Formation and accused Shi Dian of being a disciple of the Lin Bai Immortal Sect; Shi Dian denied it and explained that he had come from a minor world.
• The woman finished counting, the stone gate closed, and she ordered the lingering souls to attack Shi Dian.
• Shi Dian activated the Chaotic Seven Elements Sword Formation as the souls charged, while he worried most about the woman and the four coffins.
• Outside the hall, Saint Elder Yao Daogu, Shi Renshan, Zhao Fengxia, Liu Yi, and Luo Yuanjing watched the projection and concluded that Shi Dian had three days to light the Eternal Night Ancient Lamp or become a heroic spirit.

Lin Bai fought the Swallowing Heaven Pythons and the swarming souls inside the Sacred Hall, using his Azure Lotus Sword-armaments and Taiyi inheritance to break through their attacks. After the danger vanished, he heard a coffin open and watched a deathly woman emerge from the seventh coffin.

• The nine Swallowing Heaven Python souls spewed corrosive black mist, forcing Lin Bai to retreat as it spread across the Sacred Hall.
• Lin Bai attacked the pythons with the Reverse Five Elements Sword Formation, then used the Jia Yunyuan Art and his sword-armaments to batter their soul bodies.
• The pythons struck Lin Bai and the souls swarmed over him, but he shattered the attackers with Taiyi Divine Intent and summoned his four Azure Lotus Sword-armaments to hold the remaining souls back.
• Lin Bai used the Alarming Seal to crush the black mist and suppress the Swallowing Heaven Pythons, while a white-vapor finger shattered his Taiyi Divine Intent mountain.
• The surviving pythons, souls, and mists vanished, and Lin Bai heard strange noises from the seventh coffin.
• A jade hand pushed open the coffin lid, and a deathly woman rose from inside; Jia Yun recognized her and paid his respects.

Gu Jing confronted Lin Bai in the Sacred Hall, explaining that the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace had forced her onto the Holy Lord’s Ancient Road. Lin Bai recognized her as a prodigy and, despite suspecting she was the Holy Lord’s reincarnation, let her leave rather than kill her.

• Gu Jing emerged from her coffin, and Lin Bai recognized her as the Goddess of the Second Divine Hall from a hundred thousand years ago.
• Gu Jing prepared to fight with her weapons but admitted she could not overcome the enormous difference in cultivation between them.
• Gu Jing explained that the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace had forced her to break through the Holy Lord’s Ancient Road or remain imprisoned in Four Gloom City.
• Lin Bai asked whether Gu Jing had proof that she was the Holy Lord’s reincarnation, and Gu Jing described the circumstances that had brought her there.
• Lin Bai decided she could not bring herself to kill a prodigy and allowed Gu Jing to leave, warning her not to return.

Lin Bai explained that Gu Jing had separated her soul from her body through the Immortality Art after the Four Gloom Demon Palace fell into crisis a hundred thousand years ago. He led Gu Jing and Wen Wei through the Eternal Mausoleum to see a juvenile Four-Colored Immortal Transformation Lotus, which would need another hundred thousand years to mature.

• Lin Bai refrained from asking about the past, and the woman returned to her coffin before appearing again as an ethereal spirit.
• Gu Jing explained that the spirit was her soul and the figure in the coffin was her physical body, and that they would need to reunite to become whole.
• Lin Bai said the Four Gloom Demon Palace had split apart under attack and that, near death, he had chosen to separate his soul from his body rather than wait to die.
• Wen Wei shut down the mausoleum's formations and mechanisms, then led Gu Jing through a hidden passage toward the Holy Lord's resting place.
• Gu Jing and Wen Wei reached a vast chamber, where Gu Jing saw a Four-Colored Immortal Transformation Lotus growing in a pool.
• Lin Bai said the lotus was still immature and needed another hundred thousand years before it could be used as medicine.

Lin Bai and Gu Jing learned that the Devil Realm’s places of absolute danger formed around divine medicines that drew Great Mystic Art Users seeking to prolong their lives. Shou Yuan revealed that the Burial Earth held unknown medicines and remained unexplored even by the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace, while Gu Jing considered the Four-Colored Immortal Transformation Lotus and the Holy Lord’s past expedition.

• Lin Bai stared at the Nine-Colored Immortalizing Lotus as Gu Jing asked why the Devil Realm had four places of absolute danger.
• Shou Yuan explained that Great Mystic Art Users gathered in regions where divine medicines grew, and that their presence and natural laws made those regions dangerous.
• Shou Yuan identified the Burial Earth, Ten Thousand Layer Mountain, Land Beyond the Heavens, and Ancient Battlefield as places where divine medicines grew, including the Sun Moon Divine Flower and Heaven and Earth Purple Core Marrow.
• Shou Yuan said divine medicines could not be transplanted and that the Holy Lord had warned the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace not to enter a deep region of the Burial Earth before becoming immortal.
• Gu Jing shared rumors that the Holy Lord had brought a Heavenly Treasure from the Burial Earth and that it helped lead to the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace’s destruction, then looked at the Four-Colored Immortal Transformation Lotus.