Chapter Summaries

Lin Bai confronted Family Head Guo over Yunhe Thousand Provinces’ unpaid tribute, its rebellion, and the deaths of the He Family’s envoys. He ended by accusing the Guo Family of possibly orchestrating the crises, while Family Head Guo demanded proof.

• Lin Bai dismissed the banquet attendants and told Family Head Guo that he had come to discuss serious matters.
• Lin Bai demanded that Yunhe Thousand Provinces pay the tribute owed to the Demon Palace, including double the amounts once listed by the Seven Nights Divine Sect, and gave the Guo Family half a month to deliver it.
• Lin Bai accused the Guo Family of keeping tribute for itself, and Family Head Guo claimed that rebellious state boundaries had prevented its collection.
• Lin Bai blamed the Guo Family for failing to suppress the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans’ rebellion and warned that the Demon Palace could remove it from power.
• Lin Bai questioned the Guo Family’s account of the He Family envoys’ deaths and suggested the Guo Family might be behind the rebellion and killings.
• Family Head Guo angrily demanded evidence, and Lin Bai mocked him for reacting like a guilty person.

Lin Bai gave the Gu Family one day to answer three demands, expecting them to refuse and hoping to force them into a desperate move. As Old Wen and Elder Shen Yuan kept watch outside his quarters, Shen Yuan reconsidered Lin Bai’s suitability to become Palace Master because of the Palace Master’s unusual regard for him.

• Lin Bai rejected the Gu Family Patriarch’s request for more time and set tomorrow at noon as the deadline for the Gu Family’s answer.
• Lin Bai explained to Old Wen and Elder Shen Yuan that the Gu Family would reject his demands because they threatened its finances, forced it to fight the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans, and made it investigate the He Family murders.
• Lin Bai told Old Wen and Elder Shen Yuan to rest in nearby rooms while he washed and waited, hoping the Gu Family would make a move that night.
• Elder Shen Yuan told Old Wen that the Palace Master’s protective regard for Lin Bai had changed his opinion about supporting him as the next Palace Master.
• Elder Shen Yuan recalled losing the Shen Family leadership contest to Shen Xing and the family vote over Lin Bai, then declared that young people should roam the world and make mistakes.

Lin Bai rejected Si Rou and Si Qian’s offers to bribe him and buy the Guo Family more time, exposing their scheme to evade tribute to the Seven Nights Divine Sect. He warned the Guo Family of the consequences of defying the Devil Palace, then revealed that he knew they were listening in secret, leaving the Family Head lamenting that Lin Bai seemed to want their lives.

• Elder Shen Yuan and Old Wen discussed the bait Lin Bai had set for the Guo Family, then withdrew to their rooms to make the family think Lin Bai was less protected.
• Lin Bai dismissed the servant girls assigned to his bath, but Si Rou and Si Qian returned at midnight to plead for more time on the Guo Family’s behalf.
• Si Rou and Si Qian offered Yunhe Spirit Milk, other resources, and themselves, but Lin Bai rejected their bribe and deduced that the Guo Family had bribed someone within the Seven Nights Divine Sect to avoid paying tribute.
• Lin Bai warned Si Rou and Si Qian that the Guo Family risked destruction if it continued resisting, and used his Demon Eyes to detect the listening spell hidden in their hair.
• In a secret chamber, the Guo Family Head and elders listened to the conversation through the spell and realized Lin Bai knew they were eavesdropping.

The Guo Family and the Demon Subjugation Alliance trapped Lin Bai in a prepared barrier after admitting they had killed the He Family’s martial artists. The Xumi Xuanji Barrier suppressed everyone’s cultivation to the Grand Luo Dao Fruit Realm, and the fifteen attackers prepared to kill Lin Bai.

• The Guo Family Patriarch and elders reviewed their preparations, including a barrier that would isolate Lin Bai and suppress everyone inside to the Grand Luo Dao Fruit Realm.
• The Guo Family Patriarch ordered the operation to begin and summoned the Demon Subjugation Alliance martial artists.
• More than a dozen Guo Family and Demon Subjugation Alliance martial artists entered Lin Bai’s room, and Si Rou and Si Qian withdrew.
• Lin Bai recognized the masked attackers as members of the Demon Subjugation Alliance and learned that the Guo Family had joined forces with them.
• A Guo Family elder admitted that the Guo Family and the Demon Subjugation Alliance had assassinated the He Family’s martial artists.
• The Guo Family activated the Xumi Xuanji Barrier, which suppressed the attackers’ cultivation, and announced that all fifteen would kill Lin Bai.

Lin Bai was trapped in the Guo Family’s Xumi Xuanji Barrier, where fifteen attackers fought him with their cultivation suppressed. He used his Demon Eyes to turn some of their attacks against one another, but the cramped room left him with little room to maneuver.

• Lin Bai relied on an Image Recording Pearl to capture the Guo Family martial artists confessing to the He Family deaths, while the Guo Family activated the Xumi Xuanji Barrier around the house.
• The barrier blocked Lin Bai’s divine sense and suppressed the attackers’ cultivation, and he emerged dressed to face the fifteen martial artists.
• A masked Demon Subjugation Alliance martial artist attacked Lin Bai, but Lin Bai met his claw strike with a fist and held his ground.
• The fifteen martial artists launched a coordinated assault, and Lin Bai used his Demon Eyes’ Illusory Realm to make three attackers strike their companions.
• Lin Bai escaped with the Void Evasion Art but slammed into the barrier’s wall, realizing the small house left him little room to maneuver.

Lin Bai fought the martial artists trapped with him, using his avatar, flying sword, and sword techniques to kill five injured opponents. A masked Black-Robed Man shattered Lin Bai’s Crimson Lotus Sword Domain, and the survivors regrouped as their leader acknowledged that they had underestimated him.

• Lin Bai used the Extraterrestrial Avatar to distract the martial artists and hold several of them back while he attacked the injured men.
• Lin Bai killed three injured martial artists with the Heaven Measuring Ruler, Dragon Eye Flying Sword, and Crimson Lotus Zhu Xian Sword.
• Lin Bai unleashed the Crimson Lotus Sword Domain, wounding the remaining martial artists and killing two more injured opponents.
• A masked Black-Robed Man shattered Lin Bai’s Crimson Lotus Sword Domain and ordered the survivors to regroup.
• The Black-Robed Man told Lin Bai that they had underestimated his strength despite coming fully prepared.

Lin Bai faced the Demon Subjugation Alliance and Guo Family martial artists after killing five of them, but their Great Luo Divine Weapons and other trump cards battered him until he broke the Xumi Xuanji Barrier. Meanwhile, Old Wen detected a strange repetition in Lin Bai’s aura and went with Elder Shen Yuan to check on him, only to find his door impossible to open.

• The masked Demon Subjugation Alliance martial artist rallied the ten survivors and urged them to unleash their hidden methods and treasures against Lin Bai.
• The Demon Subjugation Alliance martial artist revealed a Stone Mirror, while the Guo Family elder brought out a Great Luo Divine Weapon hammer and the other fighters displayed their own trump cards.
• The Stone Mirror bound Lin Bai as the Guo Family elder struck him with the hammer, and the other martial artists pressed their attack.
• Lin Bai formed Forbidden-Breaking Sword Qi and cut a gap in the barrier, restoring everyone’s suppressed cultivation.
• Old Wen sensed that Lin Bai’s aura had repeated its state from fifteen minutes earlier and decided with Elder Shen Yuan to enter his room.
• Old Wen and Elder Shen Yuan found that they could not push open Lin Bai’s wooden door despite their Supreme Dao Fruit cultivation.

Old Wen and Elder Shen Yuan broke into the room after Lin Bai’s black Sword Qi cracked the barrier, rescuing him from the Guo Family and Demon Subjugation Alliance attackers. Lin Bai ordered the Guo Family’s destruction, but its Half-Step Supreme Ancestor, Guo Jie, emerged and asked to meet him.

• Old Wen and Elder Shen Yuan discovered the barrier around Lin Bai’s room, then helped tear it open after Lin Bai’s black Sword Qi made a crack.
• Old Wen struck the attackers with his Divine Sense while Elder Shen Yuan entered and subdued the Demon Subjugation Alliance martial artists who tried to flee.
• Lin Bai ordered the capture of the attackers and the extermination of Guo Family martial artists above the Dao Realm, with those below it enslaved for a hundred generations.
• Old Wen summoned several hundred Dragon Protector Guard martial artists, who surrounded the Guo Family’s mountain gate as Elder Shen Yuan confronted its defenders.
• Guo Jie emerged from the Back Mountain Region as a Half-Step Supreme and asked Elder Shen Yuan to arrange an audience with Lin Bai.

Lin Bai weighed the Guo Family Ancestor’s offer to serve the Demon Palace and decided to use the Guo Family against the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans. The Guo Family agreed to surrender its soul blood and fight the rebels, leaving Lin Bai’s plan to weaken both sides in motion.

• The Guo Family's Ancestor asked Lin Bai to spare his family in exchange for surrendering its territory and serving as the Demon Palace’s vanguard.
• Elder He Gongwu warned Lin Bai that the Guo Family had betrayed the He Family before, but acknowledged that the He Family lacked enough strength to pacify the Yunhe Thousand Provinces alone.
• Lin Bai reasoned that the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans were waiting for the Demon Palace and Guo Family to exhaust each other, so he proposed sending the Guo Family to fight them.
• Old Wen advised Lin Bai to control the Guo Family with Soul-Seizing Lamps, and Lin Bai agreed to spare the family on that condition.
• The Guo Family's Ancestor and the family’s martial artists above the Dao Realm surrendered their soul blood, which Old Wen took to refine into Soul-Seizing Lamps.

Lin Bai secured the Guo Family’s agreement to fight the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans, then explained why local forces needed to handle the rebellion instead of the Devil Palace’s army. As the Night King departed, He Gongwu volunteered to oversee the Guo Family’s campaign.

• Lin Bai gave the Guo Family one month to deal with the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans, demanded its contacts and collaborators in the Demon Subjugation Alliance, and warned that the Devil Palace would destroy it if it failed.
• The Ancestor of the Guo Family agreed to count his forces within three days and begin the campaign five days later, aiming to seize the riverbank within half a month.
• Aboard the departing Night King, Elder Shen Yuan questioned why Lin Bai had not simply wiped out the Guo Family and the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans.
• Lin Bai explained that the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans could hide from the Devil Palace’s army and resume their rebellion after it left, so the Guo Family needed to restrain them as a local force.
• Lin Bai ordered Old Wen to monitor the Guo Family and press it to act, but He Gongwu volunteered to handle the matter on the He Family’s behalf.

Lin Bai entrusted Elder He Gongwu with supervising the Guo Family while the Guo Family and Devil Palace prepared to crush the rebellion and hunt the Demon Subjugation Alliance in Yunhe Thousand Provinces. In Guan Province, Lin Bai and Elder Shen Yuan set a trap for the alliance’s fleeing warriors and captured them.

• Lin Bai assigned Elder He Gongwu to oversee the Guo Family warriors and ordered the Guo Family to lure out the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace warriors for a decisive attack.
• The Guo Family issued a proclamation against the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans, gathered millions of warriors above Yunhe, and joined the Devil Palace in hunting the Demon Subjugation Alliance.
• Seven or eight Demon Subjugation Alliance warriors slipped into a hidden refuge in Evil Dragon City, believing they had escaped the crackdown in Yunhe Thousand Provinces.
• The alliance warriors blamed the Guo Family for betraying them and discussed how their plans in Yunhe had collapsed after the failed assassination of Lin Bai.
• Lin Bai revealed himself in the underground chamber, and Elder Shen Yuan shed his disguise and struck down the arriving warriors.

Lin Bai captured the Demon Subjugation Alliance’s remaining high-level warriors in the Yunhe Thousand Provinces and arranged to ransom them or enslave those whose clans refused. He then heard that the Guo Family had begun a fierce campaign against the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans, and predicted the Guo Family would stop short of destroying them to preserve its value to the Devil Palace.

• Lin Bai questioned the captured Demon Subjugation Alliance warriors and offered to send them home if their clans and sects paid ransom, threatening to enslave those whose families refused.
• Lin Bai ordered the prisoners taken to the Night King and directed the Deep Probe Guard to deliver their letters, recordings, and tokens to their clans and sects.
• Old Wen reported that the Guo Family’s army had begun killing the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans along the Yunhe River and had rejected their attempts to negotiate.
• Lin Bai explained that the Guo Family was fighting to prove its usefulness to the Devil Palace but would not completely crush its enemies, since that would cost it its leverage and risk sending its warriors to the frontier.
• Lin Bai concluded that the Guo Family only needed to maintain stability in the Yunhe Thousand Provinces, not exterminate the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans.

Lin Bai reflected on how growing stronger had forced him to consider the consequences of his actions, then attended a council where the Palace Master confronted him over rebellions spreading across several territories. Lin Bai accepted responsibility for mishandling the Guo Family and proposed ransoming or exploiting captured Demon Subjugation Alliance martial artists as he and Elder Shen Yuan were tasked with restoring order.

• Lin Bai told Old Wen that his growing power and responsibilities had made him less free, and Old Wen recalled how youthful arrogance had cost him his family and sect.
• The Palace Master convened Lin Bai, Elder Shen Yuan, and other leaders, and Elder Shi Renshan reported rebellions across more than three hundred provincial boundaries in the Seven Mountains Thousand Provinces and several other territories.
• The Palace Master blamed Lin Bai for sparing the Guo Family instead of using them to establish authority, and Lin Bai admitted that his decision had been a mistake.
• The Palace Master assigned Elder Shen Yuan to handle the remaining trouble in Yunhe Thousand Provinces and ordered him and Lin Bai to address rebellions in the other territories.
• Lin Bai proposed demanding ransom for captured Demon Subjugation Alliance martial artists or placing Slave Seals on them for the Devil Palace's use, and Elder Shi Renshan agreed to oversee the plan.

Lin Bai yielded authority over the Yunhe Thousand Provinces to Elder Shen Yuan and lent him the Dragon Protector Guard, while remaining aboard the Night King as it reached the Guo Family’s Alliance Army. At the command camp, Elder Shen Yuan took charge and demanded to know how soon the rebels could be captured.

• Elder Shen Yuan told Lin Bai that he supported his plan but would take over the Yunhe Thousand Provinces under the Palace Master's order, and Lin Bai agreed to obey his authority.
• Lin Bai placed the Dragon Protector Guard under Elder Shen Yuan's command, while Old Wen warned that spies from the Demon Subjugation Alliance might be among them.
• The Night King followed the Yunhe downstream, and Lin Bai saw spies alert the Guo Family and Alliance Army before the Guo Family Head arrived to welcome the Devil Palace's envoy.
• Elder Shen Yuan ordered the Night King toward the Alliance Army's camp, while Lin Bai stayed on the terrace and reflected on the enormous forces fighting along the regional borders.
• The Guo Family Ancestor invited Lin Bai and Elder Shen Yuan to the central command camp, but Lin Bai stayed aboard the Night King as Elder Shen Yuan went in his place.
• Elder Shen Yuan took the principal seat in the command camp and asked how long the Guo Family would need to capture the rebels across the river.

Elder Shen Yuan rejected negotiations with the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans, killed the Heavenly Dao Sect Master, and ordered the Devil Palace’s forces to crush the rebels. The Dragon Protector Guard launched its assault across the Yunhe River, leaving the conflict underway.

• The Guo Family Ancestor told Elder Shen Yuan that the Guo Family had reclaimed territory but could not quickly defeat the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans.
• Elder Shen Yuan announced he would meet the rebels at dawn, while Lin Bai predicted the gathering would not lead to genuine negotiations.
• Elder Shen Yuan met the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans on the Yunhe River and demanded they disband their armies within three days.
• When the Heavenly Dao Sect Master refused to cease hostilities, Elder Shen Yuan killed him by collapsing the space around him.
• Elder Shen Yuan ordered the Dragon Protector Guard to wipe out the rebel armies south of the Yunhe River, and its martial artists charged across the river.

Elder Shen Yuan led the Dragon Protector Guard and the Guo Family in crushing the resistance across the Yunhe Thousand Provinces, massacring clans and sects indiscriminately. Lin Bai questioned the slaughter, and Old Wen explained that Shen Yuan’s long life and accumulated losses had left him half-mad.

• Old Wen watched with Lin Bai and Dao Child Yu You as Elder Shen Yuan took command and ordered the Dragon Protector Guard to attack the Nine Sects and Seventy-Two Clans.
• Elder Shen Yuan broke the opposing forces’ defenses, while the Guo Family Ancestor ordered the Guo Family and the Alliance Army to advance and reclaim territory.
• Elder Shen Yuan condemned the Liu Family of Blue Province and ordered the Dragon Protector Guard to annihilate it, killing hundreds of thousands of its martial artists.
• Elder Shen Yuan continued destroying clans and sects across the South Bank, prompting Lin Bai to ask Old Wen whether the slaughter was truly necessary.
• Old Wen explained that Elder Shen Yuan had cultivated for more than 9,700 years, outlived nearly all his loved ones, and had become half-mad.

Lin Bai arranged for the Deep Probe Guard to spread contrasting accounts of the Devil Palace’s purge of the Yunhe Thousand Provinces, using public assurances of mercy and secret reports of slaughter to deter rebellion. As Elder Shen Yuan reached the Heavenly Dao Sect, his bloodlust intensified, and the chapter ended with him killing a Dragon Protector Guard martial artist before Lin Bai intervened.

• Lin Bai told Old Wen to publicize that the Devil Palace had executed only treasonous leaders while secretly spreading word that Elder Shen Yuan had slaughtered across three hundred provinces.
• The Deep Probe Guard spread both accounts throughout the Devil Palace’s territory as Lin Bai received information about other rebellious provinces and prefectures.
• The Heavenly Dao Sect fortified its mountain gate and prepared for Elder Shen Yuan’s approaching forces, while some members fled or were sent away as seeds for the sect’s revival.
• At the Heavenly Dao Sect, Elder Shen Yuan announced the coming battle would be his last in the Yunhe Thousand Provinces and that command would return to Lin Bai afterward.
• When a young Dragon Protector Guard martial artist praised following Elder Shen Yuan, Shen Yuan seized him, destroyed his body, and prepared to crush his soul before Lin Bai objected.

Lin Bai oversaw the destruction of the Heaven Dao Sect, ending the rebellion in the Yunhe Thousand Provinces, and ordered Elder He Gongwu to secure the region and manage its people’s view of the Devil Palace. As Elder Shen Yuan withdrew to recover from his growing instability, Lin Bai prepared to report to the Devil Palace and await the next plan.

• Elder Shen Yuan crushed a Dragon Protector Guard martial artist’s body, and Lin Bai had Old Wen bring the survivor’s soul back to the Night King for restoration.
• Old Wen explained to Lin Bai that powerful martial artists could lose their humanity and stability, and that personal bonds and hope helped anchor them to the world.
• Elder Shen Yuan and the Dragon Protector Guard destroyed the Heaven Dao Sect in half a day, ending the rebellion at the cost of more than a million lives.
• Lin Bai ordered Elder He Gongwu to take control of the Yunhe Thousand Provinces, suppress remaining rebels, and calm hostility toward the Devil Palace, warning that the He Family would be responsible for future unrest.
• Elder Shen Yuan returned to the Night King and entered secluded cultivation to regulate his condition, while Lin Bai ordered Old Wen to prepare a voice transmission chamber to contact the Devil Palace.

Lin Bai reported the aftermath of the Yunhe Thousand Provinces purge and learned that local rebellions were often bargaining tactics driven by excessive tribute demands and tolerated by powerful rulers. He then discussed the stalemate with the Northern Region, but the ancient powers were occupied, and the Devil Palace could sustain its border forces for only a year or two.

• Lin Bai told the Palace Master and the elders that Elder Shen Yuan had destroyed the nine great sects and their allies across three hundred provincial boundaries, and learned that Shen Yuan was in a half-mad state.
• Li Guxian explained that provincial rulers and sects inflated tribute demands, prompting minor powers to rebel and seek lower taxes, while the Devil Palace generally protected powerful interests to prevent larger uprisings.
• Lin Bai asked why the three ancient powers had not mediated the Northern Region invasion, and the Palace Master said they and most Great Mystic Art Users were occupied with a dangerous situation involving those who had entered the Devil Realm.
• Li Guxian said the border conflict had become a war of attrition, and Shi Renshan estimated that the Devil Palace could maintain its forces for only one or two years because of their immense daily costs.

Lin Bai discussed the need to restore taxes across the Devil Palace’s territory to sustain the border war and planned to move from Yunhe Thousand Provinces to Yaotai Thousand Provinces to suppress further rebellions. The Palace Master then revealed that the Qi Tian Sect’s defeat was certain, and Chu and the Devil Palace would prioritize the Northern Region before trying to reclaim its territory.

• Saint Elder Shi Renshan and Goddess Li Guxian told Lin Bai that the border war depended on support and tax revenue from the Devil Palace’s territory.
• Lin Bai said he would leave Yunhe Thousand Provinces after the He Family took over and proceed to Yaotai Thousand Provinces, then Nine Immortals Thousand Provinces and other territories.
• The Palace Master told Lin Bai to suppress rebellions in wealthy thousand-province territories and arrange for Shen Yunfan to prepare for his arrival in Yaotai Thousand Provinces.
• The Palace Master revealed that the Qi Tian Sect was certain to be defeated because the Burial Sky Smoke remained unresolved and the sect had exhausted its strength.
• The Palace Master said Chu and the Devil Palace would focus on the Northern Region first, then seek to reclaim the Qi Tian Sect’s territory, while the weakened Qi Tian Sect would likely survive with a small territory.