Chapter Summaries

Chu Mu brought the Demon Statue out of Eight Hundred Li Heaven and Earth and used the Immortal Spirit Abode to suppress it, hoping to uncover the source of the demon sacrificial faith system. Once subdued, the statue revealed a fixed form combining a beautiful woman with eerie tentacles, leaving Chu Mu and the Longevity Sect Master unsure whether it reflected the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast’s true appearance or had changed in response to Chu Mu.

• Chu Mu connected the demon sacrificial faith system to the power contained in the Demon Statues and prepared the Immortal Spirit Abode’s highest suppression plan.
• Chu Mu expelled the Demon Statue from Eight Hundred Li Heaven and Earth into the Immortal Spirit Abode’s transformed, cage-like hall.
• The Immortal Spirit Abode suppressed the statue, and its shifting appearance settled into the clear form of a crystal-like beauty with transparent wings and countless tentacles.
• The Longevity Sect Master entered, saw the statue, and wondered whether it had taken that form because Chu Mu had witnessed it.
• Chu Mu reviewed the Immortal Spirit Abode’s projection of the statue’s transformation and found that it matched what he had seen firsthand.

Chu Mu and the Longevity Sect Master discovered that the Demon Statues contained a trace of Heavenly Evolution’s Divine Soul Aura, which supported the Demon Clan’s sacrifices and faith. After the statue collapsed and the aura was sealed, Chu Mu examined it and found its power surprisingly weak.

• Chu Mu and the Longevity Sect Master concluded that the Demon Statue was central to the Demon Clan’s sacrifices and might allow Heavenly Evolution to descend.
• The Longevity Sect Master compared Chu Mu’s Heavenly Traces Jade Slip clues with his own and found no differences.
• When the Longevity Sect Master touched the statue and enveloped it with Divine Sense, it glowed scarlet, cracked, and collapsed, leaving a mass of blood light.
• The Longevity Sect Master and Chu Mu identified the blood light as a purer trace of Heavenly Evolution’s Divine Soul Aura and inferred that Demon Statues supported the Demon Clan’s sacrificial faith.
• The Longevity Sect Master left the blood light imprisoned in the Immortal Spirit Abode, and Chu Mu examined it with his Spirit Radiance Blessing.
• Chu Mu found that the blood light’s power seemed surprisingly weak.

Chu Mu examined the Heavenly Evolution Divine Soul Aura and concluded it was likely the power of a Fifth-Order Avatar, though many questions about Heavenly Evolution and the world’s ancient calamity remained unanswered. He left the great hall and recognized that the Fifth-Order Ancient Treasure directly wielded Heaven and Earth Power, unlike Nascent Soul cultivators, who received it as a blessing.

• Chu Mu compared the Heavenly Evolution Divine Soul Aura with the Immortal Spirit Abode’s Fifth-Order power and decided the aura did not exceed the Fifth Order.
• Chu Mu speculated that Heavenly Evolution was an Avatar whose true body might have been suppressed, and that its actions could have been attempts to rescue that body.
• Chu Mu considered whether changes in the quality of Heaven and Earth could allow the cultivation world to produce Fifth-Order beings, then chose to keep his conjectures to himself.
• Chu Mu left the great hall’s cage using the Grand Elder Token and found that the surrounding corridor had transformed into a lake containing five-element power.
• Chu Mu realized that the Fifth-Order Ancient Treasure directly controlled Heaven and Earth Power, while Nascent Soul cultivators relied on power bestowed by Heaven and Earth.

Chu Mu met Xu Changqing, who asked him to refine a pill to help Xu Lingtian seize a new body. After studying the formula, Chu Mu realized it might improve his Nirvana Rebirth and considered how to help his Flower of Similarity reach the Nascent Soul Realm.

• Xu Changqing met Chu Mu at the spirit lake and discussed the Demon Clan and the calamity.
• Xu Changqing gave Chu Mu a formula for the Mixed Origin As You Wish Pill and revealed that his father, Xu Lingtian, needed it for a secret Body Seizing technique.
• Chu Mu agreed to refine the pill and told Xu Changqing to return in one month.
• Chu Mu studied the formula with Spirit Radiance Blessing and realized the pill might improve the final step of his Nirvana Rebirth.
• Chu Mu considered using the Longevity Sect’s support and his own treasures to help his Flower of Similarity form a Nascent Soul.

Chu Mu refined the Mixed Origin As You Wish Pill to help Xu Lingtian hide his remnant soul in an unborn child and eventually reclaim a body. He completed the initial step and warned Xu Changqing about the method’s danger to Xu Lingtian’s clarity of mind.

• Chu Mu realized that the pill’s main difficulty was making Xu Lingtian’s remnant soul compatible with the unborn child through the Profound Calamity Infant-Crossing Reincarnation Grand Method.
• Xu Changqing brought the pregnant woman out of the Cave Abode, and Chu Mu prepared to administer the pill while a fifth-order ancient treasure watched from behind the scenes.
• Chu Mu sensed the child’s metal-attribute Heavenly Spiritual Root and the incompatible remnant soul hidden within, then guided the pill into the child and refined its medicinal power.
• Chu Mu recorded his observations about the pill’s effects in a Jade Slip and gave it to Xu Changqing to help with the next eighteen years of refinement.
• Chu Mu warned Xu Changqing that spiritual items to preserve Divine Sense clarity would be needed, and Xu Changqing replied that the Sect Master had already made arrangements.

Sky Abyss City endured another demon tide before the demons withdrew, and Chu Mu surveyed the mutated land beyond its walls. He concluded that reclaiming it would require enormous resources and centuries of recovery, far beyond the Southern Sky Cultivation World's current capacity.

• Sky Abyss City’s defenders repelled a demon tide after a battle that left no bodies or traces beyond the city.
• The Human Alliance’s cultivators and warships withdrew into the military fortress for repairs, logistics, and cultivation during the brief lull.
• Chu Mu arrived on the blood-soaked battlefield outside Sky Abyss City and observed that the world’s mutation had spread there.
• Chu Mu reflected that demons mutated Spirit Veins through worship and sacrifice, while restoring invaded land required destroying those systems and purifying the veins.
• Chu Mu judged that full recovery would take centuries or longer and that the Southern Sky Cultivation World lacked the strength and resources to reclaim land at scale.

Chu Mu repaired Sky Abyss City's displacement array, which diverted the dead away from the demons’ Blood Sacrifice and into a protected Blood Cave. After checking the array, he returned to the city and began studying Wangcai’s Devouring Divine Ability as it grew stronger by consuming the accumulated blood water.

• Chu Mu reflected on the Demon World’s corrupting spiritual qi, the Southern Sky Cultivation World’s worsening isolation, and the threat of the demons’ Blood Sacrifice.
• Chu Mu repaired the damaged displacement grand array outside Sky Abyss City and tested it by watching a demon corpse vanish when the array was inactive.
• Chu Mu returned to the Garrison Manor’s Blood Cave, where the corpse puppet and Wangcai cultivated in the accumulated blood water.
• Chu Mu stepped onto Wangcai’s back and studied its Devouring Divine Ability.

After emerging from the Blood Cave, Chu Mu examined the prison he had built to study demons’ and Monster Beasts’ Bloodline Divine Abilities. He considered combining devouring abilities with his Great Sun True Fire and Blade Intent to refine Chaotic Void energy, giving him a possible way to escape the rising threat of the Demon World.

• Chu Mu emerged from the Blood Cave with a jade slip and returned to the Garrison Manor, which he had transformed into a prison holding nearly six hundred demons and Monster Beasts.
• Chu Mu surveyed the prison’s cells and reflected that he had gathered creatures with devouring-type Bloodline Divine Abilities to study how they refined foreign energy.
• Chu Mu considered the possibility that the Demon World’s rising quality would eventually allow Fifth Order Demons to emerge and bring destruction to the cultivation world.
• Chu Mu reasoned that if he could refine Chaotic Void energy, he might survive beyond the cultivation world’s influence and escape the limits imposed on his cultivation.
• Chu Mu saw devouring abilities as a potential way to combine his Great Sun True Fire and Blade Intent into a unified cultivation system.

Chu Mu studied the devouring bloodline abilities of demons and monster beasts, then reviewed plans for a covert operation to infiltrate the Demon World and destroy its Spirit Vein hubs. He left the operation’s arrangements to Xu Changqing and remained in Sky Abyss City to support the team.

• Chu Mu examined hundreds of imprisoned demons and monster beasts, concluding his simulated Devouring Divine Ability had reached only about sixty percent of the strongest examples he had studied.
• Chu Mu spent nearly half a month investigating the bloodlines of Fourth Order Demons and recording their abilities on the Heavenly Traces Jade Slip.
• Chu Mu met Xu Changqing in the Garrison Manor, where Xu Changqing gave him a roster of several hundred cultivators selected for a secret operation in the Demon World.
• Chu Mu learned the operation would use processed Heavenly Evolution Divine Soul Aura to disguise cultivators and target the Demon World's Spirit Vein hubs.
• Chu Mu gave Xu Changqing the treasures for the operation and left him to arrange Sky Abyss City's team, while Chu Mu stayed behind to provide support.

Chu Mu watched the Demon Hunt teams leave Sky Abyss City, then used a Blood Pearl to disguise himself and infiltrate the Demon World. He and two other Nascent Soul Great Cultivators set out to target the demons’ Fourth-Order Spiritual Veins while the wider operation drew enemy forces away.

• Before dawn, Chu Mu ordered several hundred cultivators to transform into demons, split into teams, and enter the Demon World.
• Chu Mu reflected that the teams’ destruction would be a diversion while he, the Longevity Sect Master, and the Heaven Bamboo Alliance Grand Elder pursued the operation’s true target: Fourth-Order Spiritual Veins and their Sacred Souls.
• Chu Mu revealed that his Blood Pearl contained a Sacred Soul from a Third-Order Spiritual Vein and could conceal him from the Demon World’s senses.
• After cloaking himself in Demon Aura with the Blood Pearl, Chu Mu set a five-day limit and disappeared into the Demon World.
• The Longevity Sect Master and Heaven Bamboo Alliance Grand Elder also transformed into demons and entered the Demon World from their cities.

Chu Mu joined the Longevity Sect Master and Nan Tianfeng’s plan to attack Azure Cang while he infiltrated the demon-held East Lake Spiritual Vein. He intended to seize its Sacred Soul and confront the former Lord of Yan Yun, hoping their power and his Heaven’s Evolution research would help him break through a cultivation bottleneck and pursue the Dao of the Fifth Order.

• The Longevity Sect Master and Nan Tianfeng briefed Chu Mu on the layered plan to distract the demons with a Demon Hunt operation and an assault on Azure Cang City.
• Chu Mu agreed to infiltrate East Lake with Old Ancestor Yinshan while the other forces drew the demons’ attention.
• As he traveled through the Demon World, Chu Mu examined how Great Sun True Fire and Blade Intent were refining his spiritual power, divine soul, and body.
• Chu Mu recognized that his efforts to fuse his cultivation systems through a simulated Devouring Divine Ability had stalled short of reproducing its full mysteries.
• Chu Mu set his sights on East Lake’s enshrined Sacred Soul and the Top-Grade Spirit Stone held by the former Lord of Yan Yun as keys to advancing his research and reaching the Fifth Order.

Chu Mu returned to the demon-infested East Lake Waters to destroy its Fourth-Order Spiritual Vein and seize the Sacred Soul. After eight of the nine stationed Nascent Soul Demons departed, he infiltrated East Lake Main Island, where the world's suppression weighed heavily on him.

• Chu Mu reached the East Lake Waters and recalled his early days cultivating there before approaching the East Lake Islands.
• He hid underwater and waited as Nascent Soul Demons departed from the islands, including forces sent to aid Azure Cang City and suppress the Demon Hunt operation.
• Chu Mu used detection puppets to count eight departing Nascent Soul Demons and concluded that few defenders remained.
• He slipped through defects in the islands' protective array and reached East Lake Main Island.
• Chu Mu found a vast demon-worship plaza and towering altar, while the island's heavenly suppression weakened his strength and rejected his Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

Chu Mu discovered that Hong Yu was the Nascent Soul Great Demon guarding East Lake Islands and realized the Sacred Soul’s blessing had raised his cultivation from Nascent Soul Middle Stage to Nascent Soul Great Perfection. He feared that stronger Sacred Souls could elevate demons beyond the limits of Fourth Order cultivation, leaving the Southern Sky Cultivation World in grave danger.

• Chu Mu recognized Hong Yu beneath the altar and saw that his plan to strike quickly and escape East Lake Islands had become more dangerous.
• Chu Mu assessed his three thousand Demon Suppression Puppets and the Jade Scroll that could let Spirit Rhythm command the army through her Heaven and Earth spirituality.
• Chu Mu noticed mysterious power descending from the Demon Statue and directly blessing Hong Yu.
• Chu Mu realized Hong Yu’s actual cultivation was Nascent Soul Middle Stage, while the Fourth Order Sacred Soul’s blessing had raised him to Nascent Soul Great Perfection.
• Chu Mu feared Sacred Souls could empower Fourth Order Great Perfection demons in places like Luofu Mountain Range and Azure Cang City beyond the Demon World’s former limits.

Chu Mu used Spirit Rhythm and the Suppressing Demon Army to draw Hong Yu and the other demons into battle while he attacked the altar. He shattered the Demon Statue and the East Lake Spiritual Vein, seized the holy soul, and reduced Hong Yu from a Nascent Soul Great Demon to Nascent Soul Middle Stage.

• Chu Mu suspected the demons' cultivation boost depended on the Fourth-Order Spiritual Vein and decided to use the Suppressing Demon Army to lure them away.
• Chu Mu manifested Spirit Rhythm, who commanded the Suppressing Demon Army to attack Hong Yu and the two other demons beneath the altar.
• The Suppressing Demon Army held off the three demons while Chu Mu appeared on the far side of the island and aimed his Three Foot Blade at the Demon Statue.
• Chu Mu's Crimson Blade Light shattered the statue and the East Lake Spiritual Vein, then he seized a streak of blood light identified as the holy soul.
• Hong Yu's aura collapsed from Nascent Soul Great Demon to Nascent Soul Middle Stage after the spiritual vein broke and the holy soul was seized.

Chu Mu escaped the ruined East Lake Islands and returned toward Sky Abyss City, which was under a renewed demon assault while its defenders were away. Finding the city’s defenses close to collapse but no Array Dao Grandmaster among the attacking demons, he began to form a plan to save it.

• Chu Mu and the Suppressing Demon Army killed Hong Yu and the other Nascent Soul Demons at East Lake, then collected their storage artifacts and withdrew into the Demon World.
• Chu Mu traveled through the chaos and destruction across the Demon World without being detected, heading for Sky Abyss City.
• Chu Mu found demons besieging Sky Abyss City, whose depleted forces relied on a City Protection Array that might fail within a day as its damaged spiritual vein ran low.
• Using the Grand Elder Token, Chu Mu confirmed that most of Sky Abyss City’s elites were away and realized he could not save the city through strength alone.
• Chu Mu identified six Nascent Soul Demons outside the city, noticed that none was an Array Dao Grandmaster, and began devising a plan to deceive them.

As Sky Abyss City’s protection array collapsed and Nascent Soul demons overwhelmed the defenders, Chu Mu’s hidden Blood Cave reserve restored the array. Chu Mu arrived above the city and used its power to suppress every demon within its walls.

• The city protection array weakened under the relentless demon assault while the Blood Cave quietly accumulated and stored energy for it.
• The array shattered, allowing several Nascent Soul demons to enter Sky Abyss City and devastate its defenders.
• Chu Mu’s Blood Cave erupted in a pillar of crimson light and restored the city protection array.
• Chu Mu appeared above Sky Abyss City and raised his hand to suppress the demons.
• The demons within the city began exploding, regardless of their cultivation or size.

Chu Mu’s victory at Sky Abyss City proved temporary as the Nine Cities of the Hills defense line collapsed and he led a retreat through the hilly region. After half a year of desperate resistance at scattered Spirit City fortresses, the demon tide was finally contained enough for a new order to emerge.

• The City Protection Array repelled the demons at Sky Abyss City, and its Blood Cave absorbed the blood of the fallen to replenish the array.
• Chu Mu told Qiu Chuning that he did not know when the Sect Master and the other Nascent Soul Great Experts would return, and ordered preparations to preserve their forces if the situation worsened.
• Chu Mu suspected a fifth-order demon had trapped the missing experts at Azure Cang City and feared its influence would eventually spread beyond the Demon World.
• Over six days, six of the Nine Cities of the Hills fell, so Chu Mu gathered routed cultivators and organized Sky Abyss City’s retreat.
• The cultivators retreated through the hilly region as Spirit City fortresses held against the demon tide and fell one by one.
• After half a year of resistance, the demon tide was barely contained and a new order gradually formed.

Chu Mu considered the eerie calm along the Big Dipper Seven Cities frontier and the Demon Clan’s delayed advance while learning that the Longevity Sect Master had stabilized after returning from the disastrous Demon Hunt operation. The chapter ended with Chu Mu reflecting on the immense power of the sealed fourth-order Sacred Soul he had studied for years.

• Chu Mu observed that the Demon Clan had stopped advancing beyond the Hilly Lands, and he reasoned that its focus on mutating spiritual veins and establishing a faith system had caused the lull.
• Chu Mu estimated that the Demon Clan might launch another major offensive in twenty or thirty years, unless fifth-order beings emerged sooner.
• Xu Changqing and Lie Yan arrived on the Tianshu City wall, and Xu Changqing told Chu Mu that the Longevity Sect Master’s injuries had stabilized with an immortal spirit’s help.
• Chu Mu recalled that pseudo fifth-order demons empowered by the Azure Cang Sacred Soul had massacred the infiltrating Nascent Soul cultivators and contributed to the rout of the Nine Cities of the Hills.
• Chu Mu considered the damage the Demon Hunt operation had inflicted on the Demon World and concluded that the sealed fourth-order Sacred Soul contained a rare Heavenly Evolution Divine Soul.

Chu Mu decided to enter seclusion and entrusted Xu Changqing with the Big Dipper’s affairs, while considering how the Immortal Spirit Abode’s Artifact Spirit had detected Lie Yan’s unusual nature. With the Longevity Sect effectively under his influence and a brief peace at hand, Chu Mu began preparing for his own cultivation and Nirvana Rebirth.

• Chu Mu gave Lie Yan a bottle of pills and left Xu Changqing to handle the Big Dipper’s affairs while he entered seclusion.
• Xu Changqing and Lie Yan departed, and Chu Mu suspected the Immortal Spirit Abode’s Artifact Spirit had noticed something unusual about Lie Yan.
• Chu Mu traced the likely discovery to Lie Yan’s visits to the Immortal Spirit Abode in the past two years.
• Chu Mu reflected that the wounded Longevity Sect Master and the sect’s weakened Nascent Soul experts left him as the strongest figure in the Longevity Sect.
• Chu Mu resolved to use the period of peace to prepare for his cultivation and Nirvana Rebirth.

Outside the World, Chu Mu examined the ruined World Halo and the Top-Grade Spirit Stone’s ability to draw in Chaotic Void energy. He decided to prepare further before entering the true Chaotic Void, where his plan to advance to the fifth order would face unknown dangers.

• Chu Mu emerged beyond the world and saw that countless reddish-brown specks had stained the World Halo, leaving the world with a long recovery ahead.
• Chu Mu judged that the declining environment would weaken the world’s spiritual energy and power, then avoided approaching the Immortal Spirit Abode.
• Chu Mu reached the edge of the World Halo but chose not to enter the true Chaotic Void until he reached Nascent Soul Perfection and brought his cultivation-system integration plan close to completion.
• Chu Mu tested a Top-Grade Spirit Stone and found that it could replenish his mana roughly a hundred times by drawing in Chaotic Void energy.
• Chu Mu concluded that he would need at least five Top-Grade Spirit Stones for a relatively stable energy supply in the Chaotic Void, and that absorbing the higher-order energy directly would kill him.