Chapter Summaries

Zhang Wanzhi, Li Xiuchang, and their allies fought alongside Seal Heaven Sect powerhouses to stop the shadows from escaping, capturing four of them while Daoist Tian Qing and two others fled with the shadows’ treasures. With a strand of Daoist Tian Qing’s hair to track him later, the group chose to gather reinforcements, and Zhang Wanzhi began explaining the shadows’ origins to Ye Yuqiu.

• True Person Ping Tian ordered the Seal Heaven Sect powerhouses to help surround the shadows, and Zhang Wanzhi distributed Immortal Concealment Talismans so they could fight without triggering ascension.
• Li Xiuchang used the Length Cheat to extend Zhang Wanzhi’s puppet’s blade ray, killing a shadow, while Gui Wuyan transformed into the Mind Ape and blocked the fleeing shadows with his golden staff.
• The shadows launched suicide attacks to cover Daoist Tian Qing, Hermit Wuhu, and Hermit Lingze as they escaped with everyone’s treasures, but the allied forces captured four other shadow powerhouses alive.
• Zhang Wanzhi revealed that he had taken a strand of Daoist Tian Qing’s hair, and Gui Wuyan advised waiting to pursue until they could prepare and gather more forces.
• Ye Yuqiu asked for an explanation, and Zhang Wanzhi began describing how impostors had posed as sect leaders and how the story led back to the Immortal Shade.

After discovering that shadows had replaced powerful figures in the Immortal Shade Realm, Zhang Wanzhi, Lu Yang, and the others organized the Four Great Immortal Sects to expose and eliminate them before they could retaliate. The allies returned to the Immortal Shade Realm and gathered trusted leaders, while Liang Daocheng arrived with the Golden Light Seal and noticed Li Xiuchang.

• Zhang Wanzhi told the Immortal Dust Sect powerhouses how shadows had replaced Hermit Wuhu and Daoist Tian Qing, and the group feared more shadows were hiding across the Immortal Shade Realm.
• True Person Ping Tian, Mo Tu, Zhang Wanzhi, and Lu Yang discussed how to uncover the shadows without provoking them, then assigned trusted allies to contact the other great immortal sects.
• Ye Yuqiu agreed to screen Immortal Dust Sect, True Person Ping Tian agreed to visit Ascension Pavilion, and Zhang Wanzhi and his companions agreed to help investigate the crisis.
• Gui Wuyan brought Li Xiuchang to the group, and they all ascended to the Immortal Shade Realm to begin coordinating their response.
• Liang Daocheng arrived with the Golden Light Seal, which Lu Yang said proved he had disrupted Hermit Wuhu's plan, and True Person Ping Tian summoned leaders from the other sects.
• At the gathering of the Four Great Immortal Sects, Liang Daocheng spotted Li Xiuchang and was relieved to see someone whose Cultivation Level was lower than his own.

Li Xiuchang used an alias to befriend Immortal Dust Sect’s Sect Master, Liang Daocheng, before True Person Ping Tian and Zhang Wanzhi revealed the threat of Shadows infiltrating the Four Great Immortal Sects. The leaders agreed to evacuate disciples and defend their sects, while Liang proposed sealing Immortal Dust Sect’s core region to identify and capture the Shadows; the chapter ended with the sect leaders competing to recruit Zhang Wanzhi and the others as reinforcements.

• Li Xiuchang introduced himself to Liang Daocheng as Li Xiahui and built a friendly connection with his own Sect Master.
• True Person Ping Tian introduced Mo Tu and Zhang Wanzhi, who explained how Shadows had taken over identities within the Immortal Shade Realm’s sects.
• The sect leaders agreed to evacuate disciples and concentrate experts to guard their territories, while Zhang Wanzhi warned that exposed Shadows might flee or resist.
• Liang Daocheng proposed sealing Immortal Dust Sect’s core region and checking the Grand Elders one by one, hoping to capture the Shadows and save those they had replaced.
• Mo Tu warned that the Shadows remained a hidden danger, and True Person Ping Tian urged every sect to act quickly.
• The leaders of Seal Heaven Sect and Ascension Pavilion tried to persuade Zhang Wanzhi and the others to visit their sects, while Liang Daocheng asked Li Xiuchang to recruit them for Immortal Dust Sect.

Liang Daocheng enlisted Li Xiuchang and his senior brothers and sisters to help expose the shadows infiltrating the Immortal Dust Sect, while Chen Changsheng’s clone led the sect’s Formation Masters in preparing a trap. The shadows began leaving the sect after their resurrection, but Elder Pu’s attempted escape triggered the grand array and a battle with Jiao Hong and the other Grand Elders.

• Liang Daocheng promised Zhang Wanzhi and the others free choice of treasures from the Immortal Dust Sect’s treasury, and they agreed to help openly.
• Liang Daocheng brought the group into the sect in a Beast Taming Bag, then coordinated with Jiao Hong and other trusted Grand Elders to prepare a secret operation.
• Chen Changsheng’s clone led the Formation Masters in constructing an enemy-trapping Immortal Array while Li Xiuchang made and distributed Immortal Concealment Talismans.
• The resurrected shadows gathered in Immortal Shade, retrieved a Storage Bag, and sent a message to their companions in the sect.
• A human-immortal Grand Elder left the sect and reported his safety, followed by Elder Pu, whose Golden Immortal cultivation made the sect’s experts suspect he was a shadow.
• Jiao Hong activated the grand array to block Elder Pu, who attacked it; Jiao Hong and several Grand Elders fought him as the clash awakened the sect’s other Grand Elders.

Immortal Dust Sect fought off a coordinated uprising by shadows, and Liang Daocheng ordered a sect-wide identity investigation. Li Xiuchang and the others realized the investigation could expose them too.

• Jiao Hong and Liang Daocheng exposed Elder Pu as a shadow and urged the Grand Elders to prove their identities by attracting the Ascension Rule.
• Elder Pu and five or six Grand Elders attacked the formation, revealed themselves as shadows, and were trapped behind Chen Changsheng's layered formations.
• Zhang Wanzhi and the others ambushed shadow infiltrators, while the Immortal Dust Sect elders captured most of the attackers; Elder Pu committed suicide and left only a Storage Bag.
• Li Xiuchang defeated shadow elders attacking the outer sect's exits and helped quell the uprising across Immortal Dust Sect.
• Liang Daocheng ordered a comprehensive identity investigation of everyone in the sect, and Li Xiuchang and his senior brothers and sisters feared they would be exposed.

Li Xiuchang and his senior brothers and sisters revealed to Immortal Dust Sect that they had secretly joined the sect to investigate Wang Jingxing’s disappearance and prepare to rescue him from the Shadow World. Liang Daocheng accepted their explanation but insisted that none of them could leave the sect, promoting Li Xiuchang to elder.

• Gui Wuyan and Chen Changsheng proposed abandoning their false identities, and the group agreed that Immortal Dust Sect could help them rescue Wang Jingxing.
• Li Xiuchang brought his senior brothers and sisters to meet Jiao Hong and Liang Daocheng, where Zhang Wanzhi revealed their Immortal Dust Sect Identity Tokens and explained their mission.
• Jiao Hong and Liang Daocheng learned that the group had posed as outer sect disciples for over two thousand years to investigate the shadows and save Wang Jingxing.
• Chen Changsheng explained that Li Xiuchang had joined the sect through proper channels, and Li Xiuchang revealed that he had reached the Tribulation Crossing Stage and become a great grandmaster in artifact refining and spirit planting in just over thirteen years.
• Liang Daocheng accepted Li Xiuchang’s account, then declared that the group could not leave Immortal Dust Sect and immediately promoted Li Xiuchang to elder.

Li Xiuchang and Zhang Wanzhi’s group joined the Immortal Dust Sect’s upper ranks, while the Four Great Immortal Sects exposed the Shadow World and began responding to the shadows’ flight and infiltration. The chapter left the Immortal Shade Realm on alert and the Immortal Dust Sect stunned by Li Xiuchang’s sudden rise to elder.

• Liang Daocheng and Jiao Hong offered Li Xiuchang an elder position and invited Zhang Wanzhi’s group to become Grand Elders.
• Chen Changsheng agreed to join the Immortal Dust Sect on the condition that the group could remain in the Eastern Geng District, and Liang Daocheng agreed to upgrade it.
• Liang Daocheng proposed explaining the group’s long-hidden identities as a secret operation to uncover shadows, and Zhang Wanzhi’s group accepted the account.
• Zhang Wanzhi’s group planned seven modest houses in the Eastern Geng District, reserving one for Wang Jingxing while they continued working to rescue him.
• The shadows fled or fought across the Immortal Shade Realm as the Four Great Immortal Sects sealed their grounds, investigated their own ranks, and later announced the Shadow World and launched the “Catching Wind and Shadows” project.
• The Immortal Dust Sect learned that Zhang Wanzhi’s group had become Grand Elders and Li Xiuchang an elder, shocking his former fellow disciples.

Pang Yuanfu, Chi Hui, Chu Ya, and other disciples struggled to accept that Li Xiuchang had become an elder after only thirteen years, while Li Xiuchang hosted congratulatory visitors in Eastern Geng District. The chapter ended with Zhang Wanzhi recommending Li Xiuchang to help interrogate the captured shadows.

• Pang Yuanfu confirmed from Song Yu that Li Xiuchang had become an elder and was expected to become Grand Elder the following year, then decided with Chi Hui to visit him.
• Chu Ya learned of Li Xiuchang’s rise and realized how many ventures and competitions Li Xiuchang had pursued over the past thirteen years.
• Grand Elders, elders, and disciples crowded into the rebuilt Eastern Geng District to congratulate Li Xiuchang, who used his clones to help host them.
• Zhao Yuansi felt ashamed that his disciple had surpassed him, but Li Xiuchang reassured him that their master-disciple bond and his role as Li Xiuchang’s alchemy teacher remained genuine.
• Wang Long, Song Yu, Chu Ya, Pang Yuanfu, and Chi Hui visited Li Xiuchang, who said he had refused the sect’s offer to manage its finances.
• Zhang Wanzhi messaged Li Xiuchang after recommending him to assist with interrogating the captured shadows.

Li Xiuchang interrogated the captured shadows using his disturbing “green methods” and extracted a wealth of intelligence from them. The chapter ended with Liang Daocheng entering a cell covered in plants growing from the shadows’ bodies.

• Li Xiuchang took Chu Ya, Song Yu, and Pang Yuanfu to the prison, paid their speeding fines, and accepted Sect Master Liang Daocheng’s request to interrogate the shadows.
• Li Xiuchang chose Duanmu Huai’s cell and revealed that Duanmu Huai’s original body had taken the Preaching Ranking key to the Shadow World after the two exchanged places.
• Li Xiuchang tortured Duanmu Huai until he confessed dozens of pieces of intelligence, then moved on to another shadow, who soon confessed as well.
• Pang Yuanfu, Song Yu, Chu Ya, and the three Grand Elders left the prison looking sickened, while one Grand Elder gave Liang Daocheng a Jade Slip containing the confessions.
• Liang Daocheng entered the prison and found a cell filled with plants growing from the shadows’ bodies.

Li Xiuchang proposed establishing a Ministry of Punishment after interrogating the shadows, and the Immortal Dust Sect’s Grand Elders learned that the Shadow World contained powerhouses from across the myriad worlds. The meeting weighed defense against a counterattack, and Li Xiuchang suggested inviting back seniors who had ascended to the Upper Realm.

• Li Xiuchang interrogated the shadows with spirit plants and told Liang Daocheng that the situation was worsening.
• Li Xiuchang proposed leading a Ministry of Punishment, and Pang Yuanfu, Song Yu, and Chu Ya agreed to join it.
• Liang Daocheng shared Li Xiuchang’s intelligence with the Grand Elders, who learned that the Shadow World was several hundred times larger than the Immortal Shade Realm and included powerhouses from many worlds.
• The Grand Elders discussed defending the Immortal Shade Realm and eventually attacking the Shadow World to rescue those trapped there.
• Liang Daocheng proposed uniting the four great immortal sects and other forces, and Li Xiuchang suggested inviting back seniors who had ascended to the Upper Realm.

Li Xiuchang helped the Immortal Dust Sect’s Grand Elders plan ways to resist the Shadow World, including recruiting allies, using the Immortal Shade to recover escaped captives, and rescuing Wang Jingxing. The meeting ended with Li Xiuchang appointed to lead the Ministry of Punishment, while the other three great immortal sects asked to borrow his interrogation skills.

• Chen Changsheng proposed building a Teleportation Array between the Immortal Shade Realm and the Upper Realm, and the Grand Elders agreed to pursue it despite the risks and restrictions.
• Zhang Wanzhi offered to seek aid from the Pure Land Realm, whose Buddhist Cultivators he considered reliable allies against the shadows.
• Li Xiuchang suggested imprisoning captured shadows inside the Immortal Shade so that their escaped original bodies might exchange places with them; Liang Daocheng agreed to coordinate the plan with the other three great immortal sects.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that he had located Wang Jingxing’s shadow, and the Immortal Dust Sect and Pure Land Realm prepared to join forces to capture it.
• Liang Daocheng appointed Li Xiuchang to lead the Ministry of Punishment, then reported that the other three great immortal sects wanted to borrow him after their interrogations stalled.

Li Xiuchang established the Ministry of Punishment and trained its first three members while Immortal Dust Sect forged an alliance against the Shadow World. He revealed how Wandering Corpses were formed, leaving the Immortal Shade Realm with answers to a long-standing mystery.

• Liang Daocheng arranged for the other three Great Immortal Sects to send shadow captives and help capture Wang Jingxing's shadow, and the Ministry of Punishment was officially established.
• Li Xiuchang assigned Chu Ya, Song Yu, and Pang Yuanfu to build the Ministry of Punishment and begin training in interrogation.
• At a joint meeting, Immortal Dust Sect impressed the other sects and Pure Land Realm with its allies, intelligence, and teleportation plans, leading them to unite against the Shadow World under Immortal Dust Sect's lead.
• Li Xiuchang interrogated the captives sent by the other sects, taught his three generals, and extracted intelligence that the shadows had all confessed.
• Li Xiuchang explained that Wandering Corpses arose either from shadows' experiments erasing an original body's consciousness or from a shadow's soul being extinguished after its replaced original body died in the Immortal Sun.

Li Xiuchang learned that Wandering Corpses were transformed shadows whose original bodies could not be saved, while most missing experts might still be rescued. After helping prepare an expedition and a prison for captured shadows, he used his Preaching Ranking rewards to improve his cultivation arts and absorb Great Dao insights, leaving him close to the late stage of Tribulation Transcendence.

• Li Xiuchang explained that Wandering Corpses were transformed shadows and that their original bodies were beyond saving, prompting Liang Daocheng to rally experts to rescue the Immortal Dust Sect's Grand Elder.
• Chen Changsheng led the assembled experts through a cross-boundary Teleportation Array to pursue Wang Jingxing's shadow, while Li Xiuchang stayed behind and supplied Immortal Concealment Talismans.
• Li Xiuchang handed the captured shadows to Liang Daocheng, and Chen Changsheng provided a formation plan for a concealed prison in the Immortal Shade with Teleportation Arrays linking it to the Immortal Dust Sect.
• Li Xiuchang discovered that he had entered the top six hundred of the Preaching Ranking and chose to spend his Anointing rewards mainly on cultivation arts, formations, talismans, spirit cooking, and Great Dao insights.
• Li Xiuchang absorbed the knowledge from his selected Preaching Posts and judged that integrating the insights into his Equalizer Dao could advance him to the late stage of Tribulation Transcendence.

Li Xiuchang refined his skills, helped interrogate Wang Jingxing’s captured shadows, and advanced to the Tribulation Crossing pinnacle after using Ascension Pavilion’s Anointing. As he prepared to travel to the Pure Land Realm to undergo tribulation, the Heavenly Dao locked onto him.

• Li Xiuchang reviewed his Anointing gains, then watched Zhang Wanzhi and the others return with Wang Jingxing’s shadow and many other prisoners captured in the lower realm.
• Li Xiuchang guided Pang Yuanfu and two others through interrogating the shadows, uncovering the locations of more shadows living across other realms.
• After fusing new insights into the Equalizer Dao, Li Xiuchang reached the late Tribulation Crossing Stage and used his remaining Anointing opportunities at Ascension Pavilion.
• Li Xiuchang completed his seclusion and reached the Tribulation Crossing pinnacle while the sect prepared to capture more shadows and build a Teleportation Array to the Upper Realm.
• Li Xiuchang prepared to travel to the Pure Land Realm to undergo tribulation, but the sky darkened and the Heavenly Dao locked onto him.

Li Xiuchang was forced to face a Three-in-One Heavenly Tribulation as soon as he reached the peak of the Tribulation Crossing Stage, with no time to prepare. He endured seventeen increasingly powerful Lightning Tribulations outside the Immortal Dust Sect, strengthening his body as he wondered whether all twenty-one would descend.

• Li Xiuchang brought his treasures and two clones outside the Immortal Dust Sect as the Heavenly Dao summoned a Three-in-One Heavenly Tribulation.
• The Immortal Dust Sect's elders evacuated the disciples and activated the Sect Protecting Great Array while Li Xiuchang dragged the forming Tribulation Cloud to a barren mountain.
• Li Xiuchang began absorbing the Lightning Tribulations with his body, sometimes inhaling them, and the gathered spectators watched in astonishment.
• As the Lightning Tribulations exceeded the usual limit, Li Xiuchang's body-refinement cultivation rose from the early Eighth Tier to the late Eighth Tier.
• Li Xiuchang took a healing pill after the thirteenth Lightning Tribulation injured him, then endured four more and wondered if the Heavenly Dao would send all twenty-one.

Li Xiuchang endured the twenty-first Lightning Tribulation, broke through to the Ninth Tier of Body Refining, and began the Inner Demon Tribulation. Although the Heavenly Dao trapped him in increasingly elaborate illusions, Li Xiuchang recognized them as false and remained bored, unable to leave because the combined tribulation would not release him.

• Li Xiuchang transformed into his misshapen Vajra Dharma Image and endured the eighteenth Lightning Tribulation.
• Li Xiuchang used his Blood Diamond Clone to filter the nineteenth purple divine lightning, then joined his Second Nascent Soul Clone in a Diamond Array to withstand the twentieth.
• Li Xiuchang deployed puppets, demonic corpses, talismans, spirit treasures, and his clones to weaken the twenty-first Lightning Tribulation, then swallowed a Longevity Pill and survived its remaining power.
• Li Xiuchang absorbed the tribulation's energy and advanced to the Ninth Tier of Body Refining, while his Qi Refining cultivation remained at the peak of the Tribulation Crossing Stage.
• Li Xiuchang entered the Inner Demon Tribulation and recognized its visions of disaster as false, but remained trapped as the Heavenly Dao combined three trials into one.

Li Xiuchang endured a prolonged Inner Demon Tribulation by using the time inside it to deepen his Dao comprehension, then transformed his soul into an immortal soul. As the final Dao Tribulation began, he accepted its flood of chaotic Dao insights, determined to let the Equalizer Dao embrace all Daos.

• Li Xiuchang resisted the Inner Demon Tribulation's empty illusions by digesting knowledge from his Anointing and comprehending the Confucian Path within the Equalizer Dao.
• The Inner Demon Tribulation ended after three days, and its energy transformed Li Xiuchang's soul into an immortal soul and his Spiritual Sense into immortal sense.
• Li Xiuchang considered the danger that his Equalizer Dao was too miscellaneous, but trusted in his Dao Founder status and its unique core.
• The Dao Tribulation descended with chaotic Dao resonance, and Li Xiuchang captured it to comprehend later.
• Artificial Dao origins appeared and threatened to disrupt his primary Dao, but Li Xiuchang opened his mind and accepted them all.

Li Xiuchang survived an overwhelming Dao Tribulation, broke through to the Mahayana Stage, and was forcibly pulled into ascension by the Heavenly Dao. As his body and power transformed in the Upper Realm, he completed his ascension and arrived in an unfamiliar world.

• Li Xiuchang absorbed insights from dozens of Great Dao origins, strengthening his Equalizer Dao while expanding his second Dantian space with Length Value.
• The Dao Tribulation ended, and Li Xiuchang broke through to the Mahayana Stage with an immortal-level body, soul, and Great Dao comprehension.
• Ascension radiance locked onto Li Xiuchang and carried him away despite his reluctance, while the Immortal Dust Sect's elders worried about his safety in the Upper Realm.
• Chen Changsheng reassured the elders and accelerated work on the Teleportation Array so he could ascend later and search for Li Xiuchang.
• Li Xiuchang passed through the ascension gateway, transformed into a Human Immortal, and arrived in an unfamiliar world.

Li Xiuchang ascended to the resource-starved Desolate Heaven Realm, where a demonic elder tried to enslave him before a Straightforward Sword Cultivator killed her and took him into custody. After proving his connection to the Immortal Dust Sect, Li Xiuchang was escorted toward its Upper Realm mountain gate, where Yan Kang revealed the sect remained a regional power.

• Li Xiuchang ascended into the Desolate Heaven Realm and was immediately targeted by an old demonic cultivator who wanted him as a spirit slave.
• A Straightforward Sword Cultivator surnamed Sun killed the old woman and nearly struck Li Xiuchang down, but Li Xiuchang blocked the sword with a thickened defensive talisman and presented his Immortal Dust Sect Identity Token.
• Sun took Li Xiuchang to a righteous cultivator manor, where Yan Kang recognized him from the Immortal Dust Sect’s Ascension Honor Roll and checked his token.
• The group doubted the token’s record that Li Xiuchang was only thirty-one and had become an immortal, so Yan Kang decided to bring him before the sect’s ancestors.
• Yan Kang explained that cultivators conserved and reclaimed magical power because spiritual energy recovered slowly in the Desolate Heaven Realm, then pointed out the Immortal Dust Sect’s Upper Realm mountain gate.

Li Xiuchang reached the Immortal Dust Sect in the Desolate Heaven Realm, where he explained the resource-driven conflict between righteous and evil cultivators and revealed that shadows had infiltrated the lower realm. The Grand Elders learned that Chen Changsheng was building a cross-realm Teleportation Array, raising hopes of returning to help, though they still had to consider who would defend their sect in the Upper Realm.

• Yan Kang brought Li Xiuchang through the sect’s guarded gates and explained that Spirit Potatoes supplied pure spiritual energy, making them a crucial resource in the Conflict between Righteous and Evil.
• The three Grand Elders verified Li Xiuchang’s identity, then praised him as a precious prodigy and berated Liang Daocheng for letting him ascend without protection.
• Li Xiuchang told the Grand Elders that shadows had invaded the lower realm, replaced Elder Pu, and left him missing.
• Li Xiuchang said Chen Changsheng was constructing a cross-realm Teleportation Array, and True Person Songhe recognized Chen as the renowned Turtle Immortal.
• The Grand Elders considered returning to the lower realm, while True Person Songhe warned that they would leave the Desolate Heaven Realm’s evil cultivators unchecked.