Chapter Summaries

Jiang Qiao established contact with Yang Ling, who warned him that the City Gods and Demon Tower would soon clash over the Metropolitan City God. Yang Ling advised him to target Gou Chen and explained that the Thunder Art could refine rules by combining life force and death qi.

• Jiang Qiao adjusted the Thunder shield and contacted Yang Ling while keeping his intentions guarded.
• Yang Ling warned Jiang Qiao that the City Gods had hidden trump cards and might attack him after forming the Metropolitan City God.
• Yang Ling advised Jiang Qiao to avoid the five rules bound in the formation and consider seizing Gou Chen's rule instead.
• Jiang Qiao asked Yang Ling how the Thunder Art could refine rules.
• Yang Ling described his senior uncle's teaching: the Thunder Art could contain a rule by intertwining life force and death qi, then discard the old and become new.

Jiang Qiao gained a deeper understanding of the Thunder Art from Yang Ling’s explanation, connecting thunder’s power to life, death, and transformation. As the Ancient Evil Spirit reached the divine platform and revealed its true form, Yang Ling explained its microscopic appearance and its origins in a failed ancient God-Making Plan.

• Yang Ling described the Thunder Art’s meaning of casting out the old and taking in the new, helping Jiang Qiao understand thunder as both destruction and renewal.
• Jiang Qiao connected thunder’s life-and-death cycle to yin and yang and reconsidered the rules represented by the six divine beasts.
• The Ancient Evil Spirit climbed onto the divine platform and revealed a form made of tangled lines and translucent bubbles containing embryo-like shapes.
• Yang Ling explained that the Abyssal evil spirits resembled microscopic structures and had originated from a vanished civilization’s failed God-Making Plan.

Jiang Qiao watched an Ancient Evil Spirit breach the altar and approach the bronze cauldron as the City Gods prepared their strongest defense. The City God of Youxin Prefecture used a wish to summon the Metropolitan City God, who descended when the cauldron shattered.

• The Ancient Evil Spirit broke through the altar's barrier by using its control of the earth veins and entered the altar.
• Jiang Qiao retreated to the edge of the divine platform while the Evil Spirit's tentacles threatened the City Gods and bronze cauldron.
• Yang Ling explained that the City Gods could use wishes as powerful trump cards, and the City God of Youxin Prefecture produced a pure white wish flower.
• The City God of Youxin Prefecture prayed for the Metropolitan City God to descend and defeat the evil spirits.
• Yan Yishu and the other five City Gods bowed and called for the Metropolitan City God, who appeared as the bronze cauldron shattered.

Jiang Qiao recognized the Metropolitan City God as the City God System he had seen in Yan City and realized it might have come from another world. The incomplete Half-God attacked the Ancient Evil Spirit, but the Demon Tower’s occupants intervened, setting off a fierce battle whose outcome remained undecided.

• Jiang Qiao recognized the Metropolitan City God’s aura and appearance as those of the City God System he had seen in Yan City, and wondered whether it had immigrated from another world.
• The Metropolitan City God revealed its enormous form and attacked the Ancient Evil Spirit on the divine altar, while Jiang Qiao retreated and sensed that it had not fully reached the Half-God realm.
• The Great Grandmother of Fengyin Mountain realized the City God still needed complete control of the earth veins and ordered the Demon Tower to attack.
• Mingzhou Prefecture City God used the Stone Slab Road to block the Metropolitan City God’s hand and rescue the Ancient Evil Spirit.
• The Metropolitan City God struck at the Demon Tower, and the Great Grandmother of Fengyin Mountain sent demons, Vicious Ghosts, and killing intent against it, beginning a destructive battle.

The City God's battle unleashed the World's Dark Side, raising the dead and draining people's Fortune, Virtue, and Longevity. Far from the battle, powerful families faced supernatural disasters as their ancestors and other victims returned, leaving one clan besieged by the dead it had killed.

• Killing intent struck toward the City God as resentful energy from the Black Hole behind the Demon Tower spread through the Small World and raised countless dead.
• Ten thousand miles away, Ghost-Carriers and clan leaders sensed their Fortune, Virtue, and Longevity draining away as dark clouds and ghostly wails appeared.
• Messengers reported fallen ancestral tablets, blood-filled wells, withered plants, suicidal animals, and ancestors crawling from their graves.
• A clan leader ordered his junior to hang lanterns made from the Life Lamps of deceased clan members to drive the returning ancestors away.
• Twisted figures overwhelmed the darkness, climbed walls, and battered doors, revealing themselves as people the powerful family had killed and had now come to collect their debts.

As the Metropolitan City God and the Demon Tower unleashed their power, Yan Yishu folded time, space, fate, and reality together to crush their enemies. Jiang Qiao saw an opening in the chaos and followed Yang Ling’s plan to attack Gou Chen with lightning.

• Debt Collecting Ghosts spread chaos across the Small World, and their accumulated resentment fed the Demon Tower’s attack on the Metropolitan City God.
• Yan Yishu ordered the battlefield sealed, and the City God’s power folded time, space, fate, and reality into a destructive plane.
• Jiang Qiao considered how a Half-God from Taoqiu had once defeated the City God while Gou Chen gained the advantage over a funeral-procession monster.
• Yang Ling told Jiang Qiao to exploit the brief pause after Gou Chen’s attacks and send lightning into its body.
• Jiang Qiao left the divine altar and charged toward Gou Chen.

Jiang Qiao moved to interfere in the battle between Gou Chen and Lost Ghost, intending to devour Gou Chen, while Fengyin Mountain sent Fourth Grandma to stop him. Fourth Grandma confronted Jiang Qiao over his killing of Tian Ye and threatened him on Tian Lang’s behalf.

• Fengyin Mountain’s leaders guessed that Jiang Qiao meant to help Gou Chen, and Mingzhou Prefecture City God decided Fourth Grandma should hold him back.
• Jiang Qiao observed Gou Chen and Lost Ghost’s Divinity Ninth Tier battle and marveled at the strength of the forces and artifacts in the Small World.
• Fourth Grandma confronted Jiang Qiao and asked whether he had killed Tian Ye in Qinggua Town.
• Jiang Qiao admitted killing Tian Ye after she described his red brocade robes, then mocked her for caring about him.
• Fourth Grandma threatened to pull out Jiang Qiao’s tongue for Tian Lang to drink with, and Jiang Qiao mocked Tian Lang in return.

Jiang Qiao fought Fourth Grandma of Fengyin Mountain as her supernatural rules rapidly stripped away his life and attacked his consciousness. He revealed that aging had not weakened his power, shattered her tombstones, and left their battle ongoing.

• Jiang Qiao summoned the Thunder Pool and sent its waves toward Fourth Grandma after she threatened to keep him captive.
• Fourth Grandma unleashed black lotus platforms that drained Jiang Qiao’s life and surrounded him with illusions and hidden forms.
• Fourth Grandma mocked Jiang Qiao, but realized that his Thunder Pool remained powerful despite his apparent rapid aging.
• Jiang Qiao dismissed Fourth Grandma’s claims and explained that old people did not like explaining themselves.
• Fourth Grandma raised more withered hands and summoned tombstones bearing Jiang Qiao’s portrait, suppressing him and the unseen Timeline.
• Jiang Qiao blasted the tombstones apart with thunder and defied Fourth Grandma.

Jiang Qiao used the Thunder Pool to unleash Collapse and kill Fourth Grandma of Fengyin Mountain. The Great Grandmother recognized the technique as the ultimate form of the Power of Chaos and began questioning what the Mountain Ghosts had taught her.

• Fourth Grandma trapped Jiang Qiao with a curse that drained his life while gravestones surrounded him.
• Jiang Qiao condensed the Thunder Pool and collapsed space to appear before Fourth Grandma.
• Jiang Qiao struck Fourth Grandma with a wave of force that tore her body apart, killing her.
• The Mingzhou Prefecture City God and the onlookers were shocked by Jiang Qiao's technique.
• The Great Grandmother identified Jiang Qiao's move as Collapse and wondered how he had mastered it despite the Mountain Ghosts' claims that it was impossible for an individual to achieve.

Jiang Qiao killed Fourth Grandma of Fengyin Mountain and turned his Thunder Pool on Gou Chen while Yan Yishu's allies prepared to seize the Demon Tower and summon the Metropolitan City God. Yan Yishu realized Jiang Qiao had disrupted his plan just as Gou Chen was caught off guard.

• The City Gods marveled at Jiang Qiao's quick victory, while Yan Yishu and the Youxin Prefectural City God admitted they planned to kill their rivals and use the Demon Tower to help the Metropolitan City God endure eternally.
• Yan Yishu recalled how he had gathered the City Gods under the pretext of discussing the Other Shore, intending to summon the Metropolitan City God and eliminate them in one strike.
• Yan Yishu believed his Metropolitan City God had the upper hand against the Demon Tower and expected Jiang Qiao to help hold Gou Chen back.
• Jiang Qiao explained that he understood how to apply the Power of Chaos and had killed Fourth Grandma while the other fighters were occupied.
• Jiang Qiao inverted the Thunder Pool and dropped it over the unprepared Gou Chen, prompting Yan Yishu to shout at him.

Jiang Qiao unexpectedly captured Gou Chen and fled the battlefield, alarming Yan Yishu and the City Gods on both sides. As the fight against the Metropolitan City God continued, Great Grandmother of Fengyin Mountain revealed a purple incense stick and hinted that her ancestor could now be summoned.

• Jiang Qiao trapped Gou Chen in the Thunder Pool and used the Liugui Prefectural City God's attack to escape dozens of kilometers with it.
• Yan Yishu and the Liugui Prefectural City God accused Jiang Qiao of harboring ulterior motives and resolved to capture him after the battle.
• Great Grandmother of Fengyin Mountain dismissed the dispute over Jiang Qiao and urged the City Gods to focus on defeating the Metropolitan City God.
• Great Grandmother revealed half a purple incense stick and said the circumstances had changed, suggesting she could summon her ancestor.

Jiang Qiao used the Thunder Pool to expose Gou Chen’s strange inner contents and grind away its corpse-built body with the qi of life and death. The chapter ended with Gou Chen reduced to the size of a baby as Jiang Qiao prepared to fuse the two forces completely.

• Jiang Qiao thanked Yan Yishu for helping him unlock the grand formation’s Safety Permissions and took Gou Chen away without interruption.
• Jiang Qiao stimulated Gou Chen with death qi and saw a writhing tree trunk and a motionless old man emerge from the Black Hole in its face.
• Jiang Qiao confirmed that Gou Chen itself represented the rule, rather than the tree trunk or the old man.
• Jiang Qiao split the Thunder Pool’s qi into a red life serpent and a black death serpent, which revolved around Gou Chen and ground its corpse-built body into powder.
• Jiang Qiao reduced Gou Chen to the size of a baby and prepared to fuse the qi of life and death completely.

Jiang Qiao forced the forces of life and death, along with opposing kinds of thunder, to fuse around Gou Chen and form a Jade Stone Coffin. He compressed the unstable fusion and swallowed it, beginning the final, life-or-death step of restoring Gou Chen's rule.

• Jiang Qiao watched life and death collide around Gou Chen, whose changes produced a crystal coffin, black butterflies, gray powder, and strange mushrooms.
• Jiang Qiao controlled the coffin as it transformed into a jade slab, then raised it into the sky with thunder dragons.
• Jiang Qiao drew Dark Lightning and Bright Lightning into the coffin and fused them with the forces of life and death into a distorted taiji diagram.
• Jiang Qiao compressed the coffin and surrounding thunderclouds, then prepared to attempt the final step of the rule fusion.
• Jiang Qiao swallowed the tiny Jade Coffin, risking death to complete the fusion.

Jiang Qiao began the third stage of suppressing the Jade Coffin by collapsing it inside his body, while Yang Ling mistook Jiang Qiao’s technique for a new Daoist sect achievement. Jiang Qiao struggled to keep the unstable, annihilated coffin from releasing its energy as he tried to reduce it to a state between existence and nonexistence.

• Yang Ling watched Jiang Qiao fuse opposing rules and wrongly concluded that the Daoist sect had developed the technique, becoming eager to reach the Other Shore.
• Jiang Qiao admired the Daoist sect’s mastery of rule fusion and swallowed the Jade Coffin into his abdomen to begin the next stage.
• Jiang Qiao wrapped the Jade Coffin in Lightning Rule and merged his Essence, Qi, Spirit, and consciousness with the lightning.
• Jiang Qiao slowly collapsed the Jade Coffin into a tiny, unstable point and continually adjusted it to prevent its energy from erupting inside him.

Gongsun Xiang learned that Fengyin Mountain and the City God of Mingzhou Prefecture had secretly killed three City Gods and planned to use their bodies to summon the Mountain Ghost. The Great Grandmother revealed that the Mountain Ghost had set one foot on the ninth step of the Divinity Staircase, leaving the assembled City Gods alarmed by its overwhelming strength.

• Gongsun Xiang confronted the Great Grandmother of Fengyin Mountain and the City God of Mingzhou Prefecture after seeing the bodies of three missing City Gods.
• The City God of Mingzhou Prefecture admitted that the three had been killed because they refused to take sides, and Gongsun Xiang realized that most of the others had known about it.
• The City God of Doukui Prefecture questioned why the bodies had been revealed, and the Great Grandmother explained that their remaining consciousness would be used to summon the Mountain Ghost.
• The City God of Mingzhou Prefecture said the City Gods’ incense-and-fire bodies would let the Mountain Ghost form a temporary body and descend at full strength.
• The Great Grandmother revealed that the Mountain Ghost had set one foot on the ninth step of the Divinity Staircase, shocking the City Gods.

Jiang Qiao struggled to control a collapsing point inside his body when a Mountain Ghost’s arrival unleashed a vast explosion across the battlefield. The Ancient Evil Spirit was struck from the sky and sent flying toward him.

• Jiang Qiao fought to force the unstable point into the space between existence and nonexistence, fearing that an eruption would end his journey through the River of History.
• A powerful fluctuation startled Jiang Qiao, and he saw an explosion erase everything across a vast area, leaving a colossal Black Hole beneath a blood-red portal.
• Jiang Qiao suspected that the Mountain Ghost from Fengyin Mountain had arrived with far greater strength than Yan Yishu’s intelligence suggested.
• A terrifying voice rang out as a strange body appeared in the sky and struck the Ancient Evil Spirit, sending it flying toward Jiang Qiao.

The Mountain Ghost emerged from the shattered door after Fengyin Mountain used sacrificed City Gods to construct its temporary body, while the battered Ancient Evil Spirit nearly fell into the pit near Jiang Qiao. Yan Yishu condemned Leng Quan for aiding Fengyin Mountain, and the chapter ended as the Mountain Ghost descended in a torrent of death qi.

• The Ancient Evil Spirit landed near Jiang Qiao, badly injured and teetering on the edge of the pit.
• The Metropolitan City God noticed the Mountain Ghost’s emergence and accused Fengyin Mountain of using a sacrificed City God to build its temporary body.
• Yan Yishu accused Leng Quan of killing three City Gods and using their bodies as nourishment for the Mountain Ghost.
• Leng Quan argued that the City Gods’ path was flawed and had only been an expedient choice in a world without supernatural beings.
• The Mountain Ghost shattered the great door and stepped into the world, unleashing overwhelming death qi.

Jiang Qiao used the Ancient Evil Spirit’s suppression to briefly restrain the rampaging point inside his body, then forced it to collapse further with the Lightning Rule. Meanwhile, the Mountain Ghost’s overwhelming strength left Yan Yishu and the other City Gods trapped between defending against it and continuing to suppress the Demon Tower.

• Jiang Qiao approached the Ancient Evil Spirit and found that its presence calmed the point inside his body, though it also suppressed his supernatural power.
• Jiang Qiao used the brief transition after leaving the Ancient Evil Spirit’s range to press the Lightning Rule onto the point, making it begin collapsing again.
• The Mountain Ghost revealed its true form and displayed power that shocked Gongsun Xiang and the other City Gods.
• Yan Yishu and the other City Gods realized they had to choose between withdrawing the Metropolitan City God to confront the Mountain Ghost or continuing to suppress the Demon Tower.

Jiang Qiao compressed the Jade Coffin’s point into a Quasi-Singularity and fused it with the Lightning Rule. He emerged with the Gou Chen Rule as part of his body.

• Jiang Qiao used the Ancient Evil Spirit’s assistance to stabilize the Jade Coffin’s point as a Quasi-Singularity.
• Jiang Qiao released his suppression and connected the Quasi-Singularity to the interwoven rules within Ball Lightning.
• Jiang Qiao experienced an overwhelming glimpse of cause and effect, time, and the predetermined course of the world.
• Jiang Qiao endured the brief influx of information and gained a deeper understanding of rules and the world’s structure.
• The Quasi-Singularity produced a profound rule that fused with the Lightning Rule, granting Jiang Qiao the Gou Chen Rule.

Jiang Qiao understood Gou Chen's rule of suppressing and disrupting paranormal forces, while Mountain Ghost defeated Yan Yishu and the City Gods' plan to claim the Metropolitan City God. Mountain Ghost warned that a dead Half-God could return from the River of History, leaving the surviving defenders facing its power.

• Jiang Qiao realized Gou Chen's rule worked by throwing the paranormal forces of opponents into disorder, and considered how it could strengthen him when he returned.
• The Metropolitan City God protected the pyramid altar as Mountain Ghost held the Demon Tower and taunted the weakened City Gods.
• Yan Yishu admitted that the battle was lost and that their plan to create the Metropolitan City God had succeeded only temporarily.
• Mountain Ghost explained that incense was not the source of its strength and criticized the spirit-worship and Evolver paths.
• Mountain Ghost said the plan to replace the Metropolitan City God could not succeed because a dead Half-God could return from the River of History.