Chapter Summaries

Wang Liangzi’s attempt to kill Mo Hua with Soul Splitting failed, and the contaminated soul fragment returned to torment him despite his efforts to cleanse it with Golden Core Edicts. At Changshan Military Camp, Mo Hua prepared the army to exploit the chaos among the Underworld Edict forces.

• Wang Liangzi used Soul Splitting and demon insects to curse Mo Hua, but the Wraith Soldiers were destroyed and the link to his Soul Splitting was severed.
• Wang Liangzi invoked Golden Core Edicts and Rootless Water to retrieve and cleanse his Soul Splitting, but five-colored Cursed Power returned as he merged it with his soul.
• The Azure-Faced Commanders mocked Wang Liangzi, and he seized the Azure Chi General and turned him into a Left Path slave.
• Wang Liangzi’s Soul Splitting’s contamination triggered chaos as the Azure-Faced Commanders, demon insects, and Wraith Soldiers attacked one another.
• Mo Hua summoned General Chang, marked routes on the Topographical Map, and ordered the Changshan Army to attack the Underworld Edict forces.

Wang Liangzi’s attempt to cleanse and recover his split soul failed, and the Five Elements Poison drove him to attack the Azure-Faced Host commanders while declaring loyalty to Master Mo. As their camp descended into a bloody battle, Mo Hua saw an opportunity and ordered General Chang to launch a decisive assault on the Azure-Faced Host.

• Wang Liangzi recalled his split soul and used an Underworld Edict and Rootless Water to cleanse it before merging it back into his Sea of Consciousness.
• The Five Elements Poison reappeared in Wang Liangzi’s split soul, leaving him writhing in agony as the Azure-Faced Host commanders watched.
• When the Azure Wraith commander mocked Wang Liangzi and Master Mo, Wang Liangzi seized his soul and made him a Left Path slave.
• Wang Liangzi and the Azure-Faced Host commanders fought amid demon insects, Demon Specters, and Wraith Soldiers, unaware of why they were killing one another.
• Mo Hua summoned General Chang and ordered him to divide the army into three columns and attack the Azure-Faced Host while its senior generals were in chaos.

Mo Hua ordered General Chang to launch a surprise attack after the Azure-Faced Host’s Golden Core generals were eliminated, and the Changshan Army routed the larger force. Wang Liangzi escaped after binding several dead commanders’ souls, while Mo Hua arrived at the untouched altar and examined it.

• Mo Hua sent General Chang to carry out the battle plan and copied the Soul-Detaining Edict and Exemption Edict onto a Jade Slip.
• General Chang led eight hundred thousand Changshan soldiers against the Azure-Faced Host, whose Golden Core generals had vanished, and routed the leaderless army.
• Wang Liangzi woke among the dead generals, recalled killing them under the effects of Mo Hua’s contamination, and bound several commanders’ souls as slaves.
• General Chang confronted Wang Liangzi, but Wang Liangzi fled when he sensed Mo Hua approaching, and General Chang stayed behind as instructed.
• Mo Hua arrived at the Azure-Faced Host’s central camp, confirmed that the scene was untouched, and noticed Wang Liangzi’s Soul-Splitting Altar.

Mo Hua studied Wang Liangzi’s altar and discovered that his soul-splitting ritual resembled Heavenly Ghost Calculation, then ordered General Chang to finish destroying the Azure-Faced Host and pacify Azure Fields. With the city recovering, Mo Hua realized Azure Fields High Person had vanished and suspected someone had warned him away from the trap.

• Mo Hua examined Wang Liangzi’s altar, found traces of his divine thought and poison, and inferred that Wang Liangzi had split his soul to control a demon specter.
• Mo Hua decided Wang Liangzi’s Left Path techniques could help him study Heavenly Ghost Calculation, collected the altar objects and battle remains, and ordered General Chang to eliminate the remaining Azure-Faced Host.
• General Chang led the final purge, and the Azure-Faced Host was destroyed or surrendered as Azure Fields City was pacified.
• General Chang restored order, organized relief, and placed the Azure-Faced Host’s confiscated supplies in public stores while neutral cultivators offered their support.
• Mo Hua watched the city recover and realized Azure Fields High Person had never returned, then suspected someone had warned him and helped him escape the trap.

Mo Hua persuaded Bai Xiaosheng and Gu Changhuai to stay long enough to help feed Azure Fields City's starving people, then investigated the city's rotting soil and realized the famine could not be solved without restoring it. The chapter left Mo Hua and his allies facing a worsening disaster with few supplies and no clear explanation for the land's decay.

• Bai Xiaosheng and Gu Changhuai asked to leave Azure Fields City, but Mo Hua argued that ending the riots required making sure people had enough to eat.
• Bai Xiaosheng pressed Mo Hua about the deaths of eleven Golden Core cultivators, and Mo Hua admitted he had tinkered with Wang Liangzi, who had killed them.
• Bai Xiaosheng and Gu Changhuai agreed to stay for one final task: feeding the city's disaster victims.
• Three days later, Mo Hua inspected blood-soaked fields with Bai Xiaosheng, Gu Changhuai, and General Chang, but he could not identify why the soil was rotting.
• General Chang explained that supplies would run out quickly and nearby regions could not provide enough food, while Mo Hua warned that relief supplies could not solve the famine unless the soil was restored.

Mo Hua investigated the poison ruining Azure Fields’ soil and used a Spirit-Light Lens to identify microscopic, insect-like toxins linked to an array. He concluded that a hidden Rotten Soil Poison Array was causing the disaster and searched the most contaminated land for it, where he suspected an array should be present.

• Mo Hua surveyed Azure Fields and collected samples of contaminated soil and water for testing.
• Mo Hua taught himself rudimentary sectioning with the damaged Spirit-Light Lens and detected pale-yellow, insect-like toxins in soil, water, and dead plants.
• Mo Hua compared the toxins with poison produced by a third-grade Earth Miasma Poison Array and concluded that the calamity came from a related Rotten Soil Poison Array.
• Mo Hua suspected a powerful Array Master had secretly laid the poison array, but he found no clues to its location in his memories of Azure Fields.
• Mo Hua searched the most contaminated land north of Azure Fields City with Bai Xiaosheng and said an array should theoretically be there.

Mo Hua investigated the source of Azure Fields' poisoned soil and recalled Master Zhuang's teachings about the earth's Dao Rhyme, leading him to speculate that Divine Thought could become an immortal will. He tried to communicate with the earth beneath Azure Fields, but it did not respond.

• Mo Hua searched the blood-red soil for a hidden array while Bai Xiaosheng followed and questioned him.
• Unable to find anything above or below ground, Mo Hua used Heavenly Calculation to recover Master Zhuang's teachings about the thoughts of all things and the earth's Dao Rhyme.
• Mo Hua connected Dao Rhyme with the Divine Path wills of gods and wondered whether cultivating his own will could let him achieve immortality.
• Mo Hua told Bai Xiaosheng that the earth was alive, but Bai Xiaosheng dismissed the claim as nonsense.
• Mo Hua pressed his palm to the ground and tried to communicate with the earth's Dao Rhyme, but received no response.

Mo Hua regained contact with the earth’s Dao Rhyme and followed its anger to a concealed underground entrance in the Dead Fields. After Bai Xiaosheng uncovered a Ghost-Head Stone Gate, Mo Hua suspected the place was more than a tomb.

• Mo Hua used a Thick Earth Absolute Array and an innocent state of mind to sense the earth’s Dao Rhyme, discovering its anger and locating its source to the northwest.
• Bai Xiaosheng realized Mo Hua had communicated with Dao Rhyme, then followed him to a patch of the Dead Fields.
• Mo Hua asked Bai Xiaosheng to dig at a specific spot using precise sword techniques and strength.
• Mo Hua directed Bai Xiaosheng to strike an unseen point, breaking a Clay Earth Doll and revealing a concealed Ghost-Head Stone Gate.
• Mo Hua examined the gate and warned Bai Xiaosheng that what lay beyond might be more than a tomb.

Mo Hua and Bai Xiaosheng uncovered a hidden tomb beneath a field and learned that its gate might be connected to the late benefactor Lü Chongshan. General Chang warned them not to disturb it, leaving Mo Hua poised to investigate despite the danger.

• Bai Xiaosheng refused to split open the ghost-head tomb gate, and Mo Hua sent him to fetch General Chang.
• Bai Xiaosheng realized Mo Hua had sensed something wrong in the earth and secretly worried that the young cultivator might possess an unusual connection to dao rhyme.
• General Chang identified the tomb gate's ghost designs as resembling a painting he had once seen in Lü Chongshan's study.
• General Chang explained that Lü Chongshan had died fifty years earlier and was supposedly buried in his family's ancestral graveyard, making the identity of the tomb's occupant uncertain.
• Mo Hua suggested digging into the tomb, and General Chang urgently warned him not to.