Chapter Summaries

Mo Hua mastered the Earth Miasma Poison Array, developed a workable grasp of the Heart-Burning Fire Poison Array, and created a five-element poison curse hand powered by his divine thought. After arranging the camp guards according to a map of the demonic insects, he waited for the next stage of the Left Path fiend’s attack, which began when a strange gecko insect emerged.

• Mo Hua mastered the Earth Miasma Poison Array but remained puzzled by the deeper meaning of the Heart-Burning Fire Poison Array.
• General Chang reported renewed raids, rising casualties, and swarms of suspicious demonic insects around the camp; Mo Hua told him to record their kinds, numbers, and locations.
• Mo Hua combined five poison arrays with the Five Ghosts Human-Face Curse-Killing methods and created the Five-Element Poison Array Curse Hand.
• Mo Hua examined General Chang’s insect map and ordered him to leave a gap at a specific camp during a precise watch three days later.
• After three days of preparation, Mo Hua watched the usual insects emerge from the earth, followed later by a strange, poisonous-looking gecko demon insect.

Mo Hua lured Wang Liangzi into his Sea of Consciousness, where Wang Liangzi revealed his Soul-Detaining and General-Dispatching Great Art and attacked him with nearly a hundred Wraith Soldiers. The chapter ended with Wang Liangzi piercing Mo Hua’s skull and tightening a cord around his neck to detain his soul.

• A monster gecko infiltrated Mo Hua’s tent, where Gu Changhuai and Bai Xiaosheng destroyed its physical form, but its Demon Specter slipped into Mo Hua’s Sea of Consciousness.
• Mo Hua confronted Wang Liangzi in his Sea of Consciousness and learned that Wang Liangzi commanded Wraith Soldiers through the Soul-Detaining and General-Dispatching Great Art.
• Wang Liangzi summoned nearly a hundred Demon-Insect Specter Soldiers and ordered them to overwhelm Mo Hua.
• Wang Liangzi explained that Mo Hua had destroyed decades of work raising his Wraith Soldiers and declared that he would detain Mo Hua’s soul.
• Wang Liangzi pressed his bloodied nails into Mo Hua’s skull as the invisible cord around Mo Hua’s neck tightened.

Mo Hua endured Wang Liangzi’s Soul-Detaining and General-Dispatching, discovered its Netherworld Coded Document, and turned the tables with his own thaumaturgy. Wang Liangzi escaped Mo Hua’s attack through a second coded document, while his true body prepared a distant curse against Master Mo in Azure Fields City.

• Wang Liangzi used Soul-Detaining and General-Dispatching to bind Mo Hua and inscribed a Netherworld Coded Document in his Sea of Consciousness.
• When Mo Hua recognized the document, Wang Liangzi tried to erase it, but Mo Hua attempted to control him with a command that drove Wang Liangzi to abandon his divine-thought body.
• Wang Liangzi attacked Mo Hua, but Mo Hua survived and trapped him with the Water Prison Technique and the Five Elements Poison Curse.
• Wang Liangzi used a second Netherworld Coded Document to absolve himself, broke free, and detonated his Thought Power, but Mo Hua emerged unharmed.
• In Azure Fields City, Wang Liangzi’s true body prepared a ritual to kill Master Mo from afar, then felt a sudden sense of foreboding.

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.

Mo Hua postponed opening Lü Chongshan’s sinister-looking grave after Lü Jingxiu and General Chang warned him that the respected Lü Family’s many benefactions made the matter politically dangerous. As Azure Fields City’s Golden Core elites gathered to oppose the grave’s opening, Mo Hua’s imposing presence silenced them, leaving the dispute unresolved.

• Mo Hua agreed to delay opening the grave after Lü Jingxiu objected and General Chang urged him to avoid provoking the Lü Family.
• Gu Changhuai reported that Lü Chongshan had genuinely helped Azure Fields City’s poor, and Bai Xiaosheng recalled receiving relief grain from the Lü Family.
• Mo Hua agreed to wait for a peaceful discussion, though he privately considered sneaking in to open the grave.
• The next day, dozens of Golden Core cultivators gathered at the Azure Fields Directorate to defend the Lü Family and oppose opening the grave.
• Mo Hua took the elevated seat and released an imposing aura that silenced the assembled cultivators.

Mo Hua rejected the Lü Family and Azure Fields City gentry’s pleas and insisted on opening the mysterious tomb, regardless of who was buried there. After General Chang revealed that Lü Chongshan had once read a book called the Spirit Cause Scripture, Mo Hua wondered how it related to Karma and the Azure Fields State Boundary.

• Lü Jingxiu and the local Golden Core cultivators argued that the tomb should remain closed, claiming it might belong to Great Benefactor Lü and that he had sacrificed himself to protect his descendants and Azure Fields City.
• Mo Hua acknowledged that opening the tomb might seem like bullying and could bring retribution, but declared that he would excavate it regardless of who was buried inside.
• General Chang backed Mo Hua’s authority and asked why he needed to open the tomb; Mo Hua clarified that he meant the tomb he had found, not necessarily the Lü Family’s grave.
• Mo Hua asked General Chang about Lü Chongshan’s Karma studies, and General Chang recalled seeing him read an old book titled the Spirit Cause Scripture.
• Bai Xiaosheng and Gu Changhuai said they had never heard of the Spirit Cause Scripture, leaving Mo Hua to wonder how it connected to Karma and the Azure Fields State Boundary.

Mo Hua responded to the local clans’ campaign against opening Great Benefactor Lü’s tomb by arresting their relatives and demanding ransoms to fund the Changshan Army. After weakening their resistance, he drafted a proclamation that framed opening and relocating the tomb as an act of compassion and a way to preserve Azure Fields City’s safety.

• Gu Changhuai explained that local clans and gentry had deep roots and may have secretly profited while Azure Fields grew impoverished.
• The local clans stirred up protests and rumors against Mo Hua and blocked access to Great Benefactor Lü’s tomb with crowds of starving people and disaster victims.
• Mo Hua ordered General Chang to arrest clan troublemakers and selected descendants, then demand spirit stones or supplies as ransoms to raise military funds.
• The clans paid to free their relatives, and their resistance to Mo Hua’s plan to excavate the tomb diminished.
• Mo Hua wrote a proclamation praising Great Benefactor Lü and presenting the tomb’s relocation as a compassionate act that would preserve the city’s feng shui.

Mo Hua used a public document to turn opposition to opening Lü Chongshan’s tomb into support, forcing the Lü Family to welcome the excavation. As Mo Hua prepared to open the tomb himself, Gu Changhuai recognized him as the legendary Black-Faced Fiend, a renowned tomb robber.

• Gu Changhuai revised Mo Hua’s document and distributed it around Azure Fields City, winning public sympathy for moving Lü Chongshan’s grave.
• The White-Haired Elder warned Lü Jingxiu that resisting Mo Hua would destroy the Lü Family’s good reputation, so Lü Jingxiu agreed to welcome the excavation while questioning whether the tomb held his father’s remains.
• The Lü Family invited Mo Hua to dig up the grave, and the disaster victims left the tomb after hearing that he would help Lü Chongshan rest in peace.
• Mo Hua told Gu Changhuai and Bai Xiaosheng that he would open the sinister tomb himself, prompting Bai Xiaosheng to suspect he had extensive tomb-robbing experience.
• Gu Changhuai recited the Black-Faced Fiend’s fearsome reputation and recognized Mo Hua as the legendary tomb-robbing leader, leaving Bai Xiaosheng and Mo Hua stunned.

Mo Hua learned that Gu Changhuai had investigated his Black-Faced Fiend identity and uncovered Shopkeeper Zhao’s ties to Fortune Pavilion’s powerful head shopkeeper, who might be connected to the Breath Soil Grand Array. After discovering irregularities in Great Benefactor Lü’s Corpse Dissolution exemption, Mo Hua prepared to open the tomb, and seven Golden Core cultivators gathered there the next day.

• Bai Xiaosheng and Gu Changhuai realized Mo Hua was the Black-Faced Fiend, and Gu Changhuai explained how the Dao Court Office had investigated him.
• Gu Changhuai revealed that Shopkeeper Zhao was a formidable underworld middleman and the trusted aide of Fortune Pavilion’s Feather Transformation Realm head shopkeeper; Mo Hua suspected the head shopkeeper might be involved with the Breath Soil Grand Array.
• Gu Changhuai told Mo Hua that Great Benefactor Lü had received a Corpse Dissolution Exemption through an irregular, undocumented process, making him eager to inspect the tomb.
• Mo Hua divined a murky, disconnected omen about the tomb and became more curious about its hidden karma.
• Mo Hua set the tomb opening for the next day, when seven Golden Core cultivators, including Gu Changhuai, Bai Xiaosheng, General Chang, and members of the Lü Family, assembled outside Azure Fields City.

Mo Hua entered Lü Chongshan’s tomb with the local Golden Core cultivators and questioned Elder Pei Tang about the ghost figures carved on its gate. After Pei Tang described ghost-control practices and identified the figures as a Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth Diagram, Gu Changhuai tested a shattered earth figurine, and Mo Hua asked whether its mixed flesh included human flesh.

• Mo Hua met Elder Pei Tang, Village Master Wen, and Lü Jingxiu outside the tomb, then led the group into the pit.
• At the tomb gate, Mo Hua questioned Lü Jingxiu about the ghost carvings, and Elder Pei Tang explained that ghosts could be benevolent or evil and described ways to control them.
• Elder Pei Tang identified the carvings as a Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth Diagram, but could not explain the shattered earth figurine beside the gate.
• Gu Changhuai tested the figurine’s dried flesh slurry with a silver needle and found it was a complicated mixture.
• Mo Hua asked whether the figurine contained human flesh, and Lü Jingxiu, Elder Pei Tang, and Village Master Wen reacted uneasily.

Mo Hua used a secret earth array to open Great Benefactor Lü’s tomb, then led the group inside and found a palace carved from a single enormous spirit stone. The lavish tomb left Lü Jingxiu uncertain about his father’s burial place and made Mo Hua wonder whether the palace was the great fortune foretold by his karmic divination.

• Gu Changhuai found that the earth figurine contained tortured animal and livestock meat, but no human flesh.
• Mo Hua used the Earth-Breaking Mountain-Opening Array and his supposed Ascendant Immortal Dao Arts to breach and open the tomb, astonishing the others.
• Mo Hua warned the group to stay close as they entered, and his authority dispersed a burst of yin wind and black mist at the gate.
• Mo Hua led the group through the tomb’s passages and minor mechanisms into a chamber containing a palace carved from one enormous spirit stone.
• Mo Hua asked Lü Jingxiu whether his father had built the palace, but Lü Jingxiu said he did not know where the spirit stone came from.
• Mo Hua suspected Elder Pei Tang and Village Master Wen recognized the stone’s origin, then wondered whether the palace was his foretold great fortune.

Mo Hua and the others entered the Great Spirit Stone Tomb and encountered eight powerful Golden-Armored Warriors guarding its passage. After a failed attempt to rush past the warriors and the tomb’s mechanisms, the group retreated into a dangerous melee while Mo Hua watched from safety.

• Mo Hua saw the enormous Spirit Stone Tomb and struggled to restrain his Taotie hunger, then urged the group to continue deeper into the tomb.
• The group found eight Third-Grade Middle Tier Golden-Armored Warriors blocking the passage and decided to use their Movement Techniques to rush past them.
• The Golden-Armored Warriors attacked as the group passed, and Mo Hua warned everyone as flaming arrows and other deadly mechanisms filled the passage.
• The mechanisms slowed the group, allowing the Golden-Armored Warriors to catch up; the cultivators retreated from the passage and fought them in the open area.
• Bai Xiaosheng and the others struggled against the warriors’ powerful armor, weapons, and uncanny killing instincts, while Mo Hua withdrew from the melee and watched with growing interest.