Chapter Summaries

Qin He escaped the Divine Court’s expanding search nets and found a hidden valley to rest. There, he began testing how the Lotus Flame interacted with the Merit aura in a Divine Court cultivator’s remains.

• Long Qingyun explained that Wei Canglan had attacked Qin He hoping to earn resources for a breakthrough from the Saint Tier Early Stage.
• Qin He searched the green-robed cultivator’s corpse fragments for clues, found nothing, and put them away.
• The Divine Court destroyed faith statues and deployed a vast network of search nets to hunt Qin He.
• Qin He used the Void Breath-Concealing Step to pass through seven search nets and escape the encirclement.
• Qin He settled in a hidden valley, restored his meridians, and brought out the corpse fragments to test their interaction with the Lotus Flame.
• The Lotus Flame absorbed the fragments’ Merit aura and began refining it along their meridian patterns.

Qin He learned through a Shadow Play that the blue-robed cultivator, Shen Zhao, had been turned into a Merit Puppet after uncovering the Divine Court’s secret. The Shadow Play granted Qin He the Merit Manifestation cultivation art, and Long Qingyun suspected Shen Zhao had undergone Body Seizing.

• Qin He reassembled Shen Zhao’s corpse and used Lotus Flame to cleanse it.
• A Shadow Play revealed Shen Zhao’s rise through the Divine Court, his discovery of Merit Puppets, and how the Divine Court divided his soul and turned his body into a puppet serving Wei Canglan.
• Shen Zhao’s final act of resistance freed him from the Divine Court’s control, and his Shadow Play granted Qin He the Merit Manifestation art.
• Qin He questioned why Shen Zhao had a Shadow Play despite the Divine Court’s resurrection system, and Long Qingyun suggested Shen Zhao had undergone Body Seizing.

Qin He studied Merit Manifestation and discovered that it let him observe believers across the Xuanwu Continent and answer their prayers. He then found Wei Yuanji alive in a ruined mountain temple, reduced to a desperate mortal, and wondered how he had fallen so far.

• Qin He questioned Long Qingyun about the Merit puppets and considered whether the Divine Court was hiding a larger scheme.
• Qin He mastered Merit Manifestation and used it to observe believers and respond to their prayers.
• Qin He discovered a neglected shrine to Great Immortal Green Ox in a remote village.
• Qin He recognized the desperate man praying at the shrine as Wei Yuanji, Wei Wu's cousin, who had disappeared after Qin He left the Eastern Land.
• Qin He inspected Wei Yuanji and the abandoned village, finding that Wei Yuanji had no cultivation and wondering why he had fallen into such hardship.

Qin He found Wei Yuanji gravely injured in a ruined temple and discovered that his sea of qi had been shattered and his meridians destroyed. Long Qingyun explained that Wei Yuanji might be healed with rare Pills or by raiding a Divine Court stronghold for their ingredients.

• Qin He traveled for three days and nights to a ruined temple and found Wei Yuanji near death.
• Qin He examined Wei Yuanji, found his sea of qi shattered and his meridians severed, and used Sourcebirth Power and an Essence Pill to stabilize him.
• Qin He investigated the temple and learned that Wei Yuanji had rebuilt it and endured his injuries there for more than twenty years.
• Long Qingyun confirmed Wei Yuanji had been one of Qin He's earliest Divine Envoys.
• Long Qingyun told Qin He that Wei Yuanji could be treated with three rare Pills or by raiding a Divine Court stronghold for ingredients.

Qin He left Wei Yuanji in an old farmer’s care and traveled to Apocalypse City to find ingredients for pills that could restore him. He discovered the Divine Shrine was heavily guarded and the needed treasures were scarce, leaving him facing a steep price for a single pearl.

• Qin He gave Wei Yuanji Soul-Condensing and Foundation-Stabilizing Pills, left Long Qingyun’s banner and a concealment ward to protect him, then set out for Apocalypse City.
• Qin He reached Apocalypse City and found the Divine Shrine protected by powerful Saint Tier experts, Merit laws, and sealed spatial rifts.
• Long Qingyun named the three pills Wei Yuanji needed and suggested Qin He look for their ingredients through trading companies instead of raiding the shrine.
• Qin He learned that the Myriad Treasures Trading Company had already sold its World-Purifying Lotus Petal to the Divine Shrine and held only insufficient amounts of the other ingredients.
• Qin He asked the price of the Deep-Sea Mysterious Pearl and learned it cost forty Supreme-grade Spirit Stones.

Qin He discovered that Divine Court agents had taken the three spiritual materials he needed, and Long Qingyun warned him that the Heavenly Secrets Bureau had divined his plans. With patrols searching Apocalypse City, Qin He concealed himself and decided to face the bureau rather than abandon his mission.

• Divine Envoy Jun Hao entered the trading house, probed Qin He, and seized the Deep-Sea Mysterious Pearl, purple-gold vine, and seven-leaf soul-returning herb.
• Jun Hao ordered the shopkeeper to turn over any future supplies of those materials to the Divine Court, then left with his attendants.
• Qin He questioned the Black Demon Banner in a secluded alley, and Long Qingyun concluded that the Heavenly Secrets Bureau had divined Qin He's search and taken the materials ahead of him.
• Qin He hid from a patrol of Divine Court cultivators using the Gold-Black Law and Void Breath-Concealing Step.
• Qin He looked toward the Divine Shrine and decided he would confront the Heavenly Secrets Bureau because he could not afford to wait.

Qin He watched the Merit Tower for three days and learned that Wei Canglan and a Heavenly Secrets Bureau mage were preparing a Heavenly Secrets Lock to find him. Though Long Qingyun urged him to flee, Qin He turned his attention to the tower and formed a plan.

• Qin He followed a hidden Source-Birth Law mark to the Merit Tower and settled into a nearby teahouse to watch it.
• Qin He observed the tower’s defenses and overheard cultivators say that a powerful figure from the Upper Realm was inside.
• Qin He followed a boastful young gentleman into an alley and probed his memories for information.
• Qin He learned that a Heavenly Secrets Lineage elder had come to locate the Sky Demon and that Wei Canglan was preparing a Heavenly Secrets Lock.
• Qin He erased the young gentleman’s memory, dismissed Long Qingyun’s warning, and grinned as an idea came to him.

Qin He forced the surviving Black Wind Stronghold bandits to seek medicines and spiritual materials in Apocalypse City under a soul-locking restriction. When the Divine Court learned of their inquiries, Wei Canglan concluded they had found the Sky Demon’s trail and ordered the bandits followed.

• Qin He killed two bandits with Gold-Black Law and demanded medicines or their ingredients from the survivors.
• Qin He placed Soul-Locking Restrictions on the bandits, gave them Spirit Stones, and ordered them to gather supplies discreetly in Apocalypse City.
• Qin He promised each bandit an Obstacle-Breaking Pill if they completed the task, then watched them leave and concealed himself in the forest.
• A Divine Court informant told Wei Canglan that rogue cultivators were asking trading companies and black markets for the requested medicines and materials.
• Wei Canglan connected the bandits' inquiries to the Heavenly Secrets Mage's divination and ordered his forces to track them to the Sky Demon's hiding place.

Wei Canglan gathered ten Saint Tier experts at the Merit Tower after the Heavenly Secrets Bureau tracked the Sky Demon to Black Wind Stronghold. The Saints found and trapped the demon with the Sky-Seeking Divine Realm, but it broke through the formation and fled, leaving the group in pursuit.

• Wei Canglan reported that the Sky Demon was likely hiding at Black Wind Stronghold, and the white-robed cultivator ordered two Saints to guard the Merit Tower while the others followed him and Chi Yan.
• The eight Saints reached Black Wind Stronghold and formed the Sky-Seeking Divine Realm, imprisoning the area and locating the Sky Demon.
• The Sky Demon tore through the formation with golden-black law power and escaped at extraordinary speed.
• The white-robed cultivator and the other Saints pursued the fleeing Sky Demon, relying on the formation to lock onto its disturbed aura.

While the Saints fought Qin He’s Sky Demon guise outside Apocalypse City, Qin He impersonated Wei Canglan to slip into the Merit Tower. He discovered that the tower concealed a vast city and continued toward its lowest-floor treasury.

• Qin He’s disguised Sky Demon fought ten Saints while the Divine Court cultivators watching believed it would be defeated.
• Qin He transformed himself into Wei Canglan’s likeness, faked severe injuries, and flew to the Merit Tower.
• Qin He convinced the two Saints guarding the tower to open its wards by claiming the battle had turned against them.
• Qin He entered the tower and found an immense city inside, filled with Divine Court cultivators and merit-powered structures.
• Qin He descended toward the treasury hidden on the lowest floor of the tower city.

The Saints overwhelmed what they believed was a Sky Demon on the battlefield, only to discover it was a clone and that they had been lured away from Apocalypse City. The two Saints at the Merit Tower also suspected Wei Canglan, and the Saints rushed back to the city in alarm.

• At the Merit Tower, two Saints sensed that the Sky Demon's aura was weakening too easily and could not detect the helper Wei Canglan had mentioned.
• The two Saints suspected Wei Canglan was involved in a conspiracy and ordered the entrances sealed and the lower-level forbidden formation activated.
• On the battlefield, the white-robed Saint King, Chi Yan, Wei Canglan, and the other Saints trapped the Sky Demon and battered down its defenses.
• The Sky Demon dissipated under their final assault, but Wei Canglan realized that it had been only a clone without a divine soul.
• The white-robed Saint King and Chi Yan recognized that they had been lured away and raced back toward Apocalypse City with the other Saints.

An Interworld Sky Demon attacked the Merit Tower in Apocalypse City, devouring its defenses and fusing Merit laws with True Demon qi and an unknown gray law. The two Saints guarding the tower were defeated, leaving the tower collapsing and the Demon Shadow poised to threaten the Lower Realm and beyond.

• Eight Saint Tier streaks of light headed toward Apocalypse City as the Merit Tower’s restrictions shattered.
• The two Saints in the core hall exhausted their powers to defend the tower from the Demon Shadow’s chaotic laws.
• The Demon Shadow broke through the barrier, suppressed the Saints, and absorbed the Merit scattered from the shattered pillars.
• The Saints realized the Demon Shadow could fuse Merit laws and True Demon qi with an unknown law beyond the Divine Court’s order.
• The Merit Tower continued to collapse as the Demon Shadow looked toward the heavens with a subtle smile.

Eight Saints realized the Sky Demon had outmaneuvered them with two clones, and they destroyed the clone inside the Merit Tower. Its destruction triggered a violent eruption from the tower’s lowest level, leaving a pitch-black gap that the Saints faced with grave apprehension.

• The Saints discovered that the Sky Demon’s apparent prison was only a corroded illusion and that the figure inside was a clone.
• Chi Yan confirmed that the Sky Demon’s true body had escaped, and Wei Canglan urged the Saints to keep pursuing him.
• Chi Yan reminded the Saints that the Merit Tower was also important, then stopped himself before revealing what lay imprisoned beneath it.
• The white-robed Saint King led the Saints in breaking through the restrictions and entering the Merit Tower’s core hall.
• The white-robed Saint King pierced the Demonic Body with the Order Sword, and Chi Yan smashed its head with the Merit Great Hammer.
• The Demonic Body’s destruction unleashed violent thunder from the tower’s bottom level, collapsing the Merit Tower and exposing a pitch-black gap.

Qin He asked Long Qingyun about the ancient being sealed beneath the Merit Tower and learned that its underground core remained protected despite damage to the tower aboveground. After escaping with valuable Pills and spiritual materials, Qin He headed to find Wei Yuanji and treat his injuries while avoiding the ten Saint Tier experts.

• Qin He asked Long Qingyun what was imprisoned beneath the Merit Tower, and Long Qingyun described an ancient sealing formation holding a terrifying being.
• Long Qingyun explained that the underground tower and its core formation would remain secure even if the aboveground restrictions collapsed.
• Qin He showed Long Qingyun the three Pills Wei Yuanji needed, along with the other treasures he had taken from the treasury.
• Qin He returned his spoils to his storage space and set off to find Wei Yuanji.
• Long Qingyun warned Qin He that the ten Saint Tier experts would search for him, and Qin He concealed his aura as he raced deeper into the Cangwu Mountains.

Qin He reunited with Wei Yuanji, who had spent seventy years searching and praying for him after arriving in the Upper Realm. Wei Yuanji began recounting how he rebuilt his cultivation and eventually lost it, while Qin He said he was still trying to find a way to bring the others to the Upper Realm.

• Qin He entered the old farmer’s side room and Wei Yuanji recognized him as the Young Great Immortal.
• Wei Yuanji wept with relief and told Qin He he had searched and prayed for him for seventy years.
• Qin He comforted Wei Yuanji and said Wei Wu and the others had not been found, though he was seeking a way to bring them to the Upper Realm.
• Qin He asked how Wei Yuanji’s cultivation had been crippled, and Wei Yuanji began describing his life since their separation.
• Wei Yuanji recounted reaching the Upper Realm, rebuilding his cultivation with help from the villagers and Qin He’s pills, and searching unsuccessfully for his companions.
• Wei Yuanji said he had built a mountain temple to the Great Immortal Green Ox and prayed with local villagers, but received no response.

Wei Yuanji’s temple flourished, but Zhao Deshen extorted him and demanded that he exploit believers by staging disasters for profit. After Wei Yuanji refused, Zhao Deshen threatened to report him, and a villager arrived the next morning claiming Little River Village had been wiped out by evil entities.

• Wei Yuanji built up the temple’s faith over more than a decade, drawing worshippers from the surrounding area.
• Zhao Deshen accused Wei Yuanji of privately gathering Merit and began extorting Spirit Stones and spiritual materials from him.
• Zhao Deshen proposed exploiting worshippers through costly offerings, fabricated signs, and staged disasters, but Wei Yuanji refused.
• Zhao Deshen threatened to report Wei Yuanji to Earth God Manor unless he helped stage disasters, and Wei Yuanji asked for several days to consider.
• A bloodied villager rushed into the temple and told Wei Yuanji that everyone in Little River Village had been killed by evil entities.

Wei Yuanji discovered that Zhao Deshen had slaughtered Little River Village and planned to frame him, then was cursed and stripped of his cultivation when Earth God Manor attacked. After decades in hiding, he returned to rebuild his temple and prayed for Qin He to come and help him seek justice.

• Wei Yuanji received Zhao Deshen's talisman ordering him to suppress the staged incident at Little River Village and threatening to frame him for the massacre.
• Wei Yuanji found the villagers dead, overheard Zhao Deshen's lackeys boast about the plot, and killed them.
• Manager Li led Earth God Manor cultivators to accuse Wei Yuanji of the massacre and attack him, but Wei Yuanji fled.
• Manager Li struck Wei Yuanji with a curse that destroyed his cultivation and vitality, then ordered his temple demolished.
• After hiding for decades, Wei Yuanji returned to the ruins, rebuilt a small temple, and prayed for Qin He to appear and help the villagers receive justice.

Qin He used three supreme pills to heal Wei Yuanji, restore his cultivation, and cleanse and reforge his Dao foundation. Wei Yuanji recovered to the threshold of the Dao Palace Realm and prepared to seek revenge on those responsible for the Little River Village massacre.

• Qin He gave Wei Yuanji the Sea-Gathering Pill, Meridian-Continuing Pill, and Clear-Turbid Pill, then concealed the room and guarded him as he took them.
• Wei Yuanji endured seven days of refinement as the pills restored his sea of qi and meridians and removed the curse.
• Wei Yuanji’s cultivation surged to the threshold of the Dao Palace Realm, and his body and Dao foundation were reforged.
• Wei Yuanji thanked Qin He with three bows and nine kowtows after awakening fully healed.
• Wei Yuanji resolved to pursue Deacon Li, Zhao Dekun, and the others responsible for the village massacre, declining Qin He’s offer of help.

Qin He visited Little River Village to see how it had recovered from the massacre decades earlier and learned from an elderly tea-stall keeper that the village had been rebuilt, though a prolonged drought had left its people struggling. The chapter ended with Qin He hearing that poor harvests and dwindling herbs had made village life increasingly difficult.

• Qin He rewarded the old farmer who had sheltered him with three pills and a heavy bag of gold and silver, then continued toward Little River Village.
• Qin He found the village peaceful and bustling, though the fields nearby showed signs of prolonged drought.
• At a tea stall, Qin He asked the elderly keeper about the village's past calamity.
• The keeper recounted that bandits had slaughtered the villagers decades earlier, sparing only those who had gone to the city to sell herbs.
• The keeper told Qin He that more than ten years of drought, poor harvests, and scarce herbs had made life difficult for the villagers.

Qin He traced the drought to a Water Monkey that had been drawing moisture into its pool. He spared and aided the demon, then rain fell on Little River Village as he disappeared.

• Qin He followed the stream upstream and found a black pool surrounded by parched land.
• Qin He summoned the Water Monkey and learned its cultivation had been unintentionally causing the villages downstream to suffer drought.
• Qin He gave the Water Monkey an Azure Water Pill and cultivation insights, ordering it to release moisture regularly and protect the villages.
• The Water Monkey pledged to obey Qin He, who identified himself as the Green Ox Immortal and vanished in a flash of light.
• Rain began falling over Little River Village, and the old man at the tea stall rejoiced.