Recaps

After completing the Apocalyptic Village Building Quest, Zhang Yang chose to leave the ruined future and begin the Immortal Cultivation Village Building Task. He fused his accumulated Fragments of Hope into increasingly powerful objects, then stopped to reconsider whose luck to borrow after a fusion failed.

• Zhang Yang declined to remain in the world and unbound the Apocalyptic Village Building Order, regaining his strength in the ruins three hundred years later.
• Zhang Yang accepted the Immortal Cultivation Village Building Task and learned that most possessions would be destroyed or ineffective in the Immortal Cultivation World.
• Zhang Yang fused 3,000 Purple Fragments of Hope into 225 Star of Hope fragments, then into 78 elementary Stars of Hope.
• Zhang Yang tried borrowing Qin Ge's luck to fuse the stars, but the attempt failed; borrowing Wu Yuan's luck succeeded once and failed the next time.
• Zhang Yang borrowed Mu Shaojun's luck twice and Mu Shaoan's once, succeeding in all three fusions before a second attempt with Mu Shaoan failed.

Zhang Yang arrived in the Immortal Cultivation World after refusing the Khergit Boatmen’s investment offers, then approached a village built from Mortal Iron ore. The villagers barred him from entering, and he encountered the supposedly dead young woman whose corpse they had been mourning.

• The Khergit Boatmen offered Zhang Yang three investment options, but he refused to sign an agreement or pay for information.
• The boat delivered Zhang Yang to a misty port, which vanished as he stepped ashore in the Immortal Cultivation World.
• Zhang Yang sensed abundant spiritual energy and found a mountain village built from Mortal Iron ore.
• A village formation stopped Zhang Yang, and a burly villager demanded 500 Immortal Stones for one Sleepless Night and challenged him to endure one outside.
• Zhang Yang spoke to a weeping young woman, then heard her ask who said the dead could not return to life.
• Zhang Yang turned and saw the young woman standing behind him with blood tears in her eyes, though she had appeared to be alive moments earlier.

Zhang Yang paid to shelter in Black Ox Village, connected his sword-cultivator foundation to the Immortal Cultivation World, and tested a Mortal Grade Sword Art. The village archer offered him a permanent elder position and Immortal Stones for the art, then explained that the village relied on an inherited Ghost Empress Dowager and a Three Yin Drum.

• Zhang Yang avoided provoking the Village Guardian Ghost, paid the archer five hundred Immortal Stones, and learned the village's three taboos and basic rules for surviving the Sleepless Night.
• Zhang Yang explored Black Ox Village, found an empty stone house, and successfully refined the world's native Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi after enduring an inner tribulation.
• Zhang Yang used the Mountain River Sword Art's Ninefold Mountain form to destroy a stone house, then exhausted his Natal Spiritual Qi and spent five Immortal Stones recovering.
• The archer offered Zhang Yang elder status and a thousand Immortal Stones in exchange for his incomplete Mortal Grade Sword Art, and Zhang Yang questioned why the village needed it despite its powerful guardian ghost.
• The archer explained that Black Ox Village's Ghost Empress Dowager had been inherited from its ancestors, required yearly sacrifices of a virgin boy and girl, and protected the village as long as the Three Yin Drum remained intact.

After recovering from his injuries with a miraculous Earth Pill, Zhang Yang taught Black Ox Village’s youths the Ninefold Mountain Sword Form and learned about the region’s powers and the Sleepless Night. He realized his task of establishing an Immortal Cultivation Sect would be difficult, while a demon calamity threatened the region every three hundred and thirty days.

• Niu Jiao offered Zhang Yang an Earth Pill and a temporary place to stay in exchange for teaching Black Ox Village the incomplete sword form.
• Zhang Yang swallowed the pill, healed his injuries, and gained five years of lifespan before explaining the Ninefold Mountain Sword Form to ten village youths.
• Zhang Yang demonstrated the sword form, taught the youths the Three Firewood Sword Art, and received one thousand Immortal Stones from Niu Jiao.
• Zhang Yang asked an old man about the surrounding region and learned that Black Ox Village paid taxes and sacrifices to Black Mountain City, ruled by Black Mountain Lord.
• The old man explained that Black Mountain City relied on an Immortal Cultivation Sect and that the Sleepless Night brought the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons after three hundred and thirty days, forcing settlements to shelter behind ancient formations.

Zhang Yang ambushed and killed the Ghost Empress Dowager with help from Black Ox Village’s Three Yin Drum. He then told Niu Jiao he had killed the village’s strongest protector to force the villagers to cooperate before the sleepless night arrived.

• Zhang Yang saw the Ghost Empress Dowager warning him to leave the Black Earth Plains, then used his Mountain River Sword Intent to provoke an attack.
• The Ghost Empress Dowager struck at Zhang Yang, but his Demon Language: Bewitchment awakened Black Ox Village’s formation and Three Yin Drum.
• Zhang Yang combined his sword techniques with the drum’s suppression to grievously wound the Ghost Empress Dowager and wear her down.
• Niu Jiao called from underground that the drum had gone out of control because a Devil Race member had entered the village.
• Zhang Yang killed the Ghost Empress Dowager, then admitted to Niu Jiao that he had removed the village’s strongest support to compel cooperation and demanded proof of their sincerity by dawn.

Zhang Yang heard the Supreme Elder explain the Three Yin Drum’s purpose and agree to cooperate to survive the coming Sleepless Night. After the Supreme Elder appointed new village leaders, Niu Dou asked Zhang Yang to stay and establish an Immortal Cultivation Sect in the Black Earth Plains.

• Niu Jiao demanded Zhang Yang teach him the full Ninefold Mountain Sword Form and the spell used to rouse the Three Yin Drum, but Zhang Yang refused.
• Black Ox Village’s Supreme Elder emerged from the memorial tablet, explained that he had become the Three Yin Drum’s Drum Spirit, and thanked Zhang Yang for killing the Village Guardian Ghost.
• The Supreme Elder used the Three Yin Drum to kill Niu Jiao and the six elders, turning their souls into Drum Spirits as punishment for their betrayal.
• The Supreme Elder warned Zhang Yang that the village could not survive the Sleepless Night without his help, and Zhang Yang agreed to cooperate for the sake of staying alive.
• The Supreme Elder appointed Niu Dou as village chief and Zhang Yang as an elder, and Niu Dou asked Zhang Yang to protect Black Ox Village and establish an Immortal Cultivation Sect.

Zhang Yang agreed to establish an Immortal Cultivation Sect in Black Ox Village after Niu Dou offered land, people, and resources in exchange for protection through the coming Sleepless Night. They inspected the village’s assets and settled on a substantial contribution of Immortal Stones and Earth Pills.

• Niu Dou explained how he had helped Zhang Yang survive the Village Guardian Ghost and argued that the Black Earth Plains offered the freedom needed to establish a sect.
• Niu Dou demanded a profitable partnership, threatening to disband Black Ox Village if Zhang Yang would not cooperate.
• Niu Dou offered the land within five hundred li, the village’s 1,287 residents, and its Earth Pills as the sect’s foundation.
• Zhang Yang accepted Niu Dou’s proposal, agreeing to establish the sect with thirty-two days remaining before the Sleepless Night.
• Zhang Yang and Niu Dou inspected Black Ox Village’s assets, including its protective arrays, Three Yin Drum, and twenty thousand Immortal Stones.
• Niu Dou promised Zhang Yang one-quarter of the Immortal Stones, plus 1,000 Immortal Stones and all the village’s Earth Pills each year.

Zhang Yang chose a site for his sect gate near Black Ox Village and learned that the village’s ancient protection array would need an expensive replacement stone in ten years. When Niu Dou discovered Zhang Yang lacked the array blueprint needed to build the gate, Zhang Yang fled as the village chief turned on him.

• Zhang Yang learned that Black Ox Village’s ancient array came from an old blueprint and would need a costly Mortal Grade Array Stone in ten years.
• Niu Dou revealed that his ancestor had been a Golden Core Stage cultivator and offered relics, persuading Zhang Yang to continue establishing the sect.
• Zhang Yang chose a ridge beyond the Ancient Village Protection Array and activated a task requiring a Sect Protection Array, a benign-anomaly guardian, and a Spirit Gathering Platform.
• Niu Dou brought two hundred villagers and supplies, but explained that building the sect gate required an array blueprint.
• Zhang Yang realized Niu Dou had expected him to possess a Village Building Order, and he ran when Niu Dou’s eyes flashed fiercely.

After Black Ox Village moved away, Zhang Yang stayed behind and tried to cultivate, realizing the village’s spiritual-energy facilities had been supporting the area. He practiced the Mountain River Sword Art and hid from strange visitors, only to discover a bloody ox head that was more frightened of him than he was of it.

• Niu Dou accused Zhang Yang of deceiving Black Ox Village, moved his people away, and warned other villages not to accept him.
• Zhang Yang remained at the abandoned village site and learned that its Spirit Gathering Platform had been drawing in the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.
• After the spiritual energy faded, Zhang Yang spent Immortal Stones to replenish his Natal Spiritual Qi and practiced all three forms of the Mountain River Sword Art.
• Zhang Yang recognized flaws in his sword forms and resolved to strengthen his Sword Intent and develop his Spirit Meridian Sword Core.
• Zhang Yang hid when strange whispers approached the abandoned village, then found a bloody ox head above him; it screamed at the sight of him and fainted.

Zhang Yang was swept up with other villagers by Ox-Head Ghost Slaves and brought to a dangerous Profound-grade anomaly that Prince Kun tried to subdue. As the anomaly fought back, a little girl appeared to ask Zhang Yang three questions.

• Zhang Yang let the modified Demon Language: Bewitchment control him and followed the Ox-Heads through the azure mist with the other villagers.
• The Ox-Heads injected Zhang Yang and the other captives with Thieving Spring Water, then brought them to a mountain and black pavilion that Zhang Yang recognized as an anomaly.
• Prince Kun and his Demon Race followers prepared sacrifices and formations to subdue the benign Profound-grade anomaly, while the anomaly killed and injured them and the puppet humans.
• Prince Kun launched a black-and-white sphere and his followers activated their formation, but the anomaly counterattacked and a little girl asked Zhang Yang who she was, who he was, and who he was.

Zhang Yang endured the Strange’s shifting rules while Prince Kun’s forces attacked its domain, then outlasted them and challenged the Strange for control. The Strange offered him a final choice: sacrifice a living relative, and Zhang Yang chose his cousin, Mu Shao'an.

• Zhang Yang used a basic Star of Hope to survive the Strange’s first question while nearly a hundred human puppets died.
• Zhang Yang inferred that the Strange operated through alternating rules and upgraded his Gold Meridian Sword Core to provoke another round of questioning.
• The Strange’s new rules killed more puppets and Prince Kun’s Demon Race subordinates, while Prince Kun’s forces broke through the domain and fled.
• Zhang Yang used an intermediate Star of Hope to survive a woman’s accusation, then resisted the Strange’s oppressive force with three techniques.
• Zhang Yang spent two intermediate Stars of Hope to escape the danger concealed in a bell and offered up his remaining Stars of Hope for the final trial.
• An aged voice offered Zhang Yang safe passage or control of the Strange in exchange for a living relative’s death, and Zhang Yang chose Mu Shao'an.

After gaining control of a Profound-grade Strange, Zhang Yang reverse-bound six incomplete Immortal Cultivation Village Building Orders and established an Immortal Cultivation Sect at the former site of Black Ox Village. He became Sect Master Zhang and planned to recover his strength and cultivate before the Sleepless Night arrived in a month.

• Zhang Yang discovered that he controlled the Profound-grade Strange and reverse-bound six incomplete Immortal Cultivation Village Building Orders, leaving him free of their missions and erasure threat.
• Zhang Yang returned to the former site of Black Ox Village, promised to look after its survivors if they met again, and began establishing his mountain gate there.
• Zhang Yang used one hundred Immortal Stones to speed up construction of the formation diagram and Spirit Gathering Platform, completing a low-grade Immortal Cultivation Sect guarded by his Profound-grade Strange.
• Zhang Yang inspected the sect’s weak defenses and Spirit Gathering Platform, then decided to cultivate, recover his strength, and hone the three sword forces of the Mountain River Sword Art.

Zhang Yang discovered that the strange plants in Black Ox Village’s fields were a powerful weed demon and fought them to harvest their restorative contents. After consuming the grass balls and advancing his Gold Meridian Sword Core, he gained greatly enhanced defense and a Formless Golden Sword, then decided to farm the plants.

• Zhang Yang tried to remove a strange plant from Black Ox Village’s fields, but it resisted his strength, sword, fire, and spiritual attacks.
• Zhang Yang used his Gold Meridian Sword Core to cut a leaf, provoking the surrounding plants to tear free and attack him as spiked grass balls.
• Zhang Yang restrained the grass balls and battered their souls with repeated Soul Tremors until they fell.
• Zhang Yang ate the contents of the grass balls, recovering lost lifespan and upgrading his Gold Meridian Sword Core to the third stage.
• Zhang Yang discovered his greatly increased defense and the Azure Shadow Sword’s Formless Golden Sword, then decided to farm the plants.

Zhang Yang discovered that his sword qi left a harmful radiation that could serve as a training ground for sword cultivators, so he began creating Sword Human Valley. After four days of practice, his Mountain River Sword Intent advanced, and his first attempt at the improved Ninefold Mountain sword form buried him beneath the collapsed pit.

• Zhang Yang realized that practicing his sword had devastated farmland and left sword-qi radiation in the soil.
• Zhang Yang chose a hilly site for Sword Human Valley and began repeatedly practicing the Mountain River Sword Art to build his combat strength.
• Over three days, Zhang Yang increased his sword-form speed and used the sword-qi radiation to improve his Mountain River Sword Intent.
• On the fourth day, Zhang Yang's Intent Meridian Sword Core advanced from the first layer to the second, strengthening his sword intent and accelerating Azure Shadow.
• Zhang Yang unleashed the improved Ninefold Mountain sword form, which spread across more than a thousand meters and collapsed the Heartless Pit, burying him alive.

Zhang Yang strengthened Sword Human Valley and stored its deadly sword-qi radiation in the Green Shadow sword as the Sleepless Night approached. When Niu Dou and a strange group carrying sealed yellow gourds arrived at the old Black Ox Village site, Zhang Yang confronted them as the newly named Heavenly Sword Gate.

• Zhang Yang recovered from the collapse of the Heartless Pit and decided to keep expanding Sword Human Valley rather than seek disciples.
• Over the following days, Zhang Yang rebuilt the Heartless Pit and absorbed its sword-qi radiation into the Green Shadow sword, giving it a powerful yellow sword-ray.
• Zhang Yang sensed Niu Dou outside the old Black Ox Village site with twenty villagers and fifteen strange men carrying talisman-sealed yellow gourds.
• Zhang Yang named his mountain gate the Heavenly Sword Gate and warned the group not to trespass.
• Niu Dou claimed the group had come to pay respects to the village ancestors' tombs or move them elsewhere.

Zhang Yang agreed to help Niu Dou and Black Ox Village recover the Spirit Gathering Platform from a Demon King threatening Black Mist Village. He set out with Niu Dou, carrying the Azure Shadow Sword Artifact concealed in a strange stone coffin.

• Niu Dou begged Zhang Yang for help, and Black Mist Village’s leader offered the village as an attendant village of the Heavenly Sword Gate in exchange for protection.
• Niu Dou explained that Black Ox Village had merged with Black Mist Village after losing its Three Yin Drum and formation diagram to Prince Kun, and offered the Spirit Gathering Platform in return for permission to rebuild nearby.
• Niu Dou revealed that Prince Kun had given Black Mist Village five days to surrender the Spirit Gathering Platform, threatening to destroy it during Sleepless Night.
• Black Mist Village’s leader said his people would not risk angering a Demon King, while Zhang Yang decided the confrontation could establish the Heavenly Sword Gate’s reputation.
• Zhang Yang ordered Niu Dou to return to Black Mist Village and then agreed to go with him, packing the Azure Shadow Sword Artifact inside a stone coffin.

Zhang Yang was ambushed by Black Mist Village villagers who used black-mist fine sand to kill Niu Dou and the others, but he wiped out the attackers and their hidden ally with his sword techniques. He then authorized the Village Building Order to plunder the battlefield and headed for Black Mist Village.

• Zhang Yang noticed a suspicious cloud following his group and decided to split off with Niu Dou.
• Twelve Black Mist Village villagers surrounded Zhang Yang's party and released black-mist fine sand, killing Niu Dou and the other villagers.
• Zhang Yang used the stone coffin to repel the fine sand, killed the twelve attackers, and compressed the sand into a hard object.
• Zhang Yang struck the approaching cloud with Ninefold Mountain Sword Form, then pursued and killed the surviving shadow with his Azure Shadow sword.
• Zhang Yang authorized the Village Building Order to plunder the battlefield and set out for Black Mist Village.

Zhang Yang demanded supplies from Black Mist Village, then destroyed its protection array and most of the village when its leaders refused. He claimed the survivors and everything left for the Heavenly Sword Gate, beginning his Immortal Cultivation Village Building Task.

• Zhang Yang ignored Black Mist Village's cavalry patrol, whose soldiers were killed by the sword-qi radiation clinging to his Azure Shadow sword.
• Zhang Yang demanded Mortal Iron, Mortal Copper, and Immortal Stones from the Village Guardian Ghost, but Black Mist Village's chief elder refused and activated the Ancient Village Protection Array.
• Zhang Yang formed his Golden Sword and broke the Ancient Village Protection Array, while the Village Guardian Ghost fled.
• Zhang Yang used Cloud Mountain's Ninefold Seal to destroy most of Black Mist Village and wipe out more than half its residents.
• Zhang Yang claimed the village's living, dead, and remaining property for the Heavenly Sword Gate and declared that his Immortal Cultivation Village Building Task had begun.

After exhausting himself defeating Black Mist Village, Zhang Yang used the Village Building Order to plunder its resources and decided to establish the Heavenly Sword Gate. He recruited two captured Golden Core Daoists as protectors and approached the four captives who had helped him in battle.

• Zhang Yang realized that a sword cultivator's reckless fighting style could shorten his life and decided he needed a sect to gather resources and train followers.
• Zhang Yang plundered Black Mist Village, gaining treasures, supplies, villagers, prisoners, and a Heaven's Secret Fragment, while learning that a Level 1 sect required an Aberrant Mountain Gate, a Spirit Gathering Platform, and an Array Diagram.
• Zhang Yang offered the two wounded Golden Core Daoists a choice between serving him and being sacrificed; both chose to live, and he appointed them protectors of the Heavenly Sword Gate.
• Zhang Yang thanked the four former captives who had helped him defeat Black Mist Village's granny spirit cultivator and introduced himself as the sect master.
• The four captives bowed to Zhang Yang, whose scars and roguish appearance left him wondering why Black Mist Village had imprisoned them instead of killing them.

Liu Xueli explained the Six Paths of Reincarnation, Human Spirits, aberrations, and evils to Zhang Yang, then warned that a demon-human hybrid might be hiding among the villagers captured by Black Mist Village. Zhang Yang agreed to cooperate with the Heavenly Masters and learned that powerful sects were guarded by Loose Immortals or even stronger experts.

• Liu Xueli introduced himself and his three subordinates, then explained that Black Mist Village had imprisoned them for five years after betraying them during their investigation of a Demoness.
• Liu Xueli explained how Human Spirits differed from ghosts and described how demons could produce surviving mixed-blood children known as evils.
• Liu Xueli revealed that the Golden Core Daoist killed by the four Heavenly Masters had been an evil that might be hiding among the captured villagers.
• Zhang Yang agreed to cooperate with the Heavenly Masters and asked about tickets, outsiders, and the aberrations used to suppress sect mountain gates.
• Liu Xueli explained that aberrations could be benign or malignant and advised that sects needed Heavenly Masters’ help to handle dangerous ones.
• Liu Xueli said powerful Immortal Cultivation Sects were guarded by Loose Immortals or higher-level experts, leaving Zhang Yang silent.

Zhang Yang asked the four Heavenly Masters to forge swords, and Qian Muyun explained the Bone and Flesh Sword Forging Method and the value of demonic language. Zhang Yang offered three core demonic languages in exchange for their service and reverse-deciphered variants, and they agreed to serve him for ten years.

• Zhang Yang asked whether any of the four Heavenly Masters could forge swords, and Qian Muyun offered to make a Ghost Extermination Sword and a Demon Slaying Sword.
• Qian Muyun explained that the Bone and Flesh Sword Forging Method used materials from one race to make weapons that restrained another, and Zhang Yang supplied the Black Wolf Demon King's remains for the swords.
• Liu Xueli and the others asked to hear Zhang Yang's demonic language in return for serving him for ten years, and Zhang Yang agreed.
• Zhang Yang revealed the Giant Strength and Heavy Armor demonic languages, and Qian Muyun identified their grades and possible variations.
• Zhang Yang offered them the core demonic language Flight as well, asking them to decipher the reverse forms of all three languages, and the four Heavenly Masters accepted.

Zhang Yang chose a site for Sword Human Valley’s mountain gate and discovered that the Immortal Cultivation Village Building Order was connected to a True Realm backend. The chapter left him staring at a system report declaring its invasion mission a complete failure and recommending evacuation.

• Liu Xueli and the others helped Zhang Yang clear out Black Mist Village, and Zhang Yang revealed that the mountain-gate anomaly was his own Profound-tier anomaly.
• Liu Xueli urged Zhang Yang to establish his mountain gate, so Zhang Yang chose a new site for Sword Human Valley twenty kilometers from Black Mist Village.
• The Village Building Order offered Zhang Yang an additional Immortal Cultivation Village Building Order and directed him to use his Level 3 War Badge to ask three questions.
• A bloodied general told Zhang Yang that he was a village chief candidate in the Fourth Sequence’s civilization hegemony battlefield, but the War Badge shattered when Zhang Yang asked who the general was.
• The mountain-gate anomaly swallowed a giant hand that reached from the void, while Zhang Yang’s other Village Building Orders and War Badge were destroyed.
• Zhang Yang bound the new Immortal Cultivation Village Building Order and saw a backend report that its agent, Yang Nan, was dead and its invasion mission had failed.

Zhang Yang used the Immortal Cultivation Village Building Order’s backend modifier during the Sleepless Night to make one unit of spiritual qi appear near him each day. The modification succeeded, and he discovered that the spiritual qi was astonishingly pure.

• Zhang Yang decided to hide the Village Building Order and use its backend modification permissions cautiously.
• The Sleepless Night began, and Zhang Yang watched the Demonic Wind and the forces of other realms engulf the Black Earth Plains.
• Zhang Yang entered his underground chamber and used the Village Building Order to modify the spiritual qi around his body.
• Zhang Yang sensed one unit of spiritual qi gather, realized its purity rivaled that of a Nascent Soul old monster, and swallowed it.

After gaining a fleeting taste of Heaven and Earth Dao Rhyme from the Village Building Order, Zhang Yang learned that a Monster City had appeared nearby and feared the danger would draw the faction he had betrayed. He abandoned Black Mist Village and fled with Liu Xueli and Qian Muyun, while several others stayed to face the invasion.

• Zhang Yang absorbed one unit of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and experienced a subtle realization of the world's deeper truths.
• Liu Xueli warned Zhang Yang that a Monster City had appeared and could unleash a Demon Race army during Sleepless Night.
• Zhang Yang rejected Liu Xueli's plan to hold their position and insisted they escape because he feared his betrayal would bring a greater calamity.
• Lian Que'er, Zhong Yuanshan, and Cai Guicheng chose to stay in Black Mist Village and gamble on the chance to earn the attention of an Immortal Cultivation Sect.
• Liu Xueli and Qian Muyun joined Zhang Yang as he took back his Profound-tier Anomaly and fled into the black storm.

Zhang Yang led Liu Xueli and Qian Muyun across the Black Earth Plains, relying on Liu Xueli’s Star Guiding Art and Zhang Yang’s defenses to escape the Demonic Wind. When a Demon Emperor-level curse struck Liu Xueli and extinguished the guiding light, Zhang Yang purged it, but the group was left without their guide as the enemy pursued them.

• Liu Xueli used the Star Guiding Art to guide the group while Zhang Yang created a moving defensive space and taught Qian Muyun the Demonic Languages for Heavy Armor and Flight.
• Zhang Yang and the others traveled more than five hundred kilometers, while the Monster City behind them remained still.
• The Star Guiding Art went out, and a curse burst Liu Xueli’s eyes and caused black maggots to emerge from his body.
• Qian Muyun warned Zhang Yang that the curse was contagious and likely came from a Demon Emperor, but Zhang Yang attacked the maggots with Demonic Language: Bewitchment and Soul Tremors.
• Zhang Yang used the Formless Heart Sword to purge the curse, leaving Liu Xueli unconscious, then ordered Qian Muyun to carry him and keep moving.