Chapter Summaries

Chen Luo used the Origin Seal to manipulate the threads connecting the Barbarians, Myriad Stars Gate, Evergreen Sect, and Silent Valley, forcing the Barbarians and Myriad Stars Gate cultivators to clash. The battle left both sides badly injured, and Silent Valley's Second appeared to demand the demon soul as Chen Luo realized he could use Old Brother Changqing's power to make possible events come to pass.

• In a mountain cave, the Great Elder threatened the two Barbarians with punishment unless they dragged the Evergreen Sect into the conflict within three days, so they decided to attack its members and frame both sides.
• Myriad Stars Gate's core descendants pursued the two Barbarians, who planned to massacre the Evergreen Sect and provoke a fight between the factions.
• Chen Luo used the Origin Seal to alter the groups' connections and paths, causing the Barbarians and Myriad Stars Gate cultivators to meet in the mountains.
• The ensuing battle killed the Tall and Thin Barbarian and three Myriad Stars Gate cultivators, while the Blood Puppet Barbarian and the leading female cultivator were severely injured.
• Silent Valley's Second emerged and demanded the demon soul, while Chen Luo recognized that he had used Old Brother Changqing's power to turn possible events into destined ones.

Chen Luo killed the surviving cultivators of the three factions, claimed the demon soul, and learned it could help refine the Soul Banner into a Spirit Artifact. A red-haired ox demon then appeared, asked whether Chen Luo was the man favored by the Saintess Empress, and left him wondering if it meant Su Linlin.

• Silent Valley's Old Three defeated the Myriad Stars Gate cultivator and demanded the demon soul, but Chen Luo arrived and killed him with a single palm.
• Chen Luo passed through the female cultivator's Three Origin Heavy Water defenses and killed her, then collected the slain cultivators' souls and took the demon soul from her Storage Bag.
• Ouyang Lian identified the demon soul as an auxiliary material for refining an immortal artifact that could make the Soul Banner a Spirit Artifact.
• A red-haired, one-horned ox demon appeared, recognized Chen Luo, and questioned why the Saintess Empress had taken a liking to him.
• Chen Luo connected the title Saintess Empress to Su Linlin.

Chen Luo learned that Su Linlin had been helping the Evergreen Sect and received a warning from her emissary about the Myriad Stars Gate and the coming conflict. After seeing the danger of the Vermilion Fruit, he agreed to head west and prepared to leave Yao Guang Star.

• The bull demon challenged Chen Luo, and they exchanged punches before the bull demon acknowledged Chen Luo's strength.
• The bull demon explained that the Myriad Stars Gate was controlled by the three ghosts of Sun, Moon, and Star, then showed Chen Luo a Vermilion Fruit carrying Void Spirit power.
• Chen Luo refused to touch the fruit and accepted the Empress's order to go west and leave the area.
• Chen Luo realized Su Linlin had used the Demon Race's influence to help the Evergreen Sect gain a foothold on Yao Guang Star.
• The bull demon gave Chen Luo a copy of the Kui Ox Fundamental Diagram and told him the Ancient God Sect lay beyond the Western Pass.

Chen Luo fled the Myriad Stars Gate’s turmoil with the Flower-Backed Turtle, Shen Lin, and Shen Lin’s mother, then reached the Ancient God Sect’s border. After rejecting the sect’s recruitment and killing four pursuers, he continued toward a quiet place to resolve his soul problem.

• Chen Luo and the Flower-Backed Turtle left the Evergreen Sect, collected Shen Lin and his mother, and fled the Myriad Stars Gate’s territory as the Myriad Stars Gate and Silent Valley clashed.
• Chen Luo’s group reached a border market in the Ancient God Sect, where a Soul Transformation Cultivator denounced the Myriad Stars Gate and urged refugees to join the Ancient God Sect.
• An old man with a teapot warned Chen Luo that the Ancient God Sect could not be trusted and that the Flower-Backed Turtle was valuable, while refugees offered cultivation methods to the sect for rewards.
• Chen Luo refused to join the Ancient God Sect and left the market with the Flower-Backed Turtle, Shen Lin, and Shen Lin’s mother, but several cultivators pursued them.
• Chen Luo sent the Flower-Backed Turtle ahead with Shen Lin and his mother, then used Realm Suppression to crush four robber cultivators who had followed them.
• The Ancient God Sect’s black-clad cultivator arrived, found the pursuers dead, and buried their remains beneath a collapsed pit.

Chen Luo continued developing his cultivation and resources in Xiachuan County while teaching Shen Lin, who had finally Entered the Dao. After three years of gathering brains and refining his Soul Banner, Chen Luo’s spirit had nearly recovered, though he had been slowing Shen Lin’s cultivation by drawing power from him.

• The River Dragon brothers delivered a heavy coffin to the Chen Residence, where Shen Lin lifted it alone and carried it inside.
• Chen Luo confirmed that Shen Lin had no cultivation problems and learned that he had reached Qi Refining Layer One after three years.
• Chen Luo absorbed the brain from the newly delivered corpse, bringing his total number of External Brains to nine hundred.
• Chen Luo’s Soul Banner had advanced from a dharma artifact to a Spirit Artifact, and his spirit had recovered almost completely.
• Chen Luo realized that his continual power draw had been the chief reason for Shen Lin’s slow cultivation.

Yuwen Ling and Ding Jian tracked the Tomb Raiding Turtle and Lai Shu to Chen Luo’s courtyard, where its powerful formations and puppets trapped them. Outside Xiachuan County, an Ancient God Sect cultivator confronted the turtle and identified it as a fugitive from the Myriad Stars Gate.

• A ship arrived at Xiachuan County carrying Yuwen Ling and Ding Jian, who followed Lai Shu’s trail to the site of a stolen ancestral grave.
• Yuwen Ling and Ding Jian entered Chen Luo’s courtyard, triggered its formation, and fought off a swarm of puppet servants with Ding Jian’s python strength.
• The formation trapped Yuwen Ling and Ding Jian despite their attempts to escape, and they offered compensation when a mysterious senior questioned them about Lai Shu.
• A flaming turtle crashed into the formations surrounding Xiachuan County, revealing a layered array of Fourth-tier formations that shielded the county.
• An Ancient God Sect cultivator appeared above the formation and called the turtle and its companions fugitives from the Myriad Stars Gate.

Chen Luo killed Demon Lord Ran Huo and learned that the Ancient God Sect’s Ancient God Skull had tracked him through his exposed soul aura. He fled Xiachuan County disguised as Ran Huo, intending to infiltrate the sect and steal the secret treasure, while an unknown pursuer later destroyed the county.

• Demon Lord Ran Huo attacked Chen Luo, but Chen Luo killed him in an instant after Ran Huo tried to call for help.
• Chen Luo absorbed Ran Huo’s memories and learned the Ancient God Skull had found him when he exposed his soul aura while checking his injuries.
• Chen Luo decided Xiachuan County was no longer safe, gathered Shen Lin, the Flower-Backed Turtle, Yuwen Ling, Ding Jian, and Lai Shu, and fled disguised as Ran Huo.
• Chen Luo planned to infiltrate the Ancient God Sect and take the Ancient God Skull for himself.
• A figure arrived over Xiachuan County and seized the county and its surrounding formations, leaving a vast pit behind.
• Days later, Chen Luo rested with the Flower-Backed Turtle on a barren mountain, where the turtle warned that their situation could not continue.

Chen Luo disguised himself as the Qi Refining cultivator Ding Luo and infiltrated the Ancient God Sect by posing as a young man seeking revenge on Ran Huo. After earning Venerable Kuchai’s trust and staying at his mountain cottage, Chen Luo began the next stage of his plan to obtain the sect’s inheritance.

• Chen Luo told the Flower-Backed Turtle to hide in the Grotto-heaven Gourd while he waited for the trouble in Xiachuan County to die down and planned to join the Ancient God Sect.
• Venerable Kuchai found a blood-soaked young man among wolf corpses on the sect’s back mountain and asked why he had come.
• The young man said he had come to avenge himself against Ran Huo, and Venerable Kuchai invited him to follow.
• The young man stayed at Venerable Kuchai’s thatched cottage, gathering firewood and raising pigs while he worked through the farmer’s demand to cut three thousand stalks of bamboo.
• After Venerable Kuchai left, the young man revealed himself as Chen Luo, who had spent months preparing the Ding Luo identity to gain access to Venerable Kuchai and the Ancient God Sect.
• Chen Luo began the next stage of his infiltration, using an aura and Spirit Frequency modeled on a real Qi Refining cultivator.

After six months on the mountain, Chen Luo received Venerable Kuchai’s Ancient God Body Refinement technique and learned that Ran Huo was dead. Kuchai sent him down the mountain with an identity token and told him to return only after achieving Nascent Soul Formation.

• Chen Luo reached the brink of Foundation Establishment, and Venerable Kuchai warned him that his low-grade cultivation manual would ruin him.
• Venerable Kuchai gave Chen Luo the Ancient God Body Refinement technique and explained its cultivation path, then cautioned him to yield to Dao Sect disciples.
• Chen Luo pondered what distinguished a Dao Sect, changed cultivation methods, and told Kuchai he had established his foundation.
• Kuchai revealed that Ran Huo was dead and that his remains were buried behind the house, where Chen Luo found pitch-black bone fragments.
• Kuchai sent Chen Luo down the mountain with an identity token and instructed him to return after Nascent Soul Formation; Chen Luo headed for the Ancient God Sect.

Chen Luo entered the Ancient God Sect with Venerable Kuchai’s token and settled on Third Peak, where he began studying its body refinement method and planned to use the sect’s Fundamental Diagram to advance his cultivation. After a month alone, he met fellow genius disciples and learned that Third Peak expected them to reach Core Formation within three years.

• Chen Luo used Venerable Kuchai’s token to join the Ancient God Sect and was assigned to Third Peak, where few disciples lived.
• Chen Luo studied the Ancient God Body Refinement Method and decided to cultivate through the sect’s methods and Fundamental Diagram without abandoning his existing cultivation path.
• Chen Luo spent a month cultivating undisturbed before being summoned to the Imparting Knowledge Plaza to receive a cultivation method.
• Chen Luo met fellow Third Peak disciples Ling and Zhang, along with their technique-imparting senior brother, Star Cloud.
• Star Cloud explained that he would guide the three disciples for three years, after which they would be expected to guide future juniors; those who failed to reach Core Formation would no longer qualify to stay on Third Peak.

Chen Luo followed a familiar aura to a secluded pool, where he discovered Star Cloud confronting two men from his past. Star Cloud revealed a terrifying Blood Demon Body and attacked them, while Chen Luo remained hidden nearby.

• Chen Luo met with the Flower-Backed Turtle, explained that its wanted status had been resolved, and left the inn after sensing a familiar aura.
• Chen Luo tracked the aura to a forest pool and concealed himself in the trees.
• Star Cloud appeared before an old man in a black Daoist robe and a pig demon, who recognized him as their former senior brother apprentice.
• Star Cloud attacked the pig demon, then revealed his Blood Demon Body as the pool transformed into a Blood Pool.
• The Black Robed Elder identified Star Cloud’s demonic technique and warned that his nearly indestructible body could be defeated only by a Void Return Venerable.

Chen Luo interrupted Star Cloud’s attempt to kill Old Demon Skin Painter and Zhu Chungang, rescuing the pair before fleeing with them. After repaying his old favor to Zhu Chungang, Chen Luo asked about Star Cloud’s strange power, and Old Demon Skin Painter identified the eyeball as a Dao Stone.

• The Pig Demon transformed into a Ferocious Ape and joined Old Demon Skin Painter in attacking Star Cloud, but Star Cloud used an eyeball to trap them in a chessboard illusion.
• Chen Luo struck Star Cloud with a Spirit Artifact chessboard, disrupting the illusion, then swept up the Pig Demon and Old Demon Skin Painter and escaped.
• Chen Luo hid the two in an Isolation Formation and recognized the Pig Demon as Zhu Chungang, whom he had rescued to repay an old favor.
• Chen Luo asked Old Demon Skin Painter about Star Cloud’s eyeball, and Old Demon Skin Painter said it was a Dao Stone.

Chen Luo met Old Demon Skin Painter and Zhu Chungang again, learned how the Dao shaped advancement beyond the Nine Steps of Spirit Refinement, and was offered a Dao stone in exchange for helping them confront Star Cloud. The chapter left Chen Luo weighing the offer after learning the stone could help him break through Soul Transformation but could not make him immortal.

• Chen Luo ended his first conversation with Old Demon Skin Painter when Ling and Zhang returned, then accepted the merit points they had earned for him.
• Chen Luo used the Ancient God Sect's body refinement method to rapidly cultivate its first volume to the Completion Realm and advance his mastery through Nascent Soul.
• Old Demon Skin Painter explained that Dao Sects held the Dao required to advance beyond the Nine Steps of Spirit Refinement and showed Chen Luo a shriveled eyeball he called a Dao stone.
• Old Demon Skin Painter said Star Cloud had thwarted his and Zhu Chungang's attempt to retrieve their resources from Yin Yang Pool, so they needed Chen Luo's help to hold Star Cloud back.
• Old Demon Skin Painter offered Chen Luo the Dao stone, explaining that it could help him break through Soul Transformation but could not make him immortal.

Chen Luo agreed to help Old Demon Skin Painter retrieve an item from the Yin Yang Pool in exchange for restoring a Dried Eyeball, while concealing his origins behind a claim of having reincarnated three times. Meanwhile, Gu He reached the Early Soul Transformation Stage and returned to the Qionghua Sect, and Chen Luo prepared to confront Star Cloud at the pool.

• Old Demon Skin Painter explained the value of Dao Stones, and Chen Luo agreed to cooperate with him in retrieving an item from the Yin Yang Pool for help restoring the Dried Eyeball.
• Chen Luo claimed he had reincarnated three times, and he and Old Demon Skin Painter established their agreement with the Dried Eyeball as a deposit.
• Gu He awakened as an Early Soul Transformation Cultivator and returned to the Qionghua Sect, where he reunited with Yu Jun Yao and promised to remain for ten years before going to the Upper Realm.
• Chen Luo, Old Demon Skin Painter, and Zhu Chungang approached the blood-filled Yin Yang Pool, where Star Cloud had reshaped the valley to force a direct confrontation.
• Chen Luo took out a Spirit Artifact-grade Soul Banner and then a Round Bead, surprising Old Demon Skin Painter and Zhu Chungang.

Chen Luo revealed several powerful treasures before joining Old Demon Skin Painter and Zhu Chungang in an attack on Star Cloud. He battered Star Cloud into the Yin Yang Pool and held him off while Old Demon Skin Painter went to retrieve the hidden item.

• Chen Luo refused Zhu Chungang's offer to trade information about the lamp wick for the Dragon Pearl, then displayed a divine soul secret treasure and the Ninth Generation Grand Void Divine Sword.
• Chen Luo transformed into a crow and approached Star Cloud, while Old Demon Skin Painter and Zhu Chungang prepared to act.
• Chen Luo's Chessboard, Dragon Pearl, sword, and Yin Souls struck Star Cloud, whose Dao Stone and Corpse Blood Demonic Art let him repeatedly reform after being smashed apart.
• Old Demon Skin Painter charged into the pool to search for the hidden item as Chen Luo continued attacking Star Cloud and keeping him occupied.

Chen Luo absorbed the Dao Stone’s teachings on Void Transformation and the black talisman’s inheritance while living comfortably in the Ancient God Sect. As the Sect Competition approached, he refused to attend despite Venerable Kuchai’s expected appearance, leaving his followers doubting his background and planning to confront him after the competition.

• Old Demon Skin Painter raised Chen Luo’s payment with a stone talisman, and Chen Luo returned to the Ancient God Sect with it and the Dao Stone.
• Chen Luo’s External Brains studied the talisman inheritance and Dao Stone, revealing how cultivators developed a personal god and built the bearing capacity needed for Void Return.
• Zhang Xi told Chen Luo that the Sect Competition was near and Venerable Kuchai was expected to appear, but Chen Luo dismissed the rewards and chose not to participate.
• After Zhang Xi reported Chen Luo’s decision, Ling Dong and the others doubted his connection to Venerable Kuchai and decided to register for the competition before discussing matters with him afterward.
• Zhang Xi worried that her uncle wanted her to leave Chen Luo and transfer to Ji Cheng of Second Peak if Chen Luo’s background proved false.

After agreeing to attend Zhang Xi’s Spiritual Tea Gathering, Chen Luo learned that her clan was trying to trade her to Ji Cheng and decided to help while investigating stone materials. At the gathering, the Zhang Family Head asked Chen Luo for help, then challenged the truth of his connection to Venerable Kuchai.

• Chen Luo agreed to accompany Zhang Xi to the Spiritual Tea Gathering, while she hoped his support would protect her from being forced into a partnership with Ji Cheng.
• The Flower-Backed Turtle told Chen Luo that Ding Jian had found suitable stone materials near Zhang Xi’s Lineage, and Chen Luo decided to deal with her family trouble along the way.
• Chen Luo traveled to Zhang Xi’s city with a second-rank black staff and was welcomed by the Zhang Family Head and other family members.
• At the gathering, Zhang Xi and the other disciples greeted Chen Luo, and the Zhang Family Head served him tea and began making a request.
• Chen Luo recognized the tea’s ingredients and recalled that his alchemy knowledge had advanced to the Fifth Tier through the minds he had acquired.
• The Zhang Family Head accused Chen Luo of falsely claiming to be Venerable Kuchai’s Registered Disciple, saying the Venerable had only accepted Demon Lord Ran Huo.

Chen Luo survived a mysterious attack at Tea Mountain and ordered Ding Jian and Yuwen Ling to gather materials while he kept his identity and plans guarded. At the Ancient God Sect, a young man resembling Venerable Kuchai confronted him and vowed to enter the Black Bamboo Forest in ten years.

• Chen Luo denied being Venerable Kuchai’s registered disciple, and the Zhang Family Head’s attempt to detain him triggered the Flower-Backed Turtle’s overwhelming aura, which crushed the family’s main hall and pinned everyone but Zhang Xi.
• Chen Luo reached Tea Mountain, identified White Spirit Stone Tea, and found the cave where Ding Jian had discovered gray stone.
• A hidden attacker sent a Metal Attribute needle at Chen Luo, but it broke against his skin; Chen Luo faked a fall into the cave while the attacker concealed himself from approaching Soul Transformation experts.
• Ding Jian and Yuwen Ling arrived, and Chen Luo ordered them to gather gray stone, White Spirit Stone Tea, and Black Leaf Spirit Flowers.
• A young man resembling Venerable Kuchai asked about Ran Huo’s death and Kuchai’s new disciple, then declared that he would open the Black Bamboo Forest in ten years and walk the road Kuchai dared not take.

The Green-robed Figure failed to recruit Venerable Kuchai and left with the Large Black Rat, while Chen Luo began a dangerous body-refinement experiment in a pill furnace. As the refined medicinal qi formed a seed inside him, the mysterious root tendril in his possession sprouted in his dantian.

• Venerable Kuchai refused to join the Green-robed Figure, who revealed that the Dao Sect had severed the Immortal Path and vanished in black mist.
• The Green-robed Figure met the Large Black Rat at the foot of the mountain and left after admitting he had killed Kuchai's disciple.
• Chen Luo returned to the Ancient God Sect, tasked Yuwen Ling and Ding Jian with gathering spirit materials, and entered cultivation seclusion after the Flower-Backed Turtle brought the first batch.
• Chen Luo fused two pill furnaces, used a Puppet to tend the fire, and jumped into the furnace to refine his body with White Spirit Stone Tea and Black-Leaf Stone Flowers.
• Chen Luo compressed the medicinal power into a gray seed, which the half root tendril swallowed before growing into a small sapling in his dantian.

Le Qingzhu joined Ancient God Sect’s Third Peak and recognized something familiar in Chen Luo, who concealed his identity as Ding Luo. After helping advance a plot against Myriad Stars Gate, she tested Chen Luo’s cultivation at Venerable Kuchai’s request, and the Spirit Testing Stone showed Foundation Establishment Perfection.

• Le Qingzhu arrived at Chen Luo’s cultivation grounds, but he concealed that they had met centuries earlier in the Edge Region.
• Le Qingzhu left Chen Luo in peace and later met the Green-robed Figure, who gave her a Sixth-tier Stone Talisman to use in the plan against Myriad Stars Gate.
• Le Qingzhu and the Green-robed Figure agreed that she would test Chen Luo, whom they both regarded as a suspicious variable.
• Venerable Kuchai summoned Chen Luo and Le Qingzhu to his courtyard and asked Chen Luo to test a Spirit Testing Stone.
• Chen Luo’s External Brain changed his Spirit Frequency, and the stone identified him as Foundation Establishment Perfection, leaving Le Qingzhu uncertain.