Chapter Summaries

The Feather Clan arrived at Little Cold Mountain Temple, where tribes had gathered to seek Dragon Tree Monk’s selection of inheritors for the Peacock King Sutra. Meng Zhao, observing a young Golden Clan member, learned about the clan’s powerful but slow, poorly mobile bloodline and judged that his true body could defeat him.

• The Feather Clan descended at Little Cold Mountain Temple and found members of more than ten races waiting outside.
• Dan Ying led the Feather Clan to greet their longtime allies, the Golden Clan, whose members were attending despite their powerful inheritances.
• Dan Qing explained that the Golden Clan had formidable body-tempering bloodline powers but suffered from difficult reproduction, poor mobility, and slow reactions.
• Meng Zhao sensed the young Golden Clan member’s powerful Indestructible Diamond Body aura and judged Dan Qing would lose to him at the same realm.
• Meng Zhao concluded that his own true body could overcome the youth’s defenses and exploit his lack of speed and offensive reach.

Dan Ying discussed the Feather Clan’s hopes of obtaining the Peacock King Sutra with the Golden Clan’s Great Grandmaster, who saw great potential in the disguised Meng Zhao. Yu Feilong mocked the Feather Clan’s decline and challenged Dan Ying by boasting that his brother-in-law was nearing the Celestial realm.

• The Golden Clan’s Great Grandmaster used Golden Eyes to assess the Feather Clan’s younger generation and was especially impressed by Dan Qing, whom Meng Zhao was impersonating.
• Dan Ying told Brother Lou that the Feather Clan hoped the Peacock King Sutra would help halt its decline, and Brother Lou encouraged him by suggesting the art might suit their bloodline.
• Yu Feilong mocked the Feather Clan’s internal strife and questioned whether obtaining the Peacock King Sutra would help them.
• Dan Ying insulted Yu Feilong and recalled that he had once defeated him with help from a Dragon Clan expert.
• Yu Feilong boasted that his brother-in-law was attempting to enter the Celestial realm and challenged Dan Ying to fight him again once he attained the Heavenly Dragon Body.

Yu Feilong challenged Dan Ying to a contest between their clans’ juniors, offering a Heavenly Roc Feather as the prize, but Dan Ying refused to risk angering Master Longshu at Little Cold Mountain Temple. Yu Feilong ended by insulting the Feather Clan for backing down.

• Dan Ying refused to fight Yu Feilong again because he feared the Dragon Clan expert’s overwhelming strength.
• Yu Feilong proposed a contest between their clans’ juniors and offered a Heavenly Roc Feather to the winner.
• A Hu Tribes expert and others urged Dan Ying to accept the challenge, while Dan Ying suspected they wanted his clan to offend Master Longshu.
• Dan Ying rejected the contest to preserve the Feather Clan’s chance at the Peacock King Sutra inheritance.
• Yu Feilong called Dan Ying and the Feather Clan cowards for refusing his offer.

Dan Ying and Meng Zhao assessed Yu Feihong, a Feather Serpent Clan youth with a rare kingly bloodline, as Yu Feilong argued that his junior was an ideal candidate to inherit the Peacock King Sutra. Yu Feilong believed Yu Feihong’s innate kingly qi gave him a major advantage, though the contest at Little Cold Mountain had yet to begin.

• Dan Ying observed the Feather Serpent Clan’s young warriors and noticed that Yu Feihong stood out for his powerful cultivation, unusual appearance, and distinctive bloodline.
• Meng Zhao sensed the kingly pressure in Yu Feihong’s bloodline and judged that it could suppress other Feather Serpent Clan members.
• Yu Feilong praised Yu Feihong and challenged Dan Ying to name a Feather Clan junior who could match him.
• Dan Ying acknowledged Yu Feihong’s strength but said the clans had come to compete for Master Longshu’s succession and the Peacock King Sutra, not merely to compare their juniors.
• Yu Feilong explained that the Peacock King Sutra favored those with imperial, royal, or kingly qi and concluded that Yu Feihong’s innate kingly bloodline gave him an advantage.

Meng Zhao, disguised as Dan Qing, watched Little Cold Mountain Temple begin its search for an inheritor of the Peacock King Sutra through three trials. After the first trial, only five young talents had passed, including Meng Zhao and Yu Feihong, leaving the Feather Clan’s hopes resting on Meng Zhao.

• A Bull Demon Clan monk announced that candidates had to pass three trials to meet Master Longshu and contend for the Peacock King Sutra.
• The first trial used Dragon Tree Monk’s Five Elements Stone to test whether candidates had the physique to cultivate the sutra.
• Race after race tested the stone, but only four candidates passed before the Feather Clan took its turn.
• Yu Feihong was the only member of the Feathered Serpent Clan to pass, disappointing Yu Feilong.
• Meng Zhao, disguised as Dan Qing, passed the trial as the only Feather Clan candidate, bringing the total number of successful candidates to five.

Five candidates who passed the first trial faced the Rainbow Bridge, a spiritual test created with the Peacock King Sutra. None volunteered to go first, leaving the monk of the Bull Demon Clan unsure how to proceed.

• The monk of the Bull Demon Clan formed the Rainbow Bridge and explained that it tested spiritual cultivation while strengthening those who stepped onto it.
• Meng Zhao observed the five successful candidates and judged the Sky Wolf Clan Member’s unusual spiritual power especially promising for passing the trial.
• The five candidates hesitated because the first person to cross would have no example to learn from, while those who waited could gain an advantage.
• The monk of the Bull Demon Clan realized none of the candidates intended to step forward and swallowed the words he had been about to say.

The Sky Wolf Tribe prodigy crossed the Rainbow Bridge and passed Little Cold Mountain Temple’s second trial, while Meng Zhao stepped onto the bridge as Dan Qing to secure its benefits. Meng Zhao understood that the trial tested the heart through the Peacock King Sutra’s Martial Dao Divine Charm.

• The Sky Wolf Tribe prodigy volunteered to cross the Rainbow Bridge after the others hesitated.
• Five-Colored Radiance enveloped the prodigy and tempered his body and spirit as he walked the bridge.
• Meng Zhao realized that the bridge’s finite Five Elements Essence Power rewarded those who crossed earlier, and decided Dan Qing needed to claim second place.
• The Sky Wolf Tribe prodigy confronted visions that tested his heart and passed the second trial after half an hour.
• Dan Qing stepped onto the Rainbow Bridge, while Meng Zhao’s Primordial Spirit overcame the trial and identified its source as the Peacock King Sutra’s Martial Dao Divine Charm.

Meng Zhao watched the remaining candidates cross the Rainbow Bridge as he deduced how its trials rewarded earlier entrants more heavily. After three candidates passed the second trial, a Bull Demon Clan monk revealed a vast Seven-Layered Exquisite Pagoda and announced that the third trial remained.

• A Quan Clan expert and a Savage Tribes expert failed the second trial after being shaken from the Rainbow Bridge, though both gained from its tempering.
• Yu Feihong crossed the bridge and passed the second trial, prompting cheers from the Feathered Serpent Clan while Meng Zhao judged that he could not pass the third.
• A Bull Demon Clan monk praised the three candidates who had passed twice, then pointed toward the sky to begin revealing the third trial.
• A huge golden Seven-Layered Exquisite Pagoda appeared above Little Cold Mountain Temple, astonishing the crowd and drawing greedy looks from some onlookers.

Meng Zhao recognized that the Seven-Layered Exquisite Pagoda was an extension of Dragon Tree Monk and suspected the third trial concealed an attempt to control its entrants. After entering the pagoda, Meng Zhao allowed its scriptures to attack his spirit, then overwhelmed the wrathful Wisdom King’s roar with his own Primordial Spirit.

• Meng Zhao realized that Dragon Tree Monk had bound Little Cold Mountain Temple and the Seven-Layered Exquisite Pagoda to himself, and suspected the pagoda could covertly control the trial’s participants.
• The Bull Demon Tribe monk explained that the third trial would test the three candidates’ Buddha-nature and sent Meng Zhao, Dan Qing, and Yu Feihong into the pagoda.
• Inside the pagoda, Meng Zhao found Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures engraved across the floor and eagerly charged toward the golden characters floating up from them.
• The scriptures entered Meng Zhao’s Sea of Consciousness and formed a wrathful Eight Arms and Four Heads Wisdom King that roared at his spirit.
• Meng Zhao’s Primordial Spirit unleashed overwhelming radiance and swallowed the Wisdom King’s sound waves.

Meng Zhao deciphered the reliefs in the Seven-Layered Exquisite Pagoda and suspected the Peacock had helped Buddha shed his imperfect side, a secret that might explain the Peacock King Sutra’s dangerous inheritance. The Wisdom King’s Roar crippled Yu Feihong but awakened the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe’s hidden mental power, giving him a foundation for reaching the Celestial Being threshold.

• Meng Zhao noticed the faceless Buddha in the reliefs carried a sinister aura, then studied the carvings and realized Buddha’s transformation through the Peacock may have been deliberate.
• Meng Zhao surmised that the Peacock had helped Buddha strip away his imperfections and that Dragon Tree Monk had concealed a secret about the Peacock King Sutra in the pagoda.
• The Wisdom King’s Roar shattered Yu Feihong’s mind, and although it was restored, he was left severely crippled and at risk of dying young.
• The young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe’s dormant mental power erupted, shattered the Wisdom King, and absorbed its power.
• The young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe gained a foundation in Primordial Spirit Power that could make it easier for him to break through to the Celestial Being threshold.

After the trials at Little Cold Mountain Temple, Meng Zhao and the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe emerged greatly strengthened, while Yu Feihong was left mentally hollow. Their contrasting results stirred suspicion and excitement among the gathered clans as they considered who might inherit the Peacock King Sutra.

• A monk in a yellow cassock praised Meng Zhao and the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe as suitable successors to the Peacock King Sutra, then had the Seven-Layered Exquisite Pagoda release them and Yu Feihong.
• Meng Zhao emerged with twenty-three layers of Buddhist light, the young man with an azure radiance, and Yu Feihong with dull eyes and an empty mind.
• The Feather Clan members suspected Dragon Tree Monk had transformed or brainwashed Dan Qing, while Dan Xin worried about the man she believed to be her child's father.
• Yu Feilong lamented Yu Feihong's poor showing and feared that Dan Qing might gain the Peacock King Sutra and help the Feather Clan overcome flaws in its Phoenix Nirvana Scroll.
• The Heavenly Wolf Tribe's leader celebrated the young man's gains but doubted his chances because Meng Zhao's Buddhist light appeared more impressive.

After Meng Zhao and a young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe passed the three trials, Dragon Tree Monk announced that they would undergo three more days of testing before either or both might be taught the Peacock King Sutra. Meng Zhao entered Little Cold Mountain Temple while secretly suspecting Dragon Tree Monk might be tied to a threat against the Northern Lands.

• The Bull Demon Tribe monk announced that Meng Zhao and the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe had passed the trials and would be tested by Dragon Tree Monk for three days.
• Meng Zhao reassured Dan Xin and asked Uncle Ying to wait for him, while the Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth made similar arrangements with his people.
• The Bull Demon Tribe monk escorted Meng Zhao and the Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth into Little Cold Mountain Temple, while Yu Feilong stayed behind to watch and consider challenging Dan Ying.
• Zhao Rulíng noticed that the Seven-Layered Exquisite Pagoda had vanished and wondered whether Dragon Tree Monk was acting on Beitang Sheng's behalf.
• Meng Zhao concealed his identity and planned to use his proximity to Dragon Tree Monk to investigate whether the monk threatened the Northern Lands.

Meng Zhao and a young man from the Heavenly Wolf Tribe toured Little Cold Mountain Temple, where they learned that Master Longshu was choosing an heir. After passing three trials, they were left waiting outside his quarters through a blizzard.

• A Bull Demon Clan monk showed Meng Zhao and the young man the temple’s martial grounds and explained that Master Longshu taught visitors before sending most away.
• The monk said Master Longshu was selecting an heir, and Meng Zhao grew wary that the temple’s teachings might conceal a scheme.
• The Bull Demon Clan monk brought Meng Zhao and the young man to a secluded set of quarters and announced that both had passed the three trials.
• A voice from inside ordered the monk to leave and told Meng Zhao and the young man to remain.
• Meng Zhao and the young man stood silently for hours as snow turned into a blizzard and buried them up to their thighs.

Meng Zhao and the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe entered Dragon Tree Monk’s quarters and concealed the true nature of their abilities as he examined them. Dragon Tree Monk judged Meng Zhao a promising vessel for his Peacock Divine Sense and secretly planned to turn him into an incarnation.

• After waiting for several hours, Meng Zhao and the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe entered Dragon Tree Monk’s quarters and steadied themselves against its twisted magnetic forces.
• Dragon Tree Monk examined the young man and concluded that his powerful mind might belong to a reincarnated figure, though he believed he could still control him.
• Dragon Tree Monk saw Meng Zhao’s Buddhist light and mistook his hidden power for a fortuitous opportunity that had transformed an otherwise ordinary mind.
• Dragon Tree Monk decided Meng Zhao was suited to bear the Peacock Divine Sense as a corporeal Dharma protector.
• Dragon Tree Monk planned to use a powerful person’s body to turn his Peacock Divine Sense into a formidable incarnation.

Meng Zhao and the young man from the Heavenly Wolf Tribe became Dragon Tree Monk’s disciples after learning the Peacock King Sutra. While investigating Little Cold Mountain Temple, Meng Zhao uncovered a dangerous secret in its mandatory basic martial art and questioned Dragon Tree Monk’s true motives.

• Dragon Tree Monk taught Meng Zhao and the young man from the Heavenly Wolf Tribe the Peacock King Sutra’s visualization methods and accepted both as disciples after they made progress.
• The Heavenly Wolf Tribe and Feiyu's clan departed, while Meng Zhao and the young man stayed at Little Cold Mountain Temple to cultivate.
• Meng Zhao secretly used the Wind Listening Technique to investigate the temple but could not penetrate the unusual magnetic field surrounding Dragon Tree Monk’s quarters.
• Meng Zhao discovered that Little Cold Mountain Temple required newcomers to practice a basic martial art that strengthened mental power by consuming innate essence.
• Meng Zhao suspected Dragon Tree Monk used the martial art to manipulate disciples and clan members as cultivation resources, and wondered why the Buddhist master had come to spread his teachings.

Meng Zhao grew wary of Dragon Tree Monk’s motives as the monk offered him and the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe a dangerous chance to gain a Peacock Dharma Body. Meng Zhao yielded the opportunity to his senior brother, and Dragon Tree Monk privately favored Meng Zhao as a potential vessel for the Peacock God.

• Meng Zhao judged that Dragon Tree Monk’s interest in the Beitang Imperial Clan was likely recent and considered leaving Little Cold Mountain Temple before his foundations in Divine Land Passes weakened further.
• Meng Zhao observed that the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe had been subtly transformed by practicing the Peacock King Sutra, while his own changed manner was only an act.
• Dragon Tree Monk offered the two disciples the Green Lamp Nether Coffin, which could forge a Flawless True Body but carried Deathly Qi that might turn its occupant into a walking corpse.
• Meng Zhao declined the coffin and yielded it to the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe, who eagerly accepted the opportunity.
• Dragon Tree Monk approved of Meng Zhao’s steady state of mind and privately considered him more suitable to serve as a vessel for the Peacock God.

Dragon Tree Monk gave the Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth the Green Lamp Nether Coffin and prayer beads, while teaching Dan Qing the Five-Colored Divine Light. Meng Zhao secretly followed the youth to the coffin, where its sinister surroundings made him doubt the promised opportunity.

• Dragon Tree Monk entrusted the Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth with the Green Lamp Nether Coffin and gave him prayer beads to resist Deathly Qi during his transformation.
• Dragon Tree Monk passed the Five-Colored Divine Light secret art to Dan Qing, and Meng Zhao recognized its value despite questioning the monk’s motives.
• Meng Zhao bowed to Dragon Tree Monk, then secretly followed the Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth using the Wind Listening Technique.
• The youth arrived at a broken wall beneath a ghost-covered ancient tree and saw the Green Lamp Nether Coffin with its eerie flower lamp.
• The Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth grew suspicious that Dragon Tree Monk and Dan Qing had lured him into a dangerous trap.

Dragon Tree Monk revealed that the Green Lamp Nether Coffin could transform the body, then forced the Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth to enter it after he refused. The youth tried to bargain for his life, but Dragon Tree Monk explained how he could conceal the murder.

• Dragon Tree Monk described Myriad Ghosts Senluo and the Green Lamp Nether Coffin’s powers to the Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth.
• The youth refused to enter the coffin and suggested that his junior brother, with his Buddha-nature, should take his place.
• Dragon Tree Monk dropped his benevolent pretense and threatened the youth, intending to use him as a future body for the guardian Peacock God.
• The youth recalled his suspicions about Dragon Tree Monk’s scheme and argued that harming him would destroy Dragon Tree Monk’s standing among the Hundred Clans.
• Dragon Tree Monk laughed and claimed he could blame the youth’s death on Qi Deviation, with his other disciple’s progress serving as proof of his innocence.

Dragon Tree Monk subdued the young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe and used the Green Lamp Nether Coffin to transform his body into a future Peacock avatar. Meng Zhao watched from hiding and decided to secretly interfere with Dragon Tree Monk’s plans while avoiding a direct confrontation.

• The young man of the Heavenly Wolf Tribe tried to self-destruct, but Dragon Tree Monk’s Peacock Dharma Form restrained him with Five-Colored Divine Light.
• Dragon Tree Monk sealed the young man inside the Green Lamp Nether Coffin, where its power began transforming and tempering his body.
• Dragon Tree Monk stayed to guard the process, expecting the transformation to take six or seven days.
• Meng Zhao overheard Dragon Tree Monk and considered stealing the result, but recognized the risks of confronting another Celestial with incomplete information.
• Meng Zhao chose to use his concealment and quietly manipulate Myriad Ghosts Senluo to cause Dragon Tree Monk trouble.

Dragon Tree Monk’s attempt to transform the Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth into a living corpse went awry: the youth emerged as a mummified being wrapped in deadly Killing Intent. After the creature proved immune to the Peacock Dharma Form’s molten lava and threatened its body, Dragon Tree Monk trapped it with the Five-Colored Divine Light.

• After seven days, the Green Lamp Nether Coffin dried out and cracked as the Heavenly Wolf Tribe youth absorbed its divine energy.
• Dragon Tree Monk called for the Peacock body to return, and the coffin exploded as the youth emerged alive but mummified, surrounded by Deathly Qi and Killing Intent.
• Dragon Tree Monk suspected the youth had awakened memories of a past life, while the youth’s instincts drove him to attack the Peacock Dharma Form.
• Dragon Tree Monk blasted the mummified corpse with molten lava, but it emerged unharmed and struck toward the Peacock Dharma Form’s abdomen.
• Dragon Tree Monk swept out the Five-Colored Divine Light and trapped the mummified corpse.