Chapter Summaries

Lu Xuanji and Jin Xi escaped a Demon Race siege and set out for Chu Capital, while Azure Lotus watched them leave from afar. In a secret realm, East Pole Celestial Venerable escaped with the Void Inquiry Pill after a fifty-year battle that ended in victory for the Human Race.

• Lu Xuanji and Jin Xi fled the Demon Race cultivators, then agreed to answer Flying Feather True Lord’s call and travel to Chu Capital despite the threat of controlled Human Race cultivators.
• Azure Lotus saw Lu Xuanji and Jin Xi together, suppressed her longing, and left to temper her newly gained Spirit Transformation cultivation.
• East Pole Celestial Venerable emerged from a shattered Cave Mansion with the Void Inquiry Pill as seven Demon Race Spirit Transformation cultivators attacked him.
• East Pole Celestial Venerable and the other Human Race cultivators fought off the Demon Race, then escaped through a rift he opened.
• East Pole Celestial Venerable had obtained the pill after a fifty-year battle in which Northern Dipper Celestial Venerable fell and two Demon Race Venerables underwent reincarnation.

The Human Race Spirit Transformation cultivators returned to the Chu Kingdom and discovered that the Blood Bat Demon Venerable had devastated it while they were trapped in the secret realm. The East Pole Celestial Venerable vowed to kill him, but could not locate him, and the group turned to dividing the secret realm treasures according to their agreement.

• The Demon Race Spirit Transformation experts split between those urging war against the Chu Kingdom and those advocating peace after losing the wager.
• The East Pole Celestial Venerable and three other Human Race Spirit Transformation cultivators returned to the Chu Kingdom and found most of its territory overrun and its people slaughtered.
• The East Pole Celestial Venerable learned that the Blood Bat Demon Venerable had killed five hundred billion people and fifty Nascent Soul cultivators during the fifty years they were trapped.
• The East Pole Celestial Venerable tried and failed to deduce the Blood Bat Demon Venerable's location, while the Pill Aura Celestial Venerable warned that the Blood Bat Demon Venerable might grow far stronger after digesting the blood he had consumed.
• The East Pole Celestial Venerable accepted that the Human Race's victory in the secret realm had come alongside a crushing defeat in the war, and the Pill Aura Celestial Venerable and Profound Earth Celestial Venerable called for the promised treasures to be divided.

The East Pole Celestial Venerable and the other Human Race cultivators divided the secret-realm treasures, then resolved to retaliate against the Demon Race. After learning how the war had changed during their absence, the Demon Race’s seven Spirit Transformation cultivators planned a withdrawal and considered allying with the East Sea Dragon Clan to attack Chu Kingdom.

• The East Pole Celestial Venerable agreed to take only the Void Inquiry Pill and distributed the remaining treasures, including compensation for the fallen Northern Dipper Celestial Venerable.
• Pill Aura Celestial Venerable called for a counterattack against the Demon Race, and the other Human Race cultivators agreed.
• The Golden Crow Demon Venerable’s son reported that the Demon Race had conquered most of Chu Kingdom and that Blood Bat Demon Venerable had killed more than fifty Nascent Soul cultivators.
• The Demon Race’s Spirit Transformation cultivators condemned Blood Bat Demon Venerable’s actions and decided to withdraw their troops, then planned which territories and strongholds to abandon or defend.
• Kun Peng Demon Venerable worried that the East Pole Celestial Venerable might reach half-step Void Refining, and the Golden Crow Demon Venerable proposed allying with the East Sea Dragon Clan to attack Chu Kingdom.

The Human Race defended its cities against a three-day Demon Race siege, but Ink Feather True Lord warned Li Qingyue that their dwindling Spirit Vein would sustain them for only five more years. The Demon armies then abruptly withdrew, and returning Human Race Spirit Transformation experts punished the demons that refused to retreat.

• The Demon Race launched a devastating assault on the Human Race city, while its arrays and cultivators held the walls despite heavy losses.
• After three days, the Demon Race grew exhausted and withdrew, and the defenders celebrated their reprieve.
• Ink Feather True Lord told Li Qingyue that the city’s Spirit Vein would last at most five more years and that they would choose death over surrender.
• Ink Feather True Lord sent scouts to verify the retreat, and reports showed Demon armies withdrawing across multiple fronts.
• When some demons refused to obey the retreat order, Human Race Spirit Transformation experts killed eighteen Nascent Soul cultivators and many lesser demons with descending palm strikes.

Lu Xuanji and Jin Xi traveled to Chu Capital after the Human Race’s fortunes improved, but feared that Spirit Transformation cultivators would now hunt weaker cultivators without restraint. In the devastated capital, Flying Feather True Lord used the Demon-Slaying Mirror to confirm Lu Xuanji had not been seized, controlled, or converted by the Demon Race.

• Lu Xuanji warned Jin Xi that the Blood Bat Demon Venerable’s actions had broken the rules protecting Nascent Soul Cultivators from Spirit Transformation cultivators.
• Lu Xuanji and Jin Xi traveled to Chu Capital and saw ruined cities and a capital still recovering from a devastating siege.
• Lu Xuanji and Jin Xi learned that Chu Capital had suffered enormous casualties and that the war had left Chu Kingdom financially exhausted.
• True Lord Qingyan, now a Nascent Soul cultivator, invited Lu Xuanji to meet her father, Flying Feather True Lord.
• Flying Feather True Lord asked to inspect Lu Xuanji for signs of Demon Race control and used the Demon-Slaying Mirror to confirm his soul was normal.

After confirming Jin Xi was safe, Lu Xuanji attended a meeting where Chu Kingdom’s Nascent Soul cultivators heard the Celestial Venerables’ decree and divided the damaged kingdom’s territory and resources. The division left Lu Xuanji with a vast, fertile sphere of influence, though it lacked Spirit Veins and mineral resources.

• Flying Feather True Lord told Lu Xuanji that the Demon-Slaying Mirror had exposed many cultivators controlled or possessed by demons, while the Human Race was too weakened to retake its lost territory.
• More than thirty Nascent Soul cultivators gathered as Flying Feather True Lord read the Celestial Venerables’ decree, which warned that they would have to rely on themselves amid the coming Spiritual Energy resurgence.
• Flying Feather True Lord urged the cultivators to recover their strength and build simple defenses against another Demon Race attack.
• The Nascent Soul cultivators spent about a month dividing Chu Kingdom’s territory, population, and resources among themselves, while lower-level cultivators had no say.
• Lu Xuanji secured a large sphere of influence consisting mostly of fertile plains, but it had relatively few Spirit Veins and mineral resources.

After the Lu Clan gained new territory, Lu Xuanji considered the population and cultivation resources needed to develop it. At the barter meet, he acquired a short-range Teleportation Array Blueprint and three Rank 5 materials, leaving with one Longevity Fruit more than he had expected.

• The Lu Clan expanded into the southeastern region bordering the Wu Kingdom, and Lu Xuanji worried about finding enough people and cultivators to develop its depleted resources.
• Flying Feather True Lord began the barter meet, and Lu Xuanji displayed a beast-hide scroll, pills, and spirit fruits for trade.
• Lu Xuanji asked Stars True Lord for the Teleportation Array Blueprint and exchanged three Creation Fruits for it.
• Stars True Lord explained the requirements for teleportation arrays of different ranges and offered Lu Xuanji three Rank 5 materials.
• Lu Xuanji traded two Longevity Fruits for the three materials, and both he and Stars True Lord were pleased with the deal.

Lu Xuanji helped rebuild the Lu Clan’s devastated territory and established a hidden teleportation array, but news of the East Sea Dragon Palace’s war with the Divine Water Palace brought a new threat to the eastern kingdoms. As Human and Dragon Clan Spirit Transformation experts began fighting over the East Sea, Lu Xuanji rushed toward the battlefield.

• Lu Xuanji traded for Enlightenment Tea leaves, an Enlightenment Tea Tree branch, and Rank 5 Nether Iron before returning to the Lu Family Ancestral Land.
• Lu Xuanji released the Lu Clan’s survivors and assigned the elders to rebuild; over the following years, the clan restored towns, farmland, and its population.
• Thirty years later, Lu Xuanji completed a teleportation array linking Spirit Mountain to a hidden Cave Mansion thirty thousand li away.
• Jin Xi told Lu Xuanji that the East Sea Dragon Palace had defeated the Divine Water Palace and that the surviving Divine Water Palace cultivators had fled ashore to Wu Kingdom, Chu Kingdom, and Yue Kingdom.
• Human and Dragon Clan Spirit Transformation experts clashed over the East Sea, and Lu Xuanji used Ground Shrinking Golden Light to head toward the battlefield.

Lu Xuanji watched East Pole Celestial Venerable battle four Sea Race Spirit Transformation cultivators above the East Sea while the Human Race and Demon Race prepared for conflict on the western front. East Pole Celestial Venerable overwhelmed his attackers with a series of punches, leaving the four enemies shaken but the wider war still looming.

• Long Yuege, Gui Wuji, and Yu Shuangying discussed the East Sea battle and prepared the Sea Race to attack Chu Kingdom once East Pole Celestial Venerable fell.
• The Human Race and Demon Race Spirit Transformation cultivators faced each other across the western mountain defenses, while Pill Aura Celestial Venerable hoped East Pole Celestial Venerable would hold on.
• Lu Xuanji arrived above the East Sea with around thirty Human Race Nascent Soul cultivators and used Grotto-heaven Eye to watch the battle in slowed detail.
• Lu Xuanji recognized the Jade Dragon King among the four Spirit Transformation cultivators besieging East Pole Celestial Venerable.
• East Pole Celestial Venerable struck the Jade Dragon King’s body apart, wounded the handsome young man, shattered the swordsman’s two swords, and forced the tortoise-shell cultivator to flee.
• The Jade Dragon King re-formed his body as he and the other three Spirit Transformation cultivators regarded East Pole Celestial Venerable with fear.

East Pole Celestial Venerable forced the East Sea Lineage’s Spirit Transformation cultivators to retreat, then withdrew to heal injuries that would take decades to recover from. Jade Dragon King sought help from the East Sea Lineage’s ancestor, who asked about East Pole’s origins and learned he was a late bloomer with no distinguished inheritance.

• East Pole Celestial Venerable drove the East Sea Lineage cultivators from the battlefield, and the Sea Race retreated a hundred thousand li from the East Sea.
• East Pole Celestial Venerable activated the Nine Heavens Demon Slaying Array at East Pole Peak, then suffered the effects of his injuries and began a lengthy recovery.
• Jade Dragon King urged the other kings to attack East Pole while he was injured, but Black Tortoise King, Twin Sword King, and Silver Shark King argued for retreat and leaving future battles to the juniors.
• Jade Dragon King returned to Dragon King Palace and asked the ancestor in a coffin to suppress East Pole and sweep across the Eastern Wasteland.
• Jade Dragon King explained that East Pole had ordinary aptitude and no renowned inheritance, but broke through to Spirit Transformation after other prodigies passed away.

Jade Dragon King failed to persuade the coffin’s occupant to fight the East Pole Daoist, so the Sea Race launched an attack on Chu Kingdom. Lu Xuanji slaughtered several Nascent Soul opponents before Long Yuege confronted him.

• Jade Dragon King asked the coffin’s occupant to kill the East Pole Daoist, but the senior refused to awaken and told him to handle matters outside.
• Jade Dragon King mobilized Nascent Soul Cultivators and an army to attack Human Race territory while the Spirit Transformation Experts stayed out of the fighting.
• Ink Feather True Lord rallied more than twenty True Lords to defend Chu Kingdom, and Lu Xuanji joined them as the Sea Race attacked with nearly a hundred Nascent Soul Cultivators and ten thousand Golden Core cultivators.
• Lu Xuanji used his Fish Dragon Nine Transformations and divine saber to kill or capture five Nascent Soul opponents, replenishing his power with the Heaven Mending Cauldron.
• Long Yuege noticed Lu Xuanji’s strength and attacked him, forcing him back ten steps when her fist collided with his saber.

Lu Xuanji fought Long Yuege, the Jade Dragon Princess, and was driven into the sea, where her terrain advantage nearly overwhelmed him. He defeated and sealed her, then returned to find the larger battle still locked in a stalemate despite the Sea Race’s numerical advantage.

• Lu Xuanji and Long Yuege exchanged heavy blows until she awakened her Jade Dragon True Body and pressed him with her halberd techniques.
• Long Yuege trapped Lu Xuanji in the sea, where she drew on its power and restricted his abilities, but he froze her with the Great Yin True Water Saber.
• Lu Xuanji blood-sacrificed the Nine Colors Divine Saber to pierce Long Yuege’s defenses, then captured her inside a descending scroll.
• Lu Xuanji returned to the surface and saw the Human Race Nascent Soul cultivators surrounded by Sea Race fighters, with both sides locked in a stalemate.

Lu Xuanji used the Spirit Awakening Bell and his saber to help rout the Sea Race, leaving thirty-eight Sea Race Nascent Soul Cultivators and more than a thousand Golden Core cultivators dead. The Human Race returned in triumph, though three of its Nascent Soul Cultivators had fallen.

• Lu Xuanji raced across the battlefield and killed Sea Race Nascent Soul Cultivators with swift saber strikes, while the Human Race joined the attack.
• Sea Race Golden Core cultivators united behind a three-colored shield, but Lu Xuanji rang the Spirit Awakening Bell and killed more than a thousand of them.
• The Sea Race organized a retreat, but Lu Xuanji and the Human Race pursued them until they fled to an island and raised a formation.
• The battle tally showed thirty-eight Sea Race Nascent Soul Cultivators and more than a thousand Golden Core cultivators dead, while the Human Race had lost three Nascent Soul Cultivators.
• The Human Race returned to the coast in triumph, and Ink Feather True Lord spoke of the deaths of Separation Fire, Profound Jade, and Zhao Ming.

After the Sea Race suffered a crushing defeat in Chu Kingdom, the Jade Dragon King explained that the Human Race had fought desperately because it had nowhere left to retreat. He ordered the Sea Race to abandon Chu Kingdom and pursue easier territory in Yue Kingdom and Wu Kingdom instead.

• Ink Feather True Lord called for cities and arrays to be built, and the cultivators completed a preliminary defensive Grand Array in three days.
• Lu Xuanji refined captured Nascent Souls into Nascent Soul Pills and discovered that the Jade Dragon Princess had escaped.
• Long Yuege used a sixth-grade Fleeing Void Talisman to escape Lu Xuanji’s alchemy furnace and returned to the Jade Dragon King.
• The Jade Dragon King showed Long Yuege the Sea Race’s defeat and explained that its cultivators had fled while the Human Race fought for survival.
• Long Yuege objected, but the Jade Dragon King ordered the Sea Race to give up on Chu Kingdom and seize territory in Yue Kingdom and Wu Kingdom.

Jade Dragon King explained why the Sea Race should set aside grudges and abandon its costly campaign against Chu Kingdom, and the Sea Race withdrew to attack other kingdoms. During the ensuing years, Lu Xuanji refined Nascent Soul Pills and used them to advance to the Nascent Soul sixth layer, though the rapid cultivation brought instability and Pill Poison.

• Jade Dragon King told Long Yuege not to let hatred obscure the bigger picture, explaining that the Sea Race would give up attacking Chu Kingdom and target Wu Kingdom and Yue Kingdom instead.
• The Sea Race received a secret order and withdrew most of its troops from Chu Kingdom within ten years, redirecting them toward Yue Kingdom, Wu Kingdom, and others.
• Lu Xuanji completed ten years of pill refinement, producing one hundred and thirty Nascent Soul Pills and storing some in the Medicine Nourishing Gourd.
• Lu Xuanji rapidly consumed Nascent Soul Pills while keeping watch for another attack, reaching the peak of the Nascent Soul fifth layer at the cost of wasted medicinal power, unstable cultivation, and Pill Poison.
• By the twentieth year, Lu Xuanji broke through to the Nascent Soul sixth layer, raising his magical power to twelve thousand jiazi, though he remained no match for a Spirit Transformation cultivator.

After reaching the sixth layer of the Nascent Soul stage, Lu Xuanji learned that the Sea Race had withdrawn from Chu Kingdom and shifted its invasion to Wu Kingdom and Yue Kingdom. Chu Kingdom gained a fragile respite, and Lu Xuanji returned to the Lu Clan.

• Lu Xuanji tested his improved combat abilities after advancing to the sixth layer of the Nascent Soul stage, while Ink Feather True Lord congratulated him and reported the Sea Race’s withdrawal from Chu Kingdom.
• Ink Feather True Lord explained that the Sea Race had invaded Wu Kingdom and Yue Kingdom, leaving Chu Kingdom safe for now.
• Lu Xuanji used Baidu Maps to see that much of Wu Kingdom and Yue Kingdom had fallen and realized the Sea Race was using the war to train its troops and wear down both kingdoms.
• Lu Xuanji concluded that the Sea Race had stopped fighting Chu Kingdom because the costs outweighed the gains, though he knew the peace could be broken again.
• Chu Kingdom withdrew most of its forces from the eastern front, and Lu Xuanji returned to the Lu Clan after seeing signs of the kingdom’s recovery.

Lu Xuanji returned to the Lu Clan and learned how Chu Kingdom’s mass cultivation drive was straining its spiritual energy while the Lu Clan rapidly expanded under Azure Lotus’s protection. He warned Ye Wanyi that the approaching chaos made her slow cultivation dangerous.

• Lu Xuanji saw Chu Kingdom’s population and cultivator numbers surge as Spirit Root Nurturing Pills spread, while spiritual energy dwindled from the strain.
• Ye Wanyi told Lu Xuanji that the Lu Clan had mobilized its resources, grown to millions of cultivators, and gained Azure Lotus as its protector and five Spirit Transformation Ancestor.
• Ye Wanyi explained that the Lu Clan had attracted numerous vassal families and expanded its territory, but lacked enough talented younger cultivators at the Purple Mansion and Golden Core stages.
• Ye Wanyi said Xian'er and Fan'er had refused her summons to return and intended to fight outside the clan’s lands.
• Lu Xuanji urged Ye Wanyi to focus on her cultivation, warning that the chaotic era had begun and even powerful Nascent Soul cultivators were dying.

Lu Xuanji explained that his cultivation path prioritized speed and suitability, then used Phone Fate Deduction to create a cultivation method tailored to Ye Wanyi. After studying it, Ye Wanyi began adapting her cultivation, gaining speed at the cost of some combat power.

• Ye Wanyi told Lu Xuanji that her slow progress came from spending too long comprehending cultivation methods after reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Lu Xuanji used Phone Fate Deduction to revise the Ice Soul True Scripture into a method suited to Ye Wanyi and capable of cultivation to the Spirit Transformation realm.
• Lu Xuanji explained that his own path favored rapid cultivation over peak combat strength because he lacked the talent and resources to pursue the strongest path.
• Ye Wanyi recognized the scripture's tradeoffs and asked Lu Xuanji whether it represented his path.
• Ye Wanyi began comprehending the new scripture, making her cultivation method more compatible and faster while reducing her combat power.

Lu Xuanji wandered through the transformed Lu Clan, reflecting on how time had distanced him from its people, before reuniting with Azure Lotus, who had reached Spirit Transformation. She asked for his help cultivating the Two Forms Yin Yang Body, and their dual cultivation dissolved his accumulated Pill Poison and greatly advanced his cultivation.

• Lu Xuanji surveyed the Lu Clan’s strengthened formations, crowded schools, and growing population, then visited the graves of his family and elders.
• Lu Xuanji returned to his Cave Dwelling and met Azure Lotus, congratulating her on reaching Spirit Transformation.
• Azure Lotus explained how the Chu Kingdom’s tribulation and her origins had enabled her breakthrough, while warning that her true body limited her future advancement.
• Azure Lotus asked Lu Xuanji to provide yang qi to help her cultivate the Two Forms Yin Yang Body, and they practiced together for several days.
• Azure Lotus passed the cultivation method to Lu Xuanji, and their circulating Yin Yang Two Qi dissolved his accumulated Pill Poison into magical power, rapidly improving his cultivation.

After Azure Lotus helped Lu Xuanji temper his foundation and divine intents through Dual Cultivation, she left to face the approaching Demon Race. Lu Xuanji reconsidered his many phenomena and began shaping them into a single Thirty-Three Heavens Phenomenon, naming its first six layers.

• Lu Xuanji’s cultivation fell from Nascent Soul sixth layer to second before his foundation solidified and his cultivation recovered to sixth layer.
• Azure Lotus tested Lu Xuanji with her Endless Demon Soil divine intent, and he used the Pure Yang Great Sun to help her Azure Lotus balance and strengthen it.
• Three years later, Azure Lotus left for the front lines after news arrived that the Demon Race was preparing to attack again.
• Lu Xuanji reflected on Azure Lotus’s two divine intents and recognized that he had underestimated the value of phenomena.
• Lu Xuanji collapsed his twelve phenomena and gathered them into the Thirty-Three Heavens Phenomenon, naming its first six layers as the Six Heavens of Desire Realm.