Chapter Summaries

Xuan Qing healed Master Tongtian and allowed him and the Interception Sect disciples to cultivate in the Azure Nether Sea Domain. After they left the battlefield, the Chan Sect claimed the defeated Three Demons from Buddhism, while Duobao watched Great Shang’s troubles deepen.

• Xuan Qing restored Master Tongtian’s damaged foundations, gave him a Creation Dao Seed, and sent him away to settle the Interception Sect’s affairs before entering seclusion.
• Xuan Qing ordered Qing Ling and Qing Ya to arrange cultivation places and resources for Duobao, Yunxiao, and the other Interception Sect disciples.
• With the Interception Sect gone from the battlefield, Buddhist cultivators tried to claim the defeated Golden-Haired Hou, White Elephant, and Azure Lion, but the Twelve Golden Immortals blocked them.
• Cihang and two other Golden Immortals sealed the Three Demons and bound them with eternal contracts for the Chan Sect.
• Duobao looked down at Great Shang, where war continued and rumors condemned King Zhou as a tyrant.

After the Jie Sect’s defeat at Jiepai Pass, Duobao withdrew from the mortal world and the Chan Sect and Buddhism claimed their spoils. Jiang Ziya led Xiqi’s army toward Zhaoge, where Huang Feihu awaited the reveal of King Zhou’s final plan and the decisive battle.

• Duobao suppressed his grief, left the mortal world, and watched the Jie Sect’s survivors retreat to the Azure Nether Sea Domain.
• Guang Chengzi and Daoist Ran Deng took four Zhu Xian swords to Kunlun, while the Buddhist cultivators returned to Spirit Mountain with the Immortal Slaying Sword.
• Jiang Ziya ordered Xiqi’s army across Jiepai Pass and toward Zhaoge after the immortal forces withdrew.
• Huang Feihu marched with Xiqi, privately anticipating King Zhou’s hidden endgame and the final clash between Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.
• Yang Jian followed alone at the rear of the army as it advanced toward Zhaoge.

Xiqi’s army reached Zhaoge, and Deng Kun and Rui Ji surrendered the outer city as Shang’s officials and people panicked. A mysterious force took control of the city walls, and Ji Fa emerged before the Zhou army to reassure Jiang Ziya.

• Deng Kun and Rui Ji judged Great Shang’s fall inevitable, laid down their arms, and opened Zhaoge’s outer gates to Xiqi.
• Zhou troops entered the outer city as panic and thoughts of defection spread among Zhaoge’s people and officials.
• A heavily armed army of unknown origin appeared across Zhaoge’s walls and sealed the city’s gates and routes.
• Jiang Ziya was alarmed by the force’s sudden appearance and wondered how it had entered the city unnoticed.
• Ji Fa, dressed in bright silver armor, stepped out before the Zhou troops and told Jiang Ziya there was no need to worry.

As Great Zhou’s army reached Zhaoge, Ji Fa and Jiang Ziya declared Yin Shang doomed and called on King Zhou to surrender. King Zhou appeared atop the walls with Huang Feihu, rejected their accusations, and challenged them to produce proof, while Ji Fa demanded that he show Daji and the other Demon Concubines.

• Ji Fa rallied the Zhou army by claiming the troops atop Zhaoge’s walls were Yin Shang’s last hidden force and that defeating them would complete Zhou’s unification.
• Jiang Ziya led Chan Sect disciples and Zhou generals to the city gate, denounced King Zhou’s crimes, and demanded his surrender.
• King Zhou told Bi Gan and Shang Rong to remain hidden so they would not disrupt his plan, then set out for the ramparts with Huang Feihu.
• King Zhou appeared above Zhaoge’s walls and challenged Jiang Ziya and Ji Fa to provide proof for their accusations.
• Ji Fa recalled his family’s deaths at King Zhou’s hands and demanded that King Zhou bring Daji and the other Demon Concubines onto the wall.

Daji and the other two demons planned to kill King Zhou and offer his head to Ji Fa, hoping to escape the consequences of their crimes. King Zhou had them brought to the city wall, where his masked general pinned them down, giving Ji Fa and Jiang Ziya what they took as proof of his guilt.

• Daji warned Hu Ximei and Lady Wang that they could not escape their fate and proposed killing King Zhou to win Ji Fa's favor.
• King Zhou's soldiers seized the Three Demons and escorted them to the city wall.
• Daji pretended to grieve and tried to throw herself into King Zhou's arms, but the masked general suppressed the Three Demons with his killing aura.
• King Zhou looked down at the pinned demons with open hostility, while Ji Fa and Jiang Ziya celebrated what they saw as proof against him.
• Jiang Ziya rallied the Zhou Army and declared that Zhou's campaign against Shang was righteous.

Yin Shou challenged Jiang Ziya to explain the Three Demons’ origins and questioned whether he served the human people or the immortals who had plotted against Great Shang. Jiang Ziya could not answer, leaving both armies and the watching immortals in tense silence.

• Yin Shou named Daji, the Jade Pipa Spirit, and the Nine-Headed Pheasant Spirit as demons, then demanded Jiang Ziya reveal who had sent them to Zhaoge.
• Jiang Ziya accused Yin Shou of ignoring his earlier warnings to execute the demons, while concealing that Empress Nuwa had sent them.
• Yin Shou accused the immortals and gods of scheming against Great Shang and asked Jiang Ziya whether he served the people or the heavens.
• Jiang Ziya froze under Yin Shou’s question as soldiers from both armies watched and waited for his answer.

Jiang Ziya deflected Yin Shou’s accusation and demanded that King Zhou abdicate or face death. As Yin Shou prepared to execute the Three Demons, Su Hu and Su Quanzhong rushed in, and the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox was left bound and wounded after revealing no truth yet.

• Jiang Ziya avoided answering King Zhou’s challenge and called on him to surrender the throne or be killed.
• Yin Shou raised the Human King Sword and announced that he would behead the Three Demons for their crimes against Great Shang.
• Su Hu and Su Quanzhong charged onto the battlefield and blocked King Zhou’s sword, as Su Hu demanded the truth about his missing daughter Daji.
• The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox laughed and released demonic power that began to bewitch the soldiers.
• Yin Shou pierced the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox’s Pipa Bones with the Human King Sword, sealing her demonic power.
• Despite her injuries, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox laughed again, determined to expose the truth and make those present regret it.

The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox revealed that Daji had died long ago, and King Zhou killed the three demons of Xuanyuan Tomb as their sins and sincere affection for him came to light. With the demons gone, Yin Shou turned his attention to the Xiqi army and challenged Ji Fa, who was shaken by the power of the king before him.

• The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox told Su Hu that she had devoured Daji, and the enraged general charged her before the masked general knocked him off the city wall.
• King Zhou accused Xiqi of colluding with the demons and drove the Human King Sword through the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's demon core.
• The dying Nine-Tailed Demon Fox confessed that her affection for King Zhou had been sincere, and Hu Ximei and Lady Wang then threw themselves onto his sword and died beside her.
• The three demons vanished into white starlight, leaving no bodies or souls behind, and Yin Shou was briefly stunned by their fate.
• King Zhou unleashed his Human Dao power and challenged Ji Fa to fight, while Ji Fa felt overwhelmed and could not answer.

Jiang Ziya sealed Zhaoge in a siege, but King Zhou rejected a slow defeat and ordered Huang Feihu to lead the defenders in a decisive charge. The Yin Shang and Xiqi armies faced off as Huang Feihu launched the attack, leaving the battle on the verge of erupting.

• Jiang Ziya ordered Xiqi's troops to surround Zhaoge completely and planned to starve the city into surrender.
• King Zhou judged the siege a threat to Yin Shang and entrusted the next move to the masked Huang Feihu.
• Huang Feihu led Zhaoge's defenders through the opened gates to meet Xiqi's army in a frontal charge.
• Jiang Ziya rallied Xiqi's generals and troops to face the advancing Yin Shang forces.
• Huang Feihu refused to reveal his name, challenged Xiqi to defeat his spear, and ordered his troops to charge.

Huang Feihu led Great Shang’s outnumbered army in a fierce counterattack that shattered Xiqi’s siege of Zhaoge. Xiqi’s forces retreated, and Ji Fa watched his confidence in victory collapse.

• Huang Feihu and Huang Tianhua secretly advanced through the woods toward the heart of Xiqi’s camp while the armies prepared to clash.
• Great Shang’s soldiers held their ground against Xiqi’s much larger army and began driving its vanguard back.
• Jiang Ziya urged the masked Huang Feihu to surrender, but Huang Feihu denounced him and charged at him with his spear.
• Jiang Ziya fled behind his guards, and Huang Feihu’s bold attack rallied Great Shang’s soldiers as they pressed Xiqi’s army into retreat.
• Great Shang’s counterattack broke through Xiqi’s siege lines, leaving Ji Fa stunned as his army’s presumed victory fell apart.

After Xiqi’s army was routed outside Zhaoge, Jiang Ziya reassured Ji Fa that reinforcements and a prolonged siege would still defeat Great Shang. That night, Huang Feihu's Clone and Huang Tianhua burned Xiqi’s grain depot and escaped to a concealed garrison where an elite Shang army awaited.

• Huang Feihu’s forces drove Xiqi’s army back from Zhaoge and withdrew in formation behind the city gates.
• Ji Fa asked Jiang Ziya what to do, and Jiang Ziya urged him to gather reinforcements and exhaust Zhaoge with a siege.
• Huang Feihu's Clone and Huang Tianhua infiltrated Xiqi’s camp and set its grain and fodder depot ablaze.
• Huang Feihu's Clone and Huang Tianhua broke through the disordered camp and escaped into the night.
• Huang Feihu and Huang Tianhua reached a hidden garrison where an elite army in Mysterious Shang Battle Armor had gathered.

Huang Feihu reunited with Li Jing and the waiting Great Shang troops, completing the counterstrategy that turned the tide against Xiqi. As East Earl and Queen Jiang prepared to move on Zhaoge, Jiang Ziya and the Xiqi commanders faced the destruction of much of their grain supply.

• Huang Tianhua brought Huang Feihu to Li Jing, whose troops had secretly waited to join them.
• Huang Feihu affirmed that he did not regret enduring years undercover for Great Shang and the Human King's cause.
• East Earl and Queen Jiang watched Zhaoge while Jiang spoke of King Zhou's burdens and their hope of returning to the palace after victory.
• Jiang Ziya, Ji Fa, and the Xiqi commanders gathered after their grain camp fire was extinguished, learning that more than half their provisions had been destroyed.

After Huang Feihu and Huang Tianhua burned Xiqi’s grain stores and fled northwest, Jiang Ziya realized they had been lured toward Chentang Pass, where Li Jing might be part of a trap. At dawn, the Shang Army attacked Xiqi’s retreat, and a mysterious force appeared behind them, leaving Jiang Ziya scrambling to lead an eastern breakout.

• A patrol officer reported that Huang Feihu and Huang Tianhua had burned the rear granaries and fled northwest, and Jiang Ziya deduced that their destination was Chentang Pass.
• Jiang Ziya warned that Xiqi had fallen into a trap, while the army spent the night sleepless and uneasy.
• At dawn, the Shang Army attacked Xiqi, forcing its troops to retreat as Jiang Ziya repeatedly changed their route amid the chaos.
• An earthquake shook the ground, and a previously unknown army appeared from the southwest behind Xiqi’s retreating forces.
• Jiang Ziya ordered the surrounded Xiqi army to change course again and break out toward the east.

Jiang Ziya’s Xiqi army was trapped by three Shang forces and suffered a devastating defeat, losing most of its soldiers before retreating west. At the new camp, Jiang Ziya resolved to seek aid from Kunlun, believing the immortals must enter the war to turn the tide.

• Jiang Ziya rallied the retreating Xiqi soldiers and recognized Queen Jiang leading the army to the southwest.
• Li Jing, Huang Feihu, and Huang Tianhua arrived from the northwest, completing a three-sided encirclement of the Xiqi army.
• The Shang forces slaughtered and pursued the Xiqi soldiers until only a little over a hundred thousand escaped, while the exhausted Shang armies halted their chase.
• Jiang Ziya ordered the remnants west and established a fortified camp in a valley far from the Great Shang border.
• Jiang Ziya told Ji Fa and the generals that he would return to Kunlun Mountain to ask the immortals to join the war.

Jiang Ziya reported that Great Shang had reversed the campaign with three elite armies and the return of Queen Jiang, Huang Feihu, and Li Jing. Primordial Heavenly Venerate discovered that Shang Zhou had disrupted the Heavenly Dao’s plans and ordered the Chan Sect disciples to descend and aid Xiqi.

• Jiang Ziya rushed into Jade Void Palace and reported Xiqi’s defeats and the appearance of three powerful Shang armies.
• Jiang Ziya named Queen Jiang, Huang Feihu, and Li Jing as the generals leading Great Shang’s defense.
• Primordial Heavenly Venerate surveyed the battlefield with his Divine Sense and saw Xiqi’s army in disarray before Zhaoge.
• Primordial Heavenly Venerate realized Shang Zhou had hidden his strength and disrupted the expected course of God Conferment.
• Primordial Heavenly Venerate ordered the Chan Sect disciples to descend the mountain and help Xiqi defeat Great Shang.

After King Zhou’s unexpected moves reversed the mortal war, Ran Deng Daoist persuaded Primordial Heavenly Venerate to send the Chan Sect immortals back to battle. Primordial Heavenly Venerate then confronted Jieyin Daoist and Zhunti Daoist at Mount Sumeru over their failed plan, where Zhunti began to explain himself.

• Ran Deng Daoist reassured Primordial Heavenly Venerate that the Chan Sect immortals could defeat Shang and urged him to send them back to the battlefield.
• Primordial Heavenly Venerate ordered the Chan Sect Golden Immortals to resume the campaign, while Nezha secretly rejoiced that the war and the Chan Sect’s tribulation had begun again.
• Primordial Heavenly Venerate left Jade Void Palace and traveled to Mount Sumeru, where Western cultivators were celebrating their expected rise.
• Primordial Heavenly Venerate crushed the celebration with his Saintly pressure and accused Zhunti Daoist of failing to deliver the flawless plan he had promised.
• Primordial Heavenly Venerate showed Jieyin Daoist and Zhunti Daoist a mirror revealing Xiqi’s defeat and Great Shang’s reversal of the calamity’s fate.
• Jieyin Daoist questioned Zhunti Daoist about the upheaval, and Zhunti insisted that they believe him as he began to explain.

After discovering that King Zhou had overturned their plans, Primordial Heavenly Venerate, Jieyin, and Zhunti descended in secret to investigate Zhaoge. There, Great Shang’s Auspicious Qi revived through the people’s support, while the Saints found no trace of outside interference.

• Zhunti resolved to enter the mortal world and investigate who had disrupted the Saints’ plans for the Investiture of the Gods Calamity.
• Primordial Heavenly Venerate, Jieyin, and Zhunti considered Dao Venerable Xuan Qing’s possible involvement, then secretly descended toward Zhaoge.
• The people of Great Shang learned that King Zhou’s apparent tyranny had been a disguise and rallied behind him after Xiqi’s defeat.
• The Human Race’s support awakened Great Shang’s Auspicious Qi, dispelled the calamity clouds, and drove the kingdom’s fortune to a new peak.
• The three Saints searched Zhaoge with their Divine Sense but found no sign of an outside power interfering.

Shang Rong and Bi Gan were revealed to be alive, exposing King Zhou’s staged signs of Great Shang’s collapse and enraging the Saints. Zhunti’s attempt to bewitch King Zhou failed when his hidden Grand Unity Golden Immortal cultivation and a mysterious azure Dao power destroyed the spell, leaving the Saints unable to act against the Human Dao’s barrier.

• The three Saints discovered Shang Rong and Bi Gan alive and realized King Zhou had staged Great Shang’s apparent decline to manipulate the Investiture of the Gods Calamity.
• The Human Dao’s fortune shielded Zhaoge City, preventing the Saints from directly attacking King Zhou or using ordinary arts against him.
• At Yuanshi’s urging, Zhunti secretly cast Buddhism’s Mind-Confusing Great Art while the exhausted King Zhou fell asleep.
• Zhunti discovered that King Zhou had secretly attained the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Dao Foundation, defying the prohibition against a Human King cultivating.
• An azure Dao resonance within King Zhou’s Primordial Spirit shattered Zhunti’s spell and struck him with a backlash that made him spit blood.
• The three Saints remained trapped outside the Human Dao’s barrier, uncertain how to regain control of the Investiture Chessboard while Great Shang lacked powerful allies.

Zhunti abandoned his schemes and called for the Saints to overthrow Great Shang by force, while Nuwa summoned the dormant Phoenix Clan to defend Shang’s orthodoxy. Several days later, Zhou’s army rallied with a million troops outside Zhaoge, poised to attack.

• Zhunti urged the other Saints to gather their strength and crush Great Shang through open warfare.
• Nuwa condemned Zhunti’s interference in the Investiture of the Gods and summoned the hidden powers beneath Jiepai Pass to act.
• Feng Wu led dozens of Phoenix Clan experts from their secret realm, declaring that they would expose Zhou’s false claim and protect Great Shang.
• Feng Wu and the Phoenix Clan vanished from the secret realm to join the decisive struggle.
• Zhou’s scattered forces received reinforcements and reorganized into a million-strong army near Zhaoge.

Jiang Ziya led Xiqi’s million-strong army and its immortal allies toward Zhaoge, confident they could destroy Great Shang. King Zhou met the invasion with resolve, and the Phoenix Clan appeared above the capital, halting Xiqi’s advance with its overwhelming presence.

• Jiang Ziya rallied Xiqi’s assembled Chan Sect and Buddhist forces and ordered the army to march on Zhaoge.
• A messenger warned King Zhou that Xiqi’s army and celestial immortals were nearing the city, but King Zhou welcomed the challenge and asked Immortal Golden Phoenix for aid.
• Immortal Golden Phoenix promised that the Phoenix Clan would show its strength against the Chan Sect, Buddhism, and the other heavenly immortals.
• King Zhou ordered Huang Feihu and Li Jing to lead troops out of Zhaoge and form a defensive line before the city.
• The Phoenix Clan’s warriors appeared above Zhaoge in a vast sea of fire, stunning Xiqi’s army and suppressing its advance.