Chapter Summaries

At the Human Emperor’s grand sacrifice, Seventh Prince Li Zhai broke into the ceremony and accused Yao of plotting for the throne and abandoning the Black Armored Army. He fought the imperial forces to expose Yao before the world and hurled his spear at the emperor, staking his life on breaking the emperor’s destiny.

• The kingdoms and officials presented gifts and praise as the Human Emperor’s ceremony gathered Human Dao Destiny and displayed the might of the seventeen armies.
• Seventh Prince Li Zhai smashed through the palace gates carrying the Military Family Battle Stele and publicly accused Yao of forging a decree, refusing aid to Jin Province, and colluding with foreign enemies.
• The crown prince ordered the Imperial Guard to seize Li Zhai, and Li Zhai broke their weapons and invoked the Battle Stele’s oath against a ruler without virtue.
• Li Zhai declared that he would reveal Yao’s past to the world and cut off his path to becoming the Sage Emperor, while former allies and nobles turned against him.
• Li Zhai fought through the Imperial Guard and the seventeen armies, awakening the Military School’s Killing Intent without imperial destiny.
• Wounded and surrounded, Li Zhai hurled his spear at the Human Emperor, declaring that he would break Yao’s destiny with his life.

At the Great Sacrifice, Li Zhai challenged the Human Emperor, and the old soldier’s will emerged from the Ode to the Great Roc to shatter the Hundred Battles Stele and the emperor’s authority. As the realm entered an age of upheaval, Qi WuHuo left Central Province and walked into the mortal world.

• Li Zhai’s spear struck at the Human Emperor and shattered the belief that Human Dao Destiny depended solely on imperial investiture, but the emperor cut the spear apart with his ancient war bow.
• The Human Emperor shot at Li Zhai, but Li Hui and Prince Qin Li Feng deflected the arrow, while Qiong Yu and Li Hui helped give the emperor a way to spare him.
• The Crown Prince presented the Ode to the Great Roc, and its hidden words summoned the Black Armor’s old soldier, whose sword destroyed the Hundred Battles Stele and cut apart the new reign title.
• The Human Emperor’s authority waned, the Crown Prince lost his Human Dao Destiny and was later imprisoned, and the realm entered an age of conflict among civil and military factions.
• Decades later, Qi WuHuo finished painting his departed friend beneath the tree, said farewell to Central Province, and walked into the mortal world beneath a green bamboo umbrella.

Qi WuHuo invited Little Medicine Spirit to leave with him and Little Peacock, and they set out to find Senior Disciple Sister Yu Miao before returning to He Lian Mountain. In the Heavenly Realm, Great Master Xuan Du learned that Qi WuHuo had been granted the title Supreme Xuanwei, then Tian Peng asked him for Qi WuHuo and caused his third batch of pills to explode.

• Qi WuHuo struggled to advance because his foundation was damaged and planned to seek the Primordial Ancestral Qi scroll after the Exorcism Department awarded merits.
• Little Medicine Spirit offered Qi WuHuo her treasured possessions when she feared he was leaving, then chose to join him and brought her true body along in her medicine basket.
• Qi WuHuo, Little Peacock, and Little Medicine Spirit departed to find Senior Disciple Sister Yu Miao before returning to He Lian Mountain.
• Great Master Xuan Du discovered that Qi WuHuo's Jade Tablet title had changed to Supreme Xuanwei and divined that his deeds had earned him the title ahead of time.
• True Lord Yu Zhen Shou Yuan visited Great Master Xuan Du and asked for Qi WuHuo, startling him so badly that his third batch of pills exploded.

After Yu Zhen Shou Yuan told Great Master Xuan Du about Qi WuHuo’s injuries and his place in the North Pole Exorcism Institute, Xuan Du destroyed the healing pills but gave Yu Zhen an alchemy inheritance for him. As Qi WuHuo traveled toward Senior Disciple Sister Yu Miao, Black and White Impermanence restrained his spirit and declared that his lifespan had run out.

• Yu Zhen Shou Yuan told Great Master Xuan Du that Qi WuHuo had joined the North Pole Exorcism Institute and that his use of Heavenly Manifestation had damaged his foundation.
• Great Master Xuan Du destroyed the furnace’s pills, then gave Yu Zhen a jade slip containing alchemical teachings for Qi WuHuo.
• At the Shangqing Library, Old Yellow Ox carried Yun Qin away before she could pet the white cat, while Taiyi Saves from Suffering blocked the Great Dao Lord from leaving.
• Qi WuHuo traveled through the human world toward Senior Disciple Sister Yu Miao and stopped to rest in the mountains with two sleeping companions.
• Black and White Impermanence shackled Qi WuHuo’s spirit and told him that his lifespan had run out.

Qi WuHuo was dragged into the Underworld with a host of souls, including powerful cultivators and Heavenly Officials, while learning why the Underworld escorted spirits whose lifespans had ended. He arrived in the netherworld with the Blood River sword secretly following him, and it asked whether it could eat the many souls there.

• Black and White Impermanence bound Qi WuHuo and escorted him as they collected the souls of an overdue Mountain God, cultivators, a great demon, sect elders, a dragon scion, and two Heavenly Officials.
• White Impermanence explained that the Underworld enforced the boundary between life and death because aging Primordial Spirits could collapse into dangerous fiends, while Black Impermanence subdued those who resisted.
• A Heavenly Official mistook Qi WuHuo for the famed Demon-Subduing True Lord and lost his resolve, allowing the Soul Reaping Rope to capture him.
• Black and White Impermanence brought the gathered souls through the earth veins into the Underworld, where the Grand Heavenly Official explained its role and its officials.
• Qi WuHuo noticed that the Blood River sword had followed him into the Underworld, and it asked through his spirit nature, "Can I eat them?"

Qi WuHuo crossed the Underworld and learned how it judged souls, rewarded Yin Virtue, and remembered the history of the Northern Emperor and the Underworld. When he stepped onto the Yin Virtue Treasure Scroll, its light erupted, revealing that his merit was extraordinary.

• Qi WuHuo stopped the Sword Artifact from devouring the ghosts and intimidated it into backing down.
• Thunder Sound Universal Salvation Celestial Venerable arrived, and White Impermanence explained the Underworld’s history and its strained old ties to Lord Northern Emperor.
• Black Impermanence and White Impermanence recounted how the Wonderful Sword Immortal had fought through the Underworld and the Thunder Department without killing anyone.
• White Impermanence explained the Yellow Springs and the Yin Virtue Treasure Scroll, while the souls were assessed for merit and eligibility to remain in the Underworld.
• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord revealed that he had meant to invite Qi WuHuo for tea, not have him brought in as a dead soul, and the officials realized Qi WuHuo was already at the merit scroll.
• Qi WuHuo stepped onto the Jade Tablet, whose faint glow blazed as Meng Po looked up and saw the sun.

Qi WuHuo’s vast store of yin virtue flooded the Netherworld, healing Meng Po and freeing the dead from their attachments and suffering. The souls departed for reincarnation, and the celestial official recognized Qi WuHuo as the Demon Queller True Lord before Qi introduced himself to the Netherworld True Lord.

• Meng Po briefly returned to a memory of her grandmother, and White Impermanence healed her damaged Primordial Spirit with Meng Po Soup.
• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord revealed that the monk who had willingly entered reincarnation’s tribulation was Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata and that Qi WuHuo had earned extraordinary yin virtue by saving lives.
• Souls throughout the Nether Palace surged toward Qi WuHuo’s merit, but he expelled the power rather than absorb it into his cultivation.
• Qi WuHuo’s light freed the resentful souls from their suffering and attachments, and they departed for reincarnation.
• Meng Po’s appearance returned to youth, but White Impermanence stopped her from reincarnating and argued with her.
• The Divine Firmament Palace celestial official recognized Qi WuHuo as the Demon Queller True Lord, and Qi greeted Black Impermanence and Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord.

Qi WuHuo learned that the sword he had drawn to save the people of the Central Province had badly damaged his Primordial Spirit and shortened his lifespan. Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord gave him Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata’s Buddhist beads to preserve his spirit, then led him to choose a reward from the Nether Palace’s ancient treasures.

• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord led Qi WuHuo across the Bridge of Helplessness, where the Northern Emperor Mirror let him glimpse the sealed Fengdu City beneath the Yellow Springs.
• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord discovered that Qi WuHuo’s Primordial Spirit bore the marks of more than two hundred and fifty years despite his being sixteen, and explained that his sword strike had damaged his body, Primordial Qi, and spirit.
• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord taught Qi WuHuo how to examine his Primordial Spirit, and Qi WuHuo found its inner light dimmed as his lifespan neared its limit.
• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord offered Qi WuHuo the choice of becoming a Yin God, but Qi WuHuo refused to abandon his Dao Path.
• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord gave Qi WuHuo Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata’s Buddhist beads, which could keep his Primordial Spirit from scattering and preserve it for a time.
• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord explained the Underworld’s history and duty to reward Yin Virtue, then brought Qi WuHuo to choose one of the Nether Palace’s ancient treasures.

Qi WuHuo explored the Nether Palace treasury with Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord, collecting several Underworld treasures before discovering an ancient jade slip that revealed the Underworld Gods’ battle with Primordial Celestial Venerable. In the treasury’s deepest chamber, Qi WuHuo awakened a massive, stringless zither, shaking the entire Underworld.

• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord showed Qi WuHuo the treasury’s rare items, and Qi WuHuo chose Gut-wrenching Grass, Dragon Blood Grass, Water of Forgetfulness, and other treasures until he had nearly emptied the treasury.
• Qi WuHuo activated a jade slip showing Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord and the other Kings Yama attacking Primordial Celestial Venerable, who tested their resolve to defend the boundary between life and death.
• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord explained that Primordial Celestial Venerable had granted the Underworld Gods signature techniques, including his own ability, Overturning the Heavens.
• Qi WuHuo entered the ancient treasury and passed over its legendary treasures, following the Northern Emperor Mirror’s pull to a colossal stone zither from the Second Kalpa.
• Qi WuHuo named Heaven, Earth, Man, God, and Ghost as the zither’s five strings, causing it to sound and making the Eighteen Layers of the Underworld shudder.

Qi WuHuo awakened the ancient zither Destroy Buddha, Execute Emperor, Pass and Destroy All Living Beings, causing the Netherworld to tremble and sink before a Five Ghost Emperor seized him. The Ghost Emperors mistook his treasures and abilities for signs that he was the new Fengdu Great Emperor, and asked whether he had come to open Fengdu City and slaughter the Ten Hall Yama Kings.

• The zither awakened in the Netherworld, and its music shook the eighteen layers of hell as Tai Su Miao Guang True Lord and the other Netherworld officials reacted.
• Qi WuHuo claimed the zither as his treasure, and its music spread through the Netherworld and reached the heavens.
• The Jade Emperor dismissed the disturbance as an ancient artifact’s accumulated power, while the Netherworld sank and the Yellow Springs surged.
• A Five Ghost Emperor seized Qi WuHuo and carried him through the authentic Ghost Gate Pass into Fengdu City; Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord pursued him.
• The Five Ghost Emperors examined Qi WuHuo’s mirror, sword, yin virtue, and other powers, then asked if he was the current Fengdu Great Emperor come to open Fengdu City and kill the Ten Hall Yama Kings.

Qi WuHuo survived the Five Ghost Emperors’ interrogation by presenting himself as the Northern Emperor’s emissary and using the Northern Emperor’s Exorcism Order. The Northern Ghost Emperor escorted him out of Fengdu City and made a scabbard from the Yellow Springs for Blood River Sword, but Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord awaited them outside the gate.

• Qi WuHuo rejected the title of Central Heaven Northern Yin Fengdu Great Emperor and identified himself as the Northern Emperor’s emissary.
• Qi WuHuo showed the Five Ghost Emperors the Northern Emperor’s Exorcism Order, and they bowed before it.
• The Central Ghost Emperor recounted the Ghost Emperors’ conflict with the Ten Hall Yama Kings and asked Qi WuHuo to report their grievance to the Northern Emperor.
• Qi WuHuo poured out the tea offered by the Central Ghost Emperor as an offering to the Northern Emperor, avoiding the Five Ghost Emperors’ pressure as Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord approached.
• The Northern Ghost Emperor escorted Qi WuHuo from Fengdu City and fashioned a scabbard for Blood River Sword from the Yellow Springs.
• The Northern Ghost Emperor stopped at the opened Ghost Gate Pass when he saw Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord waiting outside.

Qi WuHuo witnessed Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord fight the Northern Ghost Emperor, then avoided taking sides in the Underworld’s conflict and planned to report the Five Ghost Emperors to the North Pole Exorcism Institute. He returned to his body, only to hear people nearby arguing over his possessions and assuming he was dead.

• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord struck the Northern Ghost Emperor with the Yuqing Edict: Heaven-Overturning Demon-Subduing True Talisman, shattering his head, but the Ghost Emperor quickly recovered.
• The Northern Ghost Emperor abandoned the fight, tossed Qi WuHuo safely to Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord, and pushed open Fengdu City’s gates.
• Qi WuHuo decided not to get involved in the dispute between the Five Ghost Emperors and the Ten Hall Yama Kings and resolved to report it to the North Pole Exorcism Institute.
• Yin Virtue Ding Xiu True Lord warned Qi WuHuo that the Five Ghost Emperors were cunning, cold-hearted beings who had once stirred up the boundary between life and death.
• Qi WuHuo returned his Primordial Spirit to his body and heard people nearby declare him breathless while claiming his medicinal spirit and spirit bird for the Li Household.

Qi WuHuo woke from his absent-minded meditation to find Little Peacock protecting him from two rival groups, then gave Zhou Yihan guidance about the Seventh Prince. Back in the North Pole Exorcism Institute, Heavenly Marshal Tian Peng arranged to summon a junior clerk’s Primordial Spirit, intending to reward him for whatever he reported.

• Little Peacock burned the Li family’s binding rope and drove the attackers back, while the Mountain Gods and Earthly Deities arrived to protect Qi WuHuo.
• Qi WuHuo learned from Zhou Yihan that the Seventh Prince had been stripped of his title and imprisoned after attempting to assassinate the Emperor, and he gave her a hidden message to guide her in the Capital City.
• Qi WuHuo called the Seventh Prince a hero and praised his defense of the people and the border, prompting Zhou Yihan to leave with renewed resolve.
• The Mountain Gods and Earthly Deities explained that they had come to protect Qi WuHuo under Ling Miao Gong’s decree, then departed as he reflected on ancient calamities and the Demon Race.
• Heavenly Marshal Tian Peng received a report from a junior clerk and ordered his Primordial Spirit summoned inside, planning to praise him and grant him an alchemy method.

Qi WuHuo reported the Five Ghost Emperors’ plan to break out of Fengdu City, was appointed the Northern Emperor’s Envoy and promoted to Right Judge of the Northern Pole Exorcism Institute. After returning to the Human World, he encountered Senior Disciple Sister Yu Miao’s dying lover and stopped him with a zither melody.

• Qi WuHuo reported that Fengdu City’s Ghost Gate Pass was open and that the Five Ghost Emperors intended to escape and slaughter the Ten Hall Yama Kings after he took an ancient zither from the netherworld treasury.
• True Lord Tian Peng removed a hidden object the Central Ghost Emperor had planted in Qi WuHuo’s hand and took the Blood River Sword to inspect its scabbard.
• Qi WuHuo chose the scroll of Primordial Ancestral Qi, and True Lord Tian Peng told him the Northern Emperor had approved his report and made him the genuine Northern Emperor’s Envoy.
• True Lord Tian Peng returned the sword, now reinforced with Weak Water of the Celestial River, and announced Qi WuHuo’s promotion to Immortal Official, Subordinate Ninth Rank, Right Judge of the Northern Pole Exorcism Institute.
• Qi WuHuo returned to the Human World and set out to find Senior Disciple Sister Yu Miao, but encountered her elderly lover, whose remaining lifespan was about a month.
• Qi WuHuo appeared on the old man’s path and played a faint melody on his zither.

Qi WuHuo rescued Chu Hongtu from cultivators trying to return him to Yu Miao and learned that Chu feared his life and memories had been fabricated. When Chu set out for his hometown in Hezhou to discover the truth, Qi WuHuo offered to accompany him, and the Earth Gods promised to carry them there in a day.

• Qi WuHuo met the aging Chu Hongtu, who avoided explaining why he was hurrying away from Yu Miao's blessed land.
• Qi WuHuo followed pursuing cultivators and drove them off with his zither, freeing Chu Hongtu from a binding rope.
• Chu Hongtu told Qi WuHuo that he loved Yu Miao but feared she had created his memories and made his life a false one.
• Chu Hongtu decided to return to his hometown in Hezhou to learn who he was, despite his failing strength.
• Qi WuHuo chose to accompany Chu Hongtu and summoned the Earth Gods, who offered to transport him to Hezhou in a day.

Qi WuHuo traveled with Chu Hongtu to Hezhou, where Chu recovered fragments of a past life as a hero who had saved a village and loved a woman named Miao. As Yu Miao tried to prevent him from choosing whether to recover those memories, Qi WuHuo blocked her, and Chu swallowed the Gut-wrenching Grass.

• Qi WuHuo and Chu Hongtu traveled underground with the Earth Gods, and Qi WuHuo discovered that earth qi eased his damaged internal organs.
• In Hezhou, Chu found that the city and its cherished foods had changed, then recalled fragments of a life he could not explain.
• Chu and Qi WuHuo reached a town where a monument confirmed that Chu had once stopped a volcanic disaster and had a wife named Miao.
• Qi WuHuo offered Chu the Gut-wrenching Grass to restore his memories at the cost of three days of life, the Water of Forgetfulness to ease his doubts, or the choice to take neither.
• Yu Miao attacked to stop Chu from choosing, but Qi WuHuo blocked her and argued that Chu must decide for himself.
• Chu swallowed the Gut-wrenching Grass.

Chu Hongtu drank the Water of Forgetfulness and, reborn in spirit as his carefree younger self, rode away with only three days to live. Yu Miao chose not to drink, let go of her eight-hundred-year attachment, and stood on the verge of another breakthrough as Qi WuHuo left her a jade token bearing her name and a new title.

• Chu Hongtu recalled his life with Yu Miao and explained that he had destroyed his Dao foundation to stop a fiend because heroes had to uphold justice.
• Yu Miao told Chu Hongtu she had fought for eight hundred years to earn enough yin virtue for his reincarnation, and Qi WuHuo reflected on whether a person remained the same after reincarnation.
• Chu Hongtu asked Yu Miao to drink the Water of Forgetfulness, then drank his own share and rode off on horseback, regaining his youth and becoming a True Person despite having only three days to live.
• Qi WuHuo told Yu Miao that it was better to forget one another in the rivers and lakes; Yu Miao poured out the Water of Forgetfulness and began to break through.
• Ox-Head and Horse-Face told Qi WuHuo they would collect Chu Hongtu's soul in three days, while the gathered cultivators watched them treat him with respect.
• Qi WuHuo scattered his sword manual into Yu Miao's blessed land and left Teacher's jade token there; the token revealed the name Yu Miao and the title Supreme.

Primordial Lady Taiyin learned that the woman who had stormed Heaven’s Gate had ascended and discovered she was the third disciple of the Supreme One Sect. Great Master Xuan Du told Taiyin to settle her karmic debt by finding the woman, while Old Yellow Ox prepared for Weaver Star Lord to meet Wu Huo.

• Chang'e told Primordial Lady Taiyin that the woman who had stormed Heaven’s Gate eight hundred years earlier had attained the Dao.
• Primordial Lady Taiyin followed the woman’s light to Purple Mansion Xuan Du Temple, where Great Master Xuan Du explained that the woman was his junior sister and the third disciple of the Supreme One Sect.
• Great Master Xuan Du gave Taiyin the woman’s immortal registry and told her the woman had to serve Heaven’s court before returning to cultivation.
• Great Master Xuan Du revealed that the Supreme One Sect’s second disciple was Supreme Xuanwei, whom he nicknamed True Lord of Furnace Explosion Omen, Saint Emperor of Supreme Elixir Destruction.
• Old Yellow Ox returned to the Ox Mansion and agreed to arrange a meeting between Weaver Star Lord and Wu Huo.

Qi WuHuo made rapid progress with the Primordial Ancestral Qi after True Lord Tian Peng explained its principles, mastering its basics in half a month. As Qi WuHuo received a message from Old Yellow Ox, the ox recognized True Lord Tian Peng and panicked.

• Qi WuHuo practiced the Primordial Ancestral Qi while traveling toward He Lian Mountain and found that it made controlling qi easier and less tiring.
• True Lord Tian Peng manifested before Qi WuHuo to explain his dangerous assignment among the Five Ghost Emperors and discuss his cultivation.
• Qi WuHuo demonstrated his understanding of the Primordial Ancestral Qi, and True Lord Tian Peng explained how it could dissolve attacks into qi.
• After True Lord Tian Peng answered his questions, Qi WuHuo mastered the basics of the Primordial Ancestral Qi, astonishing Tian Peng.
• Old Yellow Ox contacted Qi WuHuo through the Northern Emperor Mirror, then recognized True Lord Tian Peng and became terrified.

Heavenly Marshal Tian Peng revealed Qi WuHuo’s identity to Old Yellow Ox, taught Qi WuHuo to change his appearance with Primordial Ancestral Qi, and called him Daoist Brother. Later, Yun Qin discovered that Qi WuHuo’s foundation was injured, appeared before him through her mother’s astral technique, and spent a playful evening with him before her manifestation faded.

• Heavenly Marshal Tian Peng identified Qi WuHuo to Old Yellow Ox as a dangerous Exorcism Department officer and told Old Yellow Ox to keep his identity secret.
• Heavenly Marshal Tian Peng taught Qi WuHuo to alter his appearance with Primordial Ancestral Qi, then invited him to call him Daoist Brother before departing.
• Old Yellow Ox ended the mirror call, deliberately crashed into a pillar, and pretended to be unconscious when Yun Qin returned with the mirror.
• Yun Qin spoke with Qi WuHuo, took his pulse through the Northern Emperor Mirror, and realized that his foundation was injured.
• Yun Qin used the Method of Manifesting Light Circles to appear beside Qi WuHuo and showed him her astral technique and dance.
• Qi WuHuo played his zither while Yun Qin danced, and they laughed and practiced together until her starlight form faded.