Chapter Summaries

Qi WuHuo comforted Xiao Pengcao and disguised himself as a blind zither player in the Zither Music Pavilion, where his performance quickly made him famous. Meanwhile, Cui Yuanzhen’s party learned that Qi WuHuo had attacked a Demon Race border city, and the chapter ended as a fortune teller recognized the musician’s familiar aura and divined his identity.

• Qi WuHuo comforted Xiao Pengcao, promised not to sell her, and let her keep her old clothes while she slowly grew more at ease around him.
• Su You helped Qi WuHuo disguise himself as a noble blind zither player, and his performance at the Zither Music Pavilion drew acclaim and growing crowds.
• Cui Yuanzhen and the Ming Zhen Dao Alliance party found Jinzhou recovering from drought and suspected that Qi WuHuo had persuaded the heavenly gods to send rain.
• Demon Race soldiers told the party that Qi WuHuo had stormed a border city, killed a great general, and fought Great General Tengshe; Great Monk Deshen then killed their captive general.
• True Person Gongyang Yidong learned that Patriarch Lu had gone to hear the famous zither player instead of joining the party, while the gray-clad fortune teller brought a great monk to the pavilion.
• The gray-clad fortune teller saw Qi WuHuo perform, sensed a familiar aura, and froze when his divination revealed something unexpected.

Qi WuHuo reunited with a monk and a wary grey-robed fortune teller, who explained the monk’s demonic obstacle and warned that Xiao Pengcao’s rare nature would attract powerful pursuers if she cultivated. The fortune teller recognized her as a descendant of the Feng clan and then tried to divine who had taught Qi WuHuo to play the zither, only to be horrified by the result.

• Qi WuHuo met the monk and grey-robed fortune teller in a quiet room after the monk brought the reluctant fortune teller along.
• The monk told Qi WuHuo that he had taken Central Province’s baleful energy into himself and was facing a demonic obstacle rather than harming the city’s people.
• Qi WuHuo discussed cultivation and upholding the Dao with the monk, who praised his insight.
• The fortune teller recognized Xiao Pengcao’s extraordinary potential and warned that powerful beings would discover her if she began cultivating.
• The fortune teller told Xiao Pengcao that her origins belonged to the Feng clan and that she should bear the surname Feng.
• The fortune teller attempted to divine who had taught Qi WuHuo to play the zither, then froze and broke into a cold sweat.

Qi WuHuo witnessed Great Emperor Dongyue attack the Green Lion, only for the Great Sage Green Lion to kill him and revive the city’s dead. After seeing his enemy’s unmatched power, Qi WuHuo was summoned to meet the great sage.

• The fortune teller’s divination cracked his coins and left him kneeling, while Xiao Pengcao teased him and the monk taught Qi WuHuo a sealing array.
• Demon forces attacked the Zither Music Pavilion, and Great Emperor Dongyue emerged to fight them.
• Great Emperor Dongyue used Heavenly Manifestation to destroy the demons, but the Great Sage Green Lion killed him and restored the city and its dead.
• The fortune teller explained the Green Lion’s strength and his disciple’s limits, while Qi WuHuo realized how far beyond him the great sage stood.
• A green-haired man entered the pavilion and told Qi WuHuo that the great sage requested his presence.

Qi WuHuo went with Si You and Xiao Pengcao to meet the Great Sage Green Lion, concealing his identity as he entered the demon sage’s stronghold. After defending Xiao Pengcao from a powerful guest who wanted to take her, Qi WuHuo stood face-to-face with his mortal enemy, the Great Sage Green Lion, who invited him to play the zither.

• Si You agreed to accompany Qi WuHuo to the Great Sage Green Lion, and Xiao Pengcao insisted on going with them rather than risk being abandoned.
• Qi WuHuo concealed his aura and cultivation as the green-haired envoy led them through the Green Lion lineage’s sacred mountain and Forest of Stele Teachings.
• Qi WuHuo encountered Prince Qin fishing with a burly man in green, who took the zither and led the group toward the summit.
• A noble-looking woman tried to take Xiao Pengcao as her maid, but Qi WuHuo refused to trade her, and the burly man in green stopped the woman’s companion from attacking him.
• The burly man revealed himself as the Great Sage Green Lion and invited Qi WuHuo to play the zither, while Qi WuHuo remained calm despite standing near his mortal enemy.

Qi WuHuo discovered that the Green Lion Clan’s sacred ground concealed a ritual formation tied to the Great Sage Green Lion’s breakthrough. Inside it, he encountered the supposedly dead Great Emperor Dongyue and identified himself as the Empress’s emissary from Jinzhou, leaving Dongyue grief-stricken.

• The Great Sage Green Lion praised Qi WuHuo’s zither playing, gave him a pill to conceal Xiao Pengcao’s bloodline, and invited him to perform at a ceremony a month later.
• While touring the sacred ground, Qi WuHuo sensed that its formation drew power inward, and Si You helped him create a chance to investigate.
• Qi WuHuo transformed into an insect, slipped past two guarding demon immortals, and discovered the sacred ground was a ritual formation.
• The Great Emperor Dongyue attacked Qi WuHuo, but stopped when he saw the Earthly Deity token and suspected Qi WuHuo was the Empress’s emissary.
• Qi WuHuo identified himself as an emissary from Jinzhou, and Dongyue’s hostility faded into sorrow.

Qi WuHuo helped Great Emperor Dongyue break the formation concealing the Green Lion’s breakthrough ritual, then followed him to the Saint Embryo at its core. As Qi WuHuo touched the embryo, someone knocked at the door where Si You and Xiao Pengcao were staying.

• Great Emperor Dongyue gave Qi WuHuo Empress Houtu’s token and the Eastern Peak seal, asking him to deliver the seal to her and leave the sacred grounds.
• Qi WuHuo recognized the concealed formation and, with Great Emperor Dongyue shielding him, broke through its layers and defeated its sword formations.
• Great Emperor Dongyue led Qi WuHuo through the ritual to the Saint Embryo, which had been formed from Jinzhou’s ley lines and merged with the Great Sage Green Lion’s Yang Spirit.
• Qi WuHuo touched the Saint Embryo, and it glimmered in response.
• Someone knocked repeatedly at the door of the valley courtyard where Si You and Xiao Pengcao were staying, and Si You’s pupils contracted.

Qi WuHuo learned that Great Sage Green Lion had turned his ten thousand years of cultivation into a Saint Embryo and built a ritual array to break through to the strongest realm. Great Emperor Dongyue charged Qi WuHuo with destroying the array, and Qi WuHuo declared himself Green Lion’s tribulation as a drunken Daoist arrived at the Zither Music Pavilion.

• Huangyao visited Si You and questioned why Qi WuHuo was inside, while Xiao Pengcao rejected her offer of candy and a new home.
• Huangyao entered and offered to cure Qi WuHuo’s blindness or help him advance, but he refused and calmly sent her away.
• Qi WuHuo recalled how Great Emperor Dongyue explained that Green Lion had made the Saint Embryo from his vast cultivation and used the ritual array to prepare for a breakthrough.
• Great Emperor Dongyue said he would use the Dongyue Seal to buy Qi WuHuo a month to destroy the array, which was built on Jinzhou’s ley lines and the blood and souls of its people.
• Qi WuHuo told Si You that he had seen a chance for revenge and that he was Green Lion’s tribulation.
• As the Zither Music Pavilion’s staff worried about Qi WuHuo and the others, the grey-robed gentleman warned them about a drunken Daoist who had arrived downstairs looking for the zither-playing beauty.

Lü Chunyang arrived at Zither Music Pavilion seeking his sixteen-year-old senior brother, and Su You realized he meant Qi WuHuo. At the Green Lion Clan’s banquet, Qi WuHuo decided to remain with Huang Yao and Xiao Pengcao, leaving him inside Great Sage Green Lion’s territory as he planned to replace the clan’s protective ritual with the Great Dao Lord Sword Formation.

• A drunken Daoist fought the monk, shattering Zither Music Pavilion’s formation, then revealed that his name was Lü Chunyang and that he sought his senior brother.
• Lü Chunyang told the grey-robed gentleman that he had once orchestrated the Blood River Sword Sect’s fall and Great Sage Xiao Feng’s death, but the gentleman did not remember any of it.
• Su You realized Lü Chunyang was searching for Qi WuHuo, a sixteen-year-old True Person, and was shaken by the implication that he might be a True Lord’s talent.
• Qi WuHuo concluded that he needed to replace Great Sage Green Lion’s ritual with the Great Dao Lord Sword Formation, using slaughter in place of protection.
• At the banquet, Huang Yao insisted that Xiao Pengcao stay and asked Qi WuHuo to remain as well; Qi WuHuo agreed.

Qi WuHuo stayed at the Green Lion Clan’s grounds and secretly worked with Great Emperor Dongyue to undo the sacred formation. As the emperor taught him the Great Dao of Dongyue, he recalled the ordinary people and lives that had shaped his long years.

• Qi WuHuo heard demons mock Prince Qin as the prince danced and toasted them, then went to his quarters with Xiao Pengcao.
• Xiao Pengcao came to Qi WuHuo’s room because she was afraid to sleep alone, and he protected her with a Sword Qi formation.
• Qi WuHuo returned to the sacred fetus, where Great Emperor Dongyue woke and warned him to be cautious around Huang Yao.
• Qi WuHuo explained the situation at the Green Lion Clan, and he and Great Emperor Dongyue began altering the formation into a Sword Formation.
• Great Emperor Dongyue stopped Qi WuHuo when the work exhausted him, then began teaching him the Great Dao of Dongyue and ordered him to memorize it.
• As Qi WuHuo recorded the emperor’s teachings, Great Emperor Dongyue remembered the people and small kindnesses from his ten thousand years in Dongyue.

Qi WuHuo secretly worked to alter the Green Lion Clan’s ceremony formation while Huang Yao offered Si You an elixir and tried to take Xiao Pengcao. The Great Sage Green Lion discovered Qi WuHuo’s identity but helped him break through, while Lü Chunyang decided to seek the clan’s sacred grounds with the fortune teller’s help.

• Qi WuHuo struggled to understand the Great Emperor Dongyue’s teachings and continued memorizing the changes needed for the ceremony formation.
• Huang Yao offered to trade an elixir that could prolong Si You’s life for Xiao Pengcao, but Si You refused the bargain; Huang Yao left the elixir with Qi WuHuo.
• Qi WuHuo devoted the following days to altering the formation, while the Great Sage Green Lion visited him and invited him fishing.
• The Great Sage Green Lion taught Qi WuHuo a method of quieting the mind, helping him complete a quarter of the Samadhi step in the Four Righteousnesses and advance his Primordial Spirit.
• The Great Sage Green Lion recognized Qi WuHuo as a man from Square Inch Mountain but said he regarded him as a friend for now and helped him despite their possible future conflict.
• Lü Chunyang told Su You that they should go to the Green Lion Clan’s sacred grounds, then pointed to the fortune teller as their guide.

Lü Chunyang set out alone for the Green Lion Clan’s territory while the monk protected the fortune teller and revealed the grim history behind his mission. As the fortune teller began to suspect that his memories had been sealed and resolved to follow Lü Chunyang, Black Impermanence arrived to take him back.

• Lü Chunyang tried to force the fortune teller to guide him, but the monk intervened and condemned Lü Chunyang for risking other people’s lives.
• The monk explained that he was suppressing the demonic thoughts of Central Province and had brought the fortune teller out of the ruins of Marvelous Dharma Tianci Temple, where he planned to die after preserving the names and scriptures of its fallen monks.
• Lü Chunyang recalled fighting during the Jinzhou disaster and said at least three Demon Race branches had appeared, though he could not confirm whether the Green Lions controlled them.
• After receiving Su You’s map and records, Lü Chunyang left for the Green Lion Clan and sent Little Peacock back to Qi WuHuo’s room.
• The fortune teller realized he knew details absent from his apparent memories, suspected someone had set him up, and decided to follow Lü Chunyang to find Qi WuHuo.
• Black Impermanence appeared and ordered the fortune teller, whom he called [Hear All], to return.

Di Ting revealed how he had maneuvered events to bring Qi WuHuo and the Green Lion’s tribulation together, then warned that the Green Lion’s success could threaten Houtu and upset the balance among the Emperors. As Qi WuHuo faced danger alone, Little Peacock discovered the route to the Green Lion Clan’s sacred ground and set out to find him with two weapons.

• Black Impermanence captured Di Ting and returned him to the City of Wrongful Deaths, where Di Ting recovered his sealed memories and resumed his true appearance.
• Di Ting explained to Ksitigarbha King how he had guided events involving Qi WuHuo, the Green Lion, and the Jinzhou tribulation while concealing his role.
• Di Ting revealed that the Green Lion’s success could endanger Houtu and benefit [Emperor], then declared that the Green Lion deserved to die.
• Little Peacock found a map to the Green Lion Clan’s sacred ground in the spilled soup and decided to go to Qi WuHuo.
• Little Peacock shrank and swallowed the zither and sword, then followed Di Ting’s trail toward Qi WuHuo.

Qi WuHuo studied the Green Lion’s formation while Great Emperor Dongyue taught him the seal art, then he learned that Huang Yao was the Demon Emperor’s envoy and negotiated for her help delaying the Green Lion. The chapter ended with Si You meeting a familiar Daoist and Little Peacock crashing into the Green Lion.

• Great Emperor Dongyue stopped Qi WuHuo from exhausting his Primordial Spirit and taught him the seal art, asking him to practice it over the next twenty-odd days.
• Qi WuHuo deduced that Huang Yao was Saint Yao, an envoy connected to the Demon Emperor, and asked her to teach him Demon Race formations.
• Huang Yao refused to teach Qi WuHuo but agreed to delay the Green Lion’s breakthrough and urged him to persuade Si You to take her pills.
• A bearded Daoist appeared before Si You and greeted her after a thousand years apart.
• Little Peacock became lost in the holy ground and collided with the Green Lion, who mistook her for a strange creature connected to Nine Spirits.

Green Lion taught Little Peacock the Swallowing Heaven and Devouring Earth art and urged him to follow his own path without regret. Si You renewed her cultivation to repay an old debt, while Qi WuHuo struggled with Green Lion’s formation and Xiao Pengcao pleaded with Huang Yao to help him.

• Green Lion recognized Little Peacock’s inherited aura, fed him spirit-seasoned fish, and taught him the Swallowing Heaven and Devouring Earth art while discussing self-determination and the Demon Race’s future.
• Lü Chunyang visited Si You and asked to discuss their past, but she rejected him and explained that her lasting memory was of Niu Jinnniu, the merchant who had once saved her people.
• Si You took a life-extending pill, resolved to repay her debt to Niu Jinnniu, and restored her aura to the Earth Immortal level.
• Qi WuHuo made no progress studying Green Lion’s formation and began considering how to interrupt its ritual instead of replacing it.
• Xiao Pengcao found Huang Yao and offered to sell herself in exchange for Huang Yao helping WuHuo.

Lü Chunyang reunited with Xiao Die and joined the demons opposing the Green Lion, while Qi WuHuo prepared to disrupt the Green Lion's breakthrough ritual. Huang Yao offered to teach Qi WuHuo Demon Race formations after revealing that Xiao Pengcao had made a sacrifice for him, and asked him to choose what to do.

• Lü Chunyang encountered Xiao Die at the foot of the mountain, reunited with her, and followed her to a secret gathering of demons.
• Yu Zhizhang and the other demons explained their hatred of the Green Lion lineage and suspected the Green Lion's invitation was a trap, and Lü Chunyang agreed with them to gain their trust.
• Qi WuHuo decided to sever the breakthrough ritual just before the Green Lion succeeded and awaken the holy fetus, while the Great Emperor Dongyue warned him to escape afterward.
• Huang Yao visited Qi WuHuo and offered to teach him the core of Demon Race formations.
• Qi WuHuo suspected Xiao Pengcao had sold herself to Huang Yao, and Huang Yao confirmed his guess before asking for his answer.

Qi WuHuo refused Huangyao’s offer to trade Xiao Pengcao’s future for the formation foundation, instead asking her to protect the girl and agreeing to become her pawn. Huangyao gave him the Demon Race formation patterns, and after Qi Yuntun returned with Destroy Buddha, Execute Emperor and a sword, the ancient qin awakened when Xiao Pengcao touched it.

• Qi WuHuo rejected Huangyao’s offer, explaining that he would not treat Xiao Pengcao as merchandise, and asked Huangyao to protect her during the coming ritual battle.
• Qi WuHuo declared that he would face the calamity rather than retreat, and Huangyao accepted his request and gave him the Demon Race formation patterns.
• Huangyao reported Qi WuHuo’s courage to the Demon Emperor, who recognized him as a man of divine courage and asked to meet him.
• Qi WuHuo combined the Demon Race, Buddhist, and sword formations, advancing his work on the Green Lion’s ritual while Great Emperor Dongyue prepared a formation to trigger the Sacred Fetus’s transformation.
• Qi Yuntun found Qi WuHuo and Xiao Pengcao and brought them Destroy Buddha, Execute Emperor and a sword from the Zither Music Pavilion.
• Xiao Pengcao touched Destroy Buddha, Execute Emperor, awakening the ancient divine weapon and releasing its formidable killing intent.

Qi WuHuo used the Great Sage Green Lion’s ascension ritual to spring a killing formation, interrupting the Green Lion’s challenge to the Demon Race’s Great Sages and breaking the formation trapping Prince Qin and the rescued humans. As Prince Qin led the humans toward home, Qi WuHuo faced the Green Lion and commanded the formation to execute.

• The Great Emperor Dongyue explained that Destroy Buddha, Execute Emperor was a divine zither tied to the Fuxi Clan and the Feng Clan’s Wa lineage, and Qi WuHuo took it with its Earth string briefly empowered.
• Qi WuHuo prepared for the ritual while Su You visited the monk with Little Peacock, and Prince Qin gathered the humans he had rescued in the southeast, ready to leave if circumstances changed.
• At the Green Lion’s ritual, the Green Lion killed the Hellfire Flood Dragon and the Iron-backed Cangshan Bear, reconciled with Yu Zhizhang, then fought attacks from the Demon Race’s Great Sages.
• Prince Qin endured a guard’s whip and stopped his generals from retaliating until Qi WuHuo’s zither note broke the Green Lion’s momentum and breached the sacred grounds’ formation.
• Prince Qin killed the guard, rallied the more than one hundred thousand humans, and led them toward home as Qi WuHuo’s sword formation turned the ritual into a killing formation.
• Huang Yao realized Qi WuHuo had replaced the ritual’s formation, and Qi WuHuo identified himself to the Green Lion before commanding, “Execute.”

Qi WuHuo destroyed the Green Lion’s ritual and severed its connection to the sacred embryo, then began refining the embryo while the Great Emperor Dongyue fought the Green Lion and Si You protected him. The chapter ended with Qi WuHuo transforming the embryo into a pure stone and declaring his Daoist sanctuary to be Square Inch Mountain.

• Qi WuHuo and the Great Sage Green Lion clashed with matching sword formations as Lü Chunyang provoked the demon clans into a melee and blocked Yu Zhizhang from reaching Qi WuHuo.
• Huang Yao joined the Green Lion and helped break Qi WuHuo’s formation, but Qi WuHuo redirected the Green Lion’s final strike into the ritual and destroyed it.
• The Great Emperor Dongyue rose from the earth to shield Qi WuHuo, who used the Blood River Sword to cut down demons and sever the sacred embryo’s connection to the Green Lion.
• The Green Lion urged the demons to seize the sacred embryo, while Si You defended Qi WuHuo and Dongyue battled the Green Lion.
• Qi WuHuo used the Eight Trigrams and the Purple Star Emperor Qi True Scripture to refine the sacred embryo into a pure stone, then named his Daoist sanctuary Square Inch Mountain.

Qi WuHuo and his allies fought to keep the Saint Embryo from the Great Sage Green Lion, but the Green Lion absorbed it and began his breakthrough. The monk and Great Emperor Dongyue sacrificed themselves to give Qi WuHuo a chance to escape with the Saint Embryo and the Dongyue Seal, and Qi WuHuo flew onward with Qi Yuntun as Dongyue held off the Great Sages.

• The demons rushed the Saint Embryo, and Lü Chunyang used Yu Zhizhang's voice to turn them against Great General Tengshe while Si You protected Qi WuHuo.
• The monk arrived, trapped Great General Tengshe in an alms bowl, and joined Si You in holding back the demons as he told Qi WuHuo that the plan had succeeded and he should withdraw.
• Qi WuHuo used the Kill the Bandits Sword to unleash Jinzhou's grief and despair, but Qing Jingwei endured the attack, absorbed the Saint Embryo, and declared his domain as Green Lion Mountain.
• The monk let his demonic thoughts consume him, shattered his Arhat Golden Body to break Qing Jingwei's Heavenly Manifestation, and hurled the Saint Embryo to Qi WuHuo.
• Great Emperor Dongyue held back Qing Jingwei and Great Sage Huangyao, entrusted Qi WuHuo with returning the name of Dongyue to the Empress, and urged him not to look back.
• Qi WuHuo sealed the wind, invoked Dongyue's power alongside the old emperor, and escaped on Qi Yuntun as Great Emperor Dongyue prepared to face the Great Sages.

Qing Jingwei killed the dying Great Emperor Dongyue in a final clash while Little Peacock carried Qi WuHuo away, then Little Peacock chose to return to the battle and make its own way. Left in the Demon Race's territory with Dongyue's seal, Qi WuHuo contacted Uncle Niu.

• Qing Jingwei transformed and fought Great Emperor Dongyue at full strength after Huang Yao destroyed the spatial rift, preventing Qi WuHuo from returning to the human world by that route.
• Qing Jingwei killed Great Emperor Dongyue, caught him as he fell, and honored him by leaving him standing before roaring, “Unmatched!”
• Little Peacock landed with Qi WuHuo, wounded from protecting him, and explained that it wanted to return to help the uncle who had taught it a divine ability.
• Qi WuHuo told Little Peacock that it could choose for itself and that every choice had consequences, and Little Peacock flew back toward the battlefield.
• Qi WuHuo held up the seal and contacted Uncle Niu, who immediately asked what had happened to him.