Chapter Summaries

Nan Qingzi told Qi WuHuo how she reincarnated as a human, met Xuan Zhen, and learned why he rejected the Supreme Dao to seek a path open to all living beings. A mirror showed Xuan Zhen’s final battle, where he failed to prove his Dao and died after giving everything he had.

• Nan Qingzi explained that she reincarnated to seek the Dao, but Meng Po’s medicine erased her memories and left her frail; at sixteen, she secretly left home to see the world and met Xuan Zhen.
• Nan Qingzi described Xuan Zhen’s rise as the Human Emperor and said she had spent only four years with him before dying, then later awoke to find he had become a legendary ruler.
• Nan Qingzi recalled that Xuan Zhen opposed his Teacher’s Dao for being inaccessible to most people, returned the Order of Supreme Xuan Zhen, and destroyed his cultivation to pursue a path anyone could practice.
• Nan Qingzi used a mirror to show Xuan Zhen refusing her plea to survive as a Yin Spirit and facing the final battle alone.
• Xuan Zhen called for humanity to seek, cultivate, and prove the Dao, broke through forty-nine layers of tribulation, and fell after exhausting himself.

Qi WuHuo learned that Nan Qingzi had shared a brief life with Xuan Zhen and received Xuan Zhen’s unfinished path of fortune from her. Accepting his senior brother’s legacy as Xuanwei, Qi WuHuo also took Xuan Zhen’s jade seal and prepared to carry his work forward.

• After seeing Xuan Zhen’s past, Qi WuHuo understood that the highest vehicle was to forge one’s own path and reflected on his senior brother’s resolve and achievements.
• Nan Qingzi remembered the two years she and Xuan Zhen had lived together, and Qi WuHuo revealed that the sorrows carved on Xuan Zhen’s tombstone recalled their time together.
• Nan Qingzi explained that she had stayed away because Xuan Zhen could not have had a ghost for a wife, then entrusted Qi WuHuo with Xuan Zhen’s unfinished path of fortune.
• Qi WuHuo accepted the scroll and introduced himself to Nan Qingzi as Xuanwei, Xuan Zhen’s junior brother.
• After Qi WuHuo described how the Eight Kings had divided the Human World, Nan Qingzi gave him Xuan Zhen’s jade seal and suggested he could depose the emperors.

Qi WuHuo understood that the Human Emperor seal could strip rulers of their destiny, and resolved to depose the emperors who had betrayed Senior Brother Xuan Zhen and reunite the human realm. In Fengdu, his efforts to improve the Underworld spirits’ abilities won their admiration, and the wary Zhou Qi finally asked him to leave for the mortal realm.

• Nan Qingzi warned Qi WuHuo that Zhou Qi was suspicious and ambitious, and urged him to leave Fengdu before he was in danger.
• Qi WuHuo realized the Human Emperor’s virtue, not sovereign authority or heredity, was the source of Human Dao protection, and vowed to depose the traitorous emperors and continue Xuan Zhen’s work.
• Zhou Qi learned that Qi WuHuo had persuaded the Seventy-Two Departments’ spirits to demonstrate their abilities and record their names and histories, and feared he was gathering intelligence for a future conflict.
• Qi WuHuo refined the spirits’ divine abilities and taught the improved arts back to them, earning their admiration and the honorific Prefect.
• Zhou Qi ordered the Western Ghost Emperor to offer Qi WuHuo treasures and ask him to leave, but Qi WuHuo began organizing a vast Fengdu Prefect Ritual across the city.
• Zhou Qi and the other Ghost Emperors approached Qi WuHuo with gifts and beseeched the Prefect to go to the mortal realm.

Qi WuHuo accepted Fengdu’s treasures and two Chief Officers before leaving the city, then returned to the mortal world. He awoke before the colossal Ba Snake, which regarded him with unexpected affection.

• Zhou Qi offered Qi WuHuo a robe and jade Ruyi to persuade him to leave Fengdu, but Qi WuHuo said he wished to stay longer.
• The Ghost Emperors returned with more treasures, and Qi WuHuo accepted them, saying he now had reason to leave Fengdu.
• The Northern Ghost Emperor assigned the Punishment Department to serve Qi WuHuo, and Nan Qingzi assigned the Reward Department as well.
• Qi WuHuo left Fengdu wearing the battle boots and carrying his zither and sword, then crossed from the netherworld into the mortal world.
• Qi WuHuo awoke after more than ten days away and saw the hundred-li Ba Snake watching him with affection.

Qi WuHuo learned that his unconscious body had drawn the Báshé toward the Dao, then tried to escape as the Demon Kingdom’s armies surrounded the ancient mountains. The Demon Emperor’s public kill order revealed Qi WuHuo’s name and the treasures he carried to the entire Demon Realm, while Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind Ear set off for the Soaring Heavens Palace.

• Qi WuHuo recalled that Daoist Qingyu’s teachings had let his unconscious body cultivate and slay beasts, attracting the Báshé, which had learned to cultivate by watching him.
• Qi WuHuo found evidence that demon pursuers had entered the forbidden mountains and tried to flee, but discovered demon armies and Earth Immortal Demon Kings encircling the area.
• The Báshé attacked the demon formation and fought two Earth Immortal Demon Kings, giving Qi WuHuo a chance to move through the encirclement.
• A Demon Emperor’s personal guard killed the Báshé with a world-cutting attack, and the Demon Emperor announced a reward for capturing or killing Qi WuHuo, naming the Saint Embryo and Dongyue Seal he carried.
• The Demon Emperor revealed Qi WuHuo’s name to all living beings in the Demon Realm, and Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind Ear headed to the Soaring Heavens Palace after realizing the news might concern the honored name of [Martial].

The Heavenly Court declined to intervene in the Demon Realm, while Yun Zhiyi and Weaver Girl learned that Qi WuHuo had defeated Qing Jingwei and might become their daughter’s Dao companion. After escaping the Demon sentries, Qi WuHuo found the dying Ba Snake and faced its plea for help.

• The Judicial Great Celestial Venerable told Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind Ear that Heaven would leave the Demon Realm crisis to Houtu and report the matter to the Jade Emperor.
• Yun Qin’s parents discovered she had disappeared again and emptied Yun Zhiyi’s treasure vault before leaving a note; they worried but trusted the Northern Emperor’s assurance that she was safe.
• Yun Zhiyi learned Qing Jingwei’s ritual had failed and offered to honor whoever defeated him as a lifelong benefactor.
• Weaver Girl named Qi WuHuo as Yun Qin’s potential Dao companion, and Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind Ear revealed that the same Qi WuHuo had destroyed Qing Jingwei’s ritual and taken his sacred embryo.
• Qi WuHuo avoided the Demon sentries and found the severed, dying Ba Snake looking to him for help.

Qi WuHuo taught the grievously wounded Ba Snake to cultivate, then killed the demons who attacked them and helped the serpent stabilize its life. As demons closed in, he followed the Ba Snake toward a hiding place, while Houtu Empress Earthly Deity awakened and ordered the Earthly Deities to attack.

• Qi WuHuo taught the dying Ba Snake to breathe primordial Qi, drawing a vast surge of spiritual energy that attracted nearby demons.
• Hundreds of demons recognized Qi WuHuo and attacked, but he used Reward Good and Punish Evil to kill them all and detain their souls with the help of Fengdu Underworld's Chief Officers.
• The Ba Snake retrieved its Life Treasure and stabilized its condition, then offered to guide Qi WuHuo to a place where they could hide.
• At Ruizhu Palace, Primordial Ying Yuanjun and Primordial Zhi Yuanjun debated whether to risk rescuing the Dongyue Seal while Houtu Empress Earthly Deity remained injured.
• Houtu Empress Earthly Deity awakened, declared that she would not abandon Qi WuHuo and Dongyue, and issued a decree commanding the Earthly Deities to attack.

Empress Houtu ordered the Earthly Deities to mobilize and rejected the Heavenly Court’s attempt to dissuade her from acting against the Demon Race. As the forces gathered, Niu Jinnniu delivered Qi WuHuo’s letter to her.

• The Jade Emperor’s decree assembled Earthly Deities, Mountain Gods, and water deities across the realms, and Thousand-Mile Eye saw a tribulation looming.
• Primordial Ying Yuanjun worried that Empress Houtu’s injuries and the gathering forces would lead to disaster as the Earthly Deities prepared for war.
• The Old Celestial Lord urged Empress Houtu to withdraw her decree, but she cited the Heavenly Court’s silence over Jin Province and Dongyue and refused to stand down.
• Great Emperor Changsheng of the South Pole visited Empress Houtu, left her a pill to protect her injuries, and departed without trying to persuade her.
• Niu Jinnniu told Primordial Ying Yuanjun that the Northern Emperor would not interfere, then presented Empress Houtu with a letter from Qi WuHuo.

Qi WuHuo’s letter revealed his prediction that Gouchen was manipulating the Demon Emperor, and Empress Houtu followed his plan to mobilize the earth deities and deter the demons. With the resulting forces drawn away from his hiding place, Qi WuHuo prepared to travel underground with the Ba Snake to speak with a dragon.

• Empress Houtu and Primordial Ying Yuanjun read Qi WuHuo’s old letter, which predicted Gouchen’s role and laid out a plan to keep the Demon Emperor’s forces at bay.
• Empress Houtu agreed to Qi WuHuo’s strategy, and the earth deities mobilized along the Demon Realm’s borders while the demons assembled to meet the threat.
• The rising tension spread through the Six Realms, and Primordial Ying Yuanjun realized Qi WuHuo’s plan had turned the realms into a precarious battlefield.
• At the Ba Snake’s cavern, Reward Good, Punish Evil reported that a third of the nearby high-ranking demon fighters had been drawn away.
• Qi WuHuo asked the Ba Snake to lead him along an underground path to a dragon so he could speak with him.

Qi WuHuo followed the Ba Snake to the Dragon Emperor’s hidden resting place, where the Dragon Race performed a ritual that failed to awaken their ancestor. After a Dragon Race True Lord attacked him, Qi WuHuo subdued the flames and offered the Dragon Emperor a drink, and a hand reached out to catch the jar.

• Qi WuHuo considered how the standoff between the deities and the Demon Race could grow into a calamity across all six realms as he traveled with the Ba Snake.
• Qi WuHuo sent Reward Good and Punish Evil ahead, then asked the injured Ba Snake to stay back while he approached the Dragon Emperor’s resting place.
• Qi WuHuo saw the Dragon Race’s forty-nine azure dragons perform an ancestral ritual for Ao Ji, but the Dragon Emperor did not awaken.
• A fire-element Dragon Race True Lord attacked Qi WuHuo with Nine Heavens Dragon Flame after the ritual’s failure, and Qi WuHuo absorbed and dispersed the flames.
• Qi WuHuo offered the Dragon Emperor a jar of spring water and asked Ao Wu Tian Ji to share a drink, and a hand reached out from atop the Dragon Emperor to catch it.

Qi WuHuo passed the Dragon Emperor’s trials and sat with his remnant will to discuss the eight thousand years since their deaths. He revealed his suspicions about Gouchen’s betrayal and offered a partnership, leaving the Dragon Emperor asking who he was.

• The Dragon Emperor appeared from his corpse and invited everyone to climb eighty-one steps, each of which tested their heart and abilities.
• The dragons failed at different stages, but Qi WuHuo steadily passed every trial and reached the final step.
• Qi WuHuo chose to sit on the last step and invite the Dragon Emperor to drink with him, prompting the Dragon Emperor to join him.
• Qi WuHuo told the Dragon Emperor that more than eight thousand years had passed and recounted how the Dragon Race and human world had been divided by unending conflict.
• Qi WuHuo explained that Gouchen and the Dragon Emperor’s trusted lieutenant had likely conspired against him, and proposed a trade to delay the tribulation.
• The Dragon Emperor asked Qi WuHuo who he was, and Qi WuHuo identified himself as Qi WuHuo of Jinzhou, a man with a blood feud against Gouchen.

Qi WuHuo rejected the chance to escape the Demon Realm and persuaded the Dragon Emperor to cooperate with him, seeking the Demon Realm Earth Vein Trend Map and the Dragon Emperor’s knowledge. The Dragon Emperor agreed and gave Qi WuHuo Dragon Emperor True Blood to strengthen his cultivation.

• The Dragon Emperor dismissed the Dragon Clan’s invitation to return, accused them of wanting to use his corpse to establish their legitimacy, and drove the dragons away.
• Qi WuHuo chose to remain in the forbidden mountains because leaving would abandon the assembled Earth Gods and risk drawing them into the Calamity Tribulation.
• The Dragon Emperor carried Qi WuHuo above the mountains and identified the Demon Race’s formations as a Fuxi Clan landscape-and-river counting-rod technique that could reveal Qi WuHuo’s position within three days.
• Qi WuHuo asked for the Dragon Emperor’s knowledge of the Demon Race and the Demon Realm Earth Vein Trend Map, explaining that he intended to break through the tribulation he had been caught in.
• The Dragon Emperor accepted Qi WuHuo’s proposal and sent Dragon Emperor True Blood into him as the first gift of their cooperation.

Qi WuHuo used the Nine Revolutions Refine Yuan method to temper himself with the Dragon Emperor’s True Blood instead of absorbing it as a boost to his cultivation. As he pushed beyond the third revolution, he saw Senior Qingyu appear in his Sea of Consciousness and question whether he should stop.

• The Dragon Emperor poured True Blood over Qi WuHuo, whose Blood River Sword, zither, and Fire Star drew away the baleful aura and battle intent.
• Qi WuHuo first resisted the blood, then recalled Daoist Qingyu’s instruction and began refining the Dragon Emperor’s essence with his Nine Revolutions Refine Yuan method.
• The Dragon Emperor supplied more True Blood as Qi WuHuo completed the first, second, and third revolutions, mistaking the process for the young Daoist swallowing all of it.
• Qi WuHuo’s Qi and body reached extraordinary purity, but he began another revolution, leaving the Dragon Emperor distressed over how much True Blood he was giving away.
• As Qi WuHuo considered stopping, Senior Qingyu appeared before him in his Sea of Consciousness and asked why he did not fulfill all he wished for.

Qi WuHuo refined the Dragon Emperor’s True Blood into the Nine Revolutions Mystic Skill, then pushed beyond nine revolutions to temper his Qi toward an apparently limitless purity. Daoist Qingyu recognized that Qi WuHuo’s Daoist heart and foundation matched his own at the same level, and the Great Celestial Venerable Yuanshi rejoiced that his Dao was not alone.

• Daoist Qingyu appeared in Qi WuHuo’s sea of consciousness and urged him to continue refining his technique rather than stop before reaching his limit.
• Qi WuHuo completed nine revolutions, using the Dragon Emperor’s True Blood to purify his Qi instead of increasing his cultivation, and Daoist Qingyu named his method the Nine Revolutions Mystic Skill.
• Qi WuHuo asked whether nine revolutions were the limit, then continued to ninety-nine revolutions and used the Yuqing True Talisman to draw in the Qi of Heaven and Earth.
• Qi WuHuo explained that he sought a Daoist heart as pure as the Dao Ancestors’, and Daoist Qingyu matched his Qi at the True Person level, confirming their foundations were equal.
• Holy Mother Taiyuan witnessed the Great Celestial Venerable Yuanshi laugh and declare that his Dao was not alone.

Qi WuHuo refined the Dragon Emperor’s blood without raising his cultivation, revealing an extraordinary foundation and a resolve to complete the Dao before advancing. As the Demon Race prepared a massive force to hunt him, the Dragon Emperor gave him the Demon Clan Earth Vein Map, and Qi WuHuo appeared able to wield it.

• Qi WuHuo showed the Dragon Emperor that his body refined incoming Qi and that his Primordial Spirit and physical form had extraordinary qualities, though he had not advanced his cultivation.
• Qi WuHuo explained that he wanted to complete the Dao rather than pursue only one part of it, and the Dragon Emperor discovered that he was only sixteen.
• Qi WuHuo learned that the Dragon Emperor had used all his Dragon race true blood, and the Dragon Emperor said he could no longer send him out of the Demon Realm.
• Huang Yao told Xiao Pengcao that she had bought Qi WuHuo time and would do what she could to keep him alive, while warning that Demon Emperor confidants were becoming suspicious of her.
• Lord Candle Dragon ordered ten Earth Immortals, thirty Demon Immortals, and ten thousand soldiers to hunt Qi WuHuo and bring him back.
• The Dragon Emperor gave Qi WuHuo the Demon Clan Earth Vein Map, and Qi WuHuo formed a seal as the map and seal shone with flowing light.

Qi WuHuo used the Dongyue Seal to organize the Demon Realm’s ley lines and connect them to Jin Province while Reward and Punishment fought off the Demon Race’s forces. As the Demon Kings closed in, Qi WuHuo completed the connection and summoned the two Underworld spirits to receive a decree.

• Qi WuHuo refused to keep the Dongyue Seal and began regulating the Demon Realm’s ley lines so he could connect them to Jin Province’s weakened network.
• A Demon Race Earth Immortal found Qi WuHuo, but Punishment intercepted him while Qi WuHuo continued working.
• Ten Demon Kings and more than thirty Demon Immortals surrounded Reward and Punishment, wounded them, and trapped them in a battle formation.
• Empress Houtu sensed a new power joining her foundation and chose to keep trusting Qi WuHuo’s promised turning point.
• Qi WuHuo completed the ley-line connection between the ancient mountains and Jin Province, then called Reward Good and Punish Evil forward to receive his decree.

Qi WuHuo used the earth veins to transform Reward Good and Punish Evil into powerful earth gods, then created the Taishan Branch Vein when the Demon Race’s army threatened him. He crushed the ten thousand elite soldiers with the raised mountains, leaving the Demon Race in stunned silence.

• Qi WuHuo appointed Punish Evil the Mountain God of Sunrise Peak and Reward Good the master of Moonview Peak, giving both Yin Spirits earth-god bodies and power.
• The two earth gods held off ten Demon Immortals while the rest of the Demon Race’s forces advanced on Qi WuHuo under an array powered by the soldiers’ destiny.
• When the Dongyue Seal proved insufficient to connect the Demon Realm’s earth veins to Mount Dongyue, Qi WuHuo made Mount Dongyue the core of a new mountain range and named it Ta.
• Qi WuHuo invoked the Taishan command, raised two enormous peaks behind him, and brought them down on the Demon Race’s ten thousand elite soldiers.
• The Jade Talismans monitoring the soldiers shattered, and Qi WuHuo declared that the Immortal Dao cherished life as the Demon Race fell silent.

Qi WuHuo used the Dongyue Seal and the power of Reward Good, Punish Evil to crush ten thousand Demon Race troops, driving ten Demon Kings to flee and forcing the demons to reconsider their campaign. Lord Candle Dragon sought Huang Sheng’s help to kill Qi WuHuo, but Xiao Pengcao spoke for herself and ordered him to leave.

• Qi WuHuo brought down Sun Viewing Peak and Moon Viewing Peak, killing ten thousand Demon Race elites and making the ten Earth Immortal Demon Kings retreat.
• Qi WuHuo ordered Reward Good, Punish Evil to pursue the fleeing Demon Kings, then recovered from the backlash of his mountain-moving technique.
• Qi WuHuo told the Dragon Emperor that he had connected the Demon Realm’s earth veins to the human world and had only bought them time against the demons.
• The Demon Race elders argued over how to respond to Qi WuHuo’s attack, and Lord Candle Dragon left to seek Huang Sheng’s help.
• Xiao Pengcao told Lord Candle Dragon that Huang Sheng would hear his request through her, then told him to get out after he named Qi WuHuo.

Lord Candle Dragon learned that Qi WuHuo was essential to the Demon Emperor and Great Emperor Gouchen’s scheme against Houtu, then ordered a million-strong army to capture him. As Qi WuHuo prepared to seek help in the netherworld, Yun Qin contacted him and revealed she was bringing reinforcements.

• Lord Candle Dragon restrained himself from attacking Huang Yao, left her palace, and concluded she intended to rebel against the Demon Emperor.
• Lord Candle Dragon told the Demon Race’s ministers that Qi WuHuo was essential to the Demon Emperor’s breakthrough ritual and ordered all seventy-two Demon Kings and thirty-six Demon Masters to join a million-strong campaign under his command.
• Reward Good and Punish Evil returned to Qi WuHuo with the corpses of two Demon Kings, while Qi WuHuo and the Dragon Emperor anticipated that Lord Candle Dragon would commit all his forces to the next attack.
• Qi WuHuo decided to go to the netherworld and use Yin Spirits to buy time against the coming Demon army.
• Yun Qin reached Qi WuHuo by spell and told him to wait while she and the Northern Emperor’s Son brought reinforcements they had gathered through Uncle Niu.

Yun Qin gathered Uncle Niu’s allies and supplies for Qi WuHuo, who sent her to Jinzhou to map its earth veins and tasked the Demon Kings with preparing formations instead of fighting head-on. After she delivered a trove of provisions and pastries, she relayed Big Uncle’s message: “Primordial Scarlet Script!”

• Yun Qin told Qi WuHuo she had traveled through Demon Race territory and used Uncle Niu’s connections to gather thirty Demon Kings and their subordinates.
• Reward Good and Punish Evil recognized Yun Qin’s sword, jade tassel, and Heart Method as signs that she was the Northern Emperor’s Son, and concluded Qi WuHuo was the Northern Emperor’s Envoy.
• Qi WuHuo sent Yun Qin to Jinzhou to have its land deities map the earth veins, and instructed Uncle Niu’s allies to conceal his traces and establish formations without attacking the allied army.
• Yun Qin promised not to pursue Qi WuHuo, then sent him pills, formation pieces, other treasures, and pastries she had collected for him.
• Yun Qin told Qi WuHuo that Big Uncle had sent him three words connected to his studies: “Primordial Scarlet Script!”