Chapter Summaries

Lin Taichu visited the recovered Tang Bao in the Elf Forest, then returned to the Tang Sect after the Heavenly Clan crisis was resolved. He reunited with the sect master and elders, reported Tang Bao’s decision to stay with the elves, and warned that stronger enemies might lurk in the Demon Continent.

• Lin Taichu visited Tang Bao in the Elf Forest and learned that his injuries had healed and he had chosen to remain with the elves.
• Lin Taichu used his Tang Sect token to pass through the barrier and return to the sect, where disciples welcomed him.
• The sect master, elders, and Lin Taichu’s former fellow disciples greeted him in the main hall.
• Lin Taichu told the elders that Tang Bao would stay in the Elf Forest, and they accepted his choice and welcomed him back to the Tang Sect whenever he wished.
• Lin Taichu recounted defeating Tian Jin with Tian Wei’s help, then cautioned that even stronger beings might dwell in the depths of the Demon Continent.

Lin Taichu left the Tang Sect to strengthen his soul power and investigate activity across the realms, taking the Purple Gold Gourd and other supplies. He reached Chaotian Gate, entered the place where the Three Realms met, and found himself among powerful immortals and demons.

• Lin Taichu told the Sect Leader and elders that he wanted to travel the realms and temper himself, and they gave him the Purple Gold Gourd for protection.
• Lin Taichu packed his hidden weapons and supplies, received farewell gifts from his fellow disciples, and departed the Tang Sect.
• Lin Taichu traveled toward Chaotian Gate and tested the Purple Gold Gourd's defensive barrier and fiery attack along the way.
• Lin Taichu reached Chaotian Gate, concealed his aura, passed through its restriction, and entered the Three Realms' meeting place.
• Lin Taichu surveyed Chaotian Gate and sensed that the immortals and demons around him were far stronger than he was.

Lin Taichu met Bai Yu while searching Chaotian Gate for clues to ascension, and learned about its factions, the guarded Heavenly Dao Platform, and the dangers of seeking opportunities. The chapter ended with Lin Taichu asking whether Bai Yu had met other human-world cultivators with useful clues.

• Lin Taichu searched the remote forests and abandoned halls of Chaotian Gate, studying fragmented carvings about ascension.
• Lin Taichu encountered Bai Yu examining a carved mark, introduced himself, and learned that Bai Yu had searched the area for more than half a month.
• Bai Yu led Lin Taichu to a hidden Stone Hall and explained how immortals, demons, human-world cultivators, and demon Cultivators were spread across Chaotian Gate.
• Bai Yu told Lin Taichu that a complete ascension method was carved on the guarded Heavenly Dao Platform, which became more accessible on the fifteenth of each month when its restriction weakened and guards changed shifts.
• Bai Yu explained that ascension required soul power, an opportunity recognized by the Heavenly Dao, and the method itself, while other opportunities in Chaotian Gate were difficult to obtain.
• Lin Taichu asked Bai Yu whether he had encountered other human-world cultivators with clues to ascension.

Lin Taichu and Bai Yu joined forces to search Chaotian Gate for clues to ascension. After narrowly avoiding a powerful demon, they pieced together a rough outline of the three steps required to ascend.

• Bai Yu proposed that he and Lin Taichu work together, and Lin Taichu agreed.
• After recovering their Soul Power, Bai Yu led Lin Taichu to a stone wall bearing incomplete ascension clues.
• Lin Taichu sensed an approaching demon, and he and Bai Yu hid until it passed without discovering them.
• The two examined the carvings, memorized the legible words, and returned to the Stone Hall.
• Lin Taichu and Bai Yu combined their clues and determined that ascension involved tempering the Spirit Vein and filling Soul Power, drawing Heavenly Dao Power, and surviving the Heavenly Tribulation to enter the Heavenly Realm.

Lin Taichu and Bai Yu set out to find another abandoned ancient hall, hoping to uncover clues about cultivation and opportunities. They were discovered while hiding near a clash between Angels and Demons, and Bai Yu warned that fleeing would leave them vulnerable to the Demons afterward.

• Bai Yu and Lin Taichu decided to search another abandoned ancient hall at dawn and spent the night recovering their strength.
• Lin Taichu and Bai Yu left the Stone Hall and traveled through the forest, avoiding monster beast nests and areas with cultivator auras.
• Lin Taichu and Bai Yu hid when they heard Angels and Demons preparing to fight in a clearing near Chaotian Gate's outer perimeter.
• A short, stocky demon spotted the shrubs, but another demon dismissed Lin Taichu and Bai Yu as low-rank humans while the Demons focused on the Angels.
• Bai Yu stopped Lin Taichu from retreating, warning that the Demons would likely kill them after the fight, and Lin Taichu asked what they should do.

Bai Yu and Lin Taichu ambushed and killed two demons while the Demons fought the Angels, then erased the bodies to hide their tracks. They escaped the battlefield and headed for the Abandoned Ancient Palace.

• Bai Yu persuaded Lin Taichu to ambush the short, stocky demon and his guard while they were distracted by the Angels.
• Bai Yu killed the low-level demon with a dagger, and Lin Taichu burned and froze the short, stocky demon with the Purple Gold Gourd.
• Bai Yu stabbed the immobilized short, stocky demon in the brow, killing him.
• Lin Taichu turned both demon corpses to ash while the battle continued unnoticed.
• Bai Yu and Lin Taichu left the battlefield and hurried through the forest toward the Abandoned Ancient Palace.

Lin Taichu and Bai Yu recovered in an abandoned ancient palace and discovered inscriptions describing methods to temper Spirit Veins and replenish Soul Power. When a demon entered the palace, they launched a surprise attack, but its strength proved greater than the demons they had fought before.

• Lin Taichu and Bai Yu reached the abandoned ancient palace, took medicinal pills, and recovered their Soul Power.
• Bai Yu and Lin Taichu searched the palace and read inscriptions outlining methods for tempering Spirit Veins and strengthening Soul Power.
• Lin Taichu and Bai Yu learned that a Spirit Vein convergence site lay deep within Chaotian Gate, guarded by powerful Monster Beasts, and agreed to seek it after growing stronger.
• Lin Taichu and Bai Yu sensed a demon approaching and hid behind the stone platform as it examined the inscriptions.
• Lin Taichu and Bai Yu attacked the demon together, but it blocked Bai Yu's dagger with a Soul Power palm print and extinguished Lin Taichu's Nanming Lihuo.

Lin Taichu and Bai Yu escaped a powerful demon after suffering severe injuries, then hid and slowly recovered while evading demon patrols. They remained wanted targets inside Chaotian Gate, with no safe faction or route available.

• Lin Taichu and Bai Yu fought the mid-stage high-rank demon, were badly wounded, and fled the ancient hall after Lin Taichu sacrificed the Purple Gold Gourd to block its pursuit.
• The demon tracked them to a hidden cave but failed to detect them; before leaving, it planted a black Soul Power mark to follow their traces.
• After recovering enough to move, Lin Taichu and Bai Yu slipped past demon patrols and reached a secluded valley, where Lin Taichu shared their last healing pill.
• Lin Taichu tried to practice the Spirit Vein tempering method he had learned from the ancient hall's carvings, but his injuries prevented the spiritual energy from circulating smoothly.
• After half a day of recovery, Lin Taichu warned Bai Yu that the demons had marked them as targets and that the factions and patrols around Chaotian Gate left them with no safe haven.

Lin Taichu and Bai Yu reached the place where the Spirit Veins converged, but Lin Taichu exposed Bai Yu’s plan to sacrifice him for a chance to ascend. Bai Yu admitted his betrayal, and Lin Taichu prepared to confront him as the angels watched.

• Lin Taichu and Bai Yu chose to remain in Chaotian Gate and traveled toward the place where the Spirit Veins converged.
• The angels allowed Lin Taichu and Bai Yu to temper their Spirit Veins, while warning them not to approach the spring eye’s core area.
• Lin Taichu concluded that Bai Yu had deliberately led him into danger and brought him to the angels as a potential sacrifice.
• Lin Taichu confronted Bai Yu, who admitted he had joined forces with him to trade him to angels or demons for a chance to ascend.
• Lin Taichu gathered Soul Power and condemned Bai Yu as the angels silently watched.

Lin Taichu tempered his spirit veins in the core region while Bai Yu waited nearby, hoping to sacrifice him once his spiritual energy peaked. After Lin Taichu fully recovered and grew stronger, an unfamiliar, overwhelmingly powerful presence approached the valley.

• Lin Taichu refused Bai Yu's attempt to take him for sacrifice, warned him not to interfere, and entered the spirit-vein core region.
• Bai Yu let Lin Taichu go and followed at a distance, intending to sacrifice him later to gain a chance to ascend.
• Lin Taichu used the method from the Ancient Hall Carvings to temper his spirit veins, increase his Soul Power, and heal his injuries under the Angels' watch.
• Bai Yu tried to cultivate nearby but failed to absorb the spiritual energy and moved to a distant stone crevice.
• Lin Taichu sensed an unfamiliar aura approaching, its crushing pressure surpassing that of any Angel or demon he had encountered.

A powerful stranger arrived at the Spirit Vein grounds, prompting Lin Taichu to hide and cultivate while Bai Yu approached the man with a plan to sacrifice him for a chance at ascension. The stranger questioned Bai Yu, then turned back to the Spirit Spring, leaving Bai Yu waiting and plotting.

• Lin Taichu sensed the powerful aura and hid in a tree hollow to cultivate, while Bai Yu decided to seek out its source.
• Bai Yu found a towering man beside the Spirit Spring and considered sacrificing him for a better path to ascension.
• Bai Yu introduced himself respectfully and asked to follow the man and learn from him.
• The man asked Bai Yu why he was there, and Bai Yu claimed he had come to temper his Spirit Veins and seek ascension clues.
• The man turned back to the Spirit Spring without answering Bai Yu's request, while Bai Yu stayed nearby and continued plotting.

Qianlong revealed his overwhelming power at the Spirit Spring and announced that he had once given up ascension before returning to Chaotian Gate to pursue it again. After three days of cultivation, Lin Taichu completed the initial tempering of his Spirit Veins, left the valley, and learned that an ascension trial would soon begin.

• Qianlong summoned a pillar of spiritual energy from the Spirit Spring, while Bai Yu secretly planned to sacrifice him and the angels avoided provoking him.
• Qianlong introduced himself and said he had once crippled his chance to ascend before returning to Chaotian Gate; he warned others not to interfere with his goal.
• Qianlong sat beside the Spirit Spring to absorb spiritual energy as Bai Yu retreated and waited for a chance to ambush him.
• Three days later, Lin Taichu completed the initial tempering of his Spirit Veins and left the valley.
• Lin Taichu met Qin Feng and three companions, who told him Chaotian Gate would soon hold an ascension trial and worried Qianlong might compete for a qualification.
• Lin Taichu said Qianlong had no conflict with them and they should focus on their own preparations.

Lin Taichu and Qin Feng’s group reached Chaotian Gate as the Ascension Trial opened, and watched Cultivators fail to pass its light curtain. Bai Yu tried to ambush Qianlong, but Qianlong turned the trial’s power against him and killed him.

• Lin Taichu joined Qin Feng and the others on their way to Chaotian Gate, where they waited for the Ascension Trial to begin.
• An Angel opened the trial, and the Cultivators who entered the light curtain were rejected one after another.
• Qianlong arrived and approached the light curtain while Bai Yu secretly prepared to attack him.
• Bai Yu struck at Qianlong’s back, but Qianlong turned and caught his wrist, stopping his Soul Power.
• Qianlong pressed Bai Yu against the light curtain, whose power eroded him until he turned to ash.

Qianlong passed through Chaotian Gate and ascended to Hell, while Qin Feng and the other cultivators were rejected. Lin Taichu entered without ascending as an Angel or becoming a Demon, then followed Qianlong’s aura to a remote valley where he found him meditating.

• Qianlong entered the light screen, passed Chaotian Gate’s trial, and became a demon.
• Qin Feng and his companions tried to enter but were rejected, and the remaining cultivators left until only Lin Taichu stayed.
• Lin Taichu passed through the light screen while remaining a human cultivator, astonishing the Angel, hidden Demons, and nearby cultivators.
• Lin Taichu explored Chaotian Gate’s peaceful core region and followed Qianlong’s demon aura.
• Lin Taichu found Qianlong meditating on a black boulder in a remote valley and stopped several paces away.

Lin Taichu learned from Qianlong why Chaotian Gate allowed Angels, Demons, and humans to coexist, then cultivated in its abundant energy and broke through his realm. The chapter left him stronger and with his doubts about the gate resolved.

• Lin Taichu asked Qianlong why he had remained human after passing the trial and why Qianlong had abandoned ascension to the Heavenly Realm.
• Qianlong explained that he had rejected the Heavenly Realm’s strict hierarchy and returned to Chaotian Gate to pursue Hell’s less restricted path.
• Qianlong told Lin Taichu that his balanced Dao heart matched neither Heaven nor Hell, allowing him to pass the trial as a human, and explained that Chaotian Gate imposed no forced choice.
• Lin Taichu thanked Qianlong, left the valley, and began cultivating beside a stream with the region’s spiritual energy and Yin Energy.
• Lin Taichu cultivated for many days, refining his Soul Power and strengthening his Spirit Veins until he broke through his bottleneck.

After passing the first assessment, Lin Taichu faced a second trial beneath Chaotian Gate’s light curtain, where he cultivated under crushing pressure for seven days without receiving confirmation that he had passed. He left the gate to seek answers and entered the Spirit Gathering Pavilion, still puzzled by the trial.

• A mysterious voice told Lin Taichu that he had passed the first assessment and directed him to Chaotian Gate’s entrance for the second trial.
• Lin Taichu sat beneath the light curtain and cultivated against pressure that drained his Soul Power and strained his Spirit Veins.
• For seven days, Lin Taichu endured the pressure, strengthening his Soul Power and Spirit Veins while passing Cultivators watched in astonishment.
• Lin Taichu stopped cultivating when no assessment message came, and he left the light curtain to investigate why he had not passed.
• Lin Taichu entered the Spirit Gathering Pavilion, where several Cultivators were gathered and talking.

Lin Taichu discovered that Spirit Turbid Liquid was used to feed Spirit Devouring Gu, not to soothe cultivators, and suspected the Gu were behind Chaotian Gate's unusually powerful cultivators. He left the hidden courtyard without confronting the black-robed demon and began piecing together what he had learned.

• Lin Taichu drank Spirit Turbid Liquid at the Spirit Gathering Pavilion, found it agitating, and poured the rest outside.
• Dozens of black insects emerged from the soil and devoured the spilled liquid, prompting Lin Taichu to question the attendant, who denied anything was unusual.
• Lin Taichu traced the insects' aura to a courtyard behind the pavilion and saw them feeding from a jar of Spirit Turbid Liquid.
• Lin Taichu overheard a black-robed demon identify the insects as Spirit Devouring Gu and say they would soon mature and help him advance.
• Lin Taichu concluded that Spirit Devouring Gu might explain Chaotian Gate cultivators' strength and the sinister yin in their auras, then withdrew without being noticed.

Lin Taichu passed Chaotian Gate’s second trial by enduring its pressure without abandoning his Dao heart. He then investigated the Spirit Devouring Gu’s spread and found a guarded compound where a demon brought Spirit Turbid Liquid to dozens of jars surrounded by Gu Worms.

• Lin Taichu realized the Spirit Devouring Gu was harming cultivators’ Dao hearts and suspected the Gu Worms were connected to Chaotian Gate’s second trial.
• Lin Taichu passed the trial after remaining calm beneath the curtain of light for three days, and the voice in his mind confirmed he had found its core.
• Lin Taichu sensed Gu Worm auras in the cultivators he encountered and followed the increasingly dense Yin Energy into a secluded area.
• Lin Taichu found two stiff, black-robed Demons guarding stone houses behind a barrier that repelled his Soul Power probe.
• A gray-robed demon entered the barrier carrying Spirit Turbid Liquid, and Lin Taichu slipped closer to see dozens of jars surrounded by Spirit Devouring Gu.

Lin Taichu uncovered Chaotian Gate’s Spirit Devouring Gu breeding operation and overheard the three cultivators controlling it discuss their plans. He learned they intended to eliminate him if he threatened them, leaving him hidden near their secret chamber with the truth exposed.

• Lin Taichu discovered chained angels and demons being used as hosts for Spirit Devouring Gu and retreated from the puppet prison.
• Lin Taichu found a hidden passage behind a black palace and entered a chamber filled with Gu eggs.
• Lin Taichu saw an angel, a demon, and a human cultivator tending a stone altar full of powerful Spirit Devouring Gu.
• The three cultivators discussed using the puppets to raise high-grade Gu, and the demon declared that Chaotian Gate’s visitors had no escape from their scheme.
• The three cultivators ordered their followers to watch Lin Taichu and kill him if he threatened their plan.

Lin Taichu escaped Demon’s pursuit by reaching the Spirit Vein convergence, where the Angels prevented Demon from attacking him. As he recovered and considered seeking Qianlong’s help, he realized the Spirit Devouring Gu had corrupted the breeders and cultivators throughout Chaotian Gate, and that the breeders were only chasing a fleeting peak of power before the Gu Worms consumed their minds.

• Lin Taichu withdrew from the secret passage, but Demon discovered him and attacked with black Soul Power.
• Lin Taichu fled through the stone houses as Demon pursued him and Spirit Devouring Gu swarmed after him.
• Lin Taichu reached the Spirit Vein convergence, where the Angels barred Demon from entering and said he was safe for the time being.
• Lin Taichu recovered at the convergence and resolved to seek Qianlong’s help in breaking the Spirit Devouring Gu.
• Lin Taichu realized the Gu Worms had corrupted the cultivators and breeders alike, who sought strength only to grasp a brief peak before losing their minds.