Chapter Summaries

Shen Mo continued toward the Heaven-Patrolling Domain with Ami and calculated the long journey ahead. During the trip, he spent most of his saved Destiny Points trying to improve his aptitude and succeeded at the last attempt, raising it to Millennium Rarity.

• Shen Mo estimated that reaching the West Sea turbulence would take months, while crossing it could take anywhere from days to more than half a year.
• Ami asked Shen Mo to activate the Golden Flower World so she could cultivate inside and try to break through to the fourth tier.
• Shen Mo activated the Golden Flower World and carefully kept it with him as the Bronze Phoenix Carriage crossed the nearshore waters of the Sea of Buried Immortals.
• Shen Mo spent eight hundred Destiny Points attempting to advance his aptitude, but every attempt failed.
• Shen Mo spent another hundred Destiny Points and successfully advanced his aptitude from Heaven's Pride to Millennium Rarity.

Shen Mo’s aptitude advanced to Millennium Rarity, triggering a terrifying celestial omen that vanished without striking. He discovered that the upgrade greatly accelerated his cultivation, then used Cicada Sense to avoid a blood-red sea that foretold his death.

• Shen Mo spent Destiny Points to advance his aptitude from white-quality Mediocre Aptitude to orange-quality Millennium Rarity.
• Strange Dao sounds and a vast storm of black clouds and lightning appeared as a warning aimed at Shen Mo, then dispersed without attacking him.
• Shen Mo concluded that further improving his aptitude to Immortal Seed could provoke a real heavenly tribulation, and found that his cultivation speed had increased by about forty percent.
• Shen Mo estimated he would reach the middle stage of the Origin Core Realm during his journey toward the perilous lands of the West Sea in Heaven-Patrolling Domain.
• Cicada Sense warned Shen Mo that a blood-colored sea ahead would bring certain death, so he put away the Bronze Phoenix Carriage and fled with Sword Evasion.

Shen Mo crossed the distant sea and reached the Spacetime Turbulence separating the Sea of Buried Immortals from the Heaven-Patrolling Domain. With Ami and the Mother Tree Green Leaf ready to protect them, he plunged into the dangerous passage.

• Shen Mo survived repeated encounters with demons and Evil Spirits, including a battle with the Turtle-Back Clan that left him gravely wounded.
• After more than half a year of travel, Shen Mo reached the vast Spacetime Turbulence, which could not be bypassed by traveling north or south.
• Shen Mo reflected that his cultivation had slowed after reaching the mid-stage Origin Core Realm and hoped to find opportunities in the Heaven-Patrolling Domain.
• Shen Mo released Ami, who prepared the Mother Tree Green Leaf to defend them against spatial fissures and disordered time.
• Shen Mo readied his weapons and abilities, drove the Bronze Phoenix Carriage into the Spacetime Turbulence, and began the crossing.

Shen Mo entered the River of the Dead, a dangerous region of spatial rifts and time turbulence, and learned how its currents carried remains and relics from across ages. After escaping a time current that aged him three years, he continued cautiously, using Destinies and Demon Soul Generals to detect dangers.

• Shen Mo destroyed a fourth-rank yao king's corpse and collected its depleted yao core.
• Shen Mo evaded a sweeping spatial rift and surveyed the River of the Dead, recalling what he knew about its remains and salvage trade.
• Ami used the Mother Tree Green Leaf to shield Shen Mo from time turbulence, allowing him to find a gap and escape.
• Shen Mo realized the turbulence had aged him three years and resolved to protect his lifespan and cultivation.
• Shen Mo proceeded more cautiously, using special Destinies and low-level Demon Soul Generals to probe the dangers.

A young and elderly Rogue Cultivator salvaged Shen Mo’s Soul-Controlling Ghost General from the River of the Dead, prompting Shen Mo to catch up and erase their memories. Shen Mo escaped the dangerous river and vanished, leaving the uncle and nephew unaware of what had happened.

• The young Rogue Cultivator complained about their poor salvage and considered applying to test pills for the Mount Li Alchemy Sect, but his Second Uncle warned him against it.
• The uncle and nephew spotted spiritual light in the River of the Dead and hauled out a Soul-Controlling Ghost General.
• The elderly Rogue Cultivator decided to report the living being to the River-Patrolling Envoy, but Shen Mo arrived in a streak of sword light.
• Shen Mo captured the uncle and nephew, erased their memories of the past half hour, and checked for other witnesses.
• Shen Mo transformed into a golden arc and disappeared while the uncle and nephew returned to salvaging, unaware of the encounter.

More than half a year after arriving in the Heaven-Patrolling Domain, Shen Mo secretly established himself at Wangxian Mountain as the Origin Core Realm alchemist Shen Qingyun, trading pills for resources and intelligence while hiding his origins. He accepted Second Uncle Ma’s worn beast bone as payment, leaving the uncle and nephew to choose their pills.

• Shen Mo gained a reputation at Wangxian Mountain for making rare pills at affordable prices and accepting unusual items in exchange.
• Second Uncle Ma brought Ma Pingkang to Shen Qingyun’s cave abode and offered a beast bone dredged from the River of the Dead.
• Other pill-seekers mocked the bone, but Shen Qingyun sent Second Uncle Ma a qualification jade token to honor their past connection.
• Shen Mo recalled that Second Uncle Ma had once caught the Lesser Heavenly Demon Soul General after Shen Mo escaped the River of the Dead, and explained why he had chosen Wangxian Mountain as his hidden foothold.
• When the uncle and nephew presented the bone, Shen Mo offered them five fourth-grade spirit pills or twenty-five third-grade spirit pills and asked which they wanted.

Shen Mo gave Ma Pingkang a Fifth-Grade Spirit Pill and warned him about flaws in his cultivation before the uncle and nephew departed. He then helped Ami plant two new spirit plants and reflected on the Heaven-Patrolling Domain’s abundance and the resources he had gained in Wangxian Mountain.

• Uncle Ma introduced Ma Pingkang to Shen Mo and asked for a Fifth-Grade Spirit Pill to aid his breakthrough.
• Shen Mo gave Ma Pingkang a Three Sovereigns Spirit Marrow Pill and advised him that his cultivation method and spiritual aura had serious flaws.
• Uncle Ma thanked Shen Mo, put away the pill, and left his cave dwelling with Ma Pingkang.
• Shen Mo activated the Golden Flower World and summoned Ami, who planted two spirit grasses left as payment by cultivators seeking pills.
• Ami celebrated the many new spirit-plant varieties they had collected, while Shen Mo considered the Heaven-Patrolling Domain’s rich spiritual resources and his own gains from Wangxian Mountain.

Shen Mo struggled with stalled cultivation and the Soul Refining Banner’s influence while continuing to refine pills on Wangxian Mountain. Hong Gu visited him, but said she had come for a reason unrelated to alchemy, leaving her purpose unknown.

• Shen Mo reviewed his cultivation and auxiliary-profession progress, noting that his Formation Dao had stalled.
• Shen Mo suppressed demonic thoughts triggered by the Soul Refining Banner and sent his Martial Drill Dao Body to practice while he refined fifth-grade pills.
• After finishing a batch of Drunken Death Dream Life Pills, Shen Mo welcomed Hong Gu into his cave abode.
• Hong Gu said she had not come to discuss alchemy, leaving Shen Mo waiting to hear her reason.

Hong Gu visited Shen Mo with news about Mount Li Alchemy Sect recruiting alchemist Guest Elders and the imminent opening of the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield. Shen Mo declined the position but considered entering the battlefield after learning more about its dangers and opportunities.

• Hong Gu told Shen Mo that Mount Li Alchemy Sect was recruiting fourth-grade alchemist Guest Elders, but he declined because the duties would hinder his cultivation.
• Hong Gu revealed that the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield would reappear in two months, giving cultivators a chance to explore it before it vanished for another seven hundred years.
• After Hong Gu left, Shen Mo completed pill transactions with three cultivators and pondered her news.
• Shen Mo considered entering the battlefield after learning it was an ancient graveyard of powerful beings, filled with peril and potential inheritances.

Shen Mo prepared for a journey into the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield after accepting Hong Gu’s invitation to join her team. His divination showed the trip carried both misfortune and fortune, but he decided to go ahead.

• Hong Gu invited Shen Mo and several Origin Core Realm friends to explore the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield together, and Shen Mo agreed.
• Shen Mo announced that he would stop trading pills for an extended period and began preparing supplies, talismans, and magic treasures for the journey.
• Shen Mo nurtured the Azure Cloud Umbrella with [Spirit-Heart Wisdom Endowment], hoping it would develop an artifact spirit while retaining its Cycle of Life and Death true intent.
• Shen Mo cultivated the Divination Treasure Mirror and, two months later, cast a hexagram that showed the journey held both misfortune and fortune.
• Shen Mo resolved to proceed, trusting his Cicada Sense Destiny to help him avoid mortal danger.

Hong Gu brought Shen Mo aboard her Floating Light Dharma Boat to travel with a group of Origin Core cultivators. After collecting three more companions, the group headed southeast toward the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield, where Fu Jianghuo and Peng Leyao were expected to prepare for a Partner-Binding Ceremony after their return.

• Hong Gu arrived at Shen Mo's cave abode in her ultimate-grade Floating Light Dharma Boat, which Shen Mo chose to ride rather than reveal his Bronze Phoenix Carriage.
• Shen Mo greeted Song Han, an early-stage Origin Core cultivator who had grown wealthy by overseeing treasure-picker cultivators along the River of the Dead.
• Hong Gu flew north to collect three companions, then turned the boat southeast with Shen Mo and Song Han aboard.
• Hong Gu introduced Fu Jianghuo, a mid-stage Origin Core elder of Clear Heart Sect, and Peng Lexiao and Peng Leyao, twin siblings and Clear Heart Sect elders who handled its Artifact Forging affairs.
• Hong Gu told Shen Mo that Fu Jianghuo planned to become Dao companions with Peng Leyao, who had accepted, and that they would likely prepare their Partner-Binding Ceremony after returning from the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield.

Shen Mo and his companions arrived in the Colorful Garment Kingdom and entered the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield, which was far larger and more dangerous than it appeared from outside. The group found themselves in a blood-red world beneath the ninth heaven, thick with slaughter and resentment.

• Hong Gu, Shen Mo, Song Han, Fu Jianghuo, and the Peng siblings reached the Colorful Garment Kingdom after the battlefield had already appeared.
• Fu Jianghuo explained that a senior had estimated the battlefield was as vast as the entire Heaven-Patrolling Domain.
• Hong Gu asked whether the group needed supplies, but Shen Mo and the others said they were prepared.
• Shen Mo equipped his defensive techniques and treasures as the group flew into the battlefield’s mist and flowing light.
• Shen Mo sensed that the battlefield’s spiritual energy was denser but its aura of slaughter, blood qi, and resentment was more than a hundred times thicker than outside.

Shen Mo and the others encountered deadly purple-black lightning and corrosive rain while crossing the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield. Shen Mo’s warning and Azure Cloud Umbrella protected the group from the first strike, but the poisonous storm continued to spread across the battlefield.

• The sky darkened above the Floating Light Dharma Boat, and Hong Gu steered it down to avoid the purple-black lightning.
• The lightning struck newly arrived Spirit Sea Realm cultivators, reducing them to black smoke before Shen Mo could intervene.
• Shen Mo’s Cicada Sense warned him of an imminent strike, and he alerted Hong Gu and the others to raise their defenses.
• The lightning shattered the group’s protections, but the Azure Cloud Umbrella absorbed and dispersed the weakened strike.
• Shen Mo’s Cicada Sense warned him again as corrosive rain began, and he watched it kill an Origin Core Realm cultivator and dissolve the landscape.
• The thunder and poisonous storm surged onward across an unknown expanse of the battlefield.

Shen Mo and the others endured the corrosive storm aboard the Floating Light Dharma Boat, taking turns shielding it while conserving their strength. When Shen Mo took over again, he sensed the rain weakening and clear skies about a thousand li ahead.

• The Floating Light Dharma Boat flew through six hours of poisonous rain, while Shen Mo's group refused desperate cultivators entry and killed those who tried to force their way aboard.
• Shen Mo asked the others to take over shielding the boat so he could recover his true essence, and Fu Jianghuo used an ancient tortoise shell to ward off the rain.
• Fu Jianghuo, Song Han, Hong Gu, and the others took turns protecting the boat while Shen Mo watched their abilities and considered the Peng siblings' skill in artifact forging.
• When it was Shen Mo's turn to shield the boat again, he sensed that the storm was weakening and spotted clear sky about a thousand li ahead.

Shen Mo and his companions reached a mountain hollow that Hong Gu identified as a suspected opportunity site, but Shen Mo discovered it was guarded by a Natural Killing Array. After studying the formation, Shen Mo gained insight and Destiny Points, while Hong Gu finally ventured inside under the protection of a colorful bracelet.

• Hong Gu led Shen Mo and the others to a seemingly ordinary mountain hollow that she believed matched her intelligence about an opportunity site.
• Shen Mo stopped Hong Gu after detecting a formation, and a third-grade talisman soldier was shredded when sent into the hollow.
• Hong Gu explained that the hollow was an illusion concealing a Natural Killing Array, and Shen Mo judged that they could force their way through it despite being unable to break it.
• Shen Mo studied the formation, deepened his Formation Dao understanding, and gained one Destiny Point.
• Hong Gu used a gold-inlaid bracelet to shield herself from the formation's invisible attacks and entered the hollow, disappearing from sight.

Shen Mo entered the natural killing array unharmed after sending his Demon Soul Generals to search the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield. Inside the inverted Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, he found bones that suggested it had once imprisoned demons from beyond the domain as well as demon beasts.

• Hong Gu, Song Han, and the others entered the mountain hollow, and Shen Mo sent two hundred Demon Soul Generals across the battlefield to search for spiritual objects and report dangers.
• Shen Mo protected himself with the Wall Great Hand Seal and passed through the Natural Killing Array unharmed.
• Shen Mo entered the inverted pagoda, where Hong Gu and the others were examining piles of withered bones.
• Shen Mo identified many of the strange remains as demons from beyond the domain and concluded that the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda had imprisoned them alongside demon beasts.

Shen Mo investigated the remains of extraterrestrial demons in the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda and theorized that the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield connected to other worlds. He entered the second floor with the others, choosing to keep his conjecture secret while considering how to prevent them from revealing what they had seen.

• Shen Mo and the others identified demons among the first-floor remains and collected valuable bones, scales, and other forging materials.
• Shen Mo noticed healed injuries and bite marks on the remains and deduced that the imprisoned creatures had killed and eaten one another before dying.
• As the group opened the bronze gates to the second floor, Shen Mo reasoned that the Ancient Immortal-Demon Battlefield might be a withered world connected to other worlds through a passage.
• Shen Mo decided not to tell Ami or the Flower Fairy Clan about his theory, fearing it could trigger a war over the battlefield.
• Hong Gu called Shen Mo into the second-floor chamber, and he considered using the Soul Curse Technique to erase the others' memories if they threatened to expose what they had seen.

Shen Mo's group reached the seventh floor of the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda and found a seemingly dead Divine Bridge Realm corpse. Shen Mo recognized the danger too late to prevent the remains from reviving, and the group fled as the awakened man mocked the pagoda's weakness.

• Shen Mo's group broke through the restrictions on the fifth-floor door and found the fifth and sixth floors empty.
• Hong Gu sent her Red Chain Snake Demon to scout the seventh floor, and the group confirmed there was no apparent danger.
• The group entered the seventh-floor chamber and found a jade-like skeleton bound in ancient iron chains; Song Han searched it for valuables.
• Shen Mo struck the remains with his Demon Slayer Sword and warned that they were still alive before fleeing upward.
• The skeleton regenerated into a middle-aged man, who awakened after ten thousand years and disparaged the intruders' strength.
• Hong Gu, Song Han, Fu Jianghuo, and the Peng Siblings used defensive and escape arts to flee the chamber.

Shen Mo returned to the seventh floor of the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda and helped Hong Gu and the others resist the revived middle-aged man’s pull. His sword array weakened the man’s attack, but the group remained trapped as Shen Mo challenged him to let them go.

• The middle-aged man used a terrifying pulling force to drag Hong Gu and the others toward him, and their attacks failed to hurt him.
• Shen Mo abandoned his attempt to escape and slashed the middle-aged man’s face before unleashing the Big Dipper Seven-Star Sword Array.
• The sword array weakened the pulling force, allowing Hong Gu, Song Han, Fu Jianghuo, the Peng Siblings, and Shen Mo to link their auras and hold their ground.
• The middle-aged man recognized Shen Mo as the one who had struck his corpse and asked whether he had cultivated Sword Heart Clarity.
• Shen Mo told the middle-aged man not to make things difficult for them and revealed that Cicada Sense and Insight into All Living Beings had exposed the bones’ revival.

Shen Mo used [Insight into All Living Beings] to learn that Lin Zhaozai had died after being suppressed for millennia and had been reborn by absorbing the demons on the pagoda’s lower floors. Lin Zhaozai refused to let the group go, and the two sides clashed as he tried to break through the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda’s restraints.

• Shen Mo learned that Lin Zhaozai was a reborn evil cultivator who had consumed the demons from the fifth and sixth floors and inherited his former self’s memories and powers.
• Lin Zhaozai rejected Shen Mo’s attempt to bargain and declared that he intended to eat the group.
• Shen Mo strengthened Hong Gu and the others with Wall Great Hand Seals and gave them pills to restore their spiritual power.
• Shen Mo poured true essence into the Big Dipper Seven-Star Sword Array, which relentlessly attacked Lin Zhaozai’s Glazed Spell.
• Lin Zhaozai snapped off a finger and transformed it into a Flesh and Blood Treasure Sword, then multiplied the swords into a blood-lit sword array.