Chapter Summaries

Daoist Hunyuan traveled to Hangu Pass, where Lao Dan discussed how Confucianism could endure and spread. Hunyuan created two treasures to preserve and teach Confucian principles but chose not to establish a religion, leaving Confucianism to develop on its own.

• Daoist Hunyuan recalled his origins and reincarnations, then traveled through the hidden passage between Heaven and Earth toward the Mortal Realm.
• Guan Yin foresaw Lao Dan’s arrival at Hangu Pass, welcomed him, and asked him to record his teachings.
• Lao Dan wrote the Dao De Jing at Guan Yin’s request, and Guan Yin later cultivated the Dao at Louguan Terrace.
• Daoist Hunyuan arrived at Hangu Pass, where Lao Dan challenged him to explain how Confucianism could spread and endure.
• Hunyuan transformed a Turtle Shell into a scripture-bearing Turtle Plate and produced a verdant discipline ruler to preserve Confucian teachings and promote virtue.
• Hunyuan declined to establish a Confucian religion, choosing instead to let Confucianism evolve without the entanglements of religious fortune.

Daoist Hunyuan took the Yellow River flood dragon Xuanjiao as his disciple and taught him to cultivate Vast Righteous Qi. They reached a hidden canyon in Kunlun containing a weakening seal around a Great Demon, and Xuanjiao struggled to descend into its chaotic currents after Hunyuan went ahead.

• Daoist Hunyuan absorbed a trace of spiritual energy, drawing out an aging Yellow River flood dragon who begged him for help.
• Hunyuan agreed to take the flood dragon along, accepted Xuanjiao as his disciple, and gave him Vast Righteous Qi to halt his decline.
• Hunyuan and Xuanjiao passed a sealed Sword Intent on Shu Mountain without disturbing it, then traveled to Kunlun and found traces of Penglai Daoist Arts in a hidden valley.
• Hunyuan led Xuanjiao through the formation to a canyon where a Yellow Mud Coffin was being suppressed by Gen Mountain power and its weakening seal.
• Hunyuan shielded Xuanjiao with Vast Righteous Qi and descended into the canyon, while Xuanjiao forced himself onward against the chaotic currents that nearly crushed him.

Daoist Hunyuan freed Yellow Stone Daoist from the formation sustaining the Yellow Mud Coffin, but Gonggong broke out and unleashed his power. Hunyuan challenged Gonggong to a fight, hoping to weaken his resentment and restore his awareness, and sent him crashing into a mountainside.

• Daoist Hunyuan learned from Yellow Stone Daoist that he had become the Yellow Mud Coffin to suppress Gonggong’s demonic remnant beneath Mount Kunlun.
• Daoist Hunyuan restored Yellow Stone Daoist’s form, but the formation shattered and Gonggong burst from the coffin.
• Gonggong attacked Xuanjiao, who escaped by turning the incoming water against him and fleeing up the cliff.
• Daoist Hunyuan adopted an aura resembling Great God Pangu and challenged Gonggong to fight, then blocked his punches with his Xuanhuang Body.
• Daoist Hunyuan struck through Gonggong’s chaotic punch and protective barrier, sending him flying into the mountainside.

Daoist Hunyuan defeated Gonggong’s resentment and helped him emerge as Wu Tian, who resolved to defy heaven and restore the Wu clan. Hunyuan then explored Kunlun Mountain with Yellow Stone Daoist and Xuanjiao, recruited a Spiritual Ginseng, and learned that Kunlun’s Gate to Heaven remained closed.

• Daoist Hunyuan battered Gonggong until his resentment emerged, then cut it away with the Sword of the Brave and destroyed it with Purple Flame.
• Gonggong’s body transformed into a giant who called himself Wu Tian, accepted his demonic nature, and entrusted Hunyuan with a ball of divine light containing Wu clan power.
• Wu Tian vowed to gather Wu souls and condense Pangu’s Body, while Hunyuan advised him to seek Soul Stabilizing Grass.
• Daoist Hunyuan, Yellow Stone Daoist, and Xuanjiao entered Kunlun Mountain’s inner reaches and found a Spiritual Ginseng, which transformed into a boy and agreed to follow Hunyuan.
• The Spiritual Ginseng boy revealed that the Chan Teaching had taken Kunlun’s mountain gate and left the Gate to Heaven closed, so Yellow Stone Daoist concluded that Kunlun was not the place they sought.

Daoist Hunyuan witnessed the rise of the Hundred Schools of Thought as disciples of the Three Teachings and the Wu tribe carried their doctrines into the mortal world. The schools flourished through debate and practical teachings, leaving the path of the mortal world open to those who understood their Dao.

• Daoist Hunyuan sensed the emergence of a great sage in the Confucian School and sent a Turtle Plate and a ruler into the world.
• Kong Qiu appeared to Zisi, told him to find and teach the coming sage, and entrusted him with two Confucian treasures.
• Meng Ke inherited Confucian teachings, advocated benevolent governance and rule by virtue, and gained little notice from the feudal lords.
• Zhuang Zhou, Mo Di, Zou Yan, Guiguzi, Han Feizi, and Sun Wu developed the Daoist, Mohist, yin-yang, diplomatic, Legalist, and military schools.
• Scholars from many schools gathered across the states to debate and develop doctrines that shaped the way of the mortal world.

Daoist Hunyuan comprehended the Law of Slaughter and received Yellow Stone Daoist’s formation teachings as they searched Kunlun Mountain for a passage between the Three Realms. They planned to reveal clues about the Peak of Heaven and Earth and the Gate to Heaven, while Daoist Hunyuan began explaining the Great Dao of Yin and Yang.

• Daoist Hunyuan witnessed visions of killing across Heaven and Earth and comprehended the Law of Slaughter, while Yellow Stone Daoist benefited from his insights.
• Yellow Stone Daoist gave Daoist Hunyuan a formation altar, which he merged into his own altar as a seed of the Dao of formations.
• Daoist Hunyuan and Yellow Stone Daoist concluded that Kunlun Mountain likely held no passage between the Three Realms and discussed finding the Peak of Heaven and Earth and the Gate to Heaven.
• Yellow Stone Daoist proposed creating ancient sites to draw out cultivators in the Mortal Realm and help locate the Gate to Heaven, while warning of a possible Great Calamity.
• Daoist Hunyuan demonstrated the Great Dao of Yin and Yang, describing how Yin and Yang divided, transformed into all things, and balanced one another.

The Crocodile Ancestor broke free from its ancient seal and fought Xuanjiao, who was forced to retreat. Daoist Hunyuan defeated the Crocodile Ancestor’s body and captured its primordial spirit, which begged him for mercy.

• The formation sealing the Crocodile Ancestor collapsed, and the ancient demon emerged from the North Sea.
• Xuanjiao attacked the Crocodile Ancestor but struggled against its tough body and powerful claws.
• Daoist Hunyuan shielded Xuanjiao and fought the Crocodile Ancestor, whose curved blade and law-bound chains challenged his attacks.
• Daoist Hunyuan transformed into the Dharma Body of Great God Pangu, seized the Crocodile Ancestor, and stopped its attempt to escape.
• The Crocodile Ancestor sacrificed its body in an explosion, but Daoist Hunyuan contained the blast, and a gigantic Flood Dragon swallowed the body.
• The Crocodile Ancestor’s primordial spirit knelt before Daoist Hunyuan and begged for its life.

After ancient caverns appeared and rumors spread of a Heavenly Gate containing Origin Power, Haotian decided to descend to the Mortal Realm and seek it. He arranged for a faith-powered Dharma Body to rule the Heavenly Court in his absence and sent Taibai Jinxing to consult the Queen Mother.

• Ancient caverns appeared across the Mortal Realm and Earth Immortal Realm, and diviners linked them to the Heavenly Gate and an opportunity to obtain Origin Power.
• Haotian and Taibai Jinxing discussed the Heavenly Gate, the risks of reaching the Mortal Realm, and Haotian’s desire to escape the Saints’ constraints.
• Haotian formed a Dharma Body from the world’s faith and decided to travel to the Mortal Realm himself.
• Haotian ordered Taibai Jinxing to accompany him and speak with the Queen Mother, while noting that other Heavenly Court figures might descend too.
• Haotian transferred his spiritual awareness and Emperor’s Aura into the Dharma Body, which pledged to preserve the Heavenly Court’s authority.

Daoist Hunyuan and Meng Ke investigated the opening of the Heavenly Gate at Mount Tai, where the Eight Trigrams Compass absorbed Gengjin Essence and the gathered cultivators’ thoughts seemed necessary to open the gate. After a shadow and a swarm of black mosquitoes massacred the cultivators at the mountain’s foot, Hunyuan and Meng Ke began climbing Mount Tai and faced overwhelming pressure from its defenses.

• Daoist Hunyuan received Gengjin Essence, and the Eight Trigrams Compass absorbed it to fill its metal position and manifest a Bodhi Tree.
• Daoist Hunyuan and Meng Ke concluded that the Heavenly Gate required the Eight Spirits, Heaven and Earth Power, and the Power of All Beings gathered at Mount Tai.
• A shadow and black mosquitoes devoured cultivators at the foot of Mount Tai overnight, leaving only bones and dense Killing Qi.
• Daoist Hunyuan and Meng Ke arrived at the mountain after the massacre, discussed the danger surrounding the Heavenly Gate, and set out to climb.
• Meng Ke used Righteous Qi to pass the aura of the roadside Thatched Huts, but after three thousand steps a force shaped by Mount Tai’s might struck at them.

Daoist Hunyuan discovered that Mount Tai held the accumulated wills and power of all beings, then used them with his compass to open Heaven’s Gate. Spatial rifts appeared, and cultivators fought desperately to enter what they believed was the Origin World while the great factions waited for the gate to stabilize.

• Daoist Hunyuan absorbed Mount Tai’s chaotic will and saw a vision of Earth forming from Great God Pangu’s head.
• Daoist Hunyuan realized Mount Tai had appeared later and merged with an ancient will already present on Earth.
• Mount Tai’s recorded history and the Power of All Beings merged with Daoist Hunyuan’s compass, clarifying his understanding.
• Daoist Hunyuan declared that opening Heaven’s Gate required the Power and Thoughts of All Beings, and forces from across the world poured into the compass.
• The compass became eight pillars that drained cultivators’ spiritual energy and formed cracks in the void, which many mistook for gateways to the Origin World.
• Demon Race cultivators and other seekers entered some cracks as bloody fighting spread across Mount Tai, while the great factions waited for Heaven’s Gate to stabilize.

The heavenly gate stabilized after Daoist Hunyuan’s compass formed, but it demanded a Corpse Bone Heavenly Ladder built from the blood and corpses of cultivators. As the factions fought over the chance to enter, the chapter ended with Lu Ya, Kun Peng Demon Master, and Old Ancestor Xuanbing attacking the Buddhist sect and killing more than a thousand Buddha’s Children.

• The compass absorbed the Eight Spirits into the heavenly gate, while its power flew into Daoist Hunyuan.
• The gate’s pressure killed cultivators and gathered their blood and corpses into the Corpse Bone Heavenly Ladder.
• Old Ancestor Xuanbing seized smaller factions for the ladder, and Daoist Hunyuan stopped Meng Ke from intervening.
• Kun Peng Demon Master and Old Ancestor Xuanbing fought over the Lesser Demons, and Lu Ya, Kun Peng, and Xuanbing agreed to cooperate.
• The three demon leaders attacked the Buddhist sect, and their assault killed more than a thousand Buddha’s Children before Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva stopped Indra from retaliating.

Old Ancestor Xuanbing and the others entered the Heavenly Gate and found a graveyard known as the Land Where Heaven Was Buried. Daoist Hunyuan led the group through its dangers, where Evil Spirits fed on cultivators, leaving the party facing the graveyard’s horrors.

• Old Ancestor Xuanbing used the demon spirits’ power to overcome the pressure on the Corpse Bone Heavenly Ladder and entered the Heavenly Gate, followed by Daoist Hunyuan, Meng Ke, and Demon Master Kun Peng.
• The group found a vast graveyard beyond the gate, and Daoist Hunyuan warned that it was a Great Terror Zone where illusion and reality intertwined.
• Buddhist cultivators illuminated the graveyard with Buddhist light and crossed it while Meng Ke continued contemplating Daoist Hunyuan’s words.
• A Daoist who transformed into Black Mist entered the graveyard, and Yellow Stone Daoist, Tian Lingzi, and Cang Wuzi later joined Daoist Hunyuan’s group.
• Daoist Hunyuan identified the graveyard as the Land Where Heaven Was Buried and said its graves held the Thought of Heaven; he led the group onward while advising them to recite the Yellow Court and form no other thoughts.
• The group encountered Evil Spirits and human skins left on burial mounds, and Cang Wuzi recognized the spirits as Yin Spirits formed from the Thought of Heaven.

Daoist Hunyuan and the others fought Yin Spirits and discovered that the Heaven Burying Tomb’s dead were evolving into dangerous Yin People and living tombs. They reached the Buddha's Children and other survivors, where the battle continued as Mosquito Daoist’s swarm devoured the remains.

• Daoist Hunyuan, Meng Ke, and Xuanjiao used Righteous Qi, spiritual treasures, lightning, and fire to destroy the attacking Yin Spirits.
• Cang Wuzi and Tian Lingzi gathered and subdued Soul Thoughts, but the Netherworld Flower began rooting into Human Skin and raising it into Yin People.
• Daoist Hunyuan urged the group to hurry onward as the Yin People and illusory tombs continued to evolve.
• The group found a bloody battlefield where Yin People devoured cultivators, and Meng Ke saw that only a few hundred of the roughly thousand Buddha's Children remained.
• Randeng Ancient Buddha, Old Ancestor Xuanbing, Kun Peng Demon Master, and Yunxiao’s Daoists fought the Yin People with barriers, cold, and arrays.
• Daoist Hunyuan spotted a swarm of mosquitoes devouring the Heaven Burying Ground’s Flesh and Blood, and realized they belonged to Mosquito Daoist.

Mosquito Daoist’s attack unleashed Yin Spirits and Fierce Ghosts in the Heaven Burying Ground, forcing Randeng Ancient Buddha and the other factions to fight back. As they cleared the Yin People, the tombs began producing an armored being that Randeng warned could absorb their divine abilities.

• Mosquito Daoist’s mosquitoes broke through the Buddhist barrier, unleashing distracting thoughts that formed Yin Spirits and killed most of Randeng Ancient Buddha’s disciples.
• Randeng Ancient Buddha attacked Mosquito Daoist with his Purple Gold Alms Bowl, but Mosquito Daoist escaped in his Six-winged Blood Mosquito form.
• Nether River Daoist, Fierce God and Evil Fiend, and Ao Cang joined the fight, draining or devouring the Yin People while Ao Cang explained the Darkness Law to Meng Ke and Daoist Hunyuan.
• Fierce God and Evil Fiend used the Heavenly Dog Eats Sun technique to create Three-headed Dogs that overwhelmed the Yin People, while Heavenly Ghost urged Great Desolate Skeleton to spread his Withered Bone Domain.
• The Heaven Burying Ground trembled, and a skeleton emerged from underground before becoming an armored Yin Person; Randeng Ancient Buddha warned that the tombs were absorbing their divine abilities, and Cang Wuzi wondered if it was a heavenly soldier.

Ancient graves produced ranks of Heavenly Soldiers and powerful formations that clashed with the Demon Race and other factions. As the Wu Clan, Buddhist assembly, and three Daoist sects fought to contain them, Chi You and Xing Tian confronted a quasi-sage-level Heavenly General.

• Heavenly Soldiers emerged from the graves and attacked, while Wu Tian recognized their battle strength as a chance to hone the Wu Clan.
• Heavenly Ghost discovered the soldiers could combine their strength, then helped Minghe and the Undead Clan use the Blood River Great Formation to destroy a formation of five hundred.
• Heavenly Witch led Chi You and Xing Tian into battle, where they fought the soldiers with overwhelming strength.
• Buddha's Child arhats immobilized another formation, and the three Daoist sects formed the Grand Unity Three Powers Formation to suppress a third.
• A Heavenly General appeared and charged toward Chi You and Xing Tian, who met him with the Tiger Soul Blade and Gan Qi.

Chi You, Xing Tian, and Xiang Liu fought the Heavenly Generals in the Heaven Burying Ground, discovering that the foes could draw on Heaven’s power and return after being destroyed. Haotian revealed his Chaos Body and overwhelmed the fourth Heavenly General, leaving its fate uncertain as he continued his attack.

• Chi You’s Tiger Soul Blade and Xing Tian’s axe failed to overpower the Heavenly Generals, so Xing Tian and Xiang Liu engaged separate foes.
• Xiang Liu used his poisonous marsh and nine heads to battle a Heavenly General, then realized its power weakened each time it returned from a tomb.
• A fourth Heavenly General targeted the three figures radiating chaotic energy, but the unremarkable man smashed its spear and shattered its arm with a chaotic punch.
• Daoist Hunyuan recognized the man as the Heavenly Emperor Haotian, who had revealed his Chaos Body to avoid drawing on the surrounding aura of heaven and earth.
• Haotian attacked the Heavenly General with chaotic light, tearing off its arm and repeatedly smashing its body apart.

As the battle in the Heaven Burying Ground intensified, two powerful Yin Gods emerged from a collapsed tomb and attacked the cultivators. Guanyin Bodhisattva subdued one with her Buddhist mantras, while Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva fought the other and absorbed its destructive attack into his Great Treasure Vases.

• Cang Wuzi and Daoist Hunyuan feared that the Heaven Burying Tomb could create powerful guardians from cultivators’ distracting thoughts and flesh and blood.
• Blood-red lightning struck a Great Tomb, releasing two Daoist Children whom Cang Wuzi identified as Yin Gods guarding the Heaven Burying Ground.
• One Daoist Child killed a Grand Unity-level cultivator with a single finger, and Guanyin Bodhisattva confronted him with her Six-Syllable Great Bright Mantra.
• Guanyin Bodhisattva broke the Daoist Child’s attacks and made him doubt his claim to rule Heaven, subduing him with Buddhist mantras.
• Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva formed six Great Treasure Vases and drew the other Daoist Child’s destructive power into them.

Chi You developed his battlefield domain by defeating the Heavenly Generals, but when he tried to devour the Heaven Burying Ground’s remaining aura, a colossal black dragon emerged and overwhelmed him. Daoist Hunyuan transformed into a gray dragon to confront it, but the black dragon tore apart his claw and struck toward his head.

• The various factions destroyed the Heavenly Soldiers while Chi You used his Way of Soldiers to defeat and absorb several Heavenly Generals.
• Xiang Liu bound the third Heavenly General with his snake neck and snapped him apart, giving Chi You time to understand and complete his battlefield domain.
• Chi You absorbed another Heavenly General and learned that the aura of the Way of Soldiers included both victory and defeat, then used his domain to swallow the next General.
• Chi You reached the Great Wu realm and sent his battlefield domain to devour the aura in the sky, but a vast black dragon absorbed the remaining aura and shattered half of Chi You’s domain.
• The black dragon charged at the cultivators, and Daoist Hunyuan met it in the sky as a gray dragon, but the black dragon tore through his claw and reached for his head.

Daoist Hunyuan endured Heavenly Might by yielding rather than resisting, then survived Heaven’s Evil Thought’s assault until its power faded. He swallowed the two figures of light and used his Law Altar to seize their Way of Destruction and Quasi-Heavenly Dao.

• Daoist Hunyuan countered the Black Dragon’s attacks with his nebula vortex, chaotic greatsword, and Xuanhuang Power, but then let his own power fade to acknowledge Heavenly Might.
• Tian Lingzi realized that Heavenly Might could not be challenged directly and explained that yielding was the best way to counter it.
• The two Daoist Children merged with the fading Heavenly Power, which became a giant and unleashed Heaven’s Evil Thought across the Heaven Burying Ground.
• Daoist Hunyuan warned everyone not to resist and told them to guard their primordial spirits; cultivators who submitted or failed to withstand the pressure turned to stone or were killed.
• Daoist Hunyuan counted ten breaths as the giant hand descended, and Heaven’s Evil Thought dissipated just before it could crush him.
• Daoist Hunyuan swallowed the two figures of light and used his Law Altar to capture their Way of Destruction and Quasi-Heavenly Dao.

Daoist Hunyuan entered a mysterious mist and discovered a Soul Pond connected to the River of Fate, where the thoughts of Great God Pangu and Great God Xuanhuang departed from him. He received three drops of Soul Liquid, but they began corroding his sea of consciousness.

• The survivors encountered mist that devoured Divine Souls, and Daoist Hunyuan used the Eight Sceneries Palace Lantern to enter it.
• Daoist Hunyuan found a black Soul Pond and experienced the River of Fate, where his soul joined a brilliant point of light containing four worlds.
• Daoist Hunyuan’s soul split, and the thoughts of Great God Pangu and Great God Xuanhuang left him and vanished beyond a dark barrier.
• Daoist Hunyuan saw the phantom souls of Great God Pangu and Great God Xuanhuang absorbing the Soul Pond’s power, then tried to collect Soul Liquid.
• Great God Pangu sent three drops of Soul Liquid into Daoist Hunyuan’s sea of consciousness, where they began to corrode it and caused him agony.