Chapter Summaries

The Witch Clan and Demon Clan fought a devastating battle with their supreme formations, but both sides halted when they sensed the karmic sin of their slaughter. Xuande watched from Mount Sumeru and foresaw that Houtu would create the Six Paths of Reincarnation before the next war, followed by Gonggong breaking Buzhou Mountain.

• The Witch-Demon conflict escalated until Dijun and Dijiang agreed to deploy their clans’ full formations against each other.
• Dijun led the Great Array of the Stars while Houtu coordinated the Dutian Divine Fiends Formation, and their powers devastated the battlefield.
• Dijun, Taiyi, Houtu, and the other leaders sensed the Heavenly Dao’s warning of karmic sin and stopped their formations before the battle could continue.
• Both clans withdrew after suffering heavy losses, with neither side’s strongest leaders killed.
• Xuande foresaw that Houtu would transform herself into the Six Paths of Reincarnation before the Second War, after which Gonggong would break Buzhou Mountain and unleash a flood upon the Primordial Wilderness.

After the Witch-Demon war left countless souls without a place to rest, Houtu sought a method of deliverance from Xuande. She, Xuande, and Randeng traveled across the Primordial Wilderness to soothe and release the dead, while Houtu’s Earth Dao began to merge with the Western method.

• Houtu told Dijiang and the other Ancestral Witches that she intended to deliver the departed souls, then left for the West after Dijiang gave his approval.
• Houtu met Xuande beneath the Bodhi Tree and asked to learn the Western method of delivering souls; Xuande passed the complete method to her.
• Xuande asked Fuxi to oversee the West and the Human Race while he joined Houtu on her journey, and Randeng volunteered to accompany them.
• At the battlefield near Buzhou Mountain, Houtu gathered the souls with her Earth Dao while Xuande used the deliverance method to soothe their resentment and return them to the Origin Essence of heaven and earth.
• As the three traveled across the Primordial Wilderness, Houtu became more practiced, and her Earth Dao blended with the deliverance method into a new power.

Xuande, Houtu, and Randeng reached the Blood Sea while delivering departed souls, and Houtu sensed a summons from its depths. Minghe barred their way, refusing to let Houtu investigate, and threatened to kill anyone who entered.

• Xuande, Houtu, and Randeng traveled across the Primordial Wilderness, delivering departed souls as Randeng reconsidered nirvana as a state of peace rather than extinction.
• The three arrived at the Blood Sea, where Randeng saw countless souls trapped and suffering in its waters.
• Houtu sensed a summons from deep within the Blood Sea, and Xuande agreed to accompany her to investigate.
• Minghe rose from the Blood Sea on the Karmic Fire Red Lotus, carrying the Yuantu and Abi Swords, and ordered the three to leave.
• Houtu asked Minghe for passage, but he claimed her summons was a hallucination and refused to let her enter.
• Houtu insisted she would investigate, so Minghe declared that he would kill anyone who trespassed into the Blood Sea.

Xuande battled Minghe above the Blood Sea while Houtu and Randeng pushed through his Blood God Avatars toward a mysterious summons in the depths. Houtu touched a faint light, awakening an ancient power that answered her, while Xuande recognized the place as her destined resting place.

• Xuande used the Twelve-Petal Destruction Black Lotus and Primordial Heaven-Measuring Ruler to block Minghe, allowing Houtu and Randeng to enter the Blood Sea.
• Randeng used the Glazed Lamp's nirvana light to hold back the Blood God Avatars while Houtu fought through Minghe's stronger clones.
• Xuande fought Minghe and destroyed pursuing clones as Houtu descended deeper into the Blood Sea.
• Minghe sent most of his clones after Houtu, but Xuande could not stop them all from closing in on her.
• Houtu touched a faint light in the depths, causing the Blood Sea, Minghe, Xuande, and the clones to fall still as an ancient power answered her.

Houtu awakened the Six Paths Reincarnation Disk by sacrificing her body, established reincarnation, and was reborn through Great Dao merit as a Great Dao Sage. She began forming the Underworld while seeking a way to prevent the Witch Clan’s future catastrophe.

• As Houtu touched the ancient light in the Blood Sea, Xuande seized Minghe’s Karmic Fire Red Lotus with the Treasure-Dropping Golden Coin and sealed it away.
• Houtu discovered the Six Paths Reincarnation Disk and vowed to merge it into the Primordial Wilderness, transforming her body into light as the disk awakened.
• The Great Dao descended, and Randeng recognized a new direction for his Nirvana Dao as the departed souls saw that they had a place to return to.
• Great Dao merit gathered around Houtu’s remaining blood essence, restoring her in a new body and raising her cultivation until she became a Great Dao Sage.
• Houtu foresaw the Witch Clan’s destruction and the breaking of Buzhou Mountain, but turned to establishing the Underworld before seeking a way to avert that future.
• Houtu formed the Eighteen Levels of Hell, the Ghost Gate, the Yellow Springs Road, and other parts of the Underworld around the Six Paths Reincarnation Disk.

Houtu appointed Xuande Great Emperor Fengdu, granted Minghe authority over part of Hell, and welcomed Randeng into the Underworld; Earthly Dao fortune helped all three advance their cultivation. When Houtu left the Underworld with Xuande to warn the Witch Clan about its future, Hongjun invoked the Heavenly Dao’s rule barring her from the Primordial Wilderness until the Immeasurable Tribulation.

• Houtu appointed Xuande Great Emperor Fengdu and granted Minghe thirty percent of the authority over the Eighteen Levels of Hell as compensation for his losses.
• Randeng chose to remain in the Underworld to guide departed souls, and Houtu gave him a place there.
• Xuande severed his Evil Corpse and reached the late Quasi-Sage stage, while Minghe advanced to the late Quasi-Sage stage and Randeng to the mid-Quasi-Saint stage.
• Xuande left his Evil Corpse to manage the Underworld and departed with Houtu, who intended to warn her elder brothers about the Witch Clan’s coming catastrophe.
• Hongjun used the Heavenly Dao to bar Houtu from entering the Primordial Wilderness until the Immeasurable Tribulation, and Houtu refused to accept the restriction.

Houtu challenged the Heavenly Dao so she could return to Pangu Hall, but withdrew when she realized the clash could damage the Underworld and harm the living. Hongjun allowed her to send a clone, and Houtu prepared to go to Buzhou Mountain with Xuande as the Three Pure Ones sensed the confrontation.

• Houtu summoned the Netherworld's power to confront the Heavenly Dao and demand permission to visit her elder brothers at Pangu Hall.
• Houtu stopped her assault when the Six Paths Reincarnation Disk and the Underworld began to tremble, fearing the damage would disrupt reincarnation and harm beings across the Primordial Wilderness.
• Hongjun permitted Houtu to send a clone while requiring her true body to remain in the Underworld, and Houtu accepted the concession.
• Houtu formed a Late Quasi-Sage clone from her blood essence and a strand of her Primordial Spirit, then invited Xuande to accompany her to Buzhou Mountain; Xuande agreed.
• Laozi, Yuanshi, and Tongtian sensed the clash from Kunlun Mountain, and they reacted differently to Houtu's defiance of the Heavenly Dao.

Houtu returned from the Blood Sea after becoming trapped in the Underworld by her conflict with the Heavenly Dao, and she brought Xuande to Pangu Hall to speak with the Twelve Ancestral Witches. The chapter ended as she prepared to discuss matters that would shape the Witch Clan’s future.

• Dijun and Taiyi concluded that Houtu was trapped in the Underworld, while Kunpeng welcomed the prospect of turmoil among the Witch Clan.
• The eleven Ancestral Witches worried over Houtu’s clash with the Heavenly Dao, and Dijiang urged them to trust her.
• Fuxi, Jieyin, and Zhunti learned that Houtu had succeeded in creating reincarnation but remained trapped after reaching a compromise with the Heavenly Dao.
• Nuwa prepared to help Houtu, but the Heavenly Dao forbade her from interfering in reincarnation, so she stayed in Wa Huang Palace.
• Houtu and Xuande returned to Buzhou Mountain, where Houtu reassured the Ancestral Witches and asked Dijiang to admit Xuande into Pangu Hall.
• Dijiang allowed Xuande into Pangu Hall, where Houtu used her blood essence to grant him its protection before gathering the Ancestral Witches to discuss the Witch Clan’s future.

Houtu told the Ancestral Witches that she had foreseen the Witch Clan’s ruin and could not reveal the details, then concealed their blood essence and true spirit auras within the Six Paths of Reincarnation as a safeguard. After the costly ritual, Dijiang asked what she planned to do next.

• Houtu explained that her true body remained trapped in the Underworld and that she had glimpsed the Witch Clan’s devastating future in the River of Time.
• She asked her eleven brothers for their blood essence and true spirit auras, and each Ancestral Witch gave them to her without hesitation.
• Houtu revealed that she would hide their essences and auras in the deepest reaches of the Six Paths of Reincarnation to preserve a chance for the Witch Clan’s survival.
• Houtu used the Earthly Dao’s power to seal the offerings behind three hundred and sixty-five restrictions, though the effort left her pale and weakened.
• Gonggong steadied Houtu, and Dijiang asked what she intended to do next.

Houtu decided to let Xuande use the Creation Cauldron to refine her avatar into Ancestral Witch blood essence, so a Greater Witch could become the twelfth Ancestral Witch and restore the Witch Clan’s complete formation. The cauldron produced the blood essence without harming Houtu’s true body, and Dijiang accepted it as the clan’s secret trump card.

• Houtu asked Xuande to use the Creation Cauldron to refine her avatar into pure Ancestral Witch blood essence for a Greater Witch to absorb.
• The Ancestral Witches objected, but Houtu explained that a complete Twelve Dutian Divine Fiends Formation mattered more than keeping her late Quasi-Sage avatar.
• Zhujiuyin asked whether the process would harm Houtu’s true body, and Houtu and Xuande assured the group that it would not.
• Dijiang accepted Houtu’s decision, and Xuande activated the Creation Cauldron with merit power as Houtu entered it.
• The Creation Cauldron produced a drop of golden blood essence, which Dijiang received and ordered the Ancestral Witches to keep secret.

Xuande visited Houtu in the Underworld and proposed bringing the Witch Clan into its divine offices, giving the Underworld much-needed staff and the clan a refuge from a future tribulation. Houtu agreed and gave Xuande the Projection of the Six Paths Reincarnation Disk and Great Emperor Fengdu's Token so he could recruit and appoint the Witch Clan.

• After leaving Pangu Hall, Xuande sent messages to Daoist Jieyin, Daoist Zhunti, and Fuxi before descending into the Underworld.
• Xuande met Houtu in her Sage body at the Six Paths of Reincarnation and discussed the Underworld's shortage of officials.
• Xuande proposed granting Witch Clan members Underworld divine offices, which would strengthen the Underworld and protect the clan from a future measuring tribulation.
• Houtu agreed to Xuande's plan and gave him the Projection of the Six Paths Reincarnation Disk so she could communicate with him and help persuade her elder brothers.
• Houtu also gave Xuande Great Emperor Fengdu's Token, which let him confer Underworld divine offices recognized by the Earthly Dao.

Xuande returned to Buzhou Mountain and used Houtu’s phantom Reincarnation Disk to tell the Ancestral Witches about her plan to establish a Witch Clan refuge and divine offices in the Underworld. The Ancestral Witches agreed to send Greater Witches and avatars there, while Xuande began assigning them positions as the clan’s warriors gathered.

• Xuande concealed his aura with the phantom Reincarnation Disk and secretly entered Pangu Hall to meet Dijiang and the other Ancestral Witches.
• Xuande used the disk to project Houtu’s phantom, and Houtu explained her plan to bring Witch Clan warriors into the Underworld to hold divine offices and establish a refuge.
• Houtu assured the Ancestral Witches that the Earthly Dao would not reject their warriors, while Xuande explained how Underworld offices would grant them protection and fortune.
• Dijiang agreed to select a hundred Greater Witches, and all eleven other Ancestral Witches agreed to send avatars into the Underworld.
• Dijiang summoned the Witch Clan’s warriors, and Xuande studied Great Emperor Fengdu’s Token to assign the incoming recruits and avatars suitable offices.

Xuande and Houtu established the Witch Clan’s Underworld administration, appointing Zhujiuyin as Chief Judge, the other Ancestral Witch avatars as the Ten Kings of Hell, and Greater Witches to supporting offices. The Earthly Dao recognized their appointments and bestowed its fortune, strengthening the Underworld’s foundations and linking its protection to the Ancestral Witches’ original bodies.

• Dijiang and the other Ancestral Witches summoned over a hundred Greater Witches to Pangu Hall, where Zhujiuyin tested their temperaments and found them suitable for Underworld offices.
• The Eleven Ancestral Witches created avatars from their blood essence and true spirit auras, and Xuande opened a gateway to the Underworld with the phantom Six Paths of Reincarnation Disk.
• Xuande, the Ancestral Witch avatars, and the Greater Witches entered the Underworld and reunited with Houtu at the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
• Xuande proposed Zhujiuyin as Chief Judge, assigned the ten Ancestral Witch avatars as the Ten Kings of Hell, and appointed ox-headed and horse-faced Greater Witches as Soul-Summoning Envoys.
• Xuande assigned the remaining Greater Witches to prison, deputy, and patrol divisions, and Houtu approved the appointments.
• Houtu branded the new officials with the Earthly Dao’s authority, and the Underworld bestowed its fortune upon them as its foundations began to stabilize.

Laozi realized that the Three Pure Ones inherited Pangu’s duty to enlighten the beings of the Primordial Wilderness, and that Hongjun’s teachings had fulfilled that duty before they were ready. He persuaded Yuanshi and Tongtian to help him forge a new cultivation path, then began deducing it on Three Pure Ones Peak.

• Laozi connected the Witch Clan’s work of purifying the Primordial Wilderness to the Three Pure Ones’ inherited duty to enlighten its beings.
• Laozi gathered Yuanshi and Tongtian and explained that they should become Pangu’s successors by teaching all beings, not remain only disciples of Hongjun.
• Yuanshi agreed to help Laozi, and Tongtian pledged to guard him with the Immortal Slaying Four Swords.
• The Three Pure Ones assembled the Taiji Diagram, Pangu Banner, and Immortal Slaying Sword Formation to protect a grand formation on Three Pure Ones Peak.
• Laozi entered the formation and began deducing a cultivation path beyond the limits of Hongjun’s Mystic Gate immortal method.

Laozi completed the Golden Core Great Dao, a five-realm cultivation path that refined a cultivator’s own essence, qi, and spirit instead of borrowing power from the Heavenly Dao. Yuanshi and Tongtian recognized the path’s profound potential, and Tongtian asked why its cultivators would not face heavenly tribulations.

• Laozi devised the Golden Core Great Dao by treating the body and soul as a furnace and refining the innate treasures of essence, qi, and spirit.
• Laozi established five realms: Origin Return, Core Formation, Nascent Infant Transformation, Union with the Dao, and Hunyuan.
• The Great Dao responded to the new path, and Yuanshi and Tongtian sensed its primordial aura as Pangu’s relics resonated.
• Laozi told Yuanshi and Tongtian that the Golden Core Great Dao relied on the cultivator’s own power and could advance beyond the Heavenly Dao’s limits.
• Laozi explained that Golden Core cultivators did not undergo heavenly tribulations, prompting Tongtian to ask why.

Laozi declared the Golden Core Great Dao to the Great Dao, established Daoism independently, and attained Great Dao Sagehood through Great Dao Merit. He remained on Kunlun Mountain and prepared with Yuanshi and Tongtian for a public lecture in three thousand years.

• Laozi explained that the Golden Core Great Dao relied on a cultivator’s own essence, qi, and spirit, avoiding Heavenly Dao tribulations and opening a path available to all beings.
• Laozi declared the Golden Core Great Dao and established Daoism independently, promising to lecture on Kunlun Mountain in three thousand years.
• The Great Dao sent merit to Laozi, who broke through from Late Quasi-Sage to Great Dao Sagehood as Yuanshi and Tongtian guarded his attainment.
• Yuanshi and Tongtian congratulated Laozi, and they agreed to have disciples test the Golden Core Great Dao’s stages before expanding its practice.
• Laozi assigned Yuanshi and Tongtian to prepare lecture grounds around Kunlun Mountain for the beings expected to attend in three thousand years.

After Laozi attained Great Dao sagehood, Houtu revealed that Pangu had left the Twelve Ancestral Witches a mission to purify the Primordial Wilderness. Dijiang ordered the Witch Clan to begin purifying baleful energy while the Demon Clan Heavenly Court considered how to respond to Laozi’s rise.

• Houtu told Dijiang and Zhujiuyin that Pangu had branded the Twelve Ancestral Witches with a mission to purify baleful energy and mend the world.
• Dijiang assigned the Ancestral Witches and Greater Witches to purify baleful energy in deadly regions across the Primordial Wilderness.
• Dijiang and Zhujiuyin decided not to warn Hong Yun or Zhenyuanzi about the Demon Clan’s possible interest in Hong Yun’s Primordial Violet Qi.
• Dijun, Taiyi, and Kunpeng discussed Laozi’s attainment in the Sun God Palace, and Taiyi argued that the Demon Clan still had options because Laozi was only one Great Dao Sage.

After Laozi attained the Dao, Dijun and Taiyi planned to seize Hong Yun’s Primordial Violet Qi, while Zhenyuanzi urged Hong Yun to remain protected at Wuzhuang Temple. At Mount Sumeru, Xuande, Jieyin, and Zhunti agreed that the West should establish its own sect, and Xuande insisted he had a path to the Dao without Primordial Violet Qi.

• Kunpeng persuaded Dijun and Taiyi that Hong Yun’s Primordial Violet Qi was the Demon Clan’s best chance to attain the Dao, and Dijun ordered him to watch Wuzhuang Temple for an opportunity to strike.
• Taiyi declared that the Demon Clan would follow its own Dao through its authority over the Thirty-Three Heavens, and Dijun vowed to secure a Sage’s path for the clan.
• Zhenyuanzi warned Hong Yun that the Demon Clan would target him and ordered him to stay inside Wuzhuang Temple, where the Earth Scroll could protect him.
• Hong Yun agreed to remain at Wuzhuang Temple, and Zhenyuanzi promised to defend him if the Demon Clan attacked.
• At Mount Sumeru, Xuande, Jieyin, and Zhunti discussed Laozi’s attainment and agreed that the West should establish its own sect and path to the Great Dao.
• Xuande said that Jieyin and Zhunti could pursue the Heavenly Dao with their Primordial Violet Qi, while his own merit, the Underworld, and the Divine Office of Great Emperor Fengdu gave him another path to the Dao.

Xuande, Jieyin, and Zhunti developed the Western Sect’s five cultivation realms and a path of severing the Past, Present, and Future Bodies to transcend time. To leave the Mystic Gate without incurring karmic backlash, Xuande proposed condensing their Mystic Gate-related karma, merit, and magical power into a Golden Body Śarīra.

• Jieyin, Zhunti, and Xuande agreed to establish the Western Sect around delivering all living beings and the Seven Emotions and Six Desires Severance method.
• Xuande, Jieyin, and Zhunti devised five cultivation realms: Practitioner, Vajra, Arhat, Bodhisattva, and Buddha.
• The three concluded that cultivators who severed the seven emotions and six desires should also sever their Past, Present, and Future Bodies to transcend time.
• Jieyin and Zhunti recognized that leaving the Mystic Gate required repaying their karmic debts to Dao Ancestor Hongjun without surrendering their Primordial Violet Qi.
• Xuande proposed sealing their Mystic Gate-related karma, merit, and magical power into a Golden Body Śarīra to settle their accounts.

Jieyin, Zhunti, and Xuande transferred their karmic ties to the Mystic Gate into three golden bodies, settling their debts while preserving witnesses to the Western Sect’s origins. At Mount Sumeru, they established the Western Sect and announced its teachings, leaders, and cultivation path to the Primordial Wilderness.

• Jieyin, Zhunti, and Xuande formed karmic sariras from their different ties to the Mystic Gate and used them to create three Quasi-Saint-level golden bodies.
• The three placed their golden bodies in Brahma Sound Cave on Mount Sumeru as witnesses to their origins and completed settlement with the Mystic Gate.
• Xuande, Jieyin, and Zhunti gathered at Mount Sumeru’s summit and used the Creation Cauldron to anchor the Western Sect’s fortune.
• Jieyin declared the Western Sect established, named himself Present Buddha, and announced its purpose and five cultivation realms.
• Zhunti named himself Past Buddha and described the sect’s promise of deliverance and welcome to those who shared a karmic affinity.
• Xuande named himself Future Buddha, proclaimed the sect’s path of severing seven emotions and six desires, and joined Jieyin and Zhunti in calling for the Western Sect’s establishment.