Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin discovered a demonic Buddha statue bearing his face from his previous life, but sealed it away rather than investigate before reaching the Golden Core stage. He studied the Nine Origins Immortal-Slaying Formation, built a coordinated unit of nine puppets, and found growing comfort in his life with Qin Lingyu.

• Chen Lin found a black Buddha statue carved in his previous-life likeness, sealed it in a Storage Bag, and decided to postpone investigating it.
• Qin Lingyu told Chen Lin that her father wanted him to accept disciples from the Qin Lineage, and Chen Lin offered to introduce a suitable candidate to Mu Linglong.
• Lu Youcai acquired a manuscript of the Nine Origins Immortal-Slaying Formation for Chen Lin.
• Chen Lin spent months refining nine puppets with intelligent demon souls and tested their formation, which let them combine their attacks with power approaching that of a Talisman Treasure.
• Chen Lin returned to the city with the puppets and continued cultivating as Qin Lingyu visited him more often, giving him a sense of warmth and home.

Chen Lin sensed a soul-chilling aura while practicing the Soul-Destroying Finger and traced its strongest presence to the Pill Hall, where he suspected He Huahai might be involved. After Chen Lin reported the anomaly, the Silver Fairy said the fish had taken the bait and told him to stay at the City Lord Manor and stop practicing the secret art for now.

• Chen Lin repeatedly felt an unexplained chill, then realized it appeared when he used the Soul-Destroying Finger to heighten his soul perception and seemed to come from underground.
• Unable to find the Silver Fairy or Mu Linglong, Chen Lin tested the secret art at different locations and found the reaction was strongest at the Pill Hall.
• Chen Lin suspected He Huahai might be connected to the anomaly, but feared investigating him and decided to act as if nothing was wrong.
• High Person Yunhai returned from the Nightmare Realm, thanked Chen Lin, gave him a gift, and said he was leaving for Sea of Clouds Immortal City.
• Chen Lin learned the Silver Fairy had returned and reported the anomaly to her; she said the fish had taken the bait and ordered him to stay at the City Lord Manor and stop practicing the Soul-Destroying Finger.

Chen Lin discovered that the black plate High Person Yunhai gave him bore writing from the Nightmare Realm, then witnessed a divine being attack Silver Immortal City. The Silver Fairy’s God-Trapping Formation failed when He Huahai revealed his betrayal, and Chen Lin began retreating with Qin Lingyu as the battle escalated.

• Chen Lin examined the black plate from High Person Yunhai and suspected it contained Nightmare Realm writing, but he could not decipher it.
• Chen Lin’s cultivation reached the peak of the fourth Foundation Establishment layer in the Silver Fairy’s Cultivation Chamber.
• Explosions shook Silver Immortal City, and a ghostly face emerged from the Pill Hall and demanded Yun Feiyan’s soul origin essence.
• The Silver Fairy activated her God-Trapping Formation, but the ghostly face broke free and He Huahai appeared beside it.
• He Huahai revealed his Golden Core Great Perfection cultivation and blamed the Silver Fairy for holding him back, while Chen Lin and Qin Lingyu retreated from the battle.

Chen Lin watched Silver Fairy confront the ghost face as Silver Immortal City collapsed and its trapped cultivators turned against her. Silver Fairy and He Huahai’s apparent betrayal proved to be a trap that drew the ghost face into He Huahai’s body beneath a Nascent Soul Tribulation, where the first thunderbolt destroyed it.

• Chen Lin grasped the Straw Button as Silver Immortal City shook apart and black qi filled its streets.
• The ghost face possessed the trapped cultivators and sent their ghostly forms to attack Silver Fairy while He Huahai urged her to surrender.
• Yu Linglong told Silver Fairy that the altar had been destroyed, and Silver Fairy produced a broken sword she identified as the God-Slaying Sword.
• The ghost face tried to escape, but a golden barrier drove it back, and Silver Fairy prepared to strike with power drawn from the top-grade spiritual vein.
• The ghost face possessed He Huahai, but his soul resisted and split his golden core, summoning a Nascent Soul Tribulation.
• The ghost face realized Silver Fairy and He Huahai had lured it into the tribulation, and the first thunderbolt reduced it to ashes.

After the ghost face was destroyed, He Huahai faced a deadly Nascent Soul tribulation, and Chen Lin was unexpectedly targeted by its golden lightning. Niuniu rescued Chen Lin and revealed that his rule force came from outside this realm, then advised him to find a Road Guide to strengthen it in the Nightmare Realm.

• Mu Linglong explained that He Huahai and the others had staged their conflicts to lure the ghost face, and the Silver Fairy said He Huahai had a slim chance of surviving his Nascent Soul tribulation.
• He Huahai endured the first five lightning bolts, using the Two Elements Heaven-Covering Talisman against the fifth, while the Silver Fairy worried he would not survive the last bolt.
• The final golden bolt split and turned toward Chen Lin; the Silver Fairy's Octagonal Glazed Mirror weakened it, but Niuniu pulled Chen Lin away with a straw hand before it struck him.
• The Silver Fairy sealed off the ruined city and guarded He Huahai as he began facing the inner demon tribulation.
• Niuniu told Chen Lin that his foreign rule force had attracted the tribulation lightning and said he should seek a Road Guide to find ways of strengthening its origin essence.

Chen Lin used the Road Guide to leave Niuniu’s courtyard and visit Xiaohong in Guardian Hut Village, where he learned more about the Nightmare Realm’s dangers and rules. After drinking Xiaohong’s mushroom soup, he felt his body burn and concluded that it was poisonous.

• Chen Lin learned from Niuniu that High Person Yunhai’s tablet was a low-grade Road Guide that let him move within a limited area of the Nightmare Realm.
• Niuniu took Chen Lin through Guardian Hut Village to visit Xiaohong, while warning him that the realm’s aura could assimilate his actual body and that each hut had its own rules.
• At Xiaohong’s Mushroom Courtyard, Chen Lin discovered that the Xianji Stone could protect items from nightmare qi long enough for him to retrieve them from his Storage Bag.
• Xiaohong prepared mushroom soup, and Niuniu explained that visitors had to drink a bowl or accept Xiaohong’s challenge.
• Chen Lin drank the soup, then felt his body burn and the world spin as Xiaohong gave him a mushroom.

After escaping the Nightmare Realm, Chen Lin discovered that the mushroom soup had advanced his Vajra Body-Refining Art to the peak of its second stage. He returned to the ruined Silver Immortal City, learned that He Huahai was unconscious after his tribulation, and helped Mu Linglong sort through the ruins as reconstruction began.

• Chen Lin escaped the Nightmare Realm with his belongings and the mushroom, then found that his body-refining progress had reached the peak of the second stage and his Dark Red Lotus Flame had grown stronger.
• Chen Lin traveled to Qinglong City and met Luo Qingsong, then returned with him and his people to the Silver Immortal City.
• Chen Lin learned that the Silver Fairy had banned cultivators from entering the ruined city and that He Huahai was unconscious after a complication during his tribulation.
• Mu Linglong confirmed that she and the Silver Fairy knew Chen Lin had entered the Nightmare Realm in the flesh, then asked him about his experience there.
• Chen Lin and Mu Linglong led nearly a thousand people in sorting the ruins and returning recovered possessions, after which reconstruction of the Silver Immortal City began.

Three years after the Silver Fairy slew the different spirit that threatened Silver Immortal City, Chen Lin learned that a fragment he had kept was part of the God-Slaying Sword and reported its possible origins to his master. He then pursued a lead on Buddha-Ferrying Grass, only to learn its discoverer had been robbed and wanted Chen Lin to uphold justice.

• Silver Immortal City prospered after its reconstruction, while the Silver Fairy's feat of killing a different spirit inspired cultivators who opposed God-Communion.
• Chen Lin recognized that his rusty fragment connected to the broken God-Slaying Sword and gave it to the Silver Fairy, who ordered him to keep its possible link to Tianyuan Island secret.
• Lu Youcai told Chen Lin that Zhou Qingyu, leader of the Ziyuan Sect, had found Buddha-Ferrying Grass in the wilderness.
• Chen Lin visited Zhou Qingyu to ask about the herb and offer compensation for it.
• Zhou Qingyu revealed that he had found several stalks of Buddha-Ferrying Grass, but someone had forcibly taken them, and he asked Chen Lin to uphold justice.

Chen Lin obtained Buddha-Ferrying Grass by prompting Chihuo Immortal to appease him, then took on greater duties in Silver Immortal City while Mu Linglong searched for a way to save He Huahai. Two years later, he learned where to find Sarira Fruit and prepared to synthesize the Azure Flood Dragon Halberd.

• Zhou Qingyu told Chen Lin that Chihuo Immortal had robbed him outside the city and threatened to seize the Ziyuan Sect's property, but Chen Lin refused to intervene directly.
• Chen Lin had Lu Youcai let Chihuo Immortal know he needed Buddha-Ferrying Grass, and Chihuo Immortal sent him at least seven stalks before the Qin Lineage's patriarch denied any plan to seize the sect's property.
• Zhou Qingyu brought his daughter Zhou Shuyi to thank Chen Lin and offered her as a potential match, but Chen Lin rejected the implication and left.
• Mu Linglong told Chen Lin she would travel to the Southern Immortal Cultivation World to seek a cure for He Huahai, and Chen Lin asked her to look for Dantai Yunjin, Zhao Mengru, and Luo Qinglan.
• Chen Lin took over more of Mu Linglong's duties, brought Luo Qingsong back to help, and spent two years balancing administration and cultivation.
• Tian Haifu told Chen Lin that Sarira Fruit was at the Demon-Suppressing Temple in Black Horn City, so Chen Lin posted a mission offering a Seven-Star Pill and prepared to synthesize the Azure Flood Dragon Halberd with five flood dragon souls.

Chen Lin’s five attempts to forge an Azure Flood Dragon Halberd failed, but Fu Chongshan discovered that the scroll was actually an inheritance for making a Pseudo Spirit Treasure. Days later, a monk from the Demon-Suppressing Temple came to meet Chen Lin, leaving his reason for visiting unknown.

• Chen Lin tried and failed five times to forge the Azure Flood Dragon Halberd, then brought the scroll to Fu Chongshan for examination.
• Fu Chongshan activated a hidden mark and revealed that the scroll contained a Pseudo Spirit Treasure forging method with a strand of spiritual charm.
• Fu Chongshan explained that the treasure required a fourth-rank flood dragon soul, and Chen Lin agreed not to sell the inheritance and to let Fu Chongshan forge it if he gathered the materials.
• Several days later, a monk named Xuanzhi from the Demon-Suppressing Temple in Black Horn City sought Chen Lin at his shop.
• Chen Lin invited Xuanzhi into his reception room to speak privately.

Master Xuanzhi gave Chen Lin sarira fruits and three-color glazed liquid in exchange for a promise to help the Demon-Suppressing Temple after reaching the Vajra Realm, revealing that its monks had been corrupted by an evil demon. Chen Lin chose to wait before investigating, prepared the Three-Treasure Buddha Dew, and began his breakthrough, only to be struck by tribulation lightning.

• Xuanzhi gave Chen Lin two sarira fruits and three-color glazed liquid, asking him to withdraw his commission and eventually help the Demon-Suppressing Temple expel an evil demon.
• Xuanzhi revealed that the temple’s monks, including himself, had been corrupted, but refused to explain the temple’s secret and warned Chen Lin not to act rashly.
• Xuanzhi left Yuan Zhen with Chen Lin as a messenger, and Chen Lin decided to wait until after his breakthrough before investigating the temple.
• Chen Lin prepared the Three-Treasure Buddha Dew and began advancing his Body-Refining Technique.
• Tribulation clouds gathered over Immortal Peak, and the first lightning bolt struck Chen Lin through his immortal cave, leaving him rigid.

Chen Lin survived his golden core tribulation, but a Buddha statue tried to devour his soul before a fourth golden lightning strike destroyed it and damaged Chen Lin’s soul. While recovering, he learned from Master Xuanzhi that the monks of the Demon-Suppressing Temple needed a vajra-realm cultivator to wield their Temple-Suppressing Treasure, and Xuanzhi suddenly underwent a strange change.

• Chen Lin endured the three tribulation lightning strikes, completed his transformation, and condensed a dharmic manifestation prototype.
• A Pitch-Black Buddha Statue emerged from Chen Lin’s Storage Bag and began pulling his soul and dharmic manifestation from his body.
• A fourth golden tribulation lightning struck; Chen Lin split his soul and sent part of it with his dharmic manifestation into the Buddha statue, destroying it and reducing his cave abode to ruins.
• After waking and recovering for weeks, Chen Lin told Qin Lingyu and Master Xuanzhi that his soul origin essence was damaged and he could not yet fulfill his promise.
• Master Xuanzhi revealed that the monks of the Demon-Suppressing Temple had been invaded by demonic beasts and needed a vajra-realm cultivator to wield their Temple-Suppressing Treasure, then briefly convulsed as black qi churned around him before it vanished.

Chen Lin recovered from his tribulation injuries but remained unable to restore his soul origin essence, so the Silver Fairy sent him to seek a renowned soul-cultivation family in the Southern Immortal Cultivation World. His cross-region teleportation was interrupted when someone destroyed the formation at the other end, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Chen Lin recovered his body, returned to the Vajra Realm, and advanced to the sixth layer of Foundation Establishment, but his damaged soul origin essence still prevented him from pursuing Core Formation.
• Chen Lin gave Luo Qingsong a Three-Stripe Seven-Star Pill, and the Silver Fairy later entrusted Chen Lin with a Pseudo Spirit Treasure inheritance and a peak third-rank flood dragon soul.
• The Silver Fairy directed Chen Lin to visit a secluded family in the Southern Immortal Cultivation World to seek a way to restore his soul origin essence and to look for his missing senior sister.
• Chen Lin traveled to Xuanguan Immortal City, visited Tian Haifu, and entered the Cross-Region Teleportation Formation alone.
• During transit, someone destroyed the formation at the other end, interrupting the teleportation and leaving the Golden Core cultivator unable to reactivate the array.

After a damaged teleportation cast Chen Lin into an unfamiliar village, he discovered that its houses were separate spaces governed by strange rules. He reunited with fellow teleportation survivor Luo Ziwen, but the two remained trapped with no clear way out.

• Chen Lin survived the collapse of the Space Passage, healed his injuries, and found a large village inhabited by mortals.
• A child, an old man, and a young woman gave Chen Lin three different names for the village and hurried away from him, making him suspect something was wrong.
• At the village edge, Chen Lin met Luo Ziwen, another survivor of the teleportation, who warned that he had been trapped there for three days.
• Chen Lin flew in every direction but repeatedly returned above the village, confirming that he could not escape its boundaries.
• Luo Ziwen told Chen Lin that each house was an independent space with its own rules, and described nearly dying in Elm Tree Village and Tofu Village.

Chen Lin investigated the strange village after Luo Ziwen entered a wooden house and failed to return by morning. His experiments suggested that the villagers were dead people mysteriously revived to repeat scenes from their lives, and he prepared to test that theory again as night fell.

• Luo Ziwen entered a wooden house at night while Chen Lin watched from outside, but he did not emerge by morning.
• Chen Lin questioned a village woman and learned she had married into Ancient Bridge Village from Elm Tree Village; her husband attacked him, and Chen Lin left after disarming him.
• Finding no way out, Chen Lin knocked the couple unconscious and interrogated them outside the village about the old man with the pipe, whom they identified as the woman’s father-in-law, dead for over ten years.
• Chen Lin questioned other residents and observed that the villagers repeated fixed routines without interacting unless he intervened, leading him to suspect they were dead people revived to reenact their lives.
• Chen Lin returned the couple to their home, then seized them again and brought them to the hill to wait for nightfall.

Chen Lin entered the ruined village hidden inside a house at night and discovered that its ghostly villagers could repeatedly revive. After using the Soul-Destroying Finger to eliminate them, he received a wooden hairpin from the fading plump woman, which let him pass through the barrier at an ancient stone bridge.

• Chen Lin entered the house at night and found himself in a sinister space containing a ruined village and ghostly villagers.
• The sickly man and the pipe-smoking old man attacked Chen Lin, and he defeated them with his Azure Flood Dragon Halberd and puppets before learning they could revive.
• Chen Lin used the Soul-Destroying Finger to permanently destroy the ghostly villagers, leaving the plump woman alive.
• The plump woman spoke of wanting to see the outside world, then vanished and left behind a wooden hairpin.
• The hairpin caused an ancient stone bridge to appear and allowed Chen Lin to pass through the barrier at its far end.

Chen Lin emerged from Ancient Bridge Village into Ferry Town, only to realize he was still trapped in the strange realm. Luo Ziwen explained that the town might resemble the Netherworld and that a ferry carried one person away each month, leaving Chen Lin to investigate how it worked.

• Chen Lin found himself in bustling Ferry Town, where a scholar recognized Ancient Bridge Village and suggested Chen Lin had escaped its dangers.
• Chen Lin realized Ferry Town was another stage of the strange realm, then reunited with Luo Ziwen in a tavern.
• Luo Ziwen said Ferry Town ferried souls and praised Chen Lin for escaping the wooden-house village on his first attempt.
• Luo Ziwen explained that a boat appeared at the town's landing once a month and took one person, though he did not know where it went.
• Chen Lin left the tavern to investigate Ferry Town for himself.

Chen Lin learned from Luo Ziwen that Ferry Town was inside a replica of the Yellow Springs Scroll, and the two prepared to escape by finding its spatial node before the ferry appeared. As night fell and the townspeople became powerful ghostly creatures, Chen Lin revealed that his Soul-Destroying Finger could destroy one instantly.

• Chen Lin confirmed that Ferry Town was surrounded by an impassable barrier and that a dangerous black river bordered it.
• Luo Ziwen warned Chen Lin that the townspeople turned into ferocious ghostly creatures at night and revealed that the town was inside a replica of the Yellow Springs Scroll.
• Luo Ziwen explained that they had to find the spatial node, which he suspected was carried by one of the ghostly creatures, and destroy the creatures before the ferry appeared.
• Chen Lin agreed to join Luo Ziwen in fighting the creatures, and they discussed their plan as night fell.
• The townspeople transformed and charged at Chen Lin and Luo Ziwen, and Chen Lin destroyed a Golden Core-level ghostly creature with a single finger.

Chen Lin and Luo Ziwen fought through the ghostly creatures in the town, only to discover that Luo Ziwen was Jin Xingyun and the final Scholar was Gu Shengjin, who had trapped them in the Yellow Springs Scroll. After Chen Lin and Jin Xingyun destroyed Gu Shengjin and opened a rift, both escaped as a terrifying presence approached the ferry landing.

• Chen Lin and Luo Ziwen defeated the ghostly creatures until only the Scholar remained, and the Scholar revealed himself as Gu Shengjin.
• Gu Shengjin exposed Jin Xingyun's identity and demanded the Weeping Blood Ginseng, while Jin Xingyun attacked him and Chen Lin supported the fight with nine puppets.
• Gu Shengjin's red crescent mark blocked Chen Lin's Soul-Destroying Finger, but Jin Xingyun's Golden Saber and Chen Lin's formation gradually weakened him.
• Gu Shengjin began to fade away, but Jin Xingyun struck him with the Golden Saber and Chen Lin hit him with stored tribulation lightning, destroying him.
• A point of light appeared as a terrifying aura rose from the ferry landing, and Jin Xingyun opened a rift through which he and Chen Lin escaped.

Chen Lin escaped the Yellow Springs Scroll and traveled through the Southern Immortal Cultivation World to Tianyun Immortal City, where he reunited with Dantai Yunjin and Luan An. He learned that Zhao Mengru survived the Ghostly Domain, but Dantai revealed that she was no longer in the city.

• Chen Lin and Jin Xingyun escaped the Yellow Springs Scroll, and Jin Xingyun left for Golden Light Island while Chen Lin headed toward Tianfu Immortal City.
• Chen Lin examined the wooden hairpin he had brought out, learned that Jin Xingyun and Gu Shengjin belonged to overseas powers, and began replacing his lost puppets and spiritual tools.
• Chen Lin traveled for a year through several immortal cities before reaching Tianyun Immortal City.
• Chen Lin visited Dantai Yunjin, who welcomed him alongside Luan An.
• Chen Lin asked whether Zhao Mengru had escaped the Ghostly Domain, and Dantai confirmed she had survived but was no longer in the city.