Chapter Summaries

Immortal Superior Xiyue gathered the God Pillar Realm’s elite forces and led them to the Submarine Light Gate to enter the Holy Pagoda Space. Chen Lin learned that Xiyue had destroyed the Asura True Form and recovered her strength, and he obtained Miao Yuwu’s Nightmare Realm Salted Fish at Xiyue’s insistence.

• Chen Lin followed Xiyue toward the Submarine Light Gate with Huangfu Qingrou, Huangfu Ying, Zhen Linyu, and He Jinlin, while keeping his hostility toward Zhen Linyu in check.
• Xiyue led hundreds of powerful cultivators through the parted sea to the Light Gate, where Chen Lin recognized Miao Yuwu, Xu Chenxuan, Elder Yan, and other familiar faces.
• Yang Qianxing told Chen Lin that Xiyue had slain the Evil Eye Monster’s true form and recovered her strength, and that they planned to open the Holy Pagoda.
• Chen Lin asked Miao Yuwu about Xu Chenxuan’s Nightmare Realm Salted Fish, but Xiyue warned him that Nightmare Realm items would not work in the Holy Pagoda Space.
• Xiyue compelled Miao Yuwu to give Chen Lin the salted fish, and Chen Lin accepted it while realizing the demand had angered another Mahayana practitioner.

Chen Lin obtained the Salted Fish Medium, an Origin Orb, and a Fortune Orb from Xiyue before she brought him and the other cultivators through the Light Gate. Inside, Xiyue sacrificed the newcomers to make the Holy Pagoda manifest, and He Jinlin died trying to fight her.

• Chen Lin asked Xiyue for an Origin Orb and a Fortune Orb, and she gave him an Origin Orb while You Wenda offered his Fortune Orb in exchange for a place among her subordinates.
• Xiyue opened the Light Gate with the Round Token and ordered the cultivators to protect themselves with rule origin essence before entering.
• Chen Lin persuaded Xiyue to let Huangfu Qingrou stay outside, then entered the passage with Xiyue and You Wenda.
• Inside the dim space, the cultivators began bursting into blood mist as Xiyue explained that she needed their energy to make the Holy Pagoda manifest.
• He Jinlin tried to attack Xiyue, but his Qilin phantom collapsed and his body burst apart, leaving a streak of golden light to fly deeper into the space.

Immortal Superior Xiyue slaughtered cultivators to use their origin essence to summon the Holy Pagoda, but Miao Guanhai rallied the survivors and struck back with the Black Longsword. The chapter ended as Miao Guanhai split Xiyue’s Jade Coffin and a tiny speck of starlight pierced her barrier and struck her head.

• Xiyue killed He Jinlin, Zhuo Aolian, and other cultivators, explaining that they were nourishment for the Holy Pagoda.
• Miao Guanhai activated the Archaic Scabbard, and Miao Yuwu’s Black Light Sword entered it to form a Black Longsword, freeing the survivors from Xiyue’s suppression.
• Miao Guanhai attacked Xiyue, whose Jade Coffin blocked his sword light but cracked and appeared to injure her.
• Xiyue revealed that the Holy Monarch had created the Lower Primal Domain and that its inhabitants were meant to help summon the Holy Pagoda.
• Miao Guanhai summoned another sword and urged the survivors to attack Xiyue, while Chen Lin retreated and discovered the Light Gate would not transport him.
• Miao Guanhai cleaved Xiyue’s Jade Coffin in two, and a speck of starlight passed through her barrier and struck her head.

Chen Lin witnessed Xiyue unleash her sealed power after Yang Qianxing and the Yellow-Robed Old Man wounded her, and a battle with Miao Guanhai’s sword revealed the Holy Pagoda. Before vanishing, Xiyue spared Chen Lin and tasked him with taking a chest from the pagoda to the Moonlight World in the Upper Primal Domain.

• Yang Qianxing and the Yellow-Robed Old Man wounded Xiyue, and Chen Lin began to attack before she released her seal and transformed.
• Xiyue killed most of the crowd, but Miao Guanhai used the Sword Scabbard to stop her attacks and free the survivors.
• Xiyue killed the Yellow-Robed Old Man, while Yang Qianxing escaped her strike as a streak of starlight.
• Miao Guanhai unleashed the Black Longsword at the cost of his life, and Xiyue countered it with a crescent-moon projection.
• The nine-story Holy Pagoda emerged, and Xiyue told Chen Lin to retrieve a chest from its top and take it to the Moonlight World in the Upper Primal Domain before she vanished.

After Immortal Superior Xiyue vanished with the Round Token, Chen Lin was trapped in the shadowy space and revived the Thunder God Sword by absorbing the Black Pagoda’s rule light. Yang Qianxing joined him, and the two debated whether to enter the pagoda to find a way out.

• Chen Lin searched for the Round Token after Xiyue was forcibly expelled, but discovered she had taken it, leaving him unable to return through the Light Gate.
• Chen Lin gathered the scattered treasures and absorbed the rule light pouring from the Black Pagoda, which descended and fell silent after nearly an hour.
• Chen Lin found that the Thunder God Sword had revived and that Grass’s sword will had fused with it, then promised to bring her back to life.
• Yang Qianxing emerged from hiding, and Chen Lin told him that Xiyue and Miao Guanhai were gone and that the Round Token had been taken.
• Yang Qianxing said the Snow Eagle Organization might know of other Round Tokens, but argued that they should enter the Black Pagoda before it vanished; Chen Lin urged caution because it seemed dangerous and had no visible entrance.

Chen Lin searched for a way out of the sealed space and chose to wait before exploring the Holy Pagoda. After claiming the treasures of the dead practitioners, he tried using Miao Guanhai’s Sword Scabbard to draw out the Thunder God Sword, but the attempt nearly consumed his vitality, so he began cultivating with the Thunder Emperor Stone instead.

• Chen Lin declined to explore the Holy Pagoda immediately and sent Yang Qianxing to gather the surviving practitioners and look for its entrance.
• Chen Lin searched the enclosed space, found that its barriers could not be broken, and concluded that the Light Gate was the only visible connection to the outside.
• Chen Lin returned to the Holy Pagoda, then withdrew into the Divine Snail Shell and sorted the storage items taken from the fallen practitioners.
• Chen Lin found a fortune of treasures, including Origin Orbs and Fortune Orbs, and placed an Origin Orb with the Blind Girl’s withered true body.
• Chen Lin activated Miao Guanhai’s Sword Scabbard and tried to summon the Thunder God Sword, but stopped when it began consuming his essence, energy, and spirit.
• Chen Lin examined the Thunder Emperor Stone and lightning treasures, then began cultivating.

Chen Lin learned that Bai Tianling’s lineage had guarded a Sacred Horn and Holy Decree connected to the Holy Pagoda, and realized the horn’s fluctuations matched the one he possessed. Bai Tianling suspected Chen Lin might be tied to the Snow Eagle Organization and, after he left, decided to tell Yang Qianxing and the others what she knew.

• Chen Lin found that the survivors still could not open or damage the Holy Pagoda, while Xu Chenxuan said he needed another month or two to master the pseudo-source treasure refining method.
• Bai Tianling told Chen Lin that she had sensed a fluctuation from him matching the Sacred Horn her lineage’s ancestor had left behind, which was said to open the Holy Pagoda.
• Bai Tianling explained that her lineage had once possessed a Holy Decree, but its Great Elder and the Sacred Horn went missing during an upheaval a thousand years earlier.
• Chen Lin learned that the Snow Eagle Organization had hunted Bai Tianling’s clanspeople, then left without explaining why he had asked about it.
• Bai Tianling suspected Chen Lin had the Holy Decree and Sacred Horn and might keep the pagoda’s treasures for himself, so she went to tell Yang Qianxing and the others.

Chen Lin suspected Xiyue had pursued him because of the Snow-White Single Horn and arranged for Yang Qianxing to use it to open the Holy Pagoda. Bai Tianling activated the entrance and slipped inside, but Chen Lin pulled the horn back out, closing the doorway and leaving everyone to wait for what she would do next.

• Chen Lin reasoned that Xiyue had lied about the Bai Family’s origins and had been using him to reach the Holy Pagoda’s interior.
• Chen Lin gave Yang Qianxing the Snow-White Single Horn, and Bai Tianling offered to carry it so the Bai Family would not be suspected.
• Bai Tianling used her inherited spatial talent to activate the horn, and the Holy Pagoda’s first-level relief opened a doorway.
• Bai Tianling darted inside, but Chen Lin used the golden soul he had planted in the horn to pull it back and close the entrance.
• Yang Qianxing asked Chen Lin what to do, and Chen Lin suggested they wait to see what changes Bai Tianling brought about inside the Holy Pagoda.

Chen Lin waited for Bai Tianling’s entry into the Holy Pagoda to produce a change, then returned to the Divine Snail Shell to finish cultivating Five Thunders Smite the Crown. By using Miao Guanhai’s sword scabbard to help control innate thunder power, he mastered the Dao art, though he still needed to improve his control before he could use it to break the spatial barrier.

• Lu Chenxian and the other practitioners tried and failed to activate the white horn, while Chen Lin told Yang Qianxing he might be able to use it at a considerable cost.
• After a day and a half passed without any change in the Holy Pagoda, Chen Lin left Yang Qianxing to keep watch and returned to the Divine Snail Shell.
• Chen Lin’s attempt to fuse innate thunder power with Five Thunders Smite the Crown stalled, so he used Miao Guanhai’s sword scabbard and its nirvana aura to regulate the energies.
• Chen Lin successfully fused the energies and mastered Five Thunders Smite the Crown, then tested it against the spatial barrier but only made the boundary wall tremble.
• Chen Lin concluded that mastering the Dao art had broken his bottleneck and would let him address the shortcomings of False Dao Integration by merging with the Great Dao.

Chen Lin learned that the monk Nian Qing had arrived at the Holy Pagoda and discovered that he was the same old acquaintance who had once helped him sever his karmic ties to Nian Kong. Nian Qing warned that Nian Kong might still pursue Chen Lin, then asked to examine the object that could open the pagoda.

• Yang Qianxing told Chen Lin that a lone monk named Nian Qing had come through the Light Gate and was studying the Holy Pagoda.
• Chen Lin followed Yang Qianxing to meet Nian Qing, who recognized him as Benefactor Chen despite his altered appearance.
• Nian Qing revealed that the version of him trapped in the Nightmare Realm had been a clone and had escaped during the realm’s projection to rejoin his original body.
• Nian Qing learned that Chen Lin had severed his karmic ties with Nian Kong and warned him to remain vigilant because Nian Kong might not let him go easily.
• Chen Lin asked whether a Kashaya could free a demonized Nian Kong clone, and Nian Qing said he could not judge whether that claim was true.
• Nian Qing asked Chen Lin to show him the object that could open the Holy Pagoda.

Chen Lin discovered that the Old Monk was a demon and that the Light Gate passage was a trap, so he changed course and entered the Holy Pagoda with Yang Qianxing and the others. The group arrived in an empty first layer, where Yang Qianxing inferred that Bai Tianling had already gone farther inside.

• Chen Lin agreed to give Nian Qing the white horn only after the Old Monk opened the Light Gate, and nearly all the cultivators followed the Old Monk toward it.
• Cultivators rushed through the passage to claim resources in the First Pillar Heaven, while Chen Lin waited with Yang Qianxing and others.
• Bai Tianling warned Chen Lin by Soul Transmission that the Old Monk was a demon and the Light Gate was dangerous, but her message ended in a scream.
• Chen Lin pretended he wanted to explore the pagoda, then used the white horn to open its entrance and went inside ahead of the Old Monk.
• Yang Qianxing and the remaining cultivators followed Chen Lin and the Old Monk into the pagoda, where they appeared in a dim first layer with a meditation cushion and stairs leading upward.

Chen Lin and the others found no way out of the sealed pagoda except a staircase leading upward, while the Old Monk offered little information about the structure. Chen Lin led the group up after Yang Qianxing failed to return, and he reached the top unable to predict what awaited him.

• Chen Lin confirmed that the floor was sealed and the only route forward led up the stairs.
• The Old Monk said he knew little about the pagoda and offered to lead the way, but Yang Qianxing went ahead first.
• Chen Lin learned that Xu Chenxuan needed at least a month to repair his treasure, so he decided not to wait for him to finish.
• Chen Lin led the group up the ordinary staircase after Yang Qianxing failed to return, while his fate screen remained obscured and his abilities were restricted.
• Chen Lin reached the final step, and the sight ahead stunned him.

Chen Lin defeated the Old Monk and freed Yang Qianxing, Xu Chenxuan, and the others from the monks’ influence. After the group solved the wall’s Buddhist Prayer Bead puzzle, a doorway to the second trial appeared, and Elder Xun entered first.

• The Old Monk transformed Chen Lin and his companions into monks, but Chen Lin resisted with his innate power and attacked him with Soul-Destroying Finger.
• Chen Lin struck the Old Monk repeatedly and used Five Thunders Smite the Crown to destroy the monks, while the Old Monk vanished after warning that the Buddha Ancestor would punish Nian Kong.
• Chen Lin freed Yang Qianxing and the others, collected the Buddhist Prayer Beads left behind by the vanished monks, and discovered that the hall had no visible exit.
• A Dao Inquiry cultivator spotted 108 indentations in the wall, and Xu Chenxuan arranged the prayer beads in them to reveal the tower’s second-floor relief and a doorway.
• After the doorway announced the second trial, Yang Qianxing sent Elder Xun inside to lead the way.

Chen Lin and the survivors climbed to the pagoda’s third floor, where a monk and the Buddha statues nearly forced them to their deaths. After defeating the monk, Chen Lin learned the statues were transformed cultivators and prepared to continue despite the danger and his growing doubts about the Soul-Destroying Finger.

• Chen Lin led the group up the passage stairs, warning them to step only on the odd-numbered steps.
• On the third floor, an old monk demanded that Nian Kong kneel, and the Buddha statues’ pressure petrified one cultivator while threatening the others.
• Yang Qianxing used his divine ability to free Chen Lin, who killed the monk with repeated Soul-Destroying Finger strikes and ended the pressure.
• Chen Lin and Yang Qianxing recognized the Buddha statues as cultivators who had left through the Light Gate, and Chen Lin counted only six survivors.
• Zhu Yunyan, Xu Chenxuan, Li Haofeng, and Xue Yueyi introduced their abilities, but none of them or Yang Qianxing knew Bai Tianling.
• Chen Lin worried that the monk would return stronger on the next floor and that the Soul-Destroying Finger might soon fail.

Chen Lin obtained a Silver-Patterned Soul Leaving Beast and refined it into a Silver-Patterned Soul-Refining Pill to strengthen his soul before facing the next floor. After more than a month of assimilation, his soul seed and soul had turned golden, while the tower’s passage remained undiscovered.

• Xu Chenxuan gave Chen Lin a Silver-Patterned Soul Leaving Beast and a Life Bag refined by Seven Mysteries Heavenly Woman.
• Chen Lin inspected the beast and used his fate screen and a Fortune Orb to prepare for refining a higher-grade Soul-Refining Pill, but could not predict how to make Wish Noodles or enter the upper floors.
• Chen Lin asked Xu Chenxuan to repair the Dark Red Spearhead, then activated a protective array and refined the beast into a silver-patterned pill.
• Chen Lin swallowed the pill and spent more than a month assimilating it while Yang Qianxing and the others searched the hall without finding the passage to the next floor.
• Chen Lin’s soul and soul seed became brilliant gold, with his purple and ink-colored soul sources forming two rings around the seed.

Chen Lin received the repaired Void-Breaking Spear, but it was not powerful enough to break out of the Holy Pagoda. Remembering a similar Nightmare Realm trial, he guided the others in rotating the Buddha statues, and their efforts revealed a relief on the wall.

• Xu Chenxuan returned the repaired spear to Chen Lin, who named it Void-Breaking and tested its spatial power.
• Yang Qianxing asked whether the spear could open a way out, but Chen Lin warned that damaging the pagoda could provoke a dangerous backlash.
• Chen Lin recalled rules from a similar Nightmare Realm scenario and arranged the first twenty-five Buddha statues in the order he remembered.
• Chen Lin marked the statues’ order and had the others test the remaining rotation directions in sequence.
• After Xu Chenxuan completed the rotations, the Buddha statues turned toward a wall, where sections protruded to form a relief.

Chen Lin reached the next hall, destroyed the monks gathered around the Lotus Platform, and confronted Nian Kong’s phantom, who claimed their repeated meetings came from shared affinity with the Buddha. The Lotus Platform opened a Light Gate as well as the next passage, leaving the group divided over whether to continue or escape.

• Chen Lin led Yang Qianxing and the others up the staircase and found six monks gathered around a Black Lotus Platform, including an Old Monk wearing Nian Qing’s robes.
• Chen Lin used the Soul-Destroying Finger to destroy the Old Monk, the other monks, and the Lotus Platform’s dark covering, then drew Nian Kong’s phantom out with innate thunder power.
• Nian Kong said Chen Lin’s inheritance and their repeated encounters were tied to karma and an ordained fate, then vanished after Chen Lin struck him with the Soul-Destroying Finger.
• The Lotus Platform collapsed into a Light Gate while a relief sculpture opened the passage to the next level, and Chen Lin warned the others that he could not predict what lay ahead.
• Chen Lin, Zhu Yunyan, Yang Qianxing, and others entered the next passage, while Xue Yueyi chose the Light Gate and disappeared through it; Li Haofeng followed the group into the passage.

Chen Lin and the others entered the tower’s true interior, where the chained Thousand-Faced Giant revealed the danger lurking beyond Nian Kong’s illusions. After realizing Nian Kong had manipulated them to lure Chen Lin into a trap, they split into two groups to search for another passage.

• Chen Lin found himself in a vast black space with the chained Thousand-Faced Giant, whose roar nearly overwhelmed the group.
• Zhu Yunyan recognized the creature as one of the Four Great Guardians described in the Creation Tome.
• Chen Lin concluded that Nian Kong had created illusions of the monks and the Light Gate to lure him into the tower’s true interior and seize his destiny talent.
• Chen Lin proposed that the group split up and search around opposite sides of the colossal pillar while avoiding the Thousand-Faced Giant.
• Zhu Yunyan chose to accompany Chen Lin, so Yang Qianxing took Li Haofeng, and the two groups set off in different directions.

Chen Lin and Yang Qianxing uncovered that the Thousand-Faced Fox had infiltrated their group by altering memories and stealing bodies. After the Fox escaped through another host, Chen Lin considered which of his allies might still be compromised and began to suspect a deeper connection.

• Yang Qianxing reviewed his memories and realized Xu Chenxuan had entered the passage but vanished, leading him to suspect their memories had been altered.
• Chen Lin exposed Zhu Yunyan as the Thousand-Faced Fox, who revealed himself as High Person Yunhai before attacking Yang Qianxing.
• Chen Lin and Yang Qianxing fought back, destroying the Fox's current body, but the Fox reappeared through Li Haofeng and escaped again by switching hosts.
• Yang Qianxing warned Chen Lin that the Fox could alter memories and seize bodies, while Chen Lin concluded that Bai Tianling, Xu Chenxuan, and Zhu Yunyan had been the Fox's long-standing clones.
• Chen Lin decided Huangfu Qingrou and Yang Zihua were probably not among the Fox's clones, then suddenly thought of another possibility.

Chen Lin and Yang Qianxing searched for an exit, then approached the chained Thousand-Faced Giant to learn how to reach the next floor. The giant told Chen Lin to destroy the Soul Talisman and reacted with shock when Chen Lin named the Primal Thunder Annihilation Sword.

• Chen Lin tested Yang Qianxing for possession, confirmed he was safe, and gave him a Nascent Soul Pill and an Origin Orb to recover.
• Chen Lin and Yang Qianxing concluded the exit was likely near the pillar, but they could not approach the Thousand-Faced Giant safely and found no other way out.
• Chen Lin killed a shadow with his finger technique, examined its Black Crystal, and suspected the tower contained a celestial demon’s demonic thought clone.
• Chen Lin and Yang Qianxing returned to the pillar, where the Thousand-Faced Giant urged Chen Lin to destroy the Soul Talisman attached to it.
• Chen Lin asked what the giant would offer in return and named the Primal Thunder Annihilation Sword, prompting the giant to react intensely.