Chapter Summaries

Cheng Buzheng confronted the Nascent Soul cultivators who had gathered to test him, then accepted their costly gifts and let them leave safely. With White Cloud Sect’s immediate troubles settled, he prepared to set out for the True Dragon Sea.

• Cheng Buzheng led the uneasy Nascent Soul cultivators into White Cloud Sect’s main hall and dismissed their claims that they had come only to congratulate him.
• A black-robed old man offered Cheng Buzheng a Silver Dragon Wood Ganoderma as an apology, and Cheng Buzheng accepted it.
• Red Cloud claimed he needed to return to watch over a furnace of Five Qi Returning Origin Pills, and Cheng Buzheng allowed him to leave.
• The other Nascent Soul cultivators presented Cheng Buzheng with valuable treasures and departed, including Old Monster Wei of the Ancient Sword Sect.
• Cheng Buzheng returned to the Back Mountain Forbidden Area, stored the gifts, and decided to set out for the True Dragon Sea.

Cheng Buzheng prepared to leave White Cloud Sect and divined a single “Peace” omen before heading to the True Dragon Sea to investigate the demons. There, Crab Sixth killed a shrimp demon over a Spirit Medicine, just as the crab demon reached to claim it.

• Cheng Buzheng confirmed White Cloud Sect had remained safe, hid a Soul Puppet in a secret chamber, and sent Cheng Changqing a message saying he would enter closed-door meditation.
• Cheng Buzheng used the Luo River Turtle Shell to divine his journey and repeatedly received the unusual single-character omen, “Peace.”
• Cheng Buzheng left White Cloud Sect in his avatar and traveled to the Inner Sea, intending to gather intelligence about the demons in the True Dragon Sea.
• Crab Sixth ambushed and killed a shrimp demon who had guarded a seven-leaf Spirit Medicine, then moved to pluck the treasure.

Cheng Buzheng used Soul Search Art on a crab demon to learn about the True Dragon Sea’s clans and recent events. After discovering signs of a major mobilization by the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan, he decided to investigate their territory first, with the Sea Serpent Clan as a backup target.

• Cheng Buzheng appeared before a crab demon, dismissed its offering of Nine-Orifice Stone Milk Grass, and seized it to search its soul.
• The crab demon died from the Soul Search Art, and Cheng Buzheng collected the demons’ corpses and erased all traces of the encounter.
• Cheng Buzheng reviewed the crab demon’s memories and learned the locations of several peak clans, along with reports of shifting power and conflict in the True Dragon Sea.
• Cheng Buzheng noted the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s emergency summons, rising resource prices, and unusually active army, and suspected the clan was preparing for upheaval.
• Cheng Buzheng chose to investigate the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s territory first and redirected his flight toward it.

Cheng Buzheng infiltrated the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s territory, discovered its fourth-tier warning array and fifth-tier protective grand array, and was confronted by Huo Chen and his patrol. As the demons unleashed a powerful combined formation against him, Cheng Buzheng calmly raised two fingers to strike back.

• Cheng Buzheng hid in the void and overheard Huo Chen’s patrol discussing the clan’s secret military mobilization.
• Using his Heavenly Luo Divine Eye, Cheng Buzheng detected a concealed fourth-tier array and entered the sea region through the void.
• Cheng Buzheng discovered the clan’s fifth-tier protective grand array on the seabed.
• Huo Chen recognized Cheng Buzheng as a human intruder and ordered his patrol to attack.
• Huo Chen and the tiger shark demons activated the Netherworld Nine Annihilations Great Array, which resonated with the clan’s protective array and trapped Cheng Buzheng beneath a powerful water curtain.
• Cheng Buzheng calmly raised two fingers and slashed at the descending water curtain.

Cheng Buzheng dismantled the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s patrol formation, extracted information from Huo Chen, and killed the captured demons before escaping. The clan discovered the deaths and began searching for the intruder, unaware that he had already vanished.

• Cheng Buzheng effortlessly broke Huo Chen’s formation and demanded the clan’s plans and the locations of its Treasure Vault and forbidden grounds.
• Huo Chen tried to warn his clan by destroying his demonic nascent soul, but Cheng Buzheng immobilized him and used Soul Search Art to uncover the information.
• Cheng Buzheng burned Huo Chen and three unconscious Golden Core tiger shark demons to ashes, then disappeared.
• The tiger shark demon lord led a group out to investigate the disturbance near the clan-protecting Great Array, but found no traces of an attack.
• The demons discovered Huo Chen’s patrol squad had vanished and confirmed that all their life plaques had cracked, prompting the demon lord to seek out and kill the intruder.

Cheng Buzheng abandoned a direct infiltration after finding the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan's array too powerful, then hid a disguised Spatial Spirit Pearl near the seabed array and waited for an opportunity. A patrol squad returned early, carrying news of an unexplained clan summons.

• Cheng Buzheng examined the clan-protecting array from the spatial current layer and decided it was too powerful to infiltrate that way.
• Shark Sound Demon Lord turned back with the other tiger shark demons and used the array to search for the hidden intruder, but failed to find Cheng Buzheng.
• Cheng Buzheng sent a damaged Spatial Spirit Pearl to his dharma body, disguised it as an undetectable speck of dust, and placed it near the clan's seabed array.
• Shark Sound Demon Lord reported the failed search to a Half-Venerable clan elder after realizing he could not keep the matter hidden.
• Half a month later, a patrol squad led by Commander Tiger approached the array after being recalled early, and its members asked why the clan had summoned them.

Commander Tiger told his patrol that the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan had recalled them after Commander Huo’s elite squad vanished, and that they would receive Instant Transmission Talismans to guard against infiltrators. Cheng Buzheng successfully entered the clan’s territory concealed in a Spatial Treasure Pearl and began scouting its core region, where he suspected he had found the Treasure Vault.

• Commander Tiger explained that the clan suspected powerful Mortal Cultivators had infiltrated the sea after Commander Huo’s squad disappeared, so the patrols would receive Instant Transmission Talismans.
• Cheng Buzheng concealed himself as a speck of dust inside a Spatial Treasure Pearl attached to a Golden Core tiger shark demon and narrowly evaded the clan-protecting Great Array’s automatic scan.
• After entering the clan’s territory, Cheng Buzheng detached from the patrol and surveyed the vast, air-filled domain, noting that peaks and defensive formations reflected the residents’ status.
• Cheng Buzheng traveled through the spatial interlayer toward the clan’s core region, avoiding patrols and hidden sentries.
• Cheng Buzheng observed a heavily guarded giant peak and concluded that its black-metal tower was likely the clan’s Treasure Vault.

Cheng Buzheng discovered that the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s Treasure Vault was protected by a secondary formation linked to the clan’s main array, so he abandoned a direct infiltration and targeted a high-ranking tiger shark demon for information. After breaking through its soul defenses, he learned about the clan’s Half-Venerables and the Treasure Vault’s defenses, but the demon revealed that the clan had already distributed its most precious resources before the expedition.

• Cheng Buzheng confirmed that the Treasure Vault’s protective formation was linked to the clan-protecting Great Array and decided against entering by attaching himself to another demon.
• Cheng Buzheng watched the tiger shark guards finish their rotation and chose an arrogant direct-line demon with a well-guarded Cave Mansion as his target.
• Cheng Buzheng entered the demon’s residence, knocked him unconscious, and used the Soul-Bewildering Truth-Seeking Chapter to bypass his soul protections.
• Cheng Buzheng learned that two Half-Venerables guarded the clan and both controlled part of the clan-protecting Great Array.
• The demon told Cheng Buzheng that the Treasure Vault relied on a secondary array, but that the Clan Chief had already distributed the clan’s most precious pills, treasures, medicines, and materials before the expedition.

Cheng Buzheng searched the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s treasure vault and uncovered a hidden canyon containing its inheritance hall, but found almost no valuable cultivation resources. He left the clan disappointed and puzzled about where its true reserves had gone.

• Cheng Buzheng questioned the bewitched tiger shark demon and learned that the main Treasure Vault held little beyond low-grade materials, while a secret place was hidden in an unknown canyon.
• Cheng Buzheng spared the demon, then used the Heavenly Luo Divine Eye to find a concealed formation vein leading to a canyon beyond the clan-protecting Great Array.
• Cheng Buzheng slipped into the canyon and evaded the Half-Venerable guardian before entering an ancient hall deep within it.
• Cheng Buzheng found many cultivation arts, secret techniques, and incomplete sacred scriptures in the hall, but almost no high-level resources or rare treasures.
• Cheng Buzheng searched the clan’s other locations, found no additional vaults, and left while wondering whether the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan had exhausted its reserves or concealed a deeper plan.

Cheng Buzheng encountered a massive Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan fleet marching through the True Dragon Sea and secretly investigated its central chariot. He recognized Sha Minghong as the clan’s new chief and wondered how he had gained power.

• A black-armored Demon Lord used a bronze Treasure Mirror to detect and kill hidden spies around the fleet.
• Cheng Buzheng avoided the Demon Lord’s attack while traveling through the spatial layer and saw a Golden Core sea demon destroyed below.
• Cheng Buzheng identified the warships as a likely Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan expeditionary force and considered its possible targets.
• Cheng Buzheng concealed his Dharma Eye and peered into the fleet’s central chariot.
• Cheng Buzheng recognized Sha Minghong as the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s new chief and questioned how he had risen to power.

Cheng Buzheng stopped to watch as the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s Imperial Guards blocked the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s expeditionary fleet, setting off a fierce clash between their Half-Venerables. Ao Yuan then challenged the silent occupant of the purple-gold war chariot, whose familiar voice began to answer.

• Cheng Buzheng judged that Sha Minghong remained at the peak of the Demon Lord Realm and decided to leave for the Sea Serpent Clan’s territory.
• Ao Yuan led the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s Imperial Guards into the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan fleet’s path and ordered it to retreat.
• A Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan Half-Venerable insulted Ao Yuan, and a Golden Flood Dragon Clan guard attacked him, starting a battle.
• Ao Yuan sent another Half-Venerable to join the fight, while a Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan elder intercepted the newcomer and began a second clash.
• Cheng Buzheng watched from the spatial interstice and noticed the Golden Flood Dragon Clan gradually gaining an advantage.
• Ao Yuan provoked the occupant of the purple-gold war chariot, and a familiar, emotionless voice began to respond.

Sha Minghong confronted his old nemesis Ao Yuan, and their battle revealed that Sha Minghong could match the Half-Venerable prince despite having Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivation. Cheng Buzheng suspected Sha Minghong had obtained a page of the Spirit Realm Heavenly Book, while Sha Minghong’s Blood Prison Soul-Devouring Cage trapped and gravely wounded Ao Yuan.

• Sha Minghong emerged from his battle chariot and faced Ao Yuan, who recognized him as his longtime rival.
• Cheng Buzheng watched from a fold in the void as Ao Yuan and Sha Minghong clashed, and he suspected Sha Minghong’s strength came from a page of the Spirit Realm Heavenly Book.
• Ao Yuan charged at Sha Minghong, and the two fought fiercely above the seabed while their forces watched.
• Sha Minghong activated the Blood Prison Soul-Devouring Cage, trapping Ao Yuan and piercing him with bloody chains.
• The Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s experts saw Ao Yuan mangled in the cage and angrily threatened Sha Minghong.

Cheng Buzheng suspected that Sha Minghong had inherited the Purgatory Clan High Priest’s scarlet-cage technique and a Spirit Realm Heavenly Book fragment, but Ao Yuan’s desperate outburst revealed that Sha Minghong was not who he claimed to be. Ao Yuan unleashed a devastating strike to cover his clan’s retreat, leaving Sha Minghong alive and the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s forces searching the ruined seabed for their patriarch.

• Cheng Buzheng recognized similarities between Sha Minghong’s scarlet cage and the Purgatory Clan High Priest’s technique, and suspected Sha Minghong had obtained a Heavenly Book fragment.
• Sha Minghong expanded the scarlet cage, swallowed the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s attacking Half-Venerables, and suppressed them alongside Ao Yuan.
• Ao Yuan prepared to self-destruct, then recognized that Sha Minghong was an impostor and burned his life force until he broke free of the cage.
• Ao Yuan ordered the Golden Flood Dragon Clan to retreat, and his overwhelming presence forced the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s Half-Venerables to stand aside.
• Ao Yuan struck Sha Minghong with a devastating punch before his golden life flames faded, leveling the seabed while Sha Minghong survived wounded.
• Ten thousand li away, the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s war vessels rushed toward the devastated seabed, with their warriors calling for their patriarch.

Sha Minghong returned to the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan army, where suspicion over his sudden rise and Ao Yuan’s dying accusation threatened to divide the clan. He quelled the challenge by displaying the clan’s royal bloodline and ordered the expedition to resume toward Golden Flood Dragon Clan territory.

• Sha Minghong reassured the searching Half-Venerable elders that he would handle their concerns and returned with them to the army.
• The Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan soldiers scrutinized Sha Minghong, and Demon Lord Ling Qi asked him to prove his identity while enduring a Half-Venerable elder’s pressure.
• Ling Qi’s challenge prompted the army to demand proof, and Sha Minghong stopped the elders from suppressing the uproar.
• Sha Minghong manifested the Blood Shark True Form, convincing the clan demons and elders that his bloodline was genuine.
• Sha Minghong ordered the army to form ranks and depart, and the expedition resumed toward Golden Flood Dragon Clan territory.

Cheng Buzheng watched the Black Spirit Tiger Shark army march toward the Golden Flood Dragon Clan and deduced that Sha Minghong had been possessed by a Black Spirit Tiger Shark Spirit Transformation Demon Venerable. He hurried toward the Golden Flood Dragon territory to seize its resources, while a Half-Venerable guardian in the clan’s forbidden ground sensed an intruder.

• Cheng Buzheng analyzed Ao Yuan’s final bloodline-burning secret art and concluded it was a Golden Flood Dragon Clan technique, not one from the Spirit Realm Heavenly Book.
• Cheng Buzheng sensed a fluctuation of law when Sha Minghong survived Ao Yuan’s attack and suspected that an old Spirit Transformation being had possessed him.
• Cheng Buzheng inferred that Sha Minghong was likely a Black Spirit Tiger Shark Spirit Transformation Demon Venerable seeking resources to restore his strength and challenge the human race.
• Cheng Buzheng suppressed his urge to attack Sha Minghong and rushed through the void toward the Golden Flood Dragon territory to claim the clan’s resources.
• A Half-Venerable Golden Flood Dragon guardian sensed that a Mortal Cultivator had infiltrated the forbidden ground.

Cheng Buzheng uncovered the hidden entrance to the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s forbidden land, obtained its keys from two Half-Venerable guardians, and entered the realm beyond. He arrived in the Dragon Tomb, where countless Flood Dragon souls sensed his living presence and charged at him.

• The two Half-Venerables searched the seabed for Cheng Buzheng but found nothing, while he watched them from between spatial layers.
• Cheng Buzheng found the concealed spatial node and realized that the two guardians held matching tokens needed to open it.
• He ambushed one guardian, failed to search his soul because of its restrictions, then used a spell to question him and take his token before repeating the process on the other guardian.
• Cheng Buzheng joined the tokens and used the guardians’ Spell Technique to open the spatial node, then entered the dark vortex.
• Cheng Buzheng arrived in the Dragon Tomb, where countless Ghost Flood Dragons awakened and rushed toward him.

Cheng Buzheng suppressed the Ghost Flood Dragons, reached the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s Inheritance Hall, and bypassed its weakened formation. Inside, he found a missing dragon pearl and murals that linked the hall’s history to the Langya Mighty One and the Purgatory Clan Progenitor.

• Cheng Buzheng unleashed his pressure, pinning the Ghost Flood Dragons to the ground, then located the ancient Inheritance Hall at the Dragon Tomb’s center.
• Cheng Buzheng used his golden eyes to uncover the hall’s concealed fourth-rank array and deduced a method to suppress its formation nodes.
• Cheng Buzheng formed a counter-array, opened the hall’s doors, and found a nine-dragon relief with its central dragon pearl missing.
• Cheng Buzheng realized the hall’s formation had once been a law formation anchored by a supreme treasure and suspected Demon Venerable Nether Sea’s pearl was the missing dragon pearl.
• Cheng Buzheng examined murals depicting the Langya Mighty One battling the Purgatory Clan Progenitor and concluded that the Golden Flood Dragon Clan had once possessed a Void Refinement expert.

Cheng Buzheng found the mechanism behind the Nine Dragons relief, disguised himself as Ao Yuan, and entered the golden screen protecting the hidden treasury. Meanwhile, the Golden Flood Dragon Imperial Guard fled toward their clan grounds believing Ao Yuan had died, and its elders vowed to avenge him.

• Cheng Buzheng discovered that the hall's metal walls blocked Divine Sense and his Heavenly Luo Divine Eye, then searched the floor and reliefs for a hidden mechanism.
• Cheng Buzheng pressed a protrusion at the Nine Dragons relief's vacant central dragon-head space, opening the relief and revealing a golden Light Screen.
• Cheng Buzheng examined the screen's restrictions, transformed himself into Ao Yuan, and entered it undetected.
• The Golden Flood Dragon Imperial Guard retreated through an undersea canyon as its elders mourned Ao Yuan and believed he had sacrificed himself to save them.
• A Golden Flood Dragon Half-Venerable vowed to enter seclusion until reaching Spirit Transformation and repay the Black Spirit Tiger Shark clan in blood.

Cheng Buzheng passed the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s treasury barrier by impersonating Ao Yuan, then began looting its immense collection of rare treasures. He opened a chest of valuable Spirit Materials and stored its contents, with the rest of the treasury still unexplored.

• The Golden Flood Dragon Clan elders prepared their clan-protecting array and discussed using it to kill Sha Minghong as their army hurried back to face the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan.
• Cheng Buzheng reached the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s core treasury and blocked its identity-inspection power, triggering the barrier’s defenses.
• Cheng Buzheng dropped his defenses and used the [Heaven-Obscuring Art] and Ao Yuan’s bloodline aura to pass the inspection and enter the treasury.
• Cheng Buzheng surveyed the treasury’s displays and treasure chests, then used the [Heavenly Luo Divine Eye] to decipher a chest’s restrictions.
• Cheng Buzheng opened the chest, identified rare Spirit Materials including [Southern Radiance Departing Fire Crystal], [Purple Jade Spirit Soil], and [Firestar Pearl], and swept its contents into his Storage Bag.

Cheng Buzheng opened the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s remaining treasure chests and discovered a fortune of Flood Dragon Pearls, rare Spirit Materials, and valuable cultivation records. He collected the treasures for his clan and Life-Bound Magic Treasures, then recognized that the records were spoils from conquered enemies rather than the clan’s own inheritance.

• Cheng Buzheng opened a bronze chest and identified its golden pearls as Flood Dragon Pearls, condensed from the Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s ancestors’ cultivation and bloodline essence.
• Cheng Buzheng recalled sparing Ao Yuan years earlier because a Bloodline Soul-Chasing Curse would have exposed his killer to the Golden Flood Dragon Clan.
• Cheng Buzheng stored the pearls, then opened other chests and collected rare Spirit Materials to strengthen his Life-Bound Magic Treasures and the Cheng Immortal Clan.
• Cheng Buzheng examined the final chest’s Jade Slips and other records, finding powerful cultivation arts and secret techniques from many sources but none belonging to the Golden Flood Dragon Clan.
• Cheng Buzheng considered the records’ potential value to the Cheng Clan’s younger generation in Ping'an City.