Chapter Summaries

Xue Ye died after accepting Xue Ke’s decision to submit to the Spirit Hall Empire, and Ye Xiao comforted her as she grieved. The new empire rapidly installed officials and Jinyiwei across its territories, with its first crackdown beginning at a notorious baron’s estate.

• Xue Ye told Xue Ke not to blame Ye Xiao and urged her to live on before dying in her bedchamber.
• Ye Xiao carried the grieving Xue Ke to her room, stayed beside her overnight, and comforted her when she woke and cried again.
• Ye Xiao asked Qian Renxue to keep Xue Ke company, and she went to see her.
• Within a week, the Spirit Hall Empire finalized its policies and dispatched Soul Master officials to posts across its nine provinces.
• Bibi Dong chose the Jinyiwei commander, Qian Renxue prepared the deployment list, and the first Jinyiwei set out to punish hated local landlords.
• The Jinyiwei arrived at a baron’s estate, where he was discussing how to evade the new policies after his subordinates had seized thousands of mu and charged tenant farmers exorbitant rent.

After Spirit Hall destroyed Heaven Dou, the Star Luo court debated whether to resist or seek peace as the empire faced a vast military and technological disadvantage. Dai Weisi warned his father that Star Luo was extremely passive, with Spirit Hall controlling both Soul Tools and access to Spirit Souls.

• Bibi Dong and Ye Xiao reviewed reports showing that land reform was progressing as the Jinyiwei seized fields from landlords and punished resistance.
• A scout reported to the Star Luo court that Spirit Hall had destroyed Heaven Dou and annexed its territory using Soul Tool Cannons and an internal coup led by Xue Qinghe.
• Star Luo’s officials argued over whether to fight Spirit Hall or negotiate peace, while the emperor dismissed the court and reflected on Heaven Dou’s fate.
• The Star Luo Emperor asked Dai Weisi what the empire should do, and Dai Weisi explained that Spirit Hall held overwhelming advantages in Soul Tools, Spirit Souls, and spirit-beast allies.

Dai Weisi urged the Star Luo Emperor to recruit the Clear Sky Sect and other powers while developing Soul Tools to resist the Spirit Hall Empire. After learning Heaven Dou had fallen, Tang Xiao and the Clear Sky Sect elders debated the Star Luo alliance, with some urging caution and delay.

• Dai Weisi recommended recruiting the Clear Sky Sect, the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect, and other anti-Spirit Hall forces while developing Soul Tools.
• The Star Luo Emperor ordered Dai Weisi to bury Xue Ye with imperial rites, and Dai Weisi acknowledged that Bibi Dong had granted him dignity.
• A carrier pigeon brought Tang Xiao news that Spirit Hall had conquered Heaven Dou and established the Spirit Hall Empire.
• Tang Xiao summoned the Clear Sky Sect elders and explained that the Star Luo Empire wanted their help resisting Spirit Hall.
• The Second and Sixth Elders supported joining the resistance, while the Third Elder warned that fighting immediately would be suicide.
• The Fifth Elder proposed delaying a decision while the Spirit Hall Empire consolidated Heaven Dou and the sects considered an alliance.

Tang Xiao prepared the Clear Sky Sect for war while delaying an alliance with the Star Luo Empire. Ye Xiao and Bibi Dong visited a remote village and saw how lower taxes and stricter grain collection rules had improved villagers’ lives, but Ye Xiao said the work was not finished.

• Tang Xiao ruled out immediate revenge, postponed agreeing to the Star Luo Empire’s alliance, and ordered the Clear Sky Sect to prepare for war and capture as many spirit beasts as possible.
• Ye Xiao and Bibi Dong traveled in plain clothes to a remote village to see how the empire’s policies were being carried out.
• Ye Xiao questioned villagers, who said their harvests were better and that they could keep more grain because taxes and collections had been reduced and officials were punished for taking extra.
• Bibi Dong told Ye Xiao he had chosen the right path, and Ye Xiao said the work would be complete only when villages everywhere showed the same signs of security.

Ye Xiao and Bibi Dong ordered an attack on the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect, and Golden Crocodile Douluo led a five-thousand-strong Soul Engineer legion against it. Yu Luomian secretly evacuated his branch before the bombardment began, while Yu Yuanzhen and the sect were caught under fire.

• Ye Xiao chose the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect as Spirit Hall's first target, and Bibi Dong approved the move.
• Golden Crocodile Douluo took command of a five-thousand-strong Soul Engineer legion armed with Soul Tool Cannons and marched toward the sect.
• Yu Luomian received Bibi Dong's warning and led his branch out of the sect under cover of night.
• Golden Crocodile Douluo positioned the legion five kilometers from Nine Dragon Mountain and ordered the bombardment to begin.
• The first volley destroyed the mountain gate and Heavenly Dragon Stone Statues, and a second volley struck the sect's buildings.

The Spirit Hall Empire’s Soul Tool Legion devastated the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect with relentless cannon fire, then crushed its desperate counterattack. Yu Yuanzhen was defeated by Golden Crocodile Douluo, while armored close-combat Soul Masters cut down the survivors who broke through the bombardment.

• Five thousand soldiers bombarded the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect until its Mountain Protection Array shattered and its buildings were reduced to ruins.
• Golden Crocodile Douluo ordered the cannons lowered to fire on the wounded sect members charging down the mountain.
• Yu Yuanzhen rallied the survivors and led their charge toward the Spirit Hall Empire’s position.
• Yu Yuanzhen’s lightning attack failed against Golden Crocodile Douluo’s armor, and Golden Crocodile Douluo struck him into the ruins.
• Soul Tool Cannons slaughtered the charging disciples, while armored close-combat Soul Masters killed those who crossed the fire zone.

Spirit Hall’s Soul Engineer Legion overwhelmed the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect, while Golden Crocodile Douluo defeated and captured Yu Yuanzhen. Nine Dragon Mountain was left in ruins, and Golden Crocodile Douluo declared the sect destroyed.

• Spirit Hall’s Soul Masters used Soul Tools and coordinated attacks to defeat or capture the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect’s fighters.
• Golden Crocodile Douluo endured Yu Yuanzhen’s attacks, then crushed him with his Sixth Spirit Ability and slammed him into the mountainside.
• Spirit Hall’s firepower trapped the sect’s remaining forces, leaving many dead and the survivors captured.
• Golden Crocodile Douluo ordered his adjutant to bind the badly injured Yu Yuanzhen and reviewed the casualties and recovered Soul Bones.
• Golden Crocodile Douluo surveyed the ruined Nine Dragon Mountain and proclaimed that the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect was destroyed.

Golden Crocodile Douluo destroyed the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect with Soul Tool Cannons and brought its captured sect master, Yu Yuanzhen, to Bibi Dong. Bibi Dong imprisoned him and planned to target the Clear Sky Sect next, while news of the sect’s destruction spread across the continent.

• Golden Crocodile Douluo reported that his forces had suffered no deaths and ordered wounded Soul Engineers treated as the captives and equipment were brought down from the mountain.
• Golden Crocodile Douluo returned to Spirit Hall with Yu Yuanzhen bound in Soul Tool Chains and thrown before Bibi Dong.
• Bibi Dong told Yu Yuanzhen that she had attacked because the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect showed signs of joining the Star Luo Empire, and she ordered him imprisoned instead of killed.
• Bibi Dong announced that the Clear Sky Sect would be the next target and that Spirit Hall would later deal with academies and small sects.
• News that the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect had been destroyed spread across the continent within three days.

After the Spirit Hall Empire destroyed the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect, the Clear Sky Sect prepared for a possible attack and the Star Luo Empire faced the loss of a major ally. Meanwhile, the Spirit Hall Empire’s new rule stabilized the former Heaven Dou lands and used spirit souls to expose corruption, leaving former nobles to accept their diminished status.

• Tang Xiao ordered the Clear Sky Sect to cut off contact with the Star Luo Empire, activate its defenses, and prepare for battle after learning the Blue Electric Tyrant Dragon Sect had been devastated.
• The Star Luo Emperor and Dai Weisi learned that Yu Yuanzhen had been captured and the sect destroyed, then resolved to keep building border defenses and focus on surviving.
• Over the following month, the nine provinces of the old Heaven Dou lands completed the harvest, stored more grain, and saw stable prices and livelier markets.
• Spirit Hall Empire officials were kept accountable by spirit souls that could end their contracts, while investigations uncovered more than a hundred cases of corruption across the provinces.
• Former Heaven Dou nobles discussed how spirit souls could not be bribed, and a gray-haired count acknowledged that their lives would be difficult now that they had lost their former status.

After six months of preparation, Bibi Dong and Ye Xiao decided to strike the Clear Sky Sect while the Spirit Hall Empire readied for war against the Star Luo Empire. Ye Qianxue arrived to take on the sect, leaving the coming attack and wider war poised to begin.

• The Spirit Hall Empire expanded its Spirit Soul Towers, Soul Tool production, military forces, and intelligence network while the Star Luo Empire hastily built border fortifications.
• Bibi Dong explained that Spirit Hall’s trade had weakened Star Luo’s merchants and industry, and said the empire would wait before launching its invasion.
• Ye Xiao told Bibi Dong that Ye Qianxue wanted to attack the Clear Sky Sect, and Bibi Dong approved the plan while ordering war preparations against Star Luo.
• Ye Xiao summoned Ye Qianxue home, and she embraced him before noticing Qian Renxue standing behind him.

Ye Qianxue reunited with Qian Renxue and Ye Xiao, then led them to the Clear Sky Sect, where she unleashed her ninth spirit ability and devastated the sect. Tang Xiao remained trapped amid the destruction as the chapter ended with the Clear Sky Sect in ruins.

• Ye Qianxue embraced Qian Renxue, asked whether she was pregnant, and then urged Ye Xiao to go to the Clear Sky Sect.
• Ye Qianxue brought Ye Xiao and Qian Renxue to the mountains near the Clear Sky Sect and flew above the sect.
• Ye Qianxue activated her ninth spirit ability, Ten Extremes Judgment, and trapped the Clear Sky Sect and surrounding peaks inside its Formation Array.
• Ten-element attacks killed disciples and destroyed buildings while Tang Xiao and the six elders failed to break out or stop the judgment.
• The elders fell one by one as Tang Xiao watched the Clear Sky Sect collapse, left as the last of its defenders.

Ye Qianxue destroyed the Clear Sky Sect, leaving the Spirit Hall Empire poised to move against the Star Luo Empire. Ye Xiao proposed using Xiao Wu to provoke Tang San and draw out the Asura God, then asked Qian Renxue whether she knew about Slaughter City.

• Ye Qianxue annihilated the Clear Sky Sect with the Ten Judgments, and Ye Xiao collected useful items from its ruins.
• Ye Xiao, Qian Renxue, and Ye Qianxue returned to Spirit Hall, where Ye Qianxue teased Bibi Dong before leaving to play with Shui Yue'er and Ning Rongrong.
• Ye Xiao told Bibi Dong to spread news of the Clear Sky Sect's destruction to provoke the Star Luo Emperor, and Bibi Dong agreed to attack within a month.
• Ye Xiao suggested turning Xiao Wu into a Spirit Soul in front of Tang San to provoke a response from the Asura God, and Bibi Dong agreed to arrange it.
• Qian Renxue defended Ye Xiao's ruthless tactics and said that killing did not make someone an Evil Soul Master.
• Ye Xiao asked Qian Renxue about Slaughter City, and she asked whether he wanted to go there.

Ye Xiao proposed building a prison near Spirit City where Soul Master criminals would be reformed through labor, and Qian Renxue agreed to oversee a pilot project. After the Clear Sky Sect’s destruction reached Star Luo, the emperor ordered sweeping tax increases and mass conscription to build border fortifications, leaving the people starving and the empire in turmoil.

• Ye Xiao proposed replacing Slaughter City with a prison where Soul Master criminals would work, and Qian Renxue agreed to establish a pilot zone near Spirit City.
• News of the Clear Sky Sect’s destruction reached Star Luo, where ministers argued over whether to negotiate peace or prepare for war.
• The Star Luo Emperor ordered higher taxes and conscripted commoners and Soul Masters to build a Great Wall along the borders.
• Families and sects within Star Luo sent allegiance letters to Spirit City as the empire lost allies.
• Within a week, heavy taxes and forced labor left people starving, while hundreds of thousands were marched toward the border under guard.

Ye Xiao and Bibi Dong used secret reports of the Star Luo Empire’s crushing taxes and corvée labor to plan an internal uprising instead of an immediate invasion. After Spirit Hall agents spread rumors across the empire, rebellions engulfed four provinces and unrest began in its remaining kingdoms and duchies.

• Ye Xiao judged that the Star Luo Emperor’s policies would weaken the empire and proposed infiltrating it to stir up a peasant uprising; Bibi Dong agreed.
• Bibi Dong sent over a thousand Soul Masters into the Star Luo Empire to spread claims that the emperor was exploiting the people under false pretenses.
• Rumors and government crackdowns fueled increasingly large rural revolts, which spread from small groups to four provinces.
• Rebels united across Dragon Flame Province, West Amers Province, Falx Province, and Sky Star Province, seizing government offices, dividing granaries, freeing laborers, and killing some Soul Masters.
• Smoke of rebellion rose in the Star Luo Empire’s remaining four kingdoms and two duchies.

Revolts spread across the Star Luo Empire as the Great Wall project’s taxes and forced labor drove provinces and Gengxin City’s blacksmiths into rebellion. The Star Luo Emperor rejected Dai Weisi’s call to stop construction, and officials warned at court that the empire might collapse without Spirit Hall ever attacking.

• Gengxin City’s blacksmiths revolted after the court seized them for labor, used Soul Tool Cannons to capture the city lord’s manor, and armed a growing rebellion.
• The Star Luo Emperor reviewed reports of rebellions in four provinces and unrest among the vassal kingdoms, while Dai Weisi told him the empire’s crisis came from within.
• Dai Weisi urged the Star Luo Emperor to stop building the Great Wall, but the emperor refused and Dai Weisi withdrew from the argument.
• At morning court, officials heard that rebel forces were taking cities, distributing grain, and surrounding the capital of Sky Star Province.
• A report revealed that Gengxin City’s rebels had taken a third of Anthony Province and were reportedly trying to build Soul Tool Cannons.
• An old civil official knelt and urged the Star Luo Emperor to end the fighting, warning that the empire lacked troops to suppress its own people.

Bibi Dong rejected Star Luo’s attempt to negotiate and ordered a campaign to conquer its territories. As the Spirit Hall Empire’s army prepared to march, she addressed the soldiers from Spirit City’s walls.

• The Star Luo Emperor ordered the Great Wall’s construction slowed, sent two hundred thousand troops to suppress the rebels, and dispatched envoys to Spirit City to test Bibi Dong’s willingness to negotiate.
• Bibi Dong dismissed Star Luo’s overture and ordered four Soul Engineer Legion divisions to attack territories across the empire and advance on Star Luo City.
• Bibi Dong told Ye Xiao she intended to pass the emperorship to Qian Renxue after the continent was unified, while Ye Xiao suggested Qian Renxue would not want the position.
• Three days later, Bibi Dong and Ye Xiao appeared before twenty thousand assembled Soul Engineers, and Bibi Dong began addressing them from Spirit City’s wall.

Bibi Dong led the Spirit Hall Empire’s forces south, declaring that their invasion would end the Star Luo Empire, while she and Ye Xiao discussed their route through the Star Dou Great Forest. Meanwhile, the Star Luo Empire’s brutal suppression only strengthened the rebellions, which spread across the provinces as Star Luo City awaited the war’s arrival.

• Bibi Dong rallied twenty thousand troops and sent them south along four marching routes.
• Bibi Dong and Ye Xiao led a five-thousand-strong force through the Star Dou Great Forest toward Star Luo City, planning to spare soldiers who surrendered.
• The Star Luo Emperor sent two hundred thousand troops to crush the rebellions, and commanders killed civilians, burned villages, and executed escaped laborers.
• Rebel forces grew despite the crackdown, winning battles and surrounding the capital of Sky Star Province.
• The uprisings swelled toward eight million people, while Star Luo City remained outwardly calm and its residents hoped for the conflict to end.

Demon Bear Douluo and Ghost Leopard Douluo led the Spirit Hall Empire’s forces in an assault on Kirikris City, reducing its defenses to rubble with Soul Tool Cannons before taking control. With the surviving civilians told they would not be killed or looted, the two Douluos prepared to continue south.

• Demon Bear Douluo and Ghost Leopard Douluo surveyed the terrain and marched their two-thousand-man Soul Engineer Legion toward Kirikris City.
• Ghost Leopard Douluo arranged over a hundred Soul Tool Cannons, which bombarded the city gate and walls until the defenses collapsed and the city fell into chaos.
• Demon Bear Douluo ordered the close-combat Soul Masters to advance, and they killed the remaining defenders who tried to resist.
• Demon Bear Douluo announced that Kirikris City was under the Spirit Hall Empire’s control and promised the civilians safety and grain from the stores.
• The civilians began salvaging their belongings, and Ghost Leopard Douluo told Demon Bear Douluo they would head south.

The Star Luo Emperor learned that the Spirit Hall Empire had swiftly conquered three territories and ordered his forces to defend Star Luo Province. Meanwhile, Ye Xiao and Bibi Dong reached the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest and surveyed the Star Luo army’s defenses.

• A messenger reported that the Spirit Hall Empire had marched south and that Pelagi Kingdom, Kirikris Kingdom, and Star Shine Duchy had fallen.
• The Star Luo Emperor’s officials argued over whether to withdraw troops, negotiate, or fight, until he ordered the available forces to assemble around Star Luo Province.
• The Star Luo Emperor sent Dai Weisi to gather the army’s Soul Masters and supervise the battle.
• Ye Xiao and Bibi Dong reached the forest’s southern edge and saw the Star Luo army’s camps and hastily built fortifications.
• Bibi Dong pointed out that the defenses could not withstand their Soul Tool Cannons, and Ye Xiao asked how she planned to fight.

Bibi Dong and Ye Xiao used five hundred Soul Tool Cannons to destroy the Star Luo Empire’s outer defenses and sent their army toward Star Luo City. The Star Luo Emperor learned that the city was under threat and erupted in anger.

• Bibi Dong ordered saturation fire against the Star Luo defenders while Ye Xiao watched the bombardment.
• Soul Tool Cannon volleys devastated the defensive line, killing many defenders and driving the survivors into retreat.
• Bibi Dong sent one thousand close-combat Soul Masters to pursue the deserters and ordered the rest of the army to advance toward Star Luo City.
• Routed soldiers crowded through Star Luo City’s gates, and one survivor told the city officer that the Spirit Hall Empire was already advancing.
• The city officer delivered the warning to the Star Luo Emperor, who shattered his teacup and overturned his Dragon Desk.