Chapter Summaries

Ling Qing and his three disciples encountered Li Changyang at a solitary lodge, where the Daoist had come to settle a karmic matter involving a scholar and a fox demon. Ling Qing agreed to stay out of Li Changyang’s way, and the group settled in to watch what happened.

• Ling Qing’s lion ridge beast caused a corpse brought to the inn to decay into bones, which the mourners burned and collected as ashes.
• At the solitary lodge, a fox demon fled from a young scholar, while Li Changyang watched from the woods and lamented the trouble his youthful playfulness had caused.
• Ling Qing arrived with Ling Ji, Wenjun, and Sun Yuwei, exchanged introductions with Li Changyang, and learned that he had come to resolve a karmic connection with the scholar.
• Li Changyang asked Ling Qing not to interfere with his affair, and Ling Qing politely agreed to refrain from acting.
• The scholar mistook the newcomers for the fox demon’s return, then invited the Daoists to sit by the fire as Ling Qing and his disciples watched.

Ling Qing and Li Changyang encountered Qin Renli, who begged Li Changyang to cure the excessive yang fire he had inherited from his father. After teaching Qin Renli a way to balance yin and yang, Li Changyang sensed the Shangqing talisman seed in Ling Qing and suspected he was connected to a Dao Lord manifestation, though Ling Qing did not realize Mount Mao had been seeking him.

• A scholar named Qin Renli recognized Li Changyang and begged him to save him from the yang fire burning through his body.
• Qin Renli explained that Li Changyang had once given his father medicine to defeat a fox demon, and that his father’s remaining doses had caused Qin Renli’s condition.
• Li Changyang offered Qin Renli a medicinal remedy or a method for generating yin water, and Qin Renli chose the latter despite the warning that he must avoid women until his yin and yang were balanced.
• Li Changyang taught Qin Renli the method, while Ling Qing realized how Li Changyang’s youthful mischief had caused Qin Renli’s affliction.
• Li Changyang sensed the Shangqing talisman seed in Ling Qing and asked about his sect; Ling Qing said he belonged to the Mount Lao Sect and cultivated north of Jinhua City.

Ling Qing accepted Li Changyang’s invitation to travel to Mount Mao, where he hoped to learn about this world’s Daoist arts. After Qin Renli began cultivating and insisted on repaying Li Changyang by accompanying him, the group prepared to travel together toward Mount Mao and then Jinhua.

• Li Changyang invited Ling Qing to visit Mount Mao, and Ling Qing gladly agreed.
• Qin Renli completed his first night of cultivation, then asked Li Changyang to let him serve at his side.
• Ling Qing spoke in Qin Renli’s favor, and Li Changyang agreed to take him along.
• Ling Qing planned a walking route through Jinan Prefecture, Peng City, and Nanjing Prefecture to Mount Mao, with Su and Hang on the way to Jinhua.

Ling Qing and Li Changyang arrived in Jinan Prefecture with their companions and agreed to investigate Liu Gen’s mother’s nighttime torment. After inspecting her room, Ling Ji and Wenjun identified a sprite attached to one of the household furnishings.

• Ling Qing and Li Changyang approached Jinan Prefecture with Ling Ji, the other young Taoists, and Qin Renli.
• At the city gate, Ling Qing’s group chose Liu Gen, who sought help for his mother’s recurring nighttime whispers.
• Ling Qing and Li Changyang traveled with Liu Gen to his home, suppressing demons and purifying murky gloom along the way.
• Ling Qing asked Ling Ji and the others to inspect the old woman’s room after he and Li Changyang looked around.
• Sun Yuwei sensed an unexplained aura, and Ling Ji and Wenjun concluded that a sprite was attached to a household furnishing.

Ling Qing and Li Changyang identified the old objects in Liu Gen’s home as object spirits, removed them, and reassured his family. After taking the objects to a Taoist temple in Jinan Prefecture City, they let Qin Renli and the disciples choose one each to refine into a magical trinket.

• Ling Qing recognized the broom handle, bronze mirror, umbrella frame, and candlestick as object spirits, and Li Changyang explained how old objects could absorb qi and become spirits.
• Li Changyang took the objects from Liu Gen’s family, gave them an Evil-Warding Talisman, and accepted only ten copper coins for his help.
• Ling Qing and his companions went to a Taoist temple in Jinan Prefecture City, planning to deal with evil entities and give the younger cultivators experience.
• Li Changyang proposed that Qin Renli and the three disciples each choose one object to refine into a magical trinket, and Qin Renli chose the broom handle first.

Ling Qing explained how object spirits on the verge of birth could be refined into magical treasure embryos and taught Ling Ji, Wenjun, and Sun Yuwei artifact-refining methods. He left them planning how to refine their chosen objects, while Li Changyang began teaching Qin Renli to make a peachwood ritual sword.

• Ling Ji identified Qin Renli's broom handle as thousand-year-old lightning-struck peachwood, and Li Changyang took Qin Renli away to teach him to refine it into a ritual sword.
• Sun Yuwei chose a bronze mirror, Wenjun chose umbrella ribs, and Ling Ji chose a candlestick.
• Ling Qing explained that newly forming object spirits could become magical treasure embryos, but only during a narrow stage of their development and not through repeated forced searches.
• Ling Qing ruled out the Alchemical Artifact Method for these spirits and described using the Artifact Nurturing Method and Restriction Method to strengthen their abilities.
• Ling Qing taught the three disciples how to match refinement methods to each object's traits, then had them plan artifacts suited to their own use.

Ling Qing guided Ling Ji, Wenjun, and Sun Yuwei as they planned artifacts from rare spiritual essences, then helped Li Changyang cleanse Jinan of demons and ghosts. As their reputation spread, Ling Qing accepted an invitation to the Zhou Residence, where he noticed dense yin energy clinging to its steward, Zhou Fu.

• Ling Ji planned to refine a candlestick into a treasure that could inflame emotions and reveal hidden ghosts and demons, while Wenjun chose to make an umbrella that could gather and repel myriad dharmas.
• Sun Yuwei decided to turn a bronze mirror with an illusory space into an array disc for testing formations, and Ling Qing guided all three as they drafted their refining plans through the night.
• Ling Qing and Li Changyang performed rites at the temple, then spent several days banishing demons and ghosts around Jinan, earning a reputation for their abilities.
• Zhou Fu invited Ling Qing to the Zhou Residence, and Ling Qing accepted after noticing the steward was covered in unusually dense yin energy.
• Li Changyang and Qin Renli returned as Ling Qing set out with Zhou Fu, and Li Changyang wished him a safe and early return.

Ling Qing and his companions arrived at the Zhou estate, where a dense yin aura surrounded the household. Daoist Purple Light explained that a strange incident had occurred in the Zhou family ancestral hall, and the gathered practitioners had been invited to perform a ritual for the ancestors.

• Zhou Fu invited Li Changyang to the Zhou estate, but Li Changyang declined because he was weary.
• Zhou Fu took Ling Qing, Ling Ji, and the others to the secluded estate, where Ling Qing sensed a powerful yin aura.
• Several days earlier, Zhou Zizhen heard his father and grandfather screaming inside the ancestral hall, though his eldest son heard nothing.
• After offering incense, Zhou Zizhen saw a black dot split open like a vertical eye and emit icy blue light.
• Ling Qing entered a hall full of monks and Daoists, who greeted him and his companions with respect.
• Daoist Purple Light told Ling Qing that the Zhou family had invited the practitioners to perform rites after something happened in the ancestral hall.

Ling Qing and the other practitioners accepted Lord Zhou Zizhen’s invitation to investigate strange activity in the Zhou family ancestral hall. After Lord Zhou trapped them in a mist-filled courtyard, he revealed his plan to offer Ling Qing to the Cold Nether King.

• Purple Light and the other practitioners shared what they knew about Jinan Prefecture before Lord Zhou Zizhen greeted them and praised Ling Qing.
• At a banquet, Lord Zhou asked the practitioners to investigate strange sounds and shadows in his family’s ancestral hall in exchange for merit incense.
• Ling Qing agreed to follow Lord Zhou, who led the group into the ancestral hall courtyard, where dense yin mist filled the air.
• Lord Zhou vanished, the courtyard gate shut, and the practitioners discovered that a formation had sealed them inside.
• Ling Qing pointed the group toward the ancestral shrine, where Lord Zhou appeared changed and said he would offer Ling Qing to the Cold Nether King for the Zhou family’s benefit.

Zhou Zizhen revealed that he had lured Ling Qing and other cultivators to Zhou Manor to help Cold Nether King widen a Yin-Yang fissure into a passage. Trapped in Cold Nether King’s Half-Step Away and surrounded by a ghostly array, Ling Ji transformed into a Behemoth and began tearing it apart.

• Zhou Zizhen explained that Cold Nether King had bewitched him and ordered him to gather people for blood sacrifices to widen the fissure.
• Zhou Zizhen pulled Ling Qing and his disciples into Half-Step Away, where Cold Nether King had captured Purple Light and other people for his Dharma Altar.
• Cold Nether King revealed his plan to sacrifice Ling Qing and the three disciples, then trapped them in the Frozen Netherworld Grand Array.
• Ling Ji transformed into a Behemoth and used the Behemoth Demon-Breaking Claw to tear through the array and destroy its Ghost Soldiers.

Ling Qing and his disciples defeated the Cold Nether King and broke his Icebound Netherworld Formation. After capturing the king, Ling Qing questioned him about his plans in the mortal realm, and the king began to reveal more.

• Wenjun and Ling Ji used their divine dragons to devastate the Ghost Soldiers and break the formation while Ling Qing seized the Cold Nether King with his Primordial One Qi Grand Grappling.
• Ling Qing collected the Ice Crystal White Bone Dharma Altar and the king’s throne, then led his group out of Half-Step Away.
• Ling Qing revived the Cold Nether King’s skeleton and asked why he had entered the mortal realm.
• Ling Qing threatened to hand the Cold Nether King to Daoist Brother Li, prompting the king to cry out that he would talk.

Ling Qing learned that Yin Mountain Ghost King had sent thirty-six Ghost Kings to attack the living world through passages including the one beneath Mount Tai. He rescued Purple Light and the others, organized preparations, and went to warn Lord Iron and the Mount Mao True Persons, arriving at Jinan’s City God Underworld Administration.

• Ling Qing told Ling Ji to rescue Purple Light and the others and alert the surrounding Yin and Yang realms to prepare.
• Ling Qing explained that Yin Mountain Ghost King had dispatched thirty-six Ghost Kings to launch attacks and further weaken the balance between Yin and Yang.
• Purple Light and the others buried and sent off the Zhou residence’s dead, then agreed to prepare for the coming war.
• Ling Qing took Ling Ji and two others to Jinan City to warn Lord Iron and the Mount Mao True Persons.
• The Jinan gate gods admitted Ling Qing to the City God Underworld Administration, where Lord Marquis Tie Xuan came out to welcome him.

Ling Qing informed Tie Xuan and Li Changyang that the Yin Mountain Ghost King was preparing an invasion through the Yin-Yang Passage beneath Mount Tai, and they planned how to defend against it. Ling Qing revealed his strength and forces, leaving Tie Xuan and Li Changyang stunned as they prepared to guard the passage.

• Ling Qing handed Cold Nether King to Tie Xuan, and Tie Xuan and Li Changyang interrogated him until their accounts confirmed the threat.
• Tie Xuan explained that Shandong had only fifteen Human Immortals to face thirty-six Ghost Kings and nearly a million soldiers, then ordered a report sent to Prince Xu for reinforcements.
• Ling Qing and Li Changyang agreed to help, and Ling Qing proposed guarding the Yin-Yang Passage beneath Mount Tai while Tie Xuan urged him to protect the city instead.
• Ling Qing vowed to defend the passage with his disciples and revealed five great incarnations, four of them at Human Immortal strength.
• Wondrous Spirit Emperor Lord summoned three hundred and sixty-five spiritual gods, leaving Tie Xuan and Li Changyang dumbfounded.

Ling Qing and Li Changyang entered the Mount Tai Yin Domain to prepare for an expected Netherworld assault and examined the damaged seal guarding its passage. Li Changyang proposed killing as many invading ghost kings as possible, leaving Ling Qing to realize he could not rely on him to coordinate the defense.

• Tie Xuan made an oath-bound pact with Ling Qing to guard Mount Tai's Yin-Yang Passage and invited Li Changyang to accompany him.
• Ling Qing, Li Changyang, Ling Ji, Qin Renli, and the others entered the Mount Tai Yin Domain through Longevity Bridge.
• Ling Qing saw that the Demon-Subduing Patriarch's colossal sword-and-chain seal had been badly damaged and identified repairs made by several Daoist lineages.
• Li Changyang explained that the Yin Mountain Ghost King could not remain in the mortal world or the Ghost Realm without facing constraints, but could still threaten the seal and its defenders.
• Ling Qing asked how they should defend the passage, and Li Changyang answered that they should destroy as many invading ghost kings as possible.
• Ling Ji interrupted Ling Qing and Li Changyang, asking whether he could offer a word.

Ling Ji organized layered defenses around the Yin-Yang Passage to keep ghost forces from reaching the human world, while preparing for the Yin Mountain Ghost King's possible arrival. Ling Qing, Li Changyang, and Sun Yuwei began building a new array, and the chapter ended with the spirit deities weaving its gates.

• Ling Ji laid out plans to reinforce the passage seal, contain any escaping ghosts in the ghost domain, and intercept the Yin Mountain Ghost King's incarnation if necessary.
• Ling Qing, Li Changyang, and the others agreed to Ling Ji's layered defense strategy and began preparing an iron-barrel defense.
• Ling Qing and Li Changyang decided to leave the sects' existing seals intact and build an Eight Gates Ghost-Warding Talisman Array linked to the Demon-Subduing Patriarch's seal.
• Ling Qing and Li Changyang gathered materials and enlisted their spirit deities, Di Sha soldiers, yin soldiers, and ghost generals to prepare cords, copper coins, and talismans.
• After five days, Ling Ji directed the three hundred and sixty-five spirit deities to weave the array gates at the formation's nodes.

Ling Qing and the others completed preparations to defend the Mount Tai Yin Domain as the netherworld invasion began at passages across the land. Xu Sheng deployed divine troops and issued orders to defend the passages, then led an elite force into the Yin-Yang Realm, where the main ghost army’s advance was checked by the Demon-Severing Hero Sword.

• Ling Qing and the others completed the Eight Gates Ghost-Suppressing Demon-Warding Array and fortified the ghost domain and its exit passages.
• Xu Sheng assigned Tie Xuan and the City Gods to guard the eighteen known Yin-Yang Passages, while monks and Daoists were sent to support against Ghost Kings.
• Xu Sheng led thirty thousand divine troops to Mount Tai and ordered an elite force to enter the Yin-Yang Realm as ghostly forces emerged from passages across the land.
• Newly discovered passages appeared, and Tie Xuan sent reserve troops and Human Immortals to defend them.
• At the Mount Tai Yin Domain, countless ghosts surged through the passage, but the Demon-Severing Hero Sword destroyed the leading attackers and halted their advance.

Ling Qing and seven other Human Immortals activated the Eight Gates Ghost-Suppressing Demon-Warding Array to contain the ghosts escaping the Nether Passage. Sun Yuwei monitored the battle and confirmed the array was feeding energy to the Demon-Severing Hero Sword and helping restore the passage’s seals, just as a sudden explosion sounded behind her and Qin Renli.

• The sects’ damaged seals began to fail, allowing ghosts and fiendish spirits to pour out of the Nether Passage.
• Ling Qing and seven other Human Immortals took command of the Eight Gates and used their different powers to destroy and trap the invading ghosts.
• Sun Yuwei used the Void-Reflecting Treasure Mirror to monitor the array, whose trapped enemies had to escape through the Gate of Opening unless they could break its protected array eye.
• Sun Yuwei explained to Qin Renli that the ghosts’ deaths supplied energy to strengthen the Demon-Severing Hero Sword and accelerate the seals’ restoration.
• A loud explosion erupted behind Sun Yuwei and Qin Renli, and they turned to look.

Ling Qing and Xu Sheng assessed the defenses at Mount Tai Yin Domain as eighteen Ghost Kings entered the Eight Gates Formation. After Xu Sheng left to reinforce other passages, Sun Yuwei spotted an abnormality and urgently ordered Ling Qing to kill the Hundred-Eyed King.

• Ling Qing sent his Wondrous Existence Emperor Lord incarnation to investigate the entrance and met General Xu Sheng and his advancing army.
• Ling Qing explained the defenses and the threat posed by the Ghost Kings, while Xu Sheng saw wandering souls and wild ghosts trapped by the formation.
• Eighteen Ghost Kings entered the Eight Gates Formation with their ghost formations, and Ling Ji, Sun Yuwei, and the others worked to contain and isolate them.
• Xu Sheng left a squad to guard the passage and took his main force to reinforce other Yin-Yang Passages under attack.
• Sun Yuwei noticed something wrong in the Void-Reflecting Treasure Mirror and told Ling Qing to kill the Hundred-Eyed King immediately.

Ling Qing and Sun Yuwei discovered that a hidden Ghost King was directing the enemy through the Yin-Yang Passage, so Ling Qing decided to let the eighteen Ghost Kings out of the Eight Gates Formation rather than risk losing it. Li Changyang summoned nearly a million yin soldiers, and Ling Qing prepared to lead them into battle while the formation struggled to hold.

• Sun Yuwei determined that a hidden Ghost King in the Yin-Yang Passage was using a secret communication art to guide the Ghost Kings and exploit the Eight Gates Formation.
• Ling Qing decided to release the eighteen Ghost Kings from the formation while keeping the Eight Gates Formation to contain the ordinary vicious ghosts.
• Li Changyang withdrew from the formation and performed a ritual at the Dharma Altar, summoning nearly a million yin soldiers from the Mount Tai Yin Domain.
• Ling Qing sent Sun Yuwei to help Ling Ji, Wenjun, and Wondrous Dao Emperor maintain the Eight Gates Formation, then left to join Li Changyang.
• Ling Qing thanked Li Changyang, who said he was proud to have summoned the yin soldiers, and warned that the formation might not hold much longer without them.

Ling Qing and Li Changyang prepared a million armored yin soldiers to face the eighteen Ghost Kings and their forces. Ling Ji took command of the army and formed a vast encirclement as the Ghost Kings united their troops to fight back.

• Ling Qing used the four Emperor Lords’ powers to arm and strengthen the million yin soldiers and their mounts.
• Ling Ji left the Eight Gates Formation, and Ling Qing and Li Changyang gave him command of the yin soldiers and ghost generals.
• Ling Ji used the command tokens to marshal the million soldiers into a formation surrounding the Eight Gates Formation.
• The eighteen Ghost Kings and the ghosts released from the formation rushed toward the exit of the yin domain, then spotted the opposing army blocking their path.
• Hundred-Eyed King urged the Ghost Kings to form up, and they combined their formations to face Ling Ji’s advancing troops.
• Ling Ji remained calm and ordered his army into eighteen layered formations as the two sides prepared to clash.