Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Mutual Flattery, Returning the Favor in Kind”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Daoists Jieyin and Zhunti visit Jiang Yuan to discuss his successful method of governing and developing the Western Lands.
• Though they flatter him extensively, their real intention is to copy and implement his ideas without paying for them.
• Jiang Yuan realizes their plan and invokes the newly established Patent Law. He argues that using his method freely would undermine the law, discourage future innovation, and impose an unfair moral standard on other cultivators.
• He cleverly explains that only future Sages can afford to appear completely selfless without placing moral pressure on others, while he must protect his intellectual property as an ordinary cultivator.
• His argument leaves Zhunti unable to counter without indirectly insulting the future Sages’ morality, particularly that of the Three Pure Ones.
• Jieyin finally asks what compensation Jiang Yuan wants.
• Jiang Yuan requests recurring seeds from the Innate Bodhi Tree and the Twelve-Petal Golden Lotus of Merit, which he plans to cultivate in the Creation Source Spring.
• The Western duo agrees, recognizing that the requested seeds are renewable and not an unreasonable price for continued use of his governing method.
• Jiang Yuan also asks them to protect his clansmen when he eventually relocates them to the newly developed blessed land.
• His request serves both practical and strategic purposes: it secures powerful guardians for his people and ensures that Jieyin and Zhunti owe him protection rather than harboring resentment over the bargain.

Character Developments

• Jiang Yuan demonstrates sharp political judgment, thick skin, and considerable skill in negotiation. He uses the Patent Law and moral reasoning to prevent himself from being exploited while maintaining courtesy toward his seniors.
• He also shows long-term strategic thinking. Rather than merely demanding compensation, he structures the agreement to create a continuing supply of valuable spiritual resources and future protection for his clansmen.
• Jieyin and Zhunti are portrayed as cautious, opportunistic, and extremely concerned with their future path to Sainthood. Their poverty motivates them to copy Jiang Yuan’s methods, but they avoid acting openly or violating the Patent Law once Jiang Yuan explains the consequences.
• Zhunti, normally skilled at flattery, is outmaneuvered by Jiang Yuan’s even more sophisticated use of praise and moral pressure.
• Jieyin acts as the more direct and practical negotiator, abandoning the attempt to obtain the method for free once Jiang Yuan makes their position untenable.

Significant Themes

• Intellectual property and fairness: The chapter presents the Patent Law as a means of protecting innovation and encouraging future discoveries.
• Selflessness versus selfishness: Jiang Yuan argues that refusing compensation may appear virtuous but could harm society by discouraging others from sharing their achievements.
• Flattery as negotiation: Both sides use praise strategically, but Jiang Yuan turns the Western duo’s flattery back against them.
• Power and morality: The chapter contrasts the freedom supposedly granted by Sainthood with the limitations faced by ordinary cultivators.
• Trust, favors, and political survival: Jiang Yuan understands that favors create obligations and carefully ensures that he owes the Western duo protection while they remain obligated to assist him.
• Long-term strategy: Immediate gains are less important than building resources, alliances, and safeguards for the future.

Character Interactions

• Jieyin and Zhunti approach Jiang Yuan humbly, acknowledging his status as a direct successor of the Mystic Sect.
• Zhunti repeatedly praises Jiang Yuan’s method as potentially capable of restoring the Western Lands, but Jiang Yuan recognizes the praise as an attempt to pressure him into granting free permission.
• Jiang Yuan responds respectfully but firmly, framing his refusal as an act of responsibility toward the Patent Law and the wider cultivation world.
• By praising Jieyin and Zhunti as future Sages, Jiang Yuan prevents them from arguing that others should imitate his selflessness.
• The negotiation ends amicably: the Western duo receives permission to adopt his method, while Jiang Yuan obtains renewable spiritual resources and a promise of protection for his clansmen.

Chapter Summary: Conflict of Ideals—Heavenly Dao or Human Dao?

Key Plot Points and Events

• Anticipating the inevitable Demon Race Slaughter of Humans Tribulation, Jiang Yuan begins protecting the Human Race’s future by forming alliances with powerful figures who oppose the Demon Clan.
• He plans to relocate part of his clan to the Western Lands, where Jieyin and Zhunti can shelter them. Even if the coming slaughter is severe, some humans will survive and preserve the race’s future.
• Jiang Yuan’s relocation also serves a practical purpose: he spent immense resources creating a Blessed Land in the Western Lands through the Lesser Zhou Tian Star Formation. He intends for his own clansmen to occupy and protect it rather than allowing Western inhabitants to fight over it.
• Jieyin and Zhunti readily agree to protect Jiang Yuan’s people. They are especially pleased because the Western Lands are barren, underpopulated, and losing inhabitants to the prosperous Eastern Lands.
• The Western Sages hope Jiang Yuan’s migration will encourage more Eastern beings to settle in the West and help revive the region.
• Jiang Yuan warns them not to indiscriminately shelter criminals fleeing the increasingly strict laws of the Eastern Lands. He urges them to hand over serious offenders to the Lich and Demon Clans so that justice and the authority of Heavenly Dao are preserved.
• This leads to a philosophical disagreement. Zhunti privately sees criminals as potential powerful recruits who might reform and bring merit, while Jieyin openly argues that sincere repentance should allow even evildoers to atone through a lifetime of good deeds.
• Jiang Yuan counters that some crimes demand death. Allowing criminals to escape punishment could undermine the Heavenly Regulations, weaken deterrence, and provoke resentment among ordinary people.
• The discussion becomes a conflict between Heavenly Dao and Human Dao:
  • Jieyin prioritizes Heavenly Dao, which values the benefits a living, reformed powerhouse can continue to provide.
  • Jiang Yuan prioritizes Human Dao, which demands that good be rewarded and evil punished so that the people remain satisfied and society remains stable.
• Recognizing that Dao debates in the Primordial World usually become physical confrontations, Jiang Yuan ends the argument because he is not strong enough to fight Jieyin.
• He then raises a further warning: repentance may not remain sincere forever, and former criminals could relapse into evil while disguising their actions as benevolence.

Character Developments

• Jiang Yuan demonstrates foresight, strategic planning, and pragmatism. His preparations are motivated both by concern for the Human Race’s survival and by the desire to secure the Blessed Land he created.
• He reveals a strong commitment to Human Dao, public justice, and social stability. He believes punishment must serve as a deterrent and that the people’s sense of justice cannot be ignored.
• Jieyin is shown as compassionate and idealistic in his own way. He believes even evil beings should have an opportunity to repent and repay their sins through lifelong good deeds.
• Jieyin also prioritizes the interests of Heavenly Dao, viewing the continued usefulness of powerful reformed criminals as more valuable than simply executing them.
• Zhunti remains outwardly agreeable but is revealed to be highly opportunistic. He immediately recognizes that fleeing criminals could become powerful recruits and potentially strengthen the Western Lands.
• Both Western Sages gain confidence in Jiang Yuan’s methods for improving the West and begin envisioning a future in which the region attracts large numbers of Eastern inhabitants.

Significant Themes

• Heavenly Dao versus Human Dao: The central conflict concerns whether justice should be based on maximizing cosmic benefit or satisfying the collective moral expectations of the people.
• Punishment and redemption: The chapter questions whether repentance can truly erase crimes, especially when the offender is powerful and capable of generating great benefits.
• Justice versus utility: Heavenly Dao is portrayed as valuing practical benefits, while Human Dao demands moral balance and visible consequences.
• The importance of public trust: Jiang Yuan argues that allowing notorious criminals to prosper after claiming repentance would create resentment and eventually social disorder.
• Pragmatism and survival: Jiang Yuan’s migration plan protects the Human Race while also securing territory, showing that moral concerns and self-interest can coexist.
• The Western Lands’ weakness and revitalization: Their barren environment and population decline force Jieyin and Zhunti to seek Eastern settlers, even at the risk of accepting morally questionable individuals.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Yuan negotiates with Jieyin and Zhunti as allies, carefully emphasizing that the Blessed Land already belongs to him and must not be claimed by the Western Sages.
• Jieyin and Zhunti respond warmly, seeing Jiang Yuan’s clan as both a protected population and a valuable example for future migration.
• Jiang Yuan warns the two Sages against harboring criminals, but Zhunti secretly views the warning as an opportunity to recruit powerful figures.
• Jieyin directly challenges Jiang Yuan’s belief in strict punishment, while Jiang Yuan firmly rejects Jieyin’s emphasis on repentance.
• Their disagreement remains unresolved because both positions are logically defensible from different standpoints: Jieyin speaks for Heavenly Dao, while Jiang Yuan speaks for Human Dao.
• The chapter closes with Jiang Yuan cautioning that even sincere repentance may fade, leaving the Western Sages responsible for ensuring that former criminals do not exploit their new status to resume evil.

Chapter Summary: The Path to Sainthood for the Two of the West

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Yuan debates with Jieyin and Zhunti about their vow to restrain and reform all evildoers in the Primordial World.
• The chapter explains that guiding evil beings toward goodness is extremely risky: success brings immense Merit, but failure causes overwhelming karmic sin and backlash from the Heavenly Dao.
• Jiang Yuan realizes that the Two Sages of the West did not become Sages merely by vowing to restore the Western Lands. Their greater vow was to deliver and reform every evildoer in existence.
• Such a vow is effectively impossible to fulfill. The Heavenly Dao may have accepted it precisely because it would bind Jieyin and Zhunti to endless work for all eternity.
• Jieyin and Zhunti reveal that they do not yet intend to use Merit Dao Attainment. They still wish to pursue Slashing Three Corpses Dao Attainment, regarding Merit-based Sainthood as a last resort.
• Jiang Yuan suspects that once Nuwa and the Three Pure Ones become Sages, the resulting pressure will force the Two Westerners to become Sages quickly, regardless of their preferences.
• Jieyin and Zhunti leave after giving Jiang Yuan three Bodhi Seeds and three Golden Lotus Seeds. They plan to focus on cultivating and restoring the Western Lands, which offers great Merit without the enormous risks associated with reforming all evildoers.
• Jiang Yuan worries that his guidance during the Dao debate may create a karmic debt. He considers spreading news of the discussion so that the Mystic Sect and other powerful figures can hold the Two Westerners accountable.
• He plants the Bodhi and Golden Lotus Seeds near the Creation Spring Eye and uses Merit to rapidly grow them to the Taiyi Golden Immortal level.
• Jiang Yuan reflects on the inheritance and degeneration of Innate Spiritual Roots, realizing that Top-tier Innate Spiritual Roots can produce endlessly valuable descendants, spiritual treasures, and other resources.

Character Development

• Jiang Yuan becomes more politically cautious. He recognizes that even verbal guidance may create karmic obligations and seeks protection through his connection to his Master, the Mystic Sect, and the Human Race.
• He also demonstrates increasing knowledge of spiritual roots and cultivation, using Merit practically to accelerate the growth of the seeds.
• Jieyin and Zhunti are shown as ambitious yet constrained figures. They understand the dangers of their great vow and would prefer to attain the Dao through their own ability rather than become permanently bound to the Heavenly Dao.
• Jieyin appears burdened by the competitive atmosphere of the Primordial World, while Zhunti is more direct in explaining their plans and ambitions.
• Both Western Sages are portrayed as pragmatic: they may postpone the impossible task of converting all evil beings, but they are willing to pursue the comparatively safer goal of restoring the Western Lands.

Significant Themes

• Merit versus karmic danger: Great Merit is proportional to the difficulty and risk of an undertaking. A noble goal can become a great evil if it fails.
• The price of Sainthood: Becoming a Sage through great vows may grant power but also create permanent obligations and dependence on the Heavenly Dao.
• Competition and limited opportunities: The cultivation world is dominated by fear of falling behind. Even those destined to become Sages may have little freedom once others advance first.
• Generational responsibility: The Dao Ancestor is praised for sharing opportunities with later generations instead of monopolizing them, contrasting with earlier cultivators who blocked the paths of those who came after.
• Heavenly Dao versus Human Dao: Jiang Yuan’s debate raises the larger question of whether the Primordial World should prioritize celestial rules and benefit or human justice and righteousness.
• Inheritance and degeneration: Jiang Yuan’s study of spiritual roots emphasizes the extraordinary value of Top-tier Innate Spiritual Roots, whose descendants retain immense potential unlike those of ordinary innate roots.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Yuan and Jieyin engage in a serious philosophical and strategic debate over the Western Sages’ vows and the dangers of reforming evildoers.
• Jieyin ultimately agrees with Jiang Yuan’s analysis, acknowledging the enormous risks of their undertaking.
• Zhunti confirms that the Two Westerners understand Merit Dao Attainment but still hope to achieve Sainthood through Slashing Three Corpses Dao Attainment.
• Jiang Yuan offers polite praise while privately doubting their confidence, recognizing that circumstances may eventually force them to accept the Merit path.
• Before leaving, Jieyin and Zhunti give Jiang Yuan spiritual seeds, creating a possible karmic relationship even though Jiang Yuan fears becoming indebted to them.
• After their departure, Jiang Yuan plans to publicize their discussion, both to protect himself from future debts and to encourage wider debate about the Primordial World’s proper path.

Chapter Summary: Supreme Treasure Embryo, Taiyi Perfection, Journey to the Blood Sea

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Yuan realizes that peak-level Innate Spiritual Roots are comparable to Innate Supreme Treasures. Besides refining treasures and suppressing Destiny, they can become “supreme treasure embryos”: if fully refined, they may transform into Innate Supreme Treasures.
• He reflects on the two exceptional roots in the Primordial World—the Innate Fusang Tree and Innate Moon Laurel Tree—which have reached their peak and possess immense power, Merit, and protection from the Sun and Moon Stars.
• Jiang Yuan examines his own Innate Gourd Vine and Innate Plantain Tree. Although both currently suffer from foundational problems, he believes they can be revived with the origin qi of Innate Gourds and Plantain Fans.
• To accomplish this, he decides to travel to the Blood Sea and seek Ancestor Minghe, who possesses an Innate Plantain Fan. He also hopes to obtain lotus seeds from Minghe’s Twelve-Petal Karmic Fire Red Lotus.
• Jiang Yuan dreams of gathering the lotus seeds of the four great lotus platforms and cultivating a Twelve-Petal Creation Green Lotus. He acknowledges that this is extremely difficult, especially because the lotus seeds’ potential is limited unless supplemented by the origin qi of the Five Innate Directional Flags.
• During the 200,000 years he spent in the Western Lands, Jiang Yuan’s cultivation advanced from the fourth layer of the Taiyi Realm to complete Taiyi Golden Immortal perfection.
• He has condensed all 108 Innate Divine Being Dharma Images required for Taiyi perfection and used Merit to bring each to full strength. Collectively, they give him the combat power of 108 Taiyi-perfection experts.
• Jiang Yuan can now defeat many early- and mid-stage Daluo Golden Immortals and, through the Lesser Zhou Tian Star Formation, rank among the strongest Daluo experts. He believes he could eventually seize the Demon Clan’s Zhou Heaven Star Banners after Di Jun and Taiyi fall.
• Despite reaching Taiyi perfection, Jiang Yuan refuses to advance to Daluo because his Pangu Physical Body Dao Fruit remains incomplete. Only his Pangu Primordial Qi Dao Fruit has reached perfection.
• He plans to obtain more Innate Great Witch essence blood to condense the remaining Great Witch Dharma Images. He may seek it from the Demon Clan or trade Pangu Divine Marrow with the Wu Clan.
• As he approaches the Blood Sea, the environment becomes increasingly polluted by baleful, resentful, and foul qi, signaling his arrival at the dangerous region.

Character Development

• Jiang Yuan gains a clearer understanding of his extraordinary fortune and resources. He recognizes that possessing two top-tier spiritual roots makes him uniquely blessed in the Primordial World.
• His ambitions expand beyond immediate cultivation. He begins planning to revive his spiritual roots, reconstruct powerful lotus treasures, complete his dual Dao Fruits, and eventually obtain the Demon Clan’s Zhou Heaven Star Banners.
• Although immensely powerful, Jiang Yuan shows restraint by refusing a premature Daluo breakthrough. He values a complete foundation and seeks a stronger Pangu Dao Fruit rather than merely advancing realms.
• He also acknowledges his own limited perseverance, admitting that he depends on Merit to accelerate cultivation rather than spending tens of millions of years in solitary effort.

Significant Themes

• Innate Destiny and inherited fortune: Birth treasures and spiritual roots determine enormous advantages in cultivation. Minghe’s treasures and Jiang Yuan’s two top-tier roots illustrate the importance of starting conditions.
• Potential versus current strength: A spiritual root’s ultimate value lies not only in its present abilities but also in its potential to become a supreme treasure.
• Foundation over speed: Jiang Yuan refuses to break through until both his primordial qi and physical-body paths are sufficiently complete.
• Merit as power and protection: Merit can accelerate cultivation, strengthen Dharma Images, suppress stars, and deter others from attacking powerful beings.
• Accumulation and reconstruction: The chapter repeatedly focuses on gathering origins, essence blood, lotus seeds, and treasures to restore or create stronger artifacts.
• Ambition and strategic patience: Jiang Yuan plans far ahead, waiting for opportunities such as Di Jun and Taiyi’s eventual downfall instead of wasting resources prematurely.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Yuan has not yet met Minghe in this chapter, but the planned meeting drives the plot. He intends to request the origin qi of Minghe’s Innate Plantain Fan and possibly obtain lotus seeds from the Karmic Fire Red Lotus.
• He reflects on Minghe’s overwhelming wealth of treasures, comparing it with the poverty of the Western Lands and viewing Minghe as one of the most fortunate Innate Divine Beings.
• Jiang Yuan considers future dealings with the Three Pure Ones, whose Innate Gourds and Plantain Fans may provide the materials needed to revive his two spiritual roots.
• He also anticipates future conflict or competition with Di Jun and Taiyi, particularly over the Zhou Heaven Star Banners.
• His possible future negotiations with the Wu Clan over Great Witch essence blood establish another important relationship and source of power.

Chapter Summary: “Another Meritorious Deed, Minghe Finds a Kindred Spirit”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Yuan and his companions approach the Blood Sea, discovering that its poisonous spiritual qi and pervasive baleful energy make it extremely dangerous for cultivation.
• Jiang Yuan realizes that, despite its reputation as a filthy and deadly place, the Blood Sea can greatly temper a cultivator’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit. Surviving cultivation there can produce an exceptionally strong foundation, potentially leading from the Heavenly Immortal Realm to Daluo-level achievement.
• Seeing the Blood Sea’s potential, Jiang Yuan imagines turning it into a cultivation and trial ground for the Primordial World, though he cannot enact the plan because the Blood Sea belongs to Minghe.
• Upon arriving, Jiang Yuan observes the vast, lifeless crimson ocean and remembers that Minghe has not yet created the Asura Race, despite Nuwa’s earlier creation of humanity and ascension to Sainthood.
• Jiang Yuan recognizes an opportunity to guide Minghe toward creating the Asura Race and thereby gain merit. He also identifies several future meritorious events connected to the Blood Sea, including the creation of the Asura Sect, Houtu’s transformation into Reincarnation, and the establishment of the Netherworld, Underworld Palace, and Hell.
• The chapter explains the state of death before Reincarnation exists. Ordinary beings whose souls scatter cannot truly reincarnate, while Taiyi Golden Immortals and higher beings can preserve or regenerate themselves through their undying True Spirits.
• Jiang Yuan reflects on the suffering of souls trapped in the Blood Sea and initially condemns the Heavenly Dao for allowing all deceased beings to endure such torment.
• A heavenly thunderclap responds to his irreverent thoughts. Jiang Yuan then receives sudden enlightenment, understanding that the Blood Sea’s corruption was caused by the accumulated foul qi generated by the conflicts of the Ten Thousand Races—not by Minghe.
• He also realizes that the Human Dao has chosen him to help solve the problem because Minghe has remained inactive.
• Jiang Yuan publicly defends Minghe, arguing that Minghe has been unfairly blamed for the Blood Sea’s condition.
• Minghe, awakened by the heavenly thunder and hearing Jiang Yuan’s words, immediately agrees from within the Blood Sea, recognizing Jiang Yuan as someone who understands his grievances.

Character Developments

• Jiang Yuan: Demonstrates sharp insight, strategic thinking, and a strong instinct for identifying meritorious opportunities. His perspective shifts from judging the Blood Sea and Heavenly Dao to understanding the deeper causes behind its corruption. He also shows sympathy toward Minghe and a willingness to challenge common assumptions.
• Minghe: Is portrayed as isolated and unfairly despised because of his origin in the Blood Sea. Though he has not yet created the Asura Race, he is already contemplating the path to Sainthood. His emotional reaction to Jiang Yuan’s defense reveals how deeply he resents being blamed for the Blood Sea’s condition.
• The Heavenly Dao: Is initially perceived by Jiang Yuan as cruel, but the chapter complicates this view by revealing that the Heavenly Dao’s original intention was to preserve souls until their True Spirits naturally returned. The Blood Sea’s torment resulted from the excessive foul qi created by living beings.
• The Human Dao: Acts indirectly, guiding Jiang Yuan toward the Blood Sea and prompting him to resolve the problem that Minghe has neglected.

Significant Themes

• Misplaced blame and injustice: Minghe is condemned for the Blood Sea’s filth even though it was caused by the collective violence and karmic pollution of the Ten Thousand Races.
• Cause, responsibility, and karma: The chapter emphasizes that living beings created the conditions responsible for their own suffering, while the Heavenly Dao merely maintained the resulting system.
• Merit and opportunity: Jiang Yuan views major historical developments not only as moral or cosmic events but also as opportunities to accumulate merit and shape the future.
• The value of suffering: The Blood Sea is both a deadly prison and an extraordinary cultivation ground, showing how danger and suffering can produce strength and powerful foundations.
• Death and immortality: The chapter distinguishes between ordinary beings, whose True Spirits cannot be preserved after death, and higher-level cultivators, whose True Spirits allow them to reincarnate or return even after destruction.
• Kindred understanding: Jiang Yuan’s defense of Minghe creates an immediate bond between them, suggesting that shared grievances and mutual recognition can overcome isolation.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Yuan discusses the Blood Sea’s dangers and benefits with Jiang Yuan’s companions, particularly Jiang Yuan’s realization that its environment can forge exceptionally powerful cultivators.
• Jiang Yuan mentally contrasts his own ideas with Minghe’s actions, believing Minghe has failed to recognize the Blood Sea’s potential and has delayed creating the Asura Race.
• Jiang Yuan’s thoughts provoke a response from the Heavenly Dao, first through a warning thunderclap and then through guidance from the Human Dao.
• Jiang Yuan openly speaks in Minghe’s defense, condemning the Ten Thousand Races for creating the foul qi that corrupted the Blood Sea.
• Minghe overhears Jiang Yuan and enthusiastically agrees, marking the beginning of their connection as fellow sufferers and “kindred spirits.”

Chapter Summary: Bestowing Favor Upon Minghe, Governing the Blood Sea

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Yuan appeals to Minghe by pointing out that the Ten Thousand Races caused the Blood Sea’s polluted state but unfairly blame Minghe instead of admitting their responsibility.
• Minghe is deeply moved because Jiang Yuan openly defends him, unlike the other experts of the Primordial World.
• Jiang Yuan reveals that his original reason for visiting the Blood Sea was to obtain the origin essence of Minghe’s Innate Plantain Fan. He had used Merit to revive the withered Innate Plantain Tree but needed essence from all four fans to restore it fully.
• Minghe willingly gives Jiang Yuan a portion of the fan’s origin essence, considering it repayment for his role in the tree’s destruction.
• Jiang Yuan then explains his new purpose: governing the Blood Sea, which the Human Dao has urged him to accomplish.
• Minghe agrees that the Blood Sea must be purified. If its accumulated filthy qi remains unchecked, it may eventually give birth to immensely powerful Fierce Beasts capable of threatening the entire Primordial World.
• Minghe describes several possible solutions:
  1. Persuade all living beings to stop fighting and producing filthy qi.
  2. Rely on the Blood Sea’s natural purification.
  3. Use the Karmic Fire Red Lotus to refine the pollution.
  4. Refine the Blood Sea itself and replace its absent will with his own.
• Jiang Yuan recognizes that Minghe’s plan to refine the Blood Sea is the foundation of his future power and suggests using countless incarnations as formation points to purify the Blood Sea.
• He further proposes converting filthy qi into creation qi, then using that energy to create a new race native to the Blood Sea.
• Minghe realizes this race could serve as assistants in maintaining the purification formation while also giving life and hope to the barren Blood Sea.
• Together, they devise a self-reinforcing cycle: refine filthy qi into creation qi, create living beings, teach them cultivation, and have them strengthen the formation. This would gradually purify the Blood Sea and generate immense Merit.

Character Developments

• Minghe: His resentment toward the Ten Thousand Races is validated, strengthening his trust in Jiang Yuan. He also becomes more open and enthusiastic about developing his plans. His ambition expands from merely purifying the Blood Sea to creating an entire race and establishing a sustainable system of governance.
• Jiang Yuan: He demonstrates tact, insight, and strategic intelligence. Although he is mainly guiding Minghe toward ideas Minghe would eventually discover himself, he presents them in a way that earns Minghe’s respect and gratitude.
• Their relationship: Minghe comes to regard Jiang Yuan as a true confidant. He even says that, were Jiang Yuan not already Nuwa’s disciple, he would take him as his own disciple.

Significant Themes

• Blame and moral responsibility: The chapter emphasizes how people prefer to accuse others rather than admit their own wrongdoing.
• Environmental responsibility and restoration: The Blood Sea’s pollution represents the consequences of long-term neglect and conflict. Its restoration requires both purification and the prevention of further contamination.
• Creation from destruction: Filthy qi, normally associated with death and calamity, can be transformed into creation qi and used to nurture life.
• Cooperation and mutual benefit: Jiang Yuan and Minghe combine their ideas to create a cycle in which purification, creation, and cultivation support one another.
• Foresight and destiny: Jiang Yuan’s intervention accelerates developments that Minghe would likely discover in the future, subtly guiding the course of events.
• Life bringing hope: Creating a race for the Blood Sea is not merely practical; it also gives a previously barren and lifeless domain a future.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Yuan respectfully greets and praises Minghe while directly addressing his long-standing grievances.
• Minghe responds warmly, recognizing Jiang Yuan as someone who genuinely understands him.
• Jiang Yuan honestly explains his need for the Innate Plantain Fan’s essence, and Minghe grants it without demanding compensation.
• Minghe tests Jiang Yuan’s motives by asking about his “new purpose,” and Jiang Yuan openly reveals his intention to govern the Blood Sea.
• Their discussion develops into a collaborative exchange of ideas. Minghe provides the foundation—refining the Blood Sea—while Jiang Yuan adds the concepts of formation-based purification and creating a native race.
• Minghe ends the conversation by expressing profound gratitude and offering Jiang Yuan the honor of becoming his disciple.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Yuan offers Minghe a deeper continuation to his advice on governing the Blood Sea. He refines its bloody water with Yin-Yang and Five Elements power, purifying it into a clear, intensely cold divine water.
• Jiang Yuan names it the Water of Minghe and explains that the Blood Sea’s purpose is to give birth to a river that transcends it and purifies the world. Minghe realizes that transforming the Blood Sea into the Minghe is his destined path to enlightenment.
• Jiang Yuan explains that great innate beings may have a Heavenly Dao–ordained route to enlightenment, but can lose it by failing to recognize it—or choose a different, potentially greater path.
• Minghe describes his alternate route: enlightenment through slaughter. He first imagined killing all living beings, then revised the method to killing ten cultivators of equal level to advance one minor realm. Jiang Yuan praises its potential but notes its severe risk: murderous intent could overwhelm the practitioner.
• Jiang Yuan proposes a different interpretation of slaughter: using force to suppress violence and end conflict. He asks whether someone who kills until no one dares to cause trouble could also be said to achieve enlightenment through slaughter.

Character developments and interactions

• Minghe shifts from regret at not having Jiang Yuan as a disciple to earnest respect, recognizing that Jiang Yuan has revealed a path he could not see. His realization brings both relief and embarrassment. He also shows pride in his own ingenuity, while acknowledging that his slaughter-based method remains morally and spiritually dangerous.
• Jiang Yuan acts as a perceptive guide, helping Minghe reinterpret his name and destiny. He treats Minghe’s ideas seriously, praises their strengths, and challenges their limitations rather than simply agreeing.
• Their exchange becomes an increasingly open discussion of cultivation, destiny, moral restraint, and the proper use of power.

Significant themes

• Destiny and recognition: An opportunity may be destined, but it matters only if someone recognizes and claims it.
• The simplicity of truth: A clear answer can be hardest to notice because people expect profound goals to require complicated solutions.
• Predetermined paths versus self-made ambition: Following a Heavenly Dao–ordained route may be reliable but limiting; forging another path may offer greater freedom and power.
• Power and moral restraint: Slaughter may accelerate cultivation, but unchecked violence threatens one’s humanity. The chapter ends by considering whether force can be justified when used to stop greater violence.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Yuan and Minghe discuss whether the Way of Slaughter could lead to the Dao. Minghe agrees that ending all conflict through slaughter could work in theory, but it would require defeating every contender for supremacy—an almost impossible feat.
• Jiang Yuan proposes killing a Hunyuan Daluo Golden Immortal from a lower realm. Minghe says this could perfect the Way of Slaughter, but such a victim would be extraordinarily difficult to kill; anyone capable of doing so would likely have better paths available.
• Jiang Yuan then suggests turning slaughter inward: repeatedly killing one’s past selves, using them as nourishment for growth. He develops this into a broader method—severing the past, destroying the present, and extinguishing the future to transcend time, space, and the world.
• Minghe is impressed and identifies three viable routes to the Dao: transforming the Blood Sea into himself; pursuing Jiang Yuan’s self-destruction version of the Way of Slaughter; or following a separate Path of Self-Transformation, repeatedly severing the past self until each “rebirth” brings greater strength and completeness.
• Jiang Yuan reveals that his ideas connect to his own cultivation: his Three Flowers represent past, present, and future, and he hopes eventually to devise a method for severing all three incarnations. He cannot yet create it, so he hopes Minghe’s greater experience will produce a useful model.
• Minghe invites Jiang Yuan into his abode within the Twelve-Petal Karmic Fire Red Lotus, where they continue talking. He offers Jiang Yuan red-lotus seeds and serves him costly lotus-seed tea.
• Jiang Yuan warns Minghe not to squander the seeds: if Minghe follows Jiang Yuan’s example and creates a people to guide, he will need resources to teach and support them. Minghe accepts the advice and decides to stop drinking the tea.

Character developments

• Jiang Yuan emerges as an inventive theorist, combining the Way of Slaughter with ideas about time, selfhood, and his own Three Incarnations. He is also practical, thinking ahead to the responsibilities of founding and supporting a people.
• Minghe shifts from dismissing Jiang Yuan’s proposals as naive to respecting his insight. The discussion gives him several paths to consider, though it also leaves him uncertain which to pursue. He shows generosity toward Jiang Yuan, then recognizes that his own extravagance may be irresponsible.

Significant themes

• Dao through transformation: Advancement may come not only from defeating others, but from repeatedly overcoming and refining the self.
• The paradox of selfhood and time: Past, present, and future selves are treated as obstacles that can be severed to attain transcendence.
• Theory versus practicality: A path may be sound in principle yet impossible to execute; viable cultivation also requires resources and careful planning.
• Responsibility and stewardship: Jiang Yuan’s warning highlights the obligations that come with creating and guiding a community.
• Mentorship and shared insight: Their exchange helps Minghe find new possibilities, while Jiang Yuan hopes to learn from Minghe’s greater experience.

Character interactions

• Jiang Yuan challenges Minghe’s assumptions through increasingly unconventional proposals, and Minghe moves from skepticism to genuine enthusiasm.
• Jiang Yuan tactfully frames his ideas as possibilities rather than commands, while Minghe responds with gratitude and hospitality.
• Their discussion of lotus treasures becomes another exchange of perspective: Minghe offers valuable gifts, and Jiang Yuan counters with practical advice about preserving resources for future followers.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Yuan explains that Minghe can refine the Blood Sea’s foul qi on his own, but transforming the sea into the Minghe River—and advancing toward enlightenment—will require substantial outside help.
• Minghe plans to create a race to help govern the Blood Sea. He considers using vast numbers of Karmic Fire Red Lotuses, but instead hopes to find the missing Twelve-Petal Pure World White Lotus, which could work with his own lotus to purify the sea.
• Jiang Yuan suspects the White Lotus may be hidden among the three immortal mountains beyond the seas. Minghe reasons that Mount Buzhou is unlikely, leaving a hidden chaos secret realm as the more plausible location.
• Minghe tastes Jiang Yuan’s potent Innate Yin-Yang Creation Wine and enjoys it, barely reacting to its cultivation-enhancing effects.
• To repay Jiang Yuan’s guidance—and secure his future support—Minghe gifts him the Northern True Martial Black-Eagle Flag, a Heaven-Opening Spiritual Treasure. Jiang Yuan performs a modest refusal before accepting, knowing the gift is also a way for Minghe to bind him through a favor.

Character developments and interactions

• Minghe shows strategic foresight: he recognizes that enlightenment requires more than personal power and looks for ways to recruit help and acquire a purification treasure. His gift is generous but also politically calculated.
• Jiang Yuan offers practical advice while privately weighing the value of Minghe’s gift. He understands Minghe’s motive but accepts the obligation because the treasure is too valuable to refuse.
• Their exchange is warm and mutually respectful, mixing serious discussion of cultivation with wine, humor, and careful negotiation.

Significant themes

• Enlightenment demands resources and allies: even a powerful cultivator cannot necessarily complete the path alone.
• Favors and reciprocity: Minghe’s gift repays a debt while creating a future obligation in the opposite direction.
• The value of treasures: rare spiritual treasures carry immense power and influence, but are ultimately measured against the goal of enlightenment.
• Hidden fate and uncertainty: the Pure World White Lotus may be findable only through a difficult search of secret realms, where heavenly secrets are concealed.

Key plot points

• Jiang Yuan accepts Minghe’s Northern True Martial Black-Eagle Flag, a treasure with formidable offense and defense as well as control over water and the weather.
• Minghe advises Jiang Yuan to gather the origin essence of all Five Innate Directional Flags. Using it to perfect his five elements could strengthen his Creation Dao Fruit and grant him the Innate Great Five-Element Divine Light.
• Because of his ties to powerful figures, Jiang Yuan may be able to request essence from the other four flags without imposing on them. He also recognizes that the essences of the Five-Element Sacred Beasts and Ancestral Witches could further enhance his cultivation.
• Jiang Yuan and Minghe’s discussion grows into a mutual exchange of ideas, leading both into long periods of sudden enlightenment. Minghe later shares the Self-Slaying Dao-Illumination Art, a perilous technique in which a cultivator repeatedly slays their past self and is reborn stronger.
• Jiang Yuan sees the technique chiefly as a way to defy fate and give those in desperate circumstances a chance to survive and transform—not as a reliable path to attaining the Dao.
• Jiang Yuan senses that Human Ancestor Sui has achieved a Daluo Dao Fruit. He leaves the Blood Sea to return to the Human Race and congratulate him.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Yuan shows gratitude for Minghe’s guidance, ambition to deepen his Creation path, and insight in reframing Minghe’s technique as a means of changing fate. He and Minghe treat each other as intellectual equals, despite their difference in cultivation.
• Minghe acts as mentor and collaborator. He recognizes the synergy between five-element cultivation and Jiang Yuan’s Creation path, and credits Jiang Yuan’s ideas for helping inspire the self-slaying method.
• Their exchange is reciprocal: Minghe acknowledges Jiang Yuan’s unusually rapid progress, while Jiang Yuan reflects that later generations benefit from the foundations laid by earlier cultivators.
• Sui does not appear directly, but his breakthrough prompts Jiang Yuan’s departure.

Significant themes

• Cultivation through resources and foundations: Drawing on the world’s purest elemental origins can produce stronger results than solitary effort.
• Opportunity and changing fate: Cultivation can attract opportunities beyond those fixed at birth; the self-slaying art offers a dangerous route to renewal when all other paths seem closed.
• Risk and resolve: The technique may offer a second life, but a mistake means genuine death.
• Generational progress: Later cultivators benefit from the laws and systems developed by their predecessors, while early generations enjoyed access to treasures and resources that later ages lack.

Minghe realized that Jiang Yuan and the Human Ancestor’s many firsts gave them great destiny in the coming rise of acquired beings, and decided to support that future by creating a race of his own. Jiang Yuan returned to the Human Race, where the Human Ancestor’s breakthrough drew congratulations and gifts from the surrounding races, the Demon Clan, and the Wu Clan.

• Minghe examined the Human Ancestor and discovered that his rapid cultivation came from being the first acquired being and the ancestor of all acquired beings.
• Minghe recognized Jiang Yuan’s several firsts as signs of immense future destiny and concluded that acquired beings would eventually flourish.
• Minghe decided to help bring about the rise of acquired beings by creating races, while Jiang Yuan kept his own knowledge about spreading teachings to himself.
• Jiang Yuan used the Great Teleportation Talisman to return to the East Sea Coast and the Human Race.
• The surrounding races sent Daluo Golden Immortals to congratulate the Human Ancestor, and Emperor Xi and the Wu Clan each ordered a high-grade spiritual treasure delivered as an auspicious reward for his record-breaking breakthrough.

Jiang Yuan returned to congratulate Ancestor Sui on becoming a Daluo Golden Immortal and explained why he was still suppressing his own cultivation. After giving Ancestor Sui an Innate Spiritual Treasure, Jiang Yuan set out to ask Ao Min for the Dragon Race’s help completing the Primordial Canon.

• Jiang Yuan assessed the Human Race’s growing destiny and potential, while recognizing that the Wu Clan and Demon Clan prevented it from rising further in the current era.
• Jiang Yuan met Ancestor Sui and explained that remaining a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal preserved his strength, camouflage, and protection while he perfected his Pangu Dao Fruit.
• Jiang Yuan gave Ancestor Sui a choice of three Innate Spiritual Treasures, and Ancestor Sui chose the Fire-Calming Divine Pillar.
• Jiang Yuan discussed the Human Race’s recent development with Ancestor Sui and reflected on Ancestor Sui’s effort to make the thirty-six heavenly daos accessible to acquired living beings.
• Jiang Yuan left to meet Ao Min and seek the Dragon Race’s cooperation in compiling a Three Races Canon to complete the Primordial Canon.