Chapter Summaries

A Devouring Spirit Sect cultivator arrived to collect two hundred thousand Green-skins, who were unknowingly processed for their souls and bodies aboard a vast ship. Li Qing saw through the slaughterhouse and identified the cultivator’s pure dharma power, deciding to seek the world’s true cultivation methods from him.

• Gu Yi presented two hundred thousand Green-skins to the Devouring Spirit Sect cultivator, who summoned a gigantic transport ship and ordered them aboard.
• Gula entered the ship, where a mysterious force extracted his souls and spirit and sent his body into a blood pool to be dissolved.
• Li Qing used the Eye of Reality and Illusion to see that the ship processed Green-skins for their souls and bodies.
• The cultivator scanned the world with a mirror but failed to detect a Child of Destiny or the World Pearl.
• Li Qing observed the cultivator’s nine hearts and pure dharma power, resolved to obtain his cultivation method, and noticed unknown logic within it.

Li Qing discovered that the Forty-Eight Thousand Side Sects Patriarch used cultivation techniques to monitor cultivators and eventually harvest them, then tested whether the techniques could be studied and cultivated without triggering that surveillance. His experiment in Dragon Province revealed that a bandit practicing the Devouring Spirit methods drew vital essence from the surrounding world and developed strange curse patterns.

• Li Qing recorded that cloud sea cultivation techniques carried logic that monitored cultivators’ minds and let the Side Sects Patriarch detect prolonged mind control.
• Li Qing concluded that sect cultivators could not safely be controlled, while slave people might offer an opening, and decided to investigate the cultivation techniques instead.
• Li Qing used the Wish Spell to make a True Cultivator study his technique and recite it without disturbing the logic in his dharma power.
• Li Qing reconstructed the Devouring Spirit Qi Refining Art, Devouring Spirit Transformation Canon, and Devouring Spirit Hundred Forms Diagram, finding their contents identical.
• Li Qing had a bandit in Dragon Province cultivate the three methods, and the bandit reached the Human Tribulation realm within days.
• Li Qing observed that the bandit absorbed vital essence from the outside world and that wondrous curse patterns formed across his body.

Li Qing tested Devouring Spirit Sect techniques in a low-dimensional world and discovered that their embedded logic remained dormant without activation by vital essence from the Cloud Sea. He also learned why Nine Provinces Four Regions techniques lacked logic, then watched the treasure ship carrying two hundred thousand young people shrink into the True Cultivator’s sleeve.

• Li Qing made a man cultivate the Devouring Spirit Transformation Canon and found that its magical power contained lifeless logic in the low-dimensional world.
• Li Qing used the Record Book and Jade Tablet to determine that Devouring Spirit Sect techniques contained dormant logic-seeds activated by conceptual logic and Cloud Sea vital essence.
• Li Qing learned that Heaven had twisted and neutralized the Enemy of Heaven’s techniques, while other lineages’ methods avoided conflicts with underlying logic.
• Li Qing concluded that Heaven and the Enemy of Heaven both pursued their own aims, and that the Wish Spell could guide someone without alarming the logic if it did not directly control or twist their mind.
• The True Cultivator’s treasure ship, carrying two hundred thousand young and able-bodied people, shrank to palm size and vanished into his sleeve.

Li Qing formed two plans to build influence in the high-dimensional world: cultivate powerful seeds in low-dimensional worlds and infiltrate the Devouring Spirit Sect with a blank spy. After creating an infant vessel and sending Gu Yi to search Devouring Spirit City, Li Qing selected a female True Cultivator as a potential target.

• The True Cultivator took the selected people to the upper realm, while Gu Yi instructed the Green-skin King to keep fostering outstanding young people for the next twenty years.
• Li Qing concluded that low-dimensional worlds could supply powerful cultivators for a Second Fortress Plan, while the Devouring Spirit Sect's cultivation logic made direct control too risky.
• Li Qing created a blank infant from the Flesh Tree and sent the Heavens Civilization Torrent into its consciousness, hiding a spiritual imprint within it for the Blank Spy Plan.
• Li Qing controlled Gu Yi as he cautiously searched Devouring Spirit City for a cultivator he could influence.
• Li Qing settled on a female True Cultivator as his target.

Li Qing used the Way of Changes and Wish Spell to connect the Blank Spy’s marriage karma with Wang Linger’s, then lured her toward a baby with an extraordinary bloodline. Wang Linger rescued the infant from an Anomaly and felt an immediate closeness to it, leaving Li Qing’s plan on the verge of success.

• Li Qing observed Wang Linger, a Blood Qilin Clan disciple, and learned that her loneliness and bloodline made her suitable for his plan.
• After leaving Devouring Spirit Island, Li Qing used the Way of Changes and Wish Spell to graft Wang Linger’s marriage karma to the Blank Spy’s and conceal the connection.
• Li Qing placed the sleeping infant in a Floating Cloud Tree basket and set it adrift near the island, while Gu Yi left by another route.
• Wang Linger followed an inexplicable impulse toward the Cloud Sea and found the crying baby as Anomalies approached.
• Wang Linger killed a snake-like Anomaly that lunged at the infant, then sensed the baby’s extraordinary bloodline and felt close to it.

Li Qing used karmic bonds to arrange for Wang Linger to take in the Flesh Tree's avatar infant, then turned to his next plans and monitored the rising tensions across the Nine Provinces Four Regions. Meanwhile, Yuan Zhihui investigated Ashoka King's followers but found no sign of Li Qing's influence, leaving him uncertain how Li Qing planned to reach a Primordial Dharma Form.

• Wang Linger found the abandoned avatar infant, took him to her cave abode, and decided to raise him as her future junior brother in the Devouring Spirit Sect.
• The Flesh Tree's duplicate watched Wang Linger leave and planned to let the infant grow before beginning its next scheme.
• Li Qing used Gu Yi to explore Devouring Spirit Island's boundaries for dilapidated low-dimensional worlds where he could cultivate Children of Destiny.
• Li Qing monitored the factions preparing for conflict across the Nine Provinces Four Regions, though severed karma left major gaps in his knowledge of powerful cultivators.
• Yuan Zhihui secretly examined Corpse Treasury Master and other Primordial Spirit cultivators under Ashoka King but found no suspicious evidence of Li Qing's plans.
• Yuan Zhihui wondered whether Li Qing had abandoned the plan to control Primordial Spirit cultivators or found another way to contact a Primordial Dharma Form.

Li Qing abandoned his plan to obtain a Primordial Dharma Form through Primordial Spirit cultivators and prepared to seize one from the Ghost Path by force. His Divine Body gathered four Battle Soul Puppets and headed toward the Ghost Path’s stronghold beneath Hell Mountain, while an unexplained fluctuation began affecting the puppets and places connected to his earlier tribulation diversions.

• Yuan Zhihui’s suspicions led Li Qing to realize that Tribulation Realm cultivators were watching Primordial Spirit cultivators and might expose any attempt to obtain a Primordial Dharma Form through them.
• Li Qing decided to disrupt their expectations by targeting the Ghost Path and taking a Primordial Dharma Form by force.
• Li Qing reasoned that Hell Mountain’s lower section was less protected because many Ghost Path cultivators had left to support the Child of Destiny, though its defenses had tightened since his previous exploration.
• Li Qing sent his Divine Body to the ancient battlefield outside Two Realms City, where it summoned four Battle Soul Puppets and took them, the Myriad Spell Divine Banner, and Force-Borrowing Talismans.
• After the lifespan in the Force-Borrowing Talismans was used, a strange fluctuation surrounded the four Battle Soul Puppets as subtle changes appeared at locations linked to Li Qing’s earlier diversions.

Li Qing sent his Divine Body into the East Wasteland to infiltrate Hell Mountain and steal the scripture for the Primordial Dharma Form. After preparing an escape route and studying the Ghost Path’s defenses, he began sneaking into its grand formation.

• Yuan Zhihui speculated that Li Qing had summoned four Battle Soul Puppets to strengthen his fated tribulation during the Six Paths Investiture of Gods.
• Li Qing’s Divine Body crossed into the East Wasteland and watched its million-strong army stage a measured assault on the border pass.
• Li Qing reached Hell Mountain and set up the yang half of the Yin-Yang Void Spirit-Swapping Feng Shui Grand Formation, while his Present Body prepared the yin half in Dragon Province.
• Li Qing studied the Ten Halls Wheel-Turning Grand Formation and identified the Yama Son of Heaven Hall’s scripture pavilion as the likely location of the Primordial Dharma Form scripture.
• Li Qing summoned a Battle Soul Puppet and gave it the Myriad Spell Divine Banner to help conceal his entry into the Ghost Path’s formation.

Li Qing used concealment and his understanding of the formation to cross Hell Mountain and enter the Yama Son of Heaven Hall. He reached the Eighteen Layers of Hell and arrived at the Mountain of Blades.

• Li Qing concealed the Divine Body and followed the formation’s safe points through the mist.
• Li Qing reached Hell Mountain’s summit, where the ten palaces formed the formation’s source and defense.
• Li Qing entered Samsara Hall and found a corridor leading to the Yama Son of Heaven Hall.
• Li Qing passed through the hall’s gate into a small grotto-heaven containing the Eighteen Layers of Hell.
• Li Qing reached the central eighteen-level mountain and arrived at the first level, the Mountain of Blades.

Li Qing reached Yama Son of Heaven Hall and found the Scripture Pavilion sealed by powerful logic, so he prepared a plan to break in while distracting the Ghost Path experts. He used the Way of Changes to assess the plan, but the sealed heavenly secrets prevented him from seeing whether it would succeed.

• Li Qing crossed the mountain of blades and the eighteen hells unharmed, then entered Yama Son of Heaven Hall using Gap Walking.
• Li Qing found the Scripture Pavilion sealed by the palace’s logic and decided to force it open with the Battle Soul Puppet.
• Li Qing left a duplicated figure and Battle Soul Puppet at the Scripture Pavilion, then returned to the grotto-heaven entrance and created three more Battle Soul Puppets with Force-Borrowing Talismans.
• Li Qing sent two Battle Soul Puppets carrying his Divine Body to suppress Yama Hall’s control statue and stop the Ten Halls Wheel-Turning Grand Formation, while another puppet waited with the Myriad Spell Divine Banner for an assassination.
• Li Qing entered the Yin-Yang Void Spirit-Swapping Feng Shui Grand Formation and used the Way of Changes to examine his plan, but the heavenly secrets remained obscured.

Li Qing simulated the coming battle, then sent his Battle Soul Puppet and Divine Body clone to break into the Scripture Repository Pavilion and copy its books. The clone recorded the Ghost Path's Reincarnation Yama Record, completing Li Qing's plan to obtain four Primordial Dharma Forms, while four Tribulation Realm cultivators entered Hell Mountain and charged toward its palace.

• Li Qing simulated the battle and saw four Tribulation Realm cultivators fight the Battle Soul Puppets, with the Immortal-Slaying Flying Dagger apparently having been used without killing anyone.
• Li Qing ordered the Battle Soul Puppet to break open the Scripture Repository Pavilion's gates while his Divine Body clone entered and sent Shadow Paper Dolls to copy the books.
• Li Qing's Divine Body clone recorded the Ghost Path's Reincarnation Yama Record in the Jade Tablet, giving Li Qing four Primordial Dharma Forms.
• Li Qing considered using the four Dharma Forms to nurture a Dharma Form of his own and judged his main objective complete.
• Four figures tore through spacetime, entered the Ten Halls Wheel-Turning Grand Formation, and charged into the palace atop Hell Mountain.

A Battle Soul Puppet used the Myriad Spell Divine Banner to unleash the Immortal-Slaying Flying Dagger against the Ghost Path cultivators guarding the entrance. The dagger killed Samsara King, while Song Di King fled after his Dao artifact shattered and Aberration began to overtake him.

• Yama King led Chu Jiang King into the hall to capture the intruders while Samsara King and Song Di King guarded the exit.
• A Battle Soul Puppet struck Samsara King and Song Di King with the Immortal-Slaying Flying Dagger, which shattered Samsara King's defenses and Song Di King's spear.
• Song Di King suffered damage to his Dao Foundation, began to undergo Aberration, and disappeared while trying to suppress it.
• Samsara King repeatedly used reincarnation passages to escape the dagger, but it tracked him through each passage and caught up with him.
• The Immortal-Slaying Flying Dagger severed Samsara King's head, Primordial Spirit, and consciousness before returning to the Myriad Spell Divine Banner.
• The Battle Soul Puppets suppressed the divine statue in Yama Hall, causing the Ten Halls Wheel-Turning Grand Formation and its mist to lose power.

Li Qing used the four Battle Soul Puppets to trap the First Yama King and the First Chu Jiang King while his Divine Body escaped through the spacetime-transference formation. With one Puppet nearing its time limit, Li Qing ordered it to self-destruct against the Chu Jiang King, and the remaining Puppets pressed their attack.

• The Divine Body caught the Myriad Spell Divine Banner and safely withdrew through the Yin-Yang Void Spirit-Swapping Feng Shui Grand Formation.
• Li Qing took control of four Battle Soul Puppets and sent them after the First Yama King and the First Chu Jiang King, while Samsara King lay slain and Song Di King was missing.
• The First Yama King fought one Puppet with a flaming emperor's sword, while the First Chu Jiang King used a vast river to battle three others.
• Li Qing used Way of Changes to process the Tribulation Realm fighters' information and direct the Puppets' overall strategy despite the strain on his mind.
• As its time ran out, one Puppet switched targets, embraced the First Chu Jiang King, and self-destructed, badly wounding him.
• The two remaining Puppets attacked the injured Chu Jiang King as he fought back with his rivers.

Li Qing’s Battle Soul Puppets destroyed the First Chu Jiang King and cornered the First Yama King, while the Chu Jiang King and Samsara King revived and the Song Di King turned his corrupted statue into an anomalous puppet. The First Yama King was grievously wounded as four figures arrived, and black light flared within the burning Battle Soul Puppets.

• The Battle Soul Puppets froze and shattered the First Chu Jiang King, then attacked the First Yama King.
• The Chu Jiang King and Samsara King revived through their statues, while the Song Di King transformed his corrupted statue into an anomalous puppet.
• Four figures arrived at Hell Mountain and entered the pocket dimension where the First Yama King was surrounded by three Battle Soul Puppets.
• Li Qing ordered the puppets to ignore the First Yama King’s flaming sword; one was pinned by the sword while the others stabbed into the First Yama King’s abdomen and chest.
• The First Yama King unleashed black flames that set the three puppets ablaze as the four figures struck, and black light ignited inside the puppets.

Li Qing destroyed the First Yama King's body and stole the Ghost Path Primordial Dharma Form, leaving Hell Mountain's four hall masters to conceal their losses and prepare for his next move. The Nether River Yama Son of Heaven veiled Hell Mountain's secrets, but Yuan Zhihui noticed the four kings' agitation and asked what had happened.

• Li Qing's attack engulfed the First Yama King, whose body exploded as the First Song Di King and the other two arrived too late to stop him.
• The First Yama King returned to Yama Son of Heaven Hall and discovered that Li Qing had taken the Ghost Path Primordial Dharma Form.
• The four hall masters decided to hide their losses, remain together, and wait for Li Qing to target another Dao Lineage.
• The Nether River Yama Son of Heaven agreed with their plan and used a heavenly secrets art to conceal what had happened at Hell Mountain.
• Yuan Zhihui noticed the kings' agitated auras and asked whether something had happened on Hell Mountain.

Li Qing discovered that the Ghost Path was hiding the destruction of its vow-power bodies and planned to exploit the coming conflict to strike both the Ghost Path and the Demonic Path. He began coordinating his forces and sent a letter to the five Wisdom Logic Anomalies, whose projections were gathered in the tomb.

• The First Yama King told Yuan Zhihui that a death-class Anomaly had wandered into the grotto-heaven and been dealt with, while Li Qing secretly monitored the sects for news.
• After three days passed without word of the Ghost Path attack, Li Qing used his Record Book to infer that the Ghost Path was concealing its losses and waiting to ambush him.
• Li Qing planned to attack the Demonic Path headquarters while the five Wisdom Logic Anomalies targeted the Demonic Path Immortal, then trap the Ghost Path and kill its Tribulation Realm cultivators.
• Li Qing used Way of Changes to simulate the battle and saw the Nether River Yama Son of Heaven appearing at the ruined Demonic Path headquarters after failing to capture him.
• Li Qing decided to tell Sun Qiankun to prepare the war effort and sent a letter to the five Wisdom Logic Anomalies, who were watching the Demonic Path Immortal's projected incarnation.

The five Wisdom Logic Anomalies planned to use Li Qing’s scheme to draw the Immortal Realm cultivators into a trap. Meanwhile, an aura from the destroyed Battle Soul Puppets gathered in Dragon Province, transformed a man and his residence, and plunged the future into chaos.

• A woman among the five Wisdom Logic Anomalies explained how they would lure the Demonic Path Immortal Realm cultivator into the Tomb of Heaven while Li Qing distracted the other Immortal Realm cultivators.
• Four wisps of aura rose from the places where the Battle Soul Puppets had been destroyed and converged in Dragon Province.
• The gathered aura entered an ordinary man, who returned home and summoned servants, none of whom ever emerged from his room.
• The man’s residence became a sinister, forgotten place as a mass of tumors with human faces formed inside it.
• The Six Paths and Eight Immortals, the five Wisdom Logic Anomalies, and Li Qing sensed that the future had become chaotic.
• Li Qing used the Way of Changes to look into the future, but found every image gone and feared that something had escaped his control.

Li Qing discovered that his use of the Borrowed Lifespan Technique had summoned an unknown force from beyond the world, which was forming a body in the Li Residence. He decided to track the force while preparing a plan that might kill two Immortal Realm beings, and told Sun Qiankun to await his signal to start the Investiture of Gods War.

• Li Qing learned from the Jade Tablet that his use of the Borrowed Lifespan Technique had drawn an unknown force into the Nine Provinces Four Regions, where it was devouring the residents of the Li Residence.
• Li Qing determined that he could not purge the formless force and chose to monitor its location until his major plan was complete.
• Li Qing contacted Sun Qiankun and told him that his plan might kill two beings from the Immortal Realm.
• Li Qing ordered Sun Qiankun to begin the Investiture of Gods War with Li Qinglian and defeat Huang Wanchao when he received the signal.
• Sun Qiankun assured Li Qing that his forces were prepared and set out for the king's palace, eager to begin the war.

Li Qing prepared for the coming war by securing escape routes and secretly investigating the Demonic Path headquarters, while gathering Battle Soul Puppets for a dangerous plan. Yuan Zhihui tried to deduce Li Qing’s intentions but misunderstood his objective.

• Li Qing set out for the Northern Desert and established a formation near the Demonic Path headquarters, while preparing another in Dragon Province.
• A Myriad Shadow Paper Doll sealed four more Battle Soul Puppets in Force-Borrowing Talismans and carried them toward the Demonic Path.
• Li Qing used the Eye of Reality and Illusion to survey the Demonic Path headquarters and detected its hidden Grotto-Heaven and powerful cultivators.
• Li Qing sent a replica into the palace complex to gather information about the Demonic Path in secret.
• Yuan Zhihui noticed Li Qing had gathered at least eight Battle Soul Puppets and speculated that he meant to threaten cultivators or prepare for his tribulation, but his deductions were wrong.

Li Qing sent a tiny, concealed duplicate into the Ten Thousand Demons Palace and found the passage into the Demonic Path grotto-heaven. He reached the black palace where the Demonic Path's Immortal Realm cultivator had once lived, preparing to investigate its hidden weapon.

• Li Qing decided to locate and neutralize the Demonic Path's hidden weapon before attacking its Tribulation Realm cultivators.
• Li Qing shrank his duplicate and slipped it through the tightly shut doors of the Ten Thousand Demons Palace.
• The duplicate crossed the blood-mist-filled hall, where human faces formed the floor and fused bodies served as pillars, and found a blood-colored vortex.
• Li Qing entered the vortex and surveyed the grotto-heaven, spotting one Tribulation Realm aura and a towering palace at its center.
• The duplicate reached the black crystal-like palace and recognized the aura of the Demonic Path's Immortal Realm cultivator.