Chapter Summaries

The southern powers gathered to discuss the Myriad Calamities Dao Court’s demands, but Granny Meng arrived and exposed that many leaders had secretly allied with her. She attacked the King of Chuxiang after he offered to submit, leaving the hall in chaos.

• Xiong Li and other southern leaders rejected the Dao Court’s demands, though some feared they could not oppose the Myriad Calamities Daoist.
• Yuwen Shu attended in place of his absent elder brother, Yuwen Zhong, while the leaders suspected the King of Wu-Yue was dead.
• Granny Meng entered the meeting and said she served the Dao Court, then ordered an attack.
• Several leaders, including Xiong Li and Patriarch Qu, attacked their fellow attendees, while Yuwen Shu killed the Kunshan School’s leader and joined Granny Meng.
• The King of Chuxiang agreed to submit, but Granny Meng struck him with her Other Shore Flower technique and sent him flying.

Hong Yuan began his campaign against the northern Military Towns, arriving in Long Province City to find the Longyou Army’s commander, Zhang Yong. He discovered Zhang Yong was absent and that two generals served as the Red Lotus Holy Lord’s true envoys, then flew toward Liang Province City to pursue him.

• Hong Yuan found that the Chain-Form Primordial Lord and the Formless Realm Master had fled to the Imperial Capital, and he suspected the northern gods had withdrawn there as well.
• Hong Yuan gathered representatives of Rebirth Ferry, the Red Lotus Cult, and the great clans and principalities, then sent them to help take control of the northern armies.
• A squad of Longyou Army soldiers attacked Hong Yuan on the road to Long Province City, and he killed them before flying into the city.
• Hong Yuan confronted the Longyou Army’s two generals at Zhang Yong’s residence and defeated them with the Soul-Shaking Bell.
• Pianzhao and Jiemie recognized that the two generals cultivated deeper versions of the Red Lotus Cult’s secret arts and were the Holy Lord’s true envoys.
• Hong Yuan ordered his allies to secure Long Province City and flew toward Liang Province City to find the Red Lotus Holy Lord.

Hong Yuan tracked down Zhang Yong, the hidden master of the Red Lotus Cult, and defeated him with one move before leaving Liang Province. In Liao Province, Shi Xuan’s Stone Demon Tribe prepared its Grand Sacrifice, where tribespeople began sacrificing Yin captives as Zhao Tianheng watched.

• Zhang Yong sensed impending danger, abandoned the Marshal’s Residence in disguise, and fled into Liang Province City.
• Hong Yuan detected Zhang Yong’s Red Lotus Cult aura, called his name using a mind technique, and confronted him in the street.
• Zhang Yong unleashed the Great Red Lotus Naraka Sutra, but Hong Yuan shattered its hellish illusions and knocked him unconscious with one finger.
• Hong Yuan captured Zhang Yong, studied his knowledge of the Red Lotus True Art, entrusted Liang Province’s affairs to several Ferryers, and departed for Yanshan Circuit.
• Shi Hong spoke with his brother Shi Xuan, marshal of the Western Liao Army, who ordered him to prepare for the Stone Demon Tribe’s triennial Grand Sacrifice.
• Shi Xuan welcomed Black Armor Sect master Zhao Tianheng to the ceremony, where Stone Demon tribespeople killed Yin captives and poured their blood onto the altar.

Hong Yuan killed Shi Xuan and used Zhao Tianheng to purge the Western Liao Army, then explored the frozen wastes in search of the world's edge. He stopped before the Mist-Locked World and carved an inscription into the ice.

• Shi Xuan threatened Zhao Tianheng with submission, but a descending Hong Yuan burned through the Stone Demon Tribe's sacrifice and killed Shi Xuan with a single kick.
• Zhao Tianheng surrendered to Hong Yuan, who ordered him to help purge the Western Liao Army; the next day, Zhao Tianheng and the Rebirth Ferry's experts led the campaign against the tribes in Liao Province City.
• Hong Yuan examined the Wind Skeleton Tribe's ancient mural, which appeared to depict the Yu Emperor suppressing an Evil God within a human body.
• After the Grandmaster-level Ferryer reported that the Western Liao Army had been taken, Hong Yuan departed for the frozen wastes.
• Hong Yuan crossed the frozen wastes and pressed into the dense mist at the world's edge, then carved an inscription declaring that Ten Thousand Tribulations had been there.

Hong Yuan destroyed the Qingzhou Army, developed the first revolution of the Qi-Blood Furnace Method, and refused the surrender of four northern military towns. The four marshals gathered at Youyan Military Town and prepared to fight him with two hundred thousand troops.

• Hong Yuan tortured Yu Can into begging for mercy, then ordered his men to keep him alive for a month before feeding him to the dogs.
• Hong Yuan used his mental art to make the twenty thousand Qingzhou soldiers slaughter one another, while his experts sealed the camp’s exits.
• Hong Yuan explained the first revolution of his Qi-Blood Furnace Method to Granny Meng, who said it could reshape martial arts across the world.
• Granny Meng told Hong Yuan that someone had joined the Dao Court, and Fang Qi reported that the marshals of Qinzhou, Suzhou, Yunzhou, and Youyan wanted to submit.
• Hong Yuan refused the four marshals’ offer, and Yin Sheng resolved to muster two hundred thousand troops to fight him.

Hong Yuan led a one-man assault on the four allied Military Towns and destroyed their army at Jizhou, killing its governors and breaking the city’s defenses. As he washed his hands after the battle, Li Daoyi arrived with the Jinzhou Army governor’s head as a gift, marking Hong Yuan’s victory over the north.

• Yin Sheng, Shao Mu, Jin Shicheng, and Long Junhe gathered more than a hundred thousand soldiers at Jizhou and prepared to fight Hong Yuan.
• Hong Yuan arrived alone and ignored Shao Mu’s offer to surrender, choosing to crush the northern armies by force.
• Hong Yuan turned the archers’ volley back on the troops, then stormed through their formations and broke through Jizhou’s wall.
• Hong Yuan killed Jin Shicheng and Long Junhe with spears, beheaded Yin Sheng and Shao Mu, and hung their heads from flagpoles as the remaining troops fled.
• Hong Yuan left the battlefield and washed his hands at a river while northern martial artists subdued the routed soldiers.
• Li Daoyi of the True One Abbey presented Hong Yuan with the head of the Jinzhou Army’s governor as a congratulatory gift.

As the Dao Lord of Myriad Tribulations united the north and south and approached the Imperial Capital, Yanchen explained how Great Yin used its divine Fortune Artifact and the city’s accumulated fortune to empower its gods. The gods sacrificed Emperor Fude to strengthen themselves, but Yu Wuhen and his allies attacked the capital, with Yu Wuhen declaring that the Yu Family had returned after eight hundred years.

• Yanxin admitted that the Dao Lord of Myriad Tribulations was the Nine Tribulations Chan Monastery’s strongest enemy in eight hundred years, and Yanchen said Great Yin’s imperial clan would confront him in the Imperial Capital.
• Yanchen told Yanxin that the Yu Emperor’s Fortune Artifact absorbed fortune, which Great Yin’s imperial clan had cultivated through cycles of disaster and prosperity.
• Emperor Fude entered the golden pagoda, where Great Yin’s six gods demanded his sacrifice to increase their power against the Dao Lord of Myriad Tribulations.
• The gods drained Emperor Fude’s flesh and blood through the Bronze Coffin, and his remains fell as ash near the Imperial Capital.
• Feng Nanyan killed a Divine Martial Guard general as the attacking army reached the city, while Yu Wuhen blasted the walls and announced the Yu Family’s return.

Yu Wuhen and Great Yin's defenders fought the invading forces as the rebellion breached the Imperial Capital's gates, while Granny Meng and Li Daoyi moved to begin their own confrontation. Li Daoyi arrived at the Nine Tribulations Chan Monastery and announced his challenge.

• Corrosive Ant and Demon Midge attacked Yu Wuhen, but Ghost Fan Tower's Black and White Impermanence intervened, and the battle widened to include more of Green Fly's and Ghost Fan Tower's strongest fighters.
• Feng Nanyan resisted the Demon-Suppressing Sacred King's Dream Demon Heavenly Prison Astral Art, then joined Netherworld Judge, Blood Rakshasa, and other Ghost Fan Tower assassins against Green Fly's Fate-Divining Divine Lord and Demon-Suppressing Sacred King.
• Nine sorcerers unleashed the Nine Dragons Divine Fire at a city gate, but Divine General White Phoenix absorbed the fire dragons with her Golden Crow Fire-Bathing Armor and faced the invading army.
• The Poison Buddha Sage confronted Bai Feng, revealing that he had joined the Rebirth Ferry, while experts from the Rebirth Ferry and the northern and southern provinces engaged Great Yin's Divine Generals.
• The rebel army poured through the breached gates and clashed with the Imperial Capital's defenders as Granny Meng said the eight-hundred-year struggle was nearing a new chapter and departed.
• Li Daoyi arrived at the Nine Tribulations Chan Monastery and declared that he had come from the Dao Transmission Hub under the Myriad Calamities Path to seek its instruction.

Li Daoyi and Yanxin fought over the Nine Tribulations Chan Monastery, but Granny Meng faced its hidden Dao Lord, Yanchen, in a battle against three centuries of accumulated power. After Granny Meng defeated Yanchen at the cost of her strength, Hong Yuan appeared before a gray-white stone door and was identified as its door knocker.

• Li Daoyi challenged Yanxin at the Mahavira Hall, and the two exchanged spiritual and physical attacks using their deepest arts.
• Yanxin revealed his unprecedented Awakening Variant Force, which let him glimpse the future and simulate the Dragon Elephant Prajna Seal, while Li Daoyi used the Purple Mansion Canopy World-Crossing Chapter to counter him.
• Granny Meng appeared to stop an attack on Li Daoyi, and Yanchen emerged from the Mahavira Hall as the monastery's hidden Dao Lord.
• Yanchen revealed that generations of monks had infused the monastery with three hundred years of cultivation, then gathered their blood energy into a vast Buddha that struck Granny Meng.
• Granny Meng countered Yanchen's Buddha with the Nether River and stone bridge, then declared that he had won the clash but lost his life to her.
• Yanchen crumbled into dust as the monastery filled with smoke, and Hong Yuan knocked on a gray-white stone door, where a panel identified him as its door knocker.

Hong Yuan reached the Imperial City and fought the seven Omnipotents who guarded Great Yin’s hidden power, uncovering the secret behind Di Yin and the blood-red eye. He defeated them, took Di Yin and the eye’s fragment, and stood above the city as history entered a new chapter.

• Hong Yuan flew toward the Imperial City as war erupted, while the six gods identified the Yu Emperor’s skullcap and sensed their great enemy approaching.
• Hong Yuan destroyed the golden tower with a single strike, prompting the Formless Realm Master to awaken Di Yin and join the other six Omnipotents in attacking him.
• Di Yin’s blood-red eye amplified the six gods’ power and blasted Hong Yuan through the Imperial City, but Hong Yuan’s blood qi soon overwhelmed them and he killed the Ashen Calamity General and the Mother of Ten Thousand Venoms.
• Hong Yuan recognized that Phantom Souls had been lodged in the Yu Emperor’s five organs and that the blood-red eye balanced their powers within Di Yin, whose body he suspected belonged to the Dragon Emperor.
• Hong Yuan defeated the remaining Omnipotents, seized Di Yin, and took the blood-red fragment from between his brows before rising above the Heavenly Origin Imperial Pole.

After defeating Great Yin, Hong Yuan learned that its Yun Family claimed to have prepared for demons from Beyond the Heavens, then began planning a new government and investigating the world’s hidden history. He ordered historians to compile the past openly, while the fate of the Yun ancestor who had crossed the Endless Sea remained unresolved.

• Hong Yuan examined the divine-artifact fragment taken from Di Yin as a Yun Family elder attacked him and explained the family’s account of Yu, the coming demons, and their centuries of preparations.
• Hong Yuan rejected the elder’s attempt to delay him, allowed the surviving Yun bloodline to escape, and made the elder lead him to Great Yin’s secret library.
• Hong Yuan planned the Three Hubs Bureau, assigning Li Daoyi to the Dao Transmission Hub and Granny Meng to the Chief Astrologer Bureau, while considering how to staff the Heavenly Works Hub.
• Hong Yuan read a fragment of the Mysterious Canon and learned that Heavenly Maiden Xi called the mist the Endless Sea and that the Yun ancestor had used the divine seal to cross it.
• The elder revealed that the divine artifact could grant titles to ghost gods and claimed the Yun ancestor would return; Hong Yuan ordered historians to compile Great Yin’s history and leave judgments about Yu and Yin to the people.

After consolidating the Myriad Calamities Dao Court and gathering secret arts, Hong Yuan transcended into sainthood and entered the Taisui Blessed Land as its Dao Lord. He discovered his lifespan and the cost of traveling between worlds, then sent his thoughts toward a world he selected.

• The Dao Court subdued Great Yin’s remaining resistance, established the Three Hubs Bureau, and ordered historians and powerful groups to provide records and secret arts.
• Hong Yuan studied the collected techniques in the secret archive and broke through the human limit, transcending into sainthood.
• Hong Yuan entered the Taisui Blessed Land with his true body and learned that he was its master, with a lifespan of 996 years.
• Hong Yuan discovered that the blessed land was being eroded by mist and that his Karmic calamity dao seed could send him to other worlds at the cost of the land’s lifespan.
• Hong Yuan selected a world for his first journey and sent a strand of thought into the Mist Sea.

Hong Yuan possessed Bai Ye, a wounded company commander of the Great Xuan Dynasty’s Pacification and Suppression Bureau, and learned about the world’s cultivation paths while joining the Six Fiends on a mission. After the group killed a True Void Dao Walker and seized the child he had carried, Wei Sansi found a mysterious sheet of yellow paper on the child.

• Hong Yuan woke in Bai Ye’s body, removed the Black Blood Poison, and joined his colleagues as they pursued their target.
• Hong Yuan learned that Bai Ye was one of the Six Fiends and discovered how Dragon Talismans and true qi shaped cultivation in the Great Xuan Dynasty.
• The Six Fiends reached a cavern and used Yellow Wind Smoke to force the wounded Gold Walker and a child outside.
• Gold Walker killed Black Fox and Cui Wang before Li Yan, Wei Sansi, and Guo Hou killed him; Hong Yuan watched without joining the fight.
• Wei Sansi broke the child’s neck and found a sheet of yellow paper concealed on his back.

Hong Yuan survived the betrayal of his fellow guards, claimed the True Void Diagram, and deciphered the True Void and Wondrous Being Scripture. In Haijin City, he considered the turmoil engulfing Great Xuan and prepared to establish his foundation without relying on a Dragon Vein.

• After Li Yan stabbed Wei Sansi and attacked Guo Hou, Guo Hou secretly used Gold Walker’s concealed arrow case to kill Li Yan, then admitted he had killed their companions for the Dragon Talisman.
• Guo Hou demanded to know how Hong Yuan had resisted Black Blood Poison, but Hong Yuan countered the black arrow with a blood arrow and left Guo Hou unable to move.
• Hong Yuan took the Formless True Void Diagram, used his spiritual perception to read it, and heard the words, “True void and wondrous being, strength born from nothing,” before leaving the scene.
• Thousand-Man Commander Wei arrived hours later and learned that five guards were dead, White Snake, Bai Ye, was missing, and the deaths appeared to include internal fighting.
• Several days later, Hong Yuan settled in Haijin City, read reports of unrest across Great Xuan’s overseas territories, and reflected on the absent Xuan Emperor and the destruction of the True Void Dao.
• Hong Yuan studied the True Void and Wondrous Being Scripture, resolved to cultivate true qi without a Dragon Vein, and called his two red-haired maids over before establishing his foundation.

Hong Yuan killed the Pacification and Suppression Bureau squad that attacked him, then accepted an invitation from the Harmony Association to meet at the Paradise of Supreme Pleasure. He tested Wei Yiming’s Foundation Establishment true qi, buried him, and resolved to use the True Void Dao’s Formless method to establish his own foundation.

• Hong Yuan repelled Wei Yiming and the Bureau’s men, killing everyone except Wei Yiming.
• An Shengying of the Harmony Association offered Hong Yuan a token and invited him to a meeting at the Paradise of Supreme Pleasure.
• Hong Yuan captured Wei Yiming and examined the Foundation Establishment true qi in his dantian.
• Hong Yuan killed Wei Yiming, buried him, and had An Shengying’s men clear away the other bodies.
• Hong Yuan studied the True Void Diagram’s Formless section and decided to establish his foundation with orthodox dharma.

Hong Yuan established a Void Aperture and formed Orthodox Dharma true qi, then tested how his actions affected karmic calamity around a rickshaw puller. He went to the Paradise of Supreme Pleasure as Black Tortoise Guard agents prepared to travel to Izumo in response to the attempt on Zhang Yunting.

• Hong Yuan drew in numinous energy and established his Void Aperture, forming true qi through the True Void Dao.
• Hong Yuan decided to seek a dragon vein and more True Void Diagrams, then hailed a rickshaw to visit the Paradise of Supreme Pleasure.
• Hong Yuan gave the rickshaw puller a gold coin and saw the red and black qi around him more than double.
• Black Tortoise Guard agents ordered Governor Yu to arrange a ship to Izumo, where they intended to respond to the attempt on Zhang Yunting.
• Hong Yuan reached the Paradise of Supreme Pleasure and used a momentary distraction to slip past its doormen.

Hong Yuan infiltrated a secret meeting where Princess Yu and Naito Hayato plotted to exploit the Xuan Emperor’s possible disappearance and bring Haijin City to ruin. When they attacked him for overhearing their plans, he swiftly cut down the Harmony Association’s fighters, leaving Naito Hayato and the maimed Chiyu Xiao alive.

• Hong Yuan visited Paradise of Supreme Pleasure and spotted An Shengying entering a concealed room where Princess Yu, Naito Hayato, and their allies planned their next moves.
• Naito Hayato and Princess Yu discussed the Black Tortoise Guard, their plot to seize or cripple Haijin City, and their plans to use the Canal-Sea Gang while threatening the Black Banner Gate.
• A waiter reported that a young man resembling someone An Shengying had been watching had arrived, and Princess Yu ordered An Shengying to bring him in.
• Hong Yuan appeared at the Secret Hall door and revealed that he had heard the conspirators discussing the Xuan Emperor.
• After Princess Yu ordered her fighters to break Hong Yuan’s limbs, he seized Chiyu Xiao’s curved blade, killed or incapacitated the gathered fighters, and left Naito Hayato standing with Chiyu Xiao maimed.

Hong Yuan defeated the Harmony Association leaders in Haijin and learned that the Divine Radiance Palace in Izumo might hold dragon veins. After secretly killing his supposed hostages and arranging for Chiyu Xiao to guide him overseas, Hong Yuan followed the Harmony Association ship toward Izumo.

• Hong Yuan defeated Naito Hayato and the Harmony Association members, then interrogated them about Izumo and the Divine Radiance Palace.
• Hong Yuan proposed cooperation with the Divine Radiance Palace and sent Chiyu Xiao away to deliver his message, keeping Naito Hayato, Commandery Princess Yu, and An Shengying as hostages.
• After Chiyu Xiao left, Hong Yuan killed Naito Hayato, Commandery Princess Yu, and An Shengying, then departed the Paradise of Supreme Pleasure.
• Hong Yuan decided to seek Izumo's dragon veins and head for the Divine Radiance Palace at Ancestral Spirit Mountain.
• Governor Yu received a list exposing Harmony Association members and ordered guards into action.
• Chiyu Xiao boarded a Harmony Association ship leaving Haijin, unaware that Hong Yuan stood beside him.

Zongxiang Xuanwu and Kokonoe Shuichi discussed the Divine Radiance Palace’s conflict with Great Xuan and their plans to make Mingxu Zi its Successor. After Mingxu Zi neared the Lesser Celestial Circuit, Bai Fengtao confirmed the palace’s succession plans, while Hong Yuan arrived at Ancestral Spirit Mountain to investigate its hidden strength.

• Zongxiang Xuanwu and Kokonoe Shuichi discussed Zhang Yunting’s apparent death, the threat from the Governor-General’s Office, and waiting to see how the Mystic Court responded to events in Haijin City.
• Zongxiang Xuanwu told Kokonoe Shuichi that Mingxu Zi had been chosen as the Divine Radiance Palace’s Successor because he carried the True Void Dao’s Orthodox Dharma.
• Mingxu Zi completed his cultivation beside the Dragon-Locking Well and said he expected to enter the Lesser Celestial Circuit within days; Zongxiang Xuanwu congratulated him as Successor.
• Bai Fengtao privately told Zongxiang Xuanwu that she would become Mingxu Zi’s partner and that their child would inherit the Successor position, prompting Zongxiang Xuanwu and Kokonoe Shuichi to agree.
• Hong Yuan overtook Chiyu Xiao at the foot of Ancestral Spirit Mountain and decided to probe the Divine Radiance Palace’s secrets and hidden experts.

Hong Yuan infiltrated Divine Rest Town and Bamboo Shade Garden, using mental Illusion Arts to kill Helan Mingxuan and learn about the Divine Radiance Palace’s strongest fighters. He began eliminating Izumo’s powerful factions one by one, then confronted a party led by assistant priest Kokonoe Shuichi as it rode down Ancestral Spirit Mountain.

• Helan Mingxuan cultivated in Bamboo Shade Garden and lamented that he needed a dragon vein to reach the greater celestial circuit.
• Hong Yuan used a black-hound illusion to overwhelm Helan Mingxuan, killed the remnants of Qian Yong in Bamboo Shade Garden, and questioned him about the Divine Radiance Palace’s experts.
• After covertly observing Ancestral Spirit Mountain for three days, Hong Yuan killed Earth Spider, leader of the Village of the Hazy Moon, and confirmed he had also killed Wusuke of the Red Shadow Guard.
• Hong Yuan avoided attacking the Divine Radiance Palace directly because its experts were clustered together, and watched for an opportunity to eliminate further threats.
• Kokonoe Shuichi rode down Ancestral Spirit Mountain with Chiyu Xiao and more than thirty followers, then encountered Hong Yuan on the road.