Chapter Summaries

Hong Yuan killed Noah and challenged the six Weavers, then unleashed a colossal wooden giant that overwhelmed Maguire and struck Adrian. He flew the giant away from the High Tower Institute and invited the Weavers to follow, as people across the capital watched in shock.

• Noah's death triggered black flames that consumed Mrs. Buck, while Lynn grieved over her ashes.
• Adrian confronted Hong Yuan for killing Noah, but Hong Yuan challenged all six Weavers to attack him together.
• Hong Yuan raised a vast forest that the five Weavers tore apart with their powers.
• Maguire struck a false image of Hong Yuan, then was crushed by the palm of a wooden giant rising from underground.
• Hong Yuan armored the giant and knocked Adrian miles away with its wooden saber.
• Hong Yuan revealed the giant was five hundred meters tall, gave it wings, and flew it out of the institute to draw the Weavers into a fight.

Plot points and events

• Hong Yuan carries the enormous wooden giant across the sky above Serinburg, stunning the city and drawing the attention of powerful Spellcasters.
• He lands far from the capital and challenges his pursuers. Six Weavers—Charles, Augustus, Olivia, Edwin, Maguire, and Adrian—surround him; additional powerful observers remain hidden nearby.
• Hong Yuan opens with a sweeping attack against all six. They counter together with powerful String Sorcery, damaging the giant and forcing it to shield him.
• Maguire charges Hong Yuan but is bitten by a dragon head that emerges from the giant. The giant then grows wings and four additional arms, forming six weapons and rapidly repairing its damage.
• The fight becomes a prolonged, devastating battle. The Weavers’ attacks level the forest, while Hong Yuan counters with a remarkable range of String Sorcery. The giant’s roots draw vitality from the land to heal it, eventually turning the surrounding region to sand.
• The Weavers coordinate to restrain the giant and cut off its access to vitality. As Maguire engages Hong Yuan again, the giant’s five other weapons strike him at once, obliterating half his body. Charles and Olivia try to stop the blow too late.

Character developments and interactions

• Hong Yuan remains composed and confident while confronting six elite opponents. His mastery of many kinds of String Sorcery and the giant’s regenerative power make him far more formidable than the Weavers expected.
• Augustus grows wary of Hong Yuan’s rapid rise. He suspects the Tree of Myriad Phenomena grants its master power when it turns Spellcasters into fruit, and worries that Hong Yuan may become impossible to control. He resolves that the Weavers should break Hong Yuan’s mind and control him.
• Maguire dismisses Hong Yuan as beatable after their earlier clash and attacks aggressively, but is severely wounded by the giant.
• Charles and Olivia show concern for Maguire despite their conflict with him, attempting to divert Hong Yuan’s attack and save their colleague.
• The six Weavers fight as a coordinated group, but Hong Yuan’s adaptability and the giant’s strength steadily challenge their confidence.

Significant themes

• Power and control: Hong Yuan’s sudden growth alarms the ruling Weavers, who want to exploit the tree’s fruits but fear its master becoming uncontrollable.
• Overconfidence and miscalculation: The Weavers expect to overwhelm one opponent, yet underestimate his versatility and endurance.
• The cost of power: Their battle devastates the landscape, turning a thriving forest into a barren expanse.
• Loyalty amid conflict: Charles and Olivia intervene to protect Maguire even while fighting alongside him against Hong Yuan.

Hong Yuan used Spatial String Sorcery to defeat the Weavers’ attack, killing Maguire and Adrian and severing Augustus’s arm. The Weavers recognized they could not control him by force and agreed to negotiate a more sincere arrangement.

• Maguire destroyed the wooden giant in a final explosion, but the Weavers’ attacks passed through Hong Yuan as he stood unharmed in the air.
• Hong Yuan’s harp strings killed Adrian, while Charles rescued Olivia and Edwin and Augustus barely escaped with his left hand severed.
• Hong Yuan used Spatial String Sorcery to reveal four hidden Weavers, then told Augustus that the supposed boundaries had never existed and demanded the Federation withdraw surveillance and improve its terms for cooperation.
• Hong Yuan vanished, and the Weavers gathered in Serinburg to discuss how to counter his Spatial String Sorcery and avoid provoking him.
• Charles urged the Weavers to appease Rosha and negotiate, saying his power had earned him a place at Vysseran’s table.

Hong Yuan used a newly created avatar to enter the Cultivation World and joined Great Zhao’s Demon Suppression Bureau as a Silver Seal Immortal Official, while secretly remaining free of the seal’s control. After work, Fatty Wei invited him to visit the Jade Green Pavilion to see captured female cultivators from the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.

• After Hong Yuan revealed his Spatial String Sorcery, the Wesseland Federation removed its surveillance, granted him access to its research collections and resources, and appointed him Chief Consultant.
• Hong Yuan created an avatar, slipped into the Nine Kingdoms Cultivation World, and chose the Jiang Kingdom after cautiously gathering information.
• Hong Yuan cultivated the Five Elements Art and his spirit apertures, reaching the sixth qi-refining layer and filling seven layers of astral qi.
• Hong Yuan joined Great Zhao’s Demon Suppression Bureau and refined a Silver Seal, whose control he could resist through his karmic calamity dao seed.
• Fatty Wei invited Hong Yuan to the Jade Green Pavilion to see female cultivators captured from the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.

Hong Yuan observed Great Zhao’s fortune and continued his low-profile life as a Demon Suppression Bureau official, discovering that his spirit apertures accelerated his cultivation. After the Jade Green Pavilion was attacked, Fatty Wei returned alive and told Hong Yuan that a Golden Core body cultivator had attacked during his visit.

• Hong Yuan declined Wei Lang’s invitation to visit the Jade Green Pavilion and saw calamity qi gathering over him.
• Hong Yuan examined Great Zhao’s national fortune, bought spirit wine, and broke through to the Seventh Qi Refining Layer while cultivating.
• Hong Yuan suspected that his nine spirit apertures explained his unusually rapid cultivation and searched Bureau texts for related records.
• After the Jade Green Pavilion attack, Hong Yuan noticed the Demon Suppression Bureau’s tense atmosphere and waited several days before studying again.
• Fatty Wei visited Hong Yuan and said a Golden Core body cultivator had attacked the Jade Green Pavilion on the day he went there.

Hong Yuan learned how his nine spirit apertures made his clone a lesser spirit body, then joined a Demon Suppression Bureau campaign against the Jiang Kingdom’s Goldstone Sect. The chapter ended as Hong Yuan exposed a hidden cultivator who attacked his team with lightning.

• Wei Lang told Hong Yuan that Yue Shan, the Iron-Bone Demon, had attacked the Jade Green Pavilion and escaped, then explained the origins and drawbacks of the Ancient Spirit Aperture Method.
• Hong Yuan realized that opening the ninth aperture of unity had given his clone a trace of spirit-body nature, while his main body held the true spirit body through the karmic calamity dao seed.
• Wei Lang informed Hong Yuan that Great Zhao had conscripted them to attack the Jiang Kingdom, and they were assigned to clear out the Goldstone Sect.
• Hong Yuan traveled with Wei Lang, Zhang Tao, Liu Yong, and the left army to the Goldstone Sect, where Shen Chen, Old Man Blazing Fire, and Liu Hanyan launched an assault.
• While guarding the southern approach, Hong Yuan struck a hidden yellow-robed cultivator with his sword and forced him to reveal himself; the cultivator attacked with lightning, and Wei Lang raised a talisman shield.

Hong Yuan helped Great Zhao’s Immortal Officials defeat the Goldstone Sect, then learned that the campaign had concealed a strike against the Iron Bone Sect. Three years later, as Great Zhao prepared to invade the Jiang Kingdom and confront the Spirit Controlling Sect, Hong Yuan had secretly reached Foundation Establishment and remained outwardly an eighth-layer Qi Refining cultivator.

• Hong Yuan used illusion art to help Wei Lang and the other Immortal Officials kill the Yellow-Robed Middle-Aged Man, then survived the battle and watched Shen Chen’s group subdue the Goldstone Sect.
• Shen Chen and the others plundered the Goldstone Sect and left Wei Lang, Hong Yuan, and five other Immortal Officials to guard it; Wei Lang suspected the campaign had a larger purpose.
• News arrived that Great Zhao had destroyed the Iron Bone Sect, and Wei Lang learned that Shen Chen’s campaign against the Goldstone Sect had diverted attention from the Imperial Court’s true objective.
• Over the next three years, Hong Yuan completed his Spirit Aperture Art, secretly advanced to Foundation Establishment, and earned merit while keeping his displayed cultivation at the eighth Qi Refining layer.
• The Demon Suppression Bureau’s Immortal Bell summoned the Immortal Officials, and a Jade Seal Immortal Official announced the campaign to conquer the Jiang Kingdom and destroy the Spirit Controlling Sect.

Great Zhao’s mortal army and Immortal Officials captured Heavenly Serpent Pass and advanced on the Jiang Kingdom’s capital, where Jiang Yunxu revealed he had reached Golden Core. As Great Zhao’s forces confronted Jiang Yunxu and the Spirit Controlling Sect, four powerful beasts and a blood-robed man attacked from every direction, surrounding the army.

• Great Zhao’s fortune-backed army overwhelmed Heavenly Serpent Pass, and its Immortal Officials killed the defenders and broke through the fortress.
• Cultivators observing the battle debated Great Zhao’s power and fortune-gathering method while the blue-robed cultivator warned that Long Zhao threatened their rule.
• Jiang Yunxu learned Heavenly Serpent Pass had fallen and revealed to his eunuch that he had advanced to Golden Core.
• Two days later, seven Jade Seal Immortal Officials confronted Jiang Yunxu at the Jiang Kingdom’s capital, and Yan Zhenshan demanded that he appear.
• Jiang Yunxu rejected Yan Zhenshan’s accusations, but a blood-robed man arrived on a giant bat as three other monstrous beasts attacked from the remaining directions and surrounded Great Zhao’s formations.

Great Zhao’s army was thrown into chaos when the Spirit Controlling Sect’s demon beasts attacked, and the Jade Seal Immortal Officials engaged the sect’s four Golden Core True Persons. As the officials tried to overwhelm True Person Xuan Ming, the Human-Faced Spider appeared and threatened to kill one of them, prompting an unseen ally to be called upon.

• Demon beasts controlled by the Spirit Controlling Sect’s four True Persons tore through Great Zhao’s army and shattered the army’s fortune-protected momentum.
• Yan Zhenshan attacked Madam Qing Zhu and her Jade-Scaled Flood Dragon, but their combined power repelled his first strike.
• The seven Jade Seal Immortal Officials split up to hold off the four True Persons and concentrate three attackers against True Person Xuan Ming.
• True Person Xuan Ming and the Frost Wolf froze a wide area, turning Great Zhao’s soldiers into ice sculptures as the officials continued their assault.
• The Human-Faced Spider appeared and trapped three Jade Seal Immortal Officials with its soul-piercing sob before threatening Long Zhao’s companion.

Long Zhao arrived to confront High Person Tian Luo and demonstrated overwhelming power against the Spirit Controlling Sect’s Golden Core True Persons. As Long Zhao summoned an imperial seal with a missing corner, Hong Yuan recognized it as the divine object from Beyond the Heavens and suspected Long Zhao was Emperor Taizu of Yin Zhao.

• High Person Tian Luo rescued the besieged Jade Seal Immortal Official, subdued the Human-Faced Spider, and revealed himself as Long Zhao arrived.
• Long Zhao declared that his hundred and fifty years of preparation were enough to suppress the Nine Kingdoms Cultivation World, and High Person Tian Luo challenged him.
• True Person Chi Lian attacked Long Zhao, but Long Zhao shattered his assault, seized the Blood-Congealing Divine Saber, and severed Chi Lian’s left arm.
• Long Zhao’s saber clashed with High Person Tian Luo’s Myriad Spirits Ruler, destroying the saber and unleashing the ruler’s demon-beast illusions.
• Long Zhao summoned a golden imperial seal, and Hong Yuan recognized its missing corner as part of the divine object from Beyond the Heavens and suspected Long Zhao was Emperor Taizu of Yin Zhao.

Long Zhao crushed the Spirit Controlling Sect’s forces, took the Jiang Kingdom, and left the Nine Kingdoms Cultivation World wondering whether he had reached Nascent Soul. Six months later, a dark-skinned youth fleeing robber cultivators witnessed a gigantic cave abode rise beneath a market.

• Long Zhao used the seal’s fortune power to defeat High Person Tian Luo and repel the other cultivators, then killed two Golden Core True Persons who had watched the battle.
• High Person Tian Luo submitted to Long Zhao, while Jiang Yunxu surrendered the Jiang Kingdom and was made Marquis of Ease rather than killed.
• Hong Yuan sensed something concealed within Jiang Yunxu and judged that Long Zhao’s immense strength depended largely on the seal’s ability to gather fortune power.
• News of Great Zhao’s conquest spread, and the Nine Kingdoms Cultivation World speculated that Long Zhao might be a Nascent Soul Grand Cultivator; six months of uneasy peace followed.
• A dark-skinned youth who had bought the White Bone Thorn escaped the Cold Mountain Brothers’ ambush, but an earthquake swallowed the secluded market and revealed a gigantic cave abode rising from underground.

Greenwood Cave Abode emerged, and its restrictions incinerated the cultivators who approached before reading its inscription. Long Zhao and the rival sect leaders entered the ancient abode, while Hong Yuan sent a disguised divided body inside after suspecting its appearance was too timely.

• Greenwood Cave Abode rose from the earth, and the Cold Mountain Brothers and other cultivators rushed toward it despite Qian Sanchuan's warning.
• The abode's green light killed more than a hundred cultivators, including Qian Sanchuan and another Cloud Sword Sect foundation establishment cultivator, when they read its inscription.
• Several days later, Zhou Qingyang, the Heavenly Tower Pavilion Master, Lady Ruyi, and two other Grand True Persons attacked the abode's fourth-tier formation while discussing Changchun Zi and the threat of Long Zhao.
• Long Zhao arrived aboard a flying ship with Yan Zhenshan and the Spirit Controlling Sect's True Persons, then entered through a passage opened by his seal after devil cultivators slipped inside first.
• The five Grand True Persons used a formation-breaking talisman to enter the abode, while Hong Yuan sent a disguised divided body through the restrictions as a small tree.

Hong Yuan watched the Grand True Persons fight over the saint infant grass and a magic treasure inside the Greenwood Cave Abode, then saw Jiang Yunxu reveal himself as its master. Jiang Yunxu identified himself as the former High Person Tian Luo, leaving Long Zhao and the gathered cultivators stunned.

• Hong Yuan entered the Greenwood Cave Abode and watched Grand True Persons abandon their assault on Long Zhao to battle over the saint infant grass.
• Several Grand True Persons died in the fight, and Hong Yuan sensed the cave abode absorb their remains and magical power.
• Zhou Qingyang seized the saint infant grass but escaped a fatal attack with a Death-Substitute Talisman, while Long Zhao followed the cave abode's strongest fortune to an ancient palace.
• The Cloud Sword Sect Grand True Person claimed the Everlife Sword, but Jiang Yunxu appeared, killed him with the sword, and revealed that he held Zhou Qingyang captive.
• Jiang Yunxu used Changchun Zi's Azurewood Token to gather the cultivators and announced that he had once been known as Tianluo, prompting High Person Tian Luo to address him as Senior Brother.

Jiang Yunxu revealed that the Greenwood Cave Abode was a trap designed to gather cultivators as sacrifices for his blood infant method. As he fought off the assembled Golden Core cultivators with the cave abode’s array, he used a hidden means to halt Long Zhao’s attack.

• Jiang Yunxu and High Person Tian Luo revealed their Spirit Controlling Sect connection and explained how their predecessors found and took control of the Greenwood Cave Abode.
• Jiang Yunxu disclosed that the stone platform contained a teleportation array once used by Changchun Zi, though it could not be reactivated without vast resources.
• Jiang Yunxu activated the cave abode’s array and used the Everlife Sword to destroy Zhou Qingyang’s body, drawing the cultivators’ vital essence and blood energy toward himself.
• The cultivators recognized Jiang Yunxu’s plan to refine a blood infant and attacked, while Long Zhao tried to seize High Person Tian Luo and Jiang Yunxu teleported the Spirit Controlling Sect cultivators away.
• Jiang Yunxu drew power from the array and blocked the combined assault, revealing strength beyond the Golden Core peak.
• Long Zhao charged Jiang Yunxu, but Jiang Yunxu’s command stopped him, and Jiang Yunxu said he had prepared a countermeasure after noticing Long Zhao’s fortune a hundred and fifty years earlier.

Jiang Yunxu revealed that he had secretly bound Long Zhao through the Nine Dragons Imperial Heaven Seal and the title Marquis of Zhao, then used the gathered cultivators’ life essence to advance toward Nascent Soul. He survived the lightning tribulation and became a Nascent Soul Cultivator, but the Inner Demon Tribulation began.

• Jiang Yunxu compelled Long Zhao to attack the gathered Golden Core cultivators, revealing the divine sense imprint he had left in the Nine Dragons Imperial Heaven Seal and their sovereign-subject bond.
• Jiang Yunxu and his allies killed the White Bone Sect master and the lord of Nine Origin Mountain, while Lady Ruyi swore an inner demon oath to submit to him.
• Jiang Yunxu released his restraints and triggered a fierce Blood Infant Method lightning tribulation as the surviving cultivators remained trapped inside the Greenwood Cave Abode.
• Jiang Yunxu endured the lightning strikes with the fourth-tier formation and Everlife Sword, survived the final bolt, and reached Nascent Soul-level magical power.
• A strange wind announced the arrival of the Inner Demon Tribulation, chilling Long Zhao, Lady Ruyi, and the other survivors.

Jiang Yunxu consumed nearly all of Great Zhao’s fortune to destroy his inner demons and reach Nascent Soul, leaving Long Zhao and the kingdom to suffer the backlash. Hong Yuan escaped Jiang Yunxu’s grasp and returned to the Wesseland Federation, where he resolved to grow stronger before their next encounter.

• Jiang Yunxu used the Nine Dragons Imperial Heaven Seal to gather Great Zhao’s fortune into a divine saber that destroyed his inner demons and let him reach Nascent Soul.
• Great Zhao’s fortune backlash devastated the kingdom, crippled Long Zhao, and killed many Immortal Officials, while Jiang Yunxu kept Long Zhao alive and discovered Hong Yuan’s hidden presence.
• Jiang Yunxu confronted Hong Yuan, but Hong Yuan’s body crumbled and his mental power escaped into the void.
• Jiang Yunxu ordered the Nine Kingdoms’ Golden Core sects to attend his Nascent Soul celebration and prepare to invade the Spellcaster World.
• In Serinburg, Hong Yuan harvested a weaver fruit from a Weaver-level String Mage and decided to accelerate his cultivation before Jiang Yunxu or his enemies could threaten him.

Over four years, Hong Yuan turned more than thirty Weavers into String Sorcery Fruits, becoming so powerful that his mental strength surpassed the crystalline stage. As seven Weavers and a mysterious High Tower Institute insider gathered to kill him, the True God Church revealed a wisp of God's will for their plan.

• Hong Yuan absorbed the tree of myriad phenomena and formed an octahedral thought-diamond that revealed three powerful groups harboring deep malice toward him.
• Hong Yuan sensed that one group had another objective beyond attacking him and resolved to show no mercy when he struck.
• Seven Weavers from rival factions met near the Federation's capital and agreed to work together to kill Hong Yuan.
• The Weavers revealed their weapons and abilities, including the Absolute Freeze artifact, Threads of Fate, and the Church of Time's Doomsday Pocket Watch.
• A hidden figure claiming ties to the High Tower Institute offered to help them enter undetected, and the True God Church produced a wisp of God's will.

Hong Yuan enjoyed a quiet morning before sensing danger and moving Amelia and two maids away from the High Tower Institute. At the institute, Lolin was ambushed by Yifuli, and Hong Yuan intervened just as a coalition of powerful spellcasters attacked him with time, ice, and fate sorcery.

• Hong Yuan sent Amelia and the two maids five hundred li away to the Green Dai River, warning them through his actions that something major was about to happen.
• Lolin met Yifuli Hawthorne in the institute tower, where Yifuli revealed her jealousy of Lolin and tried to stab her with a String Sorcery weapon.
• Hong Yuan appeared and stopped Yifuli's short sword with the apple he had bitten, then tried to shield both women with Spatial String Sorcery.
• The Church of Time's pontiff slowed time with the Doomsday Pocket Watch as an ice spellcaster froze Hong Yuan, Lolin, and Yifuli inside a block of ice.
• A spellcaster shrouded in black mist attacked Hong Yuan's thread of fate with a pair of scissors.

Key plot points and events

• More than twenty Weavers ambush Hong Yuan, using the Doomsday Pocket Watch to slow time and Absolute Freeze to imprison him alongside Yifuli and Lolin. A Weaver who leads the Light of Life tries to drain Hong Yuan’s lifespan with the Life String, but the fate-link rebounds catastrophically: her scissors break, and she rapidly ages.
• As the ice begins to crack, Charles notices that the True God Church’s pope has mysteriously disappeared. The assault had been organized by the Federation’s major powers and the Church, with the Weavers concealing themselves in a pocket dimension until Hong Yuan appeared.
• Olivia, Augustus, Edwin, and the other Weavers launch a coordinated attack. Olivia apologizes to her disciple Lolin but considers her death necessary; Augustus seeks revenge for the arm Hong Yuan severed years earlier.
• Hong Yuan breaks free by tearing open a spatial fissure. It separates him from the attackers, causing their combined assault to rebound and badly injure the Weavers controlling the freeze and time artifacts.
• Charles uses the tower’s core, the Key of Worlds, to absorb the rebound and unleash a spatial strike. Hong Yuan, Yifuli, Lolin, and the fallen Life of Light leader are shattered.
• The pope reappears and attacks Charles to seize the key. A mysterious young man intervenes, exchanging places with Charles and blocking the strike. An aged voice recognizes the pope as “Lilith?!”

Character developments and interactions

• Hong Yuan demonstrates extraordinary mastery as the Tree of Myriad Phenomena’s master: the Life String cannot take his lifespan, and he escapes an attack by over twenty Weavers.
• Charles is a pragmatic leader who accepts the risks of the ambush and uses the Key of Worlds as a last resort. He is alarmed by the pope’s disappearance and weakened after wielding the key.
• Olivia reveals conflicted feelings toward Lolin: she has grown attached to her student, yet still chooses the broader Spellcaster cause over her.
• Augustus acts from longstanding vengeance, while the Light of Life leader pays a devastating personal price for her attempt to kill Hong Yuan.
• The True God Church’s pope emerges as a separate threat, attacking immediately after Hong Yuan’s apparent death. The identity “Lilith” suggests a major hidden connection.

Significant themes

• The cost of power: The Life String consumes its user’s lifespan, while the Key of Worlds draws on immense stored energy and leaves Charles weakened.
• Loyalty versus duty: Olivia’s affection for Lolin clashes with her willingness to sacrifice her for the Spellcaster world.
• Hubris and miscalculation: The Weavers assume they can kill Hong Yuan while he is trapped, but his abilities turn their overwhelming attack against them.
• Betrayal and uncertain victory: The conspirators achieve an apparent victory at terrible cost, only for the pope’s sudden return and the “Lilith” revelation to unsettle the outcome.

Hong Yuan watched the Weavers fight over the Key of Worlds while revealing that Fane had taken over Lynn’s body and that the Strings of Force had influenced Lilith and the True God Church. He spread spores and seedlings across Vysseran, then the battle continued as Fane confronted Lilith over her betrayal and her warning of a great demon.

• The True God Church pontiff emerged from hiding to seize the Key of Worlds, and Lilith attacked Lynn as other Weavers tried to take the key from Charles.
• Hong Yuan observed from an ethereal plane and explained that the life-string Weaver’s sorcery had backfired, killing her, while Lynn’s consciousness had been replaced by Aldrick Fane.
• Hong Yuan sent Lolin and Yifuli away and spread psychic power through seedlings and spores across much of Vysseran.
• Fane used True Vision against Lilith, stripped away her disguise, and accused her of betraying their friends and exposing their expedition to the Otherworldly Demons’ world.
• Lilith defended her actions, saying the Strings of Force had warned that a great demon would attack Vysseran and that only the True God could save it.