Chapter Summaries

Plot and events

• During the battle between the Wu Dynasty’s sects and noble houses and the Cihang Pure Altar, Venerable Pudu nearly strikes Yan Chixiao. Zen Master Lunhai intervenes, and their clash devastates the secret meeting place.
• Qing Ruolan of the Spirit Mountain Way arrives and uses her flower-based power to contain the battle’s destructive shock waves. She says she wants only to protect innocent bystanders, not to take sides.
• Fighting resumes. Master Liansheng is badly wounded, but Hong Yuan quietly uses karmic power to disperse the worst of her calamity, ensuring she will survive.
• As the combatants clash, the Wu Emperor’s declining vitality reverses. Golden spider threads spread from his life-bound ability, attaching to every Divine Ability Practitioner and drawing out the light of their abilities.
• The spider transforms into a Calamity Form. Pudu’s strength fades, and he withdraws from the fight, describing his centuries-long existence as an illusory dream and insisting he is not a demon.
• The golden threads become visible, immobilizing the fighters. Pudu says the Wu Emperor has arrived.
• The Wu Emperor appears, restored to his prime. At his command, Pudu crumbles and his divine-ability light returns to the Emperor. He reveals that Pudu was never a separate person, but a manifestation of his own life-bound ability.

Character developments and interactions

• Qing Ruolan demonstrates formidable power and composure, intervening solely to protect civilians. She senses something unusual about Pudu and questions what he is.
• Zen Master Lunhai recognizes Pudu as a formidable opponent, though weaker than Yan Chixiao’s earlier account suggested. He presses the attack and later demands an explanation from Pudu.
• Hongxian desperately wants to help her wounded teacher but feels she has no right to ask Hong Yuan for aid. Hong Yuan acts anyway, discreetly saving Liansheng from likely death.
• Hong Yuan observes the hidden mechanism behind Pudu and the Emperor, but keeps his discovery to himself until events unfold.
• Pudu shifts from powerful adversary to a fading, self-aware manifestation, while the Wu Emperor reclaims him and his accumulated power.

Significant themes

• Illusion, identity, and awakening: Pudu’s centuries of apparent life are revealed as a dreamlike existence created by the Emperor’s ability.
• Power gained through calamity: The golden spider grows by absorbing the divine abilities of fighters, turning their struggle into the source of its transformation.
• Hidden costs of conflict: Even when Qing Ruolan contains the supernatural shock waves, the battle causes deaths, injuries, and fear across the capital.
• Partiality and compassion: Hong Yuan reflects that even heaven has its preferences, then intervenes quietly to spare someone important to Hongxian.

Key plot points and events

• The Martial Emperor reveals that he was not secretly in control of events all along: about three centuries ago, the Guiding Golden Spider helped him break through cultivation bottlenecks, but when he tried to fuse a fourth divine power, it backfired. His natal divine power manifested as an independent being, Venerable Pudu, who imprisoned him and gradually drained his life force.
• Near death, the Martial Emperor exploited Pudu’s weakened state to escape. He enlisted Yan Chixiao and gathered powerful practitioners, concealing the full purpose of his plan.
• The Golden Spider’s second ability can “guide” and anchor something in people’s hearts. Using the divine-power lights of at least ten great practitioners as fuel, the Martial Emperor casts a vast net into the void to capture a Heaven and Earth Great Elixir—an object capable of helping its refiner ascend directly to the Primal Elixir realm.
• As the elixir appears, the Martial Emperor rushes to claim it, desperate to gain more life. A mysterious black-robed man intervenes, effortlessly shatters the Martial Emperor’s attack with a single finger, and reaches for the elixir.

Character developments

• The Martial Emperor is revealed as both a survivor of a disastrous cultivation experiment and a calculating schemer. His desperation is driven by his advanced age, diminished lifespan, and hope that the elixir can save him.
• Yan Chixiao feels betrayed: he helped the Martial Emperor in friendship, only to learn that he and the other practitioners were also intended as sacrifices.
• Hong Yuan recognizes the elixir from Lu Zhiqian’s legacy and understands its significance, revealing his unusual knowledge of the world’s hidden treasures.
• The assembled practitioners are tempted by the Spider’s ability to break cultivation barriers, even as they recognize its terrible risks.

Significant themes

• Power carries a price: the Spider offers rapid advancement but can corrupt a cultivator’s foundation and turn their own power against them.
• Trust and manipulation: the Martial Emperor relies on Yan’s friendship while withholding the true purpose of his plan.
• Desperation and mortality: the Emperor’s scheme is driven by fear of death and the hope of extending his life.
• Ambition and danger: practitioners remain drawn to extraordinary power despite knowing its costs.

Character interactions

• Yan confronts the Martial Emperor over his deception; the Emperor expresses sincere gratitude but admits to concealing the plan.
• Zhu Benzi challenges the Emperor’s motives, while Qing Ruolan probes the Spider’s abilities and uncovers its role in the ritual.
• From the five-colored ship, Hong Yuan explains the elixir to Xin Shiniang, Hongxian, and the others.
• The chapter ends with the black-robed stranger confronting the Martial Emperor and reaching for the prize.

Hong Yuan intervened in the Wu Emperor’s attempt to seize the Heaven and Earth Great Elixir, defeating the mysterious black-robed man and retrieving the elixir and Guiding Golden Spider. Back aboard the Five-Colored Ship, Hong Yuan examined the elixir’s immense law power and used the [Karmic Calamity Dao Seed] to investigate a lingering suspicion about it.

• The black-robed man injured the Wu Emperor, bound the fish with nine Divine Ability chains, and drew out a Primal Elixir as the Five-Colored Ship appeared overhead.
• Hong Yuan appeared behind the black-robed man, took the Guiding Golden Spider, and recognized the man’s aura on the Calamity Form.
• The black-robed man attacked Hong Yuan, but Hong Yuan rammed him with overwhelming physical strength and drove him deep underground before carrying him back to the Five-Colored Ship.
• Hong Yuan suppressed the Heaven and Earth Great Elixir and considered its power of laws, which could help someone reach the fourth or fifth stage of the Origin Core Realm.
• Hong Yuan chose not to refine the elixir and covered it with the [Karmic Calamity Dao Seed] to investigate the strange feeling it gave him.

Key plot points and events

• Hong Yuan examines a heaven-born great dan and uses a fragment of Dao Seed power to uncover its hidden core: a Miasma Calamity. Though its outer laws are genuine and refining it could grant Origin Core cultivation, he recognizes it as a False Dan that may use its host, eventually consume them, and grow stronger. He suspects a calamity of this scale could become a Taboo.
• He decides the Gentlemen Country must not obtain the False Dan, since refining it could lead to disaster. Instead, he searches the unconscious Lu Zhiqian’s soul for what the man knows.
• Hong Yuan discovers Lu is an Undying Person. He kills him, but Lu’s body immediately begins regenerating, demonstrating the extraordinary vitality of his people.
• Xin Shiniang recognizes the Undying People from the Miscellaneous Records of the Bai Sea. Hong Yuan explains that they can cultivate despite the difficulty, and shares what he learned from Lu’s memories: their immortality is tied to the world’s own wound, which causes their cultivated power to leak away. The chapter ends with the suggestion that their path is difficult, but not impossible.

Character developments and interactions

• Hong Yuan shows sharp insight and caution, identifying the False Dan’s true nature and weighing the danger it poses. He uses overwhelming divine-sense power to invade Lu Zhiqian’s mind, extract his memories, and kill him.
• Lu Zhiqian is revealed to be an Undying Person. Although he is powerful, his body’s rapid regeneration underscores the burden of his seemingly advantageous nature.
• Xin Shiniang contributes her knowledge of historical records, then revises her understanding of the Undying People after witnessing Lu’s regeneration.
• Hong Yuan and Xin Shiniang discuss the gap between immortality and true strength: Hong Yuan sees endless vitality as potentially tragic, while Xin initially marvels at it.

Significant themes

• Deceptive power and hidden danger: The False Dan offers genuine advancement but conceals a parasitic calamity.
• Immortality as a burden: The Undying People’s long lives come with a flaw that hinders cultivation.
• A wounded world: Their condition reflects the world’s deeper damage, possibly connected to the origin of Miasma Calamities.
• Knowledge and restraint: Hong Yuan’s ability to uncover the truth prevents a dangerous artifact from reaching others.

Key plot points and events

• The chapter explains the Undying People’s perilous cultivation cycle: every five hundred years they become physically weakened and mentally clouded, and must hide underground to survive. Completing nine cycles can transform them into exceptionally powerful Dao Bodies, but the process takes thousands of years and leaves them vulnerable to hunters seeking their bodies and life essence.
• Chi Quansheng is revealed to be an Undying Person who has completed all nine cycles. Though he has fused none of his Nine Divine Powers with his true essence, his extraordinary foundation let him badly injure the Wu Emperor with a casual strike.
• Chi’s pursuit of the Heaven and Earth Great Elixir was engineered by the powerful Way of Ultimate Death. Its leader arranged for the Wu Emperor to learn of the elixir centuries earlier, intending to exploit the opportunity when it appeared. Hong Yuan realizes the supposed elixir is actually the disguised Miasma Calamity, though he doubts the organization’s leader knows this.
• Hong Yuan learns that the Way’s leader, the Daoist of the Way of Ultimate Death, is an ascender from a lower realm. Ascenders are more common in the heartland and Great Ruins than Wu Dynasty records suggest; one founded the formidable Heavenly Punishment Manor.
• Yao Ji takes the False Dan from Hong Yuan and absorbs some of its law power, becoming more intensely inhuman in appearance and presence. Hong Yuan concludes that a Taboo-level Miasma Calamity may already be aboard the ship.
• Chi regains consciousness and tries to escape, but Hong Yuan swiftly stops him and places the Heaven and Earth Great Elixir in his hand. He lets Chi go, explaining that he is interested in meeting the Daoist of the Way of Ultimate Death.
• Hong Yuan then calls Zhu Lingzi, Qing Ruolan, Zen Master Lunhai, and the others up to see him.

Character developments and interactions

• Hong Yuan demonstrates calm control and strategic curiosity. Rather than killing Chi, he uses the man as a way to make contact with the Way of Ultimate Death.
• Chi Quansheng shifts from captive and would-be escapee to wary recipient of the prize he sought. He recognizes Hong Yuan’s overwhelming strength and complies, though he remains shaken.
• Yao Ji behaves with quiet, uncanny force: she accepts Hong Yuan’s touch, effortlessly restrains the False Dan, and feeds on its power. Hong Yuan treats her gently but limits how much she consumes.
• The Way of Ultimate Death emerges as a major political and martial power, with an ascender leader and an Undying Person, Gan Linzi, among its formidable agents.

Significant themes

• Immortality’s cost: The Undying People’s longevity entails repeated vulnerability, immense time, and the constant danger of exploitation.
• Hidden schemes and mistaken knowledge: The Great Elixir’s pursuit is the result of a centuries-old plot, yet even its masterminds may misunderstand what the elixir truly is.
• Power beyond appearances: Chi’s lack of fused Divine Powers belies the strength of his nine-cycle foundation, while Yao Ji’s quiet presence hints at a dangerous hidden nature.
• Ascension and the wider world: Hong Yuan’s discoveries reveal that the world beyond the Wu Dynasty has a longer history of ascenders and far greater powers.

Plot points and events

• Seven days after the Wu Emperor’s defeat, Hong Yuan finishes reforging the dynasty’s accumulated treasures into the Seven-Treasure Tower Ship, a compact vessel inscribed with seven laws. It can combine those laws for powerful attacks and travel vast distances quickly.
• The Wu Emperor is dead, and the old regime has effectively yielded to Hong Yuan’s influence. Yan Chixiao and the remaining imperial elders accept that resistance would be futile.
• Leaders of the Wu Dynasty’s major sects and factions gather to pay homage to Hong Yuan. He says he will largely preserve the existing order, but orders them to clear Demon Beasts from the dynasty’s territory.
• In return, Hong Yuan preaches the Dao, explaining how Divine Abilities lead toward the Primal Elixir: the eight supporting abilities must be understood as extensions of the Life-Bound Divine Ability, making the Heavenly Being stage a return to one’s source rather than a simple merger. His audience gains valuable insight.
• Hong Yuan reviews the growing collection of Miasma Calamities in Wugou Prison, especially the unusual Guiding Golden Spider and Dao Thief, and studies an imperial text describing the Eight Pole Mountains, their gates, and the winds that emerge from them.
• Elsewhere, Chi Quansheng reaches the Many Peaks and contacts his Undying People ally Gan Linzi. He recounts being effortlessly overcome by Hong Yuan, whom they conclude is likely a Primal Elixir expert. Chi has nevertheless retained the Heaven and Earth Great Elixir. Puzzled that Hong Yuan returned it, the pair consider contacting the Law Master, since Hong Yuan expressed interest in their Way of Ultimate Death.

Character developments and interactions

• Hong Yuan consolidates his authority without pursuing sweeping political reforms. He acts as a pragmatic ruler: he gives his new subordinates a valuable sermon in exchange for their service.
• Yan Chixiao and the Wu imperial elders move from shock and uncertainty to wary acceptance of Hong Yuan’s rule, recognizing him as the power behind the new order.
• Cui Yingying reflects on her growth and on the apparent death of her talented second uncle, whose advancement may have come at the cost of her father’s damaged cultivation. Her feelings for Hong Yuan remain intense and adoring.
• Xin Shijiu-Mei briefly acts as Hong Yuan’s imposing messenger, enjoying the authority of announcing his summons.
• Chi Quansheng is shaken by his defeat and openly acknowledges the enormous gap between himself and Hong Yuan. Gan Linzi responds with alarm, then curiosity about Hong Yuan’s motives.

Significant themes

• Power and political submission: The Wu Dynasty’s factions accept a new ruler because they understand the overwhelming force behind him.
• Knowledge as reward and governance: Hong Yuan uses teaching, not just coercion, to secure cooperation and improve his followers’ cultivation.
• Return to one’s source: The sermon reframes cultivation as understanding the relationship between a core ability and its extensions.
• Mysterious restraint: Hong Yuan’s decision to return the Heaven and Earth Great Elixir leaves even experienced outsiders questioning what he truly wants.

Plot points

• The Way of Ultimate Death’s leaders, Gan Linzi and Chi Quansheng, use a law-powered communication pearl to contact their Law Master and report how Hong Yuan subdued Chi Quansheng and took, then returned, the great elixir.
• The Law Master notices Chi Quansheng accepted the elixir back far too readily. This jolts Chi Quansheng into realizing Hong Yuan likely tampered with his Spirit Soul, leaving him confused about his own unusually reckless behavior.
• Hong Yuan appears within Chi Quansheng’s eyes and steps through the pearl’s light, crossing from illusion into reality. The strain cracks the communication pearls and terrifies Gan Linzi and Chi Quansheng.
• Following the pearl’s law signal, Hong Yuan’s divine will travels across vast distances to the Great Ruins, Nongtu’s spiritual heart. There he meets the Ultimate Death Law Master, who asks his identity and purpose.
• Calling himself “Ten Thousand Tribulations,” Hong Yuan says he wants to work with the Way of Ultimate Death—but insists that every partnership needs a leader and a follower, and asks the Law Master to accept that arrangement.

Character developments and interactions

• Chi Quansheng shifts from confident reporting to horror as he recognizes that his thoughts and actions may have been manipulated. His cautious nature makes the realization especially disturbing.
• Gan Linzi is shaken by Hong Yuan’s intrusion but tries to reassure Chi Quansheng by emphasizing the Law Master’s immense strength.
• The Ultimate Death Law Master demonstrates perceptiveness by detecting the inconsistency in Chi Quansheng’s behavior. He remains composed when Hong Yuan arrives, though he challenges the apparent mismatch between Hong Yuan’s domineering entrance and his claim of cooperation.
• Hong Yuan reveals extraordinary control over spiritual and spatial boundaries, and approaches the proposed alliance on openly unequal terms.

Significant themes

• Power and hierarchy: The chapter establishes Law Masters as near-divine forces, while Hong Yuan’s arrival suggests he can challenge the usual limits of distance and reality.
• Manipulation and self-trust: Chi Quansheng’s realization raises the unsettling possibility that his memories or judgment have been altered without his awareness.
• Cooperation versus domination: Hong Yuan calls his offer a partnership, yet immediately demands that the balance of power be settled in his favor.

Key events

• Hong Yuan, calling himself Ten Thousand Tribulations, challenges the Ultimate Death Law Master, who questions whether a mere manifestation of divine intent can defeat him.
• The Law Master draws Hong Yuan into his Law Domain and rewrites its rules, twisting and tearing apart Hong Yuan’s manifested body.
• Hong Yuan’s dispersed form becomes a vast star-like fist. Its force overwhelms the five-element laws, shatters the Law Domain, and leaves the Law Master facing apparent death.
• As the Law Master briefly falters, Hong Yuan’s fist intent glimpses his memories: Bomu Mountain and the Yang Gate are connected to ascending into this world. Hong Yuan then catches the Law Master rather than striking him down.
• The shock waves shake the heavens across ninety thousand miles. Hong Yuan lets them erupt high above the ground to spare the landscape, then hides in the clouds with the Law Master.
• Hong Yuan asks about the Law Master’s ascension and reveals that he learned his surname is Mo. Mo doubts Hong Yuan could search his soul, hinting that ascenders possess unusual protections.

Character developments and interactions

• Hong Yuan remains calm and curious throughout the fight, treating the Law Master’s techniques as something to study. His restraint after winning—capturing Mo and protecting the land—shows that domination is not his only concern.
• The Ultimate Death Law Master (Mo) begins confident in his Law Domain but is shaken when Hong Yuan’s power reverses his laws. He survives and recognizes Hong Yuan as a likely Mystic Lord, yet responds to questions with guarded skepticism and a trace of bitterness.
• Their confrontation shifts into a tense conversation: Hong Yuan seeks knowledge, while Mo resists disclosure and challenges the limits of Hong Yuan’s power.

Significant themes

• Power and the limits of mastery: Even an expert who can rewrite local laws can be overwhelmed by a force operating on a far greater scale.
• Identity and memory: Mo’s surprise at hearing his own surname suggests that ascension has distanced him from his former self.
• Restraint amid overwhelming strength: Hong Yuan chooses capture over killing and directs destructive force away from the land.
• Mystery of ascension: The Heavenly Gate, Yang Gate, and protections carried by those who ascend are introduced as major unanswered questions.

Key plot points

• Hong Yuan reflects on the Ultimate Death Law Master’s ascension, during which a mysterious substance entered his body and spirit soul. He identifies it as likely Heaven and Earth Dao Essence, a rare treasure capable of helping a perfected primal-elixir cultivator approach the Dao Embryo realm.
• Using the power of his Dao Seed, Hong Yuan examines the Law Master and discovers that the original strand of Dao essence is gone, though it left lasting changes in his body and spirit soul.
• The Law Master reveals that his former Dao companion, Nihuang, took the essence. They had once fought side by side, quelled chaos in the Yellow Heaven World, and become a celebrated couple. After ascending to Nongtu, Nihuang joined the Mother of All Things Cult and betrayed him.
• Hong Yuan suspects Nihuang may now possess two strands of Dao essence and have grown far stronger than the Law Master. He also considers whether traces of the stolen essence remain within him.
• After Hong Yuan releases his influence, the Law Master regains control of his thoughts but recognizes Hong Yuan’s formidable methods. Hong Yuan renews his offer of cooperation: the Law Master will gather information about Nongtu’s Miasma Calamities, secrets, and cultivation methods, and Hong Yuan will act on his behalf if the information is valuable.

Character developments and interactions

• Hong Yuan is perceptive and calculating. He uses the Dao Seed to uncover the truth, assesses the balance of power between the Law Master and Nihuang, and turns the Law Master’s grievance into a possible alliance.
• The Ultimate Death Law Master shifts from guarded questioning to revealing his painful past. He remains wary of Hong Yuan’s intrusion, briefly gathering his deathly power, but ultimately listens to the proposed deal.
• Nihuang, though absent, is revealed as the Law Master’s former partner and betrayer. Her rise within the Mother of All Things Cult and possession of the Dao essence form the central source of his misfortune and likely desire for revenge.

Significant themes

• Betrayal and loss: A once-devoted partnership ends in the theft of a precious inheritance.
• Power and opportunity: Dao essence can transform a cultivator’s prospects, making it both a coveted treasure and a source of conflict.
• Fortune and survival: The Law Master’s survival after betrayal prompts Hong Yuan to consider whether lingering traces of the essence—or mercy—played a role.
• Pragmatic cooperation: Hong Yuan offers an alliance based on useful information and future favors rather than trust or sympathy.

Plot points and events

• After the Ultimate Death Law Master leaves, Hong Yuan explores the Great Ruins with his divine awareness. He deliberately leaves it unmasked to test whether someone is secretly directing the Way of Ultimate Death.
• His suspicion proves justified: an immense, indifferent eye briefly appears in the Great Void, then vanishes. Hong Yuan concludes that a powerful figure—possibly a Dao Embryo expert—stands behind the Way of Ultimate Death.
• Hong Yuan recalls information recovered from the Law Master’s memories. The Law Master and Nihuang ascended through the Yang Gate on Bomu Mountain, where they received Heaven and Earth Dao Essence. Hong Yuan wonders whether Pei Lingshuang and Bai Xiuxiu received similar blessings through other heavenly gates.
• He theorizes that Nongtu may be a floating landmass above the Endless Sea, supported by the Eight Pole Mountains and Divine Pillars, but recognizes that he cannot yet verify this.
• Hong Yuan studies the fragmentary Dao Embryo scripture given to him: the Nine-Turn Undying Heavenly Art. It explains the Dao Embryo’s three stages, the dangers of the Three Calamities, and the existence of a still-higher realm, the Dharma Body.

Character developments

• Hong Yuan demonstrates his caution and strategic curiosity by using his divine awareness as bait to expose hidden forces. He also reassesses his own standing, realizing that his current strength may not be exceptional among Dao Embryo experts.
• He gains a more precise understanding of the world’s cultivation system, while connecting the Dao Embryo’s principles to his own Spirit Body and its nine apertures.
• The Ultimate Death Law Master remains an influential presence despite leaving: his cooperation offer and scripture provide Hong Yuan both a potential alliance and a valuable glimpse into higher cultivation.

Character interactions

• The Ultimate Death Law Master offers Hong Yuan a fragment of a Dao Embryo method, apparently encouraged by the prospect of having Hong Yuan as an ally against the Mother of All Things Cult.
• An unknown watcher observes Hong Yuan but retreats before he can identify or confront them.
• Hong Yuan considers the possible ascension experiences of Pei Lingshuang and Bai Xiuxiu, though neither interacts with him directly in this chapter.

Significant themes

• The Dao and embodiment: The Dao is formless, while the Dao Embryo gives it substance by nurturing divine powers within the body.
• Knowledge, uncertainty, and investigation: Hong Yuan builds theories about ascension, the Endless Sea, and Nongtu’s structure, but distinguishes conjecture from established fact.
• Power and vulnerability: Dao Embryo experts can possess extraordinary resilience, yet remain threatened by periodic calamities that can even kill them.
• Hidden forces and uneasy alliances: The unknown observer and the Law Master’s offer suggest that greater powers and conflicts are shaping events behind the scenes.
  The Dao Embryo’s three stages nurture 36,000 deities: 12,000 origin-essence deities granting extreme regeneration, 18,000 origin-qi deities enabling a Radiant Body that disperses into qi and travels immense distances, and 6,000 primordial-spirit deities that anchor the Primordial Spirit in the void. Perfecting all three leads to the Dharma Body, an incarnation of the Dao.

Key plot points and events

• Hong Yuan studies a fragment of the Nine-Turn Undying Heavenly Art and compares its Dharma Body Great Sage realm with the True Immortal Art’s Great Vehicle realm. He concludes they may occupy a similar tier, though the Earth Immortal method seems more battle-focused.
• He resolves to become a Great Sage, while recognizing that his present strength is already far beyond his apparent cultivation rank.
• Improvements to his root bone and comprehension greatly strengthen his body. He demonstrates this by cracking the void with physical force alone. He suppresses his Three-Origin Fire rather than forming a Dao Embryo, since remaining below that realm lets him exploit the Three Calamities that restrain Dao Embryo experts.
• Hong Yuan heads for the Great Ruins, intending to stir up trouble and use the Way of Ultimate Death’s conflict with the Mother of All Things Cult to probe that sect’s strength—and perhaps draw out the Dao Embryo expert backing the Way.
• The Nine-Turn art’s fragment contains methods for cultivating two of the Five Viscera Gods, housed in the heart and lungs. Hong Yuan suspects the art may be connected to the persecuted Undying People.
• Upon reaching a blood-soaked battlefield, his Seven-Treasure Tower Ship destroys attacking cultivators. Hong Yuan turns a Half-Step Primal Elixir attacker into a Divine Ability Fruit and gives it to Xin Laoweng, boosting his cultivation.
• Hong Yuan spots a Primal Elixir expert nearby and considers whether they might be his next target.

Character development and interactions

• Hong Yuan grows more confident and ambitious, balancing restraint with calculated aggression. He plans to exploit rival factions and strengthen a loyal group, while weighing how far to develop the Outer Dao Divine Tree.
• Xin Laoweng accepts the Divine Ability Fruit and begins refining its power, showing trust in Hong Yuan.
• Xin Shiniang and the others witness Hong Yuan’s ability to raise an ally’s cultivation and react with awe; Xin Shijiu-Mei eagerly asks about the fruit.
• Hong Yuan’s treatment of his followers is selective: he uses the rapid but potentially limiting fruit method for Xin Laoweng, while avoiding it for talented Fortune Children such as Xin Shiniang.

Significant themes

• Power and cultivation: Hong Yuan’s physical strength and spiritual foundations allow him to threaten higher-ranked opponents without formally advancing.
• Strategic restraint: He delays forming a Dao Embryo because its practitioners face restrictions that he can exploit.
• Ambition and risk: Hong Yuan willingly enters dangerous conflicts to uncover hidden powers and draw potential allies or enemies into the open.
• Growth and its costs: Rapidly increasing strength can limit future potential, so Hong Yuan tailors his methods to each follower.
• Undying nature and identity: The parallels between the Nine-Turn Undying art and the Undying People hint at a deeper connection yet to be revealed.

Seven years after setting out, Hong Yuan arrived at the Great Ruins aboard the Seven-Treasure Ruyi Ship with his gathered followers. He opened a breach in the immense wall surrounding the region, and the ship entered as a vast city came into view.

• Hong Yuan had spent seven years refining the Seven-Treasure Ruyi Ship and gathering talented followers, including four Origin Core Realm experts and more than a hundred Divine Ability Practitioners.
• Bai Chongyun announced that the ship was nearing the Great Ruins, exciting the gathered experts and practitioners.
• Hong Yuan found Yao Ji on the roof ridge and asked whether she had remembered anything, but she remained silent.
• Hong Yuan saw that the Great Ruins were enclosed by a wall of condensed vital energy and spiritual essence, then poured out his wine to carve a huge opening in it.
• The Seven-Treasure Ruyi Ship passed through the opening, and Hong Yuan saw an enormous city below.

In Sheng Capital, guests at the Prosperous Sea Tower debated whether Han Dai or Gui An was stronger until Red Butterfly announced that a new Book of Celestial Persons had appeared. She explained that the Heavenly Mechanism Tower sometimes published an early edition when an extraordinary person emerged.

• Guests at the Prosperous Sea Tower argued over whether Han Dai or Gui An was the stronger Divine Ability Practitioner.
• Red Butterfly entered the restaurant and announced that a new edition of the Book of Celestial Persons was out.
• The head proprietor caught Red Butterfly and told her to apologize, noting that the rankings were normally revised once every hundred years.
• A Dog-Seal man threatened Red Butterfly, but she leaped onto his palm and then his head, stamping his knees into the floor.
• Red Butterfly insisted that the Heavenly Mechanism Tower could release the rankings early when someone extraordinary appeared.

Red Butterfly revealed that Li Xuan had entered the Book of Celestial Persons after killing Baili Zhuifeng, while Gui An had also earned a place through a Longbo Giant’s favor. As the Sheng Kingdom celebrated Gui An’s rise, Xin Shiniang and Hongxian arrived with the Myriad Calamities Path and demanded the kingdom; the ruler attacked, and the Black-and-White Envoys moved to strike him down.

• Red Butterfly announced that Li Xuan had killed Baili Zhuifeng and caused the Book of Celestial Persons to be released early.
• Red Butterfly revealed that Gui An ranked 9,966th after gaining a Longbo Giant’s favor, and the Sheng Kingdom’s ruler resolved to grant him the title of Gui King and supply his cultivation needs.
• A rift opened above the Sheng Capital, and a radiant Golden Palace divine ship descended from the sky.
• Xin Shiniang and Hongxian identified themselves as members of the Myriad Calamities Path and demanded that the Sheng Kingdom let them stay and rest there.
• The Sheng Kingdom’s ruler attacked the divine ship, but the Black-and-White Envoys cut apart his primal qi palm and surrounded him with contracting lines.

Hong Yuan seized the Sheng Kingdom, learned about the Great Ruins and Constant Water Manor, then entered the Taisui Blessed Land to unite the five elements. His breakthrough created a Five-Element Daoist and revealed the Five-Element Annihilation Divine Light.

• The Black-and-White Envoys attacked the ruler of the Sheng Kingdom, but Bai Chongyun arrived and fought him until three more primal elixir cultivators joined, forcing the ruler to surrender.
• Hong Yuan searched the Sheng Kingdom's secret archive and learned about the lands beyond the Bai Sea, Constant Water Manor, and the kingdom's distant ties to the Longbo Giants.
• The ruler warned Hong Yuan that Constant Water Manor and its Law Master, Peaceful Elder, opposed disruptions to the established order, but Hong Yuan dismissed the warning.
• Hong Yuan entered the Taisui Blessed Land to break through to nascent soul perfection and unite the five elements through the Five Elements Spirit-Nurturing Art.
• Hong Yuan condensed his true nature into a new form called the Five-Element Daoist and identified its divine ability as the Five-Element Annihilation Divine Light.

Hong Yuan mastered the Five-Element Annihilation Calamity-Luck Divine Light, which became the fifth leaf of his Dao Seed, and tested it by killing a powerful Spider Demon Emperor. He sensed Daoist Nine Suns destroy Vysseran while tracking him, and resolved to strengthen himself and condense his Dao Embryo as Nine Suns closed in.

• Hong Yuan mastered the Five-Element Annihilation Calamity-Luck Divine Light, gained a small increase in Root Bone and Comprehension, and saw his Dao Seed sprout its fifth leaf.
• The Five-Element Daoist entered the Spider Demon Emperor's Law Domain and killed the seventh-level Primal Elixir Demon Emperor with the divine light.
• Hong Yuan sensed the Outer Dao Divine Tree weaken as Daoist Nine Suns annihilated Vysseran and its inhabitants, then took the Spirit Vein aura to continue tracking him.
• Daoist Nine Suns headed toward Great Xuan, seeking clues connected to Huang Longshi's homeland and aura.
• Hong Yuan considered how to transform the Outer Dao Divine Tree into a Great Dao Tree and decided to focus on his cultivation and prepare to condense his Dao Embryo.