Chapter Summaries

Bai Yu and the Black Feather King discussed the mystery surrounding Undying Mountain and Xu Yingxue’s departure before Bai Yu joined the sect leaders at Peony Pavilion. The leaders assigned the Holy Sons and Holy Maidens to investigate the missing expedition team and began briefing them on the evolving Divine Mountain.

• The Black Feather King and Bai Yu discussed Xu Yingxue’s unexplained departure and agreed not to interfere with her choices.
• Bai Yu and the Black Feather King considered why the Heavenly Demon Sect had sent Bai Yu to the secretive Undying Mountain mission.
• Bai Yu arrived at Peony Pavilion, where Li Yanxin and elders from the Three Mountains and Four Sects gathered with the Holy Sons and Holy Maidens.
• Wither-Glory Daoist explained that the expedition must find out whether the previous team had survived and could attempt to subdue Undying Mountain.
• Wither-Glory Daoist distributed Mystic Sound Stones for communication and warned that Undying Mountain was on the verge of evolution and remained dangerous.

Wither-Glory Daoist explained that Undying Mountain was evolving and gathered the sects’ geniuses to investigate it. After other Holy Sons and Maidens mocked the Heavenly Demon Sect’s new Holy Son, Bai Yu accepted their challenge and asked whether they would fight him one at a time or together.

• Wither-Glory Daoist revealed that teams sent into the evolving Undying Mountain had suffered heavy losses and asked the gathered geniuses to investigate, subdue it, or bring back information.
• Zhang Sheng asked whether a supreme treasure was causing the mountain’s evolution, and Wither-Glory Daoist confirmed that the cause was unknown and warned the team to stay in contact.
• Zhang Sheng and Miao Yinling called for the Holy Spirit Mountain and Heavenly Demon Sect representatives, and Mo Qingwu emerged as Holy Spirit Mountain’s powerful Holy Maiden.
• Miao Yinling and Zhang Sheng mocked the Heavenly Demon Sect’s Holy Son, while Meng Bingyan suggested using the mission to ease tensions between the Heavenly Demon Sect and Myriad Sword Sect.
• Bai Yu stopped Hua Liuli from responding, introduced himself, and challenged the gathered geniuses to fight him one at a time or all together as Black Feather stepped forward.

Bai Yu confronted the other sects’ prodigies before their Divine Mountain mission, prompting Li Yanxin to force them to swear not to attack one another. After the meeting, Bai Yu approached Li Yanxin to ask for materials in place of military merits he claimed the Great Wall Army had failed to award him.

• Bai Yu challenged Zhang Sheng and the others to fight, while the Black Feather King’s presence revealed that Bai Yu had a tribulation-transcending attendant.
• Zhang Sheng and Miao Yinling agreed to test Bai Yu, but Meng Bingyan offered to fight Miao Yinling and defend him.
• Li Yanxin stopped the confrontation, ordered the group to swear an oath against attacking their companions, and told them to prepare for the mission.
• Bai Yu approached Li Yanxin after the meeting and asked him to find materials, citing military merits he said the Great Wall Army had not credited.

Bai Yu began refining Jiang Yan in a medicinal pool to give her a Blood Corpse body while preserving her cultivation, then attempted the Netherworld Spirit Tempering Art. After enduring its agony, he reached beginner level and devoured two ghostly souls to continue cultivating.

• Bai Yu prepared a medicinal pool with peak seventh-grade Great Medicine and a Void Refinement Realm Ba Emperor Mushroom, then explained that Jiang Yan had to remain conscious to transform into a zombie body while retaining her cultivation.
• Jiang Yan entered the pool, and Bai Yu sent Wandering Zombie Gu into the medicinal liquid before she sank beneath its surface.
• Bai Yu examined the Ghost Nether Scripture and human-skin parchment containing the Netherworld Spirit Tempering Art, then chose to try the art despite its danger.
• The Netherworld Spirit Tempering Art caused Bai Yu immense pain, but his Creation Yin-Yang Mystic Dragon Gu helped him endure until the system recorded him at beginner level.
• Bai Yu devoured two ghostly souls to continue cultivating, startling Yu Linglong with his scream from the hall.

Bai Yu and the others crossed the Eternal Abyss toward Undying Mountain while discussing the vanished elder teams and the mountain’s connection to an ancient battlefield. They reached the small, red-mist-shrouded mountain, where Bai Yu immediately felt his body grow heavier.

• The group traveled across the Eternal Abyss aboard Xuan Lingzi’s Glazed Turtle and discussed rumors that Undying Mountain stood on an ancient battlefield where two dynasties had fallen.
• Li Jianxing said his surviving elder had seemed to indicate that the missing teams slaughtered one another, prompting Zhang Sheng and Miao Yinling to consider whether an illusion was responsible.
• Bai Yu kept his route marked as a retreat and endured the backlash from cultivating the Netherworld Spirit Tempering Art.
• Miao Yinling approached Bai Yu, asked about his poor condition, and probed him about his cultivation and Red Lotus Karmic Fire.
• Xuan Longzi announced that Undying Mountain was near, and the group saw a small mountain covered in red mist.
• Bai Yu felt his body grow several degrees heavier as he entered the region.

Bai Yu and the others found an apparently ordinary ruined temple at the center of Undying Mountain, where the surroundings began interfering with their memories. Bai Yu realized that Wu Liumiao had been deliberately overlooked and questioned how he had joined their group.

• Li Jianxing contacted Li Yanxin, who told the group to find the temple at Undying Mountain’s center, but the transmission soon failed.
• Bai Yu felt increasingly heavy and uneasy, summoned the Black Feather King, and continued with the group as Meng Bingyan moved closer to him.
• Zhang Sheng and the others found the ruined temple and a headless stone statue, but their search revealed nothing unusual.
• Thunder and heavy rain began as Bai Yu’s discomfort intensified, and his Natal Gu and Divine Baleful Gu helped him resist a force affecting his thoughts.
• Bai Yu asked Meng Bingyan and the Black Feather King to count the group, then pointed out that Wu Liumiao had no clear place among the seven holy sons and holy maidens sent on the mission.

Bai Yu realized that Wu Liumiao had never existed and that something in Undying Mountain had altered the group’s memories. After Zhang Sheng contacted Li Yanxin, the group learned that the Great Wall Army had sent no one to join them, leaving them to wonder what had manipulated their perceptions.

• Meng Bingyan counted the group and found only seven people, then realized they had remembered an extra person named Wu Liumiao.
• Bai Yu insisted that Wu Liumiao had never existed and explained that something had altered their cognition, but Zhang Sheng mocked him.
• Zhang Sheng contacted Li Yanxin with the Mystic Sound Stone and claimed they had followed instructions to reach a temple with Wu Liumiao missing.
• Li Yanxin denied giving them those instructions and said the Great Wall Army had sent no one to accompany them.
• After the connection cut off, Zhang Sheng and the others accepted that Wu Liumiao did not exist and wondered what had altered their memories.

Bai Yu and the other Divine-Eyed Ones joined forces to break the temple’s concealed deadlock, revealing a warped landscape filled with yin energy and the remains of investigators. The chapter ended as Bai Yu discovered that the headless statue had changed.

• Zhang Sheng used his Autumn-Waters-Piercing Pupil to search the temple, while Bai Yu realized an unknown presence was draining the group’s resolve.
• Zhang Sheng and Xuan Longzi left the temple to investigate, and Bai Yu used the Lu Ban Ruler to discover that every nearby feng shui position was inauspicious.
• Bai Yu proposed combining their divine eyes to break the concealment, and Meng Bingyan, Mo Qingwu, Miao Yinling, and Li Jianxing attacked the marked positions.
• Bai Yu drew the calamity positions together and shattered the illusion, exposing a distorted landscape filled with yin energy and gray flames.
• Skeletons emerged from the ground, and Bai Yu recognized them as the elders who had investigated Undying Mountain before he saw the headless statue change.

Bai Yu recognized that the monstrous pillar and the shifting temple were part of a deception, and stopped the others from attacking the pillar. After Zhang Sheng appeared with a false solution and urged them to destroy it, Bai Yu exposed him as Wu Liumiao and realized the pillar sealed an even greater threat.

• Mo Qingwu and the others prepared to attack the flesh-covered pillar, but Bai Yu stopped them because the Lu Ban Ruler’s warnings and the scene’s contradictions suggested they were being misled.
• Zhang Sheng entered carrying a rotting elder’s head and claimed he had found a diagram showing that destroying the headless statue would reveal the truth.
• The Black Feather King noticed Zhang Sheng saw the temple as it had been before the space shattered, showing that he and the others were in different time-spaces.
• Bai Yu produced a seventh-grade Great Medicine, and Zhang Sheng urged the group to destroy the pillar while greed showed in his eyes.
• The Black Feather King speared Zhang Sheng and Mo Qingwu froze him; Bai Yu identified him as Wu Liumiao and said the pillar was a seal containing the true fierce tiger.

Bai Yu and the others discovered that the Undying Mountain was a sealed living monster that absorbed mana and trapped them with endless tentacles. Bai Yu unleashed the Gu path killer move Mountain-Shaking, using his ant brood to devour the tentacles and lift the group off the flesh-covered ground.

• Bai Yu revealed that Wu Liumiao was the monster’s consciousness, and Xuan Longzi’s attack shattered one of the seals inside the temple.
• Scarlet flesh, black phantoms, and tentacles erupted as Bai Yu realized the entire Undying Mountain was a living creature that lured cultivators in and absorbed them.
• Mo Qingwu, Li Jianxing, Miao Yinling, Meng Bingyan, and the Black Feather King fled the collapsing temple, but the monster’s tentacles blocked their escape and drained their mana.
• Bai Yu used Red Lotus Karmic Fire and summoned his ant brood to unleash the Gu path killer move Mountain-Shaking.
• The ants devoured the tentacles and lifted Bai Yu and the others above the flesh, freeing them from the ground’s mana-draining grasp; Bai Yu ordered them to kill.

Bai Yu evolved his Heaven-Burning Frost Soul Ants into Nascent Soul-level Soul-Devouring Heaven-Swallowing Ants to fight the Meat Mountain monster, but the group discovered Wu Liumiao was making them circle the Divine Mountain. Xuan Longzi then appeared and summoned a colossal green Buddha whose power was at the Tribulation Transcendence realm.

• Bai Yu fed Great Medicines to the Heaven-Burning Frost Soul Ant nest, evolving its queen into a Nascent Soul-level Burning Dusk Soul-Devouring Ant and producing Soul-Devouring Heaven-Swallowing Ants.
• The Soul-Devouring Heaven-Swallowing Ants overwhelmed the monster's defenses, devouring flesh and blood as the group pressed onward.
• The Black Feather King noticed they had spent an hour circling the Divine Mountain and that the ruins they passed had been restored.
• Bai Yu identified Wu Liumiao's flickering phantoms as the cause of their confusion and prepared to investigate.
• Xuan Longzi emerged with a sword embedded through his shoulder, summoned a green Buddha amid green flames, and revealed Tribulation Transcendence-level power.

Wu Liumiao revealed himself as a Buddha in This Very Body, an Esoteric Sect cultivator who had turned Undying Mountain into a monster and planned to possess Bai Yu and the other geniuses. As Bai Yu looked for a way to use the remaining seal against him, Meng Bingyan demanded to know what had happened to Zhang Sheng, and an enraged voice launched a lightning attack on Wu Liumiao.

• Wu Liumiao revealed his identity as a Buddha in This Very Body and drew the severed limbs and corpses into a frenzy.
• The Black Feather King explained Wu Liumiao’s Breaking Jar Method, his possession of Xuan Longzi, and the seal that had trapped him in the Eternal Abyss.
• Wu Liumiao said his fellow disciples had sealed him, but he had used the Great Medicine to possess bodies and turn Undying Mountain into a storehouse of flesh and blood.
• The Black Feather King warned Bai Yu that Wu Liumiao was at peak Tribulation Transcendence, and Bai Yu asked the others to hold him off while he checked whether the seal still worked.
• Meng Bingyan asked Wu Liumiao where Zhang Sheng was, and Wu Liumiao claimed Zhang Sheng was dead.
• An enraged voice invoked the forefathers of Creation Dao Mountain and sent wind, clouds, lightning, and thunder toward Wu Liumiao, who answered by opening the evil Buddha’s eyes.

Wu Liumiao overwhelmed Zhang Sheng and held off the Black Feather King and the others by channeling their attacks into Undying Mountain. While Bai Yu uncovered a possible way to exploit the mountain’s still-functioning formation, he separated his soul from his body and sent it with Black Charcoal into the mountain’s depths.

• Wu Liumiao absorbed Zhang Sheng’s lightning attack through the evil Buddha and sent Zhang Sheng flying.
• The Black Feather King and the others attacked Wu Liumiao, but he used the evil Buddha to withstand their combined assault.
• Bai Yu realized that Wu Liumiao might be fused with Undying Mountain and redirecting attacks into it.
• Bai Yu found traces of Buddhist power on the mountain’s stone pillars and devised a plan to use Black Charcoal’s Buddhist power and karmic fire to activate them.
• Bai Yu asked Yu Linglong to protect his body by making it sink into oblivion, then used the Netherworld Spirit Tempering Art to separate his soul.
• Bai Yu’s soul rode on Black Charcoal as it tore through the flesh on the ground and headed deeper into Divine Mountain.

Bai Yu ignited the stone pillars within Undying Mountain and uncovered the Esoteric Sect’s Dual Cultivation Method and Wu Liumiao’s past. He set the mountain’s power in motion and emerged as the battle against Wu Liumiao turned in an unexpected direction.

• Yu Linglong shielded Bai Yu while Nangong Xuansu used the War God Myriad Soul Gu to help him reach the stone pillars underground.
• Bai Yu used Black Charcoal and Red Lotus Karmic Fire to burn away the seals, revealing Buddhist chants and a cultivation inheritance encoded in the pillars.
• After igniting eighty-one pillars, Bai Yu assembled the Dual Cultivation Method and saw a vision revealing how Wu Liumiao had received a relic, misused it, and been sealed by Esoteric Sect powers.
• Bai Yu recognized that the relic and the Wrathful Vajra had been intended to guide Wu Liumiao, then unleashed the Red Lotus Karmic Fire to melt the Divine Mountain and returned to the surface.
• While Mo Qingwu and the others struggled against Wu Liumiao, the Evil Buddha phantom suddenly faltered and developed a crack.

Bai Yu and the Black Feather King’s allies shattered Wu Liumiao’s evil Buddha manifestation, ending the threat at Undying Mountain. The Black Feather King took Wu Liumiao’s relic, and the survivors prepared to leave as the mountain rotted and collapsed.

• Bai Yu awakened after the Red Lotus Karmic Fire drained his magical power, while the Black Feather King and the others attacked Wu Liumiao’s cracked evil Buddha.
• The Black Feather King and the others destroyed the evil Buddha, and the War God Myriad Soul Gu absorbed its scattered soul fragments and gained battle-soul imprints.
• Wu Liumiao withered and fell, but the Black Feather King killed him with her golden spear and tore out a sarira formed from an Integrated Body Level eminent monk.
• Miao Yinling thanked Bai Yu, and Zhang Sheng volunteered to explain Xuan Longzi’s death to the Thunder Sound Sect.
• Undying Mountain began to decay and collapse, so Meng Bingyan urged everyone to leave.

After returning from Undying Mountain, Bai Yu arranged his former subordinates’ futures and prepared to leave for the Midstream with Hua Liuli and Liu Qingli. He then summoned Meng Bingyan to share a powerful Esoteric Sect cultivation method, proposing they use it to improve their cultivation before the journey.

• The spirit turtle carried Bai Yu and the others away as the Divine Mountain collapsed and monsters devoured what remained of Wu Liumiao.
• After returning with Xuan Longzi's corpse, Bai Yu and the others faced repeated questioning from the Thunder Sound Sect, while Mo Qingwu blamed the Esoteric Sect of the upper reaches.
• Bai Yu arranged promotions for his former subordinates and prepared to travel to the Blood Prison Dynasty with Hua Liuli, while Jing Linghan and Yu Linglong made plans for the Midstream.
• Bai Yu summoned Meng Bingyan and showed her a jade slip containing the Esoteric Sect's dual cultivation art and the true deity manifestation of the Evil Wrathful Path.
• Bai Yu urged Meng Bingyan to cultivate the methods with him so they could improve before leaving, saying he wanted to pluck flowers and play with jade.

Bai Yu and Meng Bingyan emerged from seven days of dual cultivation with their cultivation levels greatly increased, and Bai Yu planned to travel to the Blood Prison Dynasty for its King Conferment Ceremony. After Meng Bingyan explained the dynasty’s factional turmoil, she offered to establish a Myriad Sword Sect office there to support him.

• The Black Feather King suppressed the breakthrough phenomenon and realized Bai Yu had reached Nascent Soul eighth level while Meng Bingyan had reached Spirit Transformation fourth level.
• Yu Linglong explained why dual cultivation worked best between cultivators whose realms were not too far apart, and Dugu Yan reassured the Black Feather King that Bai Yu would still take an interest in her.
• Bai Yu said he would leave for the Blood Prison Dynasty in three days to investigate reports of trouble and attend the King Conferment Ceremony.
• Meng Bingyan described the Blood Prison Dynasty’s competing factions and noted that the absent Blood Emperor had left some questioning who truly controlled it.
• Bai Yu observed that the Heavenly Demon Sect needed allies beyond the Grand Preceptor’s Residence, and Meng Bingyan offered to establish a Myriad Sword Sect office in the dynasty to help him.

Bai Yu arrived in the Blood Prison Dynasty with Hua Liuli and discovered that the Divine Baleful Gu had awakened to powerful new abilities. At the Imperial Preceptor's Residence, Tu Kui and Hua Liuli argued over where Bai Yu should stay before he proposed meeting the Sect Master first.

• Bai Yu and the Heavenly Demon Sect's flying vessel crossed into the middle reaches and traveled east toward the Blood Prison Dynasty.
• The Divine Baleful Gu absorbed Bai Yu's fortune and revealed several new Divine Baleful dicta, prompting him to resolve to refine the Heaven-Blest Fortune Gu.
• Bai Yu, Hua Liuli, and Black Feather King entered Blood Emperor City and headed to the Imperial Preceptor's Residence.
• Tu Kui welcomed Bai Yu and offered to find him a place to stay, while Hua Liuli tried to take him to accommodations arranged by her Peak Master.
• Bai Yu suggested that he and the others meet the Sect Master before deciding where he would stay.

Liu Qingli ordered Bai Yu to establish a faction in the Downstream so he could preserve his military authority and prepare for the King Conferral Ceremony. She gave him a token and resources but no troops, then sent him away, leaving Bai Yu to find somewhere to settle.

• Liu Qingli explained that Bai Yu needed territory and a faction of his own to maintain his Colonel's authority and become a candidate for kingship.
• Bai Yu agreed to the mission and asked the Heavenly Demon Sect to support him.
• Liu Qingli gave Bai Yu a Holy Son token and storage rings with spirit stones and army resources, but no subordinates.
• Liu Qingli sent Bai Yu and the Black Feather King out of the main hall and told Hua Liuli to stay.
• Bai Yu complained that the mission felt like exile, then decided to find somewhere to settle.

Bai Yu sought a foothold in the Blood Prison Dynasty and learned that Xu Yingxue was in Holy Heaven City, so he traveled there hoping for her help. He arrived to find Xu Yingyue confronting Ye Sheng over the Ye family’s attempt to take over the Xu family’s pill supply.

• Bai Yu discussed how to choose a territory with Yu Linglong, Xiao Rongrong, and Dugu Yan, and they decided to seek local information rather than investigate every force.
• Bai Yu contacted Qi Tongzhi, learned that Xu Yingxue was with the Xu family in Holy Heaven City, and secured provisions for the Blood Corpse Legion.
• Bai Yu traveled to Holy Heaven City and saw that the Xu family was one of the city’s powerful merchant families.
• Bai Yu followed a crowd to a marketplace arena, where Xu Yingyue accused Ye Sheng of violating the Four Great Families’ agreement on pill supplies.
• Ye Sheng claimed that the Ye family could provide better pills at the same price and accused the Xu family of seeking a monopoly.