Chapter Summaries

Yu Ci discussed the Clear Sky Discourse’s new contest rules with Madam Hua and learned that Ao Yang had proposed marriage to her. Madam Hua explained that she intended to pursue her own goals, which would bring her into conflict with the Sea Merchant Guild, and Yu Ci was left considering the scale of her ambitions.

• Yu Ci learned that claiming a Void world would require three wins across five Talisman Methods, with each cultivator allowed to compete only once, and worried that his side lacked enough qualified talisman artists.
• Yu Ci asked Madam Hua about the Sea Merchant Guild’s preparations, and she said Ao Yang had come to propose marriage to her.
• Madam Hua told Yu Ci that Ao Yang had once accused her of plotting against the guild and suggested that he understood she was no longer on the same path as its members.
• Madam Hua described how merchant guilds endured by pursuing profit and cultivating far-sighted leaders, then said she wanted to act on her own ambitions.
• Madam Hua asked whether Yu Ci would abandon his cultivation and follow her to open another heaven and earth; after he refused, she said the Sea Merchant Guild’s members might not get to choose their paths.

Madam Hua explained why she had refused Ao Yang and challenged Yu Ci over the Shangqing Sect’s place in the coming upheaval. As she began to reveal what she truly sought, an assassin attacked her, and Yu Ci intervened with his Void Divine Ability.

• Madam Hua told Yu Ci that she had rejected Ao Yang because a great upheaval was approaching and the old order would not endure.
• Madam Hua asked whether Yu Ci would restore the Shangqing Sect under new laws or old rules, then implied that it would be too insignificant to join the coming currents of the world.
• Yu Ci accused Madam Hua of using her words to seek a new patron, but she replied that her failing health left her little to gain and began to explain what she wanted.
• A masked assassin in blue burst from beneath the pavilion and thrust a sword toward Madam Hua.
• Yu Ci used his Void Divine Ability to stretch the space between the water and pavilion, halting the assassin’s blade before it could reach her.

Yu Ci was ambushed at the Lotus Pond by two assassins and trapped by its formations, while Madam Hua remained protected behind a shield. After Yu Ci seized the bowman's arrow and held the attackers at bay, the sword-wielding assassin detonated himself, and another attacker appeared beside Yu Ci with a strike aimed at his mind.

• A hidden archer shot at Yu Ci while the Lotus Pond's formations disrupted his Inner Void and helped the attack reach him.
• Yu Ci expanded his Inner Void, caught the arrow, and locked onto the fleeing bowman as Madam Hua warned him about the Three Origins Secret Array.
• A wave of light activated the array, suppressed Yu Ci, and enclosed Madam Hua in a protective shield.
• Yu Ci realized the assassins' attacks were part of a trap, but the sword-wielding assassin exploded inside his Inner Void and scattered blood and flesh into a sinister pattern.
• A figure sprang up within three steps of Yu Ci and drove fierce killing intent toward his mind palace.

Yu Ci faced a maid-assassin whose sudden rise to the Calamity Law realm and targeted attacks threatened his body and inner void. He unleashed the Twelve Jade Towers Heavenly Sound, whose sword intent began severing the laws supporting the assassin and breaking through the Three Origins Secret Array.

• The maid-assassin surged from the Returning Pill realm to the Calamity Law realm and struck Yu Ci with earthquake-law power that caved in his chest.
• The assassin's burst foul qi contaminated Yu Ci's attempts to seal it, threatening to damage his inner void.
• Yu Ci recognized that the assassins' tactics targeted his Self-Created World, but his inner void had deeper foundations than they had anticipated.
• Yu Ci invoked the Twelve Jade Towers Heavenly Sound, releasing ten transformations of sword intent across the Earth and Law System.
• The sword intent cracked open the Three Origins Secret Array and began severing the laws that gave the maid-assassin her foothold in heaven and earth.

Yu Ci killed the maidservant with the Twelve Jade Towers Heavenly Sound, but the Three Origins Secret Array’s overseer turned against him and helped a distant archer attack. Bound and afflicted by a curse, Yu Ci faced another deadly arrow as observers in Wuji Pavilion’s dark chamber watched and began identifying the trap’s clues.

• Yu Ci stripped away the maidservant’s boosted cultivation with the Twelve Jade Towers Heavenly Sound and killed her with a strand of Sword Qi.
• The Three Origins Secret Array’s overseer ignored Madam Hua’s explanation, branded Yu Ci a suspect, and suppressed him with chains while the maidservant’s corpse vanished and its curse began afflicting his soul.
• A masked bow-wielding assassin revealed himself and fired a powerful arrow; Yu Ci broke it apart with Profound Ice Dissolution and a fist-chop, but his injuries left him bound by the array.
• The overseer dismissed Yu Ci’s warning about the archer as the assassin drew another arrow, while a curse spread through Yu Ci’s soul and blocked him from tracing its source.
• Wuji Pavilion’s master Zhao Xiangshan showed the battle to distant observers, who discussed the attackers’ techniques and speculated about Crimson Firmament Heaven’s involvement.
• An observer noticed a pattern emerging in the blood-red mark on Yu Ci’s forehead as the archer continued gathering power for another shot.

Zhao Xiangshan revealed that the Blood Mansion Ancestor had trapped Yu Ci with the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal, while Sun Weizhen used the Three Origins Secret Array to isolate him and block anyone trying to help. Yu Ci pierced Sun Weizhen’s defenses with his gaze just as an azure arrow streaked toward Lotus Pond, leaving its impact unresolved.

• Zhao Xiangshan explained that the Blood Mansion Ancestor’s Blood Aspect Puppets had enabled the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal to take hold of Yu Ci.
• Zhao Xiangshan told the assembled sect leaders that he intended to prevent the Shangqing Sect from regaining influence in Xi Yu Lake and had summoned them to witness the attack.
• Sun Weizhen used the Three Origins Secret Array to keep Madam Hua and the nearby cultivators away from Yu Ci, sealing Luo Yuniang inside the hidden waterway.
• Yu Ci repeatedly fixed Sun Weizhen with his gaze and sent him a cutting message through the layers of formations, unsettling the temporary inspector.
• An azure arrow shot toward Lotus Pond as Sun Weizhen realized the bow-wielding assassin had not released it and an alarm sounded in the inspector core.

Yu Ci killed the bow-wielding assassin with Shangqing Thunder Law, while Sun Weizhen’s desperate attempt to attack him ended in Sun’s death and the exposure of his memories. Zhao Xiangshan then used the incident to explain his plan and argue that the Later Sage’s power in the True Realm was limited, beginning an analysis of the battle against the East China Sea figure.

• Yu Ci used Upper Azure Star-Glow Induction Divine Thunder to destroy the bow-wielding assassin and send the Taihao City-Shattering Bow into the lake.
• Sun Weizhen poured his vital energy into the Three Origins Secret Array and tried to kill Yu Ci, but he died as his Yang God burned, transmitting his memories to Yu Ci.
• Xun Yuan of the Haoran Sect entered the array hub, restrained Sun Weizhen’s fading Yang God, and contacted Yu Ci, who closed his eyes without responding.
• Zhao Xiangshan described Sun Weizhen as a dying Shanjian Sect cultivator who had volunteered for inspector duty, then told the gathered factions that extraordinary matters did not always require extraordinary force.
• Zhao Xiangshan argued that the Later Sage had few believers and limited power in the True Realm, then began presenting his analysis of the battle between the Later Sage and the East China Sea figure.

Zhao Xiangshan analyzed Yu Ci’s strength and urged sects to undermine the Shangqing Sect by shaping public opinion, while a distant roar hinted at trouble. Trapped by the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal and unable to find its mastermind, Yu Ci recognized that the momentum surrounding his rise had become a snare and feared that either victory or defeat would make him a spectacle.

• Zhao Xiangshan argued that Yu Ci could withstand the Rakshasa Ghost King’s attacks and wielded the Xuan Huang Killing Sword, then proposed using worldly sentiment to oppose the Shangqing Sect’s return to the North.
• A cultivator challenged Zhao Xiangshan to present a concrete plan, and Zhao Xiangshan concealed that the gathering and its attendees were already part of his scheme to spread doubt about Yu Ci and the Later Sage.
• A cultivator near Xi Yu Lake reported a roar heard from hundreds of miles away, while Zhao Xiangshan declined to inspect the Lotus Pond and concluded that his arrangements against Yu Ci were in place.
• Yu Ci endured the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal’s erosion and learned that the Blood Mansion Ancestor and the Crimson Prison Banner remained beyond his reach.
• Yu Ci realized that the cheering around his arrival had pushed him into the open and that both defeat and victory could turn him into a spectacle for the factions watching him.

Yu Ci realized that he needed to make the great figures of the world fear his power, and began gathering and refining his anger and other negative emotions into strength. He rejected schemes as the wrong path for him and resolved to unleash that power in his own way.

• Yu Ci recognized that the title “Shangqing Later Sage” could not protect him without strength that others could see and fear.
• He concluded that he needed a loud warning capable of making the great figures take notice, but his accumulated power was not yet enough.
• Yu Ci drew on anger, humiliation, frustration, and other negative emotions, refining them into a force within his mind and heart.
• As Madam Hua watched him, Yu Ci accepted that he could not solve the problem through schemes and wisdom.
• Yu Ci resolved to make his own voice heard by unleashing the emotional power he had accumulated.

Yu Ci used the No-Illumination Fire and emotional divine power to strike back at the curse seals in his divine soul, unleashing a wave of terror across Xi Yu Lake. The backlash revealed that the curse seal’s connection lay roughly to the west, and Yu Ci gained a deeper understanding of the curse system.

• Yu Ci examined his inner void and saw the curse forces surrounding Chengqitian while the No-Illumination Fire damaged his altar, ritual implements, True Dragon Form Qi, and Cloud Tower Tree.
• Yu Ci released a silent roar that sent his emotional divine power outward, terrifying cultivators and spreading panic across Xi Yu Lake.
• Xun Yuan tried to calm Yu Ci and use the Three-Party Primordial Energy to contain the disturbance, but the fear kept spreading through the crowd.
• Yu Ci used the turmoil to collide with the curse seals in his divine soul with greatly increased force and sensed their connection lay roughly to the west.
• Yu Ci seized the lingering traces of the clash to better understand the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal’s curse system.

Yu Ci endured the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal, refined his inner realms with the No-Illumination Fire, and unleashed a second roar that struck emotions and damaged the Three Origins Secret Array across Xi Yu Lake. Xun Yuan recognized that the spreading turmoil could become a demonic tribulation, but found himself unable to stop it.

• Yu Ci sensed the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal and its Crimson Prison Banner defense, marveling at how its mixed techniques formed a tenacious whole.
• Yu Ci examined the fire-scorched Chengqitian and saw that the No-Illumination Fire had purged impurities and exposed hidden weaknesses throughout his inner realms.
• Yu Ci raised his head and unleashed a long whistle whose emotional force surged across the void despite its limited audible range.
• Xun Yuan suffered a backlash when he formed malicious intent against Yu Ci, and blood came from his mouth.
• Xun Yuan tried to activate the Three Origins Secret Array, but Yu Ci's sound killing technique had shattered nearby nodes and blurred the image-transmission arrays.
• Xun Yuan watched the unrest on Xi Yu Lake intensify and feared it would become a demonic tribulation.

Divine Lord Cold Bamboo arrived to contain the crisis on Xi Yu Lake but chose to wait for Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu to act, while studying Yu Ci’s power over Sun Weizhen’s inner demons. As he examined Yu Ci through the array, a terrifying sword aura targeted him and left him struggling to move.

• Divine Lord Cold Bamboo appeared beside Xun Yuan and focused on Sun Weizhen’s unconscious Yang God instead of immediately addressing the crisis.
• Divine Lord Cold Bamboo told Xun Yuan that the Alliance would wait to see whether Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu acted with restraint before intervening.
• After learning that Yu Ci had merely looked at Sun Weizhen, Divine Lord Cold Bamboo recognized that Yu Ci had triggered the man’s inner demons across space with a glance.
• Divine Lord Cold Bamboo examined Yu Ci through the restored projection array and reached toward its central controls.
• A chilling sword aura struck at Divine Lord Cold Bamboo, freezing him in place as Xun Yuan sensed its source high above.

Yu Ci spread an emotional web across Xi Yu Lake to find the mastermind behind the attempt on his life. Divine Lord Cold Bamboo warned the Xiyu Alliance’s powerful figures not to provoke Yu Ci, while Yu Ci maintained control over the affected cultivators and searched for signs of malice.

• Divine Lord Cold Bamboo recognized that sword intent had suppressed his true body and ordered monitors to warn powerful cultivators not to provoke Yu Ci.
• Xun Yuan transmitted Cold Bamboo’s warning to long-lived members of the Xiyu Alliance in Xi Yu Lake and the Three Immortal Cities.
• Yu Ci concluded that the mastermind behind the trap was likely nearby, since the plot had been prepared too quickly to originate far away.
• Yu Ci formed a temporary emotional web across Xi Yu Lake, flagging extreme malice in hopes of finding the mastermind or the person directing the attack.
• Yu Ci sorted the cultivators’ emotions without losing control, restraining their actions as he continued searching for suspicious malice.

Yu Ci used his emotion-based divine ability and Xuan Huang’s sword intent to disrupt Xi Yu Lake while sensing conspirators discussing the title “Later Saint.” The chapter ended with the conspirators’ dark chamber in chaos as Yu Ci appeared in their water mirror.

• Yu Ci directed Xuan Huang’s sword intent toward experts on Xi Yu Lake while his emotional assault kept them off balance.
• Yu Ci sensed people hundreds to thousands of miles away speaking of “Later Saint” and recognized the title given to him by Saint Xiao of the Eight Sceneries Palace.
• Conspirators in a dark chamber questioned whether Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu had caused the disturbance, while Zhao Xiangshan dismissed their concerns.
• The Xiyu Alliance sent warnings through the communication arrays, prompting several conspirators to sever their connections.
• The conspirators recognized that an emotion-based divine ability covered the lake, but Yu Ci’s image appeared in their water mirror before they could escape.

Yu Ci traced Zhao Xiangshan’s projection to his hiding place beneath Xi Yu Lake, while Zhao’s escape left the gathered factions shaken. Yu Ci began using the Realm of Truth and the Ziwei Emperor’s Command to prepare to reach him through the lake’s formidable defenses.

• Zhao Xiangshan’s projection shattered and destroyed the dark room and its communication arrays, erasing the evidence of the gathering.
• The cultivators of the factions realized Zhao had used them as cover and feared Yu Ci would otherwise have targeted them all.
• Yu Ci recognized Zhao’s repeated, emotionless calls to the Later Sage as the clue that had revealed him, and valued Zhao as a sufficiently powerful target.
• Yu Ci followed the connection left by Zhao’s projection and located him a thousand miles beneath Xi Yu Lake, though the lake’s defenses and shifting sensation made pursuit difficult.
• Yu Ci connected with the Realm of Truth, drew down starlight, and raised a heavenly palace and city by invoking the Ziwei Emperor’s Command.

As Yu Ci stirred the Three Origins Secret Array, Divine Lord Cold Bamboo and Xun Yuan debated the danger of reopening the breach left by the Taixiao Divine Court’s fall. A Shangqing treasure raced toward Yu Ci, while another power beneath Xi Yu Lake briefly stirred before he sent it back into dormancy.

• Divine Lord Cold Bamboo warned Xun Yuan that the Three Origins Secret Array still held an unrepaired breach from the Taixiao Divine Court’s crash and that Yu Ci might be forcing the alliance to salvage it.
• Xun Yuan argued that the Xiyu Alliance should enlist Yu Ci’s help against the rising demonic calamity, but Cold Bamboo told him to submit his case to the sect.
• A beam of pure light crossed Xi Yu Lake toward the Lotus Pond, and surveillance arrays revealed a white tiger pulling the Shangqing Sect’s Tiger Chariot Jade Carriage Hidden Wheel.
• Yu Ci sensed the carriage’s approach and recognized the Shangqing charm within it as the cause of its powerful resonance.
• A force deep beneath Xi Yu Lake began to awaken, but Yu Ci’s thought returned it to dormancy, prompting him to reconsider his plans to trap Zhao Xiangshan.

Yu Ci used the Tiger Chariot Jade Carriage Hidden Wheel to trace Zhao Xiangshan’s aura beneath Lotus Pond and considered the carriage’s deeper power to enfeoff and summon beings. Blood Mansion Ancestor’s curse-kill then escalated against Chengqitian, taking the shape of a colossal Taotie that began to press down on it.

• The Tiger Chariot Jade Carriage Hidden Wheel arrived above Lotus Pond, where Yu Ci saw Qizhen had managed to board it.
• Yu Ci entered the carriage and used its interface to lock onto Zhao Xiangshan’s faint aura deep beneath the lake.
• Yu Ci reflected that the carriage’s ability to connect with another’s aura might reveal a deeper method of enfeoffing and summoning beings.
• Blood Mansion Ancestor’s curse-kill struck Yu Ci again, and Yu Ci used the carriage to locate its blood-colored presence to the west.
• The curse unleashed a bone-eroding wind against Chengqitian, but the newly cleansed heaven withstood it.
• The curse transformed its gate into a colossal Taotie and pressed down toward Chengqitian.

Yu Ci endured the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal’s attack while using the True Dragon Form Qi and Nine-Five Thunder Command Method to suppress it and analyze its structure. He traced Blood Mansion Ancestor’s movements to within about four million li and had deciphered most of the pattern, preparing to act.

• Yu Ci let the Taotie projection swallow Chengqitian, but its crystalline radiance and Cloud Tower Tree sustained the realm and kept his Dao foundation intact.
• Yu Ci unleashed the True Dragon Form Qi and Nine-Five Thunder Command Method, which destroyed waves of foul Qi and forced the curse art to evolve in response.
• The Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal trapped Yu Ci’s Dao foundation and manifested Avici Hell, but his glazed heart resisted its torment while his true dragon thunder and fire maintained a stalemate.
• Yu Ci focused on the curse seal’s structure and identified the Blood Aspect Puppet’s connection to Blood Mansion Ancestor as the key to tracing its source.
• Using the Tiger Chariot Jade Carriage Hidden Wheel to mark possible traces, Yu Ci determined that Blood Mansion Ancestor was within roughly four million li and that he had deciphered most of the ancestor’s movement pattern.

Yu Ci used the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal to locate the Blood Mansion Ancestor and turn the curse connection into a channel for projecting his intent. The Blood Mansion Ancestor recognized the shift in advantage but believed Yu Ci could not transmit a real attack across the distance, just as a sudden pressure began to reach him.

• Yu Ci's True Dragon Form shattered the filthy Qi in his Inner Void and damaged the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal.
• Yu Ci reshaped the Ziwei Emperor's Command within the Realm of Truth and used the Tiger Chariot Jade Carriage Hidden Wheel to lock onto the Blood Mansion Ancestor.
• Yu Ci's intent pierced the Crimson Prison Banner and exposed the Blood Mansion Ancestor among his chanting cultivators and spirits.
• The Blood Mansion Ancestor realized the curse seal had become a handle in Yu Ci's grip and that their offense and defense had reversed.
• The Blood Mansion Ancestor defended behind the Crimson Prison Banner and wondered why Zhao Xiangshan had not acted at Xi Yu Lake.
• A blood-sea-like pressure reached the Blood Mansion Ancestor, who decided it was only long-distance communication—then his vision blurred again.

Yu Ci trapped Blood Mansion Ancestor in a true illusion crafted from real scenery, using a lotus pond’s cycles of life and death to unsettle him as he faced tribulation. Blood Mansion Ancestor escaped the illusion but suffered a devastating inner-demon backlash, losing much of his chance to reincarnate and cultivate anew.

• Blood Mansion Ancestor realized Yu Ci had drawn him into an illusionary realm by transmitting real scenery through the Crimson Firmament Curse Kill Seal.
• Yu Ci showed him a ruined lotus pond whose flowers alternated between life and decay, provoking Blood Mansion Ancestor’s anger and inner demons.
• A treasure embedded in Blood Mansion Ancestor’s chest cooled his mind as he tried to resist the illusion.
• The lotuses repeatedly shifted between blooming and withering, leaving Blood Mansion Ancestor shaken by thoughts of life and death.
• Yu Ci ended the transmission, but Blood Mansion Ancestor questioned whether his corrupt cultivation could truly lead back to the immortal path.
• Inner demons erupted under the pressure of tribulation, costing Blood Mansion Ancestor another thirty percent of his chance to reincarnate and sending him into an emotional collapse.