Chapter Summaries

Li Changshou revealed a weapon capable of threatening the Heavenly Dao, then debated Dao Ancestor Hongjun over what it meant to be an Immortal. Hongjun challenged him to a contest over the outcome of the Shang-Zhou conflict, leaving Li Changshou unable to intervene while the two waited for the result.

• Li Changshou demonstrated how the Foul Spring could destroy the Heavenly Court and threaten the system Dao Ancestor Hongjun had built.
• Hongjun offered to spare Dong Wang Gong if Li Changshou competed against him, but Li Changshou rejected treating another person's life as a wager.
• Li Changshou argued that being an Immortal depended on one's heart and actions rather than cultivation, prompting Hongjun to challenge him over the outcome between Shang and Zhou.
• Li Changshou accepted the contest, and Hongjun created a three-dimensional Landscape Painting of the Primordial Wilderness as their chessboard.
• Hongjun asked Ling'e and Xiong Lingli to prepare a feast, then agreed that neither he nor Li Changshou would intervene while they waited for Shang and Zhou's final battle.

While Li Changshou and Dao Ancestor Hongjun watched the war between Zhou and Shang unfold, King Zhou returned to Chaoge and prepared to resume his eastern campaign. Guang Chengzi then urged King Wu Ji Fa to launch a surprise attack on Chaoge, promising that its gates would open from within.

• Ling'e and Bell Spirit waited anxiously as Li Changshou and Dao Ancestor Hongjun remained motionless, while the Zhou-Shang campaign began across the Southern Continent.
• Tu Xingsun captured a female Shang general, so Yang Jian, Nezha, and Princess Longji punished him with pills that permanently changed his conduct toward women.
• As Shang forces gained ground in the east, Li Changshou warned Hongjun that Great Shang still had poor odds and praised King Zhou's backbone despite his flaws.
• King Zhou returned to Chaoge, rejected Bi Gan's suggestion to bring troops back to defend the city, and ordered preparations for the ancestral rites before planning to return east.
• Worried that Shang's fortunes were reviving, Ji Fa received Guang Chengzi, who proposed a surprise attack on Chaoge while King Zhou was in the city.

Ji Fa’s surprise attack broke through the Shang Army at Muye and reached Chaoge, where the city’s turmoil and King Zhou’s defeat culminated in King Zhou taking his own life. As Ji Fa narrowly survived an assassination attempt, Li Changshou challenged Dao Ancestor Hongjun’s justification for the calamity.

• Ji Fa chose a surprise attack on Chaoge, while Jiang Shang reluctantly agreed to use Lin Yuan Pills that cost the Zhou soldiers fifteen years of lifespan.
• At Muye, the drug-enhanced Zhou Army routed the Shang’s newly conscripted forces and advanced toward Chaoge as unrest erupted inside the city.
• Li Changshou confronted Dao Ancestor Hongjun over the Heavenly Dao’s role in the conflict, while Hongjun argued that living beings’ desires required restraint.
• King Zhou rejected Bi Gan’s plea to flee; Bi Gan pulled out his own heart in a final remonstrance, and King Zhou set Star-Picking Tower ablaze before killing himself there.
• Daji and other Demonesses tried to assassinate Ji Fa, but Yang Jian stopped them and captured them.

Li Changshou confronted Hongjun over the Heavenly Dao’s control of the mortal realm, then went to Chaoge as Zhou prepared to execute Daji. When Guang Chengzi attacked Holy Mother Huoling, Li Changshou intervened and seized him, while Wei Zi Qi was killed in the city.

• Li Changshou agreed to punish Guang Chengzi but demanded that Hongjun keep the Heavenly Dao from interfering in the mortal realm, threatening to unleash the Human Race’s Sacred Fire if he refused.
• Hongjun left Lesser Qiong Peak, and Li Changshou told the Chaos Bell to take Ling'e and the others to Xuandu City before bringing Youqin Xuanya to Chaoge.
• Li Changshou showed Youqin Xuanya the execution platform and asked her to remain in the Heavenly Court to carry out what needed to be done; she accepted and received his instructions.
• At the execution platform, Daji denied her alleged crimes, while Yang Jian and Holy Mother Huoling challenged the Zhou officials’ accusations and Guang Chengzi moved to attack Holy Mother Huoling.
• Yang Jian struck at the Fan Tian Seal, but Li Changshou appeared, shattered it, and seized Guang Chengzi before he could explain himself.
• In Chaoge, an unidentified person cut Wei Zi Qi’s throat and declared that he would not enter the ancestral hall.

Li Changshou captured Guang Chengzi for feeding Lin Yuan Pills to mortals and prepared to determine his crimes as Chan and Jie Teaching immortals arrived. At the Star-Picking Tower ruins, Youqin Xuanya spoke to King Zhou’s remains, which then crumbled to ash.

• Li Changshou collected the fragments of the Fan Tian Seal, sent Nezha to summon the others, and had Yang Jian move the platform outside Chaoge with Guang Chengzi bound upon it.
• Li Changshou reflected on the Chan Teaching’s role in the Investiture of the Gods and recognized that the Dao Ancestor was using Guang Chengzi to force a confrontation over the Chan and Jie Convergence.
• Li Changshou told Jiang Shang that he had captured Guang Chengzi because of the Lin Yuan Pills, while also revealing that King Zhou’s soul had been sent to the Investiture of the Gods Platform and granted True Immortal cultivation.
• Chan and Jie Teaching immortals approached as Jiang Shang prepared to question Daji and Li Changshou awaited the determination of Guang Chengzi’s crimes.
• Youqin Xuanya visited King Zhou’s corpse at the Star-Picking Tower ruins, promised to protect his son and preserve Shang’s ancestral shrine, and watched the corpse collapse into ash and sand.

Li Changshou held Guang Chengzi accountable for plotting against the Human Emperor and used the Primordial Golden Dou to capture him, but Venerable Celestial of Primordial Beginning arrived and demanded his release. When Li Changshou refused, the Saint proposed that he withstand a few moves to decide Guang Chengzi’s fate.

• Immortal Nanjixian and the Chan Teaching Immortals challenged Li Changshou’s judgment of Guang Chengzi, while the Jie Teaching Immortals backed him.
• Li Changshou questioned Guang Chengzi, who admitted to scheming against the Human Emperor and said he had no hidden explanation.
• Li Changshou invoked Human Dao to suppress the immortals and trapped Guang Chengzi’s Immortal Body in the Primordial Golden Dou.
• Venerable Celestial of Primordial Beginning appeared and argued that Guang Chengzi’s merits and faults should offset each other, then asked Li Changshou to spare him.
• Li Changshou refused to release Guang Chengzi, and Venerable Celestial of Primordial Beginning offered to receive a few of his moves as the price of deciding his fate.

Li Changshou wounded Venerable Celestial of Primordial Beginning to persuade him to oppose the Heavenly Dao, then presided over Daji’s judgment as Maitreya and the Heavenly Dao challenged his authority. The Dao Ancestor’s forces struck first, but Li Changshou killed Maitreya and Grand Pure Sage confronted the Dao Ancestor in Purple Cloud Palace.

• Li Changshou unleashed his Pangu True Body Visualization and Hundredfold Spirit Energy Finger, drawing blood from Venerable Celestial of Primordial Beginning, who said he would consider changing sides.
• Li Changshou sentenced Daji and separated the Nine-Tailed Fox from Su Daji’s soul, but Chan Teaching immortals and Yin Hong and Yin Jiao challenged her fate before Youqin Xuanya escorted the princes away.
• Maitreya and Jieyin objected to Daji entering the Investiture of the Gods, while a broken Qingping Sword and the grievously wounded Lord Tongtian revealed that the Dao Ancestor had ambushed the Jie Teaching leader.
• The Dao Ancestor’s Zhunti incarnation appeared, and Venerable Celestial of Primordial Beginning sided with the Heavenly Dao by defending Guang Chengzi; Maitreya taunted Li Changshou as the Jie Teaching immortals prepared to fight.
• Li Changshou attacked and killed Maitreya, warning the Saints not to harm Jie Teaching immortals, while the Zhunti incarnation withdrew to face Grand Pure Sage.
• Grand Pure Sage entered Purple Cloud Palace and confronted the Dao Ancestor over his disciple Li Changshou and younger brother Lord Tongtian.

The Dao Ancestor defeated the Grand Pure Sage by exploiting his hesitation, then unleashed heavenly punishment against the Jie Teaching. Li Changshou fought Jieyin to protect the fleeing immortals while Yunxiao rescued them, and the chapter left Li Changshou pressing on with the plan his teacher had affirmed.

• Lord Tongtian told Li Changshou to evacuate the Jie Teaching immortals and revealed that the Dao Ancestor had sealed his Great Dao.
• Li Changshou ordered Daoist Duobao to lead the Jie Teaching immortals away, then joined Yunxiao in confronting Jieyin as the Chan Teachings immortals held back.
• Purple Firmament Divine Thunder struck down Jie Teaching disciples, and Li Changshou sent Yunxiao to rescue survivors with the Taiji Diagram and the life-preserving talisman.
• Li Changshou trapped Jieyin in a battle arena while Jieyin's Divine Banner captured Jie Teaching disciples and Yunxiao shielded others from heavenly punishment.
• Daoist Wen Jing drained the Golden Lotus at Spirit Mountain and escaped, leaving the lotus to wither and the hidden Chrysalis of Jin Chan glowing.
• Li Changshou saw that the Dao Ancestor had turned the Grand Pure Sage into a stone statue after the Sage hesitated to destroy heaven and earth.

Li Changshou escaped the Primordial World as Dao Ancestor Hongjun sealed its final passage and erased Li Changshou from the memories of most living beings. In the Kunpeng Secret Realm, Li Changshou revealed that his apparent defeat had helped Hongjun complete the Heavenly Dao—and create flaws he planned to exploit.

• Saint Jieyin lost the Twelve-petal Merit Golden Lotus as Mosquito escaped, while Li Changshou kept the Saint occupied and fled the gray-robed elders pursuing him.
• The Jade Emperor used the Nine Dragon Chariot to carry Li Changshou to Xuandu City's entrance, then held off the pursuers as Li Changshou left the Three Realms.
• After Li Changshou departed, Hongjun sealed the passage, captured the Jade Emperor, and spread blue ripples that rewrote memories and removed most traces of Li Changshou from the Primordial World.
• Li Changshou returned through the barrier long enough to threaten Hongjun if he harmed the Grand Pure Sage, the Jade Emperor, or Nuwa, before Xuandu City was carried into the Chaos Sea by Kunpeng.
• After more than half a year, Kunpeng brought Xuandu City to the Kunpeng Secret Realm, where Li Changshou reunited with the escaped immortals and privately explained his plan to Yunxiao and Ling'e.
• Li Changshou said Hongjun's completed union with the Primordial World had created exploitable flaws, then secretly reached Xu Bodhi through the Heavenly Demon Dao.

Li Changshou took over Xu Bodhi’s identity and returned to Spirit Mountain to infiltrate the Western Teachings after the Investiture of the Gods. When Jieyin asked him to propose a plan for spreading the teachings, Li Changshou realized he would have to guide the sect himself.

• Li Changshou replaced Xu Bodhi with his Second Nascent Soul, studied Xu Bodhi’s memories, and prepared to impersonate him.
• After half a year, Li Changshou returned to the Five Continents and learned that the Investiture of the Gods had been completed and the Heavenly Court had gained authority over the Three Realms.
• Li Changshou traveled to Spirit Mountain and joined a meeting of the Western Teachings’ core disciples while posing as Xu Bodhi.
• Jieyin revealed that the Merit Golden Lotus had been damaged and asked the disciples how the Western Teachings should proceed.
• Li Changshou asked why the Western Teachings had not broadly spread their teachings across Western Ox Continent, and Jieyin praised the suggestion as a good plan.

After settling into his role as Xu Bodhi on Spirit Mountain, Li Changshou learned that Western Teaching disciples had forgotten the erased history of his conflict with Heavenly Court. He then gathered the spiritual treasures to plan a post-Dao Ancestor system in which they would supervise Heavenly Dao and Heavenly Court, while he intended to withdraw from power afterward.

• Saint Jieyin told Bodhi, Kasyapa, and Ananda to focus on spreading Western Teachings before entering secluded cultivation.
• Li Changshou steered a Western Teaching meeting toward informing Heavenly Court and warned the disciples that Chan Teaching would oppose their expansion; Jieyin confirmed that the disciples had forgotten the Human anomaly because of a Heavenly Dao taboo.
• Li Changshou moved into Xu Bodhi's cave, studied the altered history, and considered how to return to the Heavenly Court while maintaining his cover.
• Li Changshou summoned the spiritual treasures and proposed dividing Dao Ancestor's authority among thirty-six Innate Spiritual Treasures to supervise Heavenly Dao and support the Heavenly Court system.
• Li Changshou outlined plans to strengthen the treasures with merit, reserve karmic obstacles for reforging the God-Slaying Spear, and eventually leave the system rather than become the next Dao Ancestor.

Li Changshou planned how to oppose the Dao Ancestor while his allies settled into the Kunpeng Secret Realm, then continued building his Xu Bodhi identity inside the Western Teachings. The chapter left him preparing to visit the Chan Teaching to bring four secret disciples back to the Western Sect.

• Li Changshou told Grand Master Xuandu and Bai Ze that he had an eighty percent chance of defeating the Dao Ancestor while minimizing losses, and said his preferred plan involved reshaping the Heavenly Dao.
• Li Changshou asked Grand Master Xuandu, Bai Ze, Kong Xuan, and Wen Jing to search the Chaos Sea for survivors and recruit allies, while killing Chaos Gods and Demons and collecting their true spirits.
• Half a year later, Grand Master Xuandu led more than twenty experts into the Chaos Sea as Li Changshou entered seclusion and focused on his plans.
• As Xu Bodhi, Li Changshou became First Vice Sect Master of the Western Teachings, gained the disciples' respect, and quietly began revising the sect's doctrines.
• Saint Jieyin ordered Xu Bodhi to visit the Chan Teaching with a medicine flask and jade pendant to retrieve Ju Liusun, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and Cihang.

Li Changshou, disguised as Xu Bodhi, delivered medicine to the Jade Void Palace and endured True Lord Taiyi’s taunts before returning to Spirit Mountain. Years later, he traveled to the Netherworld to visit Ksitigarbha, while his true body shared a tender moment with Yunxiao.

• Li Changshou secretly planted something in Western Kunlun, then visited the Jade Void Palace as Xu Bodhi to deliver medicine for Guang Chengzi.
• True Lord Taiyi provoked Xu Bodhi, who refused to take the bait and left the palace after paying his respects.
• True Lord Taiyi and True Lord Yu Ding discussed the departed disciple and the coming Immortal Peach Banquet as they returned toward Qianyuan Mountain.
• Saint Jieyin ordered Li Changshou to visit Ksitigarbha before traveling the Three Thousand Worlds, and Li Changshou later left Spirit Mountain for the Netherworld.
• Li Changshou briefly reunited with Yunxiao in his true body, then continued as Xu Bodhi past the Seven Emotions Girl and arrived at the Reincarnation Pagoda to meet Ksitigarbha.

Li Changshou traveled in disguise as Xu Bodhi, planting Illusion Spirit Nails in places where the Great Daos converged while deceiving the Dao Ancestor’s surveillance. After the Dao Ancestor summoned Xu Bodhi to Flower-Fruit Mountain in three hundred years, Li Changshou encountered Daoist Duobao and Holy Mother Huoling preparing to ambush him—just as Laojun arrived.

• Ksitigarbha reflected on emptiness and the Dao after Xu Bodhi departed, while Truth Listener sensed the hidden strength in Li Changshou’s disguise and kept quiet about it.
• Li Changshou planted two wisps of profound aura in the Netherworld, then traveled through the Three Thousand Worlds and embedded more Illusion Spirit Nails where Great Daos manifested.
• The Dao Ancestor watched Xu Bodhi, tested his Dao heart, and later ordered him to meet at Flower-Fruit Mountain in three hundred years, giving him new insights into the Great Dao of Emptiness.
• Li Changshou inferred that the Dao Ancestor planned to use the Stone Monkey and Flower-Fruit Mountain to weaken the Demon Race, and he worried that the Heavenly Court might have lost its Immortal Bean Soldier Method.
• Daoist Duobao and Holy Mother Huoling recognized Xu Bodhi as a likely Heavenly Dao chess piece and decided to ambush and kill him without exposing their hidden refuge.
• Li Changshou detected Daoist Duobao’s approach and considered fleeing when Laojun arrived on his Azure Ox.

Laojun seized Daoist Duobao and later events reshaped the balance among the great teachings while Li Changshou secretly expanded his preparations against the Heavenly Dao. After two centuries of recovery and covert activity, Li Changshou met the Dao Ancestor at Flower-Fruit Mountain, where the Sky-Mending Spiritual Stone was gestating.

• Laojun demanded that Daoist Duobao leave with him to establish a new teaching, but Duobao refused and attacked the disguised Li Changshou as he tried to depart.
• Laojun wounded Li Changshou with a distant finger strike, then took Daoist Duobao away while allowing Holy Mother Huoling to escape.
• Li Changshou spent more than two hundred years recovering, studying the Great Daos, and secretly planting over a thousand Illusion Spirit Nails across the Three Thousand Worlds.
• Ju Liusun, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and Cihang returned to the Western Teachings and built a faction there, while Manjushri raised Xu Bodhi's reputation.
• Li Changshou traveled to Flower-Fruit Mountain in Xu Bodhi's body and followed the Dao Ancestor into the mist to see the Sky-Mending Spiritual Stone.

Li Changshou, disguised as Xu Bodhi, accepted the Dao Ancestor’s assignment to establish Square Inch Mountain and prepare to teach the Stone Monkey. As Xu Bodhi’s reputation grew and he waited for the monkey’s birth, the chapter also showed Zhao Gongming and Holy Mother Jinling constrained in the Heavenly Court and Daoist Duobao being forced to study under Laojun.

• The gray-robed old Daoist entrusted Xu Bodhi with the Spirit Fetus in Stone and instructed him to establish Square Inch Mountain, Slanting Moon, Three Stars Cave, and accept the spirit fetus as a disciple.
• Li Changshou built and fortified Square Inch Mountain, waited for Buddhism to be established before the Stone Monkey’s birth, and avoided returning to Spirit Mountain after Manjushri’s schemes helped make him an outsider there.
• Xu Bodhi’s cultivation advanced as he studied Daoist classics, while his growing fame as Old Ancestor Bodhi made his separation from Spirit Mountain permanent.
• Holy Mother Jinling told Zhao Gongming that what heaven and earth had lost would eventually return, and Heavenly Dao’s power descended before Zhao Gongming calmed it.
• Daoist Duobao studied under Laojun in Tushita Palace, complaining that his Dao realm had been dug out of books while the Azure Ox guarded the treasures.

After the Dao Ancestor eliminated the Foul Spring, Li Changshou resumed traveling as Xu Bodhi and prepared to teach the Stone Monkey. He watched Laojun and Duobao establish Buddhism on Spirit Mountain, where Duobao claimed the Buddha title and denied other sects the right to call themselves Buddhist.

• The Dao Ancestor used the Power of Heavenly Dao to remove the Foul Spring and send its karmic obstruction into the Chaos Sea, removing one of Li Changshou's trump cards.
• Li Changshou investigated the Foul Spring's fate, then left Spiritual Platform Mountain as Xu Bodhi to recruit disciples and prepare for the Stone Monkey's instruction.
• Laojun left the Classic of Morality with Yin Xi at Hangu Pass, then traveled with Azure Ox to a mountain facing Spirit Mountain.
• Laojun and Venerable Celestial of Primordial Beginning blocked Jieyin as Duobao recited his doctrines and established Buddhism on Spirit Mountain.
• Duobao honored Jieyin as the Ancient Buddha but declared his own Great Vehicle Buddhism the true Buddhism, then received Heavenly Dao merit and became the Buddha Ancestor.

Li Changshou’s years-long scheme helped Duobao seize Spirit Mountain and establish Buddhism, while Jieyin was forced into retirement. The chapter ended with Buddhism beginning its rise, Ksitigarbha refusing Duobao’s authority, and Li Changshou discovering a heartbeat in the Spirit Fetus in Stone.

• Li Changshou reflected on how Grand Pure Sage, Laojun, Wen Jing, and others had prepared the way for Duobao to take over the Western Teachings’ fate and establish Buddhism.
• As Duobao approached Spirit Mountain with Venerable Celestial of Primordial Beginning behind him, Xu Bodhi left the mountain while its disciples prepared to accept the new order.
• Duobao declared Jieyin the Buddha of Ten Thousand Generations, named him Amitabha, and established Buddhism’s rules as the Western Teachings’ disciples pledged allegiance.
• Duobao became Buddha Tathagata and appointed Ksitigarbha a Buddha, but Ksitigarbha destroyed the edict and vowed not to become Buddha until hell was empty.
• Jieyin withdrew into seclusion, and Li Changshou visited Flower-Fruit Mountain, where he sensed a heartbeat from the Spirit Fetus in Stone.

Li Changshou received three cultivation jade talismans from the Dao Ancestor to prepare for teaching the Stone Monkey, while Flower-Fruit Mountain’s spiritual womb neared its birth. The Jade Emperor promoted Youqin Xuanya and learned that the Eastern Sea’s rosy clouds had shaken the Heavenly Court and Netherworld.

• Li Changshou asked the Heavenly Dao how to teach the Stone Monkey, and the Dao Ancestor sent him three jade talismans containing cultivation arts and combat abilities.
• Li Changshou studied the Great Grade Heavenly Immortal Art, Seventy-two Transformations, and other divine abilities, noticing that the transformation art copied his own work.
• Rosy light surrounded Flower-Fruit Mountain for 179 days as demons investigated the forbidden region and vanished; a warning told the Demon Race not to provoke the spiritual womb.
• The Jade Emperor promoted Youqin Xuanya, granted her rewards, and rebuked officials who questioned his decision.
• Seven-colored rosy clouds erupted from the Eastern Sea and shook the Heavenly Court and Netherworld, so the Jade Emperor ordered an investigation.

After the Stone Monkey was born, Li Changshou secretly watched over it and decided to teach it without burdening it with a mission. More than sixty years later, the monkey set out to seek immortality and arrived at Patriarch Bodhi’s cave, where it eagerly called for a master.

• Gao Jue reported that the Stone Monkey’s birth on Flower-Fruit Mountain had stirred spiritual energy, and the Jade Emperor dismissed the matter as harmless.
• Li Changshou watched the newborn Stone Monkey spend its first night alone and resolved to guide it without binding it to Heaven’s plans.
• Li Changshou returned to Square Inch Mountain, gathered twenty-seven child disciples, and taught them for more than sixty years as his reputation spread.
• After an old monkey died, the Stone Monkey learned about death and immortality from a Great Horse Monkey, then left Flower-Fruit Mountain to seek an immortal master.
• The Stone Monkey traveled through the mortal world for more than ten years before a woodcutter directed it to Slanting Moon, Three Stars Cave.
• The Stone Monkey read the promise of eternal life carved on the cave’s doorframe, knocked, and called out to Patriarch Bodhi to accept it as a disciple.