Chapter Summaries

Xu Changqing reflected on Zhang Daoxuan’s ambition to free humanity from gods and devils, then entered a tribe where he used his knowledge of herbs to save a poisoned man. The tribe credited the Stream Earl with the rescue and ignored Xu Changqing.

• Zhang Daoxuan told Xu Changqing that he cultivated to break free from the exploitation of gods and devils, while Xu Changqing said he sought longevity.
• Xu Changqing considered his arrival in the Primordial Era and the future destinies of the people studying under the Primordial Origin Dao Ancestor.
• Xu Changqing reached a small tribe whose people pleaded with the Stream Earl to save a man suffering from Crow Poison Grass.
• Xu Changqing treated the man with Silverthread Grass, and the man recovered.
• The man’s family and the tribe thanked the Stream Earl without acknowledging Xu Changqing.

Xu Changqing witnessed the Human Race’s desperate condition in the primordial era and resolved to understand how Zhang Daoxuan became a Great Dao Venerable. After an arrogant stranger dismissed his determination to help humanity, Xu Changqing could only watch him leave, trapped in Jiang Yuan’s weak body.

• Xu Changqing left the hut and surveyed the dangerous wilderness beyond the tribe, seeing a skeleton-covered tree, a poisonous swamp, and an enormous shadow moving within it.
• Xu Changqing concluded that the Human Race faced death and exploitation if it ventured into the wilderness.
• A stranger appeared and mocked Xu Changqing for saving a mortal, arguing that humans suffered because they failed to learn or distinguish poison from antidote.
• Xu Changqing insisted that someone had to take the first step toward raising the Human Race, but the stranger called him foolish and refused to identify himself.
• The stranger walked toward the creek, and Xu Changqing failed to activate his powers because he was inhabiting Jiang Yuan’s barely cultivated body.

Xu Changqing examined Jiang Yuan’s notes and began cultivating in his body, finding that primordial spiritual energy was dense but tainted by the auras of gods, demons, monsters, and something even stranger. After switching to his Origin Dao Heavenly Scripture, he discovered that Jiang Yuan had no Spiritual Root because, in this era, everyone could cultivate immortality.

• Xu Changqing read Jiang Yuan’s Records of a Hundred Herbs, which documented thirty-seven spirit plants and the dangers of tasting them.
• Xu Changqing studied the Breath-Absorption Formula and found that most spiritual energy carried hostile or incomprehensible auras that made cultivation dangerous.
• Xu Changqing filtered the contaminated spiritual energy with the Origin Dao Heavenly Scripture and cultivated far more efficiently than with the basic formula.
• Xu Changqing discovered that Jiang Yuan’s body had no Spiritual Root, then realized that everyone in this era could cultivate immortality.

After learning that the Azure Emperor had fallen and Creation Origin had replaced Wood Origin, Xu Changqing wondered about the truth of the history he had been told. A colossal flood then surged toward the disciples beneath the Myriad Dao Tree, and they identified a Transforming Serpent within it.

• Xu Changqing spent ten years adapting to life as Jiang Yuan and cultivating to Foundation Establishment Perfection, but found he could not use laws or unleash his former techniques in an era without laws.
• During a Dao Ancestor lecture, Xu Changqing learned that Creation was one of the ten Main Gods and asked what had happened to wood.
• Zhang Daoxuan explained that Creation Origin had entered through a rift from Great Non-Heaven and displaced Wood Origin, causing the Azure Emperor’s fall; he added that part of the Azure Emperor had become the Myriad Dao Mother Tree.
• Xu Changqing realized the tree carried the Azure Emperor’s power and thought that the person who had told him the Five Emperors all died of old age had lied.
• A towering flood rushed toward the Myriad Dao Tree, and a disciple identified the gigantic creature moving within it as the ferocious beast Transforming Serpent.

When the Transforming Serpent’s flood threatened the Stream tribe and surrounding lands, Stream Earl and other Lesser Gods fled, leaving the mortals to face disaster. The Dao Ancestor ordered the Dao Sect to rescue them, then halted and divided the flood with a single speck of spiritual light, which Xu Changqing recognized as River-Splitting Water-Dividing.

• The Transforming Serpent emerged from the flood, and Stream Earl abandoned his worshippers and fled as other Lesser Gods escaped too.
• The Dao Ancestor ordered the three thousand Dao Sect disciples to save the mortals, and they used their abilities to rescue people and redirect the flood.
• Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan evacuated the Stream tribe to the mountain by the Myriad Dao Tree, while Xu Changqing used his knowledge of the terrain to save more people.
• The Dao Ancestor dropped a speck of spiritual light into the flood, stopping it and splitting the waters east and west.
• Xu Changqing recognized the Dao Ancestor’s technique as River-Splitting Water-Dividing.

Xu Changqing watched the Dao Ancestor split the flood and drive off Transforming Serpent, then saw the Dao Sect disciples save tens of thousands of mortals. The survivors turned away from the absent gods and honored the Dao Sect, but the Dao Ancestor told them that no one deserved their kneeling.

• Xu Changqing recognized the Dao Ancestor's River-Splitting Water-Dividing as a divine ability and wondered how it could be learned in the Primordial Era.
• Transforming Serpent fled after the Dao Ancestor split the flood, and the water receded to reveal the damage.
• The Dao Sect disciples returned beneath the Myriad Dao Tree after saving tens of thousands of mortals.
• Zhang Daoxuan rebuked the mortals for thanking the gods and reminded them that the Stream Earl had fled while the Dao Sect saved them.
• A burly man urged the survivors to believe in those who had saved them, and the crowd began chanting, "Honor only the Dao Sect!"
• The Dao Ancestor helped the burly man stand and told the mortals that everyone was equal and no one deserved their kneeling.

Xu Changqing learned that the Dao Ancestor’s divine ability came from killing a water god who had terrorized riverside tribes. He asked how to break through from Foundation Establishment Perfection, and the Dao Ancestor began explaining the five paths of Dao Sect cultivation.

• Xu Changqing asked the Dao Ancestor what spell he had used, and the Dao Ancestor called it a divine ability rather than a spell.
• Xu Changqing sought the Dao Ancestor beneath the Myriad Dao Tree and asked to learn the divine ability used during the day.
• The Dao Ancestor explained that River-Splitting Water-Dividing had belonged to the water god Hong, whom he killed after Hong drowned seven tribes and more than twenty thousand people.
• Xu Changqing inferred that slaying gods could grant their divine abilities, then asked how to break through from Foundation Establishment Perfection to the next realm.
• The Dao Ancestor said Dao Sect cultivation had only five paths, and Xu Changqing eagerly asked what they were.

The Dao Ancestor explained the five cultivation realms and taught Xu Changqing that Dao Resonance came from noticing what stirred the heart. After days of searching, Xu Changqing sensed life and vitality throughout the world, resonated with the Myriad Dao Tree, and watched it bloom with ten thousand flowers.

• The Dao Ancestor explained the realms from Hearing the Dao to Dao Union and said Xu Changqing needed to draw Dao Resonance into his body to advance.
• The Dao Ancestor described Dao Resonance through the way a flower could bring thoughts of spring, and Xu Changqing left pondering what he should see.
• Xu Changqing spent several days searching for Dao Resonance until Zhang Daoxuan warned that excessive obsession could become an obstacle.
• Xu Changqing closed his eyes and sensed an infant's heartbeat, a seed sprouting, and shoots emerging from a lightning-struck tree, recognizing the vitality of all things.
• The Myriad Dao Tree resonated with Xu Changqing as grass and flowers flourished along his path, and its spiritual radiance surged into the sky.
• Xu Changqing stopped before the Myriad Dao Tree and opened his eyes as it blossomed across its entire crown.

Xu Changqing resonated with the Myriad Dao Tree and bypassed the Dao-Entering Realm, reaching Dao Enlightenment as the tree bloomed. As the Dao Sect disciples speculated that he had awakened the Great Dao of Life and Death, he absorbed the tree’s petals and received the insight “Flowers Bloom in an Instant!”

• The Myriad Dao Tree bloomed in a pillar of green light as Xu Changqing sat beneath it.
• The Dao Ancestor declared that Xu Changqing had reached Dao Enlightenment directly from the Dao-Hearing Realm and condensed a Dao Heart.
• The Dao Sect disciples debated which Dao Xu Changqing had awakened, with some concluding it was the Great Dao of Life and Death.
• Xu Changqing experienced the growth of a seed into a vast tree through his connection with the Myriad Dao Tree.
• Xu Changqing gathered the tree’s petals into his palm, and their spiritual light entered his Sea of Consciousness as the words “Flowers Bloom in an Instant!”

Xu Changqing attained Dao Enlightenment beneath the Myriad Dao Tree and named his Dao Beginning, which the Dao Ancestor explained lay beyond the Daos and was the source from which the tree itself arose. After ten years of study, the Dao Ancestor sent Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan beyond the Dao Sect to experience the world ruled by Gods and Devils.

• Xu Changqing awakened the divine ability Flowers Bloom in an Instant and discovered he had condensed a Dao Heart.
• The Dao Ancestor asked Xu Changqing to name his Dao, and Xu Changqing called it Beginning.
• An old disciple questioned whether Beginning was a new Dao because the Myriad Dao Tree had gained no branch or leaf.
• The Dao Ancestor explained that Beginning existed beyond the Daos and was the source of the Myriad Dao Tree.
• The Dao Ancestor told Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan to leave the Dao Sect and explore the world ruled by Gods and Devils, and they agreed.

Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan traveled to the Xi Tribe, where they found Stream Earl’s followers persecuting mortals who had rejected the god after the flood. Stream Earl arrived and began abusing the survivors, leaving the confrontation poised to escalate.

• Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan chose to visit the Xi Tribe as they began traveling to gain experience.
• The pair passed flood-damaged tribes and saw mortals rebuilding, with some idols toppled and others receiving offerings.
• At the Xi Tribe, a group of armed men threatened elderly and disabled people, while the man Xu Changqing had rescued accused the god of abandoning them during the flood.
• The armed men’s leader defended Stream Earl and blamed the survivors for smashing the idol, while secretly hoping to gain power and resources.
• Stream Earl appeared and threatened to torture the man who had smashed his idol, then hurled the man’s wife aside when she pleaded for mercy.
• The man charged Stream Earl but was thrown back by an invisible force, and Stream Earl warned the mortals that they had forgotten what they were.

Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan confronted Stream Earl after he revealed his contempt for humans, while Zhang argued that people had to witness the gods’ true nature rather than simply be rescued. As the Dao Sect disciples challenged Stream Earl, he warned them that Lord Azure Ripples, a Great God who ruled the vast lake, would retaliate if they attacked him.

• Stream Earl denounced humans as insects and threatened the people who had smashed his statue, while Zhang Daoxuan stopped Xu Changqing from rescuing them so they could see the god’s cruelty for themselves.
• Xu Changqing realized Zhang wanted the people to witness Stream Earl’s true nature, but he went to the clearing anyway, followed by Zhang.
• Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan arrived as Stream Earl mocked the Dao Sect, and the villagers recognized the disciples as their potential rescuers.
• Xu Changqing helped the shaken man stand and challenged Stream Earl for abandoning the people during the flood, while Zhang treated an injured woman and blocked an escape route.
• Stream Earl threatened the disciples with the consequences of attacking him, claiming Lord Azure Ripples ruled the waters and would avenge any insult.

Xu Changqing exposed Stream Earl’s fear of the Godslaying Incident and killed him with Flowers Bloom in an Instant. The witnesses learned that gods could die, while Xu Changqing gained the Water Mastery technique.

• Xu Changqing questioned Stream Earl about Hong’s death, and Stream Earl panicked at the mention of the Godslaying Incident.
• Xu Changqing deduced that Stream Earl’s master, Lord Azure Ripples, sought Hong’s vacant position, and Stream Earl fled toward the stream.
• Xu Changqing trapped Stream Earl in petals that drained his divine power, then destroyed him as he pleaded for his life.
• Xu Changqing received Water Mastery, while the human witnesses stared in shock at the place where Stream Earl had vanished.
• Zhang Daoxuan told the witnesses they had seen a god die, and the blood-covered man rejoiced that gods could be killed.

After Xu Changqing killed Stream Earl, the mysterious man Sui urged the tribe to rely on themselves rather than gods. The man who had been targeted by Stream Earl then spared the kneeling attackers but banished them from the tribe.

• Sui appeared at the village entrance and praised Xu Changqing for killing Stream Earl.
• Sui told the tribe to solve its own problems and never wait for gods or others to save them.
• Sui revealed his name as Sui and left, while Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan tried to remember where they had heard it.
• Xu Changqing asked the man what to do with the people who had threatened the tribe's elderly and weak.
• The attackers begged for mercy, claiming Stream Earl had forced them to obey.
• The man spared their lives but ordered them to leave the tribe and never return.

After expelling the people who had opposed him, the new chief led the Xi Tribe into life without a god, while Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan followed the stream downstream. They discovered an enormous, unnaturally orderly lake and arrived at its shore.

• The stone-axe man accepted his expulsion from the tribe, and his followers slowly left while some begged for another chance.
• Zhang Daoxuan and Xu Changqing discussed the exiles’ uncertain fate, and Xu Changqing said their choice was their own.
• Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan left the Xi Tribe, where the new chief ordered Stream Earl’s statue removed and the people resumed their daily routines.
• Following the stream, Xu Changqing noticed its water had grown warmer and sweeter, while stakes and a wooden pier suggested someone managed the riverbank.
• Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan passed through a dense forest and found a vast lake whose fish, plants, ducks, debris, and wind all moved with unnatural order.

Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan arrived at Azure Wave Lake and saw the prosperous, carefully ordered territory of Lord Azure Ripples. Zhang Daoxuan explained the rivalry between the Jade and Wave Tribes over divine favor, while Xu Changqing saw how jade gatherers bore the dangers and hardship of supplying their offerings.

• Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan traveled along paved roads and irrigated fields into the crowded settlement around Azure Wave Lake.
• Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan observed the statue of Lord Azure Ripples, strict household offerings, and armed guards, while Zhang Daoxuan identified the well-dressed man beneath it as a priest.
• Zhang Daoxuan explained that the Jade Tribe and Wave Tribe competed for Lord Azure Ripples's favor by offering Mountain Jade and Water Jade, respectively.
• Xu Changqing noticed injured, impoverished jade gatherers sorting their finds, including a tearful young man and a boy around ten years old.
• Zhang Daoxuan explained that jade gatherers entered dangerous deep waters or mountain mines to find increasingly scarce jade for sacrifices.

Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan watched the Jade and Wave Tribes present offerings to Lord Azure Ripples, who favored the Jade Tribe after receiving its Blood Jade. Zhang Daoxuan noticed that the jade smelled of blood.

• Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan watched from the shadows as the Jade Tribe began its sacrifice and the Wave Tribe arrived by boat.
• The Wave Tribe presented a fine Water Jade, but its chief's boast drew a proud response from the Jade Tribe.
• The Jade Tribe unveiled a massive Blood Jade, shocking the Wave Tribe and prompting the crowd to call for Lord Azure Ripples to judge.
• Lord Azure Ripples emerged from the lake, examined and held the Blood Jade, then promised the Jade Tribe favorable weather and a thirty percent increase in harvests.
• Zhang Daoxuan frowned and said the Blood Jade smelled of blood.

Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan discovered that the Jade Tribe used miners’ blood to make the False Blood Jade, but Xu refused to kill Lord Azure Ripples because the people depended on the god’s order. They uncovered the tribe’s plan to keep sacrificing miners and recruit outsiders, leaving them poised to confront the chief and male shaman.

• Xu Changqing identified the Blood Jade as fake jade soaked in human blood and explained that Lord Azure Ripples knowingly accepted it to toy with mortals.
• Xu Changqing stopped Zhang Daoxuan from attacking Lord Azure Ripples, warning that the tribespeople would defend the god and that his death could plunge both shores into chaos.
• After the offering ceremony, the Wave Tribe witch vowed to present better Water Jade next year, while the Jade Tribe celebrated its victory.
• At night, Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan found that the Jade Tribe’s jade miners were being drained of blood to make Blood Jade, and that their numbers had fallen from over two hundred to barely more than twenty.
• The chief praised the male shaman’s scheme, and the male shaman explained that they would need new victims after the current miners died.
• The chief proposed recruiting outsiders from the surrounding wilderness tribes, claiming nobody would care if they all died.

Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan uncovered the Jade Tribe’s use of human blood to make False Blood Jade and confronted its male shaman. Xu Changqing demanded that he replace the chieftain and work with the Wave Tribe to offer one jade jointly, but the shaman revealed that the jade gatherers had devised the blood-soaking method.

• Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan overheard the chieftain and male shaman discuss using newcomers and continuing the Jade Tribe’s cruel jade practices.
• After the chieftain left, Xu Changqing and Zhang Daoxuan confronted the male shaman about making False Blood Jade with human blood.
• The male shaman explained that he had used the method to keep the Jade Tribe from losing to the Wave Tribe and being replaced.
• Xu Changqing offered the shaman a chance to live if he removed the chieftain and arranged for both tribes to offer one jade together without using human blood.
• Zhang Daoxuan warned the shaman that the Dao Sect could deal with Lord Azure Ripples, and the shaman said the jade gatherers had devised the blood-soaking method.

Xu Changqing forced the male shaman to negotiate with the Wave Tribe and killed the clan chief for exploiting the tribesmen. The male shaman sounded out the martial guards’ captain as a replacement, and the captain said he would ally with the Wave Tribe if made clan chief.

• Xu Changqing accused the male shaman of helping the clan chief exploit the tribesmen and ordered him to propose that both tribes offer fine jade together.
• The clan chief arrived, and the male shaman named the martial guards’ captain as a possible replacement.
• Xu Changqing killed the clan chief and told the male shaman to keep his death quiet while he assessed the captain.
• The male shaman questioned the captain about the tribe’s condition and what he would do as clan chief.
• The captain said he would join forces with the Wave Tribe.