Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: Jade Capital Tower

Key Plot Points and Events

• Human children argue with young fox demons over which race is superior. A human boy insists that humanity originally enlightened the world, while a fox mocks humans for supposedly living off their ancestors’ achievements.
• The fox humiliates the boy by pointing out that humans now serve the Demon Race in places such as Pillheart Pavilion. The boy is reduced to tears, and the fox cubs laugh at him.
• An elderly fox teacher interrupts the quarrel, beating both groups of children and warning them not to cause trouble because an important immortal procession is arriving.
• Two exceptionally dignified human cultivators— a handsome man with a sword and a cold, proud woman—arrive in crimson robes marked with Golden Crow designs. They are escorted reverently by powerful Fox Clan elders.
• The old teacher reveals that the visitors are immortals from Jade Capital Tower, a powerful Pure Yang human lineage to which the Azure Luan Clan is politically attached.
• The fox cubs become confused: their teachers have told them that humanity is obsolete and that demons are destined to replace humans, yet their clan elders clearly fear and defer to these human immortals.
• The teacher awkwardly explains that the Fox Clan is merely borrowing Jade Capital Tower’s influence and encourages the cubs to become strong enough to rival it someday.
• The human children, unfamiliar with Jade Capital Tower’s significance, notice only that the demon elders fear the human cultivators. They begin to view the pair as possible saviors who might rescue their enslaved parents.
• The red-robed woman senses the children’s unusual, desperate attention and stops to look toward them, creating a possible turning point.

Character Developments

• The human boy begins the chapter defiantly defending humanity but is emotionally crushed when confronted with the humiliating reality of human subjugation.
• The green-robed fox cub displays arrogance, indoctrination, and confidence in demon superiority, but its certainty is shaken when it sees its elders submitting to human cultivators.
• The old fox teacher is revealed as both disciplinarian and propagandist. It promotes demon supremacy but quickly becomes fearful and evasive when confronted with the authority of Jade Capital Tower.
• The human children shift from helpless despair to cautious hope after seeing that some humans command the fear and respect of the demons.
• The red-robed woman is introduced as perceptive and observant, noticing the children despite the formal procession around her.

Significant Themes

• Propaganda versus reality: The foxes are taught that demons are the future and humans are obsolete, but the arrival of Jade Capital Tower exposes the contradiction between ideology and actual power.
• Humiliation and social inversion: Humans, once portrayed as the world’s enlighteners, have been reduced to laborers serving demons, while only elite human cultivators retain authority.
• Power and dependence: Although the Fox Clan boasts of its superiority, it depends on Jade Capital Tower for status and protection.
• Hope amid oppression: The enslaved children see the human immortals as a possible chance for liberation.
• Inherited pride versus genuine progress: The foxes accuse humans of relying on old achievements, while the chapter suggests that Jade Capital Tower represents a surviving and still-formidable human tradition.

Character Interactions

• The human boy and green-robed fox clash over humanity’s historical importance and present weakness.
• The fox cubs collectively mock the crying human child, reinforcing the racial hierarchy imposed upon them.
• The old fox teacher disciplines both groups equally, emphasizing obedience and fear of higher authority.
• The green-robed cub questions the teacher about the contradiction between anti-human teachings and the elders’ submission to Jade Capital Tower; the teacher responds with evasive political reasoning.
• The human children silently look to the red-robed cultivators for rescue, and the woman’s recognition of their gaze brings the two groups into direct potential contact.

True Person Liu taught Junior Sister Xu to ignore the suffering of humans, and she ordered the human children removed from sight. The pair then flew to Azure Luan Mountain’s summit to inspect pills made for the Jade Capital Tower, while the Fox Clan elders concealed their hostility.

• Junior Sister Xu noticed starving human children near the Fox Clan elders, and True Person Liu urged her to treat their suffering as beneath an immortal’s concern.
• Junior Sister Xu agreed to have the children dispersed, and the old fox struck their teacher and drove them into the woods.
• The old fox told True Person Liu that the ancestor had finished refining the pills commissioned by the Jade Capital Tower and was waiting at the summit.
• True Person Liu threatened Azure Luan Mountain if the pills were not ready on time, then carried himself and Junior Sister Xu toward the summit on crimson clouds.
• The Fox Clan elders exchanged sinister glances before following the pair in black wind.

The Blue Fox Ancestor dreamed of escaping demon status by impressing Wang Canglan with a chance to capture the True Dragon, but learned that a Jade Capital Tower delegation had arrived at Azure Luan Mountain. He went to greet True Person Liu and Wang Canglan’s junior sister while reminding his clan to maintain their obedient appearance.

• The Blue Fox Ancestor fed blood to his carnivorous flowers and lamented that demons could not easily cultivate human techniques.
• The Blue Fox Ancestor considered seeking a Nine-Revolution Rebirth Pill from Wang Canglan and capturing the True Dragon to earn it.
• The Blue Fox Ancestor mocked the Old Flood Dragon for pursuing the True Dragon without involving him, then composed a boastful poem.
• A fox demon steward told the Blue Fox Ancestor that True Person Liu had arrived with Wang Canglan’s junior sister.
• The Blue Fox Ancestor put away his poem and went to welcome the guests, ordering his clan to act like obedient dogs.

Jiang Yuechu traveled toward Spirit Mountain with Zhou Xuan and Niu Ben, intending to rescue the Elixir Cauldron Sect’s captives and gather wealth despite rumors that a Chessmaster-level White Elephant ruled the mountain. At Azure Luan Mountain, True Person Liu ordered the Blue Fox Ancestor to produce an Exquisite Dreamflower Pill for Wang Canglan, whose fate the fox feared would determine his faction’s survival.

• Jiang Yuechu asked Zhou Xuan about Spirit Mountain and learned that its seventy-two caves were ruled by Demon Emperors backed by Dao Orthodoxies.
• Zhou Xuan told Jiang Yuechu that a mysterious White Elephant had united Spirit Mountain’s demons and might have reached the Chessmaster Realm, but she remained eager to confront him.
• True Person Liu criticized the Blue Fox Ancestor for producing too few Blood Spirit Pills and ordered him to refine an Exquisite Dreamflower Pill for Wang Canglan.
• True Person Liu explained that the pill let its user cultivate through an intensely realistic dream lifetime and retain its insights upon waking, but risked destroying the user’s sense of reality.
• The Blue Fox Ancestor worried that Wang Canglan’s possible failure would leave Azure Luan Mountain exposed to retribution from the Pure Yang Lineage.

Jiang Yuechu attacked Azure Luan Mountain, forcing the Blue Fox Ancestor and two Jade Capital Tower cultivators to confront her. True Person Liu swallowed the Blood Spirit Pill to boost his cultivation and charged at her.

• The Blue Fox Ancestor pleaded for his family’s safety, and True Person Liu told him to focus on refining pills before a demon warned that the mountain was under attack.
• Jiang Yuechu bombarded Azure Luan Mountain with Red Moons, devastating the mountain and scattering its fox demons.
• The Blue Fox Ancestor, True Person Liu, and Junior Sister Xu flew out to face Jiang Yuechu.
• True Person Liu ordered Jiang Yuechu to stop, but she intensified her attack and crushed his flames with the Red Moons.
• True Person Liu swallowed the Blood Spirit Pill, raised his cultivation, and charged at Jiang Yuechu.

Jiang Yuechu effortlessly killed True Person Liu after he attacked her, then slapped Junior Sister Xu out of the sky when Xu challenged her. The Blue Fox Ancestor watched in horror as both Jade Capital Tower cultivators were swiftly overpowered.

• True Person Liu charged Jiang Yuechu with the Blood Spirit Pill’s power, but she caught him by the scalp with one hand.
• Jiang Yuechu crushed Liu’s head, packed his corpse into her Storage Bag, and left his primordial spirit hovering in shock.
• Junior Sister Xu stepped forward to avenge Liu and unleashed a terrifying crimson aura, warning Jiang Yuechu that her strike would hurt.
• Jiang Yuechu vanished, shattered Xu’s flames with a slap, and sent her plunging toward the ground.

Chapter Summary: Wang Canglan

Key Plot Points and Events

• In Jade Capital Tower, Wang Canglan attempts a forced breakthrough but fails, violently injuring himself and destabilizing his cultivation.
• His master, True Person Zhuge Qing, arrives and heals the internal turmoil. He warns Wang Canglan against rushing his advancement, emphasizing that Wang’s exceptional talent should allow him to reach the Chessmaster Realm naturally within a thousand years.
• Wang rejects this advice, arguing that the approaching emergence of the Star Palace leaves no time for gradual cultivation. He believes that only by entering the Star Palace and obtaining the object suppressing the “inkstone” can he reach the Painting Realm.
• The chapter explains the distinction between the Chessmaster and Painting realms: Chessmasters are players on the world’s board, while those in the Painting Realm can control or “paint” the entire world, reducing its people and landscapes to strokes of ink.
• Wang fears that if he does not reach the Painting Realm, the coming “grand painting” will destroy him, his master, and Jade Capital Tower. He insists that only he has the ability and moral qualification to save the world.
• After Zhuge Qing leaves, warning him about the dangers of the Exquisite Dreamflower Pill, Wang plans to use the pill to cultivate an additional lifetime within a dream, combining the two lifetimes’ cultivation to reach the Chessmaster Realm.
• Before he can send a message concerning the pill, his jade communication talisman shatters, signaling that Junior Brother Liu has died at Spirit Mountain.
• Wang reacts with overwhelming fury, vows vengeance against whoever killed Liu, and declares that anyone obstructing his mission to save the world will be destroyed.

Character Developments

• Wang Canglan: Revealed as an extraordinarily talented but increasingly obsessive and psychologically unstable cultivator. His fear of the coming catastrophe and belief in his unique destiny have pushed him toward reckless methods, including forced breakthroughs and the dangerous dream pill. His concern for the world is mixed with intense self-importance, as he becomes convinced that only he can save everyone.
• True Person Zhuge Qing: Acts as a concerned and pragmatic mentor. He recognizes Wang’s talent and urges patience, but also understands that his disciple has been crushed by the pressure surrounding the impending crisis. Unable to change Wang’s mind, he reluctantly allows him to pursue his dangerous path.
• Junior Brother Liu: Though absent from the chapter, his death becomes the catalyst for Wang’s final escalation of anger and violence.

Significant Themes

• The burden of destiny: Wang’s supposed role as a peerless prodigy has become a source of unbearable pressure rather than confidence.
• Ambition versus wisdom: Zhuge advocates gradual, stable cultivation, while Wang chooses dangerous shortcuts in response to the world’s looming threats.
• Messianic obsession and self-deception: Wang sincerely believes he alone can save the world, but his conviction may reflect madness and ego more than genuine clarity of purpose.
• The nature of power: The Chessmaster and Painting realms establish a hierarchy in which even powerful cultivators may be mere pieces controlled by beings of a higher realm.
• Fate and control: The chapter contrasts Zhuge’s acceptance of fate with Wang’s desperate attempt to seize control of the future through extraordinary cultivation methods.

Character Interactions

• Zhuge Qing confronts Wang after his failed breakthrough, heals him, and warns him that recklessness may damage both his foundation and Dao heart.
• Wang explains his fear of the Star Palace and the Painting Realm, revealing the depth of his anxiety and ambition.
• Zhuge suggests that someone else may reach the Painting Realm and still protect Jade Capital Tower, but Wang angrily rejects the idea of entrusting his family and sect to another person.
• Zhuge leaves after warning Wang that the Exquisite Dreamflower Pill could trap him permanently in a dream realm.
• Wang’s planned communication is interrupted by the destruction of his jade talisman, transforming his obsessive determination into outright rage and a vow of revenge.

Jiang Yuechu effortlessly defeated Junior Sister Xu and killed the Blue Fox Ancestor after it revealed Wang Canglan’s plan to refine the Exquisite Dreamflower Pill. The Blue Fox Ancestor’s secrets caught her interest, but she still destroyed it, leaving Wang Canglan’s plans as her next lead.

• Jiang Yuechu extinguished Junior Sister Xu’s crimson flames and struck her down with a single blow.
• Jiang Yuechu turned toward the Blue Fox Ancestor, who knelt and begged her to spare its life.
• The Blue Fox Ancestor revealed that Wang Canglan intended to refine the Exquisite Dreamflower Pill and cultivate through reincarnation in dreams to reach the Chessmaster Realm.
• The Blue Fox Ancestor offered Jiang Yuechu a jade slip, more Pure Yang Lineage secrets, and a blood oath of servitude.
• Jiang Yuechu considered the information useful but unleashed the red moon, shattering the Blue Fox Ancestor and collapsing the great hall below.

Chapter Summary: Exquisite Dreamflower Pill

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Yuechu pursues and kills the fleeing Primordial Spirit of a Tower-Climbing Realm Demon Emperor using the lingering power of her crimson moon blood blade.
• She absorbs the Demon Emperor’s essence blood, Primordial Spirit fragments, and remnant soul, gaining enough energy to break through from her bottleneck to the seventh level of the Tower-Climbing Realm.
• The slain Demon Emperor leaves behind a jade slip. Jiang Yuechu briefly examines it but dismisses it and throws it to Zhou Xuan.
• Zhou Xuan discovers that the jade slip contains the complete formula for the legendary Exquisite Dreamflower Pill, a divine pill that allows the user to experience an entire reincarnated lifetime in a dream and combine the cultivation of both lives upon awakening.
• Jiang Yuechu shows no interest in the pill. She dislikes the idea of reincarnating and fears losing the cultivation-enhancing “golden finger” that supports her current progress.
• She orders Niu Ben to accompany Zhou Xuan up Spirit Mountain while she descends to deal with the injured Junior Sister Xu.
• Jiang Yuechu strips Junior Sister Xu of all spiritually valuable possessions, including her storage pouch, hairpin, jade pendant, and clothing.
• Junior Sister Xu, humiliated and enraged, threatens Jiang Yuechu by invoking her senior brother and the Pure Yang Lineage.

Character Developments

• Jiang Yuechu: Becomes even more powerful and reaches the seventh Tower-Climbing level. She remains calm, ruthless, practical, and uninterested in treasures that do not directly benefit her cultivation. Her casual treatment of the Exquisite Dreamflower Pill highlights her unusual priorities and dependence on her cultivation cheat.
• Zhou Xuan: Reveals his expertise and reverence for legendary alchemical treasures. He is shocked by the pill formula and struggles to understand how the Pure Yang Lineage obtained it.
• Niu Ben: Continues to act as Jiang Yuechu’s obedient subordinate, though he is briefly confused when she suddenly leaves him to accompany Zhou Xuan.
• Junior Sister Xu: Is left physically battered, emotionally humiliated, and terrified. Despite her helplessness, she retains her pride and attempts to intimidate Jiang Yuechu by threatening retaliation from her senior brother.
• Demon Emperor: Its confidence and survival hopes are abruptly destroyed. Its death becomes a source of power for Jiang Yuechu.

Significant Themes

• Power through absorption: Jiang Yuechu’s advancement comes directly from consuming the Demon Emperor’s blood, soul, and cultivation, emphasizing the brutal cultivation-world principle that the defeated become resources for the victor.
• Pragmatism versus legendary opportunity: The Exquisite Dreamflower Pill is priceless to others, but Jiang Yuechu rejects it because its benefits are uncertain compared with her existing method of directly increasing cultivation.
• Humiliation and dominance: Jiang Yuechu’s stripping of Junior Sister Xu’s possessions and clothing demonstrates complete control over her defeated opponent and turns victory into psychological humiliation.
• Knowledge disparity: Zhou Xuan understands the extraordinary value of the pill, while Jiang Yuechu lacks common knowledge and therefore reacts with indifference to something others would consider a supreme treasure.
• Threats and factional conflict: Junior Sister Xu’s invocation of the Pure Yang Lineage foreshadows future conflict and suggests that Jiang Yuechu’s actions may provoke retaliation.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Yuechu and the Demon Emperor have no meaningful final exchange; her cold attack contrasts with its panic and incomprehension.
• Jiang Yuechu dismisses Zhou Xuan’s explanation of the Exquisite Dreamflower Pill, revealing the contrast between his scholarly enthusiasm and her practical indifference.
• She gives Niu Ben direct orders and entrusts him with protecting Zhou Xuan during the journey up the mountain.
• Her encounter with Junior Sister Xu is openly antagonistic. Jiang Yuechu treats her as a source of loot, while Xu interprets the stripping of her belongings as deliberate humiliation.
• Junior Sister Xu attempts to preserve her dignity through threats, but Jiang Yuechu’s detached response makes clear that she is not intimidated by the Pure Yang Lineage or its promised revenge.

Chapter Summary

• Plot events: Jiang Yuechu prepares to kill the badly wounded Junior Sister Xu, but pauses when Xu invokes her senior brother, Wang Canglan—the famed foremost disciple of Jade Capital Tower’s Pure Yang Lineage and supposedly the strongest young cultivator in the Eastern Region. Expecting Jiang Yuechu to be intimidated, Xu is shocked when Jiang has never heard of him and openly mocks both Wang Canglan and Xu’s dependence on his reputation.
• Jiang Yuechu’s interrogation: Jiang pretends to doubt Wang Canglan’s greatness and questions why such a supposedly peerless prodigy needs the Exquisite Dreamflower Pill and a dream-based cultivation method. Offended by the insult to her revered senior brother, Xu explains that Wang practices the immensely powerful but dangerously unbalanced Nine-Turn Pure Yang Golden Scripture. Its overwhelming yang energy can cause him to burn alive from within, so he devised the Dream-Borrowing Path Technique to use yin from dream reincarnation to balance it.
• Important revelation: Jiang realizes that Wang Canglan’s cultivation has a serious flaw and that he currently cannot fight freely without risking a deadly backlash. She deliberately asks how he can avenge Xu if he is so constrained, prompting Xu to realize that Jiang has been manipulating her into revealing information.
• Character developments: Jiang is shown as calm, sharp, mocking, and strategically deceptive. Rather than relying solely on force, she gathers intelligence and reassesses the threat posed by Wang Canglan. Learning of his weakness removes her fears of immediate retaliation and increases her confidence that she will surpass him before he repairs the flaw.
• Junior Sister Xu: Xu remains fiercely loyal and emotionally devoted to Wang Canglan, defending his honor even while gravely injured. However, her naivety and pride make her easy for Jiang to manipulate. Once she recognizes the trap, she becomes embarrassed, furious, and repeatedly calls Jiang a “bad woman.”
• Themes and interactions: The exchange contrasts reputation with reality, showing that fame and heroic titles do not guarantee invulnerability. It also highlights intelligence versus blind loyalty: Xu relies on Wang’s legendary status, while Jiang probes for weaknesses through psychological manipulation. Their hostile interaction becomes an uneven battle of wits, with Jiang gaining the upper hand despite Xu’s attempts to intimidate her.

Demon Emperor Taiyuan persuaded the other Spirit Mountain Demon Emperors to help delay Jiang Yuechu by claiming his White Tiger bloodline could let him briefly reach the Chessmaster Realm after devouring vast numbers of people. As Jiang Yuechu confronted an attempt to rescue Junior Sister Xu, the other demons weighed Taiyuan’s offer, and the Old Flood Dragon agreed to help despite the danger.

• Demon Emperor Taiyuan watched Azure Luan Mountain and decided the first three cave lords had to respond to the killing of Blue Fox.
• The Nine-Baby Demon Emperor, White-Eyed Demon Emperor, and Old Flood Dragon discussed Jiang Yuechu’s strength and agreed they had to act carefully.
• Jiang Yuechu laid a hand on Junior Sister Xu, who activated a spell seal and accidentally blew apart her own body.
• A flaming hand reached from a void rift to seize Junior Sister Xu’s Primordial Spirit, but Jiang Yuechu fought it off and shattered it with a punch.
• The four Demon Emperors of Spirit Mountain recoiled from Jiang Yuechu’s strength, and Demon Emperor Taiyuan urged them to hold her off for a few hours.
• Demon Emperor Taiyuan revealed his White Tiger lineage and promised to devour a million souls to gain power, prompting the Old Flood Dragon to agree to help him.

Demon Emperor Taiyuan persuaded the other Demon Emperors to help stall Jiang Yuechu while he perfected his divine art, then revealed that he planned to gather souls in Great Tang. Jiang Yuechu survived a coordinated ambush by three Demon Emperors and seized the Nine-Baby Demon Emperor’s foreleg.

• The White-Eyed Demon Emperor agreed to help Taiyuan but warned that he would flee if the fight became too dangerous.
• Taiyuan said he needed time to perfect his divine art, and the Nine-Baby Demon Emperor asked where they would find a million souls.
• Taiyuan revealed that he planned to gather Dao Cultivation in Great Tang.
• Jiang Yuechu shattered the flaming hand and rushed toward Junior Sister Xu’s Primordial Spirit, but the White-Eyed Demon Emperor, the old flood dragon, and the Nine-Baby Demon Emperor attacked her in succession.
• Jiang Yuechu emerged uninjured and grabbed the Nine-Baby Demon Emperor’s foreleg, provoking his fury.

Jiang Yuechu overpowered the three Great Demon Emperors of Spirit Mountain, brutally killing the Nine-Baby Demon Emperor and turning to face the other two. The surviving demons watched her command black mist and red radiance as if Spirit Mountain's true Demon Emperor had returned.

• The Nine-Baby Demon Emperor failed to free his forelimb from Jiang Yuechu, and the White-Eyed Demon Emperor and Old Flood Dragon joined the attack.
• The Old Flood Dragon unleashed Blackwater Evil Lightning while the White-Eyed Demon Emperor manifested his eye-covered primordial spirit.
• Jiang Yuechu tore off the Nine-Baby Demon Emperor's limbs and destroyed his heads, killing him completely.
• Jiang Yuechu's black mist overwhelmed the Old Flood Dragon's lightning and bloodied White-Eye as the remaining Demon Emperors faced her.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• As autumn deepens in Chang’an, the True Lord’s reputation spreads rapidly. Teahouses and taverns now focus on tales of the Black-Robed True Lord rather than ordinary gossip.
• The True Lord Temple becomes a major center of activity and worship, filled with incense and Fire Prayer Power.
• Seven or eight Demon Suppression Office elites sit in meditation outside the temple for three days and nights. They are cultivating the Golden Body Method by absorbing and comprehending the concentrated incense-fire power, following Lu Changfeng’s instructions.
• The citizens mistake their extreme meditation for a form of immortality cultivation and watch them with awe.
• The Old Red Flood Dragon, now serving as the temple keeper, theatrically explains their cultivation and exaggerates the True Lord’s power. It claims that she is currently in the western lands defeating demons and terrifying Demon Emperors.
• The crowd enthusiastically believes the stories, praising the True Lord. The Old Red Flood Dragon privately enjoys its authority, benefits, and growing influence.
• It takes pride in organizing the temple and arranging meditation cushions for the Demon Suppression Guards, hoping the True Lord—referred to as Jiang Yan or “Her Highness”—will reward it upon her return.
• The guards resent the dragon’s bullying and its habit of threatening to report them to the True Lord, but they endure it to avoid disrupting their meditation.
• At the end of the chapter, the Old Red Flood Dragon suddenly senses danger. A mysterious blue-clad figure appears above the clouds, coldly observing the temple.

Character Developments

• The Old Red Flood Dragon has fully embraced its role as temple keeper. It is vain, opportunistic, boastful, and delighted by the status and material benefits of its position. Although it exaggerates its importance, it is also genuinely competent in managing the temple and increasing its incense-fire power.
• The Demon Suppression Guards demonstrate discipline and commitment by enduring three days of meditation without food or water. Their resentment toward the dragon reveals that they do not truly respect it, despite outwardly tolerating its authority.
• The True Lord/Jiang Yan remains absent but gains enormous popular prestige. Her public image grows through rumor, worship, and the dragon’s exaggerated propaganda.
• The citizens of Chang’an become increasingly devout and emotionally invested in the True Lord’s legend, readily accepting supernatural claims about her strength.

Significant Themes

• The creation of religious authority: The True Lord’s influence expands through temples, incense, public ritual, and popular storytelling.
• Power and reputation: The True Lord’s perceived strength matters as much as her actual actions, while the Old Red Flood Dragon gains influence by associating itself with her authority.
• Cultivation through faith: Incense and Fire Prayer Power are presented as a genuine path of cultivation, linking spiritual belief with physical transformation.
• Comedic bureaucracy and opportunism: The Old Red Flood Dragon treats temple management as both a political office and a chance for personal advancement, humorously exploiting the True Lord’s prestige.
• The danger beneath prosperity: The cheerful, prosperous temple atmosphere is interrupted by the arrival of an unknown figure, suggesting an approaching conflict.

Character Interactions

• The Old Red Flood Dragon performs for the citizens, presenting itself as an authoritative representative of the True Lord.
• The citizens respond with admiration and fear, treating the temple keeper’s words as reliable religious instruction.
• The dragon repeatedly orders and threatens the meditating guards, while the guards silently resent its abuse of borrowed authority.
• The dragon’s hopeful thoughts about impressing Jiang Yan reveal its desire for recognition and advancement.
• The chapter closes with a tense, wordless interaction between the temple and the unidentified blue-clad observer, establishing a new threat.

Demon Emperor Taiyuan attacked Chang'an, intending to devour its inhabitants, but Wu Shisan appeared with Wang Ziyu to protect the city. Taiyuan recognized Wu Shisan and questioned whether the Mysterious Truth Grotto-Heaven had placed Great Tang under its protection.

• Demon Emperor Taiyuan sensed the people of Chang'an and pressed a hand toward the city, terrifying its inhabitants and prompting an alarm.
• The imperial High Ancestor, Bai Yulou, and You Wujiang confronted Taiyuan, who threatened to massacre them and feast on the city.
• Wu Shisan and Wang Ziyu appeared before Gu Wanlan and the others, halting Taiyuan's attack and making him wary.
• Wu Shisan introduced himself, and Taiyuan recognized him as the renowned figure from the Mysterious Truth Grotto-Heaven.
• Taiyuan challenged Wu Shisan over the Grotto-Heaven's involvement in mortal affairs and asked whether it protected Great Tang.

Wu Shisan tried to persuade Demon Emperor Taiyuan to spare Chang'an, but Taiyuan betrayed his apparent agreement and attacked. As Great Tang’s fighters wounded him without stopping his strike, Wu Shisan revealed his own grave condition and ordered Wang Ziyu to flee with a formation disc.

• Wu Shisan asked Demon Emperor Taiyuan to leave Chang'an alone, and Taiyuan appeared to agree because of Wu Shisan’s reputation.
• Wang Ziyu noticed Wu Shisan’s hand trembling, and Taiyuan suddenly sent a colossal tiger paw crashing toward Chang'an.
• Bai Yulou, You Wujiang, and Gu Wanlan combined their attacks and tore three deep wounds into Taiyuan’s paw, but it kept descending.
• Wu Shisan admitted Taiyuan had seen through him, gave Wang Ziyu an ancient formation disc, and told him to return to the Mysterious Truth Grotto-Heaven.
• Wang Ziyu saw dense deathly energy spilling from Wu Shisan and realized his master had been gravely injured.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Wu Shisan reflects on his childhood and his return to Chang’an, describing it as a return to his roots after more than a thousand years.
• A flashback reveals his origins as the illegitimate son of a low-ranking prostitute during the Han Dynasty. Despite her poverty and social disgrace, his mother loves and protects him.
• When she is brutally beaten by a wealthy young master and his servants while trying to earn money for his winter clothing, Wu Shisan watches helplessly. After her death, he burns down the young master’s residence and flees.
• He later meets a kind girl who accepts him despite his past. When she becomes ill, he works as a deathsworn to obtain medicine, but returns too late and finds her dead. Her death destroys the last of his mortal hope.
• Wu Shisan is taken into the Mysterious Truth Grotto-Heaven and begins cultivating. He advances with extraordinary speed, but his memories of his mother and the girl continue haunting him.
• He adopts the name “Wu Shisan,” symbolizing the thirteen relationships and familial bonds he has severed. He believes that only “invincibility” remains.
• After reaching the Tower-Climbing Realm, he realizes that immortality and transcendence cannot erase the human heart or the suffering caused by love, loss, and regret.
• In the present, Wu Shisan confronts the Taiyuan Demon Emperor. Rather than using conventional spiritual energy or techniques, he unleashes an aura embodying the desolation and regrets of mortal life.
• His power transforms the sky above Chang’an and the Great Tang into a vast painting of birth, death, love, hatred, separation, and missed opportunities.
• As the Demon Emperor attempts to escape, a mysterious girl appears and addresses Wu Shisan, telling him that at his age he should not risk his life and should stand aside.

2. Character Development

• Wu Shisan: He evolves from a frightened, powerless child into a ruthless survivor, then into an exceptionally gifted cultivator, and finally into someone who recognizes that suppressing emotion and severing attachments cannot make him truly immortal. His supposed invincibility is revealed to be rooted in loneliness and grief. In the present, he reclaims his humanity and chooses to act rather than accept another “too late.”
• Wu Shisan’s mother: Though socially despised and impoverished, she is portrayed as loving and self-sacrificing. Her final words reveal her deep concern that her son is ashamed of her.
• The unnamed girl: She represents Wu Shisan’s chance at an ordinary, peaceful life and his last emotional attachment. Her death reinforces the chapter’s pattern of irreversible loss.
• Taiyuan Demon Emperor: Initially confident and dominant, he becomes uneasy when Wu Shisan’s strange power slows his attack and later visibly panics at the transformation of the sky.
• The mysterious girl: She appears calm and ordinary but possesses an authority that immediately affects everyone present, suggesting immense power and importance.

3. Significant Themes

• Regret and missed timing: The repeated phrase “too late” summarizes Wu Shisan’s life—he could not save his mother, his beloved, or possibly his homeland.
• Humanity beneath cultivation: The chapter rejects the idea that immortality frees people from mortal emotions. Cultivators still possess hearts capable of love, grief, hatred, and loss.
• The cost of invincibility: Wu Shisan’s strength is built upon cutting away every relationship, but this leaves him isolated rather than fulfilled.
• Memory and homecoming: Returning to Chang’an causes Wu Shisan’s past to resurface, showing that memories and emotional roots cannot truly be severed.
• Social cruelty and injustice: His mother’s abuse and death expose the violence of class hierarchy, prejudice, and the indifference of bystanders.
• Choosing action over helplessness: Wu Shisan’s final step symbolizes his refusal to remain the powerless child or grieving wanderer he once was.

4. Character Interactions

• Wu Shisan’s relationship with his mother is defined by mutual love, shame, sacrifice, and helplessness. Her death becomes the central wound of his life.
• His bond with the unnamed girl offers tenderness and acceptance, but her death repeats his experience of losing someone just as he begins to hope.
• His senior brothers and the Mysterious Truth patriarch encourage him to abandon mortal attachments in pursuit of cultivation, influencing his decision to sever his emotional ties.
• His confrontation with the Taiyuan Demon Emperor contrasts mortal sorrow with demonic power: the Emperor relies on overwhelming force, while Wu Shisan draws strength from lived human experience.
• The mysterious girl’s intervention introduces a new dynamic. Her gentle remark toward Wu Shisan contrasts sharply with the apocalyptic power he has just displayed, implying both familiarity and superior authority.

Jiang Yuechu’s Incense-and-Fire Golden Body overwhelmed Demon Emperor Taiyuan, crushing his physical body in Chang’an. Taiyuan escaped as a massive White Tiger Primordial Spirit and confronted the Golden Body.

• Demon Emperor Taiyuan mistook Jiang Yuechu’s Golden Body Dharma Form for her true body, then attacked after realizing it was a lifeless construct.
• The Golden Body Dharma Form caught Taiyuan’s claw, crushed it, and kicked him down onto the official road outside Chang’an.
• The Golden Body pursued Taiyuan into the crater and stamped his body into a mass of flesh and blood.
• Taiyuan’s White Tiger Primordial Spirit escaped his ruined body and angrily challenged the Golden Body.

Demon Emperor Taiyuan unleashed a torrent of Geng Metal at Chang'an, but Jiang Yuechu’s black-robed Golden Body transformed and fought through it. After reaching Taiyuan, she slapped his primordial spirit twice and left him stunned.

• Demon Emperor Taiyuan attacked Chang'an with a torrent of golden Geng Metal, while the imperial High Ancestor and others used Jiang Yuechu’s magical treasures to defend the city.
• The treasures shattered under Taiyuan’s attack, and Wu Shisan prepared to risk his life until Wang Ziyu pointed out the Golden Body’s transformation.
• The Golden Body became wreathed in black mist and red light, then charged into Taiyuan’s golden torrent and punched her way toward him.
• The Golden Body broke through the torrent and slapped Taiyuan’s primordial spirit across the face.
• Taiyuan roared in outrage, and the Golden Body slapped him again, leaving part of his primordial spirit faint before asking, “So what?”

The black-robed Golden Body Dharma Form brutally beat Demon Emperor Taiyuan while witnesses watched from above Chang'an. In the Lightless Cave, White Elephant rejected Xuan Yang’s offer to join the Dao Orthodoxy and began challenging what he believed about White Elephant’s origins.

• The Golden Body Dharma Form stomped Demon Emperor Taiyuan from the sky and pursued him with a relentless barrage of punches and slaps.
• Wang Ziyu, the imperial High Ancestor, Bai Yulou, and Wu Shisan watched the one-sided beating above Chang'an.
• In the Lightless Cave, Xuan Yang told White Elephant that Spirit Mountain was in danger, but White Elephant insisted it would endure and had never belonged to him.
• Xuan Yang urged White Elephant to apologize to the True Lord and surrender the Star Palace True Map in exchange for freedom and a place among the Dao Orthodoxy.
• White Elephant mocked Xuan Yang’s offer and began explaining that his supposed extraordinary innate gifts were a lie.