Chapter Summaries

The Queen Mother of the West visited Qing Xuan and Qing Yi, chose the black-and-white gourd as her treasure, and received their renewed promise to help her once. After she left Purple Tenuity, the Demon Race’s expansion provoked the Witch Clan, and Di Jun and Taiyi moved to intervene.

• Kong Xuan brought the Queen Mother of the West to meet Qing Xuan and Qing Yi in Spirit Valley.
• The Queen Mother of the West examined the revived Gourd Vine and chose its black-and-white gourd, naming it the Return-to-the-Hidden Gourd.
• Qing Xuan reaffirmed that he and Qing Yi would act on the Queen Mother of the West’s behalf if she needed them, and she gave them Ren Water Flat Peaches.
• Qing Yi showed the Queen Mother of the West the peach grove grown from the pit she had left behind, and the Queen Mother later departed for West Kunlun with her gourd.
• The Demon Race’s banners spread across the Primordial World, but Xing Tian tore down Jiu Ying’s banner in the north.
• Di Jun took up the broken banner and sent himself and Taiyi toward the north as the Witch Clan’s war drums sounded.

The northern battle escalated as Taiyi drove back Zhurong and Gonggong, but the Twelve Ancestral Witches formed the Twelve Dutian Divine Fiends Great Array and summoned the Pangu True Body. Taiyi held off its axe strike long enough for Di Jun to retreat with the surviving demon army, leaving the Witch Clan to recover its territory and the rivalry unresolved.

• Xing Tian split Jiu Ying's body with Ganqi, but Di Jun used the River Chart and Luo Script to save Jiu Ying's primordial spirit.
• Taiyi fought Zhurong and Gonggong with the Chaos Bell, forcing them back as the demon army regrouped.
• Di Jiang and the other Ancestral Witches arrived, formed the Twelve Dutian Divine Fiends Great Array, and manifested the Pangu True Body.
• The Pangu True Body summoned an axe, and Taiyi joined the Chaos Bell's power with its sky-opening origin to shield Di Jun's retreating army.
• The Pangu True Body's axe shattered the River-Luo defenses and devastated the retreating demon forces, while Taiyi protected the last clans as they escaped.
• Di Jiang dispersed the array and stopped the pursuit, while Houtu stabilized the Witch Clan's damaged land; Qing Xuan and Qing Yi expected the conflict to continue.

After the Demon Race suffered heavy losses against the Ancestral Witches, Di Jun and Taiyi recruited Kunpeng and the Northern Dark Sea Tribes into the Demon Court to complete the Zhou Tian Star Dou array. Kunpeng agreed to become Demon Master and contribute his Dao intent, but secured control over the northern Star Positions.

• Kong Xuan left to travel south and visit her mother as the wounded Demon Gods returned to the Sun Palace.
• Taiyi urged Di Jun to complete an array that could unite the Demon tribes and stand against the Pangu True Body, and Di Jun decided to bring Kunpeng into the Demon Court as Demon Master.
• Di Jun and Taiyi confronted Kunpeng in the Northern Dark Sea, where Kunpeng tried to escape but was stopped by the Chaos Bell and River Luo.
• Kunpeng accepted the Demon Master position and agreed to lead the northern tribes, but Di Jun required him to leave a wisp of his primordial spirit in River Luo.
• Kunpeng and the Northern Dark Sea Tribes joined the Demon Court, and Kunpeng helped connect the northern stars to the central sun in the Zhou Tian Star Dou array.
• Kunpeng demanded control over the northern Star Positions, and Di Jun agreed.

Qing Yi and Qing Xuan watched as Di Jun completed the Zhou Tian Star Dou Great Array, and Taiyi tested its strength with the Chaos Bell. The array held against the bell, while Di Jiang and the Ancestral Witches recognized that their next conflict with the Demon Court would be different.

• Qing Yi finished refining the Devouring Demon God's power into pure essence and returned it to the Qiankun Cauldron.
• Di Jun completed the array as Kunpeng connected the Northern Dark Sea Tribes to the final Star Routes.
• Di Jun and Taiyi tested the array, and the tribes shared the Chaos Bell's force without any Star Position breaking.
• Taiyi proposed that Di Jiang test the array next, and Di Jun agreed.
• Di Jiang told the Ancestral Witches that they could not approach their next fight as they had the last one, while Houtu remembered those who had fallen in the Battle of the North.

Houtu sought Qing Yi’s help for the remnant souls of the dead, asking whether they could be given bodies or a place to rest. Guided by Qing Xuan, she traveled with them to the Netherworld Blood Sea and saw the vast multitude of souls gathered there.

• Houtu found remnant souls in the mountains devouring one another and carried several away in her Xuanhuang Dao Light.
• Houtu asked Qing Yi whether she could reshape bodies for the souls, and Qing Yi restored one while explaining that others had become entangled through grievance.
• Houtu realized the dead needed a place to dwell and resolved to seek one, so Qing Xuan directed her to the Netherworld Blood Sea.
• Qing Yi protected the remnant souls with Creation Dao Light, and she and Qing Xuan agreed to accompany Houtu.
• Houtu, Qing Yi, and Qing Xuan arrived at the Blood Sea, where Houtu saw countless chaotic remnant souls gathered in its tides.

Minghe created the Asura race from souls in the Blood Sea and received merit, but did not attain Sagehood. Houtu explored the Netherworld for a path of return for the dead before Di Jiang summoned her back to the Ancestral Land because Di Jun had arrived; Qing Xuan kept the souls she had brought.

• Minghe finished forming Poxun and named him, then brought the other Blood Sea-born Asuras into being.
• Minghe declared the Asura race established and received heavenly merit, but the merit did not bring him the Sagehood he sought.
• Qing Xuan and Qing Yi explained that they had come with Houtu, who was searching for a way for the dead to return to the living world.
• Houtu examined the Asuras and the souls on her green leaves, then explored the Netherworld with Qing Xuan's help and found land beyond the Blood Sea.
• Di Jiang sent word that Di Jun had come to the Ancestral Land, so Houtu left; Qing Xuan took responsibility for the souls she had brought.

Houtu discovered that establishing reincarnation would require her Ancestral Witch body to become its foundation, though Qing Yi promised to protect her True Spirit. Unable to decide how to tell her brothers and sisters, she returned to the Ancestral Land to speak with them before choosing whether to take the path.

• Houtu traced how the souls of the dead could return to the living world through reincarnation and saw her Ancestral Witch Dharma Form become the Netherworld's foundation.
• Qing Xuan explained that Houtu's essence would have to merge with reincarnation, and Qing Yi assured her that her True Spirit and memories would remain protected.
• Houtu realized she could not both establish reincarnation and preserve the Twelve Capitals' unity, and she hesitated to contact her brothers with the news.
• Houtu decided to return to the Ancestral Land before committing to the path, while Qing Yi and Qing Xuan agreed to keep the souls safe and accompany her when she was ready.
• Houtu left the Netherworld and followed the eleven familiar auras toward Buzhou Mountain.

Houtu returned to the Witch Clan and told her siblings she intended to transform her Ancestral Witch True Body into the foundation of reincarnation. She stayed to prepare with them, while Di Jiang began considering how the clan could sustain the Twelve Capitals formation without her essence.

• Houtu told Di Jiang, Xuanming, Gonggong, Zhurong, and the others about the departed souls’ path and her plan to establish reincarnation.
• Di Jiang and Xuanming questioned what would happen to Houtu, and she assured them that her memories and identity would remain even though she would have to stay in the Netherworld.
• Houtu explained that opening reincarnation was her Dao, and Di Jiang accepted her decision while asking her to remain with the clan for now.
• Di Jiang proposed testing whether the Great Witches could bear part of the Twelve Capitals formation’s power and cautioned against weakening Houtu’s foundation.
• Di Jiang summoned Xing Tian for the next day, and Houtu drank with her siblings, smiling as she said the wine still tasted the same.

Qing Xuan and Qing Yi attended Di Jun and Xihe’s heavenly wedding, where Qing Xuan spoke with Fuxi about the limits of guiding clans through divination. He urged Fuxi to reconsider the origins and purpose of the trigrams, then offered to help test them after the feast as a path toward helping the Human Race.

• Qing Yi revived creatures from soul fragments in Purple Tenuity Spirit Valley, and she and Qing Xuan remained there for more than three thousand years.
• Qing Xuan and Qing Yi accepted Nuwa’s invitation and attended Di Jun and Xihe’s heavenly marriage at the Demon Court.
• Nuwa ordained Di Jun and Xihe’s marriage with the Red Embroidered Ball, and the Heavenly Dao sent down merit as the sun and moon’s star routes strengthened.
• Qing Xuan asked Fuxi whether Di Jun’s Demon Court had answered his questions about how different clans could live together, and Fuxi described how small clans still depended on others to make decisions for them.
• Fuxi explained that teaching divination to the Human Race would be difficult because the Primordial Trigrams relied on his own cultivation.
• Qing Xuan urged Fuxi to examine where the trigrams came from and what they could leave to all living beings, then offered to test them with him in the sea of stars after the feast.

Qing Xuan helped Fuxi rethink the Primordial Trigrams as a way to preserve and pass on what people learned from the world, rather than as a means of deducing every transformation through cultivation. Fuxi decided to visit the Human Race and pursue the Human Dao, leaving with Nuwa while Qing Xuan watched them go.

• Fuxi showed Qing Xuan his unfinished trigram diagram, and Qing Xuan revealed how its patterns arose from chaos and corresponded to transformations in heaven and earth.
• Qing Xuan showed Fuxi human figures learning from mountains and rivers, prompting Fuxi to remember how shared knowledge had helped people avoid mistakes.
• Fuxi began carving trigrams to record what humans had observed, then erased several patterns when he realized he had been imposing his own perspective.
• Fuxi decided to stay among the Human Race, learn what they already knew, and let generations add their observations to the trigrams.
• Qing Xuan explained that Fuxi could pursue the Human Dao by making the trigrams part of the Human Race, and promised to help if Fuxi faced a deadly tribulation.
• Fuxi and Nuwa descended toward the Primordial World as Qing Xuan watched them leave, and Qing Yi came to take his hand.

Houtu opened a path of return for the dead by dispersing her Ancestral Witch body into the Netherworld and guiding the lost souls through its currents. Her True Spirit remained sheltered in Qing Yi’s light as the Netherworld began to take shape.

• Houtu asked Qing Xuan and Qing Yi to accompany her to the Netherworld, and Minghe withdrew the Asuras from the Blood Sea.
• Houtu joined her essence to the earth while Qing Xuan ordered the tangled yin and yang currents and Qing Yi sheltered her spirituality.
• Houtu declared that the dead should have a path of return and spread her Ancestral Witch essence through the Netherworld.
• Houtu guided the scattered souls deeper into the Netherworld as her body and Dharma Form dissipated.
• Di Jiang sensed Houtu’s essence settle in the Netherworld, while Qing Yi preserved her True Spirit and Dao light rose through the darkness.

Houtu established the Six Paths of Reincarnation, earning merit and attaining the Sage Realm as her Dao Fruit became rooted in the cycle of life and death. She stayed in the Netherworld to stabilize the new paths, while Qing Xuan and Qing Yi departed.

• Houtu joined the yin and yang currents, allowing a departed soul to pass through reincarnation and return to life in an unborn beast.
• The six layers of Dao light settled into place, sorting souls by their origins and karmic ties and establishing the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
• Xuanhuang merit descended into the Netherworld, and Houtu formed a new Dao Fruit from her earth Dao and reincarnation, attaining the Sage Realm.
• Minghe congratulated Houtu, while Qing Xuan and Qing Yi withdrew their support as reincarnation continued to guide souls safely.
• Houtu accepted Qing Yi's stone clasp, sent Di Jiang word that she was safe, and chose to remain in the Netherworld to stabilize its yin currents.

Fuxi and Kong Xuan stopped the Demon Court’s trials to refine human souls into weapons, and Hong Yun sheltered the rescued captives at Huo Yun Mountain. After Di Jun ordered the trials dismantled, his ten Golden Crow sons broke their restrictions and flew out together, leaving ten suns reflected over the East Sea.

• Fuxi found the Demon Court’s hidden valley and intervened as Ji Meng and a Great Luo Demon God used captured humans and trapped souls in a blood-furnace trial.
• Kong Xuan arrived with the Five Directional Flags, destroyed the furnace’s restraints, and freed the souls and captives while Fuxi held Ji Meng at bay.
• News reached the valley that Xuandu and Golden Spirit Holy Mother had stopped the other two trials, so Ji Meng withdrew the demon forces.
• Kong Xuan freed the human captives, and Hong Yun opened Huo Yun Mountain Gate to shelter them and the injured.
• After receiving reports of all three failures, Di Jun ordered the trial sites dismantled and forbade human-soul weapon refining without his decree.
• The eldest Golden Crow led his nine brothers through the restrictions around Tang Valley, and Lu Ya followed them; ten crimson-gold reflections then shone across the East Sea.