Recaps

As more than a hundred thousand souls arrived at the Three Lives Gate, Houtu realized that rescuing them was only the beginning and left Abyss to seek a lasting path for the dead. Lu Chen refined his understanding of the Death Law after killing Youquan, while Houtu reached a new Human Clan tribe.

• Han Jue and Ao Lie discussed how Emperor's Dharma body had killed Youquan, and Ao Lie warned Han Jue not to ask Emperor about the killing technique.
• Houtu questioned damaged souls and recognized that many had no home, memories, or future beyond the Three Lives Gate.
• Houtu told Mysterious Abyss she wanted to see the dead beyond Abyss, and he agreed to let her go.
• Houtu said goodbye to Shi Sheng and left the Three Lives Gate to seek a path for the souls beyond the Northern Sea.
• Lu Chen studied the Death Law and found that witnessing Youquan's death had deepened his understanding.
• Houtu landed in an unfamiliar mountain forest and heard crying near a newly established Human Clan tribe.

Houtu witnessed how ordinary souls faded after death and how the strong could preserve their souls while the weak dispersed, prompting her to investigate the fate of the dead. Following a current of death deep beneath the earth, she reached the Netherworld Blood Sea, where Minghe asked whether Mysterious Abyss had sent her.

• Houtu watched an old man's soul linger beside his family before it gradually dispersed, then continued her journey.
• At a Demon Clan battlefield, Houtu learned that powerful cultivators could preserve their Primordial Spirits while weaker souls soon faded.
• Houtu observed the different fates of dead Witch Clan warriors and Demon Clan members and sensed countless death auras and True Spirit fragments flowing underground.
• Houtu followed the dark current through deep earth veins until she reached the Netherworld Blood Sea.
• Minghe emerged from the blood sea and asked Houtu whether Mysterious Abyss had sent her.

Houtu entered the Blood Sea to search for the dead and discovered countless souls eroding within its depths. Minghe opened a passage into the Netherworld interlayer, where Houtu found a vast expanse of shattered soul lights.

• Houtu told Minghe she had followed the deathly aura to the Blood Sea on her own, seeking the dead.
• Minghe let Houtu enter the Blood Sea and explained that its countless souls were left to sink, disperse, or be eroded.
• Houtu saw ancient True Spirits being destroyed and wondered whether Shi Sheng would eventually lose his memories and identity.
• Houtu asked Minghe what lay deepest in the Blood Sea, and he opened a passage toward the Netherworld interlayer.
• Houtu walked through the passage and found hundreds of millions of shattered soul lights drifting in the darkness.

Houtu discovered that the Netherworld’s countless lost True Spirits needed more than a place to gather and comprehended Reincarnation as a path from death back to life. Her breakthrough stirred the Primordial World and resonated with the Three Lives Gate, where a black fissure appeared.

• Houtu examined the ancient, damaged soul lights and realized that ordinary True Spirits had no stable destination after death.
• Houtu reasoned that souls needed to be cleansed of their former lives and given new bodies, identities, and beginnings.
• Houtu comprehended Reincarnation, causing her Thick Earth Great Dao to encompass the passage between death and life.
• Minghe sensed Houtu’s breakthrough as the Blood Sea and his Karmic Fire Red Lotus trembled.
• The Three Lives Gate and Soul-Guiding Lamp resonated with Houtu’s new Dao, and Lu Chen recognized that she had reached Reincarnation.
• A black Dao pattern spread across the Three Lives Gate and formed a hair-thin fissure at its center.

Three Lives Gate unexpectedly connected to the Netherworld, and dead qi began surging through the opening. As Lu Chen discovered Abyss could absorb it, the Abyss Great Dao began annexing his Death Law.

• Lan Shuang and Han Jue investigated a crack at Three Lives Gate as departed souls sensed a call from beyond it.
• Lu Chen tried to close the crack, but the system warned that cutting off the resonance could unleash accumulated dead qi, so he let it open further.
• Houtu and Minghe recognized Three Lives Gate on the other side and watched as the connection drew dead qi toward the Northern Sea.
• Dead qi burst through the gate, forcing Mysterious Abyss and the cultivators to defend the area while Houtu and Minghe restrained the flows from the Netherworld side.
• Lu Chen discovered Abyss could absorb the dead qi and brought his Death Law into contact with the Abyss Great Dao.
• The system reported that Abyss's Great Dao was annexing the Death Rule as Abyss shook.

Lu Chen absorbed the vast tide of pure Death Rule through the Abyss Sea Eye, strengthening his Death Law and deepening his understanding of how death belonged to Abyss. As the Netherworld’s death qi was cleared, Houtu’s thoughts of Reincarnation grew firmer, and Lu Chen received three new choices from the system.

• Mysterious Abyss ordered everyone to retreat as the death qi from the Netherworld spread across the Northern Sea.
• Houtu and Minghe suppressed the death qi in the Netherworld while worrying about the connection to the Three Lives Gate.
• Lu Chen’s Abyss Great Dao drew the death qi into the Sea Eye and separated the pure Death Rule from its other contents.
• Lu Chen realized that death was part of Abyss’s process of return and absorbed the million-li tide of death energy.
• The death qi around the Three Lives Gate faded, revealing souls and True Spirits that strengthened Houtu’s thoughts of Reincarnation.
• Lu Chen received a system notification about his increased control over the Death Law, followed by three new choices.

Lu Chen chose to nurture a Life Law Seed and observe the cycle of life and death rather than seize control of the Netherworld or cut off its connection to Abyss. Houtu left the Netherworld for Pangu Hall to discuss her path with the Witch Clan, while the Three Lives Gate passage remained stable.

• Lu Chen rejected the options to become Netherworld Emperor or sever the Three Lives Gate’s connection, and chose the Life Law Seed and a future chance to observe the life-and-death Great Dao.
• The Life Law Seed appeared in Lu Chen’s Primordial Spirit, and a withered Water Spirit Grass in the Inner Realm of the Abyss sprouted a new leaf from its remaining roots.
• Lu Chen left the Three Lives Gate passage stable after the deathly tide was suppressed, and Houtu sensed that the passage had stabilized.
• Houtu told Minghe she was returning to Pangu Hall, and Minghe warned her that her path could affect more than the souls in the Netherworld.
• Houtu traveled toward Buzhou Mountain, where the eleven Ancestral Witches were waiting for her.

Houtu told the Twelve Ancestral Witches how her encounters with lost souls led her to comprehend the Dao of Reincarnation. When they realized she might have to use herself as its vessel, Di Jiang and the others urged her to abandon the idea, leaving her torn between their concern and the souls she had seen.

• Houtu recounted how Shi Sheng and countless other dead souls had become stranded without a path after death.
• She explained that witnessing the souls in the Netherworld Blood Sea had led her to believe there should be another path after death: Reincarnation.
• Zhu Jiuyin glimpsed a possible future in which Houtu was bound to the Primordial World's earth, the Netherworld, and endless dead souls, and warned that the price would be great.
• Houtu said Reincarnation needed a vessel capable of sustaining the cycle of life and death, and her silence revealed that she considered herself the most suitable vessel.
• Xuanming, Gonggong, and Zhurong objected to Houtu risking herself, while Di Jiang said the Witch Clan wanted neither Reincarnation nor its merits.
• Di Jiang told Houtu he would support her Dao, but would not agree to her using her life to mend heaven and earth's flaw; Houtu remembered Shi Sheng and fell silent.

Houtu argued that ordinary souls like Shi Sheng deserved a path beyond death, and decided to return to Abyss to tell Mysterious Abyss and Shi Sheng about the direction she had found. Di Jiang allowed her to go but warned her not to enter the Netherworld again yet.

• Gonggong proposed sealing the Netherworld and leaving the dead in the Northern Sea, but Houtu challenged the idea by asking what would happen to Shi Sheng, who wanted to return home and see his family.
• Houtu argued that ordinary beings from every clan died without the means to preserve their spirits, and that the blocked deathly energy beneath the earth needed a path out.
• Houtu told her siblings that her Thick Earth Great Dao had found something it should bear, though she still did not know the full cost.
• Houtu said she would return to Abyss to tell Mysterious Abyss and Shi Sheng about the path she had found.
• Zhu Jiuyin, Gonggong, and Zhurong supported letting Houtu go, and Di Jiang permitted the journey while forbidding her to enter the Netherworld again for now.
• Houtu left Pangu Hall and traveled through the earth toward Abyss and the Three Lives Gate, where Shi Sheng was waiting.

Houtu told Mysterious Abyss that she had found Reincarnation as the path beyond the gate, and he promised the Three Lives Gate would remain if her attempt failed. She left Abyss to build the road, while a clearer Reincarnation Dao rhythm began to drift through the Netherworld rift.

• Houtu visited Shi Sheng and told him she had found the direction, though he would have to wait to learn what going home meant.
• Houtu told Mysterious Abyss that the path beyond the gate was Reincarnation, and he said it was her Dao to discover for herself.
• Houtu asked whether Mysterious Abyss had known about Reincarnation, and he admitted he had seen some possibilities but had not wanted his answer to shape her path.
• Houtu worried about what would happen if she failed, and Mysterious Abyss promised the Three Lives Gate would remain until she found a way through.
• Houtu left to build the road and promised Shi Sheng she would find him a road home.
• After Houtu departed, the Netherworld rift trembled and sent a clearer Reincarnation Dao rhythm into Abyss.

Houtu entered the Netherworld to establish a path for the dead to continue onward, and a wheel-shaped phantom of reincarnation began to form. As the Netherworld shook, Lu Chen gained full observation of the Primordial World's Life and Death Great Dao.

• Houtu returned to the Blood Sea, where Minghe let her enter the Netherworld without following her.
• Houtu entered the ocean of soul lights and realized the dead lacked a road onward.
• Houtu unfolded the Thick Earth Great Dao and began gathering the Netherworld's earth power and soul lights into a wheel-shaped phantom.
• Minghe, the Ancestral Witches, Di Jun, Taiyi, and the Saints sensed Houtu's work beginning.
• Lu Chen's system enabled full observation of the Life and Death Great Dao as he witnessed the cycle of life stop at death.
• Houtu declared that she would make up the missing stage, and the Netherworld shook as the soul lights ignited.

Houtu established the Six Paths of Reincarnation, preserving True Spirits while cleansing their past lives and sorting their karma. After the first soul completed the cycle and was reborn, Houtu merged with the Netherworld’s great wheel as immense Merit descended.

• Houtu formed a river that cleansed dead souls’ memories and attachments while preserving their True Spirits.
• Houtu created six Dao domains to sort souls according to their deeds, nature, and karma as dead souls gathered from across the Primordial World.
• Lan Shuang opened the Three Lives Gate, revealing a road to the Netherworld’s great wheel.
• Di Jiang and the other Ancestral Witches arrived and urged Houtu to stop, but she continued establishing Reincarnation.
• Houtu merged her body and origin with the Netherworld as the Six Paths Great Wheel turned and a beast soul was reborn.
• Immense Merit appeared, and Houtu declared that the dead would have a place to return.

Souls in Abyss began entering reincarnation, while Shi Sheng waited for Houtu and asked Han Jue to help him find his family. After seeing that his younger brother had survived and his mother still visited the place where he died, Shi Sheng entered the Three Lives Gate with peace of mind.

• An old Dragon Clan elder, the Phoenix Clan woman, and many other souls left Abyss through the Three Lives Gate to enter reincarnation.
• Shi Sheng stayed behind to wait for Houtu, and he told Han Jue he hoped to learn what had become of his mother and little brother.
• Han Jue asked Lan Shuang to use the Book of Cause and Effect to trace Shi Sheng's family in the Primordial World.
• Shi Sheng saw that his little brother had grown up and that his mother still visited the place where he had died.
• Houtu told Shi Sheng the road to reincarnation was ready, and he entered the Three Lives Gate after thanking his friends in Abyss.

While observing souls enter Reincarnation, Lu Chen connected the cycle of death and rebirth to Abyss’s return of matter to the world and formed the rudimentary Life and Death Abyss Great Dao. Its emergence cracked the barrier at the Great Luo Limit.

• The first batch of dead souls entered Reincarnation, and the souls accumulated at Three Lives Gate fell by more than half.
• Lu Chen observed Shi Sheng’s passage through Reincarnation and gained insight into the Life Great Dao as True Spirits entered new lives.
• Lu Chen recognized that Abyss also returned the remains of dead plants, beasts, and spirit veins to the world, where they became foundations for new life.
• Lu Chen brought the Life Law and Death Law into a cycle around Abyss and formed the rudimentary Life and Death Abyss Great Dao.
• The new Great Dao cracked the barrier before Lu Chen, opening the Great Luo Limit.

Lu Chen completed the first cycle of his Life and Death Abyss Great Dao and became a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal without relying on Heavenly Dao authority, Primordial Purple Qi, or corpse severance. As he began stabilizing his realm, Reincarnation was established and Merit started descending, with a small portion flying toward the Northern Sea.

• Lu Chen condensed his mana and let his Great Luo Dao Fruit break apart, then formed a new Dao Fruit through Abyss.
• The System Light Curtain confirmed Lu Chen had reached the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal Initial Realm and perfected the Death Law.
• Lu Chen's Great Dao nurtured the Abyss Life and Death Wheel, a divine ability that could restore him while eroding an opponent's vitality, Primordial Spirit, and magical power.
• Lu Chen recognized that the divine ability had limits against powerful cultivators and Saints, but resolved to keep improving it.
• Reincarnation stabilized in the Netherworld, Merit descended toward Houtu and the Six Paths, and a small portion flew toward the Northern Sea.

After Reincarnation’s establishment, Merit strengthened the Three Lives Gate, the Abyss Soul-Attracting Lamp, and Lu Chen’s Life and Death Great Dao. Lu Chen tested his new Abyss Life and Death Wheel, realized its deadly potential, and the chapter ended with Minghe arriving at the Three Lives Gate.

• Golden Merit arrived in Abyss, strengthening the Three Lives Gate and Soul-Attracting Lamp while stabilizing Lu Chen’s Great Dao and recent breakthrough.
• Lu Chen tested the Death Wheel on an old array stone and the Life Wheel on an eroded Spirit Medicine, then confirmed the Life Wheel could rapidly heal his wounds.
• Lu Chen reasoned that his defenses and recovery could let him endure attacks while the Death Wheel gradually wore down opponents.
• Lu Chen used Mysterious Abyss to test the Death Wheel on Mysterious Mountain, which withered internally before collapsing when Mysterious Abyss touched it.
• Han Jue learned the move was called the Abyss Life and Death Wheel and recognized its danger; then Minghe’s blood-fiendish aura reached the Three Lives Gate.

Minghe visited Abyss after sensing Mysterious Abyss’s breakthrough and an unusual life-and-death Great Dao. After discussing the new path, Minghe offered a one-move test, leaving Mysterious Abyss ready to use the Abyss Life and Death Wheel against a powerful Blood God Child.

• Minghe arrived alone at the Three Lives Gate, where Mysterious Abyss revealed he had broken through to Primordial Origin Golden Immortal without severing a corpse.
• Minghe sensed the life-and-death laws within Abyss and learned that Mysterious Abyss had comprehended them by watching Reincarnation established.
• Minghe and Mysterious Abyss passed through Abyss, where Minghe observed the soul-guiding posts and learned Mysterious Abyss had no intention of building an Underworld.
• Minghe proposed exchanging one move, and Mysterious Abyss agreed to test his newly formed divine ability.
• Minghe created a powerful Blood God Child that reached Early Great Luo Golden Immortal, and Mysterious Abyss prepared to unleash the Abyss Life and Death Wheel against it.

Mysterious Abyss tested his newly comprehended Abyss Life and Death Wheel against Minghe’s Blood God Child in the Northern Darkness Sea. He destroyed the avatar and its Blood Sea connection, leaving Minghe impressed and wondering how strong Mysterious Abyss had become.

• Minghe controlled his Early Great Luo Golden Immortal Blood God Child to strike Mysterious Abyss, who endured the attacks without injury.
• Mysterious Abyss manifested the Abyss Life and Death Wheel, which steadily weakened the Blood God Child and slowed its replenishment from the Blood Sea.
• Minghe increased the power flowing into the avatar, but Mysterious Abyss’s wheel continued to grind down its vitality until Minghe severed their connection.
• The Death Wheel destroyed the Blood God Child and pulled its remaining Blood Sea imprint into Abyss.
• Minghe asked whether the technique could affect Saints, then invited Mysterious Abyss to test it against him after reaching Primordial Unity Great Luo; Mysterious Abyss gave no firm promise.
• After Minghe departed, Lu Chen reflected on having destroyed a Great Luo Blood God Child and wondered how strong he was.

After reflecting on his recent victories, Lu Chen reconsidered the heaven-mending death tribulation and realized he could prepare to resist it by becoming strong enough that no one could cut off his legs. He resolved to pursue that strength while continuing to develop the Old Shell as a backup, leaving him more confident about his future.

• Lu Chen reviewed his defeats of Daoist Xuan Cang, Ancestor Youquan, and Minghe's Blood God Child, and recognized how much stronger his combat abilities had become.
• Lu Chen reconsidered the 94% compatibility between his true body and the heavenly pillar fate, questioning why Nuwa would necessarily be stronger than him when the time came to sever his legs.
• Lu Chen reasoned that continued cultivation of his life and death Abyss Great Dao could let him withstand the blade and even fight back against a Saint.
• Lu Chen decided to develop both plans: strengthen his true body and keep nurturing the Old Shell, while maintaining escape routes and avoiding unnecessary conflict.
• Lu Chen looked at his four legs and felt newly confident that they would not be easy to lose.

After Houtu's transformation into reincarnation shifted the Witch-Demon balance and raised Lu Chen's heavenly-pillar fate, Lu Chen accepted that heaven's plans did not decide whether he would surrender his body. When Witch and Demon pursuers brought their conflict to a Three Lives Post Station, Lu Chen asked who had struck first there.

• Rumors credited Mysterious Abyss with foreseeing Reincarnation, prompting Di Jun to order the Demon Clan not to use it to probe the Three Lives Gate; Nuwa and Tongtian each reflected on Mysterious Abyss's path.
• After a saying linked the dead to Mysterious Abyss, Mysterious Abyss established four rules clarifying that Abyss would not detain, judge, or redirect souls, and would punish anyone who seized them in its name.
• Lu Chen resumed secluded cultivation, focusing on strengthening his body and deepening his life-and-death Great Dao.
• The system recalculated the Witch-Demon balance and the fate-bearing requirements for heaven's four extremes, reporting that Lu Chen's true body remained highly compatible with serving as a heavenly pillar.
• Lu Chen accepted that heaven's desire for him to hold up the sky did not mean he had to agree, while resolving to grow strong enough to face anyone who tried to claim his limbs.
• Witch and Demon pursuers converged on the Thirty-Fourth Three Lives Post Station, where wounded members and young refugees had taken shelter; Lu Chen asked who had struck first there.

Mysterious Abyss investigated who attacked a Three Lives Post Station and killed General Chiling after the Cause and Effect Mirror showed Chiling striking its guard. After healing the guard, Mysterious Abyss turned his attention to the Witch Clan warriors celebrating Chiling’s death.

• The wounded Witch Clan members took shelter in the thirty-fourth Three Lives Post Station, and General Chiling’s spear injured the station guard as he tried to force them out.
• Mysterious Abyss questioned who struck first, and the Cause and Effect Mirror replayed Chiling’s attack for both sides.
• Chiling admitted he had attacked but demanded the Witch Clan members be handed over; Mysterious Abyss’s Death Wheel drained Chiling’s vitality until he died and turned to ashes.
• Mysterious Abyss healed the station guard, while Kua Yue laughed at Chiling’s death and the Witch Clan celebrated.
• Mysterious Abyss asked Kua Yue what he was laughing at, silencing the Witch Clan warriors.

Mysterious Abyss enforced the Three Lives Post Station’s rules without favoring either the Demon Clan or the Witch Clan. After Kua Yue injured a post station guard, he was killed, and Black Feather was forced to acknowledge the rules; both clans were left to consider the station’s protection.

• Kua Yue restrained his anger toward Black Feather after an elder warned him not to repeat Chiling’s mistake, but Black Feather taunted him about his slain younger clansmen.
• Kua Yue charged into the Three Lives Post Station and struck a guard who tried to block him from attacking Black Feather.
• Mysterious Abyss confirmed that Kua Yue had injured the guard, then used the Death Wheel to age him into ash.
• The Life Wheel healed the injured guard, while Black Feather withdrew his Demon Blade and fell silent.
• Mysterious Abyss warned both clans to obey the station’s rules and forced Black Feather to kneel and apologize.

Mysterious Abyss used the Book of Cause and Effect to clarify why Chiling and Kua Yue had died, then established three rules protecting peace inside the Three Lives Post Station. As the Witch Clan and Demon Clan began to accept the new boundary, Demon King Black Crow arrived with a Great Luo aura.

• Lan Shuang and Ao Lie arrived at the Thirty-Fourth Post Station, and Lan Shuang used the Book of Cause and Effect to reveal Chiling's and Kua Yue's actions.
• Mysterious Abyss said he would not interfere with the Witch-Demon War outside the post station, but the post station's rules applied within its grounds.
• Mysterious Abyss announced that visitors must cease hostilities inside, no one could force conscription, seizure, or pursuit there, and conflicts beyond the Boundary Stele were for others to settle.
• The Book of Cause and Effect recorded the rules, and the stele displayed the words “End Hostilities Upon Entering the Post Station.”
• Demon King Black Crow arrived above the post station, and his Great Luo aura alarmed the watching cultivators.

Demon King Black Crow arrived at the Three Lives Post Station and acknowledged that Chiling had been wrong to attack there, but demanded that Mysterious Abyss surrender the Witch Clan members. When Mysterious Abyss refused, Black Crow tried to pull a wounded Witch Clan member out without entering the post station, and the Demon-Locking Cord swept across the stele.

• Black Crow arrived, learned Mysterious Abyss had killed Chiling, and asked for an explanation.
• Lan Shuang showed Black Crow the Book of Cause and Effect, revealing Chiling’s pursuit of the Witch Clan and his attack on the post station.
• Black Crow admitted Chiling had owed the post station an explanation, then demanded that the Witch Clan members be handed over as war criminals.
• Mysterious Abyss said the post station treated everyone who entered equally and forbade Black Crow from interfering with those inside.
• Black Crow summoned the Demon-Locking Cord and sent it across the stele to drag a wounded Witch Clan member out of the post station.

Black Crow ignored Mysterious Abyss’s order to withdraw from the Thirty-Fourth Post Station and was killed by Lu Chen’s Death Dao. The Abyss Healer’s injuries were healed, Han Jue arrived after the battle, and the Demon army retreated.

• Black Crow’s Demon-Locking Cord injured a Abyss Healer as he tried to drag away a wounded Witch Clan member, and Mysterious Abyss ordered Black Crow to pull the chain back.
• Black Crow pressed on, but Lu Chen’s Death Dao spread along the Demon-Locking Cord and forced Black Crow to sever his infected arm.
• Black Crow fled across the Northern Sea, but Lu Chen’s Death Wheel pursued him and drained away his life until his body, Primordial Spirit, and Dao Fruit disintegrated.
• Mysterious Abyss used the Life Wheel to restore the Abyss Healer’s arm.
• Han Jue arrived and learned from Ao Lie that Black Crow was dead, while the Demon army retreated from the Thirty-Fourth Post Station.