Chapter Summaries

Houtu spent three centuries at the Three Lives Gate listening to departed souls and gradually drew closer to understanding what came after death. As she sat beside Shi Sheng, a new soul arrived through the Three Lives Post Station rather than the Three Lives Gate.

• Houtu questioned a Dragon Clan elder, a Phoenix Clan woman, and an elderly cultivator about what they still wanted, learning that they longed for family, home, or knowledge of what came next.
• Houtu visited the Calamity-Resolution Hall and learned that a resentful Water Clan soul could not safely leave Guixu yet.
• Houtu returned to Shi Sheng, who had begun learning Primordial Dao Script and still missed his mother; she told him she had not found the way yet.
• Over the next century, Houtu questioned many souls and heard that they wanted to know what followed death, while deathly aura gradually gathered around her.
• A Bureau of Cause and Effect cultivator told Lan Shuang that a new departed soul had arrived from the Three Lives Post Station instead of entering through the Three Lives Gate.

Dead souls began arriving at the Northern Sea’s Three Lives Post Stations, prompting Lu Chen and the others to investigate why they sought the stations after death. They realized the souls were following a deeply ingrained instinct to seek safety, and Houtu’s concern over their lack of any path forward left Lu Chen’s system stirring.

• The Azure Armor Tribe’s old clan chief died peacefully, then watched his soul drift from his body and begin to fade.
• The old clan chief followed the Three Lives Post Station’s familiar aura, where the duty cultivator asked Guixu whether the station could shelter dead souls.
• Souls began appearing at several other Three Lives Post Stations, and Lan Shuang brought the reports to Mysterious Abyss, Lady Mingzhu, Han Jue, and Lu Chen.
• Lu Chen found that the souls had known of the stations while alive and, after death, instinctively sought them as places of safety.
• Houtu warned that souls unable to find shelter would slowly dissipate, and Lu Chen felt his system activate.

Lu Chen chose to let the Three Lives Post Station shelter willing dead souls temporarily, gaining the Guixu Soul-Attracting Lamp and insight into the Death Law. After testing the law on a leaf and a living plant, he realized it could swiftly extinguish life force.

• Lu Chen rejected establishing a Northern Nether Underworld Court and doubted that shutting off the Three Lives Post Station would resolve the souls’ existing connection to Guixu.
• Lu Chen chose to shelter ownerless dead souls who voluntarily approached the Three Lives Post Station, and the Guixu Soul-Attracting Lamp appeared in the Northern Darkness Sea.
• Lu Chen sent the lamp to the Three Lives Gate, where Mysterious Abyss explained its willing-only guidance to Houtu and Shi Sheng.
• Houtu recognized that the lamp offered no destination beyond the Three Lives Gate, while Lu Chen left her to consider a path forward.
• Lu Chen comprehended the Death Law and tested it on a dried leaf and a Water Spirit Grass leaf, watching both lose their vitality.

Lu Chen tested the Death Law and found that it could quietly erode the spirituality of materials and hasten the death of a nearly lifeless beast. As he considered preparing the law for future combat, all sixty-seven Three Lives Post Stations suddenly lit up.

• Lu Chen tested the Death Law on damaged Black Iron and a broken Acquired Spirit Treasure, and watched their spirituality decay away.
• At Lu Chen’s request, Han Jue found a Cold-Backed Giant Shark near the end of its life, and Lu Chen used the Death Law to stop its heart without pain or warning.
• Han Jue asked whether Lu Chen could use the law to make an enemy die of old age, while Lu Chen considered how it might help him face an attacker he could not peacefully resolve matters with.
• The Northern Darkness Sea trembled, the Guixu Soul-Attracting Lamp’s flame surged, and Lu Chen sensed that all sixty-seven Three Lives Post Stations had lit up.

The Soul-Guiding Lamp linked all sixty-seven Three Lives Post Stations, giving lost dead souls a way to reach Guixu and find temporary shelter. As Houtu questioned whether this could ever be a lasting path for the dead, a gray-robed Daoist in a distant Northern Sea trench noticed fewer souls reaching his Soul Banner and learned of the Three Lives Post Station.

• White flames appeared on the steles at all sixty-seven Three Lives Post Stations, drawing newly dead souls toward them and stabilizing their fading souls.
• Lan Shuang and the Bureau of Cause and Effect organized rules for receiving the dead, while Han Jue, Ao Lie, and Lady Mingzhu discussed the growing number of souls finding the stations.
• Lu Chen decided to wait and see as the stations’ use expanded beyond his original plans, and Houtu observed that souls reaching the Three Lives Gate were relieved to find a place to stop.
• Houtu questioned Mysterious Abyss about whether the lamp could illuminate the entire Primordial World, then wondered whether the Three Lives Gate could hold every soul forever.
• Houtu noticed her earthy-yellow aura and deathly aura beginning to entwine as Shi Sheng asked whether the gate would eventually become full.
• A gray-robed Daoist beneath a Soul Banner in a distant Northern Sea trench noticed fewer remnant souls arriving and identified the Three Lives Post Station as the cause.

Ancestor Youquan discovered that Guixu’s Three Lives Post Stations were drawing departed souls away from his cultivation and sent seven Yin Cultivators to seize more than thirty thousand souls from the Sixty-First Post Station. The seven arrived above the station, where its soul flame still burned quietly.

• Ancestor Youquan traced the missing souls to the Three Lives Post Stations and found all sixty-seven stations lit with soul flames.
• He learned that Guixu sheltered and sorted the souls rather than refining them, then focused on the remote Sixty-First Post Station, where more than thirty thousand souls had gathered.
• Ancestor Youquan ordered seven Yin Cultivators to retrieve the souls without harming nearby living beings or provoking Mysterious Abyss.
• The seven Yin Cultivators arrived above the Sixty-First Post Station several hundred years later.

Seven Yin Cultivators attacked the Sixty-First Three Lives Post Station and seized more than thirty thousand registered dead souls, prompting Lu Chen and Mysterious Abyss to seek a way to intervene before Han Jue could arrive. The chapter ended with Mysterious Abyss attempting to strike the attackers through the connected post stations.

• Seven Yin Cultivators overwhelmed the Sixty-First Three Lives Post Station, broke its Array Stone, and drew more than thirty thousand souls into a black banner.
• The cultivators on duty evacuated the living and sent a message to the Three Lives Gate, but the attackers departed with the souls and claimed they had taken only ownerless dead.
• Lan Shuang informed Han Jue of the raid, and he prepared to go after the attackers before Mysterious Abyss told him to wait.
• Lu Chen traced the Yin Cultivators' banner to a Great Principle and realized the distant post stations might let him send power to the attacked station.
• Mysterious Abyss raised the Northern Sea post-station map and said he would try to strike the attackers through the connected formations.

Lu Chen used the Three Lives Post Stations to project his power across the Northern Sea and traced the Nether Spring Lineage after its cultivators stole more than thirty thousand souls. Ancestor Youquan escaped with the souls, but his intervention revealed the location of the Extreme Yin Trench to Lu Chen.

• Lu Chen tested projecting his Black Tortoise Dharma Body through the third Three Lives Post Station and then relayed it across the Northern Sea to the damaged Sixty-First Post Station.
• Lu Chen found that the Nether Spring Lineage had taken 31,462 souls from the Sixty-First Post Station and traced them northwest toward the Fifty-Seventh Post Station.
• Lu Chen projected his Dharma Body to the Fifty-Seventh Post Station and ordered the seven Yin Cultivators to leave the souls behind.
• The seven Yin Cultivators tried to flee, but their leader summoned Ancestor Youquan, who withdrew them and the souls through a spatial crack.
• Lu Chen followed the strengthened karmic connection to the Extreme Yin Trench, and Ancestor Youquan realized that Guixu had found his location.

Ancestor Youquan confronted Mysterious Abyss over the souls drawn to Three Lives Post Station, and their disagreement led to a fight. Lu Chen used the Death Law against Youquan and discovered that even a Great Principle cultivator could be made to decay.

• Ancestor Youquan arrived at the Sixty-First Three Lives Post Station and offered to discuss the souls he had captured.
• Mysterious Abyss told Youquan to take only the souls who willingly followed him, but Youquan refused to release the rest.
• Youquan unleashed the Myriad Souls Banner and sent a vast tide of souls against the Black Tortoise Dharma Body.
• Lu Chen used a thread of Death Law that followed the Myriad Souls Banner’s connection to Youquan and began eroding his vitality and cultivation.

Lu Chen pursued and killed Ancestor Youquan after the Guixu Soul-Attracting Lamp freed the souls trapped in his Myriad Souls Banner. The victory gave Lu Chen a new offensive divine ability, while the rescued souls gathered at the Three Lives Gate.

• Ancestor Youquan used the Myriad Souls Banner to attack Lu Chen’s Black Tortoise Dharma Body, but the Guixu Soul-Attracting Lamp drew willing souls out of the banner and forced Youquan to flee.
• Lu Chen pursued Youquan to the Fifty-Fourth Post Station, where freed souls struck Youquan through their karmic ties and revealed his past crimes through the Book of Cause and Effect.
• Youquan tried to sacrifice the remaining souls, but the Soul-Attracting Lamp freed them; Lu Chen combined Guixu Power with the Death Law and severed Youquan’s life force, killing him.
• The souls streamed back to Guixu, and Lu Chen gained practical insight into the Death Law and evolved his abilities into the Guixu Soul-Quelling Seal.
• At the Three Lives Gate, Houtu and the Bureau of Cause and Effect received the returned souls, including an old soul who could no longer remember where he came from.

As more than a hundred thousand souls arrived at the Three Lives Gate, Houtu realized that rescuing them was only the beginning and left Guixu 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 Guixu, 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 Guixu could absorb it, the Guixu 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 Guixu could absorb the dead qi and brought his Death Law into contact with the Guixu Great Dao.
• The system reported that Guixu's Great Dao was annexing the Death Rule as Guixu shook.

Lu Chen absorbed the vast tide of pure Death Rule through the Ruins Sea Eye, strengthening his Death Law and deepening his understanding of how death belonged to Guixu. 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 Return Ruins 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 Guixu’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 Guixu. 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 Guixu Inner Realm 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 Guixu 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 Guixu 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 Guixu 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 Guixu 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 Guixu.