Recaps

Chu Bai returned to Great Wall Prefecture in triumph, disbanded the Southern Route Army, and brought most of its veterans into Anping County. After receiving the Violet Ordination Ascension Token, he strengthened Anping County and prepared to pursue the Purple Abode through the Purple Register Heavenly Examination.

• Chu Bai led the fifty-thousand-strong Southern Route Army into Great Wall Prefecture, where the city’s commander and Lineage heads welcomed and thanked him.
• Chu Bai formally disbanded the army, granted its soldiers generous discharge rewards, and invited them to join Anping County; more than thirty thousand veterans chose to follow him.
• The garrison commander awarded Chu Bai the Violet Ordination Ascension Token, recognizing him as Great Wall Prefecture’s foremost Foundation Establishment cultivator and candidate for the Purple Register Heavenly Examination.
• Chu Bai returned to Anping County, where the people welcomed him and their gathered fortune flowed into his Fortune Golden Body.
• Chu Bai expanded and upgraded Anping County’s forces, rewarded Zhang Cheng, Hu Hao, Pang Song, the Water Earl, and the Locust Elder, then entered seclusion with the token to seek the Purple Abode.

After three years of transforming Anping County, Chu Bai reached Foundation Establishment Great Perfection and received the summons for the Purple Register Heavenly Examination. He left for Qingzhou Prefecture amid the people’s farewell, carrying Anping’s hopes and fortune with him.

• Chu Bai sensed the Violet Ordination Ascension Token awaken, took it from its box, and emerged from seclusion as his three-year term as County Magistrate ended.
• Chu Bai walked through Anping County and saw its prosperous streets, expanded Outer City, thriving Military Academy, and disciplined Black-Armored Guards.
• Li Shuanzhu recognized Chu Bai, and news of his departure spread as the people gathered to follow him and offer their prayers.
• At Anping’s gate, Zhang Cheng, Hu Hao, Pang Song, the Water Earl, the Locust Elder, the Black-Armored Guards, and hundreds of thousands of residents knelt to bid Chu Bai farewell.
• Chu Bai announced he was leaving for the Qingzhou Heavenly Examination, then launched into the sky in five-colored radiance and flew toward Qingzhou Prefecture.

Chu Bai led Great Wall Prefecture’s ten other prodigies to the Qingzhou Capital for the Purple Register Heavenly Examination, overcoming a dangerous cross-prefecture teleportation with ease. He arrived amid the rival prefectures’ gathered contestants, where hostile and probing gazes signaled the start of the competition.

• Chu Bai arrived at Great Wall Prefecture’s Examination Office, where the ten selected prodigies bowed to him and Shen Xuance recognized him as their top seed because he held the Violet Ordination Ascension Token.
• Shen Xuance warned Chu Bai that the Purple Register Heavenly Examination would pit the group against powerful heirs from across Qingzhou, but Chu Bai declared that Great Wall Prefecture would claim a Purple Abode place and he would kill anyone in his way.
• Shen Xuance activated the Cross-Prefecture Teleportation Array, sending Chu Bai and the ten prodigies into a passage filled with dangerous Spatial Turbulence.
• Chu Bai endured the spatial passage unharmed and studied its spatial fissures while the other ten prodigies struggled and suffered injuries.
• Chu Bai and the ten prodigies arrived at the Qingzhou Capital, where the foremost contestants from the other thirty-five prefectures gathered and regarded them with hostility and suspicion.

Chu Bai arrived in the Qingzhou Capital and learned that the Purple Register Heavenly Examination would send candidates into shattered worlds to earn merit, with only ten receiving violet ordination. After reviewing the realm options, he chose the exceptionally dangerous Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm and resolved to claim first place.

• Chu Bai and the Great Wall Prefecture prodigies arrived in the Qingzhou Capital, where reception envoy Zhou Tong recognized Chu Bai's Violet Ordination Ascension Token and greeted him as Marshal Chu.
• Zhou Tong explained that candidates would explore shattered minor worlds for three months, earning merit by fighting native threats and establishing World-Anchoring Formation Banners; only the top ten would receive violet ordination.
• Zhou Tong told Chu Bai that Ascension Token holders could choose their realms before the others were assigned, then gave Chu Bai a Jade Slip listing the available secret worlds.
• At the Garden of Heroes, Chu Bai reviewed the Jade Slip and focused on the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm, a lawless large realm with suspected Purple Abode Great Demons, unlimited merit, and a survival rate below five percent.
• Chu Bai selected the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm and vowed to claim first place in the examination.

As the Purple Register Heavenly Examination approached, Chu Bai emerged from seclusion and met three other prefectural champions in the Garden of Heroes. The four shared tea and declared their intention to enter the deadly Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm, then parted as friends on the eve of becoming rivals.

• During two days of gathering, veteran cultivators and young prodigies from Qingzhou's Thirty-Six Prefectures filled the Posthouse with tension.
• Chu Bai completed his preparations in seclusion, strengthening his body and choosing the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm.
• Gu Yuan detected Chu Bai's divine sense and invited him to join Lin Tingfeng and Su Qinghan at their table.
• Chu Bai introduced himself as a champion of Great Wall Prefecture, and the others recognized his reputation for leading the fight against the Demon Calamity.
• Lin Tingfeng, Su Qinghan, Gu Yuan, and Chu Bai each declared a willingness to enter a dangerous large secret realm; Chu Bai chose the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm.
• The four toasted their resolve and acknowledged that they would become enemies if they met inside the secret realms.

Chu Bai and the other Qingzhou prodigies began the Purple Register Heavenly Examination by choosing shattered realms to conquer for merit. Despite warnings that the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm had a ninety-five percent death rate and no reliable Great Zhou protection, Chu Bai entered it, while the remaining candidates prepared for compulsory assignments.

• Shen Canghai explained that the three-month examination would award merit for conquering realms and killing demonic evils, with the top ten earning violet ordination.
• Huangfu Lie chose the Violet Flame Realm, while Su Qinghan, Lin Tingfeng, and Gu Yuan selected realms suited to their abilities.
• Chu Bai chose the forbidden Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm, shocking the candidates and drawing a final warning from Shen Canghai.
• Chu Bai refused to change his choice and plunged through the Boundary Gate into the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm.
• Shen Canghai ordered the remaining candidates to accept compulsory assignments and enter the Boundary Gate.

Chu Bai entered the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm, discovered that the Great Zhou Dynasty used examinees as anchors to expand its territory, and found he could absorb the realm’s dangerous spiritual energy. After following fresh monster traces to a broken stele, he touched an ancient rune and triggered a blood-colored vision.

• Chu Bai survived the violent crossing into the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm and confirmed that a dark-gold anchor connected him to the Great Zhou Dynasty.
• Chu Bai examined the ruined realm, adapted its chaotic spiritual energy with the Origin-Opening Daoist Scripture, and concealed himself before exploring.
• Chu Bai detected recent killing intent and followed enormous claw marks and corrosive purple blood into a canyon.
• Chu Bai found a broken stele covered in unknown runes and sensed the despair and hatred embedded in its writing.
• Chu Bai touched a central rune, and a remnant divine sense pierced his sea of consciousness and exploded into a blood-colored scene.

Chu Bai touched the ancient stele and was assaulted by the resentment of a shattered world, learning that the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm came from a destroyed great world. He resolved to reach the Heaven-Burying Abyss and the ruins of the Myriad Laws Divine Hall, where he hoped to find a way to cleanse the contamination and claim a greater prize.

• Chu Bai awakened the ancient stele and was dragged into a vision of a blood sea filled with the corpses and curses of fallen beings.
• Chu Bai witnessed the great world's flourishing past, its catastrophic war, and its destruction into fragments, including the realm where he now stood.
• Chu Bai returned to the canyon with ancient resentment wrapped around his fortune golden body and suppressed a surge of bloodlust.
• Chu Bai deciphered fragments of the stele's inscription pointing to the Myriad Laws Divine Hall, which had sunk into the Heaven-Burying Abyss.
• Chu Bai decided to travel to the Heaven-Burying Abyss to seek a means of cleansing the resentment and pursue the divine hall's remaining treasures and source essence.
• Chu Bai concealed his aura and silently left the canyon toward the dangerous heart of the fragment realm.

Chu Bai defeated three strange creatures in the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm, then discovered that his general star destiny could turn their resentment into corrosive baleful intent that strengthened his spell arts. After extracting their memories and learning a safer route north, he headed toward the Myriad Laws Divine Hall while resolving to limit his use of the dangerous power.

• Chu Bai encountered three foundation establishment middle stage strange creatures in the gray fog and destroyed them with Geng Metal Sword Qi, Bing Fire Divine Thunder, and his own strength.
• The creatures’ resentment entered Chu Bai, but his general star destiny purified it into black-purple baleful intent that greatly increased his spell arts’ power and corrosiveness.
• Chu Bai recognized that absorbed resentment could still affect his mind, so he vowed not to slaughter creatures recklessly and planned to seek the Myriad Laws Divine Hall’s sealing power.
• Chu Bai searched the creatures’ memories and learned of the Deathless Poison Marsh to the north, a powerful Strange Creature colony to the east, and a safer canyon route between them.
• Chu Bai followed the canyon route deeper into the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm, heading toward the Myriad Laws Divine Hall.

Chu Bai discovered native cultivators in the dangerous gorge and learned that they came from Formless City, a human refuge with an inner city. When the group pursued a supposed lone high-tier Strange Creature, Chu Bai suspected a trap and followed them, intending to intervene and gain their trust.

• Chu Bai concealed himself in Yinfeng Gorge after sensing human cultivators nearby.
• He watched Senior Brother Yan's group of four discuss finding a High-Tier Baleful Core to buy Junior Sister Yun a Soul-Cleansing Pill and pay their Formless City residence tax.
• Chu Bai learned that Formless City might hold records that could help him locate the Heaven-Burying Abyss and the Myriad Laws Divine Hall.
• Junior Sister Yun used a Baleful-Calming Compass, and Chu Bai evaded its detection while it pointed toward a high-tier Strange Creature.
• Senior Brother Yan led the group into the gorge fork to hunt the target, and Chu Bai suspected it was bait or a hidden colony.
• Chu Bai dropped his disguise and followed the four cultivators into the miasma.

Chu Bai rescued Yan Tieshan and three Formless City cultivators by effortlessly killing a Hundred-Eyed Grudge Spider, then devoured its resentment and posed as an awakened Ancient Immortal. After giving the group its High-Tier Baleful Core, he accepted Yan Tieshan’s invitation to Formless City, where he could search for clues to the Myriad Laws Divine Hall and Heaven-Burying Abyss.

• A Hundred-Eyed Grudge Spider overwhelmed Yan Tieshan’s squad, leaving all four cultivators gravely wounded and on the verge of death.
• Chu Bai emerged from the mist and killed the spider with Geng Metal Sword Qi and Bing Fire Divine Thunder, then absorbed its ancient resentment without being corrupted.
• Yan Tieshan and his companions mistook Chu Bai for an Ancient Immortal after he claimed to have survived a world-ending war and awakened from a long slumber.
• Chu Bai gave the group the spider’s High-Tier Baleful Core to help Junior Sister Yun recover, deepening their reverence for him.
• Yan Tieshan invited Chu Bai to Formless City and offered Ironblood Hall’s support and access to its Scripture Pavilion; Chu Bai accepted and set off with the group.

Chu Bai learned how Formless City survived the Wasteland and agreed to save Ironblood Hall’s poisoned hall master in exchange for help gathering ancient records. At the city gates, he chose to approach openly despite lacking an identity plaque and carrying killing intent that would trigger the screening mirror.

• Yan Tieshan explained that Formless City relied on the World-Cleansing Grand Array, powered by the Sea-Calming Divine Stone, and described its divided districts and ruling factions.
• Yan Tieshan begged Chu Bai to save Lei Wu, Ironblood Hall’s comatose hall master, and protect the organization from the Wang Clan; Chu Bai agreed to help and asked Ironblood Hall to gather ancient records for him.
• After traveling through the Wasteland, Chu Bai and the four cultivators reached Formless City and saw its vast golden barrier and thriving city within.
• At the city gate, Chu Bai witnessed the City Guard Army execute a refugee whose contamination triggered the Clearheart Treasure Mirror.
• Yan Tieshan warned that Chu Bai lacked an identity plaque and that the mirror would react to his killing intent, but Chu Bai refused to take a detour and walked toward the gate.

Chu Bai entered Formless City with Yan Tieshan and used a single glance to force Wang Teng to let them pass. After learning that the Wang Household threatened Ironblood Hall and its hall master was dying from Netherworld Baleful Poison, Chu Bai went to examine him and declared the poison easy to neutralize.

• The Clearheart Treasure Mirror blazed with white light around Chu Bai and began to crack, but Wang Teng accused him and Yan Tieshan's companions of being Strange Creature collaborators and ordered their arrest.
• Chu Bai's gaze terrified Wang Teng into collapsing, and Wang Teng let Chu Bai and the others enter Formless City.
• Yan Tieshan explained the city's Three Great Clans as the group traveled through the impoverished Outer City and paid to enter the wealthy Inner City.
• The group reached Ironblood Hall and learned that the Wang Household had demanded its deed and submission by noon the next day, while Hall Master Lei was expected to die that night from Netherworld Baleful Poison.
• Yan Tieshan announced that Chu Bai could save Hall Master Lei, and Chu Bai ignored the doubting cultivators, entered the sick man's chamber, and said the poison was not difficult to neutralize.

Chu Bai cured Lei Wu of the netherworld absolute baleful poison by devouring its resentment, gaining more destructive power while postponing his Purple Abode breakthrough. Lei Wu made Chu Bai Ironblood Hall’s Supreme Venerable, and Chu Bai prepared to confront the Wang Household at noon the next day.

• Chu Bai used the Origin-Opening Daoist Scripture and [General Star Destiny] to remove Lei Wu’s poison, heal his injuries, and absorb its killing intent.
• Lei Wu awoke, learned Chu Bai had saved him, and pledged the Ironblood Hall’s service to him.
• Chu Bai and Lei Wu entered the courtyard, where they found cultivators looting the hall; Lei Wu publicly relinquished his position and named Chu Bai the Supreme Venerable.
• Chu Bai spared the traitors from immediate execution and ordered them to serve as vanguard cannon fodder.
• The deputy hall master revealed the Wang Household’s ultimatum to seize Everlasting Joy Street and make Ironblood Hall swear allegiance, and Chu Bai declared he would meet them at noon the next day.

Chu Bai led Ironblood Hall to the Wang Clan’s residence, where he shattered its famed defensive array with a single word and crushed Wang Juefeng with his overwhelming aura. He spared the kneeling clan on condition that it surrender ancient texts, maps, and half its resources, then entered the manor to rest as Ironblood Hall took control.

• Chu Bai marched with Lei Wu, Yan Tieshan, and Ironblood Hall’s forces to the Wang Clan’s residence, alarming Formless City’s watching factions.
• Lei Wu kicked down the Wang Clan’s gates and confronted Wang Juefeng, who activated the Eight Desolations Baleful-Warding Spirit Array.
• Chu Bai identified flaws in the array and destroyed it by touching its barrier and saying, “Disperse.”
• Chu Bai’s baleful poison and draconic pressure forced Wang Juefeng, the elders, and the Wang Clan’s guards to kneel and beg for mercy.
• Chu Bai demanded ancient texts and maps from the Wang Clan’s treasury and half its resources in exchange for the clan’s lives, then ordered Lei Wu to take control of the manor.

After defeating the Wang Household, Chu Bai searched its ancient texts for clues to the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm. He discovered a map pointing toward the Heaven-Burying Abyss and its secrets, then summoned Lei Wu to prepare Ironblood Hall’s affairs for the next morning.

• Lei Wu took control of the Wang Household’s Hidden Dragon Courtyard and treasury, seized half its cultivation resources and all its ancient texts, and forced Wang Juefeng to make the clan Ironblood Hall’s vassal.
• Yan Tieshan crippled Wang Teng and the elders who had threatened Ironblood Hall, while Wang Juefeng accepted the new tribute terms and ceded disputed market districts.
• Chu Bai let Lei Wu keep the seized cultivation resources and began scanning the Wang Household’s ancient texts with his Divine Sense.
• Chu Bai found a fragmentary map made from the same material as the broken stele, which marked a route to the Heaven-Burying Abyss and showed a ruined Myriad Laws Divine Hall and clues about the Sea-Calming Divine Stone.
• Chu Bai saw that the route crossed the Ten Thousand Bones Blood Miasma, then called Lei Wu and ordered him to arrange Ironblood Hall’s worldly affairs for the next morning.

After crushing the Wang Household, Chu Bai secured Ironblood Hall’s dominance and prepared to investigate the Heaven-Burying Abyss. Formless City’s leaders chose not to oppose him, and the chapter ended as Chu Bai led Ironblood Hall beyond the city barrier.

• Rumors of Chu Bai’s effortless defeat of the Wang Household spread through Formless City, while he studied a map to the Heaven-Burying Abyss and prepared to face Purple Abode demons.
• Li Qinglian sent Medicine King Valley’s treasures to Ironblood Hall, and Chu Bai dismissed the valley’s ancient pill formula as flawed, prompting her to forbid anyone from provoking him.
• Zhao Panshi ordered the Hundred Refinements Pavilion to defend itself and offer Ironblood Hall members discounted magical artifacts.
• Murong Xian revealed that the Sea-Calming Divine Stone had resonated with Chu Bai and that the old city lord had ordered the City Lord’s Manor not to provoke him.
• Over three days, Ironblood Hall absorbed the Wang Household’s holdings, and Chu Bai’s guidance helped Lei Wu loosen his long-standing cultivation bottleneck.
• On the fourth day, Chu Bai left the Hidden Dragon Courtyard and led Lei Wu and the others beyond Formless City’s barrier.

Chu Bai led Lei Wu and twelve Ironblood Hall elites from Formless City toward the Ten Thousand Bones Blood Miasma, using his powers to protect them from the Wasteland’s dangers. After entering the Forbidden Zone and discovering a concealed formation, the group was ambushed by blood-energy tentacles controlled by a powerful Demon King, and Chu Bai welcomed the fight.

• Chu Bai departed Formless City with Lei Wu and twelve Ironblood Hall elites, and his baleful intent forced low-level Strange Creatures to flee their path.
• After seven days of travel, Lei Wu identified the Ten Thousand Bones Blood Miasma, whose killing intent drove several elites toward madness until Chu Bai suppressed it with a snort.
• Chu Bai opened a Five-Colored Azure Lotus law domain that repelled the Blood Miasma and shielded the company as they entered the Forbidden Zone.
• Chu Bai recognized that the Blood Miasma and Bone Forest followed the paths of an ancient formation and guided the company along its Life Gate.
• As the company approached a rib arch marking the boundary between the formation’s Life Gate and Death Gate, blood-energy tentacles burst from the Blood Mud and struck the outermost riders.
• Chu Bai sensed a Purple Abode Demon King underground and greeted the attacker as interesting prey.

Chu Bai defeated the Blood Fiend Demon King in the Ten Thousand Bones Blood Miasma, devoured its resentment, and searched its memories for a safer route to the Heaven-Burying Abyss. He ordered Lei Wu and the Ironblood Hall elites to recover before following him deeper into the miasma.

• A Blood Fiend Demon King attacked Lei Wu, but Chu Bai stopped its tentacle and exposed the monster as a Foundation Establishment-level mutant borrowing power from the earth vein.
• The demon king unleashed corrosive blood rain, which Chu Bai's black-purple flames devoured before he cleaved the monster in two with a single strike.
• Chu Bai swallowed the demon king's released resentment and karmic obstruction, then used his fortune golden body to suppress its corrupting effects.
• Chu Bai searched the demon king's memories and revised the Wang Household's fragmentary map to avoid deadly zones on the way to the Heaven-Burying Abyss.
• Chu Bai told Lei Wu to let the Ironblood Hall elites recover for an incense stick before following him deeper into the Ten Thousand Bones Blood Miasma.

Chu Bai guided Ironblood Hall through the Ten Thousand Bones Blood Miasma, calmed its dangers, and uncovered the history of the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm. The group reached the Heaven-Burying Abyss, where an ancient Purple Abode Realm guardian awakened and demanded Chu Bai explain who he was.

• Chu Bai led Ironblood Hall safely past deadly spatial hazards and used his fortune golden body to dispel heart-demon miasma before it could make the group kill one another.
• Chu Bai released his general star destiny and used the Golden Edict to send the ancient battlefield's war souls to rest.
• Chu Bai deciphered the White Jade Altar's inscription, learning that a Heavenly Dao Traitor had brought Extraterrestrial Demons into the realm and that three Immortal Boundary-Steles were needed to reactivate the Myriad Laws Divine Hall's suppressing formation.
• The battlefield's remaining battle intent formed a Black Baleful Crystal Core within Chu Bai, strengthening his control over baleful intent and his combat power.
• Chu Bai led Ironblood Hall out of the miasma to the Heaven-Burying Abyss, where an ancient qilin-like guardian awoke and demanded his origins.

Chu Bai convinced Abyssguard that he was a Realm Patrol Envoy by invoking his True Spirit aura and purifying the guardian’s abyssal breath with the Origin-Opening Daoist Scripture. After Abyssguard revealed the locations of the three Immortal Boundary-Steles and gave him an Abyssguard Scale, Chu Bai entered the abyss alone to seek them.

• Chu Bai resisted Abyssguard’s spiritual pressure and claimed it had failed to recognize a Realm Patrol Envoy’s authority.
• Chu Bai explained his weakened cultivation as the result of crossing the shattered world barrier and cited the Heavenly Dao Traitor and Extraterrestrial Demons to convince Abyssguard of his identity.
• Chu Bai purified Abyssguard’s abyssal origin breath, causing the guardian to accept him as an orthodox successor and bow in reverence.
• Abyssguard told Chu Bai that three Immortal Boundary-Steles were needed to reactivate the Myriad Laws Divine Hall and described where they had been lost or taken.
• Abyssguard gave Chu Bai an Abyssguard Scale and agreed to protect Lei Wu and the other attendants while Chu Bai entered the abyss alone.

Chu Bai entered the Heaven-Burying Abyss and slaughtered its swarming wraiths, absorbing their resentment until it nearly overwhelmed his mind. After using his fortune golden body to purify the energy and regain control, he discovered a bone altar at the source of the wraith sea, with an unknown object atop it.

• Chu Bai crossed into the Heaven-Burying Abyss, resisted its crushing gravity and corrosive abyssal breath with the Abyssguard Scale, and killed an Abyss Wraith that attacked his soul.
• Chu Bai sensed thousands of Foundation Establishment-level wraiths converging on him and unleashed his Black Baleful Crystal Core to destroy them and absorb their resentment.
• Chu Bai grew intoxicated by the surging power, while the wraiths’ memories and negative emotions contaminated his divine soul and nearly drove him to attack his own shadow.
• The humanity’s willing force from Anping County awakened Chu Bai’s fortune golden body, helping him recover his clarity and purify the resentment before it reached his core.
• Chu Bai changed his absorption method to filter resentment through the fortune golden body, stabilized his Dao heart, and traced the wraiths’ source with his divine sense.
• Chu Bai discovered a bone altar surrounded by chains of law at the source of the wraith sea and sensed that the object upon it was tied to the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm and the Immortal Boundary-Stele.

Chu Bai endured the abyss’s resentment, defeated a heart demon, and reached the quasi-Purple Abode level before uncovering the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm’s origin as a cosmic prison. Atop the White Bone Altar, he found the second fragment of the Immortal Boundary-Stele and a dead Realm Patrol Envoy who addressed him as the next inheritor of the Kindling Flame.

• Chu Bai tempered his Dao heart and body against the abyss’s resentment and gravity as he advanced toward the White Bone Altar.
• Chu Bai defeated an Obsession Wraith, then broke free of its heart-demon illusion by affirming that he would pursue power to protect the people of Anping County.
• Chu Bai’s divine soul reached the quasi-Purple Abode level, and he used the broken stele’s aura to open a passage through the altar’s spatial restriction.
• Chu Bai witnessed the ancient catastrophe that revealed the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm had been severed from its parent world and made into a prison for resentment and poison.
• Chu Bai found the second Immortal Boundary-Stele fragment atop the White Bone Altar and discovered a corpse dressed as a Realm Patrol Envoy.
• The corpse awakened faint green soul fire and called Chu Bai the next inheritor of the Kindling Flame.

Chu Bai accepted Xuan Cang’s inheritance and swore to purify the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm’s resentment, binding himself to its hundred-thousand-year burden. After Xuan Cang’s soul passed on the Great Luo Divine Refining Art and his Purple Abode insights, Chu Bai claimed temporary control of the Immortal Boundary-Stele and subdued the first level’s wraiths.

• Chu Bai learned from Xuan Cang that the resentment in the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm was alive, growing, and threatening to escape and destroy the parent world.
• Xuan Cang explained that each Realm Patrol Envoy became a gravekeeper whose life and soul fueled the Immortal Boundary-Stele, and urged Chu Bai to purify the resentment instead of merely suppressing it.
• Chu Bai recalled the people of Anping County and swore to accept the realm’s karma and purify its hundred thousand years of resentment, while promising to accept death rather than break his oath.
• Xuan Cang’s corpse crumbled, and his soul light passed Chu Bai the Great Luo Divine Refining Art and his insights into forming a Purple Abode.
• As the Immortal Boundary-Stele weakened and the wraiths gathered to attack, Chu Bai used the art to seize temporary control of the stele’s control hub.
• Chu Bai combined his divine sense with the stele’s authority to suppress the Wraith Sea, causing thousands of Vengeful Spirits and Obsession Wraiths to bow to him.

Chu Bai returned to Formless City with Lei Wu and demonstrated his overwhelming power, prompting the city’s factions to halt their plans against Ironblood Hall. After rejecting Lei Wu’s proposal to seize the city through a massacre, Chu Bai accepted an invitation from the newly emerged City Lord Xuanmingzi to meet at the Star-Gazing Tower in three days.

• Chu Bai entered Formless City, and his aura forced the gate guards to kneel and clear his way.
• Wang Juefeng pledged the Wang Household’s complete submission to Chu Bai, while spies from other factions suffered backlash trying to probe Ironblood Hall.
• Lei Wu proposed gathering Formless City’s factions for a killing, but Chu Bai rejected the plan and chose to stir fear, hope, and rumors instead.
• A City Lord’s Manor envoy arrived with an invitation from Xuanmingzi, who had emerged from a century of seclusion and requested a private meeting with Chu Bai.
• Chu Bai erased the probe hidden in the invitation and agreed to meet Xuanmingzi at the Star-Gazing Tower on the night of the full moon.