Chapter Summaries

Chu Bai accepted Lu Feng’s order for Anping County to lead the Central Route Vanguard, then used the army’s need for a well-supplied assault force to secure weapons, medicine, and spirit stones from the Aristocratic Clans. Anping County’s eight hundred Black-Armored Guards set out first for Soul-Severing Valley, while Chu Bai planned to use the vanguard’s position to pursue his own aims.

• Lu Feng showed the commanders the beast tide around Soul-Severing Valley and assigned Heavenly Might County to contain its wings and the Aristocratic Clans to provide rear fire support.
• Lu Feng ordered Chu Bai and Anping County’s eight hundred guards to serve as the Central Route Vanguard and spearhead the attack.
• Chu Bai accepted the order, then argued that his troops lacked essential supplies and persuaded Lu Feng to requisition arrows, pills, and spirit stones from the wealthy clans.
• Hu Hao and Zhang Cheng praised Chu Bai’s strategy, and Chu Bai ordered the supplies distributed to his soldiers before the army moved out.
• Anping County’s eight hundred Black-Armored Guards left camp ahead of the main force and marched toward Soul-Severing Valley.

Chu Bai uncovered a demon ambush at Soul-Severing Valley by tracing the earth veins and devised a plan to turn the Demon Ape and Lu Feng’s army against each other. After Lu Feng ordered Anping County’s vanguard to attack, Chu Bai crushed the communication Jade Slip and led his troops out to begin his scheme.

• Chu Bai hid the eight hundred Black-Armored Guards in an abandoned hematite pit near Soul-Severing Valley and sent Hu Hao’s scouts to reconnoiter the demons.
• Chu Bai used the Locust Elder’s life-bound root to probe the earth veins and discovered a disciplined demon formation of thirty thousand beasts, two Foundation Establishment Demon Kings, and a half-step Purple Abode Azure-Eyed Golden-Pupiled Ape waiting behind the Blood-Baleful Poison Miasma.
• Chu Bai learned that the demons had laid a trap for the vanguard and suspected the Lu Household intended to use Anping County as bait.
• Chu Bai ordered his troops to stop three li from the miasma, unleash poisoned crossbow volleys at the hidden Demon Ape, then feign a rout toward Lu Feng’s main army and escape along a concealed ridge toward Lingchang Prefecture’s resources.
• Lu Feng sent Chu Bai a final order to attack immediately and threatened to execute him for delay.
• Chu Bai crushed the Jade Slip, ordered the army to load its Armor-Piercing Poison Arrows, and led it out to deliver his planned surprise.

Chu Bai led the Anping Army toward Soul-Severing Valley, where he exposed the demons’ ambush and lured their forces into pursuit. He directed the retreating army toward the Great Wall Prefecture Left Route Army’s main camp, bringing the demon tide with them.

• Chu Bai halted the eight hundred Black-Armored Guards before they entered the demons’ pocket formation and ordered three volleys of poisoned armor-piercing bolts into the miasma.
• The bolts killed hundreds of demon generals and wounded the Azure-Eyed Golden-Pupiled Ape, driving the Demon King into a rage.
• Chu Bai taunted the ape with news of a hundred-thousand-strong coalition army, then ordered the Anping Army to stage a panicked retreat.
• The Black-Armored Guards abandoned prepared banners and supplies before escaping along a concealed ridge passage toward the Left Route Army’s main camp.
• The Azure-Eyed Golden-Pupiled Ape sent thirty thousand demon beasts after the Anping Army, and Chu Bai led the pursuing tide toward the camp of Lu Feng and the Li Household and Wang Household leaders.

Chu Bai waited as the demon tide devastated the Great Wall Prefecture Left Route Army, then led Anping County’s rested Black-Armored Guards into battle and killed the exhausted Demon King. With Lu Feng gravely wounded, Chu Bai seized the Commander’s Seal and claimed command of the battlefield.

• Lu Feng and the Li and Wang Household heads mocked Anping County, but a demon tide of thirty thousand beasts stormed their camp with the Azure-Eyed Golden-Pupiled Ape at its head.
• Chu Bai kept Anping County’s eight hundred Black-Armored Guards hidden on a snowy cliff while the demon tide and the coalition army exhausted each other.
• Lu Feng fought the Demon King with the Black-and-Yellow Formation-Breaking Seal, but the clash left him near death and the ape badly wounded and drained.
• Chu Bai ordered Hu Hao, Pang Song, Zhang Cheng, and the Black-Armored Guards to attack the demon tide’s flank, then slew the Demon King with one sword stroke.
• With the surviving beasts fleeing and Lu Feng helpless, Chu Bai took the Commander’s Seal and announced that command of the battlefield should pass to someone else.

Chu Bai seized the Left Route Army’s command seal after defeating the demon tide, imprisoned Lu Feng, and forced the surviving troops to submit. He reorganized them into the Anping Army and ordered them to rest before marching on Soul-Severing Valley to claim its resources.

• Chu Bai subdued Lu Feng, took the Commander's Seal, and used Anping County’s Black-Armored Guards to compel the surviving commanders and troops to accept his authority.
• Chu Bai appointed Zhang Cheng acting commander, assigned Hu Hao and Pang Song to enforce discipline, and ordered Han Xingmo and Water Earl to assess losses and restore the army.
• Han Xingmo reported that the Left Route Army had suffered devastating losses, but the demon tide had left valuable corpses and exposed a spirit stone vein and herb garden in Soul-Severing Valley.
• Chu Bai declared new rules placing demon spoils and Soul-Severing Valley’s resources under central control, dissolving the clan and county units, and making disobedience punishable by death.
• Chu Bai killed a Wang Household elder who challenged his orders, prompting the clan heads and magistrates to submit to the Anping Army’s rules.
• Chu Bai ordered the army to rest and recover for half a day, then march to Soul-Severing Valley and claim its spirit stones and herbs.

Chu Bai used the clan alliance as bait to draw the demon horde away while Anping County's troops bypassed the battle and stripped Soul-Severing Valley's spirit vein and herbs. He returned toward Great Wall Prefecture's camp with his forces and the spoils, preparing for the next stage of his plan.

• Chu Bai assigned the clan troops to the vanguard and gave them poison arrows, while secretly directing the eight hundred Black-Armored Guards to escape along a mountain route.
• The Li Household head fled when the demon beasts broke through the vanguard, opening the formation and drawing the Azure-Eyed Golden-Pupiled Ape toward the fleeing clansmen.
• Chu Bai activated the formation, and Pang Song led the Black-Armored Guards past the demon tiger and toward the heart of Soul-Severing Valley as the demon horde attacked the clan alliance.
• Chu Bai ordered Han Xingmo to conceal the valley and sent Water Earl, Hu Hao, and Pang Song to secure and harvest the spirit vein and century-old herbs.
• The Azure-Eyed Golden-Pupiled Ape found the valley emptied of its resources and collapsed in despair, while Chu Bai watched from a cliff and ordered his troops to return to the main camp.

After the Demon Beast tide retreated and Qingzhou's relief force advanced, Chu Bai stopped the Left Route Army from pursuing into a suspected Demon King trap and secured its loyalty with fair rewards. He fortified Soul-Severing Valley, sent a politically revised battle report to Great Wall Prefecture, and prepared for a larger conflict.

• Chu Bai arrived at the battered camp with Anping troops and displayed Spirit Stones and spirit herbs, while Han Xingmo reported that the other armies had routed the Demon Beasts and Qingzhou's main force was advancing.
• When the commanders urged a pursuit into the Hundred Thousand Mountains, Chu Bai warned that two Demon Kings were unaccounted for and forbade advances, ordering the army to build defenses around Soul-Severing Valley.
• Chu Bai won the commanders' obedience by promising to protect their soldiers, then distributed rewards to Heavenly Might County and the Li and Wang Households while reprimanding their failures.
• Chu Bai wrote a battle report that blamed Lu Feng's recklessness for the defeat and portrayed his own takeover and halt to the pursuit as necessary leadership, then ordered Su Mu to send it to Zhu Wuji.
• As the survivors built the defensive line and ate Demon King flesh, Chu Bai reflected that the Demon Kings' ambush and Qingzhou's arrival had made the conflict much larger.

Chu Bai strengthened his army and perfected his killing technique, then learned that two Demon Kings had prepared a blood array trap for Great Wall Prefecture’s Central and Right Route armies. He ordered the Left Route Army to hold its defenses and wait for the trap to weaken before intervening.

• Chu Bai fed the Black-Armored Guards Demon King flesh, bringing all eight hundred to qi refining late-stage and winning the surviving magistrates’ and clan leaders’ allegiance.
• Chu Bai absorbed the Mid-Grade Spirit Marrow, reached foundation establishment great perfection, and perfected the Great Five-Phase Annihilation Divine Light Needle.
• Hu Hao returned wounded with scouts and showed Chu Bai an image of the Ten-Thousand Spirits Blood-Transforming Grand Array in Seven-Star Gorge, guarded by the Nine-Headed Venomous Flood Dragon and the Six-Tailed Illusion Fox.
• Chu Bai and his officers saw that the Central and Right Route armies, numbering a hundred thousand, were rushing toward the array after following a trail of abandoned spoils.
• Chu Bai rejected calls to warn or rescue the armies, ordered the Left Route Army to fortify Soul-Severing Valley, and planned to attack after the blood array weakened.

Chu Bai’s decision to hold Soul-Severing Valley proved wise when survivors revealed that the Central and Right Route Armies had been annihilated in a demonic trap. The Southern Pacification General appointed Chu Bai Marshal of the newly reorganized Southern Route Army and gave him the Purple-Gold Tiger Tally, leaving Chu poised to consolidate power across Great Wall Prefecture’s Southern Border.

• Three wounded survivors from the Central Route Army reached Chu Bai’s camp and reported that the Central and Right Route Armies had been destroyed at Seven-Star Gorge.
• The survivors and the Left Route Army recognized that Chu Bai’s order to hold Soul-Severing Valley had saved their thirty thousand soldiers.
• The Southern Pacification General arrived aboard a warship, summoned Chu Bai, and examined his battle report and recordings.
• The Southern Pacification General praised Chu Bai for preserving the Left Route Army and killing a half-step Purple Abode Demon King.
• The Southern Pacification General reorganized the remaining forces into the Great Wall Prefecture Southern Route Army and appointed Chu Bai its marshal, granting him the Purple-Gold Tiger Tally and broad wartime authority.
• Chu Bai accepted the appointment and resolved to bring the Southern Border’s military resources and clan wealth under Anping County’s control.

Chu Bai rebuilt the shattered Southern Route Army, led it through a months-long counteroffensive that reclaimed seven county towns, and helped end the demonic tide in Lingchang Prefecture. Ordered to return to Great Wall Prefecture for rewards, he suspected the Prefect and defeated aristocratic clans would target his victorious army, but marched home regardless.

• Chu Bai learned that Great Zhou’s reinforcements and the Purple Abode Realm Pacification General had stabilized the front, while Great Wall Prefecture’s central and right armies had been destroyed and its Left Route Army had suffered catastrophic losses.
• Chu Bai ordered his troops to gather defeated soldiers and refugees, enforce Anping County’s military regulations, and reorganize; within half a month, the army grew to fifty thousand disciplined soldiers.
• Chu Bai led the Southern Route Army in a nearly six-month counteroffensive, using formations, talismans, and the Black-Armored Guards to defeat demons and reclaim seven county towns.
• Chu Bai killed a peak Foundation Establishment Two-Headed Windfire Demon Wolf with the Great Five-Phase Annihilation Divine Light Needle, earning the awe of his troops and securing its carcass for Anping County.
• The Southern Pacification General declared Lingchang Prefecture recovered and ordered Chu Bai to return to Great Wall Prefecture to report and receive rewards according to merit.
• Chu Bai warned Zhang Cheng and Hu Hao that Great Wall Prefecture’s rulers might try to seize the army’s spoils and strength, then ordered the fifty thousand troops to march back to the prefecture.

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.