Chapter Summaries

Plot and events

• An unnatural silence, sudden cold, and out-of-season snow unsettle Liang Shiyan’s army. Zhao Bo urges retreat, suspecting a supernatural formation, but Liang argues that an outright withdrawal would destroy morale. He decides they must advance in order to redeploy and retreat strategically.
• A mysterious man appearing in a bronze mirror explains that Xu Yanming has no choice but to press forward: the mist gives him confidence and serves his larger purpose.
• Elder Fuying tries to attack again, but Chen Cuo seals him and Chu Zhengdao. Chen then questions the mirror’s visitor about the mist.
• The visitor says the mist feeds on human desires and can alter how future generations understand events. Its purpose is not to transform the soldiers into Transcendents, but to influence later accounts of history and perhaps draw the attention of the power behind it.
• He illustrates this with the Battle of Muye: later histories preserved the political story while omitting the cultivators and the War of Investiture of the Gods, causing that history to be dismissed as legend. Thunder then breaks through the snow-laden clouds.

Character developments and interactions

• Liang Shiyan shows strategic composure, recognizing that preserving the army’s resolve matters as much as responding to danger. Zhao Bo initially advocates caution but understands Liang’s reasoning.
• Chen Cuo remains wary of the mirror’s visitor, whose knowledge and apparent connection to Chen’s ancestral lineage suggest a powerful, possibly Daoist, background. A question about the visitor’s identity triggers a profound reaction in Chen, so he does not press further.
• Elder Fuying is repeatedly thwarted and sealed by Chen, while Chu Zhengdao resents being caught up in his master’s actions.
• The mirror’s visitor presents himself as an ally and protector of Chen’s lineage, though his identity and the force behind the mist remain unresolved.

Significant themes

• History and storytelling: Shaping what people believe can erase real events by recasting them as fiction.
• Belief and human desire: The mist takes root in people’s hearts, using their desires as nourishment.
• Strategy under pressure: A retreat may be necessary, but the way it is carried out can determine whether an army keeps its will to fight.
• Hidden histories and powers: The chapter hints that familiar historical narratives conceal supernatural conflicts and that unseen forces are influencing events.

Plot points

• The man appearing through the Bronze Mirror explains that the mist is tied to an attempt to establish a new Path and attain the Dao. Such efforts require more than opportunity: without sound cultivation, knowledge, and method, they can backfire and make the would-be achiever a sacrifice.
• He says the mist comes from an ancient being beyond the Mundane, who exploited a loophole in the “Eighty-One Years” to act in the Mortal World. The man has now discovered the being’s involvement.
• Because the mist may let that enemy overhear them, the mirror-man invites Chen Cuo to Kunlun, where he can speak more freely. He warns Chen to get rid of the mist and suggests sending an avatar if needed, then departs.
• Chen decides he should visit Kunlun, but recognizes that remaining in the Huai Region and avoiding danger will not be enough to advance safely.
• The being beyond the world senses interference, abandons his plan to use Chen as a pawn, and attacks him directly with a finger thrust through the boundary between Void and Reality.
• In Kunlun, the long-haired man senses the attack but cannot intervene: the constraints on him, inside the world, are greater than those on his enemy. He leaves Chen’s fate to him, viewing the attack as a test of whether Chen can endure the dangers ahead.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo remains composed despite the revelations, but grows more aware of his precarious position and the need to strengthen himself. He agrees to seek the mirror-man’s guidance in Kunlun.
• The mirror-man reveals knowledge of ancient history and warns Chen both about the mist and the risks of pursuing a new Path. He offers help, but his inability to leave Kunlun limits what he can do.
• The hidden being shifts from covert manipulation to direct violence once his presence is exposed.
• The long-haired Kunlun man is concerned but restrained by cosmic rules; he believes Chen must face the consequences of his choices himself.

Significant themes

• Power and limits: Even powerful figures are constrained by the laws separating worlds.
• Risk and self-reliance: Advancement and survival demand preparation, judgment, and the willingness to bear danger.
• Hidden histories and cosmic schemes: Ancient events, forgotten powers, and concealed plans shape the present.
• Choice and consequence: Chen’s path may bring growth, but he must endure its trials himself.

Key events

• As Chen Cuo prepares to deal with the Zhou troops, an enormous, mist-wreathed finger descends, pinning down his Golden Lotus Incarnation and suppressing his thoughts.
• Chen realizes the attack is also striking his true body and Humanity Incarnation. Others cannot see the finger, and his thoughts become too sluggish to respond to Guan Yu.
• A Bronze Mirror briefly blocks the force but shatters. The respite lets Chen enter Dream Marsh by putting his Mind Daoist to sleep, though the attack resumes.
• The disruption frees Xu Yanming and Chu Zhengdao from their imprisonment. Mist envelops Chu Zhengdao, whose manner changes as a powerful presence speaks through him.
• The presence rebukes Xu Yanming for wasting time in the Huai Region, orders him to go to Jiankang, and declares that the Qi Kingdom is already under its control.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo is revealed to be in grave danger across all three bodies. Though nearly immobilized, he recognizes the threat and uses sleep to escape into Dream Marsh.
• Su Ding and Hu Qiu suspect Lord Nie Zhengrong has been struck by a distant curse. Su orders the group to protect him, explaining that a powerful figure in their Sacred Church has taken an interest in him.
• Xu Yanming is terrified when his sealed memories return and submissively accepts the presence’s orders. He admits he had hoped to use Chen Fangqing as a vessel.
• The presence speaking through Chu Zhengdao appears commanding and dismissive, overriding Xu Yanming’s plans and revealing its influence over the Qi Kingdom.

Significant themes

• The vulnerability of identity and embodiment: Chen’s three bodies are attacked at once, while Chu Zhengdao becomes a vessel for another will.
• Hidden powers and political control: The mirror, the mysterious presence, and its claim over Qi suggest a struggle involving forces beyond ordinary kingdoms.
• Power, obedience, and manipulation: Xu Yanming’s fear and the presence’s shifting commands show how authority can compel loyalty while leaving those beneath it uncertain.

Key plot points and events

• A colossal finger, formed amid the gray mist, attacks Dream Marsh and pins down Chen Cuo’s true body, avatars, thoughts, Spirit Light, and Magic Power. Chen realizes the strike came from the being connected to the mirror and fears further attacks could seal him away.
• While Dream Marsh still lets him act, Chen tests many Divine Abilities against the finger, but none can harm it. A Soul Banner he creates also fails until Bian, in black-cat form, supplies lightning that cracks the finger and draws the banner’s remnants into it.
• Chen fuses several branches of his Dao Path into a mass of unstable radiance, injuring himself as he struggles to control it. He recognizes that his path is too tangled for him to reach the Return to Truth Realm without first refining and simplifying it.
• Chen’s Golden Lotus Incarnation receives a vast influx of incense and manifests as a ruler seated on a Lotus Throne, declaring that “one word” from it can become law for a thousand schools. It draws on a connection to Chen and enters Dream Marsh, strengthening him.
• Chen compresses the fused radiance into a Wisdom Sword and fires it into the crack. He then uses the Five-Zhu Coin to illuminate and transform the finger. When the light fades, the finger is gone and Chen’s White Lotus Avatar stands in its place.
• The chapter ends with a colossal pillar plunging through Mount Tai, leaving the meaning and consequences of this new event unresolved.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo shows urgency and strategic resolve under overwhelming pressure. He experiments with his abilities, accepts the risk of damaging himself, and gains insight into the limitations of his complicated cultivation path.
• Black Banner recognizes the attack’s immense power and reacts with comic bewilderment, while Bian, as a black cat, actively helps Chen by lending his lightning.
• Chu Zhengdao is startled when incense unexpectedly pours into the Golden Lotus Incarnation, signaling that Chen’s influence—or the incarnation’s authority—has grown beyond what he expected.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity against overwhelming power: Chen survives by combining abilities, adapting to failure, and exploiting the finger’s first crack.
• The cost of an untamed path: Chen’s many Dao branches offer varied strengths but clash when forced together, making refinement and simplicity necessary for further advancement.
• Incense, authority, and law: The Golden Lotus Incarnation’s transformation links popular devotion to the power to guide people and establish rules.
• Uncertainty and escalation: The attack is defeated, but the final image of the pillar at Mount Tai suggests a larger conflict is still unfolding.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Cuo invokes the White Lotus Human Dao Avatar, empowered by the Huai Region’s incense, to drive an invading consciousness out of Chu Zhengdao. His Golden Lotus Avatar then destroys the expelled mist with the technique “All Beings Are Empty.”
• The attack triggers a chain of events at Mount Tai: a colossal finger pierces the mountain and breaks through ancient formations, shaking the surrounding region and disturbing the Netherworld. The Netherworld’s inhabitants collectively call for their sleeping rulers to remain undisturbed, helping the realm settle.
• The finger becomes half a staff under the Netherworld’s freezing power. A white-haired woman recognizes that the age’s competing powers are becoming active and secretly sends the True Spirits of Ox-Head and Horse-Face into two households in Hebei, erasing their memories and setting them on paths shaped by Fortune.
• In Kunlun, a long-haired man realizes that the intruder’s attack has redirected its consequences onto Mount Tai and False Qi. Using the Mountains and Rivers State-Society Diagram, he seals the evil consciousness fragment within the mountain, though only temporarily.
• The consciousness’s remaining aspects argue over the setback. Black chains arrive to punish it for breaking the rules; the elderly aspect accepts the sentence and arranges for the World-Ruling Demon King to act in its place.
• Chu Zhengdao wakes with a severe headache and missing memories. Xu Yanming tells him he has agreed to visit Chen Fangqing’s residence. Seeing Chen’s two incarnations, Chu gives up hope of resisting.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo/Chen Fangqing demonstrates the strength of his multiple incarnations and his ability to turn an enemy’s attack into a broader political and supernatural crisis.
• Chu Zhengdao is freed from the possessing consciousness but is exhausted and left with memory gaps. He returns to a subordinate position under Xu Yanming.
• Xu Yanming recognizes the danger and retreats, then accepts Chen Fangqing’s invitation, despite Chu’s protests.
• The white-haired woman shifts from observation to preparation, arranging for Ox-Head and Horse-Face to be reborn as future pieces in the unfolding conflict.
• The Kunlun man acts decisively to contain the crisis and sees the need to unite the Daoist Order before more forces intervene.
• The intruding consciousness is divided, enraged, and repeatedly disrupted—first by Chen, then by the Kunlun man, and finally by supernatural punishment.

Significant themes

• Consequences and redirected harm: Chen’s tactic shifts the cost of the conflict onto Mount Tai, the Netherworld, and False Qi.
• Fortune, cause and effect, and destiny: Powerful actors maneuver through chains of consequence, while reincarnated spirits are positioned as future players.
• Escalating power struggle: Multiple realms and factions are beginning to intervene, suggesting the conflict is entering a decisive phase.
• Order versus transgression: The consciousness’s violation of rules brings punishment, while collective ritual and devotion help restore stability.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Cuo’s white- and gold-robed avatars display overwhelming power. The gold-robed avatar has formed a Dao Thought Dharma Form, marking a major advance, and Chen Cuo uses an incense-like transport to send Xu Yanming and Chu Zhengdao to Huaiyin City.
• Xu Yanming and Chu Zhengdao discover that their cultivation has been sealed. In a courtyard, they reunite with the Third Prince and meet three other captives: Ziyuanzi, Duan Changjiu, and Dharma Lamp Monk.
• The captives have been competing at mahjong, which they treat as a contest of insight and Dao attainment. Chu Zhengdao dismisses the game as a trivial trick and refuses to join.
• Elsewhere, Chen Cuo incapacitates several thousand Zhou soldiers. He recognizes that rival powers are closing in and that the temporary lull offers a chance to act.
• Chen Cuo reflects on how his Golden Lotus Incarnation reached Return to Truth and how his White Lotus—or Humanity—Incarnation works: it draws on ordinary people’s shared understanding to counter supernatural effects. He sends the White Lotus Avatar toward Qi to continue its mission.
• Tremors around Eastern Peak unsettle people across Qi and Lu. Officials reassure the population, while the Dongping Commandery Governor orders a report to the court describing the event as auspicious and moves to prevent unrest.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo is shaken by an attack from beyond the mundane that nearly overwhelmed him, but he turns the danger into an opportunity. His reflections clarify the distinct purposes and limits of his avatars.
• Xu Yanming remains composed when his cultivation is sealed, while Chu Zhengdao is frustrated and outspoken. Their arrival reunites them with the Third Prince, who hopes they will help his side win the ongoing mahjong contest.
• The Third Prince, Ziyuanzi, Duan Changjiu, and Dharma Lamp Monk treat mahjong as a serious intellectual contest, revealing both their competitive temperaments and their differing spiritual affiliations.
• The officials and commoners of Qi and Lu respond to the quake in contrasting but connected ways: ordinary people fear disaster and political scrutiny, while officials focus on controlling panic and managing appearances.

Significant themes

• Time and opportunity: “Time waits for no one” underscores Chen Cuo’s urgency and the characters’ need to act while circumstances remain favorable.
• Fortune and risk: Chen Cuo sees his rapid progress as a product of the era’s opportunities, but fears that unseized fortune may turn into future trouble.
• Multiple paths to understanding: The avatars embody different approaches—Buddhist-derived cultivation, common human understanding, and other distinct traditions—while even a game can become a test of Dao insight.
• Power and political tension: The sealed cultivators, Zhou troops, ethnic divisions in Qi, and official response to the tremors all show how spiritual conflict and political instability affect ordinary life.

Key plot points and events

• After a dangerous clash with an enormous, mysterious finger, Chen Cuo recovers and learns through his White Lotus Avatar that Qilu Land has suffered tremors but remains intact. He decides not to investigate the finger recklessly.
• Claiming his cultivation went awry, Chen asks to remain undisturbed in the carriage until the party reaches Jiankang. Su Ding agrees, while warning that the supposed affliction could recur.
• Chen secretly tests his abilities by combining gray-mist projections, the Heavenly Eye’s dreamlike influence, and incense power. The resulting Ten Thousand Poisons Restriction overwhelms those outside with impulses and strange behavior, then a protective shimmer around the carriage frightens them away.
• Chen dispatches his Azure Lotus Incarnation to Kunlun to seek answers. His White Lotus Avatar will experience life among ordinary people, while his Golden Lotus Incarnation remains responsible for the Huai Region.
• He meditates for seven days, healing hidden injuries and reflecting on the encounter. The party then arrives outside Jiankang City.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo conceals the truth about his condition and uses the cover story to gain privacy. He recognizes that he needs to strengthen his foundations before confronting the powers now involved in Southern Chen and the threat from Beyond the Mundane.
• Su Ding plays the concerned protector, but privately suspects Chen’s identity, methods, and possible weakness. He intends to recover with the Three Lives Art and eventually exploit Chen if the sect’s protection order changes.
• Guan Yu appears worried about Chen but holds back from questioning him. Under the restriction’s influence, she briefly feels drawn to enter his carriage.
• Hu Qiu and the others, along with Su Ding’s companions, are also affected by the restriction. They recover their composure, grow alarmed, and retreat when the carriage’s aura warns them away.

Significant themes

• Hidden motives and fragile alliances: outward concern conceals ambition, suspicion, and resentment.
• Power and its cost: Chen’s strength is substantial, but the clash has left injuries and insights he cannot yet understand.
• The value of preparation: Chen assigns distinct duties to his incarnations and focuses on healing and consolidating his position before acting further.

Plot points and events

• Emperor Chen Xu reviews the unrest spreading across the Southern Chen realm. With Northern Qi and Zhou no longer at war, Chen can no longer ignore outside pressure, while Huainan has also become unstable.
• Consort Shen asks about the Prince of Nankang, Chen Fangtai, who governs Huainan. Chen Xu explains that he chose Fangtai not for his ability but because his poor reputation and past mistakes make him dependent on imperial favor. Chen’s fear of empowering either capable ministers or powerful clan members shapes the appointment.
• The new trouble concerns one of Fangtai’s brothers. Chen Xu dismisses Consort Shen before revealing more, then seeks counsel from Lady Xu and Daoist Yunmiaozi. A report of a Daoist caravan prompts him to order Jiang Yi to make contact and bring the group under the Attendant Tower’s care if possible.
• Chen Cuo arrives in Jiankang, a city tied to his past. His return stirs a premonition and thoughts of unresolved mysteries, including Daoist Half-Heart, the Nameless Breathing Technique, and the River of Time.
• Su Ding reveals that an important figure from the Sacred Gate wants to meet Chen Cuo. The party heads to the rebuilt Fortune’s Arrival Tower, where Chen Cuo finds Jiang Yi—and the familiar Zhang Ju—waiting.
• At the chapter’s end, purple qi gathers above Jiankang and forms a powerful-looking man who watches the inn.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xu is politically cautious and distrustful: he uses an unpopular relative to hold a strategically vital region rather than risk giving lasting power to a more capable figure.
• Consort Shen is observant and politically perceptive, but Chen Xu warns her not to interfere in state affairs. Their conversation shows both her influence as a favored consort and the limits placed on it.
• Chen Cuo returns with greater awareness of the city’s history and his own unfinished questions. He remains wary of Su Ding’s mission and reminds him that they are in the Southern Dynasty’s capital.
• Su Ding acts as guide and intermediary, but offers only limited information about the Sacred Gate meeting.
• Jiang Yi appears both as an imperial official and as a figure linked to the Daoist caravan, joining the chapter’s court and spiritual plots.

Significant themes

• Political distrust and control: Chen Xu’s appointment of Fangtai reflects a ruler’s fear that loyalty and usefulness may matter more than competence.
• Old places and unresolved history: Chen Cuo’s return reconnects him to earlier events and mysteries that may now be investigated.
• Clashing spheres of power: The chapter links imperial politics, Daoist networks, the Sacred Gate, and supernatural signs.
• Fate and hidden forces: Chen Cuo’s premonition and the appearance of purple qi suggest that his arrival has set unseen events in motion.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Baxian observes “purple qi” connected to the Chen realm and hopes it signals a chance to save Great Chen. He also sees Buddhist light spreading over Jiankang, seemingly poised to cover the city.
• At Fortune’s Arrival Tower, Vice Minister Jiang Yi meets Chen Cuo’s party on behalf of the court. Chen Cuo challenges the name and purpose of the Monk-and-Daoist Registry, arguing that religious institutions compete with farmers and merchants, attach themselves to nobles, and escape proper accounting.
• Jiang offers Chen Cuo a role advising the Registry. Chen declines, saying he is beyond the court’s authority, but accepts lodging and support for his group.
• Afterward, Jiang tells Zhang Ju that Chen Cuo—not the older Su Ding—is the group’s true decision-maker. He wants to assess the newcomers before taking further action, especially given Jiankang’s unrest.
• Zhang Ju is summoned by Chen He, chief steward of the Prince of Nankang’s Residence, who says the prince’s mother urgently needs him.
• In his room, Chen Cuo studies the Buddhist light pressing against the imperial purple qi. Su Ding warns that criticizing Buddhism is dangerous because the Southern Buddhist Sect has deep influence in the Chen court. Chen Cuo argues that the sect already knows they are in the city, so open confrontation may be preferable to hidden maneuvering.
• Grand Elder Tushan contacts them by talisman projection and announces that the Black Mountain Venerable has arrived in Jiankang and wants to meet Chen Cuo.
• The chapter ends with news that someone has been killed, reportedly by the heir of the Prince of Nankang’s Residence.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo establishes himself as the group’s real authority: he speaks bluntly, sees through the Registry’s political purpose, refuses a court position, and is willing to confront the Buddhist School. He is intrigued by the prospect of meeting a Return to Truth monk, but also quietly considers how he might fare against the Black Mountain Venerable.
• Jiang Yi proves perceptive and pragmatic. He recognizes Chen Cuo’s authority, avoids pressing the group, and delays judgment until he can assess their abilities.
• Su Ding remains cautious and tries to protect the mission from unnecessary conflict. His warning about Buddhist influence contrasts with Chen Cuo’s preference for direct confrontation.
• Zhang Ju is sidelined in the conversation with Jiang, then abruptly drawn into an urgent matter at the Prince of Nankang’s residence.
• Tushan acts as an emissary for the Creation Dao’s leadership, reminding the group—and especially Su Ding—of the Venerable’s authority.

Significant themes

• Religion and political power: Buddhist and Daoist institutions wield influence, wealth, and social connections, challenging the state’s control.
• Hidden authority and perception: Jiang looks past appearances to identify Chen Cuo as the group’s true leader; power is not always held by the person who seems to lead.
• Candor versus caution: Su Ding favors discretion, while Chen Cuo believes that openly naming tensions can force opponents to reveal themselves.
• Unstable political order: Buddhist influence, the Creation Dao’s arrival, and the murder accusation all signal growing turmoil in Jiankang.

Plot points and events

• Chen Cuo’s mother learns that her second son, Fang Qing, has descended from the mountains and is in Huainan, where Zhou forces may be involved.
• Soon afterward, Chen Luan, the young heir of the Prince of Nankang, is reported to have killed a man in the street. He boasts that his family’s influence makes him untouchable.
• Yu Shi Nan wants to intervene but is restrained by his page, who fears the consequences of confronting the powerful heir.
• Chen Cuo—wearing Nie Zhengrong’s face—steps in. He contrasts Chen Luan’s reckless, protected violence with genuine courage: understanding the danger and still choosing to act.
• Chen Cuo swiftly disarms Chen Luan, crushes his blade, and carries him away. He senses a connection to Yu Shi Nan through a strand of devotional incense.
• Chen Fangkuang arrives with soldiers and detains those still at the scene for questioning.
• Back at Fortune’s Arrival Tower, Chen Cuo extracts a fragment of thought from Chen Luan and suspects the incident is more than coincidence.
• Su Ding warns that the residence’s powerful connections could bring the court down on them, and that the Buddhist School is also making its move. Chen Cuo says he knows the family well and deliberately brought Chen Luan there to await his relatives.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo acts decisively against injustice while using the confrontation to investigate a suspicious event. His familiarity with the Prince of Nankang’s family hints at a complicated personal history.
• Chen Luan is exposed as arrogant and impulsive, relying on family status rather than genuine courage. His confidence collapses when Chen Cuo overpowers him.
• Yu Shi Nan shows a strong sense of duty, insisting that someone must speak up when everyone else is afraid. His page acts as a cautious counterpoint.
• Chen Fangkuang responds to the street incident by asserting official control and beginning an investigation.
• Su Ding takes a pragmatic view, warning Chen Cuo about political repercussions and the growing Buddhist threat.
• Chen Cuo and Su Ding disagree in temperament: Su Ding urges caution, while Chen Cuo appears to have anticipated the danger and intends to face it.

Significant themes

• True courage versus reckless bravado: Courage means knowingly confronting danger for a principled reason, not acting impulsively under the protection of power.
• Privilege and justice: Chen Luan’s apparent impunity raises questions about whether the law can restrain influential families.
• Moral responsibility: Yu Shi Nan’s decision to speak up reflects the burden of acting when others remain silent.
• Power and political entanglement: The street incident quickly becomes a matter involving family influence, the court, and religious forces.

Plot and events

• Buddhist Light erupts across Jiankang as the Buddhist elder at Longgan Temple senses a Creation Dao cultivator in the capital. He sends the Longevity-level Warrior Monk Fa Wan to intervene, determined not to let anything disrupt the Buddhist School’s plans in the south.
• At Fortune’s Arrival Tower, Vice Minister Jiang Yi and Zhang Ju confront Chen Cuo (also called Nie Zhengrong in the report later) over the Nankang heir, Chen Luan. Jiang argues that the boy should face Chen law, while Chen Cuo insists that years of indulgence have corrupted him and that letting him go would only worsen matters.
• Jiang warns that Chen Cuo has lost the protection of the Register of Monks and Daoists. Two cultivators from the Attendant Tower then arrive, but Chen Cuo effortlessly disarms the sword cultivator and identifies both men’s lineages. He says Chen Luan’s body is restrained, but that someone has long “hijacked” the boy’s heart.
• Fa Wan publicly brands Chen Cuo a demon who abducts innocents and threatens to turn Jiankang into a hell. He calls on Chen Cuo to defend himself, then attacks with overwhelming Buddha Light. Chen Cuo responds with a mocking threat to pluck out Fa Wan’s eyes so he can see the truth himself, and the two clash.
• Meanwhile, Su Ding reports the incident to his superiors. A mysterious woman in a black robe and conical hat appears, restores his damaged foundation and sealed cultivation, and reveals that she intends to use Su Ding to rescue Chen Cuo once Fa Wan defeats him.
• The woman explains the Buddhist School’s broader strategy: quietly shaping elite opinion and the next generation by recasting the past through Buddhist teachings, while rival Central Lands factions have underestimated and even enabled its influence. A sudden roar and citywide surge of Buddha Light suggest the battle has reached a decisive moment before Su Ding can act.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo remains confident and provocative. He treats Chen Luan’s capture as an intervention in the boy’s upbringing, not a political bargaining tactic, and shows effortless mastery over the two Dao Foundation cultivators.
• Jiang Yi tries to manage the crisis through law and diplomacy, but recognizes that Chen Cuo is unusually powerful and potentially tied to Chen Luan’s family history.
• Zhang Ju presses the political consequences of harming the Nankang heir, including the boy’s connections to the imperial family and Daoist Soaring, but Jiang stops him before he worsens the confrontation.
• Fa Wan presents himself as a defender of the people, using public accusations and Buddha Light to turn the crowd against Chen Cuo before attacking him.
• Su Ding is revealed as a subordinate of the mysterious woman. He is cautious and deferential, but his questions show his growing understanding of the Buddhist School’s political reach.
• The woman in the conical hat is a strategic, powerful figure who treats Chen Cuo as a useful asset: she expects him to lose, wants him humbled, and plans to preserve him for future use.

Significant themes

• Law versus personal justice: Jiang insists that Chen Luan should be judged under Chen law, while Chen Cuo believes intervention is necessary to correct the boy’s character.
• Public perception as a weapon: Fa Wan’s denunciation turns a complicated dispute into a simple story of a “demon” threatening the city.
• Education and cultural influence: Chen Cuo’s reflections on upbringing connect an individual’s character to the spirit of a dynasty or people.
• Control of history and belief: The woman describes the Buddhist School’s effort to reshape inherited traditions and influence the elites who will define the future.
• Power and manipulation: Even exceptional cultivators are pieces in wider factional plans, and apparent rescue may be part of a deliberate effort to discipline and retain an asset.

Plot points and events

• Warrior monk Fa Wan attacks Chen Cuo, but Chen Cuo counters with a Divine Ability that gathers the Huai Region’s mountains and rivers into his palm. The attack overwhelms Fa Wan’s Buddhist power and destroys him.
• Fa Wan’s radiance injures Bai Xiu and another Attendant Tower cultivator, draining most of their strength. His Buddha Light then tries to infect them with hatred, but Chen Cuo draws it back and frees them.
• Chen Luan realizes that the powerful figures sent to protect or rescue him are helpless before Chen Cuo. Chen Cuo makes clear that Chen Luan is not the focus of the larger conflict.
• Su Ding and the veiled Venerable observe from below. The Venerable explains that the Buddhist School’s Buddha Light draws on the faith of Jiankang’s people and supports its influence over the Southern Dynasty. Fa Wan, though a Longevity master, could not fully command that power; he was defeated before he could use help promised by a greater figure.
• The Venerable refuses to aid Chen Cuo, wanting to see his true strength and avoid provoking the Buddhist School. Meanwhile, the public defeat of Fa Wan has stirred Buddhist devotion throughout the city, giving the Buddhist School reason to press forward rather than retreat.
• At Longgan Temple, an elderly Buddhist master fails to summon Fa Wan’s soul and True Spirit. He plans to use the crisis to bring the Chen emperor into the Buddhist School and expand its power across the southern lands.
• The emperor, influenced by the citywide Buddha Light, orders that a Buddhist monk be summoned to deal with the “outsider” causing trouble. When two Return-to-Truth monks offer to go after Chen Cuo, the elderly master declines and decides to act personally, wary that Chen Cuo has powerful backing.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo is revealed as extraordinarily powerful and controlled: he kills Fa Wan decisively, protects the weakened cultivators from the lingering Buddha Light, and remains unconcerned with Chen Luan’s status.
• Chen Luan shifts from confidence in his noble connections to fear and helplessness when he sees even elite cultivators fall before Chen Cuo.
• Bai Xiu and his companion go from expecting a rescue to suffering severe injuries and recognizing Chen Cuo’s overwhelming strength.
• Su Ding is frightened by Chen Cuo and frustrated by the Venerable’s earlier misjudgment, but he quickly suppresses his thoughts when he senses her power.
• The Venerable remains cautious and politically calculating, choosing observation over intervention.
• The elderly Buddhist master moves from investigating Fa Wan’s disappearance to viewing the crisis as an opportunity to gain the emperor’s allegiance, while also deciding to confront Chen Cuo himself.

Significant themes

• Faith as political and supernatural power: Buddhist devotion throughout the city feeds the School’s influence and strengthens its presence.
• Power and perception: Fa Wan’s apparent authority proves limited, while Chen Cuo’s abilities overturn everyone’s assumptions.
• Manipulation and hidden agendas: Several factions treat the crisis as a chance to advance broader political or spiritual goals.
• The cost of belief and control: The Buddha Light can stir devotion but also distort minds, breed hatred, and drain vitality.

Key plot points

• Tan Xun, an elderly Buddhist master, reveals that seven Buddha-figures have taken shape through the Buddhist School’s efforts to compile scriptures and spread Buddhist teachings. He leaves two Return to Truth monks in charge of maintaining the Grand Formation.
• An imperial envoy arrives with the emperor’s request for help against the Evil Fiend in Jiankang. Tan Xun insists on acting personally, takes the emperor’s Command Token, and uses it to confront the danger.
• Meanwhile, Chen Xu secures the area around Fortune’s Arrival Tower. The crowd’s fear and anger toward the man blamed for Monk Fawan’s death grow into fervent hatred of the supposed “Evil Fiend.”
• Lu Shouyi questions Buddhism’s sudden influence. Yu Fang, who once complained about the number of temples, now speaks as a devoted believer. Lu remains cautious, urging his group to observe rather than take sides.
• Tan Xun arrives amid golden mist, and his presence overwhelms those nearby: even Lu Shouyi is drawn into reverence. A streak of purple imperial qi attacks the monk, but Tan Xun counters by gathering Jiankang’s collective Buddha Nature into a protective Buddha barrier over the tower.

Character developments and interactions

• Tan Xun moves from directing Buddhist preparations to personally answering the emperor’s call. His quiet authority is powerful enough to influence an envoy and a gathered city.
• Lu Shouyi resists Tan Xun’s spiritual influence briefly and tries to maintain a neutral, watchful stance, contrasting with the certainty around him.
• Yu Fang undergoes an abrupt conversion in outlook, shifting from skepticism about Buddhist institutions to unquestioning faith.
• The imperial envoy initially hesitates to trouble Tan Xun, but ultimately hands over the Command Token while under the monk’s influence.
• Chen Xu’s forces and the crowd are united by anger against the alleged killer of Fawan, though their judgment is based largely on reverence for Buddhist identity rather than personal knowledge of the monk.

Significant themes

• Faith as a force: Buddhist belief is shown gathering into tangible power, shaping minds and protecting the city.
• Influence and conviction: Tan Xun’s presence and public reverence can override individual judgment, raising questions about devotion and coercion.
• Political and religious authority: The emperor’s command, imperial qi, and the Buddhist School’s growing influence converge in a struggle over who can command loyalty and power.
• Mob judgment: The crowd condemns the accused as evil without knowing Fawan personally, illustrating how collective emotion can replace evidence.

Plot and key events

• Chen Baxian confronts a Buddhist monk, Tan Xun, accusing him of redirecting the city’s faith toward an illusory Buddha. Though angered by the threat to his dynasty, Chen Baxian shifts from accusation to challenging Tan Xun for attacking a junior.
• Tan Xun reveals the occupants of Fortune’s Arrival Tower, exposing Chen Cuo and the others. Chen Luan mistakes the monk for his rescuer, while Chen Cuo calmly studies him with his Vertical Eye.
• Chen Cuo sees that Tan Xun’s Buddha Light conceals a vision linked to “Peach Paradise” and the Beyond-the-Mundane Realm. A woman in a bamboo hat identifies Tan Xun as a leading Northern Buddhist figure and realizes the confrontation has exceeded her expectations.
• Tan Xun claims he has come to save Chen Cuo, not avenge Fa Wan. He tries to overwhelm Chen Cuo with Buddha Light and thoughts of pity and moral reproach, but Chen Cuo breaks through, absorbs some of the light, and accuses the monk of brainwashing people.
• Tan Xun begins a citywide Buddhist rite. The people—and even members of the Attendant Tower, including Lu Shouyi—chant involuntarily. Drawing on Jiankang’s history, Tan Xun tears a page from the past and hurls it at Chen Cuo, intending to make him experience the evils of the Three Karmic Actions.
• Chen Cuo catches the page with ease, astonishing both Tan Xun and the watching woman. The chapter ends before the consequences are revealed.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Baxian shows the tension between his imperial authority and the restrictions he accepted to protect his dynasty. His anger gives way to calculated restraint when he challenges Tan Xun on grounds of fairness.
• Chen Cuo remains composed under the pressure of a far stronger opponent. His familiarity with Buddhist arts lets him counter Tan Xun’s power, while his blunt accusation frames the monk’s “salvation” as coercion.
• Tan Xun presents himself as compassionate and convinced of his mission, but his methods override the will of the city. His confidence falters when Chen Cuo catches the historical page.
• Chen Luan remains self-interested and assumes Tan Xun will save him; Chen Cuo ignores his taunts.
• The hat-wearing woman appears outwardly calm and knowledgeable, but privately worries that Tan Xun’s arrival may force her to undo a seal. She watches Chen Cuo closely, wondering how much longer he can withstand the challenge.
• Su Ding mistakes the woman’s composure for evidence that everything is going according to plan, unaware of her private alarm.

Significant themes

• Faith versus coercion: Tan Xun describes universal belief as awakening, while Chen Cuo sees the forced chanting and imposed thoughts as the theft of people’s freedom.
• Power and restraint: Chen Baxian’s limited ability to act contrasts with Chen Cuo’s calm resistance to a seemingly overwhelming spiritual force.
• Moral certainty and hypocrisy: Tan Xun claims to offer compassion, yet condemns Chen Cuo and uses invasive methods to impose his own vision of goodness.
• History as power: Jiankang’s accumulated past becomes a weapon, with a page of history made into a supernatural trial.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Cuo counters the old monk’s Buddhist Karmic Scenes. He absorbs poisonous thoughts into the Ten Thousand Poisons Pearl, then answers the monk’s attack through Verbal Karma with a flood of mocking, defamatory “keyboard” commentary. The words unsettle the city’s faithful and briefly weaken their devotion.
• The monk turns the city’s Buddha Light against Chen Cuo, suppresses the unrest, and spreads an illusory Kasaya over Jiankang. Lu Shouyi, who had nearly escaped, is drawn back into submission; Chen Baxian is forced outside the city.
• The city’s people make offerings that bring Buddhas forth from their hearts. Their Buddha Palaces join into an illusory city—the first form of the Earthly Buddha Land. The bamboo-hatted Venerable warns that the Buddhist faction means to reshape the Southern Kingdom into a Buddha Land and summon a Buddha from Beyond the Mundane, evading the Eighty-One Years restriction.
• The monk directs the crowd to condemn Chen Cuo as a demon, invoking the Four Kinds of Demons and a Three Lives repentance rite. Chen resists both, using his Heart Fire, the commentary on Nine Songs, and his Three Lives Transform into Sainthood Dao to turn the assaults into power. A black lotus forms, and cracks spread through the illusory city.
• The old monk considers a more drastic technique, but the city’s growing instability—and the appearance of a purple dragon—suggest that Chen Dynasty Fortune is rising. He intensifies the ritual, beginning to dissolve into the Buddha Light.
• A final chant triggers seven Buddha figures to rise from a southern temple. The illusory Buddha Land expands beyond Jiankang, and people across the Central Plains sense the disturbance.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo remains audacious and improvisational, turning the monk’s methods—poisonous thoughts, verbal attacks, and demonic accusations—back against him. Rather than merely resist the Buddhist techniques, he seeks to incorporate them into his own cultivation.
• The old monk shifts from confident teacher to alarmed opponent. He tries increasingly powerful methods to control Chen and the city, accepting the risk of exposing the Buddhist operation.
• The bamboo-hatted Venerable recognizes the larger political and spiritual threat behind the ritual, but concludes that escape is already impossible.
• Su Ding watches in confusion and fear, understanding enough to realize the danger but not the forces at work.
• Chen Baxian is barred from entering the city, then cheers Chen Cuo on when the black lotus damages the Buddha Land.
• Emperor Chen Xu grows anxious as officials and investigators disappear and the city’s Buddhist transformation becomes impossible to ignore. The founding emperor’s furious rebuke underscores the threat to the dynasty.
• Lu Shouyi briefly gains freedom amid the disruption, but the monk’s restored Buddha Light draws him back.

Significant themes

• Control of belief and language: The chapter treats devotion, public speech, and accusations as forces that can shape minds and political reality.
• Religious power as political power: The Earthly Buddha Land threatens to displace the Southern Dynasty’s authority and claim its Fortune.
• Turning attacks into strength: Chen Cuo converts the very poisons and accusations meant to destroy him into resources.
• Faith, identity, and condemnation: The monk’s tactic of labeling Chen a demon shows how collective judgment can isolate and endanger an individual.
• Escalation and wider consequences: What begins as a confrontation in one city becomes a crisis perceptible across the Central Plains.

Key plot points and events

• The Buddhist School’s attempt to seize the Southern Dynasty’s fortune begins in earnest. A Buddhist force binds the Southern Dynasty’s Divine Dragon, alarming powers across the Netherworld and beyond.
• The Buddhist School’s true aim is to establish an Earthly Buddha Land by turning Jiankang into a Dreamlike, self-contained realm. Its people’s shared devotion supplies power, while the city itself shields the monk leading the rite from heaven and earth’s usual restrictions.
• The old monk, Tan Xun, draws on the city’s collective will and claims to become one with it, holding Jiankang in his palm. Chen Baxian is repelled when he tries to enter, while Su Ding and the bamboo-hatted observer realize the people have been made both fuel and hostages.
• Chen Cuo confronts Tan Xun. Rather than retreat, he counters the Buddhist method with a vision of the Huai Region and the rivers and mountains of the realm. He channels the land’s veins, history, and people’s varied thoughts into a vast palm that breaks apart the illusory city.
• Chen Cuo then uses the Black Lotus and Ten Thousand Poisons Pearl to strip away Tan Xun’s Kasaya. Heaven and earth seize the exposed monk and begin forcing him back Beyond the Mundane. The struggle is not fully resolved before the chapter ends.

Character developments

• Chen Cuo reveals a formidable counter to Buddhist power: he draws strength from the land, its history, and its people rather than a single unified faith. He remains confident even when trapped, and declares that he has come to expose the Buddhist School’s errors.
• Tan Xun is revealed as the architect of the scheme in Jiankang. His apparent control over the city proves powerful but vulnerable once Chen Cuo disrupts the collective formation.
• Chen Baxian is furious and protective of his capital, but is unable to enter the city or directly stop the ritual. He responds by reaching out through the Chen bloodline, fearing that its members will be corrupted.
• Yuan Liuzi worries that the Buddhist School may establish a foothold too difficult to remove. His ancestor remains confident that the Buddhist plan has weak foundations and that the sect has its own preparations in the South.
• The long-haired ancestor hints that Chen Cuo is the “man worth a thousand troops” positioned to meet the crisis, while also reminding Yuan Liuzi that the trial between Buddhism and Daoism remains the sect’s larger priority.

Significant themes

• Collective belief as power—and coercion: The Buddhist rite turns shared devotion into supernatural force, but the people are exploited as both instruments and shields.
• Competing visions of the realm: Buddhism seeks to impose unity through a single Buddha-land and shared thought; Chen Cuo answers with the varied land, history, and lives embodied by the Huai Region.
• Political ambition and spiritual power: The struggle over Jiankang is also a contest for the Southern Dynasty’s fortune and the right to shape the realm.
• Confidence amid overwhelming odds: Chen Cuo refuses despair, arguing that human thought is not limited to worship or submission.

Character interactions

• Netherworld powers debate the Buddhist School’s gamble and its risks, while a white-haired woman waits to see how Chen Fangqing responds.
• Yuan Liuzi questions his ancestor’s decision not to intervene directly; the ancestor reassures him and arranges for Chen Cuo’s Azure Lotus Incarnation to meet him.
• Su Ding and the bamboo-hatted figure analyze how Jiankang’s transformation protects Tan Xun and endangers the dynasty.
• Chen Baxian’s failed attempt to enter the city underscores his helplessness before the rite, while Chen Cuo directly challenges Tan Xun in the decisive confrontation.

Plot points and events

• Chen Cuo confronts Monk Tan Xun as the monk’s attempt to ascend is violently disrupted. Tan Xun’s Kasaya—central to the Earthly Buddha Land—draws on the thoughts of people in and around Jiankang, while the heavens’ rejection crushes him despite his efforts to shed his cultivation.
• Chen Cuo takes the Kasaya and uses Buddha Light to restore Tan Xun’s strength, but the added power makes the forces rejecting him even stronger. Tan Xun is ultimately swallowed by a spatial fissure and disappears.
• The monks in Jiankang’s temple rally to save the Earthly Buddha Land, interpreting the crisis as a test and chanting together. Their rites stabilize the illusory city, but Chen Cuo uses their effort to help him explore and take control of it.
• Chen Cuo draws the Black Lotus into the Kasaya, which accepts it. He discovers that the city’s Buddhas embody ordinary people’s lived experiences and that the project could reshape Jiankang into a Buddhist paradise. He resolves not to complete that transformation, but to use the city and its assigned roles to deepen his understanding of the Dao.
• At a riverside temple, Shen Zunli gives his elder sister, a plain-robed nun, a Command Token said to protect against Buddhist mind-bewitching. He reports that the founding emperor warned him in a dream that the Buddhist School intends to use Great Chen to create the Earthly Buddha Land.
• Avalokiteshvara manifests through the nun, condemns the Buddhist School’s recklessness, and sets out to speak with Chen Cuo in hopes of resolving the crisis.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo proves both ruthless and strategically perceptive: he engineers Tan Xun’s failed ascent, recognizes the Kasaya’s dependence on collective belief, and redirects the Buddhist School’s rites to his own purposes. He also approaches the seven Buddha-shadows as empty vessels rather than living powers.
• Tan Xun is revealed as the leader behind the Earthly Buddha Land’s preparations. Despite his composure and knowledge, he is caught unprepared, loses control of his ascent, and dies—or vanishes—amid the heavens’ rejection.
• The monks move from shock and grief to collective resolve. Their chanting helps restore the illusory city, even as Chen Cuo exploits that support.
• Shen Zunli acts urgently to protect his sister, trusting the founding emperor’s warning. His revelation turns the crisis from a spiritual disturbance into an apparent political threat to Great Chen.
• The plain-robed nun is nearly drawn into the Buddhist rite, but the Command Token steadies her. Avalokiteshvara’s appearance confirms the danger and links her to a larger spiritual conflict.
• Avalokiteshvara recognizes that the earthly Buddhist project has become dangerously reckless and seeks Chen Cuo as a possible partner in containing it.

Significant themes

• Faith as power: Collective prayer and ordinary people’s thoughts shape the Earthly Buddha Land and can be redirected.
• Ambition and unintended consequences: Tan Xun’s long preparations collapse when he acts hastily, while the broader Buddhist School risks destroying what it means to build.
• Control versus transformation: Chen Cuo refuses to turn the city into a paradise, yet sees its structure as a means to study and influence human experience.
• The precarious boundary between mortal and transcendent realms: Ascension and divine manifestation both carry severe costs, and the old order between worlds appears unsettled.

Chapter summary

• Chen Cuo meets a powerful Kunlun elder beside a stream through his Azure Lotus Incarnation. The elder assures him that the Eight Sects of Jade Void will support him, not merely because he belongs to one of them, but because his actions are tied to Kunlun’s larger interests. He warns that Buddhist figures may soon confront Chen Cuo over the events in Jiankang, though Chen should be safe in the Mortal World during the Eighty-One-Year seal.
• Chen questions why cultivators who reach the Fifth Step, Beyond the Mundane, are forced to ascend. The elder explains that reaching this step means grasping a principle or law of heaven and earth. A cultivator who embodies such a law comes into conflict with the world; because heaven and earth cannot move, the cultivator is expelled. The stronger and broader their understanding, the stronger the rejection.
• The elder explains that Dharma Forms are more than combat techniques: they express a cultivator’s understanding of the forms and principles of the universe. By grasping a law and unfolding it into a Peach Paradise, one reaches the Fifth Step.
• He also discusses Chen’s unusual cultivation path. Rather than trying to direct it, he advises Chen to build a stronger foundation before pursuing the Great Dao, warning that a cultivator might establish a path only to have their foundation consumed while another benefits. He cannot explain the precedent in detail because of the laws of heaven and earth.
• Chen asks about the realms beyond the Fifth Step. The elder names the Sixth Step, Earth-Splitting Realm, in which a cultivator creates a Dao-Transforming Blessed Land, and the Seventh Step, Heaven-Opening Realm, in which they open a Bright-Moon Grotto-Heaven. He suggests Chen has already seen examples of these realms.
• In Jiankang, Su Ding observes that the illusory city remains overhead after the monk from Beyond the Mundane was forced to ascend. Its chanting has stopped, but the embryonic Earthly Buddha Land persists, and “Nie Zhengrong” has not returned. Su wonders aloud whether the person using that name is an impostor. Before the mystery is resolved, a woman in white enters the city through the air.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo shows directness, skepticism, and growing insight. He presses the elder about his authority, motives, identity, and the higher realms, then quickly connects the elder’s explanation of Dharma Forms to his own experience. He remains guarded when the elder discusses his unconventional path.
• The long-haired elder reveals considerable knowledge of Chen and a long-standing interest in him, while withholding his name and broader aims. He presents himself as an ally, but his support is tied to shared interests; he encourages Chen’s independence while urging him to strengthen his foundation.
• Su Ding remains anxious after the battle but begins to assess the aftermath and question the identity of “Nie Zhengrong.”
• Their principal interactions are the elder’s teaching and cautious reassurance of Chen, and Su Ding’s tentative warning to the bamboo-hatted figure before the woman’s sudden arrival.

Significant themes

• Law, understanding, and transcendence: Mastering a law of the world grants power but creates conflict with the world itself.
• The cost of advancement: Ascension is not necessarily freedom; cultivators may be forced out, while those who remain face restrictions.
• Building a foundation before pursuing the Dao: Ambition without sufficient preparation risks leaving the seeker depleted while others reap the benefit.
• Independent paths and shared interests: Chen’s road is uniquely his, yet his achievements may serve broader Kunlun aims.

Summary

Chen Cuo studies the illusory city known as the Earthly Buddha Land, using its Buddha Light to understand the Mortal World’s laws and strengthen his “religion” branch. He has secretly used the Black Lotus to connect himself to the variegated Kasaya and draw in the city’s Buddha Light. When a powerful Buddhist woman approaches Jiankang, however, the light begins to stir again, and the seven Buddha silhouettes threaten to expel the Black Lotus.
The city then collapses—not through Chen Cuo’s control, but under the direction of the newcomer, who gathers its fragments toward Fortune’s Arrival Tower. Buddhist monks across Jiankang desperately try to preserve it, pushing their Magic Power until some are injured. At Guishan Temple, Monk Yuanhui and an elderly Presiding Monk recognize that the Northern Sect’s ambitions have outstripped the local monks’ ability to sustain them. They lament that the failed project will likely bring greater suspicion and suppression of Buddhism in Great Chen.
The city’s fragments converge into the Kasaya, trapping the Black Lotus inside rather than driving it out. The garment transforms into a radiant, gem-studded relic filled with believers’ prayers and the presence of seven Buddhas. Chen Cuo conceals his connection to the Black Lotus within it. The woman in white—apparently a projection, but one whose rank and Fate Pattern exert strong pressure—claims the Kasaya and asks him to stop interfering.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo moves from detached study to direct confrontation. He rejects the woman’s claim that he owes the Buddhist School for helping him approach Transcendence, arguing that its monks were intruders plotting to seize influence in the Southern Dynasty. He is wary of her authority and resists her attempt to determine his fate.
• The woman in white remains calm and diplomatic at first, but reveals that she has come to sever Chen Cuo’s Cause and Effect with Buddhism. She warns that further involvement will bring misfortune, then abruptly acts to sever that connection herself.
• Monk Yuanhui and the Presiding Monk discuss the collapse from opposing but compatible perspectives: Yuanhui regrets the wasted effort and foresees political consequences, while the Presiding Monk sees the failure as a deserved result of forcing the enterprise before its time.
• The Buddhist monks act collectively to save the city, but their efforts prove futile and physically damaging.

Significant themes

• Fate, Cause and Effect: The chapter repeatedly asks whether events are predestined or chosen. The woman invokes the idea that every encounter is fated, while Chen Cuo insists that others cannot decide his fate for him.
• Power and religious authority: The monks’ institutional ambitions depend on the Earthly Buddha Land, but their local power cannot sustain it. The woman’s projection, by contrast, can manipulate the city and exert authority through rank and Fate Pattern.
• Political consequences of religious ambition: The failed attempt to establish the Buddha Land threatens to turn Great Chen against Buddhism.
• Transformation through conflict: The city’s destruction unexpectedly strengthens the Kasaya, turning a collapsing project into a more powerful relic—and leaving Chen Cuo with a new mystery to confront.
  The chapter ends as Chen Cuo counters the woman’s severing light with his Mind Daoist’s technique, “Between Cause and Effect!”

Plot and key events

• A woman in white uses her power of Cause and Effect to conceal Chen Cuo’s identity, but the technique begins erasing or disrupting his Buddhist memories, abilities, cultivation, and chosen path.
• Chen Cuo resists by tracing the causes of his Buddhist connections and declaring that they must not change the course of his path. The two forces of Cause and Effect behave in an unprecedented way, neither joining nor dispersing.
• He adds a trace of time-power to the working. This sparks a vision of Buddhist-related images and figures—including a Black Lotus and Kasaya, a Mind Monkey, the Pig, Turtle, Mind Horse, and a dragon-horse—followed by scenes of a little monkey and a young man emerging from a pool.
• Chen Cuo realizes he has gained insight into Cause and Effect and glimpsed a hidden thread of Buddhist history. He then uses the Black Banner to assign the consequences of his actions to two separate identities: Nie Zhengrong is publicly made the one who opposed Buddhism, while Chen Fangqing is publicly made the one who inherited Buddhist Divine Abilities.
• The resulting causes and effects stretch into both past and future. The woman in white is bound by them and cannot reveal the truth. Chen removes his disguise and denies responsibility as Chen Fangqing, insisting that Nie Zhengrong was the one who antagonized Buddhism.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Cuo shows adaptability and growing mastery: rather than merely resisting the woman’s power, he studies it, combines it with time-power, and turns it to his advantage. He also demonstrates a talent for manipulating identity and destiny.
• The woman in white begins confident that she can manage the consequences of Chen’s actions. Her confidence gives way to shock and frustration when he creates a causal arrangement that binds her speech and action.
• Their exchange ends in deliberate verbal sparring: she tries to warn him about the consequences, while Chen exploits the identity split to feign innocence.

Significant themes

• Cause, effect, and destiny: Past actions can shape the future, but Chen suggests that cause and effect can also be redirected or reframed.
• Identity and responsibility: By dividing public consequences between two names, Chen separates his actions from his reputations—and challenges the idea that identity is fixed.
• Knowledge through danger: Being targeted by the power he once wielded gives Chen new insight into its nature.
• Hidden history and heavenly secrets: The symbolic visions hint at a deeper connection between Chen’s path, Buddhist inheritance, and events across time.