Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Greenstone Market’s damaged protective formation is repaired over ten days, while Chen Zhuo consolidates his cultivation after breaking through to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.
• Chi Zhao urges Chen Zhuo to visit Southern Wu and contemplate its ancient Ancestral Tree, which might help him advance toward forming a Golden Core. Chen declines for now, judging the Great Shaman of the Five Creeks too powerful to face safely. He accepts Chi Zhao’s companion silver bell, which will let her sense if he needs help.
• After Chi Zhao departs, Chen investigates corruption among groups connected to Greenstone Market. Records show that several sects and lineages colluded with the Pu Household to steal and resell Qiwu Sword Sect resources.
• Declaring that the offenders must be made an example, Chen travels with a local Sword Gate disciple to punish them. He destroys the Shellspirit Sect’s formation, kills its leader, hunts down its fleeing disciples, and levels the sect’s buildings—while sparing its Scripture Pavilion to copy its texts.
• Over the following days, Chen attacks numerous groups across neighboring kingdoms. He exterminates several implicated sects and lineages, executes offenders in others, and inspects their libraries. He orders the dead collected and their heads piled as a warning.
• After more than half a month, Chen heads west into the Guo Kingdom, where the Qiwu Sword Sect’s missing Continuity-Restoring Immortal Grass may have gone. Local groups fear his arrival; one lineage’s attempt to flee to the Southern Barbarians is unexpectedly refused.

Character developments

• Chen Zhuo grows more confident and forceful as a new Foundation Establishment middle-stage cultivator. He sees himself as strong enough to impose order on lesser powers, though he still avoids confronting a late-Golden-Core authority until he is stronger.
• His ruthless campaign establishes him as a feared enforcer—but also makes his methods seem disturbingly demonic to the Sword Gate disciple accompanying him.
• Chi Zhao leaves for Southern Wu after offering Chen a means to contact her. Her feelings for him are affectionate and intimate, and she intends to return once her spirit-gu replenishes.
• The accompanying Sword Gate disciple remains obedient but privately doubts that Chen’s mass executions and grisly warnings are appropriate for the righteous path.

Significant themes

• Power and justice: Chen punishes genuine corruption, but his sweeping violence raises the question of whether righteous enforcement can become tyranny.
• Fear as governance: His brutality deters other groups, yet compliance is secured through terror rather than trust.
• Ambition and caution: Chen covets the Ancestral Tree’s potential benefits but postpones the visit until he can negotiate from a position of strength.
• Knowledge as a resource: Even while destroying sects, Chen searches their libraries for techniques that might improve his magical repository.

Character interactions

• Chi Zhao and Chen part warmly, with her urging him toward Southern Wu and entrusting him with her silver bell.
• Chen summons Greenstone Market’s remaining cultivators, questions them about the missing sect leader, and orders the market maintained in his absence.
• He recruits a local Sword Gate disciple as a guide, then directs him to gather the victims’ heads—an order the disciple follows despite his unease.
• At each targeted group, Chen’s confrontations are largely one-sided: accusations, pleas, and resistance are met with overwhelming force, reinforcing his fearsome reputation.

Plot points and events

• Chen Zhuo arrives at Peaceful Market, where its master, Liu Qie’an, greets him deferentially. Chen praises the Liu Clan and promises it a merit commendation and a share of the next Foundation Establishment Pill distribution.
• Chen asks about the missing Continuity-Restoring Immortal Grass. Liu points toward the Fu Household, but Chen reveals he has already destroyed it for colluding with Western Mountain’s esoteric cultivators, ending that lead.
• Wan Jinzhao appears with the real herb, explaining that the sect had smuggled it from the Central Lands and intended Chen to keep it for emergencies. It can restore flesh and rebuild a body, though Chen privately considers whether it might help repair his severely damaged teacher—and how much more of the herb that would require.
• Wan explains the herb grows in the Cold Garden, a shattered, drifting microcosm once owned by the powerful Radiant Immortal Palace. The history prompts Chen to recognize how dangerous and vast the wider cultivation world is, and to resolve not to grow overconfident.
• Wan also explains that the Southern Barbarians’ Ancestral Tree grants their Saint Sons and Daughters True Lord-level power. Chen realizes this protection makes the tribes difficult to conquer, while privately wondering whether he could exploit the tree’s power himself.
• Chen plans to continue west to Great Li Mountain to visit the Thunder Vein disciples and their ancestors’ memorial tablets. Wan declines to accompany him, choosing instead to go fishing.
• After turning down Liu’s gifts and warning him that sect service—not flattery—earns rewards, Chen departs. On the way, he studies Southern Barbarian witchcraft and its spirit-gu-based methods.
• Five Foundation Establishment cultivators then block his route. Though outwardly alive and devout, Chen senses strange deathly energy in them. A Jue Mu identifies them as envoys and says Living Buddha Zhugu wants to see him.

Character developments

• Chen Zhuo displays measured authority: he rewards the Liu Clan’s loyalty but makes clear that wrongdoing will still be punished. He is increasingly powerful and ambitious, yet the history of the Central Lands reminds him to stay cautious. His curiosity about the Continuity-Restoring Immortal Grass and the Ancestral Tree reveals both concern for his teacher and interest in new sources of power.
• Wan Jinzhao is impressed by how quickly Chen has advanced, having once taught him swordsmanship when he was only at late Qi Refinement. He serves as a source of important background and delivers the herb, then leaves on his own errand.
• Liu Qie’an is anxious to appease Chen but proves responsive and practical; Chen’s fair treatment leaves him relieved.
• The five envoys present a new, unsettling threat: their piety and apparent vitality conceal an unnatural deathly state.

Significant themes

• Justice and governance: Chen distinguishes loyal service from treachery, rewarding merit while insisting that sect rules apply to all.
• Power and humility: Chen’s accomplishments are formidable locally, but the history of stronger realms and ancient cultivators puts them in perspective.
• Unconventional paths to strength: Immortal cultivation, witchcraft, and the Ancestral Tree offer different ways to wield power.
• Life, death, and restoration: The herb’s ability to rebuild bodies contrasts with the eerie, deathlike condition of the approaching envoys.

Character interactions

• Chen and Liu establish a relationship based on conditional respect: Liu offers deference, while Chen grants recognition but rejects personal gifts.
• Chen and Wan share a warm junior-senior rapport. Wan admires Chen’s progress, provides crucial knowledge and the herb, and teases him about his title as Southern Barbarian Saint Son.
• Chen’s journey ends with a sharp shift in tone: the Jue Mu’s calm invitation from Living Buddha Zhugu suggests a confrontation or negotiation ahead.

Chen Zhuo killed the Western Mountain disciples who tried to convert him, then battled Dalawasang, a reincarnated Maha whose soul matched his divine sense. When Chen Zhuo was about to defeat him, the Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King seized Dalawasang’s body and attacked with Golden Core strength.

• Chen Zhuo killed the Jue Mu and four other disciples controlled by the Western Mountain’s sinister arts, then tracked their source to Dalawasang.
• Dalawasang revealed that he had been slain by Zhongli Sheng in a past life and tried to convert Chen Zhuo, but his divine sense could not overwhelm him.
• Dalawasang summoned a blood sea and skeletal monsters, while Chen Zhuo countered with the Blood Sword’s vengeful ghosts, his bow, and First Wood Divine Thunder.
• Chen Zhuo broke through Dalawasang’s defenses with a powerful Thunderfire strike and vowed to destroy his soul and prevent his reincarnation.
• The Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King took control of Dalawasang’s body, transformed him into a three-headed, six-armed Buddha, and attacked Chen Zhuo with Golden Core power.

Chen Zhuo fought Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King’s possessed vessel and, with Wang Shechuan’s help restraining Peacock Wisdom Consort, destroyed the Dharma King’s dharma body and severed his connection to twenty percent of his soul. Back in Great Brahma King City, the Dharma King denied losing to Chen Zhuo and blamed the Southern Wilderness Golden Core cultivators before ordering Peacock Wisdom Consort and the Wrathful Venerable to lead the Great Sumeru Temple into battle.

• Chen Zhuo summoned the Wind-Thunder Sword Talisman Treasure and fought Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King with his bow, sword intent, divine flames, and vengeful ghosts.
• Wang Shechuan, Lei Bingwen, and Liu Cheng arrived, but Chen Zhuo asked them to let him continue fighting the Dharma King.
• Peacock Wisdom Consort possessed a Jade Radiance Sect disciple and rushed to aid the Dharma King, killing the cultivators around her along the way.
• Wang Shechuan trapped Peacock Wisdom Consort, giving Chen Zhuo an opening to sever the Dharma King’s heads and arms before destroying his dharma body and trying to capture his escaping soul.
• Peacock Wisdom Consort reported Chen Zhuo’s victory to the Maha Pavilion, but Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King claimed Wang Shechuan had defeated him and ordered her and the Wrathful Venerable to lead the Great Sumeru Temple into battle.

Chen Zhuo captured a fragment of the Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King's divine soul and continued to Great Li Mountain, where he reunited with Xu Chan. After recounting his exploits, Chen Zhuo handed over the esoteric artifacts and asked Xu Chan to arrange a secluded place for him to cultivate.

• Chen Zhuo stored the Dharma King's twenty-percent divine soul fragment in his Blood Sword despite Wang Shechuan's warning.
• Chen Zhuo refused to return to the sect and continued west to Great Li Mountain, collecting the esoteric cultivators' magical artifacts along the way.
• Two Foundation Establishment guards challenged Chen Zhuo at Great Li Mountain, then summoned Xu Chan after he showed his Thunder Vein token and First Wood Divine Thunder.
• Xu Chan was astonished to find Chen Zhuo at the Foundation Establishment middle stage and learned that he had defeated numerous Foundation Establishment enemies and the Dharma King's manifested body.
• Chen Zhuo gave Xu Chan the esoteric artifacts and the Dora Pure Water Glazed Treasure Vase to return to the Great Might He Luo Master, then asked for a secluded cultivation place.
• Xu Chan promised to secure Chen Zhuo a spiritual-qi-rich cultivation ground by invoking a debt owed by Junior Brother Li.

Chen Zhuo absorbed demonic qi from a talisman and used it to complete his Cangmeng Nourishing Origin Physique and manifest the Second Wood Dharma Body, astonishing the Golden Core cultivators at Great Li Mountain. The Spell Repository also finished integrating the Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King’s incomplete soul, and Chen Zhuo began questioning his new, limited-function member.

• Chen Zhuo stored 21.49% of the Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King’s soul in the Spell Repository and named it for the Western Mountain category.
• After reviewing a demonic-qi absorption tutorial, Chen Zhuo bought conversion supplies and absorbed the talisman’s qi, which came from a Wood Flood Dragon near the Nascent Soul realm.
• The demonic qi strengthened Chen Zhuo’s body, completed his Cangmeng Nourishing Origin Physique, and caused him to manifest the Second Wood Dharma Body above his cave.
• Xu Chan, Gao Yi, and the other Golden Core cultivators witnessed the phenomenon and were shocked that Chen Zhuo had manifested a Golden Core hallmark while only at Foundation Establishment middle stage.
• The Spell Repository completed its conversion of the Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King’s incomplete soul, and Chen Zhuo summoned him and demanded to know whether he preferred Daddy or Mommy.

Chen Zhuo extracted the Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King's secrets and urged the Southern Wilderness's True Persons to attack the Western Mountain vanguard. The Dharma King prepared an assault on Great Li Mountain despite wavering allies, while the Eastern Shamans refused to join the planned invasion.

• Chen Zhuo questioned the Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King through the Spell Repository and learned about the Western Mountain's forces and the weaknesses of the Wrathful Venerable and Peacock Wisdom Consort.
• Chen Zhuo absorbed his injected drugs, then received a Sound Transmission Talisman warning that Western Mountain monk soldiers were advancing toward Great Li Mountain.
• Chen Zhuo told the True Persons that the vanguard had no hidden backup, and Wang Shechuan trusted him and organized an attack on Eastern Dragon Mountain.
• The Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King learned that Dharma King Mahura and Dharma King Karmata would not support his campaign, so he relied on a few formation-breaking treasures.
• The Wrathful-Eyed Wisdom Dharma King discovered that the Eastern Shamans would not send troops, but concealed the news and ordered reinforcements to assault Great Li Mountain, vowing to kill Chen Zhuo himself.