Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• After Shao Jun’s death and the capture of Shao Jun City, the Pan army is thrown into confusion. Its soldiers fear punishment under their own laws and are trapped deep in hostile territory, while local stockades grow bolder in attacking them.
• Tang Changsheng arrives with a coalition of Tribal Stockade Warriors and secretly positions an elite force near the Pan camp. The Myriad Forms Mirror conceals the troops from the Pan priests.
• Tang has chosen a small force of highly capable Warriors rather than a much larger, less coordinated army. The stockade fighters are individually formidable, though unfamiliar with operating together.
• Watching the camp, Tang studies its Military Aura and recognizes signs of fear and divided loyalties. The passage ends before he reveals or carries out his next move.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng continues to impress the others with his judgment, planning, and ability to adapt. Even the accomplished You Mengde feels humbled by comparison.
• You Mengde reflects that he now understands the admiration his teachers expressed for the legendary Lu Yuanzhen.
• Gu Changyu and the other disciples have come to admire Tang wholeheartedly.
• Gu Huanling has shifted from treating Tang as a junior she should protect to showing him warm, almost coaxing affection—and considerable faith in his abilities.

Character interactions

• Gu Huanling quietly asks Tang whether they plan to infiltrate the camp and assassinate its commanders, suggesting they strike before dawn.
• Tang does not answer directly; instead, he explains what the Pan army’s Military Aura reveals about its morale. His reading surprises Gu Huanling, You Mengde, and the others.

Significant themes

• Leadership and competence: Tang’s ability to choose and direct an elite force matters more than sheer numbers.
• Morale as a weapon: The Pan army’s fear and uncertainty have weakened it before the fighting even begins.
• Reversal of power: The stockades, once intimidated by the Pan, now pursue them with growing confidence.
• Admiration and changing relationships: Tang’s achievements reshape how his companions see him, especially Gu Huanling.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng reads the Pan Army’s Military Aura and sees that, beneath its threatening Scarlet Aura, its morale and resolve are badly shaken. Gray-white wisps suggest the soldiers’ loyalty and confidence are fading.
• You Mengde cannot verify Tang’s reading, but trusts his judgment and agrees to protect him while he acts.
• Tang uses the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp together with the Heavenly Heart Seed Method. He plants thousands of “seeds” of fear in the camp, then amplifies and broadcasts fear through them.
• The seeds take root most easily in soldiers already vulnerable to nightmares. Many dream of being captured and beheaded by the Tribal Stockade Barbarians they killed. The nightmares intensify until soldiers wake screaming, spreading panic through the camp.
• The scene shifts to Qi Feng and other soldiers at night. They are already anxious, but fear speaking because the general has forbidden talk after dark and punished even a man who spoke in his sleep. An ominous owl call and a remark about bad omens deepen their unease.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng shows keen insight into military morale and confidence in his secret art. He uses the army’s existing fear strategically, rather than trying to overpower its Military Aura directly.
• You Mengde demonstrates trust in Tang, accepting that differences in perception can come from differences in skill.
• Qi Feng and the soldiers appear increasingly frightened and powerless, caught between nightmares, superstition, and harsh military discipline.

Significant themes

• Fear as a weapon: Tang turns the Pan Army’s guilt and insecurity into a force that can undermine its cohesion.
• Perception and expertise: Others cannot see what Tang sees, yet You Mengde chooses to trust his trained judgment.
• Morale and vulnerability: Military strength depends not only on force but on the soldiers’ inner resolve; shaken minds are easier to influence.
• Oppression and silence: The general’s brutal rules suppress speech but do not remove fear—they leave it to grow privately and spread.

Character interactions

• You Mengde and the others question Tang’s plan, but You Mengde supports him and promises protection.
• Tang explains his method and carries it out while his companions stand by.
• Within the camp, soldiers share fearful thoughts only in whispers—or keep them entirely to themselves—because speaking openly could cost them their lives.

Key plot points and events

• The Pan army is trapped between returning to Pan Kingdom—where they fear punishment for surviving Crown Prince Shao Jun’s death—and remaining in hostile Black Rock territory. Their uncertainty and fear erode morale.
• During the night, Qi Feng wakes from a nightmare and, unable to distinguish dream from reality, kills a fellow soldier. The panic spreads through the camp: soldiers attack one another, and the camp collapses into mass violence.
• Tang Changsheng watches the Pan army’s military aura become chaotic. As soldiers die, their implanted Heavenly Heart Seeds return to his Primordial Yang Divine Lamp, now enlarged and clouded.
• Tang signals the attack with an ox-horn trumpet. Black Rock warriors advance, while a cry that the Hongdong Wizard has arrived adds to the Pan soldiers’ terror.
• Two thousand elite Black Rock warriors enter the camp amid the slaughter. The fighting continues for half the night; by dawn, only about a third of the Pan soldiers remain. Exhausted survivors offer no resistance and are captured.
• Tang remains meditating in his tent after casting the spell, leaving his allies to wonder about its power and cost.

Character developments

• Qi Feng moves from anxious uncertainty to terrified disorientation. His nightmare-driven killing becomes the spark—or an early instance—of the camp’s wider frenzy.
• Tang Changsheng is revealed as the force behind the Pan camp’s collapse. His extraordinary influence inspires awe even among his allies, though the spell’s toll is unclear.
• The Pan survivors are left traumatized, hollowed out, and bewildered by their own actions.
• The Black Rock warriors and Tang’s allies, including You Mengde, are shaken by the violence and newly fearful of Tang’s power.

Significant themes

• Fear and suppressed pressure: The soldiers’ uncertainty and accumulated dread erupt into uncontrollable violence.
• Dream and reality: Qi Feng’s inability to separate nightmare from waking life reflects the camp’s loss of control and perception.
• Power and its cost: Tang’s spell turns the enemy’s fear against them, but his prolonged meditation hints that such power may demand a heavy price.
• The horror of conflict: The Pan soldiers’ worst destruction comes not only from their enemies, but from killing their own comrades.

Character interactions

• Qi Feng’s attack on a fellow soldier helps trigger reciprocal violence among the waking troops.
• Tang’s trumpet coordinates his forces’ advance, while the claim that the Hongdong Wizard has arrived intensifies the Pan army’s panic.
• The Black Rock warriors capture the surviving Pan soldiers without resistance.
• Tang’s allies watch the aftermath in stunned silence and regard him with a mixture of gratitude, awe, and fear.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng’s Heavenly Heart Seeds return from fallen Pan Tribe soldiers, carrying fragments of their consciousness and souls. The Primordial Yang Divine Lamp refines them into Wishfire Sky Silver, strengthening Tang’s divine consciousness and Yin Spirit.
• The process gives Tang insight into Dharma with a Spirit and Lu Yuanzhen’s cultivation: a fully realized Yang Spirit can make thought itself manifest as Dharma. Tang sees a possible route to the Yang Spirit Realm, though he remains far from reaching it.
• The Divine Lamp begins drawing in the souls of other dead soldiers, including those who never carried a seed. Tang realizes he may have disrupted the world’s natural cycle of life and death.
• A sudden thunderbolt strikes the lamp. Tang’s Primordial Magnetic Dharma Realm breaks it apart, but the surrounding tent is destroyed and Tang’s Yin Spirit is badly injured by the lightning’s Pure Yang power.
• Tang warns his companions that the gate to the Netherworld is opening and asks them to protect him. You Mengde promises to handle any demons or monsters that appear.
• Tang tries to heal his Yin Spirit with Taiyin Moonlight Essence from Bright Pearls. The essence barely weakens the black-gold residue left by the thunderbolt, but Tang is encouraged that it works at all.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng gains a deeper understanding of spiritual cultivation and sees how Lu Yuanzhen may have reached the Yang Spirit Realm. He also learns that his experiments with the Divine Lamp have unintended consequences. Though seriously wounded, he remains composed and resourceful.
• Gu Huanling reacts with alarm when Tang is struck and becomes wary as the Yin Wind intensifies.
• You Mengde stays calm and confidently takes responsibility for protecting the group.

Significant themes

• The cost of power and knowledge: Tang’s gains come from refining souls, an act that may disrupt the world’s natural order.
• Life, death, and spiritual balance: The opening Netherworld gate suggests consequences when the usual cycle of souls is disturbed.
• Persistence in the face of danger: Tang treats even the slight weakening of the thunderbolt’s residue as progress.
• The divide between Yin and Yang: Pure Yang power is especially destructive to Yin Spirits, underscoring the distance between the two states.

Character interactions

• Tang’s companions rush to his aid after the strike; Gu Huanling calls out in fear, while You Mengde reassures him and offers protection.
• Tang calmly informs them of the Netherworld threat and asks them to guard him while he tends to his injury.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng uses a Pure Yang Golden Elixir after weighing the prohibitive cost of other options. It appears inert at first, then a faint, heatless flame rises in his abdomen and his body takes on a golden sheen.
• The deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers, whose souls were drawn into Tang’s Primordial Yang Divine Lamp while he retrieved the Heavenly Heart Seed, provoke a Heaven-and-Earth calamity. The Ghost Gate opens, unleashing Yin Wind, mist, and waves of Ghost Creatures.
• You Mengde warns the group to stay alert. Wang Benchu attacks with his Life-Bound Treasured Artifact, the Rising Sun Painting, conjuring a powerful sun that burns countless ghosts to ash.
• The Ghost Gate remains open. Qin Sansheng then hurls a Solar Pearl, using it as an explosive weapon to clear more of the mist.
• A huge, shadowy Giant emerges from the darkness. It shields its eyes from the light, then sweeps away the sunlight with a torrent of Yin Energy, frightening the assembled cultivators.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng takes a costly risk with one of his remaining elixirs, but does not understand that the events surrounding the Heavenly Heart Seed have triggered the calamity.
• You Mengde takes command, urging everyone to prepare for the threat.
• Wang Benchu proves the strength of his treasured painting and is pleased with its power, though he worries about protecting the artifact. He privately regrets that the group’s plan may have taken an unnecessary risk.
• Qin Sansheng teases Wang about his supposedly weak Yang Fire, then demonstrates his own dangerous, unconventional technique. Wang and the others react with alarm as he throws the valuable Solar Pearl.
• The Giant’s appearance leaves You Mengde and the others shaken, underscoring how little they know about the Netherworld’s deeper dangers.

Significant themes

• Unintended consequences: Tang’s attempt to retrieve the Heavenly Heart Seed sets off a disaster no one anticipated.
• The vastness of the unknown: The open Ghost Gate reveals threats beyond the cultivators’ understanding or control.
• Power at a price: The characters rely on rare, precious artifacts and resources, risking damage or waste in order to survive.
• Light against darkness: The cultivators’ solar techniques destroy many ghosts, but the Giant’s overwhelming Yin Energy shows that light alone may not be enough.

Key plot points and events

• You Mengde recognizes the danger posed by the creature emerging from the Netherworld and urges everyone to seal the gate immediately.
• Gu Changyu summons five hundred silver-armored Magical Weapons. Their arrows pierce the creature, but its Killing Intent destroys the soldiers and corrupts whatever it touches.
• The group switches to Treasured Artifacts. Gu Changyu launches swords from his Thousand Swords Painting, risking artifacts that took years of effort to create. Gu Huanling joins him, releasing the Twelve Immortals from her Brocade Handkerchief.
• The creature’s enormous claw sweeps aside most of the group’s artifacts. Only Gu Huanling’s Twelve Immortals and You Mengde’s Moon-Gazing Divine Rhino hold their ground, though both begin to falter under the claw’s pressure.
• Meanwhile, Tang Changsheng experiences the effects of his Pure Yang Golden Elixir. A small flame of Pure Yang appears within him, illuminating and transforming his body as it gradually burns away impurities and aids his progress toward the Yang Spirit.

Character developments and interactions

• You Mengde’s unusual alarm reveals how seriously he regards the Netherworld threat and prompts the others to stop holding back.
• Gu Changyu acts decisively but pays a personal cost as his carefully cultivated swords are damaged or lost.
• Gu Huanling shows loyalty and courage by fighting alongside her brother, even though he fears for her safety. Her powerful artifact surprises the other disciples.
• The group recognizes You Mengde’s artifact as especially strong, while learning that Gu Huanling’s Twelve Immortals benefited from the attention of powerful cultivators.
• Tang Changsheng is separated from the battle but undergoes a major internal breakthrough.

Significant themes

• The danger of the Netherworld: The creature’s Killing Intent can annihilate even elite weapons, making ordinary strength and numbers inadequate.
• Personal sacrifice and resolve: The Gu siblings risk precious artifacts to protect the group, while everyone commits their strongest resources to sealing the gate.
• Cultivation aided by external means: Tang Changsheng’s elixir makes the arduous transition from Yin to Yang more gradual and attainable, reflecting the chapter’s interest in how technique and tools can overcome natural limits.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng uses a Lesser Pure Yang Golden Elixir to treat the Thunderbolt power lingering around his Yin Spirit. Although the elixir is normally meant for a later stage of cultivation, his injuries leave him little choice.
• The elixir’s Yang Fire overwhelms the Thunderbolt force, but then burns Tang’s Yin Spirit directly, bringing him close to spiritual collapse.
• To endure the pain, Tang uses the Daoist Spirit-Crossing Secret Art and revisits the question his master once posed: “Why do we cultivate?”
• He finds his answer in the image of the immense Kun transforming into the Peng, and reaches a moment of clarity. The fire dies down, leaving his Yin Spirit purer, more condensed, and partly solidified.
• Tang reveals that taking the elixir was not a desperate gamble: he had used one before and had judged the risk. The ordeal also gave him firsthand insight into the transition known as “Yin Exhaustion, Yang Emergence.”
• He concludes that the Black Rock Mountains—and more broadly the Wuman World—conceal important secrets.

Character developments

• Tang proves both disciplined and calculating: despite severe pain and danger, he keeps his mind focused and trusts his prior experience.
• His understanding of cultivation evolves. Earlier, he pursued it for longevity and later through habit; now he finds a renewed sense of purpose and possibility.
• He remains wary of relying on You Mengde and the others, recognizing that their loyalty ultimately belongs to their sect.

Significant themes

• Cultivation and purpose: The meaning of practice changes over a lifetime and can be rediscovered through crisis.
• Endurance and self-mastery: Tang survives not by escaping pain, but by holding his mind steady within it.
• Risk and control: What appears reckless to outsiders may be a deliberate choice grounded in knowledge.
• Transformation and hidden potential: The Kun-to-Peng image reflects the possibility of profound change, while the chapter hints at deeper mysteries in the world.

Character interactions

• Tang’s most important interaction is inward: he answers the question his late master planted in him, drawing on their lasting teacher-disciple bond.
• He contrasts himself with You Mengde and the other Azure Sea True Void Palace disciples, whom he sees as constrained by their sect’s interests.

Key plot points and events

• The chapter opens by questioning why the Eastern Glory World has not simply conquered the Stockade Barbarian World. Tang Changsheng suspects the answer lies in a hidden power or mystery, perhaps connected to the enormous, now-destroyed Cave-Heaven in the Black Rock Mountains.
• You Mengde and the other cultivators struggle to hold shut a Netherworld gate as a gigantic creature presses through the darkness.
• Tang Changsheng intervenes with his Jade Ruyi. Its burst of power dispels the darkness and apparently scorches the area around him, prompting others to wonder if he has reached the Yang Spirit Realm.
• Tang explains that his Yin Spirit was injured by lightning and that he swallowed a Pure Yang Golden Elixir to heal it. The others assume he merely released the elixir’s energy uncontrollably. Tang himself cannot explain what happened and keeps quiet.
• After the danger passes, news spreads that Tang’s two thousand barbarian warriors defeated thirty thousand Pan troops with almost no losses. The stockades celebrate him as a hero.
• Tang’s standing transforms Hongdong Stockade: its people rally around their “great Witch” and demand his return, leaving the Dushi Divine Hall’s officials unable to control the situation.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng demonstrates extraordinary power and gains immense political influence, though the nature of his strength remains unclear even to him. His companions mistake his display for Yang Spirit power, while he avoids explaining an experience he cannot understand.
• You Mengde and the others face the Netherworld threat with limited resources and rely on Tang’s intervention. You Mengde postpones explaining the crisis until they return.
• Qin Sansheng laments Tang’s use of the valuable Pure Yang Golden Elixir, interpreting the event as a missed chance to advance.
• Hongdong’s people shift decisively toward Tang, while Director Zhang and the other officials lose their practical authority.
• The companions’ conversation adds a lighter moment after the peril, when Tang’s clothes turn to ash and he hastily covers himself with Primordial Magnetic Divine Light.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and uncertainty: The Stockade Barbarian World may possess forces that explain why the stronger Eastern Glory World has not conquered it. Tang’s sudden display also remains unexplained.
• Power versus resources: The other cultivators may be stronger in cultivation, but Tang’s superior collection of Treasured Artifacts gives him a crucial advantage.
• Prestige as political power: Tang’s reputation, not merely his formal position or personal strength, shifts control in Hongdong Stockade.
• The gap between reality and perception: The night’s supernatural battle is nearly invisible to ordinary people, while the public hears a simplified story of a miraculous military victory.

Chapter Summary: “Retrieve the Physical Body”

Key plot points

• The people of Hongdong Stockade have shifted their loyalty back to Tang Changsheng after hearing of his return. Director Zhang and the Dushi Divine Hall, despite having spent considerable effort sustaining and developing the stockade, feel unable to resist the change in popular support.
• While Zhang’s group anxiously expects Tang to return with an army, Tang secretly enters the Ancestral Cave to recover his physical body.
• He discovers that the Dushi Divine Hall has planted multiple hidden restrictions in the body: one near a Secret Aperture and another in his Sea of Consciousness, apparently designed to ensnare him if his Yin Spirit returns.
• Tang activates the Heavenly Mandate Compass to block the restriction’s alarm, then uses the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp and his cultivation method to destroy the restriction near the Secret Aperture and expose a hidden figure in his Sea of Consciousness.
• The figure tries to escape into one of the body’s four unopened Secret Apertures, where it may be difficult to locate.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng proves cautious and resourceful. Though his cultivation is not especially strong, his experience across worlds and his protective treasures let him recognize and counter the traps.
• Director Zhang and his allies are shown losing their grip on Hongdong Stockade. They resent Tang’s influence, but the passage suggests their earlier choice to rule under his banner helped preserve his authority.

Significant themes

• Popular legitimacy and power: Authority depends not only on formal control or military strength, but on where people’s loyalty lies.
• The consequences of past choices: Zhang’s group benefited from Tang’s name when they took control, but that same association now strengthens his claim.
• Preparation and vigilance: Tang survives the trap because he distrusts the apparently lax security and carefully examines his body.
• Power through knowledge and tools: Tang compensates for limited cultivation with broad experience, disciplined methods, and specialized artifacts.

Character interactions

• Tang and Director Zhang do not meet directly. Their conflict unfolds in parallel: Zhang’s group braces for a political and military challenge, while Tang quietly takes action behind their backs.
• The Dushi Divine Hall’s earlier care of Tang’s body proves deceptive, as its hidden restrictions show that its members intended to control or trap him.

Key plot points

• Tang Changsheng breaks the remaining restrictions in the Ancestral Cave and confronts a fragment of the Heavenly Court’s God of Communications. He destroys it with the Jade Ruyi.
• With the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp and his completed Yin Spirit, Tang opens his fourth Secret Aperture and awakens the ancient Sky Spider Bloodline, gaining exceptional agility that combines with Lightning Shadow.
• He slips out of the Ancestral Cave before the Heavenly and Ghost Soldiers can stop him and returns to Hongdong Stockade.
• The stockade’s people greet him as their Great Wizard. Tang uses the Divine Lamp’s warmth to move the crowd emotionally while secretly planting Heavenly Heart Seeds in many people’s consciousness.
• Two Dushi Divine Hall agents arrive with Wizards and Warriors. Tang challenges their right to stand in his stockade and orders them killed. His amplified anger terrifies them and recalls the fear he inspired during the stockades’ unification.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng demonstrates confidence and resourcefulness: he defeats a powerful-seeming divine fragment, exploits his new bloodline, and turns the stockade’s reverence into political leverage. He also uses deception and emotional influence to advance his plan.
• The God of Communications’ fragment boasts of its authority, but proves unable to withstand Tang’s Jade Ruyi.
• The stockade residents and Wizards respond to Tang with awe and emotional submission. Their reaction confirms his continuing influence.
• The two Dushi agents recognize Tang as the likely intruder from the Ancestral Cave and lose their composure when his display of power turns the crowd—and their own followers—against them.

Significant themes

• Power and authority: Tang’s practical strength and command over the crowd outweigh the divine title claimed by his opponent.
• Fear as political control: Tang’s old reputation remains potent, and he deliberately invokes it to intimidate rivals.
• Faith and manipulation: The Divine Lamp’s comforting effect inspires genuine emotion, while Tang covertly uses that moment to plant Heavenly Heart Seeds.
• Transformation and hidden potential: The newly awakened Sky Spider Bloodline expands Tang’s abilities and helps him escape unnoticed.

Key events

• Tang Changsheng’s return restores his authority over the Shaman Barbarians. Two rival Wizards lose their Divine Souls and are killed by their own warriors, whose violence turns into cheers for Tang.
• Addressing the crowd, Tang claims sole right to rule Hongdong Stockade and speak for the Ancestral God. He calls any Wizard or chief he did not appoint a Pan King spy and urges the people to kill them.
• Tens of thousands of warriors from Hongdong and other stockades rally to Tang, chanting that he can defeat the Pan Tribesmen and improve their lives.
• In the council hall, Director Zhang and other Dushi Divine Hall appointees debate Tang’s actions. They fear confronting him because of his connection to the Azure Sea True Void Palace, but their attempted trap has failed.
• An armed crowd storms the hall, calling the officials “fake Wizards.” The Dushi group realizes that Hongdong Stockade has revolted and that killing its people would destroy their mission to unite the Black Rock Mountains.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng reasserts himself as a commanding, ruthless leader, using fear, religious authority, and promises of victory to rally the populace.
• The Shaman Barbarians shift from apparent obedience to open rebellion against officials they see as illegitimate. Their loyalty is directed toward Tang, whom they regard as the leader who can protect and empower them.
• Director Zhang is angry and tries to frame Tang’s actions as sabotage, but his confidence weakens as he recognizes the political risks and the crowd’s power.
• The Dushi Divine Hall Wizards are isolated by their lack of popular support. They had dismissed Tang’s former allies, including Gu Junjie and Zhang Qiuping, leaving themselves without trusted intermediaries.
• Tang’s followers and the Dushi officials are set on a collision course: the crowd demands the officials’ deaths, while the officials must avoid violence that would ruin their own assignment.

Significant themes

• Popular legitimacy versus imposed authority: The officials hold titles and power but lack the people’s trust; Tang’s authority rests on loyalty and reputation.
• Power through fear and spectacle: The executions demonstrate how violence can secure both obedience and worship in this society.
• Political ambition constrained by larger causes: The Heavenly Court–Immortal Sects struggle has rules; local power plays cannot be allowed to undermine the wider campaign.
• The danger of misjudging ordinary people: The experts dismiss the populace until their collective anger makes the stockade impossible to control.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng stays hidden while the people of Hongdong Stockade attack the Dushi Divine Hall’s forces. He intends to use the uprising to drive them out and consolidate his rule.
• Stockade fighters overwhelm the visitors despite suffering heavy casualties. The Dushi group realizes Tang will not negotiate and fears that continued fighting could leave Hongdong too weak to fulfill its mission.
• Director Zhang admits defeat. A flute signal from Tang stops the attackers, allowing Zhang and the others to leave Hongdong Stockade in disgrace.
• From the palisade, Tang tells Hong Qi that the Dushi group’s biggest mistake was failing to kill him and purge his supporters while he was vulnerable. He orders Hong Qi to deal with the people they had promoted, signaling a coming purge.
• Tang asks about his father, Hong An, and learns that the chief Wizard is dead. Tang reacts with quiet sadness, then hurls a short spear.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng demonstrates strategic patience and ruthlessness: he lets the crowd do the fighting, refuses to share power, and plans to eliminate rival factions. His sadness at Hong An’s death briefly reveals a personal side beneath his political calculation.
• Director Zhang moves from seeking a negotiated settlement to surrendering when his forces are being overwhelmed. He and the other Dushi experts leave humiliated and resentful.
• Hong Qi, a former member of Hongdong’s original ruling circle who was sidelined, openly supports Tang and obeys his orders. Tang’s reminder of how easily his allies could have been wiped out leaves Hong Qi shaken.
• Tang’s former commanders rally around him, strengthening his hold over the stockade.

Significant themes

• Power and ruthlessness: Tang argues that his opponents failed because they did not eliminate him when they had the chance, and he intends not to repeat their mistake.
• Collective force and loyalty: The stockade people’s ferocity, combined with Tang’s influence over them, defeats a group of powerful outsiders.
• Political expediency: The Dushi forces prioritize survival and their larger mission over fighting to the end.
• Personal loss amid political struggle: News of Hong An’s death punctures Tang’s composure, even as he continues with the purge.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng’s Short Spear kills a Yin God True Person instantly, destroying both body and Yin Spirit. The remaining members of Director Zhang’s group flee for cover.
• Though he wants revenge for Hong An, Tang Changsheng lets them escape because he has promised to spare them. He judges that breaking his word would damage others’ trust in him, and plans to deal with them later.
• In the Spirit Realm, the Wingguard General has gathered thirty thousand Ghost Soldiers and five thousand Heavenly Soldiers. Tang Changsheng enters the realm protected by the Nine Dragon Throne and confronts them, confident that their forces cannot achieve much without support in the Mortal World.
• The Wingguard General accuses Tang Changsheng of violating Heaven’s laws. Tang Changsheng challenges the accusation, then rejects the General’s authority and accepts his proposed fight.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng displays overwhelming power, but also restraint: despite his rage and an easy opportunity to kill, he keeps his promise. In the confrontation, he is calm and self-assured, then turns openly contemptuous when the Wingguard General threatens him.
• Director Zhang’s group are shocked by the spear’s lethal force and retreat rather than risk another attack.
• The Wingguard General uses the assembled armies’ formation to concentrate their power in himself, giving him a formidable presence. His accusation fails to silence Tang Changsheng, and the exchange escalates toward combat.
• Tang Changsheng’s display of Primordial Magnetic Divine Light and the Golden Tiger particularly unnerves the Ghost Soldiers, revealing a threat they seem ill-equipped to face.

Significant themes

• Keeping one’s word: Tang Changsheng chooses credibility and future trust over immediate vengeance.
• Power and legitimacy: The Wingguard General invokes heavenly law, while Tang Changsheng challenges whether his actions actually violate it.
• Restraint and revenge: Tang Changsheng suppresses his desire to punish Hong An’s killers, but does not abandon the prospect of confronting them later.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng curses the Wingguard General over the Heavenly Court’s interference in the Black Rock Mountains dispute. Before the general can retaliate, a vast Witchcraft ceremony threatens to destroy the Spirit Realm.
• Tang reveals that he arranged the ceremony as leverage: if the Spirit Realm collapses, most of the Heavenly and Ghost Soldiers would be destroyed. The Wingguard General backs down, recognizing that Tang’s losses would likely bring lighter punishment than his own.
• Tang demands that the general and his troops leave. They withdraw, though the general warns Tang to watch the Ancestral God.
• With Hongdong Stockade back under his control, Tang considers the value of the Black Rock Mountains and the Eighteen Cave Abodes, resolving to get substantial compensation for his efforts.
• The Ancestral God awakens. Tang immediately traps it with the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp and Wishfire, declaring that Hongdong Stockade no longer needs it. The chapter ends as the powerful god resists the flames.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng proves calculating and willing to use a dangerous bluff to regain control, while privately admitting that he was not certain he could withstand the consequences of a real battle. He also shifts from political maneuvering to removing the Ancestral God, which he knows has been manipulated by Dushi Divine Hall.
• The Wingguard General moves from outrage and threats to retreat when confronted with the danger to his army and his own career. His parting warning shows that he remains hostile.
• The Ancestral God is presented as formidable: empowered by the spirits it has consumed, mass worship, and Earth Vein Spiritual Qi, it is stronger than Tang in a direct contest.

Significant themes

• Power and leverage: Tang wins through a credible threat rather than force.
• Political self-interest: Both sides weigh personal consequences and institutional protection, not just principles.
• Control and ownership: Tang reclaims Hongdong Stockade and acts to remove the Ancestral God once it no longer serves his purposes.
• Ambition and compensation: Tang views the valuable Black Rock Mountains as something others may ultimately claim, but intends to profit from his role in securing them.

Character interactions

• Tang and the Wingguard General clash verbally, each trying to make the other bear the cost of the dispute. Tang’s Spirit Realm threat forces the general to withdraw, while the general leaves with a warning.
• Tang then confronts the Ancestral God directly, using the Divine Lamp and Wishfire to attack it before it can act.

Plot points

• Tang Changsheng’s Corpse-Guarding Worms, aided by Wishfire, consume and refine the Ancestral God after a night-long struggle. The accumulated power flows into Tang’s Secret Aperture, where a Hongdong forms and emerges.
• Tang’s ally agrees to guard the area, warning that Tang has now openly angered the Dushi Divine Hall. Tang dismisses the warning, saying the conflict is already longstanding.
• In Pan King City, the Pan King receives news that Crown Prince Shao Jun and his army have been killed. He hides his reaction during a feast, but later admits his son is dead and resents the city’s continued happiness.
• To force the city to mourn, the Pan King orders soldiers to massacre people. He then has his attendants—who overheard his private thoughts—killed as well.
• The Pan King orders an invasion of the Black Rock Mountains. Before the army can depart, news arrives that Tang has declared himself Witch King and held a Fengshan Ceremony.
• Enraged by what he sees as a challenge to his sovereignty and the Pan God’s authority, the Pan King orders a much larger campaign: the mountains are to be leveled, their people killed, and the land left barren.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng consolidates power by refining the Ancestral God and establishing a new Hongdong. His declaration as Witch King signals that he is willing to claim independent authority, despite the danger.
• The Pan King is revealed as cruel, insecure, and ruthless. Shao Jun’s death pains him, but he also regarded his son as a potential rival; his response is less grief than anger at disorder and defiance.
• The ally remains loyal and practical, agreeing to guard Tang’s position while cautioning him about the consequences of provoking powerful enemies.

Character interactions

• Tang and his ally discuss the danger posed by the Dushi Divine Hall, though Tang refuses to be deterred.
• The Pan King’s attendants comply with his orders, but their proximity to his private reflections makes them liabilities; he has them killed without hesitation.
• The Pan King’s relationship with Shao Jun is framed as a struggle between an aging ruler and a potentially rising successor: he both hoped for his son’s strength and feared being displaced by it.

Significant themes

• Power and legitimacy: Tang’s self-proclamation challenges the Pan King’s claim to sole rule.
• Tyranny and fear: The Pan King uses indiscriminate violence to impose his emotions and authority.
• Ambition and succession: The Pan King’s reflections reveal the tension between wanting an heir to grow strong and fearing that strength.
• Rebellion and retaliation: Tang’s political and religious defiance turns a distant military defeat into a campaign of near-total annihilation.

Key plot points and events

• After Tang Changsheng returns and drives off a large group of wizards, the Black Rock Mountains’ stockades rally to Hongdong Stockade. They merge, form alliances, or pledge allegiance, making it the region’s dominant power.
• Eight days earlier, the stockades bestowed on Tang the title of Witch King—the first such honor since the age of myth.
• You Mengde and his companions secretly supply Tang with twenty thousand powerful Magical Weapons, revealing the vast resources available to elite disciples of the Azure Sea True Void Palace.
• Tang’s new authority as Witch King greatly increases his influence, including his power in the Netherworld.
• During a grand coronation rite, the people’s offerings and collective Vow Power pass into the Netherworld. Tang chants an ancient mountain epic, awakening long-dead warriors. Restored by the ritual’s power, they appear in the Mortal World and bow to him, fulfilling the tradition that a Witch King must be recognized by the dead as well as the living.
• You Mengde warns that the rite is so powerful it may attract danger, and tells everyone to prepare for trouble.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng rises from a returning leader to the acknowledged ruler of the Black Rock Mountains. He also recognizes how much greater the resources of You Mengde’s sect allies are than the forces he once assembled in Lower River.
• You Mengde remains controlled and pragmatic, but his excitement at the pure Vow Power is tempered by concern over the ritual’s scale and possible consequences.
• Gu Huanling and the others initially dismiss the awakened dead as opportunists seeking offerings. You Mengde’s warning reminds them that careless speech is dangerous during a rite surrounded by supernatural forces.

Significant themes

• Legitimacy and tradition: Tang’s rule depends on recognition from both living communities and the heroic dead.
• Collective belief as power: The people’s offerings and unified devotion generate immense Vow Power, especially potent for the Divine Way.
• Political strength and hidden resources: Tang’s growing authority contrasts with the enormous private military resources of elite Immortal Sect disciples.
• Power’s risks: A ritual capable of awakening and restoring ancient warriors may also provoke forces beyond anyone’s control.

Character interactions

• The stockades unite around Tang, affirming his leadership through the Witch King title.
• Tang leads the ceremony while the gathered people sing and offer tribute; the awakened warriors answer by bowing to him.
• You Mengde explains the nature of Vow Power to Gu Changyu and later cautions Gu Huanling and the others against speaking carelessly, shifting the group from awe and skepticism to vigilance.

Key events

• During Tang Changsheng’s Witch King ceremony, ancient Battle Souls rise from the Netherworld and gather around him. The crowd sees this as proof that he can lead the Black Rock people to victory.
• Shanke, a powerful warrior from the forgotten Age of Myth, awakens. Bitter toward Witch Kings because one once killed him by ambush, he rejects Tang’s authority and attacks the pillar of qi.
• The attack disrupts the ceremony, but Gu Huanling and other Azure Sea True Void Palace disciples trap Shanke in a Heavenly Net and pelt him with arrows. You Mengde then uses a curtain of water to strip away Shanke’s Killing Intent.
• Tang strikes Shanke’s consciousness with Pure Yang power through the Jade Ruyi, killing him. He declares that those who submit will prosper and those who resist will die, winning the crowd’s acclaim.
• You Mengde and the other disciples withdraw rather than compete for attention. Tang then leads his army out of the mountains. After five days of nonstop marching, they reach the Keda Tribe, which is preparing to join the Pan Tribe’s forces.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng turns a dangerous interruption into a show of authority. His decisive killing of Shanke strengthens his standing as Witch King and spurs him to launch his campaign.
• Shanke awakens driven by ancient resentment, but his weakened state after a long sleep leaves him vulnerable to the coordinated attack.
• Gu Huanling and the Azure Sea disciples reveal that they anticipated trouble and had prepared to cooperate against Shanke.
• You Mengde demonstrates powerful water magic and recognizes a trace of Heavenly First True Water in his own spell. Though he supports the operation, his expression afterward suggests unease or concealed thoughts.
• The cave-dwellers’ reverence for Tang deepens after they witness him defeat a fearsome ancient foe.

Significant themes

• Power and political legitimacy: The ceremony’s success depends on visible strength, and Tang uses Shanke’s defeat to secure loyalty.
• Forgotten history and old grudges: Shanke’s awakening shows how the buried past can suddenly disrupt the present.
• Cooperation and concealed motives: Tang benefits from the disciples’ coordinated intervention, though they deliberately leave him the public credit.
• Conquest and ambition: Tang’s army immediately turns its new momentum toward the tribes aligned with the Pan Tribe.

Key plot points

• Tang Changsheng strikes the Keda Tribe before the Pan Army can reach it. The Black Smoke Army defeats the tribe in under an hour, while a force of more than 100,000 Black Rock troops raids dozens of nearby tribes for ten days, then withdraws into the mountains.
• The Pan Army finds Shao Jun City—rebuilt into a formidable fortress—with 10,000 Black Rock defenders inside. Despite days of assaults and heavy losses, the Pan cannot take it because Blackwater prevents a complete encirclement and allows Tang to reinforce the city.
• When the Pan commander tries to block the river with rafts, Tang leads elite troops out of the mountains and attacks the Pan flank. The surprise assault throws the huge, poorly coordinated army into chaos; more than 100,000 are killed or wounded, many in the ensuing crush and friendly fire.
• The Pan Army retreats at night. The enraged Pan King orders its commander brought back for execution, but the newly appointed commander is then defeated in a night attack: the army is annihilated, and the new commander dies. The former commander is spared and ordered to raise another expedition.
• The Pan Kingdom’s defeat unsettles its subject tribes and leaves it too distracted to launch another campaign soon. The Black Rock Mountains are temporarily safe.
• The Immortal Sects praise the group’s victory, largely crediting You Mengde. But the group has run out of money: the gold around Hongdong Stockade has been exhausted, and they must consider spending their own savings to buy scarce grain.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng demonstrates strategic patience and boldness, coordinating raids, a defensive stand at Shao Jun City, and a decisive flank attack. He also recognizes that the region’s remaining gold may be buried or outside the area already mined.
• You Mengde and his companions, including Wang Benchу, share in the victory but confront its practical cost. Their hopes of earning money from the gold mines are dashed, and Wang voices their immediate problem: feeding people.
• The Pan King reacts impulsively to defeat by ordering his commander’s execution before learning what happened. The commander’s survival is accidental, while the replacement commander suffers the final disaster.

Significant themes

• Strategy over numbers: The Black Rock forces exploit terrain, timing, and the Pan Army’s poor coordination to overcome a much larger force.
• The fragility of power: The Pan Kingdom’s military setback encourages unrest among tribes that had submitted out of fear.
• Victory’s hidden costs: Military success brings safety, but not prosperity; food scarcity and depleted resources remain urgent problems.
• Reputation versus reality: Outsiders celebrate the group’s triumph, while those involved know they are broke and face the challenge of sustaining the population.

Summary

With the Primordial Ancestor’s Land gone, the Dushi Divine Hall must help support the newly united Black Rock Mountains. More than a million people and over a hundred thousand warriors now need food, equipment, and protection, while the gold mines have been exhausted. The leaders agree to buy grain, weapons and armor, fifty thousand Ghost Soldiers, and improved crops and plant essences to make the region more self-sufficient. The total cost approaches ten million taels of gold. You Mengde, who will lead the Black Rock Mountains, contributes half; Tang Changsheng and the others gather the rest, though the expense strains everyone’s resources.
The group travels to Immortal-Fate City to purchase supplies and report their victory. The city is a thriving settlement populated entirely by cultivators, where transactions use Bright Pearls and white jade rather than gold. For Tang Changsheng, it is a strange new place: his unusual rise through the red Ritual Refinement meant he skipped the ordinary training and missions that would have brought him here earlier.
As Gu Changyu takes Tang to a major supplier, Tang is distracted by a serious concern. He is considering how to warn the Taiyi Immortal Sword Order that the Purple Dusk World is preparing a massive invasion—a warning he promised a sea fairy he would deliver, but has not yet found a safe opportunity to pass on.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng faces the practical burden of helping finance the Black Rock Mountains’ needs. His first visit to Immortal-Fate City highlights how much his extraordinary advancement has separated him from the usual path of Immortal Sect disciples. He also remains uneasy about the invasion warning and the risks of revealing it.
• You Mengde accepts responsibility as the region’s leader and pays five million taels, half the total cost. He jokes about losing his savings, but his contribution shows his commitment to the new undertaking. He leaves the others to shop while he visits his master.
• Gu Changyu helps Tang navigate the unfamiliar city and leads him toward Ruyi Tower, where they can buy supplies in bulk.
• The group’s leaders cooperate to raise the necessary funds and plan how to feed, arm, and defend the population.

Significant themes

• The cost of leadership: securing the Black Rock Mountains’ future requires enormous personal and institutional sacrifices.
• Self-sufficiency and preparedness: the leaders aim not only to buy supplies but also to improve local agriculture before fighting begins.
• Uneven advancement and unfamiliarity: Tang’s rapid rise brought great success but left him disconnected from the ordinary experiences of his fellow disciples.
• Duty versus personal safety: Tang must decide how to fulfill his promise to warn the Immortal Sects while protecting himself.

Plot and events

• Gu Changyu and Tang Changsheng try to buy 200,000 sets of weapons and armor, but prices in Immortal-Fate City are exorbitant.
• At a shop owned by a Tongling Wuji Palace family, several young disciples mock Gu Changyu and offer him a condescending discount. Gu leaves rather than accept their taunts.
• Gu explains that the Tongling Wuji disciples’ Guardian Divine Generals can make them formidable, and that the Tongling Wuji and Heavenly Star Myriad Forms Palaces help protect the city.
• After finding supplies similarly overpriced elsewhere, Gu suspects the Immortal Sects are preparing for a major campaign. He thinks they may be gathering and training troops before claiming the Black Rock Mountains as a shared Daoist domain.
• Gu urges Tang to reconsider pursuing his own ambitions and join an Immortal Sect. Tang realizes Gu has mistaken his plans for a desire to restore the Primordial Yang Church. The two then set off to consult You Mengde and the others.

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Changyu shows restraint when provoked, practical knowledge of sect politics and military affairs, and unexpected perceptiveness about Tang’s intentions. He also expresses genuine concern for Tang’s future.
• Tang Changsheng remains calm during the insult and privately considers whether to encounter disciples of the Taiyi Immortal Sword Order. He recognizes that he had underestimated Gu’s ability and is relieved that Gu misunderstands his true plans.
• The Tongling Wuji disciples’ mockery highlights the rivalry between their side and You Mengde’s circle. Gu and Tang respond by leaving instead of escalating the conflict.

Significant themes

• Power and status: Sect influence and inherited Guardian Divine Generals can matter more than a disciple’s apparent cultivation.
• Political rivalry and restraint: Gu’s group must navigate local power carefully, putting urgent business ahead of retaliation.
• Ambition and misjudgment: Gu tries to guide Tang based on what he believes Tang wants, while Tang keeps his actual intentions concealed.
• Preparation for conflict: Scarce, costly supplies suggest that the Immortal Sects may be preparing for a broader military push.