Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• The Imperial Lords warn Tang Changsheng against entering the unstable Black Hole Mirror, but he goes anyway, using the Three Realms Mirror to travel quietly.
• He arrives at the ruined former Great Chu base and senses that the world’s power is fading. His main purpose is to meet Water Immortal An Ruoshui and address the danger she represents.
• An Ruoshui is astonished to learn that Tang has reached the Yang Spirit Realm. He presents the Primordial Taiyi Divine Talisman and identifies himself as a Direct True Disciple of the Taiyi Immortal Sword Order.
• Tang implies that he once obtained a fragment of the Three Realms Mirror, leading An Ruoshui to believe the Order accepted him because he surrendered it. He lets her keep that mistaken impression.
• An Ruoshui shares intelligence: the Purple Dusk Demons are preparing for a decisive war and have drawn most of their forces from this world. It serves as a vast military-training ground, with more than ten billion troops, including over a hundred million rank-six-or-higher soldiers.
• Tang is alarmed by the scale of the enemy force, but learns they lack a means like the Three Realms Mirror to transport armies across worlds on a large scale. This limits their immediate ability to invade Eastern Glory.

Character developments

• Tang displays greater confidence and power, taking a risk that would once have been beyond him. His Yang Spirit attainment surprises An Ruoshui.
• He also shows strategic cunning, deliberately allowing An Ruoshui to misread how he became a Direct True Disciple.
• An Ruoshui shifts from suspicion and disbelief toward treating Tang as an ally, once she believes he belongs to the Taiyi Immortal Sword Order.

Significant themes

• Power and changing status: Tang’s rise transforms how others perceive him.
• Espionage and trust: An Ruoshui provides crucial intelligence, while Tang manages what she believes about him.
• Military strength versus mobility: The demons’ huge, physically embodied armies are formidable, but their lack of rapid interworld transport constrains them.
• Unequal paths to warfare: Spirit-body forces are weaker but easier to move; flesh-and-blood troops are stronger and more numerous but harder to deploy.

Character interactions

• The Imperial Lords try to caution Tang, but ultimately let him proceed.
• Tang and An Ruoshui reunite with mutual surprise: she questions his sudden advancement, and he reminds her of her earlier promise to give him a bright future.
• Their conversation becomes an intelligence exchange, with An Ruoshui revealing the demon forces’ scale and Tang probing for their ability to launch an invasion.

Key plot points

• Tang Changsheng questions why the Purple Dusk Demons are preparing to attack the Great Chu World as well as the Eastern Glory World. An Ruoshui explains that the Great Chu campaign is likely an easy act of revenge: Tang killed an incarnation of the Lord of Bliss, who now seeks retribution.
• An Ruoshui argues that Great Chu’s unusual conditions could work in its favor. Its sealed, altered environment bars powerful outsiders from entering, while technology—normally vulnerable to supernatural powers—can function at full strength there. She urges Tang to make the demons pay heavily for any invasion.
• Tang realizes An Ruoshui is thinking strategically for the Eastern Glory World, not necessarily for Great Chu’s survival. He decides he must protect his own world by other means.
• Rather than return to Great Chu or eliminate An Ruoshui, Tang preserves her as a valuable intelligence source. He then travels covertly to verify what she has told him.
• Tang witnesses vast, brutal wars across the demons’ training world. He sees elite Fourth Level fighters and concludes that the Purple Dusk Demons are cultivating enormous, battle-hardened armies.
• The scale of the forces alarms him: this world alone may contain hundreds of millions of Yin Spirit troops and billions of strong Third Level units, with similar training worlds potentially elsewhere. He doubts the Eastern Glory World’s Heavenly Soldiers could withstand them in a direct conflict.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng moves from suspicion and questioning to grim strategic concern. He recognizes the value of An Ruoshui’s intelligence, but distinguishes her interests from his responsibility toward Great Chu.
• An Ruoshui demonstrates sharp insight into Great Chu’s environment and technology, and a hard-nosed willingness to use the world as a battlefield trap.
• Their exchange is cautious and pragmatic: Tang probes her claims, while An Ruoshui offers advice based on the Eastern Glory World’s military needs. He leaves without confronting her, choosing to verify her information independently.

Significant themes

• Technology versus supernatural power: Great Chu’s hostile conditions limit powerful magic but give technology unusual effectiveness.
• The cost of strategic calculation: A plan that benefits the Eastern Glory World could leave Great Chu exposed, highlighting Tang’s divided political and moral priorities.
• War as a forge: The demons’ chaotic battles turn survivors into experienced, elite troops.
• Numbers and military power: Individual cultivation may be formidable, but disciplined mass armies can threaten even worlds with powerful immortal defenders.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng realizes that the Purple Dusk Demon’s army of tens of billions could overwhelm the Great Chu World, even if Chu mobilized most of its population. Neither defection nor turning Chu into a refuge seems safe.
• A powerful force sweeps through the world, but the Three Realms Mirror conceals Tang Changsheng from detection.
• He identifies a distant celestial presence as the Paradise Sovereign’s Divine Kingdom, likely belonging to a high-ranking Deity. Though he knows he is badly outmatched, Tang decides to investigate rather than leave without acting.
• Using the Three Realms Mirror, he slips through the Divine Kingdom’s defenses. Inside, he finds a vast, beautiful landscape filled with people caught in an overwhelming orgy of desire.
• The Primordial Yang Divine Lamp protects Tang from the desire’s influence and converts it into Lamp Oil. He recognizes that the Paradise Sovereign—also called the God of Ultimate Care—uses the Divine Kingdom to gather carnal desire.
• Drawn toward the kingdom’s depths, Tang notices that the mysterious golden branch he took at Hemp Mountain has begun to stir.

Character development and interactions

• Tang remains cautious about confronting the Paradise Sovereign, but his resolve and willingness to take risks persist despite the danger.
• The Three Realms Mirror conceals Tang and lets him bypass the kingdom’s formidable barrier; the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp shields him from the desire affecting its inhabitants.
• Tang encounters no direct conversation or confrontation with the Paradise Sovereign. The golden branch’s reaction hints at a connection between it and something deeper within the Divine Kingdom.

Significant themes

• Overwhelming scale and vulnerability: Tang’s military calculations underline how exposed Great Chu is to a vastly larger enemy.
• Risk and resourcefulness: Though far weaker than the Deity whose realm he enters, Tang relies on his artifacts and judgment to investigate.
• Desire as spiritual power: The chapter presents carnal desire as a force that can be gathered and transformed, akin to prayer power.
• Mystery and foreshadowing: The golden branch’s sudden response suggests a discovery—or danger—awaiting Tang deeper inside.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng searches the Divine Kingdom for the golden divine tree suggested by the branch he carries, but avoids entering the palace, suspecting it belongs to the Paradise Sovereign.
• He follows two high-ranking Divine Attendants who discuss being rewarded for service and hope to gain status by comprehending laws beneath the Wisdom Tree.
• The attendants lead him to a colossal golden peak. From a distance, Tang mistakes it for a mountain; up close, its radiance exposes him and prevents the Three Realms Mirror from transporting him away.
• The golden radiance penetrates his Spirit Terrace despite his defenses, including the Primordial Taiyi Divine Talisman and the Three Realms Mirror. It reveals itself as a vast tree and overwhelms his consciousness with visions of history, time, primordial chaos, and the Great Dao.
• Tang’s Yang Spirit begins to dissolve into the radiance. The golden branch on him flashes, jolting his consciousness awake and apparently saving him. He then sees that the “light” consists of countless shifting, mysterious characters.

Character development

• Tang’s confidence in his artifacts leads him to investigate, but his caution remains evident: he avoids the palace, keeps his distance from the attendants, and checks for an ambush before approaching the tree.
• The encounter humbles him. His strongest protections prove powerless, and he experiences the Wisdom Tree as a force far beyond his understanding.
• The golden branch is revealed to be more than a curiosity: it may be connected to the tree and protects Tang from being consumed by its power.

Character interactions

• Tang secretly follows the two Divine Attendants and overhears their conversation about the Wisdom Tree, law-comprehension, and the possibility of becoming Subgods.
• The tree itself becomes the central force in Tang’s encounter, exposing and overpowering him; the golden branch then intervenes to counter its influence.

Significant themes

• The limits of power: Even exceptional treasures and a resilient Yang Spirit cannot withstand the Wisdom Tree’s radiance.
• Knowledge and danger: The opportunity to comprehend laws is inseparable from a potentially lethal encounter with the source of that knowledge.
• The Great Dao and cosmic scale: The tree evokes the origins and structure of reality, suggesting a power that transcends ordinary divine and spiritual strength.
• Destiny and connection: The branch’s timely intervention hints at a deeper link between Tang and the Wisdom Tree.

Plot points and events

• Through the Three Realms Mirror, Tang Changsheng receives fragments of the golden Wisdom Tree’s history. He is then drawn into a dark inner space, where the Tree’s consciousness speaks to him.
• The Wisdom Tree reveals that it is also the world itself, and that the Purple Dusk Demons defeated and imprisoned it. They have turned its world into a breeding ground for venomous creatures and have been draining its power.
• The Tree asks Tang Changsheng to grow stronger and, when the opportunity arises, dig it up and free it. In return, it promises him profound wisdom and gives him a golden fruit as an advance reward.
• As Tang leaves, the two Divine Attendants inside the golden light are killed by it. The Divine Kingdom shakes, and powerful deities—including the Paradise Sovereign—rush to investigate.
• Tang hides himself with the Three Realms Mirror and escapes amid the confusion. Outside the Divine Kingdom, he sees a landscape devastated by volcanic eruptions and flowing lava.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng is shaken by the Wisdom Tree’s immense power but quickly shifts to cautious negotiation, asking what he must do and what he will receive. He agrees to help, viewing cooperation as useful despite not assuming the Tree is a friend.
• The Wisdom Tree presents itself as both a victim in need of rescue and a powerful potential patron. Its reward offers Tang the prospect of a major leap in strength, though it warns him not to eat the fruit until he is safe.
• The deaths of the Divine Attendants reveal the danger of approaching the Tree and trigger the Divine Kingdom’s powerful rulers to respond. Tang chooses flight over confrontation.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Even a being that embodies a world and its laws can be imprisoned and exploited.
• Bargains and uneasy alliances: Tang accepts the Tree’s request for the promised reward, while remaining practical rather than trusting.
• Concealed danger and survival: Tang’s caution, use of the Three Realms Mirror, and quick escape are essential amid forces far beyond his strength.
• Worlds shaped by exploitation: The Purple Dusk Demons’ use of the imprisoned world as a breeding ground—and the volcanic devastation beyond the Divine Kingdom—suggests widespread destruction and abuse.

Plot and events

• Tang Changsheng confirms that the Tree of Wisdom is a World Tree, likely at least as powerful as a Taiyi Immortal. After witnessing its overwhelming strength—and realizing it caused a cataclysmic disturbance that allowed him to escape—he tells the two Imperial Lords that Great Chu can proceed with its plan.
• The Heavenly Court sounds its war drums, and tens of millions of Heavenly Soldiers join Great Chu’s forces in a coordinated global offensive.
• Great Chu’s bombers devastate the undead-filled ruins of Lufadan. When Monster Birds threaten the aircraft, Chu’s specialized missile barrage destroys most of them; Heavenly Soldiers then intercept and eliminate the survivors.
• Similar joint operations begin worldwide. Modern weapons provide overwhelming firepower, while Heavenly Soldiers counter powerful or fast-moving monsters that could exploit the military’s weaknesses.
• Three major carrier strike groups deploy off Australia. They swiftly destroy the gathering aquatic troops, but Australia is left in a uniquely desperate position: unlike other regions, it has no remaining strength to resist.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng returns shaken by his encounter with the World Tree, but keeps the details to himself. The Imperial Lords accept his conclusion and act on his judgment rather than pressing him for an account.
• Great Chu’s military and the Heavenly Court demonstrate how effectively they complement one another: the military supplies immense destructive power, while the Heavenly Soldiers protect it from threats conventional weapons struggle to contain.
• The bomber crews shift from terror at the approaching Monster Birds to astonishment when they witness the Heavenly Soldiers’ intervention.

Significant themes

• Combined strength: Cooperation between modern military forces and supernatural guardians produces far greater power than either could achieve alone.
• Power and restraint: The World Tree’s immense might is evident both in its ability to shake the world and in its decision to let Tang Changsheng escape.
• Adaptation in warfare: Great Chu uses specialized weapons against a threat that previously devastated another nation’s air force, then relies on Heavenly Soldiers when the tactic is no longer enough.

Plot points and events

• Great Chu launches a nuclear attack on Australia, where monsters have overrun the land and an Outer Regions Divine Temple stands. The blasts destroy the temple and wipe out the monsters across the country. The weapons are third-generation warheads, whose radiation is expected to fade within ten years.
• The attack marks a turning point in the invasion and is expected to strengthen Great Chu’s position as a world power.
• Tang Changsheng secretly returns to Cloudtail Mountain and eats a World Tree Golden Fruit. It contains a complete law rather than ordinary power, prompting a five-year seclusion as he absorbs it.
• He emerges on the verge of the True Immortal Realm, having advanced astonishingly fast. To hide his progress, he creates two more clones, bringing his total to fifteen and lowering his apparent cultivation back to that of an ordinary Yang Spirit cultivator.
• Knowing his progress will soon force him to confront the breakthrough again, Tang decides to put his many clones to work. He wants to reforge the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp so it can refine Heaven Gold Paper.
• He summons Wang Yufu and visits the treasury, where he is startled by the immense quantity of treasures and asks how they accumulated so much.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng’s cultivation has leapt forward, but he is cautious about drawing attention. His ability to postpone becoming a True Immortal contrasts with the struggles of other cultivators.
• He jokes with his clones as though speaking to himself, then turns his attention to practical work and artifact-making.
• Wang Yufu accompanies Tang to the treasury; the chapter ends with Tang’s surprise at their wealth.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: Great Chu’s overwhelming force reshapes the war, while Tang deliberately conceals his own extraordinary strength.
• Fortune and perspective: Tang’s rapid advancement is an enviable problem, and his sudden discovery of the treasury’s riches suggests he has not fully grasped the scale of his own success.
• Transformation and preparation: The Golden Fruit opens a path toward godlike attainment, while Tang’s decision to reforge his lamp shows him preparing to make practical use of his growing resources.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng reviews a storehouse ledger with Wang Yufu. It lists gifts from the Taiyi Immortal Sword Order and other sects, as well as Heavenly Court rewards.
• Seeing that the storehouse holds enough valuable materials, Tang decides to upgrade the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp into a true Treasured Artifact.
• He uses his ability to refine and transform matter, reducing gold and other rare materials to their essences, then dissolving and reforging the lamp around them.
• The reforged lamp retains its old appearance but is far more durable. Tang feeds it Incense and Fire Prayer Power through the Three Realms Mirror and ignites it to test its power.
• Thinking ahead to a possible war against the Purple Dusk Demon’s vast armies, Tang concludes that ordinary Heavenly Soldiers will not suffice; elite troops comparable to the Heavenly Court’s War God Soldiers will be needed.
• He turns to the Great Chu World, where centuries of warfare have left enormous numbers of Battle Souls. Using the Military Tally, he awakens and commands hundreds of thousands of Ghost Soldiers, who recognize Great Chu’s Fortune and submit to his authority.
• Tang subjects an initial formation of at least ten thousand Ghost Soldiers to the lamp’s Wishfire. Though the fire causes intense pain, they endure it silently. When it fades, they have been purified of Grievance Aura and Yin Energy.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng shows foresight and resourcefulness: he improves a crucial magical weapon and begins preparing a powerful force for future conflict. His command of the Ghost Soldiers rests on his authority as Great Chu’s Imperial Lord.
• Wang Yufu serves as a reliable steward, presenting a detailed account of the storehouse’s contents.
• The Ghost Soldiers awaken wary and restless, but their loyalty to Great Chu leads them to accept Tang’s command. The first group demonstrates discipline by enduring the Wishfire without complaint.

Significant themes

• Preparation for large-scale war: Tang anticipates that ordinary forces will be inadequate against overwhelming demonic armies.
• Power, resources, and transformation: Gifts and stored materials become the means to create a stronger weapon, while the lamp’s fire transforms corrupted Battle Souls.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: The Ghost Soldiers obey their ruler and bear severe suffering in service to Great Chu.
• The strength of collective history: Great Chu’s immense armies and repeated wars have left it with a vast reserve of Battle Souls—an advantage over the comparatively weak military forces of the Eastern Glory World.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng uses Sky Silver Wishfire and Spiritual Qi from a relocated Spirit Vein to transform Ghost Soldiers into elite War God Soldiers of the Illusory Spirit Tier.
• He refines three formations—30,000 soldiers in total—before stopping because he has nearly exhausted his Wishfire and used a third of the Spiritual Power stored at Cloudtail Mountain.
• Refining all 500,000 Ghost Soldiers to this level would require vastly more resources. Tang calculates that a large base of Believers in the Mirror World could eventually provide enough Incense and Fire Prayer Power to support millions of Magical Weapons.
• He summons four Ghost Generals from the Lower River Netherworld Office, having altered their memories of Great Chu World to protect his secrets.
• Tang orders Yuan Wu, Zhuang Yongchang, and Meng Liangze to lead 10,000 troops each and accompany him to expand his territory and test his forces. King Shangyang is told to wait, since no War God Soldiers remain for him to command.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang reveals both his ambition and pragmatism: he wants a powerful army, but carefully weighs its enormous resource costs and postpones refining the remaining troops.
• The newly transformed soldiers pledge their lives to Tang, whose ritual has also instilled loyalty in them.
• Yuan Wu and the other Ghost Generals praise the troops and readily accept Tang’s command.
• King Shangyang seeks a command of his own but is disappointedly passed over.

Significant themes

• Power and its cost: Elite forces require extraordinary amounts of spiritual and devotional energy.
• Faith as a resource: Believers’ prayers can sustain military power, making religious influence central to Tang’s future plans.
• Control and loyalty: Tang secures his authority by shaping both his soldiers’ allegiance and the Ghost Generals’ memories.
• Expansion and preparation: The new army is intended not only for conquest but also to grow stronger through experience.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng rebukes King Shangyang for criticizing the Heavenly Court, making clear that defying its influence could have consequences. The Ghost Generals’ memories of the old world have been altered, leaving them with a new account of the Heavenly Court.
• Rather than venture into the dangerous Wilds, Tang plans to enter the Netherworld beneath the Pan God Continent, part of the distant Wuman World. He believes the route is possible because nether-soil Giants from that region once appeared at Cloudtail Mountain.
• Tang summons A Hu, a powerful Giant who recognizes him as Witch King, and orders him to lead the force back to the Witch-Barbarians. Four Ghost Generals and thirty thousand Magical Weapons follow.
• The expedition crosses the Netherworld’s vast darkness and punishing Astral Wind. Tang first shields the army with the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp, then switches to the Yin-Yang Netherworld Sacred Coin, which can draw on the plentiful Yin Energy and other forces around it.
• The march lasts so long that the Magical Weapons must stop to eat three times. Tang accepts the distance because the Three Realms Mirror can fix a location’s coordinates, making even a remote foothold strategically useful.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng demonstrates political caution and strategic ambition: he disciplines Shangyang, avoids the Wilds, and prepares carefully for the dangers of the journey.
• King Shangyang, formerly a rebellious leader, is chastened by Yuan Wu’s warning and unsettled by A Hu’s overwhelming strength. The display makes him and the other Ghost Generals conscious of their comparatively low rank.
• Yuan Wu acts as a voice of restraint, urging Shangyang to stop arguing in front of Tang.
• A Hu shows loyalty and deference, accepting Tang’s command as Witch King and leading the expedition.
• Tang privately recognizes that his four Ghost Generals are too weak to command Spirit Terrace-level Magical Weapons effectively. He hopes to strengthen them later, but lacks the necessary resources.

Significant themes

• Power and obedience: Tang’s authority is reinforced both through political warnings and through displays of force.
• Preparation and resource limits: The journey depends on careful use of artifacts, while Tang remains constrained by scarce Wishfire, Sky Silver, and Vow Power.
• The Netherworld’s vastness: Its geography and distances do not follow the Mortal World’s rules, creating both danger and opportunity.
• Ambition and strategic reach: Tang seeks to build influence far from his base, relying on supernatural means to overcome distance.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng’s party discovers a city built into a mountain in the Netherworld. Its unfamiliar architecture suggests a foothold established by the Purple Dusk Demons, prompting Tang to suspect a larger conspiracy.
• A Hu, enraged at seeing Netherworld Giants enslaved as quarry workers, charges the mountain alone. The enemy captures him with barbed arrows attached to cords, using a practiced method to bring down giants.
• Tang orders an attack. Yuan Wu leads ten thousand War God Soldiers in a battle formation that takes the shape of a vast, smoke-like giant. It sweeps aside the first group of Ghost Soldiers, while Zhuang Yongchang and Meng Liangze’s forces help destroy the initial enemy contingent.
• Hundreds of thousands of enemy Ghost Soldiers pour from the mountain. Although Tang’s smaller force is stronger and begins to gain the advantage, the enemy activates control runes on the enslaved giants, driving them to attack Tang’s troops.
• As the giants disrupt the War God Soldiers’ ranks, Tang intervenes with the Yin-Yang Netherworld Sacred Coin, which begins swallowing and crushing thousands of Ghost Soldiers.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng quickly reads the city as evidence of enemy expansion, stays back to assess the opposing army, and acts decisively when the enslaved giants endanger his soldiers.
• A Hu reveals his compassion and anger at the giants’ suffering, but his impulsive charge leaves him captured.
• Yuan Wu demonstrates his skill as a commander, linking his forces’ power through battle-formation techniques to create a powerful giant-shaped manifestation.
• Zhuang Yongchang and Meng Liangze coordinate with Yuan Wu’s strategy and help overwhelm the first enemy group.
• Tang’s restraint toward A Hu’s charge shows his confidence in the situation; later, he protects his troops rather than allowing them to be overwhelmed.

Significant themes

• Enslavement and resistance: The giants’ immense strength cannot protect them from organized capture and magical control.
• Power through unity: Yuan Wu’s formation turns many soldiers’ energy into a single, formidable force.
• Suspicion and intervention: Tang interprets the mountain city as part of a wider scheme, but first observes the enemy before committing himself.
• Strength versus numbers: Tang’s forces are outnumbered, yet their training and weapons initially give them the edge—until the controlled giants change the balance.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng realizes the Netherworld Sacred Coin can grind out a silver-like substance, though this “Sky Silver” is mixed with Yin Energy and impurities.
• The being behind the events emerges from a Divine Temple: a powerful, bald Witch God who does not recognize the Sacred Coin. Tang attacks without negotiating.
• The Sacred Coin, strengthened by the Yin Energy and Baleful Intent it has absorbed, pins the Witch God down and crushes his temple and the mountain peak beneath him.
• Tang’s Jade Ruyi begins turning the Witch God’s brow to earth. As the two powers struggle, Tang instinctively presses the Golden Branch to the transformed spot.
• The branch takes root in the Witch God and drains his Divine Power. The Witch God identifies it as the World Tree before the Jade Ruyi turns his body to earth and the tree absorbs what remains.
• The branch becomes a small, radiant golden tree. Tang retrieves a Divine Core caught among its roots, which reach for it; a flame makes them withdraw.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang proves decisive and resourceful, combining several powerful artifacts and improvising with the Golden Branch when his original attack stalls.
• He remains cautious after seeing the World Tree’s terrifying power, though he finds it can be safely stored and does not harm him.
• The Witch God begins as a confident giant, but his lack of familiarity with Tang’s artifacts leaves him vulnerable. He resists the Jade Ruyi until the World Tree drains his power, then dies in terror.
• Tang and the Witch God’s encounter is entirely hostile: Tang offers no explanation or warning, while the Witch God tries first to block the Sacred Coin and then to resist the Ruyi and tree.

Significant themes

• Power through accumulated force: The Sacred Coin grows stronger by absorbing Yin Energy and Baleful Intent.
• Improvisation and unexpected abilities: Tang’s instinctive use of the Golden Branch reveals its extraordinary nature.
• The danger of power: The World Tree is beautiful and portable, yet its ability to consume a god makes Tang wary of it.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Tang recognizes the Divine Core and infers the Golden Branch’s identity, but still does not fully understand the artifacts he possesses.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng feeds the bald Witch God’s Divine Core into the Heavenly Mandate Compass. The Compass breaks it down into mysterious Heavenly Book Characters, which Tang understands immediately.
• The characters reveal laws connected to the Netherworld and Thick Earth. From them, Tang comprehends the Dharma Form of Heaven and Earth, a divine ability that lets him grow to giant size in the Mortal World and greatly increases his strength.
• The Outer Regions Ghost Soldiers lose heart after Tang kills their Shrine Deity. Their forces collapse: some flee into the dangerous Astral Wind, while many surrender.
• A blonde, smoke-bodied woman named Natasha is brought before Tang. She calls herself a Succubus and offers to submit to him, but Tang recognizes her as a dream-dwelling creature akin to the “Nightmares” known in the Central Land.

Character development

• Tang’s power and understanding grow: he is now close to True Immortal strength, and his Three Realms Mirror appears to be evolving—or recovering its former power.
• His confidence in the Heavenly Mandate Compass deepens, but he still regards the Three Realms Mirror as his true foundation.
• Natasha’s seductive confidence falters under Tang’s cool scrutiny. When he dismisses her claims, she becomes anxious.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as power: The Compass turns a Divine Core into Dao-bearing characters, allowing Tang to gain a formidable ability.
• The importance of leadership: The Ghost Soldiers’ discipline depends on their Shrine Deity; his death causes widespread panic and surrender.
• Appearance versus nature: Natasha’s alluring form and grand claims conceal a creature Tang understands as a familiar kind of dream predator.

Character interactions

• Tang uses the Witch God’s Divine Core to gain knowledge and power, then ignores the fleeing soldiers and accepts the surrender of many others.
• He questions Natasha directly rather than responding to her seduction. His skepticism and disdain unsettle her, leaving her anxious as the exchange continues.

Key plot points and events

• Natasha pleads for her life by offering Tang Changsheng Cortos’s War Banner, claiming it can command the Outer Regions Ghost Soldiers.
• Tang tests the banner. Its power draws the surviving Ghost Soldiers to him, ending the battle and allowing his allies to recall their troops.
• Tang accepts Natasha as his servant, though he privately doubts her loyalty and intends to keep her from ever having a chance to betray him.
• Natasha reveals that Cortos is a Titan Giant sent to occupy Dark Mountain on orders from Timoa, the Eternal Demon Dragon. Tang recognizes the threat from his earlier encounter with Timoa and considers whether the Immortal Sects should be informed, but decides they may already know—or lack the resources to act.
• Tang’s army has grown to nearly 100,000, including more than 70,000 subdued Ghost Soldiers. He also sees the potential to recruit thousands of enslaved Netherworld Giants.
• Natasha explains that these “Infernal Giants” are Titan Giants cast into Purgatory after becoming too powerful and disrupting the laws of their worlds. Tang recognizes them as akin to Witch Gods, the earliest rulers of the Eastern Glory World.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng demonstrates strategic restraint and confidence: he accepts Natasha’s help, uses the banner effectively, and weighs the wider political threat without rushing to involve the Immortal Sects. He also views Natasha’s loyalty pragmatically rather than trusting it.
• Natasha shifts from desperate captive to useful adviser and self-proclaimed loyal servant. She eagerly provides the banner and intelligence, motivated by survival and the hope of gaining Tang’s protection.
• Tang and Natasha establish a master-servant relationship, but it is openly unequal and grounded in Tang’s power. Natasha flatters and submits; Tang permits her service while remaining wary.
• Tang’s allies, including Yuan Wu, respond to his command by pulling their troops back once the Ghost Soldiers are subdued.

Significant themes

• Power and loyalty: Submission and loyalty are presented as conditional, especially when a servant’s allegiance depends on who holds the upper hand.
• The burden of power: Great beings are expected to keep their promises, since their credibility is part of the foundation of their authority.
• Cosmic conflict and forgotten history: The Titan Giants’ downfall reveals a recurring pattern in which ancient rulers are punished for upsetting the balance of their worlds.
• The Netherworld’s vastness: Its immense scale makes knowledge, navigation, and intervention difficult even for powerful sects and True Immortals.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng learns from Natasha that the Titan Giants and Witch Gods were once powerful, but were defeated and their souls imprisoned in the Netherworld.
• Testing A Hu with his Dharma Power, Tang discovers the giants have neither souls nor Yin Substance. He concludes that the Netherworld itself eventually causes Witch Gods to die out.
• Tang asks Natasha about nearby Blessed Lands. Finding none along her known routes, he decides to leave the mountain once the Ghost Soldiers are organized, since it is connected to the Purple Dusk Demons.
• Natasha reveals that the mountain contains a Spirit Iron Mine. Tang immediately orders the giants to mine it, reasoning that the site lies in Eastern Glory territory and the potential gains justify the risk.
• The giants quickly uncover large quantities of high-quality Spirit Iron, along with a second, unusual vein. Tang identifies the dark-red, heart-shaped stones as Blood Essence Stones, likely formed from ancient Witch God remains and valuable for crafting Treasured Artifacts.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang sees Natasha as a useful source of information but keeps his deeper conclusions about the giants’ fate to himself.
• His discovery that Witch Gods are doomed to fade in the Netherworld leaves him quietly unsettled.
• Tang shifts from caution to opportunism when he learns the mountain’s resources are valuable. He asserts his authority by ordering the mine stripped despite Natasha’s concerns about retaliation.
• A Hu submits to Tang’s test, enduring the Dharma Power even as it provokes a strong reaction. The giants later restrain themselves from touching the Blood Essence Stones, though they clearly desire them.
• Natasha warns Tang about the mine and the danger of provoking the Purple Dusk Demons; Tang counters that the enemy would be acting within Eastern Glory territory.

Significant themes

• Obsolescence and extinction: Even once-mighty beings can be doomed by the conditions of a changing world.
• Pragmatism and power: Tang balances caution against profit, choosing to exploit the mine despite the risk.
• History transformed into resources: The remnants of ancient Witch Gods have become valuable materials for the living.
• Scarcity and strategic control: Rare Blessed Lands and mineral veins make territory valuable—and contested.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng reflects on the Witch Gods’ defining weakness: unlike cultivators, their souls cannot survive separately from their bodies. Destroying a Witch God’s body annihilates it completely.
• He concludes the Witch God he previously killed was no longer a pure Witch God, since it possessed a Divine Core; true Witch Gods draw power directly from their Bloodlines.
• Tang tests a Blood Essence Stone on A Hu. The stone sends the giant into a painful transformation, rapidly increasing his size and power. Tang realizes the stones are unusually potent and takes them away, then orders his forces to mine the entire deposit.
• The mining exhausts both mineral veins, causing the Blessed Land to disappear and leaving the site exposed to Astral Wind. Tang’s company departs with a valuable haul.
• The Purple Dusk True Immortal arrives afterward, finds the site stripped, and suspects Cortos has fled or been defeated. Using a tracking treasure, he follows Tang’s company.
• On catching up, he sees Cortos’s Ghost Soldiers now serving Tang. He recognizes that whoever defeated Cortos must be exceptionally powerful, but greed for the Blood Essence Stones and wounded pride keep him from turning back.
• Tang remains unaware of the pursuit. He has discovered that the Heavenly Mandate Compass can absorb Blood Essence Stones and produce Heavenly Book Characters, strengthening his belief that the stones come from an Elder Witch God’s blood essence.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng grows more knowledgeable about Witch God biology and cautiously tests the stones’ effects. He shows control over A Hu and decisiveness in ordering the excavation, while studying the stones for further uses.
• A Hu eagerly accepts the stone but is overwhelmed by its power, revealing both the stones’ potency and the giants’ susceptibility to them.
• The Purple Dusk True Immortal shifts from suspicion to alarm as he assesses Tang’s forces. His desire for the stones and reluctance to suffer a loss of pride outweigh his caution.
• Tang and his followers operate as a coordinated force: Tang directs the excavation, while Ghost Soldiers and giants obey and work together. The Purple Dusk True Immortal’s discovery that Cortos’s troops have joined them heightens the mystery and threat surrounding Tang.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: The Witch Gods are formidable, but their dependence on their bodies makes them vulnerable to total annihilation.
• Power with a cost: The Blood Essence Stones can dramatically strengthen the giants, yet A Hu’s painful reaction suggests the power is difficult to endure.
• Greed and pride: The Purple Dusk True Immortal recognizes the danger of confronting Tang but is unwilling to abandon the valuable stones or retreat.
• Knowledge as advantage: Tang’s investigations into Witch God nature and the stones’ properties help him convert discoveries into greater strength.

Plot and events

• Tang Changsheng continues refining Blood Essence Stones with the Heavenly Mandate Compass. He confirms they came from a single Elder Witch God whose Heavenly Secrets Law was linked to the sun.
• After refining seven stones, he combines six Heavenly Book Characters into a meaningful phrase. This grants him a new ability: he conjures a bright light that illuminates the Netherworld and burns the Ghost and Yin Soldiers nearby.
• The light reveals the Purple Dusk True Immortal, who had been secretly watching. Tang mistakes him for a possible powerful enemy and sends a sword strike after him. Frightened by Tang’s apparent confidence and the huge escort, the Purple Dusk True Immortal flees without testing the attack.
• Tang hurries his forces back to Cloudtail Mountain, then takes them to Skyless Mountain, the base of Qibi Ghost King and his allies, where he can keep his enormous new army and spoils out of sight.
• At Skyless Mountain, Ghost King Lunan complains that the Ghost Kings have grown powerful enough to resent serving Cloudtail Mountain. Qibi reminds him that allegiance to Tang protected them from the Heavenly Court’s earlier campaign. Their argument is interrupted by news that an army is approaching.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang remains patient about deciphering the Heavenly Book Characters, trusting that more samples may eventually reveal a path of cultivation. His new light-working ability is a first tangible breakthrough, though he does not yet understand how powerful it is.
• The Purple Dusk True Immortal’s fear leads him to misjudge Tang’s strength and flee without discovering that the sword attack was less formidable than he imagined.
• Lunan voices the Ghost Kings’ growing ambition and resentment; Qibi defends their allegiance while privately sharing some of Lunan’s dissatisfaction. Their exchange exposes tension beneath their alliance with Tang.

Themes

• Accumulated knowledge and discovery: Individual Heavenly Book Characters seem fragmentary, but combining them can reveal a complete meaning and unlock power.
• Misjudgment and appearances: The Purple Dusk True Immortal mistakes Tang’s display and army for proof of overwhelming strength.
• Power and loyalty: The Ghost Kings’ security and prosperity depend on Tang’s protection, yet their growing military strength makes their obedience increasingly uneasy.
• The rewards and risks of sudden gains: Tang’s campaign yields a vast army and resources, but the scale of his spoils creates a problem of secrecy and storage.

Key plot points and events

• Skyless Mountain’s ghost kings, Qibi and Lunan, panic when scouts report an approaching army of War God Soldiers and giants. Remembering how Heavenly forces had previously destroyed powerful factions, they assume Skyless Mountain is about to be wiped out.
• Tang Changsheng arrives with the troops. The ghost kings submit, but he is there to station his army at Skyless Mountain, not destroy it. He orders the two kings to send one of their number to Cloudtail Mountain each year as well.
• Tang’s force is smaller than the ghost kings fear, but still formidable: thirty thousand War God Soldiers, several thousand Netherworld Giants, and a large contingent of elite troops he has subdued in the Outer Regions.
• Tang takes Qibi back to Cloudtail Mountain, where he forges Spirit Iron into weapons and armor and uses Wishfire to prepare pills for the Netherworld Giants. The pills strengthen them, and the newly equipped troops become more powerful.

Character developments and interactions

• Qibi and Lunan shift from private resentment and doubts about serving Tang to fearful, unquestioning obedience when confronted with his military power.
• Tang Changsheng uses their fear to secure greater control, turning a proposed troop stationing into an order and adding a yearly obligation for one ghost king.
• The ghost kings’ anxious submission contrasts with Tang’s calm authority. He recognizes that his army has frightened them but lets the misunderstanding work in his favor.

Significant themes

• Power and submission: Military strength can compel loyalty where persuasion cannot.
• Misjudgment and fear: The ghost kings overestimate the approaching army and mistake its arrival for a death sentence.
• Consolidation of power: Tang strengthens his position through both political demands and practical military improvements.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng has recruited and Ritual Refined tens of thousands of Magical Weapons, strengthening Cloudtail Mountain. He hopes to use scarce Blood Essence Stones to make pills and raise his Netherworld Giants to the Yin Spirit tier, giving him a better chance against the enormous Purple Dusk Demon army.
• Worried that cultivation might push him into the True Immortal realm before he is ready, Tang avoids both cultivation and seclusion. He instead leads a new expedition to the Wuman World, using the Three Realms Mirror and its stored coordinates to reach the Netherworld more quickly.
• After leaving the ruins of the previously explored Blessed Land, the party travels for seventy or eighty days. A Hu cannot guide them in unfamiliar territory, so Natasha chooses their route. The Yin-Yang Netherworld Sacred Coin and Primordial Yang Divine Lamp protect the force from the Astral Winds and help sustain it.
• They find a Blessed Land held by local Ghost Gods and defeat its defenders, but the loot is poor. Further targets are similarly impoverished: Pan God has taken most of the region’s wealth.
• As the party prepares to withdraw, Tang spots a vast mountain range glowing with the familiar blood-red radiance. Natasha recognizes that the territory must belong to a mighty god; Tang concludes they have reached Pan God’s Core Territory.
• Two Yang Spirit True Persons from the Vermilion Bright Nether Void Palace intercept them. Tang cautiously displays the Primordial Taiyi Divine Talisman, earning their respect. He claims he was training his troops and lost his way. They confirm that the site is Pan God’s Ruins, where their Immortal Sects are confronting Pan God.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang is increasingly cautious about his own cultivation and the looming threat of the Purple Dusk Demons, but remains willing to lead dangerous expeditions. His strength and command of a large army give him the confidence to raid the Netherworld.
• Natasha proves a capable guide when A Hu cannot help. She also quickly assesses the significance of the mountain territory.
• The two Vermilion Bright Nether Void Palace True Persons initially approach warily, then become deferential after sensing Tang’s talisman and power. Tang handles the encounter diplomatically while concealing his true identity and strength.

Significant themes

• Power and respect: Tang’s reputation and demonstrated strength determine how others treat him.
• Preparation against greater threats: His efforts to strengthen his troops are driven by fear of the Purple Dusk Demons.
• Risk and restraint: Tang avoids premature advancement while continuing to take calculated military risks.
• Unequal wealth and power: Pan God’s dominance has left the other Netherworld powers depleted, foreshadowing the scale of the conflict ahead.

Key plot points and events

• Two True Persons from the Vermilion Bright Nether Void Palace recruit Tang Changsheng to help destroy Pan God’s stronghold. His assignment is to seal the perimeter while the main forces attack.
• The Heavenly Court unexpectedly joins the operation. Its Thunder-Ruling God unleashes devastating Pure Yang Thunderbolts, wiping out cities, settlements, and huge numbers of Pan God’s forces.
• Pan God’s surviving Ghost Soldiers and blood slaves flee the bombardment, then rally and battle the Heavenly Soldiers. Despite the Heavenly Court’s million troops, they struggle against the vast enemy host.
• Tang estimates Pan God has accumulated at least five million Ghost Soldiers over nearly a thousand years. The scale of the resistance reveals that he had underestimated Pan God’s strength.
• A signal calls the Immortal Sect forces into action. More than a hundred Yang Spirit True Persons head directly for Pan God’s Mountain, while Tang and the two True Persons are told to support them and clear away Ghost Soldiers.

Character developments

• Tang’s knowledge of Pan God’s territory helps him assess the scale of the enemy, but the battle forces him to revise his estimate of Pan God’s power.
• He is impressed by the Heavenly Court’s formidable forces, though he regards their strength as necessary for maintaining their place in the Eastern Glory World.
• The Immortal Sect disciples, normally dismissive of the Heavenly Court, are shaken by the Thunder-Ruling God’s display.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and misjudgment: Both Pan God’s reserves and the Heavenly Court’s military strength exceed expectations.
• Coalitions and strategic necessity: The Immortal Sects and Heavenly Court cooperate against a threat too large for a simple, isolated assault.
• Scale of war: The immense armies and catastrophic bombardment show the destructive stakes of the conflict.

Character interactions

• The two Vermilion Bright Nether Void Palace True Persons enlist Tang and later direct him to support the elite assault.
• The Heavenly Court’s forces demonstrate their power to the Immortal Sect observers, challenging the latter’s sense of superiority.
• Tang exchanges assessments with the True Persons about Pan God’s army and the advancing Yang Spirit elites.