Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Zhang Yuan nudges Li Huixi to pay respects to the visiting True Lord of Ten Thousand Cycles of Balance, but Li Huixi refuses, insisting that he bows only to the Eastern Bian Li Clan’s own True Lord.
• Li Huixi orders Zhang Yuan not to bow either, claiming Zhang is practically part of the clan because he is betrothed to one of its daughters. He even threatens to kill Zhang if he disobeys.
• Zhang says he has not accepted the marriage. He is tempted by the clan’s offer to revive Chen Xinqiao, but wants to first see whether he can accomplish it himself and potentially negotiate from a position of strength.
• Li Huixi suggests the Eastern Bian Li True Lord might force Zhang into the marriage. Zhang argues she would never do so, citing her gentle reputation in Biographies of the Lords—unaware that Li Huixi is the very True Lord he is praising.
• The visiting True Lord overhears the exchange and mistakenly concludes that Li Huixi is a hidden clan leader arranging a match between Zhang and Li Zhongshuang. He also assumes Zhang is fortunate to be marrying into the clan.
• Deng Yici watches the group and forms his own elaborate theory: Zhang and the white-haired Li Clan daughter each misunderstand who the intended bride is, while Zhang’s friend Cui Zhaowei may be seeking marriage to him to escape a clan alliance. Delighted by his deductions, Deng looks forward to stirring up trouble.

Character developments

• Zhang Yuan remains cautious and independent. Though the promise of reviving Chen Xinqiao makes the marriage appealing, he refuses to commit before exploring other options.
• Li Huixi displays extreme arrogance and possessiveness toward Zhang, treating the marriage as settled despite Zhang’s objections. The irony deepens when Zhang praises Li Huixi’s own supposedly gentle nature without recognizing her.
• Deng Yici emerges as a clever but unreliable observer: he confidently assembles a complicated explanation from incomplete clues and is eager to exploit the supposed confusion for amusement.

Character interactions

• Li Huixi’s domineering behavior clashes with Zhang’s measured resistance, though Zhang chooses humor and compliance over confrontation.
• Zhang unknowingly compliments Li Huixi to her face, prompting her to encourage him to read more about her.
• The visiting True Lord and Deng Yici silently observe the conversation, but each draws a different—and largely mistaken—conclusion about the relationships and marriage arrangement.

Significant themes

• Misunderstanding and dramatic irony: Characters interpret the same conversation in conflicting ways, while readers know that Zhang is praising Li Huixi herself.
• Autonomy versus obligation: Zhang weighs a potentially powerful marriage bargain against his desire to choose his own path.
• Appearance versus reality: Hidden identities, uncertain betrothals, and misleading appearances fuel the chapter’s humor and confusion.

The True Lords of the major clans gathered for Cui Yuanxi’s Celestial Assembly, where Zhang Yuan watched their rivalries and considered their identities. After the guests presented congratulatory gifts, Li Huixi told Zhang Yuan he would need a Pre-Heaven True Treasure hairpin to visit Sun-Moon Cliff.

• Deng Yici flirted with Zhang Yuan, while True Lord Imperial Balance Myriad Turns considered recruiting him into the Wen River Deng Clan.
• True Lord Rainbow-Haloed Rosy Clouds arrived for the Hengyang Lu Clan, and Zhang Yuan wondered about her clan’s strange character.
• The Jingyang Li Clan and Western Bian Chu Clan arrived with their True Lords, completing the gathering of the Five Surnames and Seven Great Clans.
• True Lord Qingji Huiyu insulted Deng La Er, and True Lord Imperial Balance Myriad Turns told him to go home.
• Deng Fufeng began the gift presentations, and Zhang Yuan offered his sandalwood box as a congratulatory gift.
• Li Huixi told Zhang Yuan he would need a Pre-Heaven True Treasure hairpin to be received at Sun-Moon Cliff, leaving him puzzled.

At the Aohai Cui Clan’s Dharma Assembly, Zhang Yuan tried to keep Li Huixi from offending the gathered True Lords, while the guests settled in for a banquet. Crown Prince Wu Yuqing then challenged the Eastern Bian Li Clan, and the chapter ended with the True Lords realizing he meant Li Huixi.

• Zhang Yuan asked why the Eastern Bian Li Clan had not offered a congratulatory gift, and Li Huixi said attending the assembly was already enough of a courtesy.
• Zhang Yuan discreetly urged Li Huixi to keep quiet, while the True Lords avoided looking directly at her and [True Lord Jianmu Dinghai] considered giving her a gift.
• As the assembly’s banquet continued, Wu Yuqing volunteered to exchange spells and asked [True Lord Jianmu Dinghai] for permission to duel an Eastern Bian Li Clan disciple.
• [True Lord Jianmu Dinghai] said the clan had brought only a Nine Turns Qi Refining cultivator, who could not duel Wu Yuqing.
• Wu Yuqing demanded to know whether Li Huixi was not a member of the Eastern Bian Li Clan, and the True Lords realized she was the person he meant.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yuqing, Crown Prince of the Wu Kingdom, challenges the Eastern Bian Li Clan, intending to identify whether it or the Ya East Cui is weaker. The Wu House hopes to replace one of the Five Surnames and Seven Houses.
• The Wu House knows that the True Lords cannot descend to the mortal world for a year and ten months. Wu Yuqing’s father, Wu Duanzhuo, is at Celestial Person Perfection and may use this window to become a True Lord.
• Wu Yuqing provokes Li Huixi, mocking his height and calling him a coward. The True Lords recognize this as a fatal mistake: Li Huixi is secretly the Heaven-and-Earth Lesser Monarch, and insulting his height is a deadly taboo.
• Li Huixi restrains himself to preserve his disguise and asks Zhang Yuan to kill Wu Yuqing. Zhang refuses, noting that the challenge was not directed at him and that acting could draw the Wu House’s attention.
• Li Huixi first offers a “reward” through Zhang Yuan’s betrothed, Li Zhongshuang, then promises to speak favorably to the True Lord—and threatens to speak badly of Zhang instead. Zhang eventually decides the trouble is worth it and accepts the prospect of killing Wu Yuqing.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yuqing is bold but overconfident. His ambition and mistaken assessment of the Eastern Bian Li Clan lead him to insult someone far beyond his understanding.
• Li Huixi remains outwardly calm but is angered by the height insult. He manipulates the situation rather than revealing his true power, using persuasion, humor, and a threat to enlist Zhang Yuan.
• Zhang Yuan is cautious and reluctant to take on another enemy, but his resentment at Li Huixi’s threat—and his lack of fear toward the Wu Kingdom—pushes him toward action.
• Li Zhongshuang is visibly startled when Li Huixi suggests using her as Zhang’s “reward.”
• The True Lords privately recognize Wu Yuqing’s danger, while the lesser cultivators mistake his provocation for a sign of the Wu House’s rising strength.

Significant themes

• Misjudged power: Wu Yuqing sees the clan as weak because he does not know Li Huixi’s true identity.
• Ambition and political maneuvering: The Wu House plans to exploit the True Lords’ absence to change the realm’s hierarchy.
• Hidden identities and restraint: Li Huixi must conceal his overwhelming power to protect his plans.
• Coercion and loyalty: Li Huixi recruits Zhang through a mix of promised favors and threats, while Zhang weighs personal risk against the consequences of refusing.

Plot points

• Zhang Yuan confronts Wu Yuqing, who had been preparing to ambush him. Using the [Flying Light Sword], Zhang Yuan unleashes a devastating three-colored attack that nearly destroys Wu’s body.
• Wu survives thanks to his Dao Domain, which can restore his vitality. Zhang Yuan prepares to strike again, knowing that an ordinary divine ability may not be enough to kill a Celestial Person outright.
• Wu grabs Ye Chongming and drains his vitality to heal himself, then throws Ye into Zhang Yuan’s incoming attack as a shield.
• A sudden shaft of sunlight lets Zhang Yuan use the sword’s [Light Leap] effect to redirect the attack. It reappears behind Wu and engulfs him, allowing Ye to escape.
• Ye identifies Wu as a demonic cultivator: Wu’s organs and bones are blackened by demonic energy, and he can steal others’ vitality. The gathering recoils from Wu, while [Rainbow Radiance True Lord] publicly denounces him and distances himself from the accusation of any connection.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan remains composed and observant, recognizing Wu’s ambush before it happens. He demonstrates both overwhelming offensive power and clever use of the sword’s light-based ability.
• Wu Yuqing shifts from would-be aggressor to desperate predator, exploiting Ye to recover and survive. His demonic methods are exposed.
• Ye Chongming is unwillingly used as a source of vitality and a human shield, but survives through Zhang’s intervention. He thanks Zhang and warns the others about Wu.
• The gathered Celestial People and True Lords move from astonishment at Zhang’s power to alarm and suspicion once Wu’s demonic nature is revealed. Rainbow Radiance True Lord takes the initiative to condemn Wu.

Significant themes

• Power and survival: Celestial People’s vitality makes them exceptionally hard to kill, while Dao Domains and special abilities can determine the outcome of a fight.
• Cunning versus brute force: Zhang’s insight and tactical use of sunlight counter Wu’s ambush and desperate defenses.
• Demonic exploitation: Wu treats another cultivator as a resource, revealing the cruelty and danger associated with the Demonic Dao.
• Reputation and political positioning: The True Lords’ reactions show the importance of publicly distancing themselves from a discredited or dangerous figure.

Key plot points

• The assembled Lords suspect the Hengyang Lu after a Demon Cultivator appears, since the Lu family only recently abandoned its demonic roots. Rainbow Radiance True Lord quickly distances herself from Wu Yuqing.
• Zhang Yuan prepares to finish off the gravely wounded Wu Yuqing, but Rainbow Radiance True Lord intervenes. Rather than kill him herself and violate the ban on True Lords acting for the next one year and ten months, she lends Zhang Yuan her power.
• Empowered by her seven-colored Treasure Light, Zhang Yuan destroys Wu Yuqing’s Dharma Body, Primordial Spirit, and Dao Domain. Wu Yuqing dies permanently, despite protesting that the attack breaks the Lords’ agreement.
• Zhang Yuan studies the Treasure Light and realizes its underlying principle, Return to Origin, can be used in opposite ways: to restore someone—or reduce them to nothing. This insight advances his Daoist Attainment.
• The revelation leads him to consider new applications for his own Life-Bound Divine Abilities: using Golden Chariot’s fate disruption on himself to turn danger into good fortune, and using Myriad Coexistence as a locator to help his distant master, Xiao Yuanjun, reach him through the Great Void.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan proves decisive and ruthless, choosing to kill Wu Yuqing before he can escape. He also grows intellectually, learning to view Divine Abilities through opposing Yin-Yang applications.
• Rainbow Radiance True Lord acts pragmatically and cautiously. She strengthens Zhang Yuan instead of striking directly, both to avoid breaking the restriction and to avoid provoking the Lesser Sovereign, whose connection to Zhang Yuan she recognizes.
• Wu Yuqing shifts from a badly injured opponent to a desperate, terrified man pleading for the rules to protect him. His death is final.
• Zhang Yuan’s bond with Xiao Yuanjun remains important: he considers expanding their connection, though he rejects the idea of sending her his limited Daoist Attainment.

Significant themes

• Yin and Yang, and the dual nature of power: An ability’s apparent purpose can be reversed; restoration can become annihilation, and fate disruption might benefit its user.
• Caution and political survival: Rainbow Radiance True Lord carefully navigates restrictions and powerful relationships.
• Growth through insight: Zhang Yuan’s victory yields more than a dead enemy—it prompts new ways to understand and develop his abilities.

Zhang Yuan killed Wu Yuqing and tried repeatedly to send Xiao Yuanjun the hall’s coordinates, but she never arrived. After the first day of the Dharma Assembly ended, Li Huixi left for Sun-Moon Cliff and told Li Zhongshuang to watch Zhang Yuan, while both women misunderstood the other’s intentions regarding his relationship with Li Zhongshuang.

• Zhang Yuan thanked [True Lord Rainbow-Haloed Rosy Clouds] for saving him, then challenged the hall’s Celestial Persons to exchange spells, but they declined.
• Zhang Yuan told Li Huixi that the Eastern Bian Li Clan owed him a favor for killing Wu Yuqing and asked her to recommend him to her True Lord.
• Zhang Yuan repeatedly used [Myriad Coexistence] to send the hall’s coordinates to Xiao Yuanjun, but she did not appear.
• At dusk, Zhang Yuan left the Martial Arts Arena Hall with Cui Zhaowei as the Dharma Assembly’s first day ended.
• Li Huixi told Li Zhongshuang to stay at the Dharma Assembly and keep an eye on Zhang Yuan before departing for Sun-Moon Cliff.
• Li Huixi assumed Li Zhongshuang had romantic feelings for Zhang Yuan, while Li Zhongshuang interpreted Li Huixi’s approving look as encouragement to pursue him.

Xiao Yuanjun finally reached Zhang Yuan through the Great Void and accidentally landed on him in Clear Radiance Courtyard. After explaining that the assembly’s True Lords may have disrupted her earlier attempts, she shared a warm reunion with Zhang Yuan and agreed to have dinner with him.

• Zhang Yuan sensed someone traversing the Great Void and prepared to defend Clear Radiance Courtyard.
• Xiao Yuanjun broke through the formation and landed on Zhang Yuan, then realized he was beneath her and helped him up.
• Xiao Yuanjun said [Myriad Coexistence] had only recently provided clear coordinates, and Zhang Yuan guessed that the five True Lords at the assembly had interfered with her earlier attempts.
• Xiao Yuanjun promised to hold Zhang Yuan a grand Celestial Assembly after becoming a True Lord, but Zhang Yuan said sharing dinner with her was already the best celebration.
• Xiao Yuanjun accepted Zhang Yuan’s invitation to dinner and asked where his bedroom was.

Cui Yuanxi rejected the Wen River Deng Clan’s apology hairpin because of their treatment of Zhang Yuan, then eagerly accepted the hairpin he had given her. She ended the evening admiring its peony and red-bean decorations, while wondering what they meant.

• Xiao Shi showed Cui Yuanxi the jade hairpin sent by the Wen River Deng Clan, and Cui Yuanxi ordered it placed in the Lineage treasury.
• Cui Yuanxi asked about Zhaowei’s gift and learned that she had sent a Ritual Sword of Pre-Heaven Supreme Treasure quality.
• Xiao Shi revealed that Zhang Yuan had sent Cui Yuanxi a hairpin of Pre-Heaven True Treasure quality.
• Cui Yuanxi jumped down from the tree, took Zhang Yuan’s hairpin, and said she liked it.
• Cui Yuanxi examined the hairpin’s golden peony and red-bean decorations and wondered what they meant.

Key plot points and events

• During the seven-day assembly, Zhang Yuan skips the final six days and spends a quiet stretch in Clear Radiance Garden with Xiao Yuanjun.
• Cui Zhaowei arrives urgently: the Ya Kingdom is being ravaged by Demonic Cultivators, with other kingdoms also facing outbreaks. Because the attackers are scattered across many locations, Cui’s parents cannot contain them all.
• Zhang agrees to take Cui back, suspecting the calamity may be orchestrated by True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts. Xiao Yuanjun joins them by clinging to Zhang during their journey through the Great Void, hoping to avoid getting lost again.
• They emerge in Clear Harmony City near the Ya Kingdom’s capital and find it devastated: civilians have been slaughtered, eaten, and their souls brutalized. The capital remains protected by an activated defensive formation.
• As Zhang prepares to fly toward the capital, Xiao warns him that a Demonic Cultivator is hiding nearby.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan responds calmly to Cui’s distress, accepts the risk of leaving the assembly, and shows disgust at the attackers’ treatment of civilians. He takes responsibility for getting Cui home and helping confront the crisis.
• Cui Zhaowei puts duty to her kingdom and family above her own safety, despite her limited cultivation. She trusts Zhang’s judgment and is reassured by his support.
• Xiao Yuanjun chooses to accompany Zhang because she wants to stay with him and avoid another navigation mishap. Her sudden leap onto him is familiar and practical, though it leaves Cui visibly uncomfortable.
• Zhang and Xiao cooperate closely in travel and respond quickly to danger; Cui’s presence underscores the urgency and personal stakes of the crisis.

Significant themes

• Duty amid danger: Cui returns to help her kingdom despite being outmatched, while Zhang abandons a comfortable retreat to assist her.
• The vulnerability of ordinary people: Even relatively weak attackers can cause catastrophe when powerful cultivators are too few or spread too thin.
• The horror of unchecked evil: The city’s desecration makes clear that the Demonic Cultivators’ violence is not merely warfare but predation.
• Uncertainty and suspicion: Zhang suspects a larger force is directing the calamity, but the hidden Demonic Cultivator suggests the immediate danger is still unfolding.

Key plot points and events

• In the devastated city of Qinghe, Zhang Yuan’s warning comes too late: a huge river of black hair bursts from a boulder and attacks him and his companions. His [Flying Light Sword] cuts it apart, revealing that the river is made of hair taken from the townspeople.
• The hair gathers around a bald monk, Jingjue, who introduces himself as a practitioner of the form refinement and spirit transformation path and the Canghua Shangyuan Immortal Art. Xiao Yuanjun explains that this tradition seeks to transform the body into a divine immortal believed to reside among the body’s thirty-six thousand gods.
• Zhang Yuan’s insight reveals that Jingjue caused the city’s slaughter. Jingjue claims he consumed the townspeople’s afflictions and karmic burdens, supposedly freeing them to be reborn and earning merit. Zhang Yuan rejects this as a shameless excuse for using people as cultivation materials.
• Jingjue says he came from the Lotus Root Temple in the Jin Kingdom to search for his disciple, Miaoyuan—a nine-turn cultivator whose name connects him to Zhang Yuan’s [Monk Trial]. Zhang Yuan suspects Jingjue came with hostile intentions and attacks.
• Jingjue uses his hair as a shield, but Zhang Yuan’s Three-Colored Radiance burns away half of it. Realizing Zhang Yuan is a Celestial Person rather than the weaker cultivator he assumed, Jingjue cuts off the endangered hair and flees.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan moves from curiosity about an unfamiliar cultivation tradition to recognizing Jingjue as a mass murderer. Once he connects Miaoyuan to his own trial, he becomes openly hostile and strikes without hesitation.
• Xiao Yuanjun identifies Jingjue’s tradition and explains its doctrine, while warning that its practitioners have a sinister reputation. She cannot determine his exact cultivation realm.
• Jingjue presents himself as a merciful monk, but his account reveals a grotesque justification for killing an entire city. His confidence collapses when Zhang Yuan’s strength becomes clear.
• Zhang Yuan’s exchange with Jingjue exposes the clash between Jingjue’s self-serving religious language and Zhang Yuan’s moral judgment.

Significant themes

• Abuse of spiritual doctrine: Jingjue recasts mass murder as compassion and merit, showing how religious language can conceal exploitation.
• Unfamiliar paths and hidden danger: The encounter introduces a cultivation tradition outside the region’s two mainstream paths and suggests that its practices may be deeply sinister.
• Appearance versus reality: Jingjue looks like an ordinary, unremarkable monk, yet commands a monstrous weapon made from the victims’ hair.

Zhang Yuan captured and killed Old Monk Jingjue, learning that thousands of Form Refinement, Spirit Transformation Path cultivators had entered the Eastern Lands under orders from so-called Immortal Sages. With too few clues to identify the figures behind the Demonic Calamity, he decided to return to the Ya Kingdom Capital City.

• Zhang Yuan trapped Old Monk Jingjue in a cage of qi light and questioned him about the cultivators spreading through the Ya Kingdom.
• Jingjue said the Immortal Sages had ordered Form Refinement, Spirit Transformation Path cultivators to travel east and transmit their Dharma, and estimated that tens of thousands were now in the Eastern Lands.
• Jingjue described the Immortal Sages as Divine Immortals and Bodhisattvas from the Immortal Realm, while Zhang Yuan suspected their claims concealed a larger scheme.
• Zhang Yuan engulfed Jingjue in qi light and erased his body, soul, and any chance of reincarnation.
• Zhang Yuan connected the Demonic Calamity to the Wu Kingdom imperial family and regretted killing Wu Yuqing, Wu Yubai, and Wu Yu Chi before questioning them.
• Zhang Yuan concluded that Jingjue knew too little to reveal who was behind the Immortal Sages and headed back to the Ya Kingdom Capital City.

Key plot points and events

• Zhang Yuan travels toward Ya Kingdom’s capital in his Golden Carriage, hoping to find more cultivators to question. Along the way, he and his companions see the devastation left by the Demonic Calamity. He reassures Cui Zhaowei that Chancellor Cui Qiezhe has likely evacuated many settlements.
• Cui Zhaowei senses that her Strong Enemy Trial opponent is nearby. On a mountain outside the capital stand Wu Yuhei, Wu’s new Crown Prince, and his father, Wu Kingdom’s ruler Wu Duanzhuo—a genuine Celestial Person at perfection.
• Wu Duanzhuo had concealed himself so he could ambush Zhang Yuan’s party. He attacks the Golden Carriage with his Dragon Whale imago, sending it crashing into the ground.
• Wu Yuhei approaches to face the opponent he expects to find: Cui Zhaowei, a powerful Nine-Turn Sword Cultivator. He has three cultivation paths, and can summon an Immortal True Being to give himself combat strength comparable to a Nine-Turn Qi Refinement Perfected Person.
• Instead, Zhang Yuan emerges from the wreckage. When Wu Yuhei’s trial shifts its designated opponent from Cui Zhaowei to Zhang Yuan, he realizes he must face a Foundation-Building Celestial Person and panics.

Character developments

• Zhang Yuan remains composed after the ambush and confronts Wu Yuhei with confidence, despite the imbalance in their cultivation.
• Cui Zhaowei shows concern for Ya Kingdom’s people, then recognizes the opponent for her trial.
• Wu Yuhei begins confident in his ability to fight Cui Zhaowei, but that confidence collapses when the trial makes Zhang Yuan his opponent.
• Wu Duanzhuo is protective of his last surviving son and permits him to invoke the gods if necessary, while still arranging the ambush.

Significant themes

• Trials and fate: The Strong Enemy Trials can change their chosen opponents, unexpectedly transforming a manageable challenge into an overwhelming one.
• Power and confidence: Wu Yuhei’s confidence rests on his unusual combination of cultivation paths, but Zhang Yuan’s presence exposes its limits.
• The cost of catastrophe: The ruined settlements and dead civilians underscore the Demonic Calamity’s human toll, while Cui Qiezhe’s evacuations offer a small sign of hope.
• Risk and family loyalty: Wu Duanzhuo’s concern for his son shapes his actions, even as he puts Wu Yuhei into a dangerous confrontation.

Character interactions

• Zhang Yuan tries to reassure Cui Zhaowei about the evacuated towns.
• Wu Duanzhuo advises Wu Yuhei and gives him permission to call on the gods.
• Zhang Yuan’s direct challenge unsettles Wu Yuhei, whose trial now pits him against Zhang rather than Cui Zhaowei.

Key plot points and events

• Zhang Yuan explains that he is fighting Wu Yuhei as Cui Zhaowei’s proxy. His abilities—[Myriad Coexistence], [Golden Chariot], and Xiao Yuanjun’s [Dusk Veil]—have arranged the trial so Wu Yuhei still faces Cui Zhaowei, though Zhang Yuan stands in for her. Using Celestial Person-level power would expose the deception and bring Heavenly Punishment.
• Wu Yuhei mistakes Zhang Yuan’s apparent Qi Refinement cultivation for a sign that he can be beaten. His father, Wu Duanzhuo, reinforces this confidence, claiming Zhang Yuan is not a Sword Cultivator.
• Wu Yuhei unleashes his black Dragon Whale attack. Zhang Yuan raises his power to just below Celestial Person level and prepares his sword techniques; the pressure of his [Greatest of All Time] talent cuts the attack’s power roughly in half.
• Realizing he is outmatched, Wu Yuhei tries to summon an Immortal True Being through a paper figure made from his severed nose. Zhang Yuan strikes before the summoning can be completed, destroying Wu Yuhei and the figure.
• Zhang Yuan confronts Wu Duanzhuo for interfering. Wu Duanzhuo’s covert mind-affecting technique failed against Zhang Yuan’s [Immaculate Primordial Spirit]. When Wu Duanzhuo moves to cut off the Great Void, Zhang Yuan escapes into it through [Myriad Coexistence].

Character developments

• Zhang Yuan remains composed and confident, carefully exploiting the trial’s rules while keeping his true strength just below the level that would trigger Heavenly Punishment. His quick judgment and resistance to Wu Duanzhuo’s technique let him end the fight and escape.
• Wu Yuhei shifts from confidence to terror once Zhang Yuan’s power becomes clear. Rather than accept defeat, he resorts to a desperate attempt to summon help, but is killed before it succeeds.
• Wu Duanzhuo appears confident in his son’s chances and encourages him to attack, but secretly tries to help him by disrupting Zhang Yuan’s mind. When that fails, he turns hostile and attempts to trap Zhang Yuan.
• Xiao Yuanjun does not appear directly in the fight, but her [Dusk Veil] is crucial to the proxy arrangement and to preserving the trial’s deception.

Character interactions

• Wu Duanzhuo’s reassurance emboldens Wu Yuhei, who promises to defeat Zhang Yuan. His confidence depends heavily on his father’s judgment.
• Zhang Yuan overhears their exchange and recognizes Wu Duanzhuo’s encouragement as a reason for Wu Yuhei’s false confidence.
• After killing Wu Yuhei, Zhang Yuan openly challenges Wu Duanzhuo’s interference; Wu Duanzhuo responds with suspicion and aggression.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: Zhang Yuan’s apparent cultivation level and role conceal his actual power and status.
• Overconfidence and misjudgment: Wu Yuhei’s confidence rests on assumptions about Zhang Yuan, leading him to underestimate the danger.
• Rules and loopholes: Zhang Yuan manipulates the trial’s conditions without openly using power that would trigger Heavenly Punishment.
• Desperation and survival: When defeat becomes clear, Wu Yuhei abandons confidence for a last-ditch supernatural appeal, while Zhang Yuan prioritizes a swift strike and escape.

Key events

• The Ya Kingdom capital is sealed by a powerful Golden Light Array, while several thousand cultivators surround it. More than twenty are Celestial People, including three at Celestial Person Perfection—an overwhelming force against the weakened Ya Kingdom.
• Xiao Yuanjun brings Cui Zhaowei to the capital’s outskirts. Zhaowei fears her family cannot withstand the siege and worries that Zhang Yuan will incur Karma by helping her through the Celestial Person Trials.
• Zhang Yuan appears and explains that he already owes Zhaowei Karma: during his Qi Refining days, he took the Tribulation-Transforming Pill intended for her. He sees helping her pass the trials as repaying that debt.
• Zhang notices that most of the attackers are native Ya Kingdom Celestial People who have sided with the Demonic Calamity rather than resisting it.
• Two clan leaders, Shen Qiulan and Pei Chongtian, discuss their plan to hedge their bets: they will pose as allies of the invaders, switch sides if the Ya East Cui can resist, and plunder the clan if it falls. They believe the Cui family’s True Lord will not intervene.
• Zhaowei confirms that True Lords cannot act directly for another year and ten months. Foundation-Building Celestial People are also restricted from fighting within Heaven and Earth.
• She explains that this period ends with the expiration of the Five-Hundred-Year Ban on Becoming a Lord, after which Heaven and Earth will undergo major changes. Zhang recalls Liu Zezheng’s death and wonders whether it was connected to the ban.

Character developments and interactions

• Cui Zhaowei shifts from despair toward relief when Zhang explains his Karma-driven reason for helping her. Her concern reflects both her loyalty to her family and her awareness of the danger Zhang may face.
• Zhang Yuan takes responsibility for his past actions and commits to helping Zhaowei. His questions also reveal his growing interest in the hidden rules governing powerful cultivators.
• Xiao Yuanjun assesses the siege and supports Zhaowei, while remaining confident in her own abilities.
• Shen Qiulan and Pei Chongtian reveal their opportunism in conversation: they prioritize survival and profit, disguising self-interest as a double-agent strategy.

Significant themes

• Karma and responsibility: Zhang frames his aid as repayment for a debt created by taking Zhaowei’s pill.
• Political opportunism and betrayal: Some local elites exploit the crisis and wait to see which side will prevail.
• Power under constraint: Even the strongest cultivators are bound by a temporary prohibition, leaving weaker factions exposed.
• Hidden historical rules: The approaching end of the Five-Hundred-Year Ban suggests that the siege is unfolding on the eve of broader changes in the world.

Key plot points

• Zhang Yuan wonders whether a powerful True Lord imposed a rule restraining the realm’s Celestial Persons, but dismisses the possibility as alarming.
• The Capital City’s protective formation suddenly opens, and Jiang Peilan—the formidable Frost-Repelling Sword Immortal—emerges. The besieging cultivators recoil from her reputation.
• A western Body Cultivator tries once again to persuade Jiang Peilan to let the attackers into the city. She answers with her sword, badly wounding him and striking down several other Foundation-Building Celestial People.
• Amid the chaos, Zhang Yuan, Xiao Yuanjun, and Cui Zhaowei conceal themselves and rush through the opening into the Capital City.
• Wu Duanzhuo appears and attacks Zhang Yuan, blaming him for his son’s death. Jiang Peilan’s sword strike and Wu’s enormous palm collide as both target Zhang’s group.
• Once inside the formation, Zhang sees two beams of Solar Profound Light descend from the sun, aimed at Jiang Peilan and Wu. Jiang cannot fully stop the light: her sword begins to melt, so she puts it away and catches the remaining force with her bare hands. Celestial Persons across the realm look on in shock.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang remains resourceful under pressure, seizing the moment to enter the city while hiding his group’s presence. His internal thoughts add humor as he wonders whether his speculation somehow prompted the Sun’s intervention.
• Xiao Yuanjun and Zhang act in seamless coordination, helping get Cui Zhaowei into safety.
• Jiang Peilan is shown as fiercely protective and nearly unstoppable in combat, but also deeply attached to her sword. She refuses to negotiate and immediately attacks those threatening the Capital City.
• Wu Duanzhuo’s personal vendetta against Zhang becomes explicit when he confronts him over his son’s death. His attack intersects with Jiang’s, briefly turning their opposing actions into a shared danger to Zhang’s group.
• The western cultivator’s fear and injuries underline Jiang’s reputation and the cost of challenging her.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: The mysterious rule governing Celestial Persons—and the Sun’s intervention—suggests forces above even the realm’s strongest fighters.
• Loyalty and protection: Jiang’s defense of the Capital City contrasts with the attackers’ willingness to endanger its people.
• Timing and survival: Zhang’s escape depends on recognizing a brief opening amid a chaotic battle.
• Humor amid danger: Zhang’s mock-serious speculation about a “resonance” with the unknown True Lord lightens the escalating confrontation.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Peilan catches the remaining Solar Profound Light with her hands, badly burning them but preserving the sword her husband gave her. Wu Duanzhuo is nearly destroyed by the attack and flees before she can pursue him.
• The battle’s aftermath scatters the Cultivators surrounding the Ya Kingdom capital. A new heavenly law is imposed: Celestial People must fight beyond the heavens. A first violation brings a warning; a second means death. The rule is intended to prevent battles from devastating cities and killing civilians.
• Jiang returns to the city’s protective formation and reunites with her daughter, Cui Zhaowei. Zhaowei explains that she left the Aohai Cui’s Dharma Assembly to help her parents resist the demonic calamity.
• Jiang takes Zhang Yuan to the Cui Residence, where he meets Chancellor Cui Qiezhe and an elderly man introduced as the True Lord of the Ya East Cui. The elder explains that he is one of the True Lord’s three incarnations, named Chang Geng.
• Chang Geng reveals that Clear Void True Person—whom Zhang Yuan has never met—thinks highly of him. Clear Void is Chen Xinqiao’s previous incarnation.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang’s fierce concern for her husband’s sword briefly outweighs her own pain. Despite her serious hand injuries, she is cheerful that the new heavenly law will protect civilians, knowing Cui Qiezhe would approve.
• Zhaowei demonstrates loyalty and a strong sense of duty by returning from the Dharma Assembly to support her parents. Jiang recognizes that her daughter has a temperament of her own.
• Zhang Yuan is polite and helpful, but grows wary when he learns the elder’s identity, given the True Lords’ possible connection to Chen Xinqiao’s death. Cui Qiezhe reassures him that Chang Geng is only an incarnation.
• Cui Qiezhe’s care for the people is evident in his decision to shelter refugees throughout the capital, even opening his own residence to them.

Significant themes

• Protection of ordinary people: The new law restrains powerful Cultivators, while Cui Qiezhe’s actions show practical compassion for refugees.
• Family loyalty and duty: Jiang and Zhaowei both act to support Cui Qiezhe and the Ya Kingdom.
• Trust and suspicion: Zhang Yuan’s guarded response to the True Lord reflects the lingering uncertainty surrounding Chen Xinqiao’s death.
• Power and restraint: The law acknowledges the catastrophic consequences of unchecked battles and forces the powerful to bear responsibility for where they fight.

Zhang Yuan learned that Chen Xinqiao had died after failing to attain [Heavenly Well Radiance], but her hidden message revealed a bargain she had arranged with the Eastern Ya Cui Clan's True Lord. The chapter left Zhang Yuan holding the advantage in negotiations and learning that the True Lord was expected to refine a life-bound flying sword for him.

• Old Man Chang Geng told Zhang Yuan that Chen Xinqiao had died a thousand years earlier and that only the Eastern Bian Li Clan's True Lord might be able to resurrect her.
• Old Man Chang Geng asked Zhang Yuan to illuminate Chen Xinqiao's letter with spiritual energy, revealing her message to [Qiming] and her demand for help refining Zhang Yuan's life-bound flying sword.
• Zhang Yuan realized Chen Xinqiao had arranged the exchange to give him leverage over the Eastern Ya Cui Clan's True Lord, and he resolved not to hand over the Primordial Unity One-Qi Body-Refining Treasure Scripture outright.
• Old Man Chang Geng explained that life-bound flying swords were Outer Dao Dharma Treasures and that the [Nine-Vault Golden Li Furnace] had been True Person Qingxu's life-bound treasure.

Zhang Yuan gave Old Man Chang Geng several treasures to refine into a Life-Bound Flying Sword and cleanse the karma on his armor. He then learned that the Form Refinement, Spirit Transformation Path came from the Mountain-Sea Profound Yellow Realm, while the Azure Firmament Dust-Dyed Realm was known across the Outer Chaos as the Demon Realm; travel between realms made conquest difficult.

• Zhang Yuan consulted Xiao Yuanjun and gave Old Man Chang Geng twelve spring and summer Weather and Season Mystic Pearls, the Flying Light Sword, the Broad Thunder Sword, and the Sudden Thunder Cloud-Rending Spear for the refinement.
• Old Man Chang Geng took Zhang Yuan's Bright Yang Chengsheng Armor as well, promising to cleanse its lingering karma with the South Sea Dragon Clan while refining the Life-Bound Flying Sword over about twenty days.
• Zhang Yuan asked Cui Qiezhe about the Form Refinement, Spirit Transformation Path, and Cui explained that its Immortal Realm and Immortal Sages referred to the Mountain-Sea Profound Yellow Realm and its cultivators.
• Cui Qiezhe said the realm's Demonic Dao cultivators were at most Celestial Person level and explained that the Azure Firmament Dust-Dyed Realm was called the Demon Realm by the Myriad Heavens and Worlds.
• Cui Qiezhe told Zhang Yuan that Golden Core True Lords could not readily conquer other realms because crossing the Outer Chaos was exceedingly difficult, except during certain periods.

Cui Qiezhe explained that the approaching Chaos Calamity was a period when worlds converged in the Outer Chaos, though the Azure Firmament Dust-Dyed Realm treated it as an age of opportunity and unleashed its Demonic Dao upon other worlds. On the walk home, Zhang Yuan followed a future shown by [Heaven's Sight] and received an unexpected encounter with Ji Guang.

• Cui Qiezhe told Zhang Yuan that the Chaos Calamity would begin in one year and ten months and explained that it was an opportunity-filled age for the Azure Firmament Dust-Dyed Realm.
• Zhang Yuan deduced that Wu Duanzhuo's Demonic Calamity in the Ya Kingdom was likely part of his Truth-Seeking Rite ahead of the Chaos Calamity.
• After leaving the Ya East Cui Residence with Xiao Yuanjun, Zhang Yuan saw three futures from [Heaven's Sight], including one promising a special blessing if they walked home.
• Zhang Yuan persuaded Xiao Yuanjun to walk back to Brightheart Residence and buy food along the way.
• A young woman collided with Zhang Yuan in the crowded capital, then whispered that she was Ji Guang.