Chapter Summaries

Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun placated Chi Guanguan by making her question whether she had rewarded Zhang Yuan for occupying his Dao Domain. Chi Guanguan offered to grant Zhang Yuan a benefit, and he asked her to help him pursue true-seeking dao attainment immediately; she instead proposed making a temporary dharma body and promised him three treasures from her old cave abode.

• Zhang Yuan urged Xiao Yuanjun and Chi Guanguan to stop fighting, then praised Chi Guanguan as kindhearted to ease tensions.
• Xiao Yuanjun challenged Chi Guanguan to name what she had given Zhang Yuan, dismissing the Azure Vault Vast Sea Art and Five Elements Heaven-Sealing Formation as proper benefits.
• Zhang Yuan suggested Chi Guanguan had merely forgotten to reward him, prompting her to offer him a benefit within her power.
• Zhang Yuan asked Chi Guanguan to help him pursue true-seeking dao attainment at the celestial mid-stage.
• Chi Guanguan said her constrained true body could not help immediately, but offered to make a temporary dharma body and let Zhang Yuan choose three treasures from her old cave abode.

Zhang Yuan agreed to help Chi Guanguan locate her displaced Cave Abode in exchange for her legacy, after she promised to teach him and requested a divine statue in his Immortal Palace. The Chu Family awoke on the Eastern Continent, where Chu Dalong told them they would begin again.

• Chi Guanguan proposed that Zhang Yuan find her Cave Abode, which held the treasures needed to make her a temporary Dharma Body, and offered him a choice of its contents.
• Chi Guanguan explained that her Cave Abode had been blasted away during her battle with the Dark-Heaven World-Annihilating True Lord but remained somewhere in the Azure Firmament Dust-Dyed Realm.
• Zhang Yuan agreed to seek the Cave Abode after returning to the Azure Firmament Dust-Dyed Realm and resolved to stay wary of the True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts.
• Chi Guanguan offered to teach Zhang Yuan her legacy if he built a divine statue of her in the Immortal Palace, and he agreed.
• The Chu Family members awoke in a clearing on the Eastern Continent, and Chu Dalong told them they would make a new life there.

The Chu Family settled in Moon Laurel Town and discussed their precarious position, Zhang Yuan, and Chu Qingyuan’s blindness. A monk named Miaole arrived claiming that a Fated Bodhisattva had appeared and that Buddha had sent him to bring the Bodhisattva to Western Heaven.

• Chu Zhankuo reported that Dark Gold City and its mystic dark golden sand vein lay a hundred li away, and Chu Dalong said the family would focus on establishing itself first.
• Chu Dalong decided the Chu Family should leave Zhang Yuan undisturbed, while Chu Zhankuo reported that he had found no way to heal Chu Qingyuan’s eyes.
• A Chu Family disciple announced that a thin, apparently uncultivated monk had come seeking Zhang Yuan, and Chu Zhankuo proposed receiving him while informing Zhang Yuan.
• Miaole entered the courtyard, introduced himself as a monk from Western Heaven, and said Buddha had sent him to welcome a Fated Bodhisattva.
• Miaole invited Chu Zhankuo, Duan Zong, and Tan Sheng to accompany the Bodhisattva as Vajras or Arhats, leaving the three rigid under his pressure.

Miaole arrived at the Chu Family and declared Zhang Yuan a Fated Bodhisattva, inviting him to the Western Heaven to claim a Buddha Position on Sky Mountain. Zhang Yuan rejected the invitation and killed Miaole, though he sensed the monk might return.

• Miaole identified the immortal on Osmanthus Fragrance Mountain as the Fated Bodhisattva, and Chu Dalong sent Chu Zhankuo to summon Zhang Yuan.
• Chu Qingyuan objected to Zhang Yuan becoming a monk, then realized the choice belonged to Zhang Yuan himself.
• Zhang Yuan appeared and challenged Miaole’s claim that he was a Bodhisattva, threatening to destroy him if his answers were unsatisfactory.
• Miaole explained that he could read minds and invited Zhang Yuan to the Western Heaven to become master of the Buddha Position on Sky Mountain.
• Zhang Yuan rejected Miaole’s explanation and struck him down with the [Primordial Form-Converging Sword], but sensed Miaole had not died completely.

Zhang Yuan killed Miaole and left the Chu Family, then traveled with Xiao Yuanjun to Dark Gold City to seek news of Sumeru Stone. There, Chu Hongfang offered loyalty to Situ Bikang just as Zhang Yuan arrived to claim ownership of the city.

• Zhang Yuan killed Miaole, departed without farewell, and left the Chu Family wondering whether he would return.
• Zhang Yuan met Xiao Yuanjun and told her they would go to Dark Gold City to ask about Sumeru Stone before returning to the Central Land.
• Zhang Yuan considered whether he remained caught in the dragon clans’ schemes or had entered a larger game played by the Lords of Heaven and Earth.
• Situ Bikang hosted a banquet to celebrate his recovery and granted Chu Hongfang’s family the mining rights to the mystic dark golden sand.
• A soldier reported that Zhang Yuan, who called himself [Return to True] and the owner of Dark Gold City, had arrived and demanded that Situ Bikang receive him.
• Chu Hongfang declared that he would confront Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun, boasting that he could subdue them with one hand.

Situ Bikang panicked when he learned Zhang Yuan had arrived at Dark Gold City and amputated both arms to obey Zhang Yuan’s order. Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun waited outside the gates for him to explain the Sumeru Stone’s whereabouts, and Situ Bikang rushed out to kneel before them.

• Situ Bikang slapped Chu Hongfang after Chu Hongfang called Zhang Yuan a fool, then feared Zhang Yuan would kill him.
• Situ Bikang remembered Zhang Yuan had forbidden him to leave the city or restore his severed arm, so he cut off his left arm before going to greet him.
• Chu Hongfang praised Situ Bikang for his resolve and pointed out that the arm Zhang Yuan had severed was his right one.
• Situ Bikang cut off his right arm as well, crushed both arms to dust, and left the City Lord’s Residence with the banquet guests following.
• Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun waited outside Dark Gold City’s gates, and Zhang Yuan warned her that thirteen cultivators were approaching.
• Situ Bikang rushed ahead of the procession, stopped ten meters from Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun, and dropped to his knees.

Zhang Yuan returned to Dark Gold City and asked Situ Bikang about Sumeru stone, discovering that the city had a large supply. He took some for Chi Guanguan’s Teleportation Formation and learned that a True Lord had taken the rest from Chu Hongfang’s Spatial Treasure.

• Zhang Yuan found Situ Bikang missing both arms and asked how he had lost the second one.
• Situ Bikang told Zhang Yuan that Dark Gold City had Sumeru stone, though he knew nothing about other factions’ reserves.
• Situ Bikang ordered Chu Hongfang to give Zhang Yuan the city’s Sumeru stone, and Chu Hongfang handed over a Spatial Treasure containing nine hundred jin.
• Zhang Yuan took a hundred jin of Sumeru stone for Chi Guanguan and returned the Spatial Treasure to Chu Hongfang.
• Chu Hongfang explained that two hundred jin had gone missing, and Zhang Yuan realized a True Lord had taken it from the Spatial Treasure.

Zhang Yuan modified Venerable Youkong’s Teleportation Formation in Dark Gold City to lead to the Central Land. After activating it, he and Xiao Yuanjun vanished, leaving their exact destination unknown.

• Zhang Yuan decided to set up the Teleportation Formation in Dark Gold City to avoid complications on another trip to the Eastern Cen Palace of the Azure Sea.
• Situ Bikang explained that the Eastern Cen Palace forbade formations leading to the Central Land, but Zhang Yuan assured him Venerable Youkong would retrieve the Array Plate after he left.
• Situ Bikang gave Zhang Yuan his enormous private residence, where Zhang Yuan used the Sumeru Stone and other treasures to modify the Array Plate with Chi Guanguan’s guidance.
• Zhang Yuan learned that the modified formation’s exact destination was unknown, though Chi Guanguan assured him it would lead to the Central Land.
• Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun stepped onto the formation, and Zhang Yuan activated it, transporting them away.

Zhang Yuan arrived with Xiao Yuanjun in Heaven-Reaching City and discovered that Lu Chaosheng was there, so he flew north to kill him. In a teahouse, Lu Chaosheng lied to a gathering of Great Heng Dynasty nobles about hunting Zhang Yuan, unaware that Zhang Yuan was coming for him.

• Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun arrived in Heaven-Reaching City, where Zhang Yuan used karma to locate Lu Chaosheng in the northern district.
• Zhang Yuan told Xiao Yuanjun he was going to take care of something, then flew toward the teahouse on his Golden Carriage Luan Chariot.
• Huang Yingquan challenged Lu Chaosheng over his arrogance, and Tan Chengcheng and Tan Xingzhou calmed the gathering.
• Lu Chaosheng claimed he had come to Great Heng to hunt the Return to True Demon Fiend, though he had actually sought the protection of the Great Heng Dynasty's Divine Master.
• A girl in green asked Lu Chaosheng to take the group along when he went to find the Demon Fiend.

Zhang Yuan killed Lu Chaosheng in the Great Heng Capital, then found himself restrained by the dynasty’s Divine Lock after a Divine Master suppressed his means of escape. The chapter left him under arrest as the armored cultivators ordered him to come with them.

• Zhang Yuan destroyed Lu Chaosheng’s protective barrier and killed him with the [Primordial Form-Converging Sword].
• The girl in green challenged Zhang Yuan for killing someone in the Capital, and he identified himself as the [Return to True Celestial Person].
• Tan Chengcheng, Miaole, and an armored group called out to Zhang Yuan as he prepared to leave.
• The armored cultivators attacked with golden chains, and a hidden Divine Master suppressed the [Lamp-Lighting Oil-Adding Pill] before the chains bound Zhang Yuan’s wrist.
• The armored leader told Zhang Yuan he was under arrest and ordered him to come with them.

Zhang Yuan was bound by the Immortal-Binding Rope and taken to the Imperial City Heavenly Prison to await a joint hearing. In his cell, he met an early Ascension Realm demonic cultivator who questioned him about his arrest.

• Wei Heng identified himself as Heaven-Reaching City's general and ordered Zhang Yuan arrested for breaking the Great Heng Laws and killing Lu Chaosheng.
• Zhang Yuan chose to go peacefully, while Tan Chengcheng warned Tong Ke that he might still have a way to escape.
• Wei Heng escorted Zhang Yuan to a private cell in the Imperial City Heavenly Prison and said a joint hearing would be held the next day.
• Zhang Yuan assessed the prison's suppressive formation and guards, then ignored a scruffy-bearded old man in the neighboring cell.
• Zhang Yuan told the old man he had killed a Spirit Transformation Realm cultivator from the Grand Hua Jade Heaven Sect, puzzling him about why Zhang Yuan had been sent to the Heavenly Prison.

Zhang Yuan was pulled from the Heavenly Prison into the [Myriad Weapons Divine Kingdom Grotto-Heaven] while trying to contact Xiao Yuanjun, where the [Mirror-Holding Armored Lord, Divine Master] questioned him about his destroyed incarnation. Zhang Yuan negotiated for a reward and identified [True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts] as the one who destroyed it.

• Zhang Yuan guessed that Wei Heng had treated his killing of Lu Chaosheng as an attempt on nearby Imperial Relatives, then tried to contact Xiao Yuanjun through [Myriad Coexistence].
• Karma abruptly dragged Zhang Yuan's divine sense into the [Myriad Weapons Divine Kingdom Grotto-Heaven], where he met the [Mirror-Holding Armored Lord, Divine Master].
• The [Mirror-Holding Armored Lord, Divine Master] said he had summoned Zhang Yuan to ask who destroyed his incarnation on Bixi Island and how its Long Halberd ended up with Zhang Yuan.
• Zhang Yuan asked whether a True Lord could hear their conversation and, after the Divine Master said no, named [True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts] as the culprit.

Zhang Yuan allied with [Mirror-Holding Armored Lord, Divine Master] to thwart [True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts], a primordial Great Luo, and received a secret art for wielding the Divine Master's Long Halberd. The Divine Master also warned him of an emerging opportunity in the Central Land and told him to conceal his identity if he competed for it.

• [Mirror-Holding Armored Lord, Divine Master] learned that [True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts] was a primordial Great Luo who had destroyed his incarnation and decided to stop his scheme.
• Zhang Yuan agreed to help, seeing a chance to sabotage [True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts] and locate his true body.
• [Mirror-Holding Armored Lord, Divine Master] offered Zhang Yuan two objectives: uncover and destroy the scheme in the realm, or find the True Lord's true body so the Divine Master could attack him.
• [Mirror-Holding Armored Lord, Divine Master] taught Zhang Yuan “Manifest Divine Power Through the Weapon” and promised another reward after the task was accomplished.
• [Mirror-Holding Armored Lord, Divine Master] told Zhang Yuan that a great opportunity would soon emerge in the Central Land and warned him not to compete under his Dust-Dyed Realm identity.

Zhang Yuan considered the Central Land’s coming upheaval and chose to enter the struggle so he could target True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts. In prison, Miaole appeared and urged him to become a Bodhisattva by taking charge of Sky Mountain and defeating the ghosts of the Nine Serenities.

• Zhang Yuan decided not to use his divine Long Halberd to escape yet, despite having a way to break the Immortal-Binding Rope.
• Zhang Yuan deduced that prodigies and powerful factions across the Five Realms would compete for the Central Land conceptual image, and chose to join the upheaval to strike at True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts.
• Miaole appeared outside Zhang Yuan’s cell, and Zhang Yuan blocked his Mind-Reading with his immaculate primordial spirit.
• Miaole called Zhang Yuan a Bodhisattva and said he should preside over Sky Mountain and sweep away the ghosts of the Nine Serenities before attaining Buddhahood.

While imprisoned, Zhang Yuan received a visit from Great Heng’s Eldest Princess, Tan Chengcheng, who offered to pardon him in exchange for serving as her assassin. He agreed to help her kill her intended target, then learned that she wanted him to kill the emperor, a Divine Master.

• Miaole left after sensing a visitor, urging Zhang Yuan to consider his proposal to guard Sky Mountain and oppose the Nether Bureau.
• Tan Chengcheng visited Zhang Yuan in prison, and he immediately rejected the idea of becoming her Imperial Son-in-Law.
• Tan Chengcheng explained that she wanted to hire Zhang Yuan as a personal guard who would kill people for her, offering to pardon his crimes in return.
• Zhang Yuan agreed to the deal without knowing the target, reasoning that he could decide what to do after escaping prison.
• Tan Chengcheng revealed that her target was her Imperial Father, the Great Heng emperor, who had reached the Divine Master realm.

Tan Chengcheng told Zhang Yuan that the Great Heng founder had split himself into male and female halves, and that her imperial father now sought to reunite with and devour her mother. Zhang Yuan agreed to help her investigate a way to stop him, gained his freedom, and was reunited with Xiao Yuanjun.

• Tan Chengcheng explained that the Great Heng founder had divided his body into male and female halves, becoming both the Founder Emperor and the empress.
• Tan Chengcheng revealed that her imperial father wanted to reunite with her mother to become a whole Divine Master, but her mother had subdued and sealed him; she asked Zhang Yuan to help find a way to kill him.
• Zhang Yuan agreed to help Tan Chengcheng investigate and received an Imperial House Token that freed him from the [Immortal-Binding Rope] and cleared his crimes.
• Zhang Yuan left his cell, but Xiao Yuanjun broke into the Heavenly Prison and shielded him from Tan Chengcheng before learning he had already been released and had agreed to work with her.

Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun agreed to help Tan Chengcheng in exchange for payment and lodging at the Eldest Princess's Residence. After telling Xiao Yuanjun about the Great Heng Imperial House's secrets, Zhang Yuan revealed that he planned to seize an opportunity amid an impending upheaval in the Central Land, without disclosing his secret plot.

• Zhang Yuan refused the prospect of becoming an imperial son-in-law, and Tan Chengcheng bristled at what she took as his insult.
• After Zhang Yuan approved, Xiao Yuanjun agreed to help Tan Chengcheng for a steep price, and Tan Chengcheng offered them rooms at her residence.
• Tan Chengcheng brought Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun from the Heavenly Prison to the Eldest Princess's Residence, then left to handle urgent affairs.
• Xiao Yuanjun asked what Zhang Yuan had agreed to do, and he told her the Great Heng Imperial House's secrets.
• Zhang Yuan told Xiao Yuanjun about the coming upheaval and opportunity in the Central Land but kept his plot against True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts secret.
• Xiao Yuanjun promised to help Zhang Yuan seize the opportunity.

Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun discussed the Azure Vault Vast Sea Art and its connection to the Sha Ingestion Gang Devoration Path, while Chi Guanguan devised a way to appear outside Zhang Yuan’s Dao Domain. The chapter ended with Chi Guanguan explaining that her miniature incarnation was made from Zhang Yuan’s conceptual images and could evade the Sun-Moon Mystic Light.

• Xiao Yuanjun read the Azure Vault Vast Sea Art and said it could not be cultivated alongside the Sha Ingestion Gang Devoration Path until a cultivator reached Spirit Transformation.
• Zhang Yuan asked Chi Guanguan whether she knew the reason, but she ignored him after discovering Ao Xiu had eaten the remaining pastries.
• Chi Guanguan gathered Wu Earth conceptual images and created a miniature incarnation that she sent out of Zhang Yuan’s Dao Domain.
• Zhang Yuan saw the miniature Chi Guanguan on his shoulder and asked how she had escaped the Dao Domain.
• Chi Guanguan explained that her true divine sense remained inside the Dao Domain and that her incarnation had no karmic connection for the Sun-Moon Mystic Light to detect.

Chi Guanguan explained her Wu Earth incarnation and revealed what she knew about the Spirit Transformation realm, while Xiao Yuanjun obtained the Form and Spirit Cultivation Method and several upper-tier cultivation techniques. The discussion ended when Tan Chengcheng arrived with news of a royal rebellion and asked Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun to save the Fourth Prince.

• Chi Guanguan explained that her incarnation was a small part of Zhang Yuan’s Dao Domain and could not move more than half a foot from him.
• Chi Guanguan said the Qi Sea Uniting Spirit Dao and Sha Ingestion Gang Devoration Path had once been entirely incompatible, and that the Spirit Transformation realm had likely been moved to the Boundless Southern Heaven Realm.
• Xiao Yuanjun asked Chi Guanguan for a method to acquire a spirit root, and Zhang Yuan gave her the Form and Spirit Cultivation Method.
• Chi Guanguan gave Zhang Yuan several upper-tier methods from the Qi Refining to Immortality Path, which Xiao Yuanjun began studying.
• Tan Chengcheng arrived and reported that the Crown Prince had killed Tan Xingzhou and was heading for the Fourth Prince’s residence.
• Tan Chengcheng asked Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun to come with her and save the Fourth Prince.

After an impostor posing as Tan Chengcheng lured Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun outside, Zhang Yuan subdued the real Tan Chengcheng by mistake. The chapter ended with her angrily pointing out that she had already killed the impostor.

• Tan Chengcheng told Zhang Yuan that the Crown Prince had killed Tan Xingzhou and planned to attack the Fourth Prince, then asked for help.
• Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun prepared to leave, but Chi Guanguan warned that their visitor was likely an impostor and Zhang Yuan anticipated an ambush.
• Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun charged into the courtyard and Zhang Yuan broke the visitor’s arms before pinning her down.
• Zhang Yuan questioned the person he believed was an impostor about who had sent her.
• Tan Chengcheng told Zhang Yuan that she was real and that the impostor’s head was lying on the ground.