Chapter Summaries

Li Fuchan discovered that his sect’s cultivation method was meant to prepare him to be eaten by monsters, so he used his death-foreseeing ability to simulate his cultivation and seize its power before dying. After vanishing with the Three Lights, he prepared to face the evil flood dragon that awaited him in the cave.

• Li Fuchan realized the Three Lights Purifying Tribulation Curse was meant to cleanse him as livestock for his monstrous master.
• He simulated three months of cultivation, mastering the Three Lights while the process erased his memories and led the snake boy to take him to their master.
• The snake boy revealed himself as a child-faced crimson serpent and led Li Fuchan to an enormous horned creature waiting to eat him.
• As the creature attacked in the death vision, Li Fuchan ended the simulation and chose to gain its cultivation rather than its memories.
• Li Fuchan gained the Three Lights without losing his mind, then used their power to vanish.

Li Fuchan investigated the Demon Cave and discovered the Old Flood Dragon was refining a Nascent Infant Pill, then risked another Tribulation Divination and encountered Green Snake Boy. She claimed a Heaven-and-Earth Cataclysm would strike in sixty-two days and asked him to help kill the Old Flood Dragon, but Li Fuchan distrusted her and left to scout the cave again.

• Li Fuchan used Illuminating Light to leave Flying Earthworm Cave, overheard the snake attendants, and entered the book cave to study the cultivation manuals.
• Li Fuchan concluded that the Old Flood Dragon was refining pills from cultivators and decided to create another death scene through Tribulation Divination.
• A month later, Green Snake Boy appeared in Li Fuchan's death scene, recognized his mastery of the Three Lights, and knocked He Liuhun and the other youths unconscious.
• Green Snake Boy told Li Fuchan that a Heaven-and-Earth Cataclysm would occur in sixty-two days and asked him to help kill the Old Flood Dragon and offer the Nascent Infant Pill to heaven and earth.
• Li Fuchan agreed to consider cooperating but remained suspicious of Green Snake Boy, then concealed himself with Illuminating Light and left to scout the cave again.

Li Fuchan stole the Golden Duke, Maiden of Cinnabar, Flying Mercury, and Sunken Lead for Huaqing while trying to secure a complete map of Flying Earthworm Cave. After Hua Hong attacked him, Huaqing intervened, and the Old Flood Dragon appeared as a Heaven-and-Earth Cataclysm began.

• Green Snake Boy gave Li Fuchan the Light-Devouring Method, the Turbidity-Linking Method, and a map, then tasked him with stealing the Golden Duke and Maiden of Cinnabar.
• Li Fuchan stole the two treasures and traded them to Green Snake Boy for a complete terrain map; afterward, Hua Hong visited and tested his cultivation, while Li Fuchan hid his dealings with Huaqing.
• Huaqing warned Li Fuchan that the Old Flood Dragon was nearing his transformation, then sent him to retrieve Flying Mercury and Sunken Lead from the Hidden Truth Grotto.
• Li Fuchan killed the two serpent-form guards, took the ingredients, and was confronted by Hua Hong, who broke his limbs before Huaqing joined the fight.
• Li Fuchan realized Huaqing's Illuminating Light had concealed details from his awareness, then witnessed the Old Flood Dragon reveal itself as a catastrophic deluge and fire engulfed the world.

Li Fuchan used the Turbidity-Linking Method to share the Treasure Light’s destructive effects with He Liuhun, Qifu Zhen, and Li Yuanji, stopping his memories from fading. With the three men badly wounded and little time to spare, he began another Tribulation Divination to find a way out.

• Li Fuchan’s cultivation advanced after his Treasure Light swallowed the other two lights in a vision of death, but its growing power began to scour away his memories.
• Li Fuchan obtained the Turbidity-Linking Method from Huaqing and learned that an immortal had opened the region and enlightened the Old Flood Dragon.
• Li Fuchan taught the method to He Liuhun, Qifu Zhen, and Li Yuanji, asking them to wound one another so their tribulations could share the burden of his Treasure Light.
• The three men stabbed one another, and Li Fuchan’s memory loss stopped as the Turbidity-Linking Method worked.
• Li Fuchan chose to seek a way to survive rather than abandon the wounded men, and he entered another Tribulation Divination, increasing his visions of death to eleven.

Li Fuchan refined the spiritual materials in the Flying Earthworm Cave and fought Hua Hong and Huaqing as their master’s Blue-and-Red Harmony Fire helped forge a Nascent Infant Pill. The Old Flood Dragon tried to seize the pill, but Li Fuchan recovered his awareness and recognized what the creature truly was.

• Li Fuchan swallowed the Golden Duke and Maiden of Cinnabar, then refined them with the Flying Mercury and Sunken Lead inside the Cave of Hidden Truth.
• Hua Hong and Huaqing tried to break through Li Fuchan’s Golden Light barrier, and Huaqing eventually opened it at the cost of injuring herself.
• Li Fuchan badly wounded Hua Hong with his Illuminating Light and Golden Light, then fought Huaqing until the two demons joined forces against him.
• Blue-and-Red Harmony Fire engulfed the cave, burned Hua Hong and Huaqing, and helped the Three Lights produce a Nascent Infant Pill from the Yellow Sprout between Li Fuchan’s brows.
• The Old Flood Dragon broke into the cave and tried to swallow the Nascent Infant Pill, but Li Fuchan seized it; through the Turbidity-Linking Method, He Liuhun’s suicide briefly restored Li Fuchan’s consciousness.
• Li Fuchan looked at the Old Flood Dragon without fear and declared that he finally knew what it was: “Lower than a beast.”

Li Fuchan uncovered how the Three Lights method had been sabotaged, then deciphered the secret of Flying Earthworm Cave and confronted the creature that had stolen the Flood Serpent Destiny. Destiny forced them into a battle, and as the Flying Earthworm transformed into a flood dragon, the great tribulation of water and fire began.

• Li Fuchan realized he had corrected the reversed cultivation sequence of the Three Lights, though the method still offered no way to advance his realm.
• He chose the Golden Duke and Nascent Infant Pill from his consciousness, then used Tribulation Divination to decipher the cave inscription as a secret feng shui configuration occupied by an earthworm.
• The Flying Earthworm appeared and explained that it had nurtured the Flood Serpent Destiny in the configuration for thirty years, but it believed Li Fuchan was the human tribulation destined to take it.
• Li Fuchan accepted the creature's offer to take the Flood Serpent fate, then attacked with all Three Lights as Destiny empowered him and the Flying Earthworm to equal strength.
• The Flying Earthworm roared in fury, transformed into a flood dragon, and triggered the descent of water, fire, and the great tribulation.

Li Fuchan possessed Li Si and killed the flying earthworm that carried the Flood Serpent’s destined fate, but the fight destroyed his flesh. He fled to Black Mountain with his Yang Vessel and books, where he began seeking a way to rebuild his body faster and summoned spiritually potent creatures.

• Li Si found a strange flying earthworm in a ruined temple and tossed it outside after sparks and rain revived it.
• Li Fuchan possessed Li Si, caught the creature, and destroyed it with his Illuminating Light and Golden Light.
• Li Fuchan left the unconscious He Liuhun and two others behind, taking his Yang Vessel and ancient books into the rain.
• Li Fuchan reached Black Mountain and hid there, calculating that regenerating his flesh through the Treasure Light would take about thirty years.
• Li Fuchan decided to draw on the mountain’s yang essence and spiritually endowed creatures to hasten his recovery.
• After several days, Li Fuchan’s Illuminating Light broke free of the Treasure Light and began luring spiritually potent creatures through the mountain.

Xu Xuan went into Black Mountain to catch snakes and discovered that the injured woman who asked for his help was a snake demon. After he wounded Huaqing with his family’s snake medicine, Hua Hong chased him, but an unknown voice stopped the demons just as they cornered him.

• Xu Xuan followed a green snake through the mountains and found Huaqing pretending to be injured by a bite.
• Xu Xuan recognized Huaqing as a snake demon and stabbed her with a blade coated in his family’s snake medicine.
• Hua Hong attacked Xu Xuan and broke his bow, but Xu Xuan escaped down the slope while the two demons argued.
• Huaqing tracked Xu Xuan by his blood, and Hua Hong caught up with him near the foot of Black Mountain.
• Hua Hong and Huaqing quarreled over whether to capture Xu Xuan or get the antidote, until an unseen voice addressed them as senior brother and senior sister.

Li Fuchan recruited Huaqing and Hua Hong as his attendants by presenting himself to Xu Xuan as the lord of Black Mountain. After learning Huaqing’s transformation arts and mastering the Mirage Pavilion talisman, he appeared in a young man’s body behind the two snakes, who had been plotting against him.

• Li Fuchan invited Huaqing and Hua Hong into Black Mountain, but Hua Hong knelt and claimed loyalty while Huaqing warned that she was gravely poisoned.
• Li Fuchan persuaded Xu Xuan that the two monsters were his attendants, and Xu Xuan gave Huaqing the antidote before fleeing and finding a dead snake on the way.
• Huaqing gave Li Fuchan her transformation manual, and he identified the Myriad Transformations at Will Talisman Register and mastered its Mirage Pavilion talisman.
• Huaqing and Hua Hong secretly plotted to discover Li Fuchan’s true form and seize his opportunity while they waited outside the mountain.
• Li Fuchan appeared behind the two snakes in the form of a young man, startling them.

After escaping Black Mountain, Xu Xuan told his father about the Monster and won his support to offer it a sacrifice in hopes of rising above ordinary life. On Black Mountain, Li Fuchan absorbed the tiger’s essence, then saw his three visions of death change and plunged into one of them.

• Xu Xuan hid the snake he had carried from Black Mountain and returned to the Ning Household, where he told Xu Sansheng about the Monster and his ambition to reach the upper ranks.
• Xu Sansheng agreed to support Xu Xuan’s plan to offer the Monster the Grand Sacrificial Four Beasts, including an Unenvied Sheep.
• Huaqing and Hua Hong killed a striped tiger, and Huaqing gave Hua Hong its penis to offer Li Fuchan.
• Li Fuchan absorbed the tiger’s blood qi and yang essence, then used his Illuminating Light to suppress his thought of eating people.
• Li Fuchan’s three visions of death changed, so he plunged into one of them rather than wait for the calamity to arrive.

Li Fuchan used a Qi-Form False Body to lure Huaqing into attacking him, then killed her with hidden Golden Light. He spared Hua Hong for the moment and ordered him to find maps and gazetteers as he planned his next moves.

• Li Fuchan formed a heavy Qi-Form False Body and decided to kill Huaqing before she could become a future threat.
• Huaqing searched the mountain for Li Fuchan, but he appeared from the rock wall and revealed that his body was a Qi-Form False Body.
• Huaqing attacked with her Golden Swords and briefly gained the upper hand after identifying the false body's limitations.
• Hua Hong stayed back as Li Fuchan's hidden Illuminating Light weakened Huaqing's awareness, allowing Li Fuchan to kill her with Golden Light.
• Li Fuchan considered whether to keep Hua Hong alive and ordered him to find Regional Maps and Feng Shui Gazetteers.

Li Fuchan discovered signs that Black Mountain had been isolated for a dangerous purpose and tried to flee after the villagers summoned its lord. Xu Xuan’s human sacrifice revealed a bitter family secret, while Li Fuchan escaped and the Xu family began a new life under the protection of Flying Yellow Mountain.

• Li Fuchan studied the regional maps, feared Black Mountain was deliberately enclosed, and prepared to leave after hearing the villagers summon its lord.
• Li Fuchan woke Hua Hong and promised him an opportunity as Xu Xuan led elders in a ritual asking Black Mountain’s lord to reveal its title.
• Li Fuchan conjured the title “Red Serpent Lord of Great Black Mountain, Born of the Hidden Flood Dragon Beneath the Azure Heaven,” and Xu Xuan began the sacrifice of a hooded victim.
• Xu Sansheng revealed himself as the victim, exposed his past dealings with Black Mountain and Flying Yellow Mountain, and urged Xu Xuan to uphold conscience and righteousness before dying with the elders.
• Li Fuchan fled as a yellow-robed cultivator arrived, and three months later Flying Yellow Mountain’s cultivators selected members of the Xu, Liu, and Huang families to take away or initiate.
• Xu Xuan saw his brother Xu Wen depart to cultivate and admitted he was relieved that he himself had not been chosen.

Li Fuchan’s search for a place to restore his body led him into a river, where a hidden plot by Peaceful Way Abbey was revealed. After escaping the water and molding a new body from water qi, he followed his Flood Serpent Destiny deeper into the river in search of a chance to recover.

• Li Fuchan escaped a tiger demon and a fox while seeking a place to settle his Yang Vessel, then fell into a river as his Three Calamities wore away.
• Quan Yong and Jia Hua of Peaceful Way Abbey discussed the broken spirit tablet and realized Li Fuchan had entered the water; Jia Hua warned Quan Yong not to recruit him.
• Li Fuchan hid underwater until the plot against him faded, then deduced that his self-made title had exposed him to Peaceful Way Abbey’s Life Force Root.
• Li Fuchan decided to mold a more ethereal false body from water qi instead of mountain-stone qi, and completed it three days later.
• Li Fuchan’s Illuminating Light revealed that his chance to restore his physical body lay in the water, so he followed his Destiny farther into the river.

Li Fuchan found a Resurrection Clam to restore his body, but Jia Hua’s schemes turned the discovery into a deadly confrontation. After destroying Jia Hua’s spiritual projections, Li Fuchan took the clam to recover while Jia Hua healed his Spiritual Nature by refining twelve hundred women.

• Li Fuchan placed his Yang Vessel inside a Resurrection Clam and left it to grow a physical body, but returned to find Gao Qin fighting Yuchi Liang and Yuchi Yun over it.
• Li Fuchan waited until the Yuchi brothers killed Gao Qin, then attacked them as Yuchi Liang tried to open the clam.
• Jia Hua revealed himself as the seemingly dead Gao Qin and tried to use Li Fuchan’s Yang Vessel to force him into a task, but a Golden Light from the clam killed them both.
• Jia Hua’s surviving spiritual projection attacked Li Fuchan, but Li Fuchan destroyed it with a black stone and moved the Resurrection Clam to another water vein.
• In Huaishuo, Jia Hua recovered from his Spiritual Nature injuries by refining twelve hundred women into Blood Qi and yin essence, then refrained from pursuing Li Fuchan again.

He Liuhun reunited with Li Fuchan, who gave him an ancient cultivation book and asked him to conceal his name. Li Fuchan then left to investigate whether someone from the Demon Cave could be the human tribulation he sought, while He Liuhun realized Qifu Zhen also had green eyes.

• At Mengchang Tavern, Qifu Zhen warned He Liuhun that he had recognized the monster that killed Li Si, so He Liuhun knocked him unconscious to keep their words from being overheard.
• He Liuhun returned to the barracks and began writing a Return Petition, but Li Fuchan appeared and greeted him as an old acquaintance from the Demon Cave.
• Li Fuchan reflected on his overseas cultivation, his renewed body, and his plans to find a fallback that could help him continue cultivating.
• Li Fuchan gave He Liuhun an ancient book, told him not to reveal Li Fuchan's name, and vanished from the barracks.
• Li Fuchan decided to test whether one of the Demon Cave survivors was the human tribulation, while He Liuhun noticed that Qifu Zhen also had green eyes.

Li Fuchan impersonated Gao Qin and entered Rouran Town to alert Jia Hua while gathering information about the Gao Household. After Jia Hua left him a message promising help with cultivating the Ancient Arts, Li Fuchan escaped the town and refused to reveal his true body without getting benefits first.

• Li Fuchan used layered Qi-Form disguises and Gao Qin's memories to pose as him in Rouran Town, where the townspeople welcomed him back after his claimed four-year absence.
• Over a feast, Li Fuchan learned that the Gao Household's ancestor remained in seclusion and that the main branch at Warm-Cool Mountain had grown more difficult to deal with.
• On Warm-Cool Mountain, Gao Gonglu suspected the apparent Gao Qin had arrived to signal someone, while Gao Gongjin proposed notifying the envoy from the higher sect.
• Li Fuchan noticed that unfamiliar people and extra guards had replaced the usual townspeople, then found Jia Hua's message asking him to bring his true body in exchange for help cultivating the Ancient Arts.
• Li Fuchan faked his own disappearance by transforming into mist and escaped to a barren mountain, deciding not to reveal his true body without a better offer.

Jia Hua recognized Li Fuchan’s Three Lights method and drew him into his Outer Scenery, where he tested Li Fuchan before granting him an ancient book. Li Fuchan escaped the encounter with a copy of the Purple Firmament Thunder-Script Treasure Talisman Register and realized Jia Hua had tracked him down for a purpose.

• Jia Hua identified Li Fuchan’s cultivation as the Three Lights Purifying Tribulation Curse and considered what method might persuade him to join forces.
• After waiting three days in the mountains, Li Fuchan heard a scripture being expounded and sent a false body into the cave to investigate.
• Jia Hua appeared in his Outer Scenery, tested Li Fuchan with several exchanges, and Li Fuchan impressed him with his Three Lights and destiny.
• Jia Hua bestowed an ancient book on Li Fuchan, who opened his eyes and realized he had narrowly avoided a trap.
• Li Fuchan concluded that Jia Hua was nearby and examined the book, titled Purple Firmament Thunder-Script Treasure Talisman Register.

Li Fuchan cultivated the Purple Firmament Thunder-Script Treasure Register, while Jia Hua believed the new Thunder Arts had left him easy to control and sent him toward a demon-haunted forest. Quan Yong then dispatched Mu Liang'er to the same mission, equipping her with powerful treasures.

• Li Fuchan studied the Thunder-Script manual and realized Jia Hua intended its Li Thunder arts to destroy his Three Lights and make him easier to restrain.
• Li Fuchan used a lightning-struck tree to cultivate Li Thunder, then stored his Three Lights in Brow Peak as the thunder script formed in his Sea of Qi.
• Jia Hua mistook Li Fuchan's successful cultivation for a loss of power and control, then left him a message ordering him to aid the fight against demons in Longzhu Forest.
• Quan Yong read Jia Hua's letter and learned that Jia Hua planned to make Li Fuchan a roaming representative before killing him with the Contrary Thunder Spirit Artifact years later.
• Quan Yong sent Mu Liang'er to Longzhu Forest and gave her an Outer Scenery whisk, protective armor, and cloud boots.

Mu Liang'er investigated the missing monster scourge in Longzhu Forest and discovered villagers building a Wisdom King effigy from human sacrifices. She escaped the temple with a young man, but the villagers recognized her as the Wisdom King's Consort as they left.

• Mu Liang'er recalled the agreement governing the monster tide and suspected something was wrong when she found no monsters in Longzhu Forest.
• Mu Liang'er questioned the young man hanging beside her, who said he had come to become a Wisdom Consort to the Wisdom King.
• Villagers chanted to the Wisdom King of Great Compassion and tortured people to construct its flesh-and-blood effigy.
• Mu Liang'er decided to report the atrocities to her Master and the sects, then used an illusion to immobilize the villagers.
• Mu Liang'er freed the young man and led him out of the temple, while the villagers turned toward them and called her the Wisdom King's Consort.

Mu Liang'er discovered that a supposedly surviving boy was the Wisdom Consort and that the village’s horrors were beyond her ability to face. Li Fuchan rescued her, but he remained trapped inside the ward surrounding Zongshedu Mountain.

• Mu Liang'er reached a farmhouse with the boy and found an old man arguing with his son, who had become a devoted follower of the Wisdom King.
• Mu Liang'er learned that the old man's wife, daughter-in-law, and grandson had been killed, while the old man had been made unable to die; the old man then repeatedly stabbed his son and mourned over his body.
• The old man told Mu Liang'er that no children remained in the village, revealing that the boy beside her could not be her guide.
• Mu Liang'er confronted the boy, who identified himself as the Wisdom Consort and invited her to join the Wisdom King.
• Li Fuchan crushed the boy, whose body became Blood Qi and left behind a ruined Mirage Pavilion talisman.
• Li Fuchan recalled that he had entered the sealed area around Zongshedu Mountain while scouting with a Qi-Form False Body, and he burned the talisman to ash.