Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Mietian and Rakshasa Heaven arrive at Liuzhou City, apparently tracking Tongtian’s presence and targeting Gong Xuan because of his connection to the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm.
• Tongtian orders Yan Lai to strengthen the city’s defenses while Bai Zeyu escorts Gong Xuan to safety. He explains that the enemy has already taken what they needed from the Flying Dragon Chamber of Commerce and now wants Gong Xuan.
• Bai Zeyu and Gong Xuan escape through the Teleportation Array toward Hanyang City. Mietian anticipated this and plans to intercept them at a route they must pass through.
• Rakshasa Heaven attacks Liuzhou City’s protective formation and eagerly volunteers to fight Tongtian. The attack sparks panic among the city’s residents, who rush toward the manor’s Teleportation Array.
• Tongtian tells Yan Lai to evacuate the cultivators. Yan Lai agrees, leaving Tongtian to face the attackers alone.

Character developments

• Tongtian acts decisively, prioritizing Gong Xuan’s safety and the evacuation of civilians. Confident that his presence here is only an Avatar, he is willing to risk it in a direct confrontation.
• Bai Zeyu sets aside his hesitation and swiftly carries out the mission to protect Gong Xuan.
• Gong Xuan begins confused but understands the danger once Tongtian reveals its connection to the secret realm.
• Yan Lai struggles between fighting alongside Tongtian and protecting the people, ultimately choosing evacuation.
• Mietian reveals that he has been tracking Tongtian through their lingering connection and has planned for Gong Xuan’s escape.
• Rakshasa Heaven sees the attack as an opportunity to pursue her longstanding hatred of Tongtian.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and duty: Tongtian risks his Avatar, while Yan Lai prioritizes the city’s people.
• Strategy and counterstrategy: Mietian anticipates Tongtian’s likely actions, turning the escape route into part of his plan.
• Conflict and divided loyalties: Tongtian and Mietian’s shared origins have become a source of mutual hostility.
• Protecting the vulnerable: The effort to safeguard Gong Xuan and evacuate civilians drives the defenders’ decisions.

Character interactions

• Tongtian coordinates with Yan Lai and Bai Zeyu, assigning them defense and evacuation duties.
• Bai Zeyu reassures Gong Xuan that Tongtian’s Avatar can be sacrificed and urges him to flee.
• Mietian and Rakshasa Heaven discuss the escaped target and agree to focus first on Tongtian.
• Yan Lai and Tongtian part with the understanding that they will reunite in Hanyang City.

Key plot points and events

• Tongtian remains alone in Liuzhou City after evacuating its cultivators. He destroys the Teleportation Array so Rakshasa Heaven and Mietian cannot simply withdraw, and challenges them to attack.
• Rakshasa Heaven’s demonic assaults fail against the reinforced City-Protection Array: its power of nothingness absorbs and refines the demonic qi, strengthening the defenses.
• Tongtian knows Mietian could break through the array, but has prepared a counterattack. He has transformed the city’s defenses into the foundation of a vast Zhoutian Star Evolution Array, linked to 138 array nodes across two commanderies.
• Irritated by Rakshasa Heaven’s failure, Mietian attacks Liuzhou City himself with a divine axe and nine Demon God phantoms.
• Tongtian activates the star array, drawing in the power of the stars and channeling it through the Godslayer Magic Array for fourfold amplification. The resulting pillar of light pierces both Mietian and Rakshasa Heaven.

Character developments

• Tongtian displays composure and strategic foresight, willingly holding the city as bait while concealing his planned strike. He is prepared to risk himself to defeat both enemies.
• Rakshasa Heaven grows increasingly frustrated and angry as her strength proves ineffective against the array, then becomes alarmed when Tongtian unleashes the star formation.
• Mietian shifts from contemptuous confidence to impatience and then alarm. He asserts that he can conquer the worlds without the system, revealing his ambition and defiance.

Significant themes

• Strategy versus raw power: Tongtian turns the enemies’ assault into an opportunity, relying on preparation and layered formations rather than direct strength.
• Sacrifice and resolve: He stays behind alone to defend the city and confront the attackers.
• Power and ambition: Mietian’s desire to conquer the myriad worlds contrasts with Tongtian’s role as their defender.

Character interactions

• Tongtian taunts Rakshasa Heaven and provokes the pair by destroying the escape route.
• Mietian humiliates Rakshasa Heaven for failing to break the array, prompting her to defer to him despite her resentment.
• Mietian and Tongtian trade threats: Mietian dismisses Tongtian as a cowardly guardian, while Tongtian warns that Mietian may not survive without his avatar or the system.
• Their confrontation culminates in Tongtian’s surprise attack, which strikes both enemies at once.

Plot points and events

• Tongtian unleashes the power accumulated by the star array, amplified by the Godslayer Magic Array. The strike destroys the array and badly wounds Mietian and Rakshasa Heaven.
• Mietian survives and, while Rakshasa Heaven is incapacitated, betrays her by devouring her demonic power. She is reduced to ash; Mietian restores his body but falls to roughly the Fifth Heaven of the Primordial Chaos Realm.
• Mietian confronts Tongtian and boasts that Gong Xuan cannot escape. Tongtian counters that his original body has already gone to rescue Gong Xuan and that someone is waiting for Mietian in the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm.
• Mietian realizes the Tongtian before him is only an avatar. He destroys and absorbs it, but Tongtian’s distant original body uses the system to try to reclaim the Heavenly Demon Avatar.
• Tongtian urges Shi Tian and Holy Mother Feihong to hurry to Yunhai City, where Bai Zeyu may be in danger while escorting Gong Xuan. Despite their concern for Tongtian, they leave through the Teleportation Array.

Character developments and interactions

• Tongtian shows strategic cunning by using an avatar to keep Mietian occupied while his original body acts elsewhere. Though gravely strained by the attempt to retrieve the avatar, he prioritizes Gong Xuan and Bai Zeyu’s safety.
• Mietian proves ruthless, sacrificing Rakshasa Heaven to survive and regain his strength. Discovering Tongtian’s deception enrages him.
• Rakshasa Heaven is betrayed by Mietian after the strike leaves her vulnerable; she pleads for mercy but is consumed.
• Shi Tian and Holy Mother Feihong hesitate between helping Tongtian and rescuing Gong Xuan and Bai Zeyu, then obey Tongtian’s urgent command.

Significant themes

• The conflict contrasts self-sacrifice and loyalty with self-preservation and betrayal: Tongtian risks himself to protect others, while Mietian treats even an ally as expendable.
• Cunning and misdirection shape the battle, as Tongtian’s avatar strategy frustrates Mietian’s calculations.
• The chapter emphasizes the cost of power: the decisive strike exhausts the array, wounds its targets, and leaves Tongtian struggling to recover his avatar.

Plot points

• Tongtian’s main body realizes Mietian may try to absorb his avatar, so he uses the system to recall it at the moment their powers merge.
• The system pulls back both the avatar and the weakened Pangu Dharma Form, despite Mietian’s resistance. Tongtian risks his body being overwhelmed but refuses to stop, fearing Mietian could seize control.
• Tongtian absorbs the returning power through the Heavenly Demon Art. His cultivation surges from the first to the fourth heaven of the Primordial Chaos Realm, and the disturbance over Tianxing City subsides.
• In a white mental space, Tongtian confirms he still controls his body and has won the struggle. He then encounters Mietian, who appears as a demonic version of himself and begins to fade.

Character developments and interactions

• Tongtian acts decisively and accepts extreme physical risk to prevent Mietian from escaping or taking control of him. His victory also brings an unexpected breakthrough.
• Mietian acknowledges Tongtian’s victory but insists that the Primordial World is already doomed. He tells Tongtian that they were once the same person, and that Mietian arose from Tongtian’s ambition to conquer the Myriad Heavens and Worlds and free demonic cultivators.
• Their exchange ends with Mietian declaring that destroying this incarnation will not erase him: “From this day onward, Mietian is no longer Tongtian.”

Significant themes

• Self and shadow: Mietian is presented as a manifestation of Tongtian’s own ambitions, making their conflict an internal struggle as well as a physical one.
• Power and risk: Tongtian’s growth comes through a dangerous gamble that could have destroyed his body or cost him control.
• Victory without resolution: Tongtian wins the immediate battle, but Mietian’s final warning leaves the larger threat—and the question of whether he can truly be eliminated—unsettled.

Plot points and events

• Mietian’s consciousness vanishes, leaving Tongtian alone in his consciousness space. Shenzhan 01 then appears with a golden bracelet and addresses Tongtian as Pangu.
• Shenzhan explains that Tongtian recently reclaimed the Pangu Dharma Form, restoring enough energy to activate the bracelet. He says he and Ancestral Dragon are alive but trapped in the Old Gods’ Land, and reminds Tongtian of his promise to rescue them. Before Tongtian can question him further, Shenzhan disappears.
• Back in his body, Tongtian finds the bracelet on his wrist. It can locate the Primordial World and summon the System Avatar, but its former passage back there is gone; Tongtian believes he must cross chaos to return.
• Reflecting on Shenzhan’s claims, Tongtian considers that his original consciousness came from the Star River World—possibly the world containing Blue Star—and was placed there by Pangu to recover. He concludes that his possession of Sect Master Tongtian may not have been accidental.

Character developments

• Tongtian moves from outright disbelief to seriously suspecting that he is Pangu. The perfect fusion of his and Sect Master Tongtian’s Primordial Spirits becomes key evidence: he believes such a fusion could happen only if they were originally the same person.
• Shenzhan 01 reveals himself as a guide with a continuing mission, while leaving Tongtian with more questions than answers.

Character interactions

• Tongtian challenges Shenzhan’s claim that he is Pangu and asks about Pangu’s whereabouts. Shenzhan counters that all beings inherit Pangu’s power, but Tongtian’s spirit is uniquely tied to the small world Pangu created for recovery.
• Tongtian tries unsuccessfully to summon Shenzhan again after their encounter, then tests the bracelet and restores the System Avatar.

Significant themes

• Identity and continuity: Tongtian must reconsider whether he is a transmigrator, Sect Master Tongtian, Pangu—or some combination of all three.
• Inheritance and creation: Pangu’s power is presented as the source shared by all beings in the Primordial World.
• Recovery and destiny: Tongtian’s life in another world may have been a deliberate stage in Pangu’s restoration, and he now faces the obligation to rescue Shenzhan and Ancestral Dragon.

Plot points and events

• Tongtian learns that he is Great God Pangu’s original Primordial Spirit. He suspects his missing ancient memories will return only when he becomes strong enough, and resolves to grow in power, recover them, and eventually save the Primordial World.
• After reassuring the frightened Tianxing City cultivators, Tongtian travels to Yunhai City.
• On arrival, he is ambushed by an attacker wielding the power of nothingness and the Godslayer Magic Array. The attacker escapes through the Teleportation Array with Gong Xuan, destroying the array to prevent pursuit.
• Tongtian finds Yunhai City devastated and rescues Bai Zeyu by removing the demonic qi consuming him.
• Bai explains that the attacker had tampered with the Teleportation Array and apparently lured Tongtian there. Shi Shan and Holy Mother Feihong never reached the city in time.
• Shi Shan and Holy Mother Feihong arrive after the attack. They learn Gong Xuan has been captured and that the secret of the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm is now exposed.

Character developments and interactions

• Tongtian shifts from shock at his identity to determined resolve, but the sudden appearance of an enemy with his own distinctive powers leaves him confused and alarmed.
• Bai Zeyu, gravely wounded and nearly consumed by demonic qi, manages to report what happened after Tongtian saves him.
• Shi Shan and Holy Mother Feihong arrive too late to intervene and are stunned by the destruction and Gong Xuan’s abduction.
• Tongtian reassures the Tianxing City cultivators before leaving, then questions Bai about the attack and the absent reinforcements.

Significant themes

• Identity and memory: Tongtian’s connection to Pangu raises questions about his past and what he must become to recover it.
• Power and preparation: The attacker’s planning and unusual abilities show that strength alone may not prevent disaster.
• Mystery and foreshadowing: The assailant claims to be “a new Mietian” and uses powers thought unique to Tongtian, suggesting a deeper connection to Mietian.
• Consequences of failure: Gong Xuan’s capture exposes the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm, escalating the danger for everyone.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• After the destruction in Yunhai City, Tongtian and the Human Emperor Manor’s allies learn that a mysterious attacker named Mietian abducted Gong Xuan and is heading toward the Mystic Sea Region. Mietian’s unusual power nearly drained Bai Zeyu’s cultivation, and Tongtian’s timely arrival saved him.
• Tongtian organizes a search, while the Old Sword God, the Prince of Dong’an, and others are asked to seal the coast. The Human Emperor Manor, Jinfeng Commerce, and Sea-Viewing Tower mobilize their networks; teleportation arrays across Brahma Heaven Province are shut down.
• Unable to escape the blockade, Mietian hides in the Heavenly Abundance Sect, taking control of its sect master and elders. He confines Gong Xuan on the rear mountain and seals Gong Xuan’s cultivation.
• Gong Xuan refuses to reveal how to open the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm and attempts to flee. Mietian stops him with a command, explaining that the local Heaven and Earth Great Dao obeys him and that he could obtain Gong Xuan’s memories by refining his soul.
• The chapter reveals that Mietian has been reborn in the body of Mantong, a Primordial Chaos Realm Golden Armor Puppet. Mietian had transferred part of his primordial spirit into Mantong, which has now erased Mantong’s consciousness.

Character developments

• Tongtian takes charge of the response and remains focused on locating Mietian and rescuing Gong Xuan.
• Bai Zeyu is shaken and regretful after being caught off guard by Mietian’s strange sealing and devouring abilities.
• Gong Xuan remains defiant despite being powerless, choosing resistance over cooperation and dismissing Mietian’s threats.
• Mietian is revealed as a calculating and powerful infiltrator: he can control others, command the local Great Dao, and conceal his identity. His new puppet body gives him another means to evade detection.

Significant themes

• Power and control: Mietian’s ability to suppress cultivation, control people, and command the surrounding world leaves his captives with little physical agency.
• Defiance and moral conviction: Gong Xuan refuses to help even when threatened, viewing cooperation as making himself a condemned sinner.
• Deception and hidden identity: Mietian’s disguise and rebirth make him difficult to detect, while the heroes’ extensive search underscores how dangerous an unseen enemy can be.
• Urgency and confinement: The province-wide blockade raises the stakes, but it also traps Mietian and Gong Xuan together in a tense standoff.

Character interactions

• Bai Zeyu recounts his defeat to Tongtian, Shi Shan, and the others, prompting a coordinated response.
• Tongtian reassures the group that reinforcements and coastal defenses may prevent Mietian’s escape.
• Gong Xuan confronts Mietian, refuses to reveal the secret, and tries to flee; Mietian immobilizes him and threatens to extract his memories.
• Mietian’s control extends beyond Gong Xuan to the Heavenly Abundance Sect’s leaders, cutting off Gong Xuan’s hoped-for route to send a message.

Plot points and events

• Mietian, reborn from a fragment of the Heavenly Demon Avatar’s primordial spirit in a mechanical Golden Armor Body, has escaped Tongtian’s and the system’s control. His body lets him hide his aura, but his incomplete spirit and puppet form severely limit his cultivation, so he wants to open Prison Suppression and possess a stronger Heavenly Demon.
• Seeking the way into the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm, Mietian threatens Gong Xuan. Gong Xuan refuses to reveal the secret and warns that he will summon the Human Emperor Manor and Sea-Viewing Tower.
• Mietian tortures Gong Xuan, then has the controlled Sect Master Wanren Wang bring three unwitting Quasi-Saint disciples into the hall to pressure him.
• Gong Xuan urges the disciples to flee and exposes Mietian as a Heavenly Demon, but they trust their Sect Master. Mietian kills all three, refining each into a pill, while blaming their deaths on Gong Xuan’s refusal to cooperate.

Character developments and interactions

• Mietian is newly independent but desperate to overcome his restricted cultivation. He shows calculated cruelty, using innocent disciples as leverage against Gong Xuan.
• Gong Xuan remains defiant despite torture and refuses to sacrifice the secret for his own safety. His concern for the disciples reveals his compassion, even though they are strangers.
• Wanren Wang has been completely controlled by Mietian and obediently delivers his own disciples, leaving when commanded.
• The disciples enter expecting a reward, then realize too late that they are in danger; their trust in Wanren Wang prevents them from heeding Gong Xuan’s warning.

Significant themes

• Resistance and sacrifice: Gong Xuan accepts personal suffering—and the disciples’ deaths—rather than reveal information he believes is vital to the wider world.
• Power and coercion: Mietian exploits control, torture, and threatened violence to force compliance.
• Dehumanization: The disciples are treated as disposable tools, and their deaths are converted into pills, underscoring Mietian’s monstrous nature.

Key plot points and events

• Mietian taunts the captive Gong Xuan after refining three of his fellow disciples into blood-red pills.
• He forces the pills into Gong Xuan and uses the power of nothingness to consume Gong Xuan’s original cultivation, convert it into demonic qi, and absorb the pills’ blood essence.
• Although Mietian reseals Gong Xuan’s heart meridians, Gong Xuan can feel his body strengthening under the demonic qi. He is unable to reverse the transformation or destroy his sealed primordial spirit.
• Mietian plans to make Gong Xuan a full Demonic Cultivator by forcing him to consume more cultivators, eventually using him to learn the secrets of the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm. He also hopes to raise Gong Xuan to the Primordial Chaos Realm and possess his body.
• With the conflict exposed and powerful factions closing in, Mietian shifts his immediate plans: he seeks the surviving Seven Kill Sword Demon and Mad God Demon as allies and potential cannon fodder, while leaving his goal of reaching Prison Suppression for later.

Character developments

• Mietian takes cruel satisfaction in dominating Gong Xuan. His ambition remains intact, but he adapts to mounting threats by seeking new allies and focusing on the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm.
• Gong Xuan is horrified and enraged by his forced transformation, yet refuses to submit or accept responsibility for what he is being made to do. Despite being physically and spiritually trapped, he clings to the belief that steadfast will can resist demonic corruption.

Character interactions

• Mietian deliberately provokes Gong Xuan, then forcibly transforms him to punish his defiance and break his resistance.
• Gong Xuan curses Mietian, vows never to obey him, and demands death; Mietian refuses, intent on prolonging his torment and using him for his plans.
• Mietian’s calm return to cultivation contrasts with Gong Xuan’s helpless terror and continuing defiance.

Significant themes

• Coercion and corrupted agency: Gong Xuan is made to participate in demonic cultivation against his will.
• Will versus corruption: The chapter leaves open whether inner resolve can withstand a transformation that has already taken hold.
• Cruelty and control: Mietian treats suffering as amusement and uses power to impose his plans.
• Adaptation under pressure: As enemies and obstacles multiply, Mietian revises his strategy without abandoning his larger ambitions.

Key plot points and events

• Over two weeks, Mietian learns two new uses of his Puppet Golden Armor Body: it can disguise him completely, and any escaped component can carry his primordial spirit away. The latter offers a powerful escape route, though he would need to possess another cultivator to rebuild himself.
• Mietian has forced Gong Xuan to devour nearly all of the Heavenly Abundance Sect’s cultivators. Gong Xuan has reached the ninth level of the Dao-Unification Realm, but his mind is deteriorating.
• Mietian brings the sect’s last ten survivors to Gong Xuan and releases his seal. With Mietian’s control over them removed, Gong Xuan attacks and devours them, including Sect Master Wanren Wang, until the sect is wiped out.
• As Gong Xuan tries to leave in search of more victims, Mietian stops him and offers to find another sect for him to consume—in exchange for the secrets of the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm.

Character developments

• Mietian grows more confident in his puppet body’s abilities and uses his power to manipulate Gong Xuan and orchestrate the sect’s destruction. He remains calculating and detached, treating the massacre as an opportunity.
• Gong Xuan becomes physically stronger but loses more of his humanity and reason. His forced demonic transformation has turned him into a ravenous killer, despite his continued hatred of Mietian.
• Wanren Wang tries to defend his sect despite being badly outmatched, but is ultimately consumed along with the remaining survivors.

Character interactions

• Gong Xuan curses Mietian and blames him for his suffering, while Mietian mocks him and encourages his growing strength.
• Mietian deliberately exposes the final survivors to Gong Xuan, then watches as the sect is slaughtered.
• Wanren Wang and the others attack Gong Xuan in desperation, but their efforts fail. Mietian later confronts the now-mindless Gong Xuan and bargains for information.

Significant themes

• Power gained at the cost of identity: Gong Xuan’s cultivation rises as his sanity and humanity collapse.
• Manipulation and exploitation: Mietian turns Gong Xuan into a weapon and treats both him and the sect as tools.
• Survival and transformation: Mietian’s puppet body offers unusual escape and disguise abilities, while Gong Xuan’s transformation is destructive and irreversible.

Key plot points and events

• Gong Xuan, driven by demonic qi, has devoured members of the Heavenly Abundance Sect, including Wanren Wang. Though he repeatedly loses control, he briefly regains clarity and refuses to reveal the secret of the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm.
• Mietian mocks Gong Xuan’s resistance, suppresses his demonic qi and cultivation, then threatens to possess him if he reaches the primordial chaos realm. Horrified at the prospect of becoming Mietian’s accomplice, Gong Xuan begs to be killed.
• Mietian seals Gong Xuan’s consciousness and cultivation again, destroys the Heavenly Abundance Sect, and carries him to Skyreach City.
• At the Sea-Viewing Tower, Mietian transforms to look like Tongtian and announces his identity, stirring excitement among the locals. Former Deputy Tower Master Gong Sanquan rushes to greet him and recognizes Gong Xuan.

Character developments

• Gong Xuan remains fiercely loyal to the secret despite his demonic transformation. His moments of lucidity reveal his horror at losing himself and being used by Mietian.
• Mietian becomes increasingly obsessed with breaking and reshaping Gong Xuan, even more than with conquering the worlds. He also deliberately uses Tongtian’s identity to manipulate the people of Skyreach City.
• Gong Sanquan appears as the Sea-Viewing Tower’s newly promoted Tower Master and recognizes both visitors.

Significant themes

• Resistance and loyalty: Gong Xuan’s refusal to disclose the secret persists even as his control over himself collapses.
• Loss of agency and identity: Mietian can suppress Gong Xuan’s body and consciousness, while his transformation into Tongtian blurs the boundary between the two identities.
• Cruelty and manipulation: Mietian treats Gong Xuan’s suffering as an experiment and uses a familiar public identity to set his next plan in motion.

Character interactions

• Mietian taunts Gong Xuan, defeats his attack effortlessly, and threatens to possess him; Gong Xuan responds with defiance and desperate pleas for death.
• At the Sea-Viewing Tower, Mietian presents himself as Tongtian, prompting the waiter and diners to react with reverence and excitement.
• Gong Sanquan warmly approaches Mietian as Tongtian, then recognizes Gong Xuan, setting up a potentially consequential reunion.

Key plot points and events

• Tongtian—actually Mietian in disguise—arrives at the Sea-Viewing Tower with the injured Gong Xuan. Gong Sanquan welcomes them warmly, impressed by Tongtian’s reputation and unaware of the deception.
• Mietian tells Gong Sanquan that Gong Xuan was hurt while they pursued an escaped Heavenly Demon Cultivator. Gong Sanquan accepts the explanation and arranges a feast.
• Alone with Gong Xuan on the Sixth Floor, Mietian removes his seals and opens the floor’s barrier, flooding the room with the auras of Skyreach City’s many cultivators.
• Gong Xuan’s demonic nature surges at the scent of cultivators. Mietian tempts him to reveal the secret of the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm in exchange for access to the people below, but Gong Xuan resists.
• A Primordial Origin Realm chef arrives. Gong Xuan desperately orders him to leave and warns that Mietian is not Tongtian.
• Mietian uses his power to make the chef swell and explode, turning his blood energy into nourishment for Gong Xuan. Gong Xuan gives in and devours it.
• Gong Sanquan rushes upstairs after hearing the commotion and finds Gong Xuan consuming the chef’s blood energy, leaving him horrified.

Character developments

• Mietian reveals his calculated cruelty: he exploits Gong Xuan’s weakness and engineers a situation designed to break his resistance.
• Gong Xuan struggles to preserve his reason and protect the realm’s secret, but his demonic hunger overwhelms him after Mietian supplies blood energy.
• Gong Sanquan shifts from delighted host to terrified witness, discovering that something is gravely wrong with his tower master.
• The Chef God is an unwitting victim, caught between Gong Xuan’s warning and Mietian’s manipulation.

Significant themes

• Temptation and loss of control: Gong Xuan’s hunger steadily erodes his self-command.
• Deception and reputation: Mietian uses Tongtian’s respected identity to gain trust and conceal his plan.
• Cruel manipulation: Rather than simply overpowering Gong Xuan, Mietian creates conditions that make his collapse seem inevitable.
• The cost of secrets: Gong Xuan’s effort to protect the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm is tested against his overwhelming desire for nourishment.

Character interactions

• Gong Sanquan warmly hosts the disguised Mietian and Gong Xuan, trusting their cover story.
• Mietian pressures Gong Xuan with the promise of access to the city’s cultivators in return for the realm’s secret.
• Gong Xuan tries to protect the chef by ordering him away, but Mietian turns the chef into nourishment.
• Gong Sanquan’s arrival interrupts the scene only after Gong Xuan has succumbed, exposing the horror to an eyewitness.

Plot points and events

• Gong Xuan swallows the blood essence in the Sea-Viewing Tower and turns on Gong Sanquan, apparently driven by an uncontrollable hunger. Rather than kill him, Gong Xuan throws him clear of the tower and warns Skyreach City to flee.
• Mietian reveals that Gong Xuan still has some control, but declares that the whole city will die with him. He kills cultivators and floods Gong Xuan with their blood essence, trying to provoke his ravenous nature.
• Mietian traps Skyreach City inside a Godslayer Magic Array; those attempting to escape are crushed into blood mist. Gong Sanquan flees to the Human Emperor Manor, hoping the city’s ruler, Xuanyuan Lang, can help.
• Xuanyuan confirms he sent Gong Sanquan’s earlier warning to Hanyang City, but the city is sealed off. With Mietian closing in, Gong Sanquan urges Xuanyuan to shrink the City-Protection Array around the manor. Xuanyuan prepares to use the City Lord Seal.

Character developments and interactions

• Gong Xuan shows both terrifying bloodlust and a remaining sliver of reason: he warns the city and spares Gong Sanquan by hurling him away.
• Gong Sanquan shifts from confusion to desperate action, escaping the massacre and pressing Xuanyuan to protect the manor.
• Mietian proves ruthless and strategically cruel, using mass murder to test Gong Xuan while sealing off the city.
• Xuanyuan Lang, initially confused and hoping to save more people, is forced to confront the immediate threat and act under pressure.
• The contrast between Gong Xuan’s warning and Mietian’s threat leaves the city’s cultivators panicked and uncertain.

Significant themes

• Conscience versus monstrosity: Gong Xuan’s warning suggests a surviving will beneath his predatory transformation.
• Cruelty and control: Mietian weaponizes the citizens’ deaths to manipulate Gong Xuan and terrorize the city.
• Leadership under catastrophe: Gong Sanquan and Xuanyuan must make urgent choices as ordinary people seek shelter and rescue.
• Hope amid disaster: The warning sent to Hanyang City offers a possible chance of help, but Skyreach City may not survive long enough for it to arrive.

Key plot points

• Unable to escape because the Teleportation Array is sealed, survivors crowd into Skyreach City’s City Lord’s Manor.
• Gong Sanquan quickly converts the city’s City-Protection Array into a compact shield around the manor and urges everyone to contribute their cultivation. Xuanyuan Lang strengthens it with human-dao power, while the cultivators’ combined strength reinforces it further.
• Mietian attacks, but the array holds—its defense is amplified by the fortune of the Brahma Heaven Province Human Emperor Manor. His Nine Forms of World-Opening shake the shield and injure weaker cultivators, but fail to break through.
• Outside the protected manor, Gong Xuan has become a murderous demonic cultivator, slaughtering and devouring those who could not reach safety.
• Realizing he may not have time to break the array before reinforcements arrive, Mietian turns to Gong Xuan and demands that he reveal every secret of the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm.

Character developments and interactions

• Gong Sanquan acts decisively and courageously, organizing the defense and reassuring the survivors. He invokes the coming arrival of Sect Master Tongtian to bolster their resolve.
• Xuanyuan Lang overcomes his initial shock and takes responsibility as City Lord, using his position and the Human Emperor Manor’s fortune to rally the defenders.
• The cultivators initially panic under Mietian’s taunts, but regain confidence and cooperate, sacrificing their strength to maintain the array.
• Mietian shifts from contemptuous confidence to frustration when the defense withstands his strongest attack. He then uses Gong Xuan as a means to intimidate the survivors and pursue information.
• Gong Xuan has lost his remaining restraint and is now driven by demonic bloodlust. Mietian forcibly pulls him away from his victims and threatens him.

Significant themes

• Collective action and sacrifice: The defenders’ cooperation turns an improvised shield into a formidable barrier.
• Human-dao fortune and legitimacy: The province’s shared fortune protects the manor, showing that communal power can resist even overwhelming individual strength.
• Courage under pressure: Gong Sanquan and Xuanyuan Lang’s resolve helps prevent the survivors from giving in to despair.
• The cost and spread of corruption: Gong Xuan’s transformation threatens not only individuals but, as Mietian claims, the wider worlds.

Key plot points and events

• Gong Xuan, driven into demonic madness, attacks Mietian’s cage but cannot break free. As Mietian tries to seize his primordial spirit and extract the secrets of the Tyrant Blade Secret Realm, Gong Xuan grabs him and deliberately detonates his own body and primordial spirit.
• Mietian escapes, throwing Gong Xuan’s exploding body toward the City Lord’s Manor. The blast obliterates Skyreach City and creates a vast crater, though the manor itself survives through the defenders’ combined protection—and is severely damaged.
• Tongtian and the other experts arrive too late to prevent the destruction. They find Xuanyuan Lang and Gong Sanhe near death, while the other surviving cultivators are unconscious. Tongtian uses the Godslayer Magic Array to stabilize the survivors.
• The experts conclude Mietian was seeking the secret realm’s secrets and launch a region-wide search. The devastation at the Heavenly Abundance Sect is also discovered, intensifying the pursuit.
• Gong Sanquan and the others regain consciousness. Seeing Tongtian beside him, Gong Sanquan mistakes him for a demon and attacks.

Character developments and interactions

• Gong Xuan chooses self-sacrifice over allowing Mietian to learn the secret realm’s secrets, turning his last act into a devastating counterattack.
• Mietian becomes increasingly agitated as help approaches. He abandons his attempt to interrogate Gong Xuan and flees after setting the explosion in motion.
• Tongtian and the other experts shift from rescue efforts to an urgent, coordinated manhunt. Tongtian prioritizes saving the survivors, while Shi Shan and Holy Mother Feihong organize the search.
• Gong Sanquan, badly injured and disoriented on waking, responds to Tongtian as though he were an enemy.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and loyalty: Gong Xuan gives up his life to protect crucial knowledge.
• The cost of conflict: Mietian’s escape leaves a city destroyed and many lives apparently lost.
• Urgency and vengeance: The catastrophe unites the experts in their determination to find him.
• Fear and confusion: Even after rescue, the survivors’ trauma makes trust difficult.

Key plot points and events

• Gong Sanquan, still disoriented after arriving in Huatu City, mistakes the real Tongtian for the Heavenly Demon who attacked Skyreach City. Tongtian seals him to prevent him from striking.
• After the group explains what happened, Gong Sanquan recalls that Gong Xuan is dead. He reveals that the demon copied Tongtian’s appearance, brought Gong Xuan to the Sea-Viewing Tower, and caused him to become a violent Heavenly Demon before his death.
• Tongtian concludes that Mietian must be responsible, since transforming a pure Dao Cultivator into a demon requires the power of nothingness.
• Xuanyuan Lang and the other survivors awaken and also mistake Tongtian for Mietian. Once corrected, the group recognizes a serious problem: they know Mietian is alive but cannot identify his true appearance.
• Tongtian secretly warns the Old Sword God and other allies that Mietian looks like him. The warning spreads, but it also leads several factions to quietly mark Tongtian himself as a target.
• Unaware that his disguise has been exposed, Mietian heads to Huatu City. He plans to use Tongtian’s identity to gain access to its Teleportation Array and reach the Shiva Continent, where he hopes to find allies.

Character developments

• Tongtian shifts from confusion to certainty that Mietian caused Gong Xuan’s corruption. He also takes steps to warn others, though the warning inadvertently puts his own life at risk.
• Gong Sanquan moves from panic and disorientation to grief and self-blame over Gong Xuan’s death, then recounts what happened.
• Bai Zeyu is devastated by Gong Xuan’s death and regrets that she could not stop Mietian.
• Mietian remains confident in his stolen identity and continues pursuing his escape plan, unaware that others have been alerted.

Significant themes

• Identity and mistrust: Mietian’s ability to copy Tongtian’s appearance makes recognition dangerous and undermines confidence in allies.
• Deception and unintended consequences: Tongtian’s warning helps expose the disguise but causes other factions to suspect the real Tongtian.
• Corruption, sacrifice, and loss: Gong Xuan’s transformation and death leave the survivors grieving, while his final self-detonation prevents Mietian from learning the secret he sought.

Character interactions

• Tongtian restrains Gong Sanquan, then questions him about the attacker and learns of Gong Xuan’s death.
• Bai Zeyu arrives, challenges Tongtian’s actions, and helps clarify the situation as Gong Sanquan recognizes her.
• Tongtian and the survivors explain the truth to Gong Sanquan and the other awakened cultivators, calming them after they mistake him for Mietian.
• Mietian tries to deceive the Huatu City guards by claiming to be Tongtian and demanding access to the city’s Teleportation Array.

Plot points and events

• Mietian, disguised as Tongtian, enters a Human Emperor Manor city and asks to be teleported to the farthest reachable city, claiming he is chasing the Heavenly Demon.
• City Lord Sima Jian recognizes him as the wanted Heavenly Demon but pretends to accept his story. He sends Mietian through the array to Hunting Cloud City, then destroys the array to cut off his return.
• Sima explains that the plan came from Bai Zeyu and Tongtian: Hunting Cloud City is a dangerous Prison Suppression stronghold filled with Golden Armor Immortals, where the Heavenly Demon is expected to be trapped and killed.
• In Hunting Cloud City, Mietian senses something is wrong. He hides his aura with his Golden Armor Puppet Body, discovers the teleportation array is sealed, and realizes he has been deliberately lured there.
• Before exploring, he leaves a fragment of his finger hidden in the grass as a precaution. Then teleportation arrays on the four nearby walls activate, signaling that someone is arriving.

Character developments

• Mietian remains cunning and cautious, successfully fooling the gate guards and Sima at first. Once trapped, he quickly recognizes the danger, conceals himself, and prepares a contingency.
• Sima Jian acts nervously but carries out the trap with resolve, following the instructions of Bai Zeyu and Tongtian.
• Bai Zeyu and Tongtian are revealed to have coordinated a broader effort to corner the Heavenly Demon.

Character interactions

• Mietian uses urgency and fabricated information to pressure Sima into opening the array.
• Sima plays along, offering a plausible explanation for the one-person restriction before directing Mietian into the trap.
• Sima’s subordinates are confused by his actions; he explains the plan only after Mietian is gone.

Significant themes

• Deception and counter-deception: Mietian impersonates Tongtian, but the authorities anticipate the disguise and use his own false story against him.
• Preparation and strategy: The hunters coordinate a trap, while Mietian responds by hiding his presence and leaving a safeguard.
• Isolation and danger: Hunting Cloud City’s eerie emptiness, sealed array, and approaching arrivals establish a sense of entrapment and imminent confrontation.

Key plot points and events

• Tongtian, Bai Zeyu, Shi Shan, and Holy Mother Feihong rush to Hunting Cloud City to capture Mietian. They seal the exits and search the city, but Tongtian’s spiritual probing cannot detect him.
• Convinced Mietian is still hiding inside, the group begins a thorough search while Tongtian warns them to beware of tricks and says reinforcements are on the way.
• Mietian realizes he will soon be found and ambushes Bai Zeyu with a Godslayer Magic Array. Bai Zeyu’s own power of nothingness breaks the array, revealing that Tongtian had prepared the hunters against Mietian’s sealing technique.
• Bai Zeyu drives Mietian from hiding with the Heaven-Measuring Ruler and attacks with the Prison-Suppressing Demon Seal. The figure he strikes dissolves into nothingness—an Avatar, not necessarily Mietian’s true body.
• Mietian reveals his strategy: Avatars are spread throughout the city to confuse the pursuers and launch surprise attacks. Multiple “Mietians” appear, but Shi Shan and Feihong can destroy them with ease.
• Bai Zeyu counters an Avatar’s Demonic Qi with the Demon-Subduing Sutra, only for it to vanish as well.
• The chapter ends with two identical Tongtians clashing. Tongtian declares that the Heavenly Demon’s true body is among them and calls for help trapping it.

Character developments and interactions

• Tongtian is furious and confident in the hunters’ preparations, but his inability to locate Mietian—and the appearance of a second Tongtian—turns the search into a more dangerous and uncertain fight.
• Mietian shows caution and ingenuity rather than relying on strength. He uses concealment, Avatars, and the power of nothingness to evade stronger opponents and create openings.
• Bai Zeyu shifts from being caught off guard to responding forcefully. Protected by Tongtian’s countermeasures, he resists Mietian’s array and attacks aggressively, though he cannot tell which figures are real.
• Shi Shan and Holy Mother Feihong help in the citywide search and easily destroy Mietian’s weaker Avatars.
• The hunters coordinate against Mietian, while Mietian’s attacks repeatedly test their defenses and make it difficult to identify his true form.

Significant themes

• Deception and uncertainty: Disguises and Avatars make appearances unreliable, leaving even powerful fighters unsure whom they are facing.
• Preparation versus surprise: Tongtian’s safeguards blunt Mietian’s first attack, but Mietian’s contingency plans keep the battle unpredictable.
• Power and adaptability: The power of nothingness can absorb and repurpose energy, making it dangerous even when wielded by Avatars.

Key plot points and events

• Tongtian and an identical opponent clash, each wielding the same appearance, cultivation, and Power of Nothingness. Shi Shan, Bai Zeyu, and Holy Mother Feihong cannot tell which is the real Tongtian and hesitate to attack.
• The apparent Tongtian declares that an impostor cannot copy everything, then reveals a powerful avatar. The avatar identifies one combatant as the real Tongtian, prompting the others to attack the other figure.
• Their combined assault overwhelms the impostor and swallows his Power of Nothingness. But the defeated enemy is revealed to be a shattered Golden Armor Puppet Body—not a person.
• Tongtian recognizes the puppet as Mantong of Jinfeng Commerce, apparently controlled and used by Mietian. This explains how the Heavenly Demon could imitate Tongtian and why it had survived earlier encounters.
• Unsure whether Mietian is truly dead, Tongtian keeps Hunting Cloud City sealed and transports the puppet remains, contained by the Godslayer Magic Array and Power of Nothingness, to the Thousand Mechanisms Pavilion for examination.

Character developments and interactions

• Tongtian shows caution despite the apparent victory. He pieces together how Mietian used the puppet and refuses to assume the enemy is dead.
• Shi Shan, Bai Zeyu, and Feihong are unsettled by the perfect imitation and initially cannot intervene safely. Once Tongtian’s avatar exposes the impostor, they coordinate their full force against him.
• Mietian uses deception as a last chance to survive, making himself indistinguishable from Tongtian. His concentration falters when the avatar reveals the truth, allowing Tongtian to gain the advantage.
• The group’s earlier losses—Skyreach City and Master Gong Xuan—make them receptive to Tongtian’s insistence on further precautions.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus identity: Even cultivation aura and abilities cannot distinguish the real Tongtian from the imitation; the decisive clue is an avatar only the real Tongtian can produce.
• Deception and uncertainty: Mietian exploits the group’s inability to identify him, turning a straightforward battle into a test of judgment.
• Caution after failure: The characters avoid declaring victory until the puppet has been investigated, reflecting the cost of their previous negligence.
• Cooperation: The allies’ combined assault defeats Mietian’s immediate threat once they know whom to target.

Plot and key events

• Tongtian and his allies bring the ruined Golden Armor Puppet Body to the Thousand Mechanisms Pavilion to confirm Mietian’s death. The Master of a Thousand Mechanisms and Elder Han Bing find its core shattered and its mechanisms and control arrays destroyed, concluding that no power or consciousness could remain.
• With Mietian apparently gone, Prison Suppression retakes Cloudhunt City. Tongtian vows to hunt down the remaining evil Heavenly Demons and joins the search in Shiva Continent, but the demons initially leave no trace.
• Tongtian brings the Seven Kill Sword Demon and other captives to the Holy Land Interception Sect, intending to reform them and learn what they know. Prison Suppression and the Human Emperor Manors take over the wider search; Tongtian steps back to focus on stabilizing his cultivation.
• Over the next fifty years, the searchers capture two Heavenly Demons. Bai Zeyu escorts them to Cloudhunt City, where they are placed in specially prepared demon-suppressing restraints before being sent to Prison Suppression.
• Bai Zeyu reminds Tongtian that he must attend Prison Suppression’s son-in-law selection tournament in 150 years. The tournament is also part of a larger plan: Bai Yushan and the others intend to use Tongtian’s power for an important purpose, and both he and Prison Suppression need time to prepare.
• After the prisoners are taken away, one Heavenly Demon discovers a severed finger that has crawled into his hand by itself, ending the chapter on a mystery.

Character developments and interactions

• Tongtian feels guilty, believing his attempt to awaken Pangu—and thus himself—helped bring about the deaths of Pavilion Master Gong Xuan and the people of Skyreach City. His attitude toward murderous Heavenly Demons hardens, while his own cultivation troubles him: he senses that something is missing from his power, though he cannot identify what.
• Bai Zeyu takes charge of the Heavenly Demon hunt and prisoner transfers. He treats the captured demons harshly and threatens them, but admits that Prison Suppression lacks a reliable way to kill them outright.
• The captured Heavenly Demons remain defiant despite their sealed powers. One boasts of the killing and violence he enjoyed, then later becomes confused by the inexplicable finger.
• The Master of a Thousand Mechanisms and Elder Han Bing provide reassurance by examining the puppet and confirming that Mietian is almost certainly destroyed.
• Tongtian and his allies share grief over their losses, even as they pursue revenge and try to restore order.

Significant themes

• Loss and guilt: Defeating Mietian does not undo the devastation, and Tongtian struggles with his part in the tragedy.
• Justice and containment: The authorities can capture and restrain Heavenly Demons, but cannot yet reliably kill them, leaving justice incomplete.
• The cost of power: Tongtian’s demonic corruption and lingering sense of incompleteness suggest that immense power may have lasting consequences.
• Unresolved mystery: Tongtian’s missing sensation and the finger’s strange movement hint that something of the demonic threat—or another unknown force—may remain.