Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• The Qilin Clan’s two experts are attempting to break through to the Primordial Origin Realm at the same time. Their overlapping auras disrupt each other, making success nearly impossible.
• The clan seeks help from the Dragonfolk and Phoenix Clan, but Ancestral Dragon and Feng Qi refuse: their own knowledge of the realm is too limited to solve the crisis. They advise the Qilin Clan to approach Shen Ni or Yuanfeng.
• The Qilin envoy goes to Shen Ni, who postpones any decision until Nuwa finishes her own breakthrough. He suspects she may be willing to help, but does not care about the gifts the clan brought.
• Nuwa completes her breakthrough smoothly, then faces an unusually powerful Heavenly Tribulation. Shen Ni observes that it seems even more severe than the tribulation he once endured, suggesting Nuwa’s potential is exceptional.
• The Qilin Clan’s two experts remain trapped in their dangerous, entangled breakthroughs while Nuwa’s tribulation begins. Tongtian watches events from beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens.

Character developments and interactions

• Feng Qi and Ancestral Dragon acknowledge their limits and refuse to promise help they cannot provide.
• Shen Ni remains detached from the Qilin Clan’s plight, but leaves open the possibility of helping after consulting Nuwa. He also reflects on the clan’s past: its former chief’s misguided choices led to Ancestral Kirin’s death and cost the clan a potential fifth Primordial Origin expert.
• Nuwa demonstrates the strength of her foundation by breaking through naturally, though she must now face a formidable tribulation.
• The Qilin envoy’s desperation contrasts with Shen Ni’s indifference; he can only wait for Nuwa’s breakthrough to conclude.

Significant themes

• Limits of knowledge: Even powerful experts may be unable to help when their understanding is incomplete.
• Consequences and cause and effect: The Qilin Clan’s present crisis is linked to earlier mistakes and losses.
• Potential and trial: Nuwa’s immense tribulation signals both the risks of advancement and the extraordinary strength she may attain.

Key plot points and events

• Tongtian watches Nuwa’s Heavenly Tribulation, confident she can survive through her exceptional vitality and mastery of Creation, though he chooses not to intervene. He views the tribulation as both a trial and a reward that Nuwa needs to earn for herself.
• Nuwa endures the final stages of the tribulation and becomes the Primordial World’s fifth Primordial Origin Realm expert. Her breakthrough draws attention across the world, especially because it came only ten million years after her birth.
• The Primordial World grants Nuwa an unusually generous reward, apparently to curry favor with Tongtian. Beast Emperor Shen Ni reacts with exasperation.
• Tongtian considers expanding his group of disciples. Houtu stands out as a possible choice, and he weighs whether to take her alone or perhaps accept all Twelve Ancestral Witches. He judges most Demon Race candidates less promising.

Character developments and interactions

• Nuwa proves her resilience by surviving without Tongtian’s help, confirming his confidence in her. Her achievement inspires other cultivators by showing that Primordial Origin Realm breakthroughs are possible.
• Tongtian maintains a balance between supporting his disciples and allowing them to face necessary challenges. He also reflects on his high standards and his potential plans for Houtu and the Twelve Ancestral Witches.
• Shen Ni, now Nuwa’s senior brother, witnesses her success and the lavish reward, responding with a skeptical eye-roll.
• Tongtian’s concern for Nuwa contrasts with his reluctance to involve himself in the Qilin Clan’s affairs, since its members are not his disciples.

Significant themes

• Growth through hardship: Tongtian believes protecting disciples from every trial would hinder their future development.
• Talent, opportunity, and limits: Raw ability matters, but reaching the highest realms also depends on chance; Tongtian will guide his disciples but cannot guarantee every breakthrough.
• Loyalty and collective strength: The Twelve Ancestral Witches’ unity makes them attractive as a potential group of disciples, though Tongtian also worries about their noisy temperament.
• Recognition and influence: Nuwa’s breakthrough earns worldwide attention, while the Primordial World’s lavish reward hints at its desire to please Tongtian.

Key plot points and events

• Nuwa completes her breakthrough into the Primordial Origin Realm. Along with the usual body tempering and Great Dao baptism, she receives the rare chance to comprehend the Great Dao Source, greatly strengthening her foundations.
• While Nuwa is occupied, the Qilin Clan’s envoy anxiously waits. Two Qilin elders are attempting breakthroughs, but their auras are weakening.
• Nuwa plans to enter seclusion to absorb her gains. The envoy begs her to save the Qilin Clan, explaining its crisis.
• Nuwa believes the clan brought its troubles upon itself, but decides its powerful members could help protect the Primordial World from outside threats. Unable to handle the crisis herself, she asks her senior brother, Beast Emperor Shen Ni, to intervene.
• Shen Ni reluctantly agrees and travels with Nuwa to the Qilin Ancestral Land. He stabilizes the two faltering qilins by separating their auras into distinct stretches of spacetime, preventing them from interfering with each other.

Character developments

• Nuwa gains a major advantage from her breakthrough and recognizes she needs time in seclusion to absorb it. She also shows compassion and strategic judgment by choosing to aid the Qilin Clan despite believing it caused its own predicament.
• Beast Emperor Shen Ni remains dismissive of the Qilin Clan’s problems, but honors Nuwa’s request and proves highly capable when he acts.
• The Qilin envoy is frightened of offending Shen Ni and Nuwa, yet overcomes his fear to plead for his clan’s survival.

Significant themes

• Power and responsibility: Nuwa uses her influence to help preserve potential defenders of the Primordial World.
• Self-inflicted consequences: The Qilin Clan’s crisis is portrayed as a result of its own choices, even as it receives assistance.
• Breakthrough and comprehension: Nuwa’s rare access to the Great Dao Source illustrates how extraordinary insight can accelerate future cultivation.
• Different levels of mastery: Shen Ni’s subtle manipulation of space demonstrates the gap between ordinary Primordial Origin Realm practitioners and a highly experienced master.

Character interactions

• Nuwa and Shen Ni act as senior-junior partners: she asks for his help, and he agrees despite his reluctance.
• The envoy cautiously approaches the two powerful figures, first seeking Nuwa’s aid and then relying on her request to persuade Shen Ni.
• Nuwa observes Shen Ni’s technique with interest, recognizing the sophisticated spatial mastery behind what he considers a simple task.

Plot points and events

• Beast Emperor Shen Ni’s help enables two qilins to stabilize their auras and continue their breakthroughs. Their success could restore the Qilin Clan’s place among the Three Clans and discourage the Demon Heavenly Court from pressuring it.
• The Demon Heavenly Court realizes that breakthroughs into the Primordial Origin Realm may no longer be blocked by the Heavenly Dao. Its leaders wait for the qilins’ results before attempting breakthroughs of their own.
• The Court hopes its many long-cultivating Quasi-Saints will have strong chances if the restriction is lifted. Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi, however, lack the accumulated foundations of older cultivators and are not in a hurry.
• Di Jun may soon discover that Nuwa still carries some of the Demon Race’s fortune and visit her. She might join the Demon Race to settle karmic ties, but would not submit to its leadership; Tongtian’s guidance gives her a broader view of the Court’s prospects.
• The Witch Clan is another future concern: its physical cultivation makes it less able to benefit from rising spiritual energy. Tongtian could teach them methods to advance, but plans to wait until they face a crisis before intervening.
• At the Qilin Clan, Shen Ni seals the breakthrough auras. Nuwa observes that both qilins’ progress looks certain to succeed.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Ni acts decisively to support the qilins, though he treats the broader implications as unremarkable.
• The Qilin Clan gains renewed hope and sees the breakthroughs as a path back to political strength.
• Di Jun and Taiyi are portrayed as powerful but relatively inexperienced, with time and accumulated foundations still needed.
• Nuwa remains connected to the Demon Race through its fortune, yet her allegiance is shaped by her independence and discipleship under Tongtian.
• Tongtian is strategic and selective: he has the means to help the Witch Clan but intends to wait until they truly need him.

Significant themes

• Power and political balance: Two breakthroughs could reshape relations among the major factions.
• Accumulation versus talent: Natural ability cannot fully replace the foundations built through long cultivation.
• Heavenly Dao and opportunity: The qilins’ success may signal that a cosmic restriction has lifted, opening the way for a new generation of experts.
• Strategic patience and allegiance: Nuwa and Tongtian act according to their own aims rather than simply serving the factions they are connected to.

Plot and key events

• Two Qilin Clan members successfully break through to the primordial origin realm after several months. Their new strength offers the clan a means of self-protection, but they recognize that this realm no longer guarantees dominance.
• The Qilins sense the Heavenly Dao and learn enough about its past schemes to conclude that the clan should keep a low profile and quietly build its strength. They fear being drawn into future conflicts, particularly against Beast Emperor Shen Ni.
• The breakthroughs trigger Heavenly Tribulations. Shen Ni withdraws rather than interfere: even a primordial-origin expert risks death by meddling in another’s tribulation. The chapter emphasizes that tribulations remain dangerous, especially for cultivators without exceptional talent or resources.
• Nuwa announces that she and Shen Ni are leaving. The Qilin Clan Chief thanks her and pledges the clan’s unconditional allegiance, recognizing that her intervention was motivated partly by the clan’s usefulness to her Master’s plans. Nuwa accepts the pledge, and the pair depart for an upcoming Dao discourse at the Beast Emperor Palace.

Character developments and interactions

• The two Qilins emerge from their breakthroughs more powerful but also more cautious, understanding that survival and patient cultivation matter more than immediate prominence.
• The Qilin Clan Chief moves from receiving aid to making a political commitment, formally aligning the clan with Nuwa.
• Nuwa shows compassion without abandoning practicality: she helped the Qilin Clan because it serves her Master’s larger plan, and she accepts its allegiance.
• Shen Ni demonstrates restraint and sound judgment by refusing to interfere with the tribulations, despite his confidence in his own strength.

Significant themes

• Survival over ambition: The Qilin Clan chooses patience and concealment rather than risking another catastrophe.
• Power and its limits: Reaching the primordial origin realm is significant, but it does not make one invulnerable or supreme.
• The danger of Heavenly Tribulations: Breakthroughs bring both reward and potentially deadly trials.
• Allegiance as political exchange: Gratitude becomes a pledge of loyalty, reinforcing how aid and usefulness shape alliances.
• The Heavenly Dao’s manipulation: The Dao seeks to steer the world through carefully balanced conflict, while powerful figures remain beyond its easy control.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Ni realizes it is time to hold another sermon at the Beast Emperor Palace. He and Yuanfeng will explain Great Luo, Quasi-Saint, and Primordial Origin cultivation, with this likely to be their last sermon before their master teaches.
• Nuwa’s followers, Feng Qi and Ao Xiang, return to their clans. Though they received no formal reward, their time with her has deepened their understanding of the Great Way of Creation and the Soul.
• Two Qilin cultivators successfully break through to the Primordial Origin Realm. Having learned from an earlier mishap, the clan separates them during their tribulations; the interference is minor, and both pass safely. The breakthroughs raise the world’s total of Primordial Origin cultivators from four to seven.
• The Qilin Clan reviews the karmic debts it accumulated through past robberies. Many of its former victims now belong to the Demon Heavenly Court, so those debts may become entangled with the Court.
• Concerned that further predation would create dangerous obligations, the Qilin Clan decides to withdraw from the world, following the example of the Dragonfolk and Phoenix Clan.

Character and clan developments

• Feng Qi and Ao Xiang return home better informed and more determined to prepare for their own breakthroughs.
• The Qilin Clan’s new Primordial Origin cultivators gain major influence, even potentially overruling the clan chief. The clan increasingly values strength and cultivation over authority.
• The Dragonfolk and Phoenix Clan remain composed, having anticipated the Qilin breakthroughs, but recognize that they too must continue cultivating stronger members.

Significant themes

• Karma and responsibility: Actions such as robbery create debts that can grow more consequential over time, especially when victims’ affiliations change.
• Wisdom in restraint: Power does not make domination the safest choice; the clans withdraw rather than risk accumulating further karmic burdens.
• A changing world: With Heavenly Dao restrictions lifted and more cultivators breaking through, the balance of power is shifting and future turmoil is likely.
• Learning through experience: The Qilin Clan once viewed withdrawal as foolish, but reaching the same level of insight leads them to make the same choice.

Character interactions

• Nuwa’s influence continues through Feng Qi and Ao Xiang, whose proximity to her serves as their greatest reward.
• The Qilin Clan’s newly ascended cultivators shape the clan’s deliberations, reflecting their elevated status.
• The Dragonfolk, Phoenix Clan, and Qilin Clan respond to one another’s advances with a mix of pressure, expectation, and strategic caution.

Key plot points and events

• After the Dragonfolk and Phoenix Clan withdrew from the world, the Qilin Clan did the same, despite gaining two primordial-origin experts. The Primordial World’s creatures suspect the qilins may have failed to break through and are avoiding a confrontation with the Demon Heavenly Court.
• The Demon Heavenly Court makes no move against the Qilin Clan, deepening the mystery. Meanwhile, the Witch Clan remains unaware of the political developments and focuses on finding demons to hunt.
• Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi discuss why the powerful factions are withdrawing. Taiyi suspects the supreme expert above them is influencing events.
• Di Jun questions how the Demon Court’s feud with the Witch Clan began, sensing that their conflict may have been manipulated. He then urges Taiyi to prepare for their own breakthroughs, hoping they can eventually defeat the Witches.
• The Twelve Ancestral Witches’ extraordinary physiques make them formidable opponents: even the Golden Crows’ fire is ineffective against Zhurong, the Fire Ancestral Witch.

Character developments and interactions

• Di Jun grows increasingly suspicious that unseen forces have shaped both the factions’ withdrawals and the Demon–Witch conflict. His doubts contrast with his continued determination to strengthen the Demon Court.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi dismisses the origins of the feud as simple political rivalry, but agrees enthusiastically that a breakthrough will let them destroy the Witch Clan.
• The brothers’ conversation reveals a difference in outlook: Di Jun reflects and questions, while Taiyi is more direct and confident in the Demon Court’s ambitions.
• The Witch Clan is shown as bluntly unconcerned with political consequences, treating even the Demon Heavenly Court as a potential source of food.

Significant themes

• Hidden manipulation and uncertainty: Di Jun suspects a powerful hand is guiding events, while Taiyi points to the supreme expert as a possible cause of the retreats.
• Power and restraint: Factions with primordial-origin experts choose withdrawal rather than dominance, challenging expectations that strength naturally leads to conquest.
• The limits of conventional power: The Ancestral Witches’ physical strength neutralizes the Demon Race’s usual advantages, forcing its members to rely on spells and treasures.
• Escalating rivalry: Despite Di Jun’s doubts about how the conflict began, the Demon Court remains committed to defeating the Witch Clan.

Key plot points and events

• The Witch Clan’s physical strength overwhelms most demons. Ordinary demons are routinely defeated and eaten, while only the Demon Race’s top figures can contend with the Ancestral Witches.
• Di Jun consults his companion treasures, the River Diagram and Luo Book, and divines that the Demon Race’s fortune is tied to a demon named Nuwa. He and Eastern Emperor Taiyi do not know who she is or where to find her.
• When Taiyi asks about the fifth cultivator to reach the Primordial Origin Realm, Di Jun realizes he also lacks that information and orders an investigation.
• The investigation reveals that the new cultivator is Nuwa—and that she is Beast Emperor Shen Ni’s junior martial sister. Di Jun and Taiyi are stunned.
• The Demon Court sees no safe way to approach her. Nuwa is connected both to Shen Ni and to the mysterious expert behind the Beast Emperor Palace, a power the Demon Court dares not provoke.
• Nuwa has returned to Heaven Beyond Heaven. The Seal prevents cultivators from leaving the Primordial World, and there is no way for the Demon Court to contact her. Di Jun and Taiyi resolve to focus on strengthening themselves instead of waiting for her.

Character developments and interactions

• Di Jun shifts from seeking a way to secure the Demon Race’s fortune through Nuwa to recognizing that acting on the discovery is too dangerous. He chooses caution and self-improvement.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi is equally bewildered by the divination and the investigation, and looks to Di Jun for guidance.
• Nuwa, though absent, becomes central to the Demon Race’s future: she is both the figure tied to its fortune and a newly revealed Primordial Origin Realm cultivator with powerful affiliations.
• Di Jun and Taiyi discuss the Demon Race’s predicament as brothers and leaders, sharing their uncertainty about how to proceed.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: The Demon Court appears formidable, yet the Witch Clan and Beast Emperor Palace expose its limits.
• Fate versus agency: Nuwa is linked to the Demon Race’s fortune, but the Seal and her dangerous connections leave the Court unable to act.
• Uncertainty and hidden power: The mysterious expert’s unknown strength—and the Court’s lack of knowledge about key figures—makes even potential allies a source of risk.

Plot points and events

• Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi postpone their plans involving Nuwa and turn to cultivating primordial origin realm experts using the Demon Heavenly Court’s resources.
• After three experts—the Qilin Clan Chief, another Qilin expert, and Nuwa—break through, creatures across the Primordial World assume the Heavenly Dao’s restrictions have lifted. Quasi-saints spend millions of years preparing, but few dare to attempt the dangerous breakthrough.
• The Demon Heavenly Court chooses a middle-ranked Demon General as a test subject. His age and accumulated foundation make him a candidate, while the court avoids risking its most gifted experts. A successful breakthrough would make him the court’s first primordial origin realm expert; failure would simply lead to another test.
• The Demon General begins breaking through before an audience of anxious observers. His aura exceeds the quasi-saint limit, raising hopes that he will succeed. The chapter ends before the outcome is known.
• The narration cautions that earlier successes are poor measures of how difficult future breakthroughs will be: the previous experts had exceptional gifts or unusually strong advantages.

Character developments and interactions

• Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi act cautiously and pragmatically, prioritizing evidence over speculation and refusing to gamble their best experts’ lives.
• The Demon General becomes the focus of the court’s experiment and a potential pioneer, though his eventual fate remains unresolved.
• Nuwa is described as naturally less exceptional than some peers, but her mastery of creation and the soul gives her profound Dao insight and extraordinary vitality.
• Beast Emperor Shen Ni is presented as immensely talented and secure in his position as the Primordial World’s strongest expert, reinforced by the God-Slaying Spear.
• The Demon Heavenly Court, the wider Primordial World, and countless onlookers are united in waiting to see whether the test succeeds.

Significant themes

• Risk versus ambition: Potential advancement is enticing, but a failed breakthrough could cost an expert’s life.
• The danger of generalizing from exceptional cases: The Qilin experts, Shen Ni, and Nuwa succeeded for reasons that may not apply to ordinary cultivators.
• Talent and preparation: A deep foundation can help, but innate ability and Dao comprehension remain decisive.
• Power and resources: The Demon Court seeks strength through cultivation, while treasures—such as Shen Ni’s spear—also count as part of an expert’s power.

Plot and key events

• The Primordial World’s inhabitants are excited by the prospect of a demon general becoming its eighth Primordial Origin expert. His aura reaches that realm, and even Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi expect him to succeed.
• Beast Emperor Shen Ni recognizes that the general’s strength is insufficient to sustain the breakthrough. He believes the attempt is doomed and reflects that the world’s fixation on advancement is making its inhabitants reckless.
• A breakthrough requires more than reaching the necessary power: the Heavenly Dao must also accept the cultivator’s mastery of the Great Dao. When it evaluates the general, it rejects him before the Heavenly Tribulation begins. His aura collapses, leaving him at the early Quasi-Saint level.
• The failure shocks the Primordial World. The demon general is bewildered, and Di Jun and Taiyi debate why the attempt failed.
• The Demon Emperors consider having Yingzhao or Jiu Ying try next. They settle on Yingzhao because of his strength and loyalty, but Taiyi raises a crucial question: whether Yingzhao’s understanding of the Great Dao’s Laws is sufficient.

Character development and interactions

• Shen Ni appears cautious and clear-eyed about the risks of advancement. Though destined to lead the Primordial World in a future war because of his responsibility to Tongtian, he does not believe the Beast Emperor Palace should interfere with others’ choices.
• Di Jun offers the initial theory that the general simply lacked the strength to break through.
• Taiyi agrees that a stronger candidate may fare better, but shows strategic insight by noting that inadequate mastery of the Great Dao—not just insufficient combat power—may have caused the failure.
• The demon general shifts from apparent success to public failure, unable to understand why the Heavenly Dao rejected him.

Significant themes

• Power and responsibility: Greater strength brings obligations, not merely benefits; Shen Ni sees advancement as a burden as well as a privilege.
• The limits of ambition: Pursuing breakthroughs without knowing one’s readiness can lead to failure.
• Uncertainty and individual judgment: There is no clear measure for mastery of a Great Dao or a guaranteed route to success. A breakthrough depends on personal readiness, and failure may be irreversible.
• Authority and choice: Shen Ni believes the inhabitants must decide for themselves whether to risk advancement; the Beast Emperor Palace is not responsible for stopping them.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• Following the Demon Heavenly Court’s humiliating failed breakthrough attempt, Di Jun takes a more cautious approach and summons Yingzhao and Jiu Ying to assess whether either is ready to try for the Primordial Origin Realm.
• Both admit they cannot judge their chances against the previous candidate, since comparing mastery of the Great Dao is difficult and would expose their secrets. They nevertheless agree to attempt a breakthrough: Yingzhao immediately, while Jiu Ying hesitates briefly before accepting.
• Di Jun reflects that the demons’ loyalty to the Heavenly Court has limits: most will protect their own interests first, just as he would prioritize his own power and rule.
• His central concern is the Witch Clan’s rapid growth, which could soon make it a genuine rival to the Demon Race. Di Jun wants the Demon Race to rule the entire Primordial World, not share power with the Witches.
• The Beast Emperor Palace remains a far more alarming unknown. Though it has only five known members, the Demon Court knows almost nothing about their abilities, and Shen Ni’s demonstrated strength has deterred Di Jun from considering an attack.
• Di Jun believes the Three Clans could eventually be challenged, especially if he and Eastern Emperor Taiyi break through and the Demon Race grows stronger. He postpones any attack, however, and recognizes that the Witch Clan may oppose the Demon Race if it becomes too powerful.

Character developments

• Di Jun emerges as a pragmatic, self-interested ruler. He understands that loyalty is conditional and is willing to sacrifice followers if necessary. His ambitions are tempered by caution, particularly regarding the Beast Emperor Palace.
• Yingzhao shows confidence and immediate willingness to take the risk of breakthrough, despite being unable to guarantee success.
• Jiu Ying also agrees, but his brief hesitation reveals greater apprehension and suggests his loyalty is not entirely effortless.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi voices no major strategy of his own here, but his eye-roll at the candidates’ vague answers shows his impatience.

Significant themes

• Self-interest and conditional loyalty: Both rulers and subordinates prioritize survival and personal advantage over abstract allegiance.
• Power, ambition, and fear: Di Jun seeks dominance, but the unknown strength of the Beast Emperor Palace limits his plans.
• Risk and uncertainty: Even powerful cultivators hesitate to attempt breakthroughs when failure could be disastrous.
• Rivalry and shifting alliances: Racial divisions matter less when a greater threat emerges, and the Demon Race’s ambitions risk provoking the Witch Clan.

Character interactions

• Di Jun questions Yingzhao and Jiu Ying about their readiness, then directly asks them to attempt the breakthrough.
• Yingzhao accepts without hesitation; Jiu Ying pauses before agreeing.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi reacts skeptically to their inability to compare their abilities, while Di Jun accepts their answers as honest.

Plot points and events

• Di Jun fears the Three Clans might ally with the Witch Clan if threatened, so he concludes that any attack must destroy all three clans at once. The Demon Heavenly Court is not yet strong enough to do this.
• He provides Yingzhao and Jiu Ying with limited resources to attempt breakthroughs, though success is uncertain. The court already has many Quasi-Saints, with Di Jun, Eastern Emperor Taiyi, and Kunpeng among its strongest.
• The chapter explains how Tongtian’s earlier actions have altered the world: he took the Eastern Emperor Bell and other major treasures, leaving no Innate Supreme Treasures in circulation. Yet stronger individuals and richer spiritual energy have reduced the importance of treasures.
• While Yingzhao and Jiu Ying prepare, an unaffiliated innate being suddenly breaks through to the primordial origin realm. The newcomer claims territory, establishes a palace, calls himself a Heavenly Dao Sage, and announces a Dao sermon in thirty million years.
• Watching from beyond the heavens, Tongtian recognizes the event as resembling Hongjun’s old sermons. He reflects that Hongjun’s teachings and the Three Corpses method served the Heavenly Dao’s interests, binding would-be sages to its authority.
• Tongtian concludes that even his drastic changes have not stopped the Heavenly Dao from trying to guide the Primordial World back toward its intended course.

Character developments and interactions

• Di Jun is cautious and strategic: he avoids a premature war and focuses instead on strengthening key Demon Court figures.
• Yingzhao and Jiu Ying receive support but must rely on their own ability to complete their breakthroughs.
• Tongtian becomes more wary of the Heavenly Dao, recognizing the new claimant’s sermon as a possible repetition of Hongjun’s influence.
• The new Heavenly Dao Sage’s declaration creates a challenge for the Demon Court and other powers, though their reactions are not yet shown.

Significant themes

• Power and deterrence: Di Jun believes partial victory could be more dangerous than decisive destruction.
• Changing the world versus resisting its systems: Tongtian’s interventions have reshaped people, treasures, and spiritual conditions, but the Heavenly Dao remains capable of redirecting events.
• The cost of authority: The chapter presents Heavenly Dao sainthood as potentially limiting—sages may gain immense status while becoming instruments of a larger power.
• Uneven access to opportunity: Hongjun’s past sermons benefited some figures while excluding or disadvantaging others, especially the Ancestral Witches.

Plot points

• A newly ascended Heavenly Dao Sage silences his critics without killing anyone, claims to speak for the Heavenly Dao, and offers a supposedly easier path to Sainthood.
• The Primordial World has changed so much that Tongtian sees the Sage’s rise as a chance to observe how the Heavenly Dao will try to regain control. Nuwa has already become Tongtian’s disciple, the Three Pure Ones are absent, and the Western Sages lack their former opportunity to prosper.
• The Sage establishes Zixiao Palace and rapidly advances to the middle, then late, Primordial Origin Realm. His power and apparent progress tempt many creatures, though they suspect his method has a hidden cost.
• The Beast Emperor Palace remains silent while the world awaits its lectures. Tongtian authorizes Beast Emperor Shen Ni to resume teaching and challenge the new Sage, expecting the fight to expose him as a façade: the Heavenly Dao has given him rank and aura, but little real strength.
• Tongtian also gives Shen Ni a cultivation method for the Witch Clan. Shen Ni may bring them to Tongtian only if they independently choose to seek him as a master.

Character developments and interactions

• Tongtian is curious rather than threatened by the upheaval. He treats the world as something he can replace, and uses Shen Ni’s challenge to test the Heavenly Dao’s next move. He remains selective about disciples: even the talented Houtu does not qualify for an invitation.
• Shen Ni is eager to fight after a long period of restraint. He believes the Sage’s rapid progress is hollow and agrees to challenge him, while understanding that he must not damage the Primordial World or attack the Demon and Witch Clans.
• The Heavenly Dao Sage appears powerful and persuasive, but Tongtian recognizes him as a manufactured champion whose credibility may collapse in combat.
• Tongtian’s relationship with Shen Ni is both trusting and directive: he permits the fight but sets strict limits, and entrusts Shen Ni with the Witch Clan method.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus true power: the Sage’s impressive aura and cultivation rank may conceal weakness.
• The danger of easy advancement: rapid breakthroughs attract followers despite suspicions of hidden drawbacks.
• Control and resistance: the Heavenly Dao seeks influence, while Tongtian watches to see how it responds to a world that has diverged from its expected course.
• Power with restraint: Shen Ni’s strength must be controlled to protect the world, and Tongtian refuses to recruit the Witch Clan unless they choose him themselves.

Key plot points and events

• Tongtian decides against accepting Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi as disciples. Though talented, he considers them too proud and potentially rebellious. They never realize the opportunity they have lost.
• The Heavenly Dao Sage’s sudden establishment of Zixiao Palace unsettles both the Demon Heavenly Court and the Witch Clan. Di Jun worries that the Sage threatens the Heavenly Court’s standing, while the Witches sense ill intent and are ready to attack if provoked.
• The chapter recalls how the Demon–Witch conflict grew through retaliation and the Heavenly Dao’s influence, until neither side could stop the cycle.
• Beast Emperor Shen Ni announces that the Beast Emperor Palace will hold its second Dao lecture. The announcement draws creatures from across the Primordial World, including the Demon and Witch clans; many who cannot attend bow in apology.
• At the lecture, Shen Ni, Yuanfeng, and Nuwa sit in front, with Feng Jiu, the Ancestral Dragon, and two Qilin Clan leaders behind them. The gathered powerhouses’ presence overwhelms the audience.
• Despite expectations that Zixiao Palace would hold a competing lecture, the Heavenly Dao Sage makes no move.

Character developments and interactions

• Tongtian shows caution in choosing disciples, prioritizing loyalty and stability over talent or status.
• Di Jun and Taiyi remain unaware of Tongtian’s judgment and focus instead on the threat posed by the Heavenly Dao Sage. They also hope the lecture may help them connect with Nuwa, whose fate is linked with theirs.
• The Witch Clan attends mainly out of respect for the Beast Emperor Palace, while retaining suspicion toward the Heavenly Dao Sage.
• Shen Ni commands attention with a brief announcement, reinforcing the Beast Emperor Palace’s influence. Its leading figures maintain a composed, dignified presence before the crowd.

Significant themes

• Power and political legitimacy: The Zixiao Palace’s arrival threatens established authority even without open conflict.
• Fate and agency: Di Jun and Taiyi believe they are destined to connect with Nuwa, but recognize that fate still requires effort.
• Escalating conflict: The Demon–Witch war illustrates how retaliation and manipulation can turn minor tensions into an irreversible feud.
• Reputation and restraint: The Beast Emperor Palace’s noninterference distinguishes it from the more provocative new Sage, while its lecture demonstrates its quiet authority.

Key plot points and events

• After a thousand-year wait, Beast Emperor Shen Ni begins a new round of classes at the Beast Emperor Palace, teaching the Primordial World directly through his immense power.
• The lecture starts with the five foundational realms—Heavenly Immortal through Great Luo—and lasts two thousand years. Many attendees make breakthroughs, including some already at Great Luo.
• The lesson then advances to the Quasi-Saint realm, which most listeners cannot follow. The chapter ends as it emphasizes how rare Quasi-Saints remain compared with the Primordial World’s enormous population.
• The Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Clans are conspicuously absent, apart from their Primordial Origin experts inside the palace. Other creatures speculate about their withdrawal, but mostly welcome the reduced competition for resources.
• No auspicious signs or heavenly phenomena accompany Shen Ni’s preaching. The attendees care more about what they learn than about displays of power.

Character developments

• Shen Ni is presented as a formidable but approachable teacher, using his strength to give all creatures access to foundational instruction.
• The attending creatures show humility and practicality: even powerful Great Luo figures are willing to revisit basic lessons, while most listeners focus on pursuing safer, attainable breakthroughs rather than gambling on becoming Heavenly Dao Sages.

Significant themes

• Equal access to knowledge: The palace follows Tongtian’s will by offering creatures instruction from the basics, though strength still determines social privilege outside the classroom.
• Power and justice: In the Primordial World, the weak have little recourse against the strong; even past Qilin plunder is viewed as preferable to annihilation.
• Restraint and uncertainty: The Three Clans’ seclusion puzzles others, while the nature and combat strength of Heavenly Dao Sages remain unknown.
• Learning over spectacle: The value of the lecture lies in its practical insights and breakthroughs, not in supernatural signs.

Character interactions

• Demon Heavenly Court and Witch Clan powerhouses receive places near the front, while other attendees make room for them.
• Despite rivalries and blood feuds, everyone behaves peacefully during the lecture, knowing that violence would bring the gathered audience—and possibly the palace’s seven Primordial Origin experts—down on the offender.
• After class, those old conflicts may resume; the shared restraint is specific to the learning ground.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Tongtian schedules the Beast Emperor Palace lectures according to the Primordial World’s growing capacity, allowing more cultivators to reach the Quasi-Saint realm. He expects stronger cultivators to strengthen the world—and keep its Heavenly Dao occupied.
• The lecture teaches the conventional, accumulation-based method of proving the Dao by force. Severing the three corpses is presented as impractical for most cultivators because it requires rare, supreme treasures.
• Beast Emperor Shen Ni lectures for a thousand years on the Quasi-Saint realm, breakthrough methods, and the three thousand Great Daos, including their more numerous and easier-to-comprehend subsidiary Daos.
• After the three-thousand-year lecture concludes, Yuanfeng dismisses everyone below Quasi-Saint. Tens of thousands of Quasi-Saints remain, including the Twelve Ancestral Witches; innate human Quasi-Saints are still extremely rare.
• The remaining cultivators enter the palace’s Main Hall, now divided into two levels. Those on the lower level are astonished to find the Three Clans gathered above—and that nearly every member of the Three Clans older than a million years has become a Quasi-Saint.

Character developments and interactions

• Tongtian demonstrates his close awareness of the Primordial World’s limits and his intention to encourage its growth. He also reflects that spiritual energy is largely irrelevant to his own advancement, which now depends on insight and mastery of the Great Dao.
• Shen Ni completes an exhaustive lecture and is relieved when it ends. Yuanfeng then takes charge of dismissing the lower-level cultivators and guiding the next stage.
• The Three Clans’ extraordinary collective advancement is revealed through their appearance at the lecture, surprising the other Quasi-Saints.
• The Twelve Ancestral Witches remain despite their limited cultivation knowledge, since they are Quasi-Saints and therefore qualify to attend.

Significant themes

• Different paths to power: Rare treasures make the three-corpse method inaccessible to most, while steady accumulation and proving the Dao by force offer a more broadly available route.
• Growth and capacity: The Primordial World can now support more Quasi-Saints, though too many powerful cultivators could create immense spiritual-energy disturbances.
• Unequal access to advancement: The Three Clans and Demon Heavenly Court are strongly represented, while innate human Quasi-Saints are few.
• Knowledge has limits: Higher-level teachings may be useless—or harmful—to cultivators who lack the foundation to understand them.

Key plot points and events

• The Three Clans reveal a startling concentration of Quasi-Saints: more than half their members may have reached that level. Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi realize the Demon Heavenly Court would be badly outmatched if the clans united against it.
• The clans now stand together without hostility. During their long withdrawal, they learned that the Heavenly Dao had manipulated them into fighting and dying to make room for new powers. They now share a goal of opposing it and avenging their fallen clansmen.
• Despite their strength, the Three Clans avoid unifying the Primordial World. Doing so could make everyone their enemy and provoke the Heavenly Dao to create powerful primordial-origin opponents. Their restraint is part of a strategy to build strength quietly.
• Di Jun grows suspicious that he and the Demon Heavenly Court are caught up in a larger scheme, but the lecture begins before he can investigate.
• Beast Emperor Shen Ni explains the paths from Quasi-Saint to the primordial origin realm. He warns that becoming a Heavenly Dao Sage requires severing one’s good, evil, and self, then gaining sagehood through heavenly merit. Sages also entrust their primordial spirits to the Heavenly Dao, making them difficult to kill while it exists—but potentially its puppets.
• Shen Ni presents Prove Dao by Force as the orthodox path for Primordial World Creatures. It requires spiritual power, primordial spirit, and Great Dao mastery all to reach their respective limits. The lecture lasts two hundred years and leaves the Quasi-Saints with a clearer understanding.

Character developments and interactions

• Di Jun shifts from considering the Three Clans a difficult but manageable threat to fearing their overwhelming strength and suspecting a hidden conspiracy.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi shares Di Jun’s shock at the clans’ power.
• The Three Clans have transformed from bitter rivals into cautious allies, united by their shared grievance against the Heavenly Dao.
• Beast Emperor Shen Ni teaches candidly, explaining the costs of Heavenly Dao Sainthood and offering practical guidance on breakthrough requirements. His restraint on the subject leaves the listeners to draw their own conclusions.
• The gathered Quasi-Saints react with alarm to the prospect of surrendering their identities and primordial spirits, then gain insight into the more demanding but independent path of Prove Dao by Force.

Significant themes

• Freedom versus security: Heavenly Dao Sainthood offers near-immortality but may cost a cultivator their identity and autonomy.
• Manipulation and revenge: The Three Clans’ old conflict was shaped by the Heavenly Dao, turning their shared discovery into a motive for resistance.
• Patience and strategic restraint: The clans conceal their power rather than risk provoking a stronger response.
• The price of advancement: True breakthrough requires comprehensive cultivation, not merely reaching a perceived limit.

Key plot points and events

• After the lecture, seven Primordial Origin Realm cultivators remain in Beast Emperor Palace. Shen Ni prepares to confront the Heavenly Dao Sage, dismissing him as a threat that stands in the way of their Master’s plans.
• Shen Ni promises the other cultivators that, after the battle, he will explain the Primordial Origin Realm to them. They are still struggling to understand the Great Dao and to advance in a world with insufficient spiritual energy.
• Shen Ni appears outside Zixiao Palace, where the Heavenly Dao Sage meets him. The Sage admits that he is both the Heavenly Dao and its representative.
• Shen Ni challenges the Sage over plans to spread the Three Corpses method and merit-based sagehood. The Sage stays silent, unwilling to abandon a scheme meant to strengthen the Heavenly Dao’s control and reduce Tongtian’s influence.
• Shen Ni draws the enhanced God-Slaying Spear and attacks. Its baleful aura shakes the entire Primordial World. The Sage realizes it can threaten both him and the Heavenly Dao, and begins retreating toward Zixiao Palace.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Ni is confident, direct, and loyal to his Master’s interests. He refuses the Sage’s attempts to reason with him and relies on the overwhelming power of the spear.
• The Heavenly Dao Sage maintains a composed appearance but grows wary once he sees the spear’s true power. His courteous manner cannot hide his determination to keep the Primordial World under the Heavenly Dao’s control.
• Yuanfeng and Nuwa question whether Shen Ni should fight such a formidable opponent. Yuanfeng recognizes the spear’s decisive significance, while the others sense its danger.
• The other Primordial Origin cultivators accept Shen Ni’s promise of guidance, but they remain observers; the battle is beyond their role.

Significant themes

• Power and authority: The conflict centers on whether the Heavenly Dao or Tongtian’s side will control the Primordial World.
• Knowledge and cultivation: The younger realm cultivators’ uncertainty highlights how difficult it is to comprehend the Great Dao without guidance.
• Appearance versus reality: The Sage’s refined, trustworthy demeanor contrasts with his self-serving political aims.
• Resolve and intimidation: Shen Ni’s attack overrules the Sage’s polite warnings, while the spear’s aura changes the balance of confidence.

Key plot points and events

• The Heavenly Dao Sage escapes Beast Emperor Shen Ni’s initial attack by tearing through space, but Shen Ni’s spear continues onward and destroys Zixiao Palace.
• The palace can easily be rebuilt, but its destruction is a serious public humiliation for the Sage, whose standing depends on proving his strength.
• Shen Ni attacks again without answering the Sage’s demand to stop. He is acting to protect his Master’s plans and intends to kill the Sage, not merely defeat him.
• Realizing the confrontation must be settled, the Sage stops holding back and unleashes his full late Primordial Origin Realm power. His aura shakes the entire Primordial World, astonishing its inhabitants and making them hope they, too, might one day reach such heights.
• The Heavenly Dao stabilizes the world, but cannot withdraw the power it granted the Sage. Its decision to empower him has become a gamble.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Ni remains uncompromising and aggressive. He sees the conflict as having only two possible endings: the Sage’s death or his own. His loyalty to his Master drives his hostility.
• The Heavenly Dao Sage shifts from cautious confidence to full commitment. Fear of Shen Ni’s mysterious Master had held him back, but the destruction of his sanctuary and the attention of the Primordial World make retreat unbearable.
• The Heavenly Dao is powerful enough to steady the world but cannot control the Sage’s borrowed strength once granted.
• Their fight is also a public contest over reputation: both know that, if they lose, being observed will make the humiliation worse.

Significant themes

• Face and reputation: Among the powerful, respect and status can matter as much as resources or survival.
• Strength and freedom: Shen Ni’s influence comes partly from empowering others and respecting their choices, but ultimately his strength makes that freedom credible.
• Ambition and possibility: The Sage’s power gives the Primordial World’s inhabitants a glimpse of a higher realm and renews their hopes.
• Power as a gamble: The Heavenly Dao’s attempt to strengthen its chosen Sage has created a force it cannot simply take back.

Key plot points and events

• The Heavenly Dao hopes that spreading merit-based sagehood will let it control future Primordial Origin Realm cultivators. It sets aside its suspicions of Tongtian, who appears uninterested in challenging its authority.
• The Heavenly Dao refuses to let its Sage fight Shen Ni, fearing that a clash between powerful Primordial Origin Realm experts could destroy the Primordial World—and, with it, the Heavenly Dao itself.
• Despite that warning, the Heavenly Dao Sage’s anger and confidence make him willing to fight Shen Ni. Their auras clash briefly, but Shen Ni holds his ground using his mastery of the Great Way of Power and the God-Slaying Spear.
• Shen Ni recognizes that the Sage’s apparent late-stage cultivation is inflated: the Heavenly Dao supplied his power, but he lacks the foundations and understanding of someone who advanced naturally. The chapter ends with the Sage facing a formidable opponent whose cultivation is middle-stage, but whose skill and experience may outweigh his own.

Character developments

• The Heavenly Dao shows growing self-awareness and a strong instinct for self-preservation, but remains unable to act directly.
• The Heavenly Dao Sage shifts from an outwardly enlightened figure to an arrogant, combative one. His borrowed strength has inflated his ego, though he senses Shen Ni will be difficult to defeat.
• Shen Ni is shown as composed, observant, and tactically careful. Rather than waste energy trying to overpower his opponent with aura, he assesses the Sage’s weaknesses and waits for an opportunity.

Significant themes

• Power versus mastery: A high cultivation level does not guarantee genuine strength; experience, foundations, and comprehension matter.
• The limits of authority: The Heavenly Dao can empower a Sage and influence the world, but it cannot intervene freely without risking its own survival.
• Composure and strategy: Shen Ni’s restraint contrasts with the Sage’s confidence, suggesting that patience and judgment can counter raw power.

Character interactions

• The Heavenly Dao’s goals and fears shape the Sage’s actions, even as he acts on his own anger and pride.
• Shen Ni and the Sage test one another through their auras, but the exchange reveals more about their contrasting strengths than it decides the fight.
• Shen Ni’s earlier admiration for the Sage’s former idol, Shen Ni himself, has become irrelevant to the Sage after his sudden rise in power; that rise has bred overconfidence.