Chapter Summaries

Li Ling rescued Hu Lao and Hu Gou from Yinwu, then offered them refuge with the Incense Accumulation Sect. After Hu Gou explained the Heavenly Fox Race’s dwindling legacy, the siblings agreed to seek shelter for themselves and their followers and began considering how to evacuate their kin.

• Yinwu attacked Li Ling to kill Hu Lao, but Li Ling used the Xiyi Illusory Body to protect the fox demons and escape with them.
• Li Ling urged Hu Lao to leave the Demon Kingdom and develop elsewhere, then revealed that he was Li Ling, the Incense Accumulation True Lord.
• Hu Gou explained that the Demon Kingdom had plundered the Heavenly Fox Race’s Nine-Tailed Legacy, leaving the clan with little power or potential.
• Hu Gou proposed that she, Hu Lao, and their nearby followers seek refuge with Li Ling before inviting more of their kin to join them.
• Hu Lao suggested asking General Hound and his fox-kin wife in Bashan for help relocating the fox demons.

Li Ling met Hu Lao and Hu Gou in Hound Race territory, learned that Pu Zhuang had awakened a rare Heavenly Fox gift, and considered recruiting the Fox Clan into the Incense Path. After Madam Xun reunited with the siblings and brought them to Wozhang Mountain, General Hound arrived and asked Li Ling whether he truly intended to help them.

• Li Ling learned that most of Hu Lao and Hu Gou's revived kin had become ordinary foxes, while Pu Zhuang had awakened a latent gift connected to her Heavenly Fox bloodline.
• Li Ling revealed to himself that he hoped to turn Heavenly Foxes into Incense Foxes and expand the Incense Path's influence among demon cultivators.
• Hu Lao and Hu Gou reunited with their relative Madam Xun, who promised to seek her husband's help in relocating the Fox Clan kin endangered by Lord Bashan.
• Madam Xun brought the siblings and Li Ling to a settlement near General Hound's domain on Wozhang Mountain, where Li Ling considered whether the Hound Race's support was genuine.
• General Hound arrived with Madam Xun, recognized Li Ling by his scent, and asked whether Li Ling sincerely wished to help Hu Lao and Hu Gou.

Li Ling learned that the Hound Race’s Aperture-Opening Powder could awaken the incense talents of his sect’s disciples, and he suspected General Hound had offered it to secure the Incense Accumulation Sect’s support. After rescuing the fox demons and reuniting with Mu Qingsi, he heard that the Tiger Race and Netherworld Sect were worsening tensions in the Bashan Demon Kingdom.

• General Hound recognized Li Ling, thanked him for helping the fox demons, and gave him the Hound Race’s secret Aperture-Opening Powder formula and samples.
• Li Ling tested the powder on Pu Zhuang and discovered it greatly improved her sense of smell, potentially helping many Incense Accumulation Sect disciples advance in cultivation.
• Li Ling retrieved the fox demon maids, found them reverted to ordinary fox forms despite retaining their intelligence, and gathered them into his sleeve to take home and study.
• Li Ling reunited with Mu Qingsi, who told him that Zi Lian’s conflict with Hei Biao and the Five Brothers had nearly sparked a clash between Demon Emperors Yinwu and Bashan.
• Ju Huang said the Netherworld Sect had incited the Tiger Race to slaughter demon cultivators for refining Chang Ghosts, and Li Ling recognized the Bashan Demon Kingdom as a harsh hierarchy where the strong preyed on the weak.

Li Ling improved the Hound Race’s Aperture-Opening Powder, believing it could help low-level cultivators establish the Incense Path. After Ju Huang revealed a chance to exploit the turmoil among the Demon Kingdom’s rulers, Li Ling headed for Divine Bird Mountain to act against the Divine Tree.

• Li Ling explained to Qing Ji that Aperture-Opening Powder could help ordinary disciples overcome the Incense Path’s difficult early stages and strengthen the path for future generations.
• Ju Huang told Li Ling that Bashan City’s conflict between Lord Bashan and Yinwu had weakened Divine Bird Mountain’s defenses, creating an opportunity to approach the Divine Tree.
• Ju Huang described how Zi Lian’s affair with Hu Lao and the deaths of two Hei Biao brothers had intensified rivalries among the Demon Kingdom’s great races.
• Li Ling recognized that someone was manipulating the escalating conflict and decided it offered the chance he needed.
• Li Ling informed Mu Qingsi, traveled to Bashan, and went straight to Divine Bird Mountain, where the Demon Emperors’ attention had slackened despite the guards remaining in place.

Li Ling reached the World-Building Tree beyond the outer boundary and discovered that its spiritual power could reveal memories of people who had sought its Sacred Fruit. The golden fruit appeared to be fading from existence, and the story left him wondering what the tree could still produce.

• Li Ling crossed the world's boundary wall and reached the World-Building Tree growing atop Divine Bird Mountain.
• Li Ling recognized the tree as an ancient descendant of the World-Building Tree and reflected on its connection to the Immortal Realm and the Great Dao.
• The tree's spiritual consciousness drew Li Ling into a dreamlike state, where he realized its inherited power was tied to the Soul Dao.
• Li Ling witnessed memories of powerful cultivators stealing golden Soul-Returning Fruits and fighting the Demon Gods who guarded them.
• Li Ling saw that the golden fruits had grown increasingly rare, and that the fruit in the tree's present spiritual vision could no longer fully take shape.

Li Ling used the Stone of Time to trace a Sacred Fruit’s fragrance back to the previous era, learning that it embodied the Soul-Summoning Method and could help restore souls. He gathered leftover false Sacred Fruits to test as catalysts, prompting the Divine Tree to express displeasure.

• Li Ling realized the Divine Tree’s Sacred Fruits had lost their origin power as the world’s Great Dao deteriorated.
• Li Ling used the Stone of Time to reverse time around a Sacred Fruit’s lingering trace and followed its fragrance back more than a hundred thousand years.
• Li Ling sensed the fruit’s original flavor and learned that its Soul Dao power included the Soul-Summoning Method, which could recover souls and recondense their will.
• Li Ling concluded that the method might make degraded false Sacred Fruits more useful by supplying the catalyst they lacked.
• Li Ling found and collected a dozen small, unpicked false Sacred Fruits, and the Divine Tree sent him a displeased intent.

Li Ling took the divine tree’s fruits and accepted the karmic duty to plant their pits, while visions revealed how the trees had shaped Bashan’s history. In Bashan City, Lord Bashan and Yinwu remained locked in a confrontation over Zi Lian, refusing to yield.

• The demon cultivators searched the divine tree after its tremor and discovered that its remaining sacred fruits had vanished, while Li Ling quietly escaped with them.
• The divine tree urged Li Ling to plant its fruits, and he accepted after learning that the fruits’ pits carried a karmic obligation.
• Li Ling witnessed visions of the divine trees’ role in Bashan’s rise and learned that generations of demon cultivators had sacrificed lives and resources to sustain them.
• The divine tree’s tremor reached Bashan City, where demon cultivators suspected someone had stolen its sacred fruits.
• Yinwu demanded that Lord Bashan release his granddaughter Zi Lian, but Lord Bashan blamed her for killing his general and refused.
• Yinwu challenged Lord Bashan to settle their dispute by force.

Lord Bashan defeated and killed Yinwu in Bashan City, then revealed how far he was willing to go to devour rival Demon Emperors. Cun Ya exposed the possibility that the Tiger Race was targeting other tribes to help Lord Bashan become a Demon God, leaving the Demon Emperors weighing how to respond.

• Lord Bashan’s battle with Yinwu devastated nearly half of Bashan City, and his kingly aura left the watching demons paralyzed with fear.
• Lord Bashan overpowered Yinwu, crushed his skull, and swallowed his soul before the other Demon Emperors could intervene.
• Lord Bashan threatened the Demon Emperors who tried to stop him, while Cun Ya accused him and the Tiger Race of targeting other tribes to consume them.
• Kui Xing realized Lord Bashan had deliberately killed Yinwu and might be hunting Demon Emperors to strengthen his path to becoming a Demon God.
• Cun Ya urged the demons to resist Lord Bashan and the Tiger Race, and one demon proposed discussing the Leopard Race’s place in the Demon Kingdom after Yinwu’s death.

Lord Bashan arranged a public execution for Zi Lian to lure Yinwu and the Leopard Race out, while the demons learned that Yinwu had survived. At Wozhang Mountain, Hu Lao heard that Zi Lian was to be executed and reacted with alarm.

• Cun Ya explained that Yinwu had survived because the Cat Race's ancient nine-life ability had left him another life, and Lord Bashan agreed with other Demon Emperors to attack the Leopard Race together.
• Lord Bashan held his forces back, then accepted Ye Lianyi's proposal to publicly execute Zi Lian as bait for Yinwu and the Leopard Race.
• Notices announcing Zi Lian's execution spread through Bashan, and informants secretly carried the news onward.
• Hu Lao trained with the Dog Demons at Wozhang Mountain and lamented how weaker races had been stripped of their ancestral powers.
• A messenger told Hu Lao that Lord Bashan had killed Yinwu and planned to execute Zi Lian, leaving Hu Lao deeply alarmed.

Hu Lao decided to return to Bashan City to rescue Zi Lian, and General Hound agreed to help him enter and leave the city without involving the Hound Race. After Li Ling divined that Hu Lao faced a deadly calamity, he prepared to call Hu Lao’s soul back in seven days.

• Hu Gou told Jian Xuan that Hu Lao had fallen in love with Zi Lian because of the Heavenly Fox Race’s love-controlling ability.
• Hu Lao refused General Hound and Madam Xun’s advice to abandon Zi Lian, arguing that the conflict in Bashan would give him a chance to rescue her and forge an alliance with the Leopard Race.
• General Hound agreed to help Hu Lao personally smuggle into Bashan City, on the condition that he leave the territory afterward.
• Li Ling returned from Divine Bird Mountain with the Sacred Fruit and learned that Hu Lao had already gone back to Bashan City.
• Li Ling divined that Hu Lao faced a calamity with little chance of survival, then told Ju Huang to prepare an altar so he could call Hu Lao’s soul back in seven days.
• Li Ling asked Mu Qingsi to summon Hu Gou and keep her from rushing to Bashan City.

Hu Lao tried to rescue Zi Lian from the Black Prison as the Leopard and Lion Races attacked Bashan City, but a trap split the rescuers and let him escape with her. Just as they fled, Zi Lian’s eyes triggered the Red Lotus Karmic Fire, revealing Ye Lianyi and bringing Hu Lao down.

• Hu Lao and General Hound learned that Yinwu had survived and agreed to watch the Leopard Race’s movements while seeking a chance to rescue Zi Lian.
• Yinwu recovered with a Sacred Fruit, pledged the Leopard Race to Chi Ji and the Lion Race, and joined their assault against the Tiger Race.
• Lion and Leopard Race experts stormed the Black Prison, but explosions scattered their party and brought Yu Kai and three surviving members of the Five Black Stripes to intercept them.
• Hu Lao seized the chance to escape with Zi Lian while the other experts fought, and Yu Kai pursued them as the Hei Biao brothers held back the rescuers.
• Zi Lian’s eyes unleashed the Red Lotus Karmic Fire, which transformed into Ye Lianyi and struck Hu Lao down.

Ye Lianyi and Yu Kai confronted Hu Lao and Zi Lian, but Hu Lao sacrificed himself to save Zi Lian and awaken her power. As Zi Lian attacked his killers, Ye Lianyi failed to summon Hu Lao’s soul and sensed an unknown presence intervening.

• Ye Lianyi revealed that she and the Netherworld Sect intended to turn Hu Lao and Zi Lian into Chang Ghosts for Lord Bashan, while Yu Kai arrived to confront Hu Lao.
• Yu Kai struck Ye Lianyi aside and learned that Hu Lao and Zi Lian had endured oppression by the Tiger Race rather than welcomed Yu Kai’s supposed generosity.
• Yu Kai tore out Hu Lao’s heart and nearly killed Zi Lian, but Hu Lao awakened the Heavenly Fox Race’s Life Offering technique and gave her his life and strength.
• Zi Lian recovered, seized Hu Lao’s body, and attacked Yu Kai and Ye Lianyi, while Hu Lao died after telling her to live well.
• Ye Lianyi tried to summon Hu Lao’s divine soul but failed, then sensed a strange spirit incense entering his body and wondered who was intervening.

Li Ling used his improved Returning Soul Incense to summon Hu Lao’s scattered soul and restore his spirit, while Zi Lian and the Demon Emperors learned that a mysterious expert had intervened. Hu Lao awakened before Li Ling and was offered a choice between reincarnation and a risky resurrection with a new body.

• As Hu Lao died, Li Ling’s Returning Soul Incense shielded his soul and kept it from scattering, while Zi Lian escaped the battle carrying Hu Lao’s body.
• Zi Lian begged Yinwu to save Hu Lao, and Yinwu and Chi Ji discovered a strange soul-summoning force drawing Hu Lao’s soul away.
• Li Ling used the incense to search the void and gather Hu Lao’s scattered souls and spirit soul back together.
• Mu Qingsi, Ju Huang, Qing Ji, Hu Gou, and the Hound Race demons watched Hu Lao’s figure take shape above the ritual altar.
• Li Ling told the dazed Hu Lao that he could choose reincarnation or a forced resurrection using Teaweed Incense and heavenly treasures.

Li Ling arranged Hu Lao’s reincarnation and invited several Dog Demons to join him, while unrest in the Demon Kingdom intensified. Ye Lianyi learned that the Demon God Palace was weakening, and Longevity Hall neared recognition as the Heavenly Court’s seventeenth Immortal Sect, with the Court seeking to contact Li Ling.

• Li Ling explained that Hu Lao would reincarnate beneath Jun Heaven and that his fragrance of wisdom could restore Hu Lao’s memories, then preserved Hu Lao’s soul in his divine domain.
• Li Ling offered the Dog Demons a place in the Incense Accumulation Sect, while Hu Gou prepared to travel to the North Sea and Jian Xuan stayed behind in the Demon Kingdom.
• As the Tiger and Leopard Races’ conflict worsened, Ye Lianyi reported her suspicions about Li Ling to a member of her lineage, who revealed that the Demon God Palace was nearing the end of its power and urged support for Lord Bashan.
• Ye Lianyi’s contact warned that Heavenly Court experts might enter the conflict and that Longevity Hall could soon become the Seventeenth Immortal Sect.
• At Unity Heart Mountain, the Heavenly Court Envoy offered Longevity Hall local apotheosis authority if Lei Heng advanced to Spirit Transformation and asked Venerable Longevity to contact Li Ling.

Li Ling agreed to help Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang stop the Netherworld Sect from empowering Lord Bashan and taking control of the Demon Kingdom. At a covert meeting near Bashan City, the Heavenly Court and Lion Race allies planned to kill Lord Bashan and destroy his soul before he could become a Demon God.

• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang told Li Ling that Lord Bashan might advance to Demon God with the Netherworld Sect's help, and asked him to eliminate the sect's agents instead; Li Ling agreed.
• Li Ling sent Mu Qingsi and the others back to Xuguang Town, then met Venerable Longevity and Hong Lei in the mountains of Bashan.
• A Lion Race Demon King disguised Li Ling, Venerable Longevity, and Hong Lei and led them to a hidden meeting with Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang and the Lion Race Demon Emperors Ze Chi and Yang Huan.
• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang explained that the Netherworld Sect planned to grant the Tiger Race authority over ghosts and make Lord Bashan an Underworld official.
• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang said the group had to kill Lord Bashan and destroy his soul, and told the others he would act personally while they supported him.

Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang revealed that Lord Bashan was using the Worry-Free Tree on Mount Gaiwang to create a ghost domain and planned for Li Ling, Venerable Longevity, and Hong Lei to help stop the ritual. As the Lion and Tiger Races escalated their war, the Netherworld Sect buried the souls and remains of powerful demons beneath the tree, where a Tiger Demon briefly saw it transformed into a White Bone Tree.

• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang told Li Ling, Venerable Longevity, and Hong Lei that Lord Bashan's power and planned ascension depended on the Worry-Free Tree, which they needed to destroy before he completed his ritual.
• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang sent the Lion Race to provoke the Tiger Race, and the resulting retaliations escalated into a bloody conflict between the Lion, Leopard, and Tiger Races.
• Lord Bashan's forces transported eleven wronged Demon King souls and one hundred twenty-seven Great Demon souls to Mount Gaiwang for burial beneath the ancient tree.
• Elder Cao inspected the shipment and directed Netherworld Sect disciples to bury the remains at carefully chosen sites beneath the tree.
• A Tiger Demon escort briefly saw the ancient tree appear as a White Bone Tree covered in bloody flesh and wailing wronged souls, then the vision vanished.

Li Ling and his allies planned to ambush Ye Lianyi and the Netherworld Sect envoys traveling to Mount Gaiwang, while Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang headed to the mountain. Li Ling trapped the party in a smoke-filled divine domain, where Ye Lianyi found herself isolated and face-to-face with him.

• Li Ling learned that Ye Lianyi and several Netherworld Sect envoys were traveling to Mount Gaiwang to maintain an array supporting Lord Bashan.
• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang sent Li Ling to intercept the envoys and went to Mount Gaiwang, while Venerable Longevity and Hong Lei supported the attacks on Lord Bashan's allies.
• Ye Lianyi and the Netherworld Sect party entered a thick, unnatural fog that blocked their perception and surrounded them with pillars of smoke.
• The Blood-Robed Ancestor led the elders into the fog, but Elder Xue disappeared, and the group became disoriented despite using the Immortal Points the Way.
• The smoke divided the party into separate domains of space, and Ye Lianyi recognized that the attacker was using a divine domain.
• Li Ling appeared before Ye Lianyi on a moonlit cliff as the smoke transformed into Incense-Rhyme Flowing Wind.

Li Ling killed most of the Netherworld Sect elders and disciples while intercepting them, but Ye Lianyi summoned the Worry-Free Tree’s power and opened a passage toward the Underworld. The chapter ended with powerful experts, including several Nascent Soul Great Cultivators, sensing the connection between the realms.

• Li Ling trapped Ye Lianyi and the other Netherworld Sect cultivators in dreamscapes and killed most of them, including Elder Huang and Elder Xue.
• Ye Lianyi used a coffin-nail-shaped treasure to resist Li Ling’s dreamscape, then summoned the Worry-Free Tree on Mount Gaiwang for aid.
• The Worry-Free Tree sent ghosts, a devastating yin wind, and six powerful corpse puppets against Li Ling, but his Xiyi Illusory Body let the attacks pass through him.
• Li Ling defeated the Blood-Robed Ancestor, killed him with the Divine Fire Thunder Spear, and delivered his remnant soul with spirit incense.
• Ye Lianyi unleashed the Worry-Free Tree’s power to open a path into the Underworld, drawing the attention of powerful experts there.

Li Ling secretly stopped the Netherworld Sect from opening a passage, while a Heavenly Court expert destroyed the divine tree on Mount Gaiwang. After learning that his plans had collapsed, Lord Bashan lost control and decided to attempt his advancement into a Demon God.

• Li Ling used his Divine Domain to isolate Ye Lianyi from the White Bone Tree, destroyed her soul, and collected its spirit resonance as the passage to the Underworld closed.
• A Heavenly Court expert struck the Worry-Free Tree, killed the ghost tiger, and uprooted the divine tree despite the Netherworld Sect's defenses.
• Lord Bashan learned that Mount Gaiwang's divine tree and grand array had been destroyed, then killed the Tiger Race Demon Kings who tried to approach him.
• Lord Bashan set out for Mount Gaiwang but stopped, suspecting his enemy was waiting there, and resolved to advance into a Demon God immediately.

Li Ling and his allies failed to locate Lord Bashan, who had secretly begun slaughtering demons across the region to fuel his advancement. As the allies realized his plan could lead to him becoming a Demon God, they set out to pursue him despite the obstacles posed by rival territories.

• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang returned after felling the Worry-Free Tree, and the allies began searching for Lord Bashan but could not find him through scouting or divination.
• Lord Bashan secretly attacked a Wolf Demon King’s territory, devoured its inhabitants, and used their blood essence and souls to create Chang Ghosts.
• Lord Bashan continued massacring demon tribes, including Tiger Race territory, and his Chang Ghost Army grew by nearly ten thousand in a day.
• Chi Ji and Yinwu learned of the massacres and discussed whether to abandon the battlefield to capture Lord Bashan.
• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang warned that Lord Bashan was using the territorial obstacles to buy time for advancement, and Venerable Longevity and Hong Lei set out to pursue him.