Chapter Summaries

After the Orthodox Path captured Bifu City, Li Ling considered the risks and prospects of his avatar’s Earth Immortal fruit rank and questioned three captured Demonic Path cultivators about their plans. He accepted their submission and assigned them to guard the Netherworld Pure Land, promising they could later receive posts in the Heavenly Court’s Underworld administration.

• Long Leshui received news that Star Lords Sichen Yuan Guang and Jiuyào Zhenhui had slain Fu Luo, defeated the Netherworld Sect’s army, and taken Bifu City, then ordered the victory report shared across Windless Ward.
• The Wisdom Dharma Body explained that the land’s earth veins had let him sense the living beings’ joy, while Li Ling reflected on his avatar’s Earth Immortal fruit rank, its constraints, and a possible path toward a new dao fruit.
• Li Ling summoned Yi Nie, A Shanluo, and the Great Xie King and asked what they intended to do as the Orthodox Path advanced toward the Nether King Palace.
• The Great Xie King, Yi Nie, and A Shanluo declared that they wanted the Heavenly Court and Li Ling to shelter them, and Li Ling judged that they were willing to submit while remaining self-interested.
• Li Ling ordered the three to guard the Pure Land against a Demonic Path counterattack and told them he could seek their investiture as ghost gods or regional rulers when the Heavenly Court established its Underworld administration.

In Incense Accumulation Year 1655, Xi Ruyue oversaw the Myriad Spirits Sect’s recruitment and enforced its ban on ghosts who had eaten people. The sect sent newly admitted disciples into the Underworld, where the Great Xie King, Yi Nie, and A Shanluo watched their arrival as a possible path toward integration with the Heavenly Court.

• Xi Ruyue began testing the ghost spirits who had gathered to join the Myriad Spirits Sect, and the Pure Land Great Incense Buddha’s statue exposed one applicant who had eaten people.
• Soul-Collecting Envoys seized and executed the marked evil ghost, while several other applicants quietly left the gathering.
• Xi Ruyue rejected a disciple’s proposal to pursue the departing ghosts and explained that the sect focused on teaching while the Underworld handled capture and punishment.
• The remaining applicants passed the initial requirements but faced the sect’s demanding aptitude assessment.
• Previously admitted disciples traveled through the underground passage to Great Xie City, where they joined other groups preparing to serve in the Underworld.
• The Great Xie King, Yi Nie, and A Shanluo watched the new arrivals and considered the Underworld a promising route toward integration with the Heavenly Court.

Qi Refining cultivators patrolled the Underworld as the Heavenly Court established its administration and Li Ling prepared the Incense Accumulation Sect to endure the coming conflict. The Lord of Yellow Springs attained enlightenment in the reincarnation dao fruit, prompting the Heavenly Court to order an immediate all-out assault on the Nether King Palace.

• Yang Realm cultivators rested from the flesh-eroding blood soul baleful intent before continuing their patrol through the Ten Thousand Yin Cavern to inspect the passage and its array foundation steles.
• The Great Xie King, Yi Nie, and A Shanluo agreed to stand together as Fengdu expanded and its Twelve Palace Offices took shape under the Heavenly Court's new underworld administration.
• Long Leshui asked Li Ling whether he should become a Little King of Hell, and Li Ling encouraged him to follow the White Bone Path and prepare the way for the Incense Accumulation Sect.
• Li Ling reflected that embedding the sect's Incense Path in the underworld administration could preserve its legacy through future changes in power.
• The Heavenly Court announced that the Lord of Yellow Springs had attained the reincarnation dao fruit and ordered an immediate all-out assault on the Nether King Palace.

The Heavenly Court prepared an all-out assault on the Nether King Palace to seize the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, and Li Ling agreed to lead the fight against the palace master. As the armies gathered and clashed across the realms, Li Ling’s growing sense of danger warned him that the Netherworld Sect had prepared a powerful counterstroke.

• Miro Heavenly Venerable and Heavenly Venerable Puji rejected calls to delay the assault, explaining that controlling the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel could change the order of the three realms.
• The Heavenly Court assigned sects and Li Ling major responsibilities, and the Netherworld Sect gathered its own experts around the Nether King Palace, including Demon Venerable Yuanyou.
• The two sides provoked conflicts across several regions to keep enemy reinforcements occupied, while ghost monsters also attacked the Incense Accumulation Sect’s territories.
• Li Ling arrived in Fengdu as the Pure Land Great Incense Buddha, organized the Heavenly Court’s forces, and ordered most of its available experts to advance on the Nether King Palace.
• After months of victories brought the armies before the palace, Li Ling felt a much stronger warning of danger and suspected the Netherworld Sect would use the Lord of Reincarnation and the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel to turn the battle around.

The Heavenly Court’s forces fought a costly campaign against the Netherworld Sect at the Nether King Palace, and Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang ordered a sacrificial assault to break its defenses. The palace’s grand array was breached, and although the Nether King Palace Master unleashed a devastating counterattack, the righteous forces entered the stronghold.

• Ye Zhen, Luo Zhen, and Han Zhen fought through the demon and corpse-ghoul armies, using empowered creations to escape demonic Nascent Soul Cultivators and report enemy weaknesses to Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang.
• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang concluded that the Heavenly Court had little time and ordered a costly all-out assault, while transferring the Three True Ones elsewhere to spare them the heaviest fighting.
• Heavenly Court cultivators attacked the Nether King Palace’s array nodes in successive waves, and Venerable Ling She shattered a peak to weaken the defenses.
• Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang, Star Lord Jiuyào Zhenhui, Venerable Ling Ming, Venerable Ling She, and other experts broke through the palace’s outer defenses and poured inside.
• The Nether King Palace Master transformed into black mist and killed many attackers, but the Heavenly Court’s forces pinned him down as the breach widened and the righteous experts stormed the palace.

The Three True Ones of Incense Accumulation joined the battle at Nether King Palace and helped Venerable Ling Ming trap and nearly kill Demon Venerable Red Fang. After Red Fang wounded Han Zhen, Li Ling arrived in an avatar and revealed a method that let it draw on the Pure Land Great Incense Buddha’s dharma power.

• Demon Venerable Red Fang used her web and venom to slaughter Orthodox Path cultivators, and Venerable Ling Ming drew her attention with his Soul-Refining True Fire.
• Luo Zhen, Ye Zhen, and Han Zhen coordinated with the other Righteous Cultivators to strike Red Fang, while Venerable Ling Ming bound her with Nine-Dragon Divine Fire.
• Red Fang escaped the apparent defeat in a cocoon and charged the Three True Lords, but Han Zhen intercepted her and was bitten and poisoned.
• Li Ling arrived, healed Han Zhen, and faced Red Fang with an avatar that she initially dismissed as too weak to challenge her.
• Li Ling exhaled Orchid-Scented Breath, drawing power from the Pure Land Great Incense Buddha into his avatar, and Venerable Ling Ming recognized it as a precursor to Dao Integration and True Refinement.

Li Ling and the righteous cultivators killed Demon Venerable Red Fang, and Li Ling discovered he could perceive and collect the dao fruit fragrance released by the fallen. As the Nether King Palace battle turned in the righteous side’s favor, he witnessed the arrival of the Mystic Heaven Emperor, the Mystic Heaven Dao Venerable’s Heavenly Dao avatar, summoned through the battlefield’s accumulated deaths and spirit resonance.

• Li Ling neutralized Demon Venerable Red Fang’s venom and joined Venerable Ling Ming and other righteous cultivators in attacking her.
• When Demon Venerable Red Fang tried to escape by scattering spiderlings carrying her primordial spirit, Li Ling used his Incense-Thought Lure to drive them into Venerable Ling Ming’s flames, killing her.
• Li Ling sensed the dao fruit fragrance released by Demon Venerable Red Fang’s death and collected its fragrant portion to refine into his avatar.
• The walls of the Nether King Palace collapsed, and the battlefield revealed that only four Demonic Path experts remained: the Nether King Palace Master, Demon Venerable Yuanyou, Gao Xuan, and Meng Chu.
• Li Ling perceived the fallen of both factions as traces of past lives and saw the Mystic Heaven Emperor appear, realizing that the Heavenly Court had summoned him through the battlefield’s deaths and spirit resonance.

Li Ling witnessed a heavenly tribulation strike the demonic cultivators and discovered the true nature of tribulation incense in the fragrance revealed after karmic ties were erased. His insight awakened a new dharma body and showed him that his dao fruit’s origin lay within all things in heaven and earth.

• The Mystic Heaven Emperor stirred, and a heavenly tribulation descended upon the Nether King Palace Master, Demon Venerable Yuanyou, Gao Xuan, and Meng Chu.
• The Heavenly Court’s experts retreated as the four demonic cultivators were trapped beneath the tribulation lightning.
• Demon Venerable Yuanyou and Gao Xuan perished, while the Nether King Palace Master was blasted to the brink of death and Meng Chu survived by using substitute death ghosts.
• Meng Chu absorbed the power released after his tribulation, and Li Ling recognized the resulting fragrance as the true-nature spirit resonance revealed when foul energy and karmic ties were removed.
• Li Ling attained sudden enlightenment, integrated the law of transformation into his body, and formed the myriad wonders dharma body.
• Li Ling’s three dharma bodies resonated, and he realized that his dao fruit and its origin were within all things in heaven and earth.

After the Heavenly Court defeated the Nether King Palace, the Nether Heaven incarnation and Blood Sea Demon Venerable attacked Mystic Heaven Emperor’s avatar. As the avatar’s body began to collapse under the assault, Mystic Heaven Emperor revealed a thunderbolt primordial spirit and destroyed a powerful enemy with a single strike.

• Mystic Heaven Emperor appeared above the Nether King Palace ruins, and the Heavenly Court’s forces gathered to finish clearing the battlefield.
• Li Ling asked Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable how the Emperor Venerable’s avatar had descended, then sensed blood surging up from underground.
• Blood Sea Demon Venerable and the Nether Heaven incarnation arrived to attack Mystic Heaven Emperor, and the incarnation’s death laws killed many righteous cultivators.
• The Nether Heaven incarnation pinned Mystic Heaven Emperor with a beam from her third eye while other powerful Demonic Path cultivators joined the assault.
• Mystic Heaven Emperor’s dao body was destroyed, revealing a primordial spirit made of pure thunderbolt, and he killed a mighty rogue cultivator with one strike.

The Nether Heaven Incarnation used the Great Black Heaven Secret Art to scatter the fighters and trap them in a dark prison while the Mystic Heaven Emperor Venerable continued battling the Blood Sea Demon Venerable. Li Ling tried to shelter the wounded Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable in his Incense Accumulation Divine Domain, but the Nether Heaven Incarnation emerged from his wounds and struck Li Ling directly.

• Li Ling watched the Mystic Heaven Emperor Venerable transform into tribulation thunder and kill a Demonic Path cultivator, while the Blood Sea Demon Venerable and Nether Heaven Incarnation counterattacked.
• The Nether Heaven Incarnation spread her Divine Domain, separating Li Ling and the other fighters into isolated stretches of darkness.
• The Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable explained that the Great Black Heaven Secret Art was nearly impossible to escape, then the Nether Heaven Incarnation ambushed him and several Heavenly Court gods.
• The Mystic Heaven Emperor Venerable found the Blood Sea Demon Venerable, and their battle unleashed deadly shock waves and tribulation lightning against the surrounding Demonic Path cultivators.
• The wounded Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable reached Li Ling, who drew him into his Incense Accumulation Divine Domain, but the Nether Heaven Incarnation emerged from the Heavenly Venerable's wound and pierced Li Ling with her divine eye.

Li Ling and the Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable fought the Nether Heaven Incarnation after Li Ling’s spirit soul resonated with an other shore flower and helped her form a reincarnation seed. Though the Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable struck her down twice, she revived stronger each time, and Li Ling realized her growing belly might reveal a way to weaken her.

• The Nether Heaven Incarnation attacked Li Ling with Netherworld origin, but his incense ancestor origin restored his spirit soul as a blood-red other shore flower appeared.
• The flower’s origin flowed into the Nether Heaven Incarnation, causing her belly to swell as the Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable identified a reincarnation seed gestating from Li Ling’s power.
• The Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable forged a lightning sword from heavenly tribulation power, and Li Ling helped him strike the Nether Heaven Incarnation through the heart.
• The Nether Heaven Incarnation revived from the lightning strike, stronger than before, and the Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable used his remaining power to wound her again.
• The Nether Heaven Incarnation revived once more, and Li Ling noticed her belly swelling again and considered whether defeating and sealing her before the reincarnation seed developed could weaken her.

Li Ling and the two Heavenly Venerables discovered that the Nether Heaven Incarnation’s reincarnation power linked her manifested body to her hidden origin, and they attacked both at once to suppress her. Just as they thought they had defeated her, a red-clad figure rose from an Other Shore Flower, transforming the Divine Domain and awakening a strange affinity in Li Ling.

• Miro Heavenly Venerable broke into the Darkness Domain and helped Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable trap and injure the Nether Heaven Incarnation, but she revived and healed rapidly.
• Li Ling and the two Venerables escaped her Netherworld Deathlight, then concluded that they needed to reach her origin to overcome her endless recovery.
• Li Ling entered the Nether Heaven Incarnation’s spiritual space through his Xiyi Dharma Body, while Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable attacked her manifested body from outside.
• Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable and Li Ling struck both aspects simultaneously, disrupting her reincarnation and leaving her body apparently defeated.
• An Other Shore Flower bloomed, and a red-clad female immortal emerged as the Divine Domain became a vast blood-soaked wilderness filled with flowers.
• Li Ling sensed that he could control the flowers’ haunting, bloody fragrance.

Li Ling and his allies defeated the Nether Heaven Incarnation and won control of the middle layer of Netherworld Soil, but the Blood Sea Demon Venerable escaped and could revive. With the Heavenly Court debating whether to press into the Impure Land, Li Ling chose to prepare for the decisive battle by refining the Other Shore Flower power and advancing toward deathlessness.

• Li Ling absorbed the female immortal’s origin power, completed his Death Origin, and protected Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable and Miro Heavenly Venerable from the poisonous fragrance with his Incense Accumulation Divine Domain.
• Li Ling, Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable, and Miro Heavenly Venerable escaped the Darkness Domain and found the Heavenly Court’s forces driving back the demonic cultivators with tribulation lightning.
• Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable learned that the Blood Sea Demon Venerable had fled, and the Heavenly Court’s leaders confirmed their victory while debating whether to attack the Impure Land immediately.
• Li Ling returned to his true body, judged that the decisive battle was approaching, and summoned Nie Yingzhi before entering seclusion to pursue deathlessness.
• Li Ling purified the Other Shore Flower power with Will-Consent Incense, separated its essence from foreign influences, and used the resulting spirit resonance to rebuild his Dao Fruit.

As Li Ling focused on attaining deathlessness, the Netherworld Sect prepared for the Heavenly Court’s imminent assault by restoring the Nether Heaven incarnation and assembling its forces for a decisive battle. The Heavenly Court sent rising Orthodox Path cultivators to contain Demonic Path threats in the mortal world while preparing its main campaign.

• After the Netherworld Sect’s defeat, the Heavenly Court and Orthodox Path factions pressed their campaign against the Impure Land.
• The Demonic Path leaders gathered beneath the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, revived the Nether Heaven incarnation through Ruogui, and received her order to prepare the Ten Thousand Demons Grand Array.
• The Netherworld Sect summoned experts and forces from across its factions, built a massive array linked to its four sect bases, and gathered puppets, yin souls, and ghost monsters.
• The Netherworld Sect activated hidden agents in the mortal world to force the Heavenly Court to keep some experts behind to defend it.
• The Heavenly Court stationed the Three True Ones of Incense Accumulation and other rising Orthodox Path cultivators across the continents to suppress attacks and preserve its forces.
• Li Ling agreed with the defensive arrangements, while Chi Yingting, Long Leshui, and other Incense Accumulation Sect cultivators were sent to join the coming decisive battle.

The Heavenly Court army reached the Netherworld Sect’s prepared stronghold in the Impure Land, and Li Ling explained to Chi Yingting how the epoch-end war could shape their cultivation and fortunes. The Radiance Heavenly Lord led the Fire Division’s assault, but the Netherworld Sect’s array restored the destroyed ghost monsters and trapped the attackers.

• The Netherworld Sect’s forces prepared a vast divine domain around the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, and scouts warned the arriving Heavenly Court cultivators that a frontal assault was unavoidable.
• Li Ling warned Chi Yingting about the battlefield’s dangers and explained that surviving and participating in the epoch-end struggle could bring opportunities for advancement.
• The Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable assigned Li Ling to hold his position while the Emperor Venerable and other leaders prepared to strike first.
• The Radiance Heavenly Lord led the Fire Division against the array around the Ten Thousand Spirits Mountain illusion, using Solar True Fire to destroy ghost monsters in their path.
• The array restored the destroyed yin souls and ghost monsters, leaving the Fire Division trapped among them.

The righteous forces discovered that the Netherworld Sect had used the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel to trap the four sect territories in a looping flow of time, disrupting spacetime and reviving defeated enemies. Mystic Heaven Emperor and Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable entered the array to stop it, but found the sect's forces protected by a vast ancient formation.

• Radiance Heavenly Lord recognized that the River of Time encircled the four demonic sect headquarters in a loop, and the surrounding spacetime began aging and rejuvenating cultivators unpredictably.
• Miro Heavenly Venerable ordered the righteous army to withdraw, while Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable and Mystic Heaven Emperor decided to break into the array and stop the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel.
• Mystic Heaven Emperor identified Nether Heaven's darkness domain as the force concealing the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, then attacked the projected Ten Thousand Spirits Mountain guarded by Meng Chu.
• Mystic Heaven Emperor and Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable found that Meng Chu and Wei Yang escaped death by shifting between the sect territories through the array's disrupted spacetime.
• Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable recognized the Ten Thousand Demons Grand Array as thousands of powerful demon creatures, dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators, and over ten Spirit Transformation cultivators gathered around them.

The Heavenly Court struggled to breach the Netherworld Sect’s interlinked formations, so Mystic Heaven Emperor intervened against the Nether Heaven Incarnation. His thunderous strike shattered the arrays and badly damaged the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, but black origin power then tainted his avatar.

• Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable ordered the Thunder and Fire Divisions to withdraw after the formations overwhelmed their assault with endlessly reviving demons and disrupted spacetime.
• The Heavenly Court’s commanders debated attacking the arrays or wearing them down, then chose to seal off the territory while other armies targeted the Demonic Path’s exposed holdings.
• Li Ling learned that the Heavenly Court planned another assault, and Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable led Golden Venerable, Venerable Ling Ming, and Venerable Ling She against the array.
• The Nether Heaven Incarnation appeared and resisted the four experts, prompting Mystic Heaven Emperor to charge into the array in the form of a thunder dragon.
• Mystic Heaven Emperor’s strike destroyed the grand array, shattered a corner of the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, and killed the Nether Heaven Incarnation again.
• Black origin power covered Mystic Heaven Emperor’s avatar as the Orthodox Path’s forces watched.

Nether Heaven trapped Mystic Heaven’s avatar and polluted the battlefield with demonic source matter, turning the grand array into a deadly breeding ground for monsters. Li Ling discovered that the Incense Path could consume the pollution, but as he began investigating a remedy, demonic unrest spread across the mortal world and strengthened the Demonic Path.

• Nether Heaven’s source matter polluted the battlefield, transforming Heavenly Soldiers, Generals, and righteous cultivators into demons and monsters.
• The Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable and other survivors escaped the grand array, severed their contaminated flesh and mental substance, and received aid from their allies.
• Star Lord Greedy Wolf warned that the Samsara Great Dao might let the demons erase karma and avoid heavenly tribulations, while Li Ling proposed testing the Incense Path against the pollution.
• Li Ling and his disciples studied the black source matter, and the Incense Ancestor origin consumed contamination in Li Ling’s body and converted it into fragrant substances.
• Greed, wrath, obsession, and grievance spread through the mortal world amid war, famine, disease, and death, sending demonic power into the Ten Thousand Demons Grand Array.

The righteous cultivators struggled against the Netherworld Sect’s increasingly coordinated evil demons, while foul energies also spread corruption through the mortal world. After incense-path methods helped stabilize the front, Li Ling announced that he had found a way to address the crisis.

• The Immortal Sects tried to quell calamities in the mortal world, but their efforts caused further problems, and Li Ling warned that the foul origins were rooted in the Underworld’s Impure Land.
• Li Ling promised to give the Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable a definite answer after months or years of research as the war settled into a tense stalemate.
• The righteous cultivators discovered that the Netherworld Sect’s evil demons had stopped attacking one another and were beginning to recognize their own kind.
• The righteous army repelled successive demonic assaults with ranged attacks and incense that screened out corrupting energies, though the mortal Yang Realm remained in danger.
• After another year and more of mounting anxiety, Li Ling stepped forward and declared that there was a way.

Li Ling devised a plan to use Primordial Orchid to suppress the Underworld’s defilement, then entered the enemy’s grand array to cultivate from its vast stores of spirit resonance. As he began pursuing a deathless Dao fruit, Nether Heaven reacted by manifesting an avatar in the form of a female corpse.

• Li Ling explained that Primordial Orchid could absorb defilement, spread through time and space, and weaken the Netherworld Sect’s demons.
• Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable and Miro Heavenly Venerable promised the Heavenly Court’s full support, and Li Ling completed his research by the end of Incense Accumulation Year 1658.
• Li Ling entered the grand array while Thunder-Control Heavenly Venerable, Golden Venerable, Venerable Ling Ming, and Venerable Ling She drew the enemy’s attention.
• Li Ling reached the array’s center and released his true-nature human incense, gathering the Impure Land’s spirit resonance to pursue his deathless Dao fruit.
• Blood Sea Demon Venerable and the other demons sensed Li Ling’s advancement, and Nether Heaven sent down a female corpse avatar that emerged from a blood pool.