Chapter Summaries

After the Lin Residence fell, Fang Qianyuan learned that the Sacred Sect planned to awaken Venerable Azure and Venerable White, and ordered his forces to stop them. Meanwhile, he devoured the Lin Mountain Grotto-Heaven’s origin, repairing damaged Law Chains and expanding his command of the laws.

• Li Dan announced Lin Xun’s surrender, and the Lin Residence’s people stopped fighting as the Heavenly Dao Alliance captured those trying to flee.
• Several days later, Warrior Administration officers reported that Lin Xun’s memories had revealed the planned awakening of Venerable Azure and Venerable White.
• Fang Qianyuan ordered his forces to stop the awakening, or kill the two ancient cultivators before they regained their strength.
• Fang Qianyuan examined the weakened Lin Mountain Grotto-Heaven and began absorbing its origin power.
• Fang Qianyuan used insights from the grotto-heaven’s earth and wood origins to condense new manifested threads and weave Law Chains.

Fang Qianyuan completed his refinement of the Lin Mountain Grotto-Heaven, transforming the Heavencrystal Snowfield and confirming a path toward Dao attestation. As he considered using the Flying Immortal Records to reach other worlds, the Heavenly Dao Alliance attacked the secret altar before the Shadow King and his allies could open the coffin.

• Fang Qianyuan’s laws overwhelmed the Lin Mountain Grotto-Heaven’s Heavenly Dao, leaving the world frozen and its grand formation in ruins.
• Fang Qianyuan’s new laws drew Spirit Essence into the Heavencrystal Snowfield, where new spirit plants, creatures, and an oasis appeared.
• Fang Qianyuan awakened in the Central Preservation Palace and concluded that refining other worlds’ origins could help him overcome the dharma-ending age’s limits.
• Fang Qianyuan considered whether the Flying Immortal Records could help him draw resources from the Myriad Worlds, but set the plan aside because he lacked the Star Map.
• The Heavenly Dao Alliance Experts found the secret altar in the Central Province and attacked before the Shadow King and the others could open the coffin.

Hard Jade Hall and allied righteous forces overwhelmed the Demon Alliance fighters, forcing the Shadow King and his followers into a desperate retreat. Yu Zhen and Li Dan confronted the Shadow King, revealing that Lin Xun had been captured and that the Azure and White Venerables would be sealed before they could pose a threat.

• Xiao Yuheng's Hard Jade Hall joined forces with Azure Cloud Sect warriors and allied cultivators to attack the Demon Alliance.
• Lin Shi charged through the enemy ranks with his Blood-Baleful Saber, while Huang Yi used Yellow Springs Mire to destroy weaker opponents.
• Rogue cultivators and righteous fighters routed the Demon Alliance's loosely gathered forces, leaving only about a hundred death warriors with the Shadow King and his companions.
• Yu Zhen confronted An Jisheng atop Lu Wu, while Li Dan arrived on Nine Infants and told the Shadow King that Lin Xun had fallen into Fang Qianyuan's hands.
• Li Dan warned that the righteous forces would prevent the Azure and White Venerables from awakening and would dig them out and seal them.

The Shadow King tried to sow discord between Yu Zhen and Li Dan by warning them about Fang Qianyuan’s growing power, but they refused to abandon the hunt. Yu Zhen and Lu Wu defeated the Shadow King’s shadow beast, and the Shadow King was bound with Dragon-Binding Ropes.

• The Shadow King admitted that his side had failed, then argued that the sects also had reason to resist Fang Qianyuan’s rise.
• Yu Zhen rejected the Shadow King’s attempt to divide the Heavenly Dao Alliance and insisted they would capture him.
• The Shadow King summoned his shadow beast and attacked Yu Zhen and Lu Wu.
• Lu Wu used astral gales and the laws of absolute strength to tear apart the shadow beast while Yu Zhen guarded against the Shadow King’s retaliation.
• Lu Wu pinned the gravely wounded shadow beast, and golden Dragon-Binding Ropes bound the Shadow King.

Grand Elder Yu Zhen and Li Dan captured and secured the Shadow King, An Jisheng, and delivered him to the Heavenly Dao Alliance's secret prison. The fight over the Two Venerables' awakening then drew both sides into open conflict in the Yingshan Kingdom, forcing the Secret Cult's hidden leaders to reveal themselves.

• Yu Zhen sealed An Jisheng's memories, soul, and thoughts with a method from the Demon God Nine Transformations.
• The Demon Alliance launched a counterattack and tried to rescue or kill An Jisheng, but Yu Zhen and Li Dan safely delivered him to the Heavenly Dao Alliance's prison in Central Province.
• After failing to awaken the Two Venerables, the Secret Cult's inheritors halted their plan and exposed clues to where the Venerables were sleeping.
• The Heavenly Dao Alliance began searching for the Two Venerables, while the Secret Cult's inheritors mobilized the Demon Alliance to disrupt the search.
• The Yingshan Kingdom's valley became a battlefield, and the Secret Cult's leaders and demonic-path titans emerged from hiding to command their forces.

Golden Wind Ward and Jade Dew House became recruitment bases as the Heavenly Dao Alliance and Demon Alliance enlisted grassroots Spirit Tamers for the war. In Jade Dew House, rogue cultivators recognized Heavenly King Xing and then spotted a crowd of other notorious figures.

• A group of rogue cultivators arrived at Golden Wind Ward and chose to report to the Heavenly Dao Alliance recruitment office without resting.
• A disciplinary officer assessed the newcomers' cultivation and spirit creatures, then recommended suitable battlefield assignments.
• The Demon Alliance requisitioned Jade Dew House and recruited grassroots cultivators, matching the Heavenly Dao Alliance's effort to gather forces.
• Two rogue cultivators recognized Heavenly King Xing as he swaggered through Jade Dew House and moved aside to avoid provoking him.
• The two rogue cultivators spotted Valley Master Lu, Stronghold Master Guo, Jiang Hu, and numerous other renowned figures in the crowd.

Righteous-path leaders and allied clans gathered in Golden Wind Ward to plan their campaign against the unorthodox path. Fang Qianyuan appeared through his divine sense and ordered them to force a decisive battle within six months, promising to act personally if needed.

• Two rogue cultivators accepted the risks of joining the recruitment effort, unwilling to remain trapped in lowliness.
• Yu Zhen, Li Dan, and representatives of righteous sects and clans gathered in Golden Wind Ward to plan against the unorthodox path and its reinforcements.
• The assembled representatives included lineages restored or supported by Fang Qianyuan, including the Ma Household, the Wuchong Mo Household, and the Yang Household.
• Fang Qianyuan descended into the hall through his divine sense and announced that the alliance was intensifying its search for the Star Map and surviving ancient cultivators.
• Fang Qianyuan gave the alliance six months to force the Demon Alliance into a decisive battle and said he would emerge from seclusion if necessary.

Lu Tianyao and Elder Tang tried to rally the Demon Alliance’s great sects against the Heavenly Dao Alliance, which had grown powerful after capturing the Shadow King. The summoned leaders refused to join the war, leaving the two men without the support they needed.

• Fang Qianyuan announced that the righteous path would spend half a year finding hidden venerables and bringing them under his control.
• Lu Tianyao revealed his identity as the Life-Reaping Demon Venerable and discussed the Heavenly Dao Alliance’s strength with Elder Tang, who was secretly a Guardian Elder of the Heavenly Saint Church.
• Lu Tianyao argued that the Demon Alliance could not withstand the Heavenly Dao Alliance while its great sects stayed out of the conflict.
• Lu Tianyao and Elder Tang summoned leaders from the Demon Alliance’s great sects to ask for support.
• Bai Zhan, Yin Shanhe, You Yuan Shao, Duanmutian, and Mu Jingtian remained unwilling to join the war, frustrating Lu Tianyao and Elder Tang.

Lu Tianyao persuaded King Mu and the other Demon Alliance leaders that the age of upheaval had arrived and revealed the Two Sects’ plan to transform the Spirit-Taming World into an Immortal Realm. The Demon Alliance agreed to join the war under conditions that gave it a legitimate role in decisions and a place in the plan, and You Yuan Shao, Yin Shanhe, Duanmutian, and Bai Zhan also joined.

• Lu Tianyao warned the gathering that the age of upheaval and spirit-qi revival had begun and said Fang Qianyuan was studying the Dao of celestial beings and attempting to refine the Heavenly Dao.
• Lu Tianyao showed King Mu and the others evidence from Venerable Scarlet and secret records that revealed the Two Sects’ plan, Profound Realm Ascension to Immortality.
• Lu Tianyao explained that Fang Qianyuan’s success in refining the Heavenly Dao could place cultivators under his rule and leave them without a path to pursue immortality.
• Elder Tang urged the gathering to participate, and King Mu agreed on behalf of the Demon Alliance while demanding a legitimate role in wartime decisions and inclusion in the grand plan.
• You Yuan Shao, Yin Shanhe, Duanmutian, and Bai Zhan said they would join as well.

Lu Tianyao agreed to the Five Great Sects’ terms for joining forces under the Demon Alliance, including recognizing the Two Sects as an equal power while limiting their influence. Days later, Profound Yin Sect experts Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng arrived at the Market District with a vast zombie army and went to meet Grand Elder Lu.

• The Five Great Sects and Lu Tianyao settled on a provisional alliance arrangement that recognized the Two Sects while requiring them to establish their origins publicly.
• Lu Tianyao agreed to contact independent grassroots powers such as the Night King and bring them under the Demon Alliance’s banner.
• Disciples and Earth Rank Experts from the Western Plains’ Profound Yin Sect and Netherworld Sect began arriving at the battlefield.
• Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng reached the Market District atop two Earthwalker Beasts, carrying a large zombie army.
• A Disciplinary Officer used a Bell-Ringing Artifact to halt the zombies and escorted Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng to meet Grand Elder Lu.

Wu Qi’s patrol fought corpse herders from the Profound Yin Sect and suffered deaths before reinforcements forced both sides to withdraw. Meanwhile, Yan Zhou unleashed a thousand zombies on a defenseless town, where Fang Yicheng was waiting with another zombie army.

• Wu Qi’s patrol encountered a copper corpse, and his companions trapped it in a swamp after it wounded him with poisoned claws.
• Wu Qi and his companions failed to save several patrol members who had been knocked down and eaten by zombies.
• Reinforcements arrived, and both forces withdrew; Elder Huang warned that the dead needed cremation and confirmed the Western Plains sects were attacking with corpse soldiers.
• Yan Zhou led a thousand zombies into a small frontier town, where they killed mortals and scattered the local militia.
• Fang Yicheng waited on the other side of town with his own earthwalker beast and army of zombies.

Fang Yicheng slaughtered mortals in the Yingshan Kingdom and gathered their souls and bodies for the Profound Yin Sect. In Golden Wind Ward, Wu Longjie and the Heavenly Dao Alliance resolved to target the sect’s leaders and deploy their earth-rank experts against its growing corpse army.

• Fang Yicheng used zombies to kill fleeing mortals, gathered their souls with a Soul-Gathering Pearl, and had corpse puppets carry the bodies to the Earthwalker Beast.
• Fang Yicheng let some poisoned survivors escape, knowing they might spread plague or become walking corpses.
• Wu Longjie and the Heavenly Dao Alliance condemned the slaughter and approved bounties on Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng.
• Wu Longjie warned that the Profound Yin Sect had amassed hundreds of thousands of corpses that could become an army of corpse soldiers.
• Wu Longjie ordered all earth-rank experts to deploy and destroy as much of the enemy army as possible.

Reports of Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng’s zombie disaster revealed widespread death, disease, and lawlessness across Yingshan. Fang Yue arrived with her guards, confronted the devastation, and resolved that the righteous path had to act against its enemies rather than merely argue with them.

• Reports described zombies and corpse poison spreading through eighteen towns and causing more than eighty thousand deaths, while refugees and criminals added to the chaos.
• Fang Yue left the Heavencrystal Snowfield with guards and retainers to enter the stricken Yingshan Kingdom.
• Fang Yue saw a ruined town and used her Flowing Light Flying Sword to kill infected dogs that charged at her group.
• Fei Ren told Fang Yue not to expect their enemies to change and said they could only eliminate them.
• Fang Yue reflected on seeking truth through practical action and overcame her earlier remorse about the war.

Fang Yue resolved to use her Snow Wolf Guards to kill Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng, while righteous hunters and evacuations helped contain the corpse disaster. Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng’s mass production of Corpse Soldiers shifted the fighting in the Unorthodox Path’s favor, and reinforcements from other Unorthodox Path sects began arriving.

• Fang Yue declared that she would kill Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng and asked her guards to become the swords in her hand.
• Fei Ren and the other Snow Wolf Guards pledged to serve Fang Yue, who mounted White Snow and led them away from the ruined city.
• Righteous hunters pressured Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng into hiding at the Jade Dew House, slowing the corpse disaster and allowing at least a million people to be relocated.
• The Heavenly Dao Alliance sent cultivators to guard major cities and roads, helping restore some stability to the Yingshan Kingdom.
• Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng mass-produced Corpse Soldiers and supplied them to the Unorthodox Path, whose growing forces inflicted heavy casualties on the Righteous Path.
• A secret report revealed that experts from other Unorthodox Path sects had begun arriving.

Wu Longjie and the others mobilized the Righteous Path’s forces to face the Unorthodox Path, while Fang Yue returned to Golden Wind Ward amid the growing wartime bustle. When corpse soldiers attacked the camp, she joined the human-rank defenders and fought them, but the size of the horde left her struggling to make a difference.

• Wu Longjie and the others issued a Demon-Slaying Decree to summon allies against the Unorthodox Path and the Demon Alliance.
• Fang Yue returned to Golden Wind Ward after failing to find Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng, and saw rogue cultivators selling goods in the crowded streets.
• An alarm announced an Unorthodox Path raid, and Fei Ren explained that human-rank forces needed to hold off the attackers without drawing earth-rank experts into battle.
• Fang Yue attacked the approaching horde of corpse soldiers, killing an Unorthodox Path cultivator and several zombies with her Flowing Light Flying Sword.
• Fang Yue continued fighting nearby corpse soldiers as Fei Ren and the others guarded her, while the endless horde drained the defenders’ strength.

As the Righteous and Demonic Paths' Earth Rank Spirit Tamers watched Human Rank cultivators suffer below, Yu Zhen and Li Dan discussed how Heaven-Tier powers were trapped in a struggle over the Profound Realm Ascension to Immortality plan. The chapter ended when Yu Zhen received a message revealing that Grand Elder Tian Heng had come to the area.

• Young Master Huang and other cultivators were wounded or killed as rogue cultivators and corpse soldiers overwhelmed them.
• Righteous Path Earth Rank Spirit Tamers resisted the Demonic Path's taunts and debated whether they could intervene without jeopardizing their larger plans.
• Yu Zhen defeated Li Dan at Go, then said they were like stones on a board, unable to control their own fate.
• Yu Zhen warned Li Dan that the struggle over immortality and imperishability could lead to another Dharma-Ending War.
• Yu Zhen received a message from Grand Elder Tian Heng and realized that Tian Heng had come there.

Grand Elder Tian Heng arrived at the battlefield and used Taotie's Swallow the World to attack the Unorthodox Path cultivators, revealing his desperate pursuit of immortality. As Lu Tianyao and two Emperor-Rank Warriors confronted him over the deaths at Coiling Dragon Ridge, the standoff escalated.

• Li Dan learned that the aging Grand Elder Tian Heng had come to investigate the Five Elements Venerable and recover the Star Map.
• Tian Heng unleashed Taotie's Swallow the World, trapping several Unorthodox Path cultivators in a vast black vortex.
• Elder Tang appeared and cut through Taotie's Phantom Image, freeing some captives, but three cultivators were swallowed.
• Tian Heng warned Tang Yiqing that he would kill anyone who obstructed his pursuit of the Star Map and immortality.
• Lu Tianyao arrived with two Emperor-Rank Warriors, who accused Tian Heng of murdering the Grand Commander and their comrades.

Tian Heng fought two Warriors, but they sacrificed themselves in a coordinated attack that injured his Taotie spirit creature. Lu Tianyao and Elder Tang then ordered their spirit creatures to attack Tian Heng.

• One Warrior attacked Tian Heng, who shattered his palm strike and sent him flying.
• The injured Warrior used the Vessel-Exchange Art to transform into a demon and gain Heaven Tier power, but Tian Heng drove him back.
• Tian Heng used Taotie's Swallow the World to trap the demonized Warrior and begin devouring him.
• The other Warrior rushed into Taotie's maw, and both Warriors detonated their bodies, souls, and power to injure Tian Heng's spirit creature.
• Lu Tianyao and Elder Tang revealed that they had arranged for Wu Lianyi's former subordinates to sacrifice themselves, then sent their spirit creatures to attack Tian Heng.

Lu Tianyao and Elder Tang joined forces against the wounded Tian Heng, but Yu Zhen and Li Dan sent Lu Wu and Nine Infants to intercept them. As the Heaven Tier battle disrupted the armies and prompted a retreat, Tian Heng released the poisonous blood and essence of the Demonized Warriors from Taotie's belly.

• Lu Tianyao attacked Tian Heng with his Zheng while Elder Tang struck from the other side with his transformed Heaven-Flying Mantis sabers.
• Yu Zhen and Li Dan summoned Lu Wu and Nine Infants to confront the attackers.
• The Heaven Tier clash disrupted the battlefield, halting the armies and forcing Golden Wind Ward's defenders to raise their defenses and sound the retreat.
• Tian Heng intervened and opened a passage from Taotie's belly, unleashing the poisonous blood and essence of the Demonized Warriors who had detonated themselves inside it.

Tian Heng turned the Warriors’ self-detonations against Lu Tianyao’s forces, then pressured Jade Dew House while Li Dan hunted the Unorthodox Path across Yingshan Kingdom. The fighting paused after the Demon Alliance sent three heaven-tier reinforcements, but a larger battle was imminent.

• Tian Heng used Taotie to release the Warriors’ explosions, badly wounding Zheng and destroying tens of thousands of zombies.
• Lu Tianyao and Elder Tang retreated to Jade Dew House while Tian Heng stayed behind to defend Golden Wind Ward and sent Li Dan into Yingshan Kingdom.
• Tian Heng repeatedly tested Jade Dew House’s formation, forcing Lu Tianyao’s side to spend vast amounts of spirit jade keeping it active.
• Li Dan drove the Unorthodox Path forces into hiding and destroyed the corpse armies they had left behind.
• Dream Elder, Phantom King, and Beast King reinforced Jade Dew House, and Tian Heng withdrew to Golden Wind Ward as the fighting temporarily subsided.