Chapter Summaries

Tian Heng took personal command of the defense in Golden Wind Ward so the Heavenly Dao Alliance could send far more people to search for the Azure and White Venerables. Wu Longjie warned Fang Yue to stay out of the dangerous search, and she watched the search parties depart while considering how she should follow her Dao Path.

• Tian Heng told the Heavenly Dao Alliance elders he would remain in Golden Wind Ward and take charge against the enemy so others could focus on finding the Two Venerables.
• Wu Longjie reported the situation to the Heavencrystal Snowfield and summoned Fang Yue to warn her not to join the search.
• Fang Yue accepted Wu Longjie's warning and remained in Golden Wind Ward.
• The Heavenly Dao Alliance canceled its patrol and defensive plans, greatly expanded its search parties, and arranged for some noble children and promising youths to avoid the missions.
• Fang Yue watched the search parties leave and silently reflected on privilege, power, and her own Dao Path.

Lu Tianyao and the Demon Alliance elders planned to confront Tian Heng while sending their forces against the Righteous Path’s search parties in the valley. The Demon Alliance army reached the valley, and the Heaven-Tier fighters began battling Tian Heng as their troops advanced on the search parties.

• Elder Tang told Lu Tianyao that Tian Heng had arrived again, and Lu Tianyao met with Dream Elder, the Phantom King, the Beast King, and Elder Tang to decide how to respond.
• Dream Elder and Elder Tang warned that Tian Heng was too powerful to defeat safely, and they rejected attacking the Yingshan Kingdom because Tian Heng was focused on the valley.
• Lu Tianyao proposed that the Heaven-Tier fighters hold Tian Heng back while the Demon Alliance’s ordinary forces attacked the Righteous Path’s search parties.
• Lu Tianyao and the elders gathered over three thousand Spirit Tamers, more than ten thousand spirit creatures, and nearly a hundred thousand corpses, then marched toward the valley.
• Tian Heng rose into the air as Lu Tianyao and the other Heaven-Tier fighters summoned their spirit creatures and dharma aspects to fight him, while their army advanced against the search parties.

Tian Heng used Taotie's Chaos Bombs to devastate Lu Tianyao's forces while holding off the Heaven-Tier fighters, leaving the valley strewn with corpses. Elsewhere in the chaotic void, two coffins absorbed a blood-red power and began to open.

• Tian Heng unleashed Taotie's Chaos Bombs, forcing Lu Tianyao and the others to dodge and blasting the Human Rank army and Corpse Army apart.
• Elder Tang warned Lu Tianyao that their forces would soon be wiped out, but Lu Tianyao ordered him to recruit more people and insisted the search parties had to be destroyed.
• The Phantom King and the Beast King struggled to break through Tian Heng's defenses as he swallowed their attacks, while the zombie army and nearly all three thousand Spirit Tamers were annihilated.
• In a remote stretch of chaotic void, blood-red power carrying struggling black wisps flowed into two still gray-black domains and was consumed by a pair of coffins.
• The two coffins cracked open, revealing flickers of red light as their obscure auras grew stronger.

Lu Tianyao’s forces kept Tian Heng occupied while the Phantom King used a Mirage Dragon to turn Righteous Path search parties against one another. As the battle’s mounting deaths fed an unknown force, the Righteous Path suspected a blood sacrifice meant to awaken the Ancient Cultivators, and Tian Heng welcomed the possibility of summoning the Two Venerables.

• The Phantom King unleashed his Heaven Tier Mirage Dragon, whose Chaotic Sky Rain filled distant search parties with illusions and caused them to slaughter allies and themselves.
• Tian Heng used Taotie to clear the mist and rain, but could not stop the mental attacks already tormenting the Righteous Path cultivators, so he retaliated against the enemy army.
• Lu Tianyao’s forces withdrew behind the Grand Formation of the Jade Dew House, while Tian Heng sat on a nearby mountain and blocked their way out.
• Fighting continued for several days, injuring Lu Tianyao, the Beast King, and others, while more than ten thousand cultivators and many spirit creatures and soldiers died.
• Elder Tang and the others noticed that an unseen force was devouring the essence released by the dead, and Yu Zhen and Li Dan’s investigators suspected a blood sacrifice intended to awaken the buried Ancient Cultivators.
• Tian Heng heard the Righteous Path’s suspicion and said he had been waiting for them to summon the Two Venerables.

Fang Yue questioned the righteousness of the Heavenly Dao Alliance’s costly search missions and decided she could no longer bear to remain in Golden Wind Ward. Meanwhile, the two black coffins awakened and opened Void Rifts above the battlefield, bringing powerful presences into the conflict.

• Fang Yue and Fei Ren watched another search party leave and discussed the deadly missions imposed by the Heavenly Dao Alliance.
• Fang Yue wrestled with the difficulty of distinguishing good from evil and felt powerless to stop the powerful figures from sacrificing Spirit Tamers for their goals.
• Fang Yue told Fei Ren she wanted to leave Golden Wind Ward and go to Yingshan Kingdom or somewhere else.
• The two black coffins absorbed distant essence-blood vital energy, released black vapor, and caused the gray domain in Chaos to vanish.
• Two Void Rifts opened above the battlefield, releasing torrents of origin energy and two overwhelming presences.
• Lu Tianyao and the others sensed the presences and rejoiced as they endured Tian Heng’s attacks inside Jade Dew House.

Venerable Azure and Venerable White awakened through a Blood Sacrifice and joined the battle against Tian Heng. They attacked using the Wood and Water Dao, but Tian Heng devoured part of Venerable Azure’s forest and launched a massive Force Energy strike.

• Venerable Azure and Venerable White emerged from their coffins after the Sacred Sect used Blood Sacrifice to restore their strength.
• Lu Tianyao and the others greeted the venerables, and Venerable White warned them that Tian Heng was a formidable enemy.
• Lu Tianyao told the venerables that Tian Heng cultivated the Taotie Origin of the Spirit Command Dao and wielded Swallow the World.
• Venerable Azure transformed the forest into giant Tree People that fired volleys of life force, while Venerable White formed a solid white dragon from clouds, mist, and Water Element Origin Energy.
• Tian Heng used Swallow the World to devour more than a hundred Tree People, then pressed down with an enormous palm of Force Energy.

Tian Heng revealed his full strength and attacked the Azure and White Venerables, but they countered with powerful laws and wounded Taotie. The chapter left Taotie engulfed by Venerable Azure’s Wood Dao power as Tian Heng finally faced the Two Venerables with grave caution.

• Tian Heng unleashed a giant palm strike, but Venerable White used the Blood Dragon to form a waterdrop barrier that repelled it.
• Tian Heng scattered Origin Energy to disrupt the battlefield’s energy, then hid with Taotie and ambushed the Azure and White Venerables from behind.
• Taotie punctured much of Venerable White’s protective bubble, but Venerable Azure struck it with green spheres that injured it.
• Venerable Azure unleashed Withering and Flourishing of All Things, sending a tide of life-force spheres toward Tian Heng and Taotie.
• Tian Heng used Taotie to swallow the frontal attack, but Venerable Azure shattered the void and engulfed Taotie in green light, trees, and vines.

Tian Heng’s Taotie was restrained by Venerable Azure’s parasitic vegetation, allowing Lu Tianyao and the others to join the Azure and White Venerables in attacking him. As Tian Heng began to falter, he called on Venerable Fang, and Fang Qianyuan appeared on a distant mountain as snow fell over the battlefield.

• Venerable Azure covered Taotie in vegetation that drained its power, while Venerable White and Lu Tianyao’s group prepared to attack Tian Heng.
• Venerable Azure and Venerable White told Lu Tianyao and the others to support them and strike Tian Heng if an opening appeared.
• Lu Tianyao and the others left the formation and attacked Tian Heng from all sides as he struggled to protect Taotie and fend off the two Venerables.
• Tian Heng took several hits and, as his strength waned, shouted for Venerable Fang to deal with the Azure and White Venerables.
• Dream Elder recognized the snowfall as a sign of Fang Qianyuan’s arrival, and Fang stood on a distant cliff watching the battle.

Fang Qianyuan confronted Lu Tianyao’s forces and the newly awakened Venerables Azure and White, whose allies described his rise beyond Heaven Tier. After the Venerables rejected his offer to surrender, Fang began shaping the battlefield with snow, wind, and living-looking creatures formed from the world’s currents.

• Venerable Azure and Venerable White sensed the altered weather and the force enclosing the area as Lu Tianyao explained that Fang Qianyuan had killed Venerable Scarlet, Shadow King, and Lin.
• The Venerables concluded that Fang might have reached the Heavenly Dao Realm, formed Domains from their Origin Energy, and ordered Lu Tianyao and the others to retreat into the Grand Formation.
• Fang Qianyuan appeared as an indistinct projection and offered to spare the Venerables if they surrendered their secrets and entered his service.
• Venerable Azure refused Fang’s offer, and Fang said he would capture the Venerables and question them about the Two Sects.
• Fang transformed the battlefield as bitter snow and wind swept in and dragons, serpents, and wolves formed from the currents around the mountain forests.

Fang Qianyuan used Heavenly Will Manifestation to command the laws of heaven and earth, overwhelming Venerable Azure and stopping Venerable White’s attack with ease. Venerable White realized that no one there could defeat Fang by force.

• Fang Qianyuan manifested dragons, snow wolves, and hurricanes from the laws of heaven and earth, destroying Venerable Azure’s summoned tree army and ravaging the surrounding battlefield.
• Venerable Azure recognized that Fang’s technique drew on the heavenly dao itself, then transformed into a thousand-armed giant and tore a hole through the net of laws.
• The net of laws reformed and ensnared Venerable Azure in frost and ice, prompting Venerable White to strike him free with her Golden Sphere.
• Venerable White launched the Golden Sphere at Fang Qianyuan, but his net of laws stopped it effortlessly by distorting time and space.
• Venerable White understood that Fang Qianyuan could not be defeated by force.

Venerable White discovered that Fang Qianyuan was resisting the Spirit-Taming World's Heavenly Dao while overpowering her and Venerable Azure. Fang Qianyuan captured Venerable White, and Venerable Azure fled.

• Venerable White saw that Fang Qianyuan's law chains connected him to the Spirit-Taming World's Heavenly Dao, whose will was suppressing him.
• Venerable White realized Fang Qianyuan was using only a fraction of his power to overwhelm her and Venerable Azure.
• Venerable White urged Venerable Azure to retreat and make plans later.
• Fang Qianyuan sent law chains after Venerable White, pierced her golden defense, and sealed her inside ice.
• Venerable Azure fled after seeing Venerable White captured.

Fang Qianyuan’s chains overwhelmed the Jade Dew House’s grand formation and trapped the Spirit Tamers inside. Lu Tianyao and the others were frozen one by one, leaving Tian Heng to declare the battle won.

• Lu Tianyao told Venerable Azure about Fang Qianyuan’s supposed weaknesses, but Venerable Azure said they no longer applied while Fang’s true body was present.
• Lu Tianyao and the others powered the Jade Dew House’s grand formation, but Fang Qianyuan’s chains froze it and let the threads of law seep inside.
• Beast King attacked an ice pillar in his Ning transformation and was frozen, then Lu Tianyao and the others broke him free.
• Lu Tianyao, Dream Elder, Phantom King, and Beast King were frozen as Fang Qianyuan’s icy fangs narrowed their escape space, while Venerable Azure became covered in frost.
• Tian Heng laughed and said they had finally caught everyone in one net.

Fang Qianyuan withdrew from the Spirit-Taming World with Venerable Azure and Venerable White as its Heavenly Dao threatened to strike. Left without their leaders, the Demon Alliance forces were routed by Yu Zhen and Li Dan, leaving the Heavenly Dao Alliance victorious in the war.

• As the Spirit-Taming World’s Heavenly Dao formed a vast vortex and giant eye above him, Fang Qianyuan told Tian Heng he would leave with Venerable Azure and Venerable White, leaving the other captives behind.
• Fang Qianyuan departed through a black vortex with the two frozen Venerables, and the Heavenly Dao’s eye and vortex faded away.
• The Heavenly Dao melted Fang Qianyuan’s ice, freeing the Demon Alliance members left at Jade Dew House, while many of them decided to flee.
• Yan Zhou and Fang Yicheng quietly left to alert their sects as Yu Zhen and Li Dan arrived and attacked the retreating Demon Alliance forces.
• Yu Zhen and Li Dan led the Heavenly Dao Alliance in slaughtering the Demon Alliance army and routing its Earth Rank and Human Rank cultivators.

In the wake of Fang Qianyuan’s capture of Lu Tianyao and the other experts, leaders of the Five Great Sects debated taking control of the weakened Demon Alliance and opening contact with Fang. Meanwhile, Fang questioned the Azure and White Venerables about a star map, but they said they did not know where it was.

• King Mu convened projected leaders of the great sects and rogue cultivators to discuss the Demon Alliance’s collapse after Fang Qianyuan captured Lu Tianyao and his companions.
• Duanmutian urged the Five Great Sects to take over the fractured Demon Alliance, and Yin Shanhe agreed.
• Duanmutian suggested King Mu use his Cloud Summit Gathering connection to ask Fang Qianyuan about changing the pact governing the Demon God Nine Transformations method.
• King Mu agreed to try contacting Fang Qianyuan.
• Fang Qianyuan asked the Azure and White Venerables why he should not kill them, explaining that he only wanted their star map.
• Venerable Azure said they did not know the star map’s location and had forgotten what they once knew about the other venerables and sacred envoys.

Fang Qianyuan questioned Venerable Azure about the Sacred Sect’s plan for Profound Realm Ascension to Immortality and learned that it had been devised to secure immortality for the sect’s upper ranks. He traced the plan’s devastation to the rise of the Ten Sects and argued that its ancient practitioners’ pursuit of immortality had shaped his own opposing Dao path, leaving Venerable Azure and Venerable White astonished.

• Fang Qianyuan asked Venerable Azure about Profound Realm Ascension to Immortality, and Venerable Azure explained that it was meant to help the sect’s upper ranks attain immortality.
• Venerable Azure described how the Two Sects’ pursuit of longevity drove resource plundering, invasions, and wars that devastated other worlds and the Spirit-Taming World.
• Fang Qianyuan recounted how the Two Sects’ conflicts led to the Five Regions war and the eventual rise of the Ten Sects, and Venerable Azure defended the ancient cultivators’ choices.
• Fang Qianyuan argued that the ancient cultivators’ calamities and buried legacies had created opportunities for later generations and tied his Dao path to their actions.
• Venerable Azure and Venerable White realized the significance of Fang Qianyuan’s words and reacted with shock.

Tian Heng used Lu Tianyao and the Shadow King's memories to discover that the Star Map was hidden in Spellbreak City. He recovered it from Wen Yi and banished Wen Yi from the Spirit-Taming World for twenty years.

• Tian Heng and the array masters uncovered memories identifying Spellbreak City as the Star Map's hiding place.
• Tian Heng sent Bei Yetang to deliver a message to Venerable Fang and went to Spellbreak City himself.
• Tian Heng confronted Wen Yi, who admitted that the Shadow King had entrusted him with the Star Map.
• Wen Yi led Tian Heng to his residence and retrieved the Star Map from its hiding place.
• Tian Heng confirmed the treasure was the Star Map lost from Yin Zheluo's possession and forbade Wen Yi from entering the Spirit-Taming World for twenty years.

Fang Qianyuan agreed to reconvene the Cloud Summit Gathering and expanded the invitation to the world’s major sects, aiming to unite the righteous and unorthodox powers around the Star Maps. As the factions prepared to gather, the hidden elders of the Supreme Heaven and Heavenly Realms Two Sects decided to reclaim the Star Maps and awaken ancient cultivators.

• Fang Qianyuan received Tian Heng’s message about retrieving the Star Map and agreed to attend the Cloud Summit Gathering at Cloud Summit Peak.
• King Mu, Night King, Luo Muyun, and Yin Yuanzheng confirmed that they would attend the gathering on the thirtieth day of the third month.
• King Mu proposed bringing envoys from the Five Great Sects and the Demon Alliance, and Tian Heng asked Fang Qianyuan how to handle the request.
• Fang Qianyuan agreed to include them and invited the Mystic Sun Sect, Sacred Dragon Sect, and Flying Immortal Sect, while requiring everyone’s consent before adding other factions.
• Hidden elders of the Supreme Heaven and Heavenly Realms Two Sects learned of the gathering and resolved to reclaim the Star Maps and awaken more venerables and elders.

The Night King prepared Mian Mountain Sacred Palace for his departure to the Cloud Summit Gathering and set out with his disciples. When the Demon Alliance tried to ambush him, he revealed that his Dream Dao had exposed their plan and forced them to abandon it.

• The Night King confirmed that his disciples had arranged the palace’s cities, wards, and resources, then decided to take them as retainers to the Cloud Summit Gathering.
• The Night King set out aboard Mian Mountain Sacred Palace’s Thousand-League Soaring Cloud Roc with Kong Cheng and the young disciples.
• The Night King stopped the roc after learning that three Demon Alliance cultivators were approaching and told them he had dreamed of their planned ambush.
• The Night King sent the three cultivators away with a warning for Elder Lianshan not to force him into an alliance.
• Elder Lianshan learned that the Night King had foreseen the ambush and gave up on trying to kill him.

Feng Yan gathered envoys from four great clans with Zhuo Yaocheng, who offered the Demon Alliance’s backing in a plan to seize the Luo Clan’s Star Map and pressure the Cloud Summit Alliance. As turmoil spread across the Five Regions, Yin Yuanzheng survived an ambush, while grassroots powers began fighting for territory.

• Feng Yan introduced Zhuo Yaocheng to envoys from the Xiao Clan, Lin Family, and Jiang Clan at a secret gathering in Cloud City.
• Feng Yan explained that the Feng Clan resented the Luo Clan for joining the Cloud Summit Alliance without sharing the benefits of the Flying Immortal Records.
• Zhuo Yaocheng offered Elder Guizang’s support if the four clans seized the Star Map from the Luo Clan and demanded new terms from the Cloud Summit Alliance.
• After Zhuo Yaocheng left, the other envoys reproached Feng Yan for involving the Demon Alliance, while Feng Yan defended the clans’ pursuit of their interests.
• Mysterious figures ambushed Yin Yuanzheng outside the Heavenly Origin Association, but he escaped despite being wounded.
• Grassroots powers began declaring independence and fighting over territory across the Five Regions as the Two Sects’ covert plans fueled unrest.

Tian Heng and Fang Qianyuan discussed rising unrest, the hidden Sacred Sect successors, and the cultivation changes that might end the Age of Declining Dharma. The Cloud Summit Gathering then convened with the great sects and clans admitted as participants, though seated apart from the original attendees.

• Tian Heng reviewed reports of attacks and unrest, and he and Fang Qianyuan discussed the Sacred Sect successors and the need to prepare for their emergence.
• Tian Heng and Fang Qianyuan considered how the spread of the Demon God Nine Transformations had strengthened cultivators and stirred the laws of Heaven and Earth.
• Grand Elder Luo of the Luo Clan arrived, followed by the Night King, King Mu, Yin Yuanzheng, and envoys from the various factions.
• On the thirtieth day of the third month, Fang Qianyuan, Tian Heng, and the other original participants gathered in the Inner Court Bright Hall.
• Envoys from the Ten Great Sects and Five Great Aristocratic Clans took seats apart from the original participants to share in the search for the Flying Immortal Records.