Chapter Summaries

Chu Mo received Primordial Beginning Dao Lord’s insights into inner scene manifestation and studied them while cultivating. After Ming Su summoned him, Chu Mo learned that Primordial Beginning had requested his service, leaving him assigned to the Dao Lord’s affairs.

• Primordial Beginning gave Chu Mo a jade slip of cultivation insights and advised him that staying alive mattered most on the cultivation path.
• In his true realm, Primordial Beginning reflected on Chu Mo’s karmic entanglement with Dao Lord Darkworld and considered lending Chu Mo a hand if he advanced far enough.
• Chu Mo studied the jade slip, learned about inner scene manifestation, and judged Primordial Beginning to be dependable.
• After more than a month of cultivation, Chu Mo answered Ming Su’s summons to Harmony Truth Peak.
• Ming Su told Chu Mo that Primordial Beginning had requested him to work for the Dao Lord and that the Dao Lord’s affairs would take priority over other sect orders.

After years of waiting for orders from the Primordial Beginning Dao Lord, Chu Mo visited the Eternal Night Sea and reviewed Di Yang’s progress governing North Gui. As he considered the Taboos’ unexplained restraint, Di Yang reported that Declining Fate had come to see him.

• Chu Mo waited several years for instructions from the Primordial Beginning Dao Lord, then decided to continue cultivating while his Fortune allowance remained intact.
• Chu Mo visited Di Yang in the Hall of Yama, where Di Yang reported that the Taboos had stopped harassing North Gui and were allowing humans to migrate there.
• Di Yang told Chu Mo that the migrants had been settled, given farmland, and taught the Yang-to-Yin Infant-Birth Great Method.
• Chu Mo wondered whether the Taboos were waiting for something and reflected on his suspicions about the Primordial Beginning Dao Lord, then examined his growing Profound Banner.
• Di Yang returned with news that the Taboo Declining Fate had come to visit Chu Mo with important matters to discuss.

Chu Mo negotiated with Declining Fate over an alliance and learned about the ancient Underworld Bureaucracy. After agreeing to explore one of its ruins together, Declining Fate met with Lunar Yin and Nine Sorrows and worried that Chu Mo might be connected to the Ancient Underworld Bureaucracy and the Root Origin.

• Declining Fate visited Chu Mo in the Hall of Yama and proposed that they cooperate, offering the dead to Chu Mo while asking to retain the living for the Taboos.
• Chu Mo insisted that he wanted both the living and the dead, then asked Declining Fate about the ancient Underworld Bureaucracy and its scattered ruins.
• Declining Fate offered to guide Chu Mo to a dangerous ruin, and they agreed to explore it together at a later time.
• After leaving North Gui, Declining Fate told Lunar Yin and Nine Sorrows that Chu Mo was difficult to fool and seemed stronger than before.
• Declining Fate, Lunar Yin, and Nine Sorrows worried that Chu Mo might reach the Root Origin and wondered whether his origins connected him to the Ancient Underworld Bureaucracy.

Chu Mo supported the Underworld’s Mortal Folk and searched for a lost flash of insight before joining Declining Fate to explore a hidden ruin. They reached a damaged minor grotto-heaven and discovered a Nether River blocking their path.

• Chu Mo reflected on how [All Beings Aspect] could turn taboos into [Other-Self Aspects], then took Di Yang to survey the Mortal Folk settlements.
• Chu Mo gave Di Yang resources and promised to teach him artifact refining, pill refining, and spirit cultivation so the Underworld could supply its cultivators.
• After six months, Declining Fate arrived, and he and Chu Mo traveled to a barren valley where a sealed gateway led to hidden ruins.
• Chu Mo bypassed the gateway’s seal with [Treading Yin to Turn Yang], and Declining Fate followed using a jade clasp.
• Chu Mo and Declining Fate explored a damaged minor grotto-heaven filled with powerful yin souls and ghost creatures, then reached a river marked by a stele reading Nether River.

Chu Mo and Declining Fate followed the Nether River through the ruins of the Ancient Underworld Bureaucracy, where Chu Mo discovered a mist filled with ghosts and gathered their souls into the Profound Banner. They reached a dense wall of mist guarded by three Level 50 Boat-Mooring Generals.

• Chu Mo tested the Nether River and learned from Declining Fate that it had once washed away every trace, but now could only dissolve certain tangible things.
• Chu Mo and Declining Fate followed the river past the ruins of the Ancient Underworld Bureaucracy and into mist that blocked divine thought perception.
• Chu Mo drove back the mist with dim light, revealing countless ghost creatures that bowed to him when his aura changed.
• Chu Mo summoned the Profound Banner, and the ghosts willingly entered it as he collected their souls while continuing downstream.
• Chu Mo and Declining Fate reached a wall of dense mist where three Level 50 Boat-Mooring Generals stood waiting.

Chu Mo captured the three Mooring Generals and used a treasure talisman to pass through the mist array with Declining Fate. Beyond it, he found a small boat beside the Nether River and learned that it could ferry departed souls upstream from the sea into the mountain.

• Chu Mo ignored Declining Fate’s warning, subdued the three Mooring Generals with Great Black Heaven, and discovered they were puppets without true spirits.
• Chu Mo determined that the mist array drew power from the Nether River and could not be broken while the river continued to flow.
• Chu Mo used a fourth-tier Wondrous True Treasure Talisman to make the mist array briefly insubstantial, then led Declining Fate through it.
• Chu Mo found the Nether River’s flow ending at an invisible stretch of riverbed and discovered a small boat moored at its edge.
• Chu Mo touched the boat and learned it was the River-Crossing Boat, which could carry departed souls upstream from the sea into the mountain.

Chu Mo uncovered evidence that the Nether River once connected Eternal Night to the collapsed Other Shore, then left the ruins with its River-Crossing Boat. Declining Fate betrayed him, and more than a dozen Taboos surrounded Chu Mo to stop him from reaching the Root Origin.

• Chu Mo found a River-Crossing Boat and realized the severed Nether River resembled a passage to another world.
• Chu Mo discovered an inscription stating that the Other Shore had collapsed, the Ferrymen had perished, and departed souls had lost their passage.
• Chu Mo concealed the boat, opened the formation's mist wall, and left the ruins with Declining Fate.
• After they returned to the Eternal Night Sea, Declining Fate secretly sent a message and questioned Chu Mo about the boat.
• The Great Sun vanished and a moon appeared as more than a dozen Taboos surrounded Chu Mo; Declining Fate admitted they meant to stop him from reaching the Root Origin.
• The Headless Figure stepped forward and angrily demanded that they stop wasting time.

Chu Mo fought the Taboos while Nine Sorrows revealed himself as Youxuan, one of the Multitude, and attacked Lunar Yin. Chu Mo used the chaos to muddle Heaven and Earth’s workings as he prepared to explore Inner Scene Manifestation.

• The Taboos demanded Chu Mo surrender his boat and leave Eternal Night, but he refused and summoned his Dharma Form, Yin Spirits, and Ink Seal to face their attack.
• Chu Mo’s Yin Spirits blocked the Taboos’ divine abilities while the Ink Seal’s [Determine Life and Death] brought calamity upon them.
• Nine Sorrows struck Lunar Yin from behind, weakened her, and grew a new head before revealing his Daoist title as Youxuan and declaring that he was not one of the Taboos.
• Declining Fate realized that Nine Sorrows was [Multitude], and Chu Mo and Youxuan attacked the Taboos as the battlefield descended into chaos.
• Chu Mo used the battle to muddle Heaven and Earth’s workings, then sank his consciousness into the Golden Vault to prepare for Inner Scene Manifestation.

Chu Moqing let the taboos' battle grow chaotic until he could manifest a phantom of Mount Tai from his Divine Mountain. He suppressed Lunar Yin and Nether Rain, while the other taboos fled, then headed toward North Gui.

• Chu Moqing endured the taboos' attacks as their wounds failed to heal and they began to feel assimilated by him.
• When the chaos in heaven peaked, Chu Moqing stirred the Divine Mountain in his golden vault and manifested the mountain Dai, also known as Heaven's Grandson.
• Chu Moqing used Mount Tai's phantom to suppress Lunar Yin and Nether Rain, with Nine Sorrows helping to stop Nether Rain's escape.
• The remaining taboos fled, and Chu Moqing noted that his manifestation was only a partial phantom before flying toward North Gui.

After the Taboos escaped Chu Mo, they debated their next move while he kept Lunar Yin and Nether Rain sealed in a Pill Furnace. By observing how the dead continued their bonds in the Underworld, Chu Mo finally understood what he had been missing about manifesting Mount Tai, as a shadow spread across the sky.

• The escaped Taboos argued over fighting Chu Mo or seeking peace, then agreed to find Bitter End for help.
• Chu Mo kept Lunar Yin and Nether Rain sealed in his Pill Furnace and wondered why Mount Tai would not fully descend into the world.
• Chu Mo spent more than ten years observing mortal life and death while his Dharma Form grew to ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine zhang.
• Chu Mo saw a woman and child mourning at a grave and sensed that the dead could continue their family bonds in the Underworld.
• Chu Mo realized that death was a migration to another world and understood the insight he had been missing, as a shadow spread across the sky.

Chu Mo fully manifested Mount Tai over the Land of North Gui, strengthening his cultivation and allowing the mountain to nurture spirit herbs. Meanwhile, Bitter End rejected the Taboos’ request to fight Youxuan and said he could leave Eternal Night if Youxuan reached the Root Origin.

• Chu Mo watched Mount Tai descend into the mortal world as Di Yang recognized him as his teacher.
• Chu Mo fully manifested Mount Tai and declared that it would govern the ghosts, causing his level to rise from 45 to 46 and his Dharma Form to expand.
• Chu Mo sent nether qi into the land, where it gave rise to a spirit herb.
• Declining Fate told Bitter End how the Taboos had failed against Youxuan and asked him to intervene.
• Bitter End said Taboos could never master the Root Origin and refused to involve himself, saying he could leave Eternal Night if Youxuan reached it.

Bitter End agreed to help the Taboos oppose Youxuan, but proposed summoning experts from the realm of a stranger who had arrived in Eternal Night ten thousand years earlier. Chu Mo learned of the plan and prepared to investigate the distant realm while leaving an Other-Self Aspect to guard Eternal Night.

• Declining Fate warned Bitter End that Youxuan could affect him anywhere if he controlled the Root Origin, persuading Bitter End to consider intervening.
• Bitter End said he might defeat Youxuan but could not kill him, then proposed drawing experts from the stranger's realm to fight him.
• The Taboos agreed to use the golden Command Token bearing the name Dipper Department Border Intelligence Envoy-Chen Xuan to pursue Bitter End's plan.
• In the Hall of Yama, Chu Mo recognized the Taboos' strategy and considered locating the stranger's Otherworld and seeking his sect's help.
• Chu Mo sensed the Root Origin and Fuli Heaven's desire for him to obtain it, sent an Other-Self Aspect to guard Eternal Night, and opened a golden vortex to Fuli Heaven.

Chu Mo returned to Youxuan Peak, learned that Xuan Cheng wanted to meet him, and went to Clearlight Peak. There he revealed that he had reached nascent soul middle stage and claimed seniority over Xuan Cheng, leaving him stunned.

• Bai Li told Chu Mo that the peak was undisturbed, Chang Le had invited him to the Immortal Garden, and Xuan Cheng had repeatedly asked to see him.
• Chu Mo left for Clearlight Peak, while Bai Li noticed his nascent soul middle-stage cultivation and wondered whether he might become a new Dao Venerable.
• Xuan Cheng, unable to break through in Fuli, decided he needed someone to help him and considered asking Chu Mo.
• Chu Mo arrived and praised Xuan Cheng's nascent soul early-stage perfection before Xuan Cheng recognized Chu Mo's cultivation had surpassed his own.
• Chu Mo told Xuan Cheng to follow the sect's rules and address him as senior brother, then said he had broken through because he gained enlightenment.

Chu Mo agreed to help Xuan Cheng conceal heaven’s rejection so he could attempt a breakthrough, in exchange for Xuan Cheng crafting a dream-body treasure talisman. Afterward, Chu Mo considered the dangers surrounding Xuan Cheng and Chang Le, then took control of Xuan Meng, who realized she had stopped being herself long ago.

• Xuan Cheng asked Chu Mo to use [Great Black Heaven] and [Great Dream of the Mortal World] to help him break through, fearing interference from True Lord Changle’s [Emotion-Altering Thought Inscription].
• Chu Mo agreed to help Xuan Cheng, but asked him to create a treasure talisman combining [Great Dream of the Mortal World] and [One-Dream Body].
• Xuan Cheng agreed to refine the talisman after his breakthrough, and Chu Mo joked that they were the closest of friends before leaving.
• At Youxuan Peak, Chu Mo considered the danger posed by the spirit-realm gaze behind Xuan Cheng and the importance of Xuan Cheng and Chang Le at the Disciple-Selection Ceremony.
• Chu Mo used All Beings Aspect to take control of Xuan Meng, who realized she had stopped being herself long ago.

Xuan Meng sought Chang Le’s permission to capture a Prefecture Lord and learned that the dream-path origin spirit in Yuan was being reserved for her. Meanwhile, Chu Mo discovered Chang Le had altered Xuan Meng’s thoughts, then joined Xuan Cheng to help him break through in a hidden grotto-heaven secret realm.

• Xuan Meng asked Chang Le whether she was ready to capture a Prefecture Lord, and Chang Le approved her plan to refine the dream-path origin spirit in Yuan.
• Xuan Meng worried that Xuan Cheng might interfere with her breakthrough, but Chang Le assured her she had plans for him and sent her away trusting her completely.
• Chang Le revealed she intended to harvest Emotion-and-Thought Dream Release first, while Chu Mo recognized that she had tampered with Xuan Meng’s thoughts.
• Half a month later, Chu Mo met Xuan Cheng at Clearlight Peak and examined the One-Dream Body treasure talisman Xuan Cheng had crafted, but Xuan Cheng refused to hand it over until after his breakthrough.
• Xuan Cheng led Chu Mo toward a hidden grotto-heaven secret realm on the edge of the Turbid Abyss Sea, where he planned to attempt his breakthrough.

Chu Mo helped Xuan Cheng attempt to manifest his Inner Landscape in the Azure Hidden Grotto-Heaven, then discovered a hidden world within it and entered. Meanwhile, Cen Lingyi and a martial-clad cultivator arrived at the grotto-heaven, seeking a relic left by True Lord Huayin.

• Xuan Cheng brought Chu Mo to the Azure Hidden Grotto-Heaven and began manifesting his Inner Landscape with Chu Mo's help.
• Chu Mo sensed an aura with a fated connection to him and sent his Other-Self Aspect to investigate while he stayed to watch Xuan Cheng.
• Chu Mo discovered a concealed layer of space in the grotto-heaven and entered it using Treading Yin to Turn Yang.
• Cen Lingyi and a martial-clad cultivator reached the Turbid Abyss Sea, and Cen Lingyi confirmed the grotto-heaven belonged to True Lord Huayin.

Chu Mo entered Huayin Palace, where True Lord Huayin offered him a legacy in exchange for pulling the Nether Sword from his heart. Chu Mo pretended to trust him and reached for the sword, leaving Huayin confident that the Golden Core cultivator posed no threat.

• Outside the grotto-heaven, Qin Moyin told Cen Lingyi that True Lord Huayin had been a ghost-path demonic cultivator who established his foundation with a Heavenly Register.
• Chu Mo entered the vast, empty ghostly world and found Huayin Palace standing alone across the barren land.
• Inside the palace, Chu Mo met True Lord Huayin's remnant soul, who claimed he had been trapped there for tens of thousands of years.
• True Lord Huayin offered Chu Mo his legacy and a chance to find the Otherworld if Chu Mo pulled the Nether Sword from his heart.
• Chu Mo agreed, reached for the Nether Sword, and let True Lord Huayin believe he was an easy target.

True Lord Huayin tried to possess Chu Mo, but Chu Mo revealed his powerful Nascent Soul dharma form and trapped Huayin without access to the World Within a World. As Chu Mo moved to destroy him, Qin Moyin entered the grotto-heaven and sensed the demonic Dao of Tribulation Deliverance.

• True Lord Huayin offered Chu Mo his legacy, then revealed his plan to possess him and entered Chu Mo’s sea of consciousness.
• Chu Mo’s towering dharma form appeared and overwhelmed Huayin, who recognized Chu Mo as True Lord Youxuan of Tribulation Deliverance and tried to flee.
• Huayin lost access to the World Within a World and pleaded with Chu Mo, offering his ghost-raising knowledge and the method of extending one’s lifespan by devouring ghosts.
• Qin Moyin entered the portal while Cen Lingyi stayed behind to guard it, then sensed the demonic Dao of Tribulation Deliverance and followed Heaven’s Heart through the darkness.
• Qin Moyin’s Heaven’s Heart stirred a vast storm cloud over the grotto-heaven, with lightning flashing within it.

Xuan Cheng’s attempt to break through was interrupted when Qin Moyin, a Heaven’s Will Sect Thunder-Vein True Lord, attacked him in the Azure Hidden Grotto-Heaven. Chu Mo joined the fight, but the two struggled against her lightning arts as Qin Moyin brought out the Sky-Ringing Drum.

• Violet-Gold Lightning struck Xuan Cheng as he neared Inner Scene Manifestation, forcing him out of the Great Dream of the Mortal World.
• Qin Moyin accused Xuan Cheng of plotting a conspiracy and attacked him with lightning, shattering his oil-paper umbrella.
• Chu Mo arrived and used the Ink Seal against Qin Moyin, but she dispersed its power and sent lightning at both men.
• Chu Mo summoned the Great Black Heaven and ranks of Yin Spirits to battle Qin Moyin’s lightning, while Xuan Cheng briefly raised his cultivation to the Nascent Soul Middle Stage.
• The three-way battle damaged the Azure Hidden Grotto-Heaven, and Xuan Cheng’s counterfeit Dharmic Treasures broke as he and Chu Mo fell into a disadvantage.
• Qin Moyin summoned the Sky-Ringing Drum and struck it as Chu Mo considered how to escape and capture Huayin’s Remnant Soul.

Chu Mo fought Qin Moyin until Cen Lingyi intervened, claiming Heaven's will forbade Qin Moyin from killing him. While the two women disputed Heaven's guidance, Chu Mo captured True Lord Huayin's remnant soul and took Huayin Palace.

• Chu Mo escaped Qin Moyin's lightning strike, while Xuan Cheng was struck and badly injured.
• Qin Moyin wielded the power of heaven and earth and clashed with Chu Mo's Mount Tai, pressing him with another Thunder Drum attack.
• Cen Lingyi used [Radiant Light Heaven] to halt the battle and declared that Heaven's will forbade Qin Moyin from killing Chu Mo.
• Qin Moyin disputed Cen Lingyi's claim, and Chu Mo secretly turned his attention to the world within a world.
• Chu Mo stopped True Lord Huayin from escaping, captured his remnant soul, and took Huayin Palace.