Chapter Summaries

Xu Qingxiao learned that the true Martial Emperor’s Ruins might be in Ping'an County and uncovered the Pill Deity Ancient Scripture’s suspicions about the Martial Emperor’s death and possible unorthodox arts. As Xu Qingxiao searched for a hidden White Robe Sect operative, Prince Huaining considered a coup, while Chen Xinghe confronted Zhao Yuan at the Pacification Prince’s Residence.

• Xu Qingxiao learned that the ruins he had found were false and that the Crown Prince might hold clues to the true ruins, which the Pill Deity Ancient Scripture suspected were in Ping'an County.
• The Pill Deity Ancient Scripture revealed that the Martial Emperor had secretly hidden the Crown Prince and speculated that the Martial Emperor had practiced unorthodox arts, possibly connected to the Jingcheng Humiliation.
• Xu Qingxiao returned to Ping'an County and planned to find the White Robe Sect’s higher-ranking hidden operative, then stayed at the Ping'an Inn to review his memories.
• Prince Huaining argued with a masked man about the proposed coup, then heard that the Martial Emperor’s Heir would legitimize it and that Sage Zhu’s Will would kill Xu Qingxiao in eight days.
• Chen Xinghe saw Zhao Yuan enter the Pacification Prince’s Residence and angrily challenged him for trespassing.

Zhao Yuan discovered Chen Xinghe’s Seven-Meridian Severed Constitution and took him as a disciple, while Xu Qingxiao confronted Doctor Zhao about his White Robe Sect identity and learned that the Martial Emperor’s Legacy Treasure might be hidden at Southwind Mountain. Xu Qingxiao found a spatial rift there, as the Buddhist Order and Sage Zhu’s Lineage retrieved a wooden plaque containing Sage Zhu’s True Spirit for the coming Founding Ceremony.

• Zhao Yuan examined Chen Xinghe, recognized his Seven-Meridian Severed Constitution, accepted him as a disciple, and took him away to train.
• Xu Qingxiao confronted Doctor Zhao, who admitted he was the White Robe Sect’s second pawn in Ping'an County and warned that the Sect Master and Sage Zhu’s Lineage knew Xu Qingxiao practiced an Unorthodox Art.
• Doctor Zhao told Xu Qingxiao he had searched for the true Martial Emperor’s Ruins for twenty years without finding them and explained that he had once guided Xu Qingxiao out of a desire to save a life.
• Zhou Ling suggested that the long-sought Bright Moon Mountain might be Southwind Mountain, and Xu Qingxiao detected a spatial rift there using Yin-Yang Power and entered it.
• The Buddhist Order and Sage Zhu’s Lineage suppressed a demon cavern and recovered a wooden plaque containing Sage Zhu’s True Spirit, which Wuming’s monks planned to escort to the Haoran Kingdom.

The Literary Palace recovered Sage Zhu’s True Spirit and planned to use it against Xu Qingxiao, while Tianzhu Temple pursued permission to enter Great Wei. Xu Qingxiao obtained the Demon-Suppressing Divine Stone and a map to the Central Continent Immortal Treasury, then returned to the Capital as the Female Emperor heard Tianzhu Temple’s proposal.

• Divine Monk Huijue returned Sage Zhu’s True Spirit to the Literary Palace and demanded the Dragon-Blood Yang Jade, while Sage Lü agreed to return it after the kingdom’s founding.
• Sage Lü told Sage Zhou that Tianzhu Temple wanted the Dragon-Blood Yang Jade and permission to enter Great Wei, then ordered scholars to provoke Xu Qingxiao before Sage Zhu’s will was summoned.
• Divine Monk Huijue sent Wuming to warn Xu Qingxiao about Sage Zhu’s True Spirit and urged the Buddhist Order not to make an enemy of him.
• Xu Qingxiao resisted the treasure illusions in the Martial Emperor’s vault, obtained the Demon-Suppressing Divine Stone and the Central Continent Immortal Treasury map, and learned that the treasury required a first-rank cultivator and a Sage companion to enter safely.
• Xu Qingxiao visited Zhou Ling and Li Xin, then left for the Capital ahead of the Haoran Kingdom’s founding ceremony.
• Divine Monk Huizheng asked the Female Emperor to let Tianzhu Temple enter Great Wei to suppress demons and protect the people.

The Female Emperor rejected Huizheng’s request to let the Buddhist Order enter Great Wei, so he sought to persuade Xu Qingxiao and secretly convert him. Xu Qingxiao escaped the conversion after Zhaoge and an envoy from the Haoran Kingdom interrupted, and Huizheng left after Xu ordered him out.

• The Female Emperor refused Huizheng’s plea to admit the Buddhist Order and ordered the Immortal Sect to guard the Demon Caverns.
• Huizheng resolved to use Xu Qingxiao’s prestige to gain entry for the Buddhist Order, then went to the Pacification Prince’s Residence to meet him.
• Huizheng asked Xu to persuade the Female Emperor and join the Buddhist Order, but Xu declined to commit and invited him to explain his case inside.
• Huizheng used the Buddhist technique Deliverance to the Far Shore to try to convert Xu, who began walking toward the far shore under its influence.
• Zhaoge warned Xu while an envoy announced Sage Lü’s invitation to the Haoran Kingdom’s Founding Ceremony, breaking Huizheng’s spell.
• Xu accused Huizheng of forced conversion and ordered him to leave, then heard that he was to attend the ceremony in two days.

Xu Qingxiao accepted the Haoran Kingdom’s invitation to its Founding Ceremony, despite warnings that Sage Zhu’s Lineage planned to revive Sage Zhu and target him. After learning that the Literary Palace possessed Sage Zhu’s True Spirit, Xu Qingxiao realized he could use the Sage’s Will he held to revive Sage Zhu at his peak, and departed for the ceremony.

• Zhang Ye delivered Sage Lü’s invitation to Xu Qingxiao, who agreed to attend the Haoran Kingdom’s Founding Ceremony in two days despite Chen Zhengru’s warnings.
• Xu Qingxiao told Chen Zhengru that Divine Monk Huizheng had tried to convert him, then discussed Great Wei’s growing harvests, road-building plans, law enforcement, and a new system of academies.
• Huizheng and an elder monk discussed their plan to establish Buddhism in Great Wei and considered sacrificing Xu Qingxiao by forcibly converting him.
• News spread that Xu Qingxiao had accepted the invitation, while Sage Zhu’s Lineage attacked him publicly and claimed he had driven the Literary Palace out of Great Wei.
• The Female Emperor sent Xu Qingxiao to the ceremony with deliberately insulting gifts, and Huizheng warned him that the Literary Palace had Sage Zhu’s True Spirit.
• Xu Qingxiao realized that combining Sage Zhu’s True Spirit with the Sage’s Will he held could revive Sage Zhu at his peak, then boarded the Dragon Boat and set off.

Xu Qingxiao arrived at Literary Sage City for the Haoran Kingdom’s Founding Ceremony and confronted scholars who welcomed King Tuha and the Northern Barbarians while snubbing him. After Wu Ming’s power forced the barbarians to kneel and destroyed their soldiers, Xu Qingxiao killed thirty-two scholars who defended their welcome, then entered the city as the Literary Palace prepared to settle its grievances at the ceremony.

• Divine Monk Huizheng watched Xu Qingxiao depart and planned to help him later so he could invite him to Tianzhu Temple and forcibly convert him.
• As envoys from across the world gathered in Literary Sage City, Xu Qingxiao arrived at the north gate at the same time as King Tuha and the Northern Barbarians.
• When Haoran Kingdom scholars welcomed King Tuha but ignored Xu Qingxiao, Xu Qingxiao insulted them and the barbarians, then killed a barbarian soldier who challenged him.
• Xu Qingxiao threatened King Tuha with Great Wei’s retaliation, and Wu Ming’s manifested power forced the king and his soldiers to kneel before Xu Qingxiao and killed the five hundred soldiers.
• Xu Qingxiao demanded that the scholars who bowed to the Northern Barbarians take their own lives; when a Grand Confucian objected, Xu Qingxiao killed him and thirty-one other scholars.
• Sage Lü told the Literary Palace’s Grand Confucians to wait until the Founding Ceremony, while secretly allowing the scholars’ deaths to strengthen his control over Sage Zhu’s True Spirit.

At the Haoran Kingdom’s founding ceremony, the Literary Palace accused Xu Qingxiao of crimes and revived Sage Zhu’s True Spirit to punish him. Sage Zhu instead challenged the scholars’ accusations, exposed their resentment and corruption, and struck Master Lü for continuing to blame Xu Qingxiao.

• Xu Qingxiao befriended Lu Ziying, Chen Yu, Wang Fei, War Dragon, and other young leaders, while Literary Palace scholars failed to isolate him.
• The Literary Palace proclaimed the Haoran Kingdom’s founding and accused Great Wei and Xu Qingxiao of forcing its separation, then staged visions blaming Xu Qingxiao for deaths and disasters.
• Sage Lü demanded that Xu Qingxiao confess, but Xu Qingxiao refused and challenged the Literary Palace to revive Sage Zhu; his allies defended him until Sage Lü silenced them with sage might.
• Sage Lü and the scholars gathered power from across the Dust Realm, revived Sage Zhu’s True Spirit, and imprisoned Xu Qingxiao with the Eight-Jade Sage Ruler.
• Sage Zhu questioned the Literary Palace’s separation from Great Wei and challenged its accusations against Xu Qingxiao; under his power, a scholar admitted he hated Xu Qingxiao for refusing to become the Literary Palace’s servant.
• Sage Zhu demanded the truth from Master Lü, who blamed Xu Qingxiao again, so Sage Zhu struck him and condemned his excuses.

Sage Zhu exposed Master Lü’s plan to sacrifice Great Wei’s people and the world’s scholars to pursue Sagehood, then judged his lineage beyond redemption. As he began slaughtering Sage Zhu’s Lineage and threatened to hunt down every First Rank expert, the hidden mastermind still had not appeared.

• Master Lü challenged Sage Zhu’s choice, but Sage Zhu revealed recordings of Master Lü conspiring with two Half-Saints to break away from Great Wei, sacrifice its people and scholars, and pursue the Sixth-Generation Sagehood.
• The two Half-Saints and Master Lü claimed Xu Qingxiao had fabricated the revelations and was controlling Sage Zhu’s True Spirit, while Sage Zhu gave Xu Qingxiao the choice of how to punish the scholars.
• Xu Qingxiao said the Literary Palace’s ringleaders should be dealt with first, but Sage Zhu concluded that his lineage had fallen into demonhood and resolved to destroy it himself.
• Sage Zhu invoked his Sage Intent, summoned thunder across the Dust Realm, and struck down Demonic Evils and scholars of Sage Zhu’s Lineage as they begged for mercy.
• Sage Zhu demanded that the hidden mastermind reveal itself and threatened to slaughter every First Rank expert in All Under Heaven; he then gathered the lineage’s Literary Hearts and unleashed divine sabers that beheaded scholar after scholar.

Sage Zhu exposed Master Lü’s role in a vast scheme, punished him, and revealed that the hidden mastermind was Sage Li, the Fourth-Generation Sage seeking eternal life. Sage Zhu used the Literary Palace to suppress the Heaven-and-Earth Demons, leaving Xu Qingxiao three years to find Sage Li or unite the Central Continent and become a Sage.

• Sage Zhu slaughtered the scholars of his lineage and tried to force the hidden mastermind to reveal himself, while Karmic Fire burned two Half-Saints before they could expose the truth.
• Sage Zhu disappeared after tracing the Karmic Fire, and Xu Qingxiao slaughtered the remaining scholars and Half-Saints in the Literary Palace while Huijue tried to stop him.
• Sage Zhu returned, revealed Master Lü’s immense karmic burden, and sealed him in the Dark Abyss to endure a thousand years of Karmic Fire.
• Sage Zhu told Xu Qingxiao that Sage Li, the Fourth-Generation Sage, had survived for nearly five thousand years and was pursuing eternal life, then warned that demons would run rampant in three years.
• Sage Zhu urged Xu Qingxiao to find and kill Sage Li or unite the Central Continent and become the Sixth-Generation Sage, then raised the Literary Palace to suppress the Heaven-and-Earth Demons.

After Sage Zhu sacrificed himself to suppress the demons for three years, Xu Qingxiao returned to Great Wei and proposed a national policy to prepare for the coming upheaval and eventually unify the Central Continent. He told the Female Emperor that the Fourth-Generation Sage was the mastermind and urged her to centralize power, while Tianzhu Temple began questioning the karmic flames Xu Qingxiao had displayed.

• Sage Zhu suppressed the Heaven-and-Earth Demons for three years, gave Xu Qingxiao the Dragon-Blood Yang Jade, and disappeared after destroying most of his lineage.
• Xu Qingxiao discussed the Fourth-Generation Sage and the Central Continent Dragon Cauldron with the elders in the Heaven and Earth Literary Palace, then returned to Great Wei.
• Xu Qingxiao proposed three years of development, three years of suppressing unrest, and three years of preparation before Great Wei waged war to unify the Central Continent.
• The Female Emperor agreed to consider Xu Qingxiao's national policy, and he told her that the Fourth-Generation Sage might be plotting to seize Great Wei's national fortune through the Vassal Kings.
• Xu Qingxiao urged the Female Emperor to put Great Wei in order and centralize imperial power, and she asked him to draft the nation's policies.
• At Tianzhu Temple, a divine monk asked the Abbot where the karmic flames on Xu Qingxiao had come from.

At Tianzhu Temple, Abbot Jialan set plans for the Buddhist Order to rise through Dharma debates and demon subjugation, while Huixin condemned the Order’s schemes. In Great Wei, Xu Qingxiao struggled to devise policies and technological advances before learning that True Person Lu was waiting to speak with him.

• Huixin confronted Abbot Jialan over the Buddhist Order’s involvement in the karmic flames and left to pursue right awakening, while Jialan let him go.
• Abbot Jialan told Huizheng, Huijue, and Huiming that the Buddhist Order would debate its Dharma and send monks to subdue demons, and assigned them their roles.
• News of the Buddhist Order’s renewed Dharma debates and Huiming’s million-monks campaign spread, drawing curses and concern across the continents.
• Xu Qingxiao spent three days drafting policies for agriculture, commerce, officialdom, and industry, but worried that Great Wei lacked fertilizer, farming tools, and effective weapons.
• Yang Hu informed Xu Qingxiao that True Person Lu was waiting in the main hall, and Xu Qingxiao went to meet him.

Xu Qingxiao met senior disciples from the Seven Great Immortal Sects and learned that the Buddhist Order planned another doctrinal debate against the Confucian Dao. At the banquet, he heard about Chen Shu’s flawed Heavenly Thunder Boom and asked to see it, suspecting it could become the war machine he needed.

• Lu Ziying invited Xu Qingxiao to a banquet at the Peach Blossom Nunnery, where Xu met five senior disciples from the Seven Great Immortal Sects.
• Xu Qingxiao’s casual Daoist sayings impressed the gathered disciples, and they were astonished when he revealed he had reached Eighth Rank Spirit Building in four months.
• Li Haoran and Lu Ziying each urged Xu Qingxiao to pursue their Immortal Dao paths, but Xu declined and promised to visit them later.
• Liu Lu and Zhou Hai told Xu Qingxiao that Tianzhu Temple had announced another doctrinal debate, and the guests discussed the risks of facing the Buddhist Order.
• Zhou Hai revealed that Chen Shu had built a Heavenly Thunder Boom, but its weak discharge could barely harm anything because it could not retain heavenly thunder.
• Xu Qingxiao asked Chen Shu to show him the Heavenly Thunder Boom because he thought it might serve as the war machine he needed.

Xu Qingxiao examined Chen Shu’s Heavenly Thunder Boom, discovered its power and major flaws, and went to study artifact refining so he could improve it. As he absorbed the Sutra Repository’s books, Prince Huaining questioned whether the opportunity he had been promised had truly arrived.

• Xu Qingxiao left the banquet with Chen Shu and visited the Wishful Pavilion to inspect the Heavenly Thunder Boom.
• Xu Qingxiao summoned a thunderstorm, and Chen Shu used the charged device to blast apart a small hill.
• Xu Qingxiao and Chen Shu discussed the device’s limited firing rate, costly materials, weak lightning storage, and potential improvements.
• Xu Qingxiao asked to study artifact refining, met the Wish-Fulfilling Artifact Sect’s grand elder Wu An, and entered the Sutra Repository.
• Xu Qingxiao absorbed the contents of the repository’s 1,350,000 volumes, while Prince Huaining questioned whether this was the promised opportunity.

Prince Huaining confronted the Masked Man after Xu Qingxiao defeated the Literary Palace and demanded a convincing reason to continue their alliance. The Masked Man revealed plans involving the Buddhist Order, a supposed Sage Grandson, the Crown Prince’s return to court, and a Barbarian Tribe attack on Great Wei.

• Prince Huaining angrily rejected the Masked Man’s repeated claims of victory and threatened to end their cooperation unless he explained their plans.
• The Masked Man proposed inviting the Buddhist Order into Great Wei and bringing in other schools to challenge Xu Qingxiao’s influence.
• The Masked Man claimed the Literary Palace had not truly lost and revealed that a Sage Grandson, a descendant of the Great Sage, would soon appear.
• The Masked Man said the Sage Grandson would rebuild the scholars’ lineage while the Crown Prince returned to court to gather support and contest for power.
• The Masked Man revealed that the Barbarian Tribe was preparing to attack Great Wei, shocking Prince Huaining.

Prince Huaining learned that a coalition planned to invade Great Wei after the Buddhist Order’s doctrinal debate, while Xu Qingxiao uncovered the Heavenly Thunder Boom’s formation incompatibility. The chapter ended with Xu Qingxiao setting out to consult Zhou Hai and investigate whether the flaw could be solved.

• The Masked Man told Prince Huaining that the Barbarian Tribe, backed by the Tuxie Dynasty and the Chuyuan Dynasty, planned to invade Great Wei if the Buddhist Order lost its doctrinal debate, and Prince Huaining reluctantly agreed to cooperate if the plan worked.
• The Masked Man reported to a hidden Exalted One, who ordered him to monitor the debate, arrange the Sage Grandson’s emergence, infiltrate Great Wei, and search for a person there who could ruin their plans.
• The Grand Elder of the Wish-Fulfilling Artifact Sect explained to Wu An that incompatible formations had made the Heavenly Thunder Boom impossible to refine reliably.
• Xu Qingxiao finished reading 1,350,000 volumes in the sect’s Sutra Repository and identified formation incompatibility as the Heavenly Thunder Boom’s fatal flaw.
• Xu Qingxiao asked Chen Shu about combining formations, then decided to visit Zhou Hai and study the problem further.

Xu Qingxiao studied the Formation Dao and learned why formations could not coexist, then heard how solving that problem could transform Great Wei. As he went to meet the Supreme Immortal Sect’s master, he learned about Seventh-Rank Scripture Inscription and considered inscribing the Dao De Jing.

• Xu Qingxiao read the Origin-Returning Formation Sect’s books and learned that formations of different kinds could clash, making the Heavenly Thunder Boom difficult to create.
• Zhou Hai explained how compatible formations could improve Dragon Boats and transform Great Wei’s transport and military logistics.
• Lu Ziying invited Xu Qingxiao to meet his master, while Daoist Wuchen argued with two elders over whether to teach Xu Qingxiao the Supreme Ancient Scripture.
• Lu Ziying explained that Seventh-Rank Immortal Dao cultivators permanently inscribed a scripture, and Xu Qingxiao began considering the Dao De Jing.

Xu Qingxiao discovered his nine spirit veins astonished the Supreme Immortal Sect, then found records of the Great Sage’s disciples and began inscribing the Dao De Jing. While he was cut off from the outside world, Wang Chaoyang appeared as a twenty-year-old Second Sage with three thousand Grand Confucians, and Xu Qingxiao finished preparing his Spirit Stele the next morning.

• Daoist Wuchen and the red-robed Daoist learned that Xu Qingxiao had reached Spirit Building in nineteen days and formed nine spirit veins, then offered him the Supreme Immortal Sect’s supreme ancient scripture.
• Xu Qingxiao declined the scripture, visited the Sutra Repository, and found records about Wang Wen, Li Zhongzi, and Qin Die written by Wang Botong.
• Xu Qingxiao ordered an investigation into Wang Botong and began cultivating in seclusion to inscribe a scripture, while the Seven Stars Dao Sect’s elder revealed its agreement with the Buddhist Order.
• The Buddhist Order defeated the Eastern Continent’s five imperial clans in three days, and a First Rank Martial Cultivator nearly succumbed to cultivation deviation during the doctrinal debate.
• Wang Chaoyang announced himself as a Sage’s descendant and Second Sage, bringing three thousand Grand Confucians from the Northern Continent to Great Wei and stunning the world.
• Xu Qingxiao, unaware of Wang Chaoyang’s arrival, completed his preparations to inscribe the Dao De Jing and finished preparing a Spirit Stele the following morning.

Wang Chaoyang brought the Heaven and Earth Literary Palace and three thousand Grand Confucians to Great Wei, claiming descent from the Great Sage and demanding that the Female Emperor accept his presence as a blessing. After revealing visions of five Sages and claiming Xu Qingxiao inherited his grandfather’s teachings, Wang Chaoyang faced a sudden proclamation of the Dao that stunned the world.

• The Female Emperor and her officials debated whether to admit Wang Chaoyang and his three thousand Grand Confucians, with Chen Zhengru urging them to settle the visitors outside the Capital while they investigated.
• Wang Chaoyang’s Heaven and Earth Literary Palace appeared above Great Wei’s Capital, and its Grand Confucians suppressed the Duke of An until the Female Emperor countered them with the Great Wei Dragon Cauldron.
• Wang Chaoyang told Ji Ling that his arrival would bless Great Wei, claimed Xu Qingxiao was his grandfather’s disciple, and said he had come to instruct Xu Qingxiao and assess his worthiness.
• Wang Chaoyang summoned the phantoms of five Sages to prove the Literary Palace’s authenticity, and Daoist Wuchen confirmed that the Sage Intents were genuine.
• A beam of purple light rose as a voice declared, “The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao,” stunning the leaders of the Seven Great Immortal Sects.

Xu Qingxiao inscribed the Dao De Jing as a Heaven and Earth Scripture, triggering a realm-wide manifestation and advancing him to the third rank of the Immortal Dao. After releasing his overwhelming power in a sword strike, he opened his eyes and locked gazes with Wang Chaoyang.

• Xu Qingxiao comprehended and inscribed the Dao De Jing, narrowly avoiding dissolving into the Dao as he strengthened his primordial spirit.
• Purple light spread across the Dust Realm, and the Dao De Jing’s words manifested a Heavenly Court Immortal Palace, which Daoist Wuchen identified as proof of a Heaven and Earth Scripture.
• The scripture’s power formed Xu Qingxiao’s three primordial spirits and advanced him through the Immortal Dao ranks to the third rank, the Jade Clarity Realm.
• Xu Qingxiao gathered the power of his martial, Confucian, and Immortal Daos into a sword strike that tore through space and overwhelmed the Heaven and Earth Literary Palace’s light.
• Xu Qingxiao opened his eyes and met Wang Chaoyang’s gaze.

After inscribing the Heaven and Earth Ancient Scripture, Xu Qingxiao rose to the Third Rank of the Immortal Dao and confronted Wang Chaoyang, who claimed to be the Great Sage’s descendant and demanded that Xu become his disciple. When Wang Chaoyang attacked, six of the Seven Great Immortal Sects intervened to protect Xu, and Daoist Wuchen prepared to take over the confrontation.

• Xu Qingxiao discovered that Wang Chaoyang had a Heaven and Earth Literary Palace identical to the one in his mind, and Zhaoge and the others warned him to be cautious.
• Wang Chaoyang claimed to be the Great Sage’s descendant, accused Xu Qingxiao of drawing on the Great Sage’s poems, and offered to take him as a disciple; Xu rejected him and ordered him to leave Great Wei.
• Xu Qingxiao threatened to kill Wang Chaoyang, but Wang revealed Second Rank Martial Dao Supremacy power and overwhelmed Xu’s attack.
• Elder Jian Yuan intervened, followed by Daoist Wuchen and powerful artifacts from five other Immortal Sects, all declaring support for Xu Qingxiao.
• After Elder Jian Yuan and the other sect elders offered to attack or imprison Wang Chaoyang, Daoist Wuchen told them to protect Xu and said he would handle the matter.