Chapter Summaries

Xu Taiping discovered that Yellow Hound had already turned all of Heavenly Hero Ferry into a hunting ground, trapping him and the arriving Azure Profound Sect disciples. He recalled that he could summon the Snow Domain Ghost Lord, whose Word-Follows-Law might help him survive Yellow Hound’s hide-and-seek game.

• Mu Yun explained that Xu Taiping could escape Yellow Hound’s hunting power before the hide-and-seek began, or evade him until the hunt ended and then demand a favor.
• Xu Taiping used Mu Yun’s talisman to reveal wandering ghosts throughout Heavenly Hero Ferry and realized Yellow Hound had marked everyone as prey.
• Xu Taiping saw the Three Sovereigns Dao Palace’s immortal vessel arrive with Xu Chengling, Jiang Zhi, Zhao Linglong, and other Azure Profound Sect disciples aboard.
• Xu Taiping concluded that escaping alone was no longer an option and considered how to defeat Yellow Hound’s game.
• Xu Taiping recalled his reward from the Mysterious Wasteland Tower and revealed that the Snow Domain Ghost Lord he had chosen excelled at Word-Follows-Law.
• Fairy Lingyue asked whether Xu Taiping had gained the power to control the Snow Domain Ghost Lord.

Fairy Lingyue told Xu Taiping that the Snow Domain Ghost Lord was Demon Emperor Yangling, sealed in the Mysterious Wasteland Tower and entrusted to Xu Taiping. Emperor Yang revealed that he would serve as Xu Taiping’s guardian for ten years, leaving Xu Taiping surprised that the Tower Spirit had not explained the arrangement.

• Fairy Lingyue identified the Snow Domain Ghost Lord as Emperor Yang, the last Demon Emperor to resist the Five Emperors, and explained that the Nine Abysses sought to rescue him.
• Fairy Lingyue told Xu Taiping that the tower’s restriction would keep the Nine Abysses from suspecting him for at least ten years, during which he could use Emperor Yang’s power.
• Emperor Yang sensed Fairy Lingyue and inferred that Xu Taiping had an Earth Treasury Fruit, but Xu Taiping resisted his attempt to unsettle him.
• Emperor Yang praised Xu Taiping’s resolve and said he had agreed to act as his guardian while traveling with him for ten years.
• Xu Taiping questioned why Emperor Yang would reveal the arrangement, since failing to return the portrait might let the Nine Abysses rescue him, and Emperor Yang reacted with surprise that the Tower Spirit had not explained it.

Xu Taiping consulted Emperor Yang about Yellow Hound’s origin demon seed power and learned how to counter it through the Dragon-Trapping Tower. After the scroll closed, Fang Lian’er warned him that ghosts had appeared in the teahouse.

• Emperor Yang said he had sealed his demon seed after his Sword Inquiry with Zhenwu and imprisoned himself in the Mysterious Wasteland Tower.
• Xu Taiping asked Emperor Yang to deal with Yellow Hound’s demon seed, but learned that one intervention would cost 800,000 Gold Essence Coins.
• Emperor Yang advised Xu Taiping to use the Light-Retaining Demon Blood Candle to refine the Dragon-Trapping Tower into his natal treasure, then enter one of its nine rooms to sever his aura from the outside world.
• Emperor Yang revealed that his origin demon seed power was Knowing Fate, confirming to Fairy Lingyue that he was the Yangling Demon Emperor, and warned Xu Taiping to bring enough Gold Essence Coins or spirit stones when entering the tower’s rooms.
• Fang Lian’er came to Xu Taiping’s private room and urgently warned him that there were ghosts in the teahouse.

Xu Taiping discovered that the Yellow Hound Demon Seed had trapped a teahouse attendant in a spreading domain and prepared to refine the Dragon-Trapping Tower before the danger engulfed the teahouse. He lit a Liuguang Demon Blood Candle to give his Mysterious Origin Avatar time to complete the refinement, leaving two candles for the future.

• Xu Taiping searched the empty room where Sun Wang had disappeared while Fang Lian'er told him how the attendant had gone inside to fetch medicine for her injured grandfather.
• Using his talisman eye, Xu Taiping saw Sun Wang trapped and attacked by vicious ghosts within the Yellow Hound Demon Seed's domain, and Fairy Lingyue said he could not be rescued unless the demon hound was killed.
• Xu Taiping saw the demon blood spreading from Sun Wang's room and inferred that the Yellow Hound Demon Seed was gradually gathering strength across the teahouse.
• Fairy Lingyue urged Xu Taiping to refine the Dragon-Trapping Tower into his Natal Treasure before the domain spread, explaining that it would improve his defensive power.
• Xu Taiping split off a Mysterious Origin Avatar, lit a Liuguang Demon Blood Candle, and began the Dragon-Trapping Tower's refinement.

Xiahou Qingyuan told Jiang Zhi and Zhao Linglong that the immortal ship needed to recharge, then discovered Li Yezhu had sealed off Heavenly Hero Ferry. He unleashed the Kindling Sword’s true intent to tear open the barrier and challenged Li Yezhu to fight.

• Xiahou Qingyuan explained that the immortal ship needed twelve hours to replenish its Spiritual Power, so Jiang Zhi and Zhao Linglong agreed to leave it.
• Xiahou Qingyuan received Xiahou You’s message warning that Li Yezhu might be heading to Heavenly Hero Ferry, but the sealed area blocked his reply.
• Xiahou Qingyuan drew the Kindling Sword and sent a pillar of Sword Qi through Li Yezhu’s blood-eye barrier.
• Jiang Zhi explained that Xiahou Qingyuan had inherited the kindling true intent by accepting a path of certain death in the Heaven-Demon War.
• Xiahou Qingyuan gave Li Yezhu one incense stick to emerge and fight before he broke the barrier and killed him.

Xiahou Qingyuan fought Li Yezhu with overwhelming kindling sword intent and destroyed the area outside Heavenly Hero Town. Li Yezhu survived and seized the townspeople as puppets, forcing Xiahou Qingyuan to meet him at the Gathering Wind Wine House.

• Xu Taiping and Fairy Lingyue realized Xiahou Qingyuan was using his sword intent to force Li Yezhu to reveal himself.
• Li Yezhu attacked Xiahou Qingyuan with blade qi, but Xiahou Qingyuan countered and drove him back with powerful sword strikes.
• Xiahou Qingyuan unleashed “Scorch the Heavens and Burn the Earth,” engulfing the area before the docks and reducing it to dust.
• Li Yezhu escaped Xiahou Qingyuan’s flames with a clone, admitted defeat, then turned the people of Heavenly Hero Town into puppets.
• Li Yezhu challenged Xiahou Qingyuan to meet him at the Gathering Wind Wine House and threatened to keep the townspeople captive for half an incense stick’s time.

Xu Taiping realized Li Yezhu had used the people at Heavenly Hero Ferry to lure Xiahou Qingyuan into a trap designed to eliminate both him and Xu Chengling. As the Nine Abysses' Yellow Hound began hunting everyone inside the Gathering Wind Teahouse, Xu Taiping told Fang Lian'er that the chance to find Sun Wang had arrived.

• Xu Taiping explained that he would have accepted Li Yezhu's demand to protect the people at Heavenly Hero Ferry, while Xiahou Qingyuan agreed to enter the Gathering Wind Tower and used kindling true intent to shield the others.
• Fairy Lingyue warned Xu Taiping that the Nine Abysses had sent the Yellow Hound, whose power countered Xiahou Qingyuan's protection, and that the trap targeted both Xiahou Qingyuan and Xu Chengling.
• Fang Lian'er told Xu Taiping that the immortal vessel's cultivators had arrived and described seeing a tall, bald man with four fingers on one hand.
• The Yellow Hound began knocking on doors throughout the teahouse and inviting the occupants to play hide-and-seek.
• Xu Taiping reassured Fang Lian'er and told her that the opportunity to find Sun Wang had arrived.

Xu Taiping used the Lotus Eye’s foreseen events to lure Four-Finger into finding Fang Lian'er beneath a table, then rescued her and brought her into the Dragon-Trapping Tower. A scream from the tower’s second floor left Little Monkey Ping'an reluctant to go upstairs.

• Xu Taiping told Fang Lian'er to open the door and hide under the table when Four-Finger challenged her to hide-and-seek.
• Four-Finger forced Fang Lian'er to play, entered the room after counting to ten, and found her beneath the table.
• Xu Taiping appeared behind Fang Lian'er, put her to sleep, and carried her into the Dragon-Trapping Tower.
• Fairy Lingyue cautioned Xu Taiping not to frighten Fang Lian'er too badly, and Xu Taiping said she would be all right.
• A scream came from the Dragon-Trapping Tower’s second floor, and Little Monkey Ping'an asked whether they really had to go there.

Xu Taiping heard a woman trapped in the Geng Character Room warn that the Tenth Demon Abyss was about to break through the final Chaos Gate. As Four-Finger attacked the Dragon-Trapping Tower, Xu Taiping opened the room and found the bloodied woman inside.

• Xu Taiping and Fairy Lingyue investigated the Geng Character Room after hearing crashes and a woman's voice from behind its door.
• The woman urged them to open the door and warned that the Tenth Demon Abyss would turn the Shangqing Realm into a Demon Domain if it broke through the final Chaos Gate.
• The Dragon-Trapping Tower shook as Four-Finger's enormous arm reached inside for Xu Taiping and Fang Lian'er.
• The woman recited the Book Sage's maxim and declared that she had never bowed to evil or demons.
• Xu Taiping turned back, opened the Geng Character Room, and found a bloodied woman surrounded by icy wind and snow.

Xu Taiping and Fairy Lingyue met the dying Zhu Songyu in the ruins of the shattered Heaven-Demon Battlefield, where she revealed her connection to the Beheading Ones. After Xu Taiping used Gold Essence Coins to repel a skeletal monster, Zhu Songyu asked Fairy Lingyue to explain the Beheading Ones to him later.

• Xu Taiping and Fairy Lingyue discovered that the room beyond the Dragon-Trapping Tower door was a realm of ruins adrift in the Void, remnants of the shattered Heaven-Demon Battlefield.
• Zhu Songyu showed Fairy Lingyue her Beheading Ones mark and recited their oath, prompting Fairy Lingyue to recognize her as a fellow traveler.
• Fairy Lingyue warned Xu Taiping not to mention the fellow travelers or the Beheading Ones to outsiders, while Zhu Songyu praised his steadfast Dao heart and said she could entrust an important matter to him.
• A giant skeleton charged Xu Taiping and the others, and Xu Taiping scattered Gold Essence Coins that formed golden mist and shattered the monster.
• Zhu Songyu asked Fairy Lingyue to explain the Beheading Ones to Xu Taiping later.

Zhu Songyu told Xu Taiping and Fairy Lingyue how her master, Qi Songyang, discovered the Tenth Demon Abyss’s demon seed and reforged the Kunwu Sword to destroy it. She entrusted Xu Taiping with the sword and named Li Daoyan as its intended wielder, leaving Fairy Lingyue to recognize him as the Azure-Eyed Evil Lord.

• Zhu Songyu explained that the Tenth Demon Abyss’s demon seeds might no longer fear the battle intent that protected the Shangqing Realm.
• Zhu Songyu revealed that Qi Songyang reforged the broken Kunwu Sword using his own body and Primordial Spirit, dying when the sword was completed.
• Zhu Songyu recounted how the Tenth Demon Abyss’s forces pursued her, killing her escorts and fellow Beheading Men until she alone reached the Heaven-Demon Battlefield ruins.
• Zhu Songyu showed Xu Taiping the Dragon-Slaying Stele and explained that she had waited years for someone in the Dragon-Trapping Tower to open the way back to the Shangqing Realm.
• Zhu Songyu gave Xu Taiping the Kunwu Sword and a jade slip, saying that Li Daoyan was the person meant to wield it and destroy the demon seed.
• Fairy Lingyue recognized Li Daoyan as the Azure-Eyed Evil Lord, patriarch of the Withered Stone Sea’s heretical cultivators.

Zhu Songyu gave Xu Taiping instructions for finding the Azure-Eyed Evil Lord and the Demon Seed, then chose to challenge the demons in the Heaven-Demon Battlefield to a Sword Inquiry. Meanwhile, Li Yezhu continued beating Xiahou Qingyuan as the incense marking their time ran low.

• Zhu Songyu told Xu Taiping that her Jade Slip would make Li Daoyan help slay the Demon Seed and that the Demon Seed was in the Golden Court Grotto-Heaven in the Withered Stone Sea.
• As skeletal demons attacked, Xu Taiping accepted Zhu Songyu's Qiankun Bag of sword-forging materials and promised to seek the Azure-Eyed Evil Lord.
• Zhu Songyu refused Xu Taiping's plea to leave and declared a Sword Inquiry against the demons, cutting them down with a blood-red flying sword.
• At the Gathering Wind Tower, Li Yezhu knocked Xiahou Qingyuan into a wall and questioned whether he could endure the pain of more than a hundred people until the incense ran out.

Li Yezhu and Xiahou Qingyuan fought over Xiahou’s kindling true intent, each preparing to risk their life with a power that could destroy the other’s. Just as they reached a decisive standoff, Yellow Hound called out from upstairs, and a wave of battle intent crashed down on them.

• Li Yezhu and Xiahou Qingyuan exchanged attacks as Yellow Hound’s hunt caused Xiahou to suffer intense pain through their connection to the kindling.
• Li Yezhu tried to steal Xiahou’s kindling true intent with his third-stage origin demon seed power, but stopped when he sensed Xiahou’s Bifang divine intent.
• Xiahou and Li Yezhu recognized each other’s plans and prepared to gamble their lives in a final clash.
• Yellow Hound called for Li Yezhu from upstairs, but both fighters stayed focused on each other.
• A tremendous wave of battle intent descended from above and washed over Li Yezhu and Xiahou.

Xu Taiping, using the alias Wuyou, killed Yellow Hound and helped Xiahou Qingyuan defeat Li Yezhu before heading to the Withered Stone Sea. He arrived on Bai Yu and was stopped by a guardian who forbade spirit birds and demanded a toll from travelers with insufficient root bones.

• Xu Taiping revealed himself, killed Yellow Hound with 𩙥 Flame, and told Xiahou Qingyuan to strike Li Yezhu.
• Xiahou Qingyuan pierced Li Yezhu, but Li Yezhu escaped using his third-stage ability, Steal Heaven and Swap Sun.
• Xu Taiping gave Xiahou Qingyuan the alias Wuyou, declined to travel with him, and took Yellow Hound's corpse.
• Xiahou Qingyuan gave Xu Taiping a Token for the Old Dragon Court, where he could sell the corpse.
• Half a month later, Xu Taiping reached the Withered Stone Sea on Bai Yu, where a guardian barred spirit birds and announced an entry toll for those below a golden spirit bone.

Xu Taiping and Bai Yu fought a mace-wielding man who claimed the Withered Stone Sea had rules, and Ping'an intervened with overwhelming punches. Ping'an badly injured the man but was wounded himself and went berserk, leaving the girl who appeared to be the man's daughter in danger.

• Xu Taiping questioned the mace-wielding man's claim about rules in the Withered Stone Sea, and Fairy Lingyue explained that Lady Luhua had sworn the land would remain without rules.
• The mace-wielding man attacked Xu Taiping and Bai Yu with his Like Shadow, Follow Form true intent, but Xu Taiping blocked a blow with the Cloud-Cloaking Umbrella.
• Ping'an grew to ten zhang tall and shattered the man's mace shadows with his fists, forcing the man back.
• Ping'an followed his Master's Sister's advice and punched through the man's attacks, breaking his protective gang qi and sending him flying, but the mace shadows tore open Ping'an's body.
• A girl on a Jade Gourd flew toward the falling man, whom she called Father, and berserk Ping'an swung at her.
• The mace-wielding man burned his true essence and qi and blood to smash apart Ping'an's fist, but Ping'an roared the same maxim and struck at him again with little strength.

Xu Taiping defeated the twin-mace cultivator after revealing his lightning sword qi, then stopped his final strike when the man’s daughter, Tingyun, intervened. With the man begging him to spare her, Xu Taiping asked why he had spared Ping'an earlier.

• The twin-mace cultivator sent Tingyun away and fought Xu Taiping, whose Crane-Listening Stance and lightning sword qi broke through the man’s attacks and severed his arm.
• Xu Taiping pinned the injured cultivator with the Cicada Cry Form and prepared to finish him.
• Tingyun returned and landed between Xu Taiping and her father, so Xu Taiping halted his blade, though the force of his strike knocked her from the Jade Gourd.
• The cultivator caught Tingyun, pleaded with Xu Taiping to spare her, and said he could kill or carve him up as he pleased.
• Xu Taiping asked why the cultivator had held back from killing Ping'an earlier.

Lu Bugong explained that he ambushed Xu Taiping because Liang Chengshan had promised to free Lu Bugong’s wife if he captured a specific cultivator from True Martial Heaven. Xu Taiping realized Liang Chengshan was one of the Arsonists, but Lu Bugong concluded that Xu Taiping could not be the target because he was too powerful.

• Xu Taiping threatened Lu Bugong and his daughter, Lu Tingyun, until Lu Bugong agreed to explain himself.
• Lu Bugong revealed that he had lost his family’s wealth and his wife at the Falling Star Gambling Den while searching for the rest of his family’s cultivation technique.
• Lu Bugong said Liang Chengshan had ordered him to capture a young Spirit Refining Realm cultivator from True Martial Heaven, or his wife would be auctioned in seven days.
• Xu Taiping recognized Liang Chengshan as one of the Arsonists hiding in the Withered Stone Sea and asked whether Lu Bugong thought he matched the description.
• Lu Bugong said Xu Taiping was not the target, reasoning that Liang Chengshan would have recruited a stronger cultivator to capture someone as powerful as him.

Xu Taiping spared Lu Bugong, recruited him to help kill Liang Chengshan, and revealed that he was the True Martial Heaven cultivator Liang Chengshan sought. As they prepared to head for the Old Dragon Court, Mu Yun told Xu Taiping that the court had offered a million Gold Essence Coins for the Yellow Hound Demon Seed's corpse, which Xu Taiping had already discarded.

• Fairy Lingyue explained that Liang Chengshan had underestimated Xu Taiping because memories of the Mysterious Wasteland Tower had been erased and his opponents could not use their full strength.
• Lu Tingyun begged Xu Taiping to spare Lu Bugong, and Xu Taiping gave her a Bone-Regenerating Pill and promised not to kill her father.
• Xu Taiping challenged Lu Bugong to swear a Blood Oath to follow him to the Old Dragon Court and kill Liang Chengshan, and Lu Bugong accepted and reattached his severed arm.
• Xu Taiping explained that he needed Lu Bugong as a strong guide to the Withered Stone Sea, then revealed that he was the cultivator Liang Chengshan was hunting; Ping'an confirmed Lu Bugong was sincere.
• Mu Yun contacted Xu Taiping about the Yellow Hound Demon Seed's corpse and revealed that the Old Dragon Court had offered one million Gold Essence Coins for it, but Xu Taiping had already disposed of it.

Xu Taiping learned that the Old Dragon Court offered a million Gold Essence Coins for the Yellow Hound Demon Seed’s corpse because Demon Seed remains were used as fertilizer in the Withered Stone Sea. After arranging to sell the corpse through the Pearl Relic House, he descended toward the Old Dragon Court with Lu Bugong and Bai Yu.

• Xu Taiping asked Lu Bugong why the Old Dragon Court had placed a million-coin bounty on the Yellow Hound Demon Seed’s corpse, and Lu Bugong explained its use as fertilizer for rapidly growing herbs.
• Fairy Lingyue noted that the Withered Stone Sea’s use of Demon Seed corpses began after the Demon Seed from the Tenth Demon Abyss descended, raising the possibility of a connection.
• Xu Taiping told Mu Yun that he possessed the Yellow Hound’s corpse and needed Gold Essence Coins, and Mu Yun arranged for the Pearl Relic House to inspect and buy it.
• Xu Taiping agreed to sell the corpse for exactly one million Gold Essence Coins, without asking for more, to repay Great Elder Lou’s favor.
• Lu Bugong warned Xu Taiping that they were nearing the Old Dragon Court, so Xu Taiping had Bai Yu descend toward a bright pearl in the stone sea.

Xu Taiping and Lu Bugong entered the Old Dragon Court, where they narrowly escaped its deadly Sandstorm Dragon Breath. Xu Taiping promised to help Lu Tingyun see her mother and planned to sell an Earth Calamity Demon Seed corpse, but the next day the Pearl Relic House guards rejected them and insulted Lu Bugong.

• Lu Bugong explained that the Old Dragon Court was a Secret Realm inside a clam pearl, and Xu Taiping arrived with him in its guarded city.
• A Sandstorm Dragon Breath swept across the ruins, so Xu Taiping and Lu Bugong hurried through the city gate before it shut.
• Lu Tingyun asked to see her mother at Moon Cicada Tower, and Xu Taiping promised to take her after visiting the Pearl Relic House.
• Xu Taiping told Lu Bugong he planned to sell an Earth Calamity Demon Seed corpse at the Pearl Relic House.
• The next day, the guards at the Pearl Relic House drove Xu Taiping and Lu Bugong away and insulted Lu Bugong.