Chapter Summaries

As Su Chan’s golden cicada began restoring his sealed cultivation by eating the Golden Fruits, Xu Taiping realized ordinary attacks could not stop him. With his strength running out, Xu Taiping chose to undergo Dao integration with Lotus Eye, accepting the equal chance of life or death.

• Zhang Moyan and Mu Zhixing reasoned that Su Chan had sealed his cultivation inside the three Golden Fruits to evade part of the Heavenly Dao’s backlash.
• The golden cicada emerged from its shell and began eating the Golden Fruits, confirming the spectators’ suspicion that it was Su Chan.
• Xu Taiping struck Su Chan’s Golden Branch but failed to break it, while Mu Zhixing warned that Xu Taiping’s Daoist arts could not overcome Su Chan’s divine ability by ordinary means.
• Xu Taiping told Lotus Eye that he wanted to undergo Dao integration, despite the risk that the process could kill him.
• Lotus Eye warned Xu Taiping that Dao integration meant sharing glory and ruin with a Yin God and offered equal chances of survival and death; Xu Taiping stood firm, and Lotus Eye agreed to take the gamble with him.

Xu Taiping chose to undergo Dao Integration with the Lotus Eye despite Fairy Lingyue’s warnings, affirming that his choices kept him true to himself. As Su Chan began recovering his strength by consuming the Golden Fruits, Xu Taiping prepared to stop him.

• Fairy Lingyue warned Xu Taiping that Dao Integration with a Yin God was dangerous and urged him to let her find another way out.
• Xu Taiping refused to waver, explaining that his choices were part of what made him remain himself.
• The golden cicada consumed the first Golden Fruit, and the Black Wood grew higher as two new branches emerged.
• Fairy Lingyue realized Su Chan had hidden his cultivation in the three Golden Fruits and urged Xu Taiping to cut down the Golden Branch after Dao Integration.
• Xu Taiping acknowledged her warning, and a five-colored halo appeared in the dark sky.

Xu Taiping manifested the Yin God Lotus Eye and began Dao Integration as the spectators and Mu Zhixing realized what he was doing. The Yin God plucked the Great Medicine born from heaven and offered it to Xu Taiping, calling him its lord.

• A second Five-Colored Halo appeared around Xu Taiping, and a strange, grasping shadow manifested behind him.
• Xiahou You identified the shadow as a Wilderness Yin God possessing Xu Taiping and declared that he was preparing for Dao Integration.
• The Five-Colored Halo became a lotus-pupiled eye, and the Yin God's shadow dragged it down from the sky.
• Mu Zhixing confirmed that Xu Taiping was undergoing Dao Integration and explained that a willing Yin God could pluck and offer the Great Medicine itself.
• The Yin God brought the Great Medicine to Xu Taiping's lips and said, "Please accept this offering, My Lord."

Xu Taiping accepted Lotus Eye’s Great Medicine and began Dao Integration, causing his Golden Core to shatter as he fell toward the lake. As his consciousness sank into the resulting black vortex, he heard his grandfather urge him to prove that people with Mortal Bones could ascend the Great Dao.

• Lotus Eye offered Xu Taiping his Great Medicine and pledged to acknowledge him as master for life after life.
• Mu Zhixing praised Xu Taiping’s plan to use Dao Integration to catch Su Chan off guard, while Zhang Moyan and Xuanzhi warned of the deadly risks.
• Xu Taiping accepted Lotus Eye’s medicine and promised they would share glory and ruin and ascend the Great Dao together.
• The medicine’s power entered Xu Taiping’s Golden Core, which shattered and became a vortex that devoured his True Essence, qi, blood, and consciousness.
• Xu Taiping fell toward the lake as his grandfather’s voice urged him to prove that people with Mortal Bones could walk the Great Dao and see the immortals’ world.

Xu Taiping recalled his grandfather’s hidden resentment at being denied the chance to cultivate, and realized his own refusal to yield came from him. His senses returned as the Great Medicine of the Lotus Eye began repairing his shattered golden core, and he vowed that this would not be the end of his cultivation.

• Xu Taiping remembered his grandfather’s dying words and saw a speck of light pull his mind out of the black vortex.
• Xu Taiping relived clear childhood memories that revealed his grandfather’s envy of cultivators and his resentment at the Heavenly Dao.
• Xu Taiping understood that his own indignation and unwillingness to yield had come from what he sensed in his grandfather.
• Xu Taiping’s divine sense and five senses returned as the Great Medicine of the Lotus Eye began stitching his shattered golden core back together.
• Xu Taiping struck the icy lake water and vowed that his cultivation would not end there.

Xu Taiping completed Dao Integration and revealed that the Lotus Eye had granted him a Divine Ability to reverse time. He began using it against Su Chan, but the power caused severe pain in his left eye.

• Xu Taiping rose from the lake with his Dao Heart intact and surged back into the sky in red armor.
• As Su Chan climbed toward the third golden fruit, Xu Taiping’s Golden Core fused completely with his Yin God.
• Xu Taiping drew his saber and formed a Blade Domain around himself and the black tree.
• Xu Taiping reversed time around Su Chan, making the golden cicada retreat and restoring the fruit it had eaten.
• Xu Taiping tried to make Su Chan spit out the second golden fruit, but his Lotus Eye suddenly erupted in piercing pain.

Xu Taiping chose to use the Lotus Eye’s remaining power to look inward and gain the strength he would possess ten years in the future. He severed Su Chan’s Golden Branch, and as Su Chan vowed to kill him with half his Ultimate Realm cultivation, Xu Taiping activated the Lotus Eye again.

• The Lotus Eye offered to use One Glance, a Thousand Years once more at the cost of sleeping for thirty years, and Xu Taiping chose to look inward.
• Xu Taiping unleashed Saber Across the Vast Sea, Slaying the True Dragon, and the Lotus Eye helped him guide the strike around Su Chan’s black sword shadows.
• Xu Taiping’s saber severed the Golden Branch on the black tree, provoking an uproar among the spectators.
• Su Chan declared that he could still slay Xu Taiping with half his Ultimate Realm cultivation.
• Xu Taiping told the Lotus Eye to look inward, and five-colored radiance enveloped him as his aura surged.

Xu Taiping used the Lotus Eye’s power of time to borrow strength from his future self while fighting Su Chan. His qi and blood and true essence surged to more than three times their former depth and purity without a change in realm, leading Yun Shiliu to suspect he was pursuing the legendary Ultimate Dao Realm.

• Xu Taiping and Su Chan exchanged saber and sword strikes, and their fierce blade intent and Sword Intent battered spectators from afar.
• Zhang Moyan and Mu Zhixing assessed Su Chan’s growing strength and concluded that Xu Taiping’s time-reversal power had limits.
• Yun Shiliu realized Xu Taiping could use the Lotus Eye to borrow strength from his future self, while Yun Ye insisted Xu Taiping would never fade into obscurity.
• Xu Taiping’s aura suddenly surged, restoring and greatly strengthening his qi and blood and true essence without raising his cultivation realm.
• Yun Shiliu suspected Xu Taiping was seeking the legendary Ultimate Dao Realm.

As Su Chan absorbed the power of the Golden Fruits, Xu Taiping discovered that the Lotus Eye’s time-reversing Divine Ability had restored two more Mad Demon Swords to his Qi Sea. Fairy Lingyue warned that Su Chan was preparing something, prompting Xu Taiping to form a bold plan.

• Yun Shiliu and Mu Yun concluded that Xu Taiping could not threaten Su Chan while Su Chan continued strengthening himself.
• Xu Taiping told Fairy Lingyue that two Mad Demon Swords had appeared in his Qi Sea, and she identified them as Demon-Sealing Swords restored by the Power of Time.
• Fairy Lingyue realized Xu Taiping had neither reached the Transformation Realm nor attained the Ultimate Dao Heaven Gazing Realm.
• Su Chan’s black sphere swelled again as flying swords remained jutting from its surface.
• Fairy Lingyue urged Xu Taiping to interrupt Su Chan, and Xu Taiping came up with a bold plan.

Xu Taiping waited for Su Chan to complete his Sword Intent, hoping to decipher and withstand Su Chan’s strongest strike before drawing the three Demon-Sealing Swords within him. As Su Chan’s attack arrived, Xu Taiping saw it as 308 Ancient Script characters and realized he had to unravel every one to break it.

• Xu Taiping told Fairy Lingyue he planned to wait for Su Chan to attack, then draw the three Demon-Sealing Swords to turn the fight around.
• Xu Taiping readied his Water-Cutting Blade and focused on using the Hidden Sword Art to decipher Su Chan’s first strike.
• Su Chan continued gathering Sword Intent inside the Black Sphere as spectators urged Xu Taiping to interrupt him, but Xu Taiping held his stance.
• Su Chan’s Sword Intent reached completion, and he sent a Black Sword attack carrying overwhelming force at Xu Taiping.
• Xu Taiping’s Divine Soul wailed as the attack appeared to him as 308 Ancient Script characters, all of which he needed to unravel.

Xu Taiping unleashed his newly created Extreme Law Demon-Slaying Crane-Listening Stance against Su Chan’s overwhelming sword strike, but his blade domain was torn apart and his attack was swallowed. Just as Monk Xuanzhi prepared to intervene, Xu Taiping’s Character Deciphering stopped Su Chan’s black sword with hundreds of sword-light characters.

• Xu Taiping used Overlord Power to raise his physique and combat strength, then opened his blade domain and unleashed the Extreme Law Demon-Slaying Crane-Listening Stance.
• Su Chan’s black sword tore apart Xu Taiping’s blade domain and swallowed the domain’s blade lights.
• Cultivators watching through the Spirit Mirror blamed Xu Taiping for letting Su Chan gather sword intent, while Monk Xuanzhi worried about Xu Taiping’s safety.
• Monk Xuanzhi took out an Armor Pellet containing Duedu Asura’s battle armor and prepared to use a secret technique to protect Xu Taiping.
• Mu Zhixing warned Monk Xuanzhi not to act, and Su Chan’s sword suddenly stopped as hundreds of Ancient Seal Script Characters formed around it.

Xu Taiping shattered Su Chan’s first Black Sword and used his Demon-Sealing Swords and Extreme Law Baxia Form to break Su Chan’s next three swords and smash his body. As Xu Taiping pressed his attack, an unseen Black Sword pierced through his chest.

• Xu Taiping broke Su Chan’s first Black Sword with a strike from the Water-Cutting Blade, then attacked him with Extreme Law Dragon-Slaying Form.
• Su Chan summoned three Black Swords to counter Xu Taiping’s thousand-zhang blade shadow.
• Xu Taiping transformed the blade shadow into a fist shadow and used Extreme Law-Ancestral Sage Fist Baxia Form to shatter all three swords.
• Xu Taiping smashed through Su Chan’s black sphere of sword qi and struck him so hard that half his body was destroyed.
• As Xu Taiping moved to punch Su Chan again, an unseen Black Sword pierced through Xu Taiping’s chest.

After the Sword Champion Assembly ended, the Nine Abysses continued attacking Xu Taiping with Su Chan’s swords, and Fairy Lingyue tried to rescue him. The Demon Mother’s Jade Decree declared a new life-or-death contest and blocked Lingyue from reaching him, leaving Huangting Dao Palace poised for war.

• The Sword Chief Ranking declared Su Chan dead and named Xu Taiping the victor, revealing that the Nine Abysses’ black swords were an assassination attempt after the assembly ended.
• Xu Taiping shattered another black sword with the Ancestral Sage Fist’s Heaven-Bearing Stance, while a second Su Chan appeared and carried away the mutilated body.
• Fairy Lingyue warned Xu Taiping that the Nine Abysses had made him their target, and he used Endless Horizon to flee toward her.
• The Demon Mother’s Jade Decree declared a second Heaven-Demon War contest between Su Chan and Xu Taiping and threatened to turn Zhenwu into a Heaven-Demon Battlefield if Xu Taiping died.
• The decree blocked Fairy Lingyue from reaching Xu Taiping, and she summoned the phantom of Huangting Dao Palace as she defied the Nine Abysses.

Xu Taiping stopped Fairy Lingyue from drawing her sword to save him, insisting he would face the Demon Mother’s forced Heaven-Demon War himself. The battle began in the Ruins of the Old Heavenly Court, where he confronted two versions of Su Chan and learned that Su Chan had touched the taboo of the Taiqing Mysterious Origin Avatar Art.

• Fairy Lingyue prepared to draw her sword against the Demon Mother’s barrier, but Yun Shiliu, the Mysterious Female True Lord, and Mu Zhixing warned that the fight would endanger the beings of True Martial Heaven.
• Xu Taiping asked Fairy Lingyue not to bear the karma for him, saying he could not keep hiding behind her and did not want to lose another member of his family.
• The Demon Mother transported Xu Taiping and Su Chan to the Ruins of the Old Heavenly Court in Outer Heaven, cutting them off from everyone outside the barrier.
• Xu Taiping faced the second Su Chan and asked whether he had cultivated the Shangqing Mysterious Origin Avatar Art.
• Su Chan confirmed that Xu Taiping knew its secret and revealed that the clone was his own body; Xu Taiping concluded that Su Chan had touched the taboo of the Taiqing Mysterious Origin Avatar Art.

Xu Taiping confronted Su Chan’s newly revealed clone and rejected Su Chan’s view that identity could survive through a name on the Great Dao. Su Chan declared that he would kill Xu Taiping to spite his master, and the fight resumed.

• Xu Taiping recognized the second Su Chan as a living avatar created through the taboo Taiqing Profound Origin Clone Technique.
• The fallen Su Chan’s body became black sand, which the second Su Chan transformed into Black Scale Armor and the sword Taotie.
• Su Chan argued that humanity had repeatedly broken taboos to gain the power to cultivate, while Xu Taiping insisted that remaining true to himself was essential to his Dao.
• Xu Taiping declared that there could only ever be one Xu Taiping, and he held fast to the memory of the boy who had sought charcoal.
• Su Chan accused his master of sending Xu Taiping to destroy his Dao heart and vowed to torture and kill him.

Xu Taiping and Su Chan agreed to settle their conflict with a single sword strike, as Su Chan unleashed the sword mountain’s rain of blades against Xu Taiping’s perfected Demon-Slaying Crane-Listening Stance. Xu Taiping’s decades of practice let him meet the assault head-on, leaving the duel’s outcome unresolved.

• Su Chan told Xu Taiping that his awakened body could wield only one sword strike, and challenged him to decide life and death with it.
• Xu Taiping reclaimed the qi and blood and true essence stolen from his wounds, then vowed to keep fighting until Su Chan killed him.
• Su Chan drew his sword and sent the black sword mountain’s countless blades raining down on Xu Taiping.
• Xu Taiping used the Extreme Law Crane-Listening Stance, moving so swiftly that his blade gleams filled the sky as crane feathers and clashed with the falling swords.
• Mu Yun and Zhang Moyan watched in astonishment as the crane-feather blade gleams halted the sword rain, and Zhang Moyan praised Xu Taiping’s strike.
• The narration revealed that Xu Taiping had practiced the Demon-Slaying Blade for forty or fifty years, pursuing the vision Elder Duan Tianya had described for the Crane Cry Form.

Xu Taiping used the Netherworld Power sealed in his Soul Seal to consume the Power of Wuji’s Unrestricted Method in his wounds and Su Chan’s Sword Mountain, then shattered half the mountain with an Extreme Law punch. Su Chan acknowledged his plan but pointed out that the blow had not destroyed the whole Sword Mountain, leaving their battle unresolved.

• Su Chan’s black sword rain broke through Xu Taiping’s crane-feather defense, and the two sword wounds he had sustained worsened as he fell.
• Xu Taiping released eight destructive auras that formed black halos, which absorbed the Power of Wuji’s Unrestricted Method from his wounds.
• Four Divine Push Images lifted Xu Taiping, who used the Ancestral Sage Fist Baxia Form to shatter the sword rain and half of Su Chan’s Sword Mountain.
• Xu Taiping drank a gourd of Hidden Immortal Wine to halt the Soul Seal’s consumption of his True Essence and qi and blood.
• Su Chan explained that Xu Taiping had baited him into expending the Sword Mountain’s Sword Qi, then used Netherworld Power to clear the sword’s force before punching.
• Su Chan raised Black Sword Taotie and told Xu Taiping that his punch had shattered only half the Sword Mountain.

Xu Taiping kept fighting Su Chan as his strength dwindled, while the soul-seal brands exposed on his body broke the Wang You Wind’s hold over the Shangqing Realm. With everyone’s memories restored, the old city lord ordered Thousand Mechanisms City to locate the ruins in Outer Heaven and rescue Xu Taiping.

• Su Chan explained that Xu Taiping’s dwindling true essence and qi and blood would leave him unable to defeat the remaining half of the Sword Mountain.
• Xu Taiping continued punching and slashing through waves of black swords, but his attacks weakened until Su Chan unleashed the mountain’s full torrent against him.
• A black sword tore Xu Taiping’s Dharma Robe, revealing a soul-seal brand that caused cultivators to suspect their memories had been sealed.
• Su Chan shattered Xu Taiping’s remaining protective treasure, exposing the brands sealing the Eight Demon Emperors and dispelling the Wang You Wind across the Five Heavens of the Shangqing Realm.
• The old city lord remembered Xu Taiping as Thousand Mechanisms City’s benefactor and ordered Gongshu Bai to find the ruins in Outer Heaven and save him.

As Xu Taiping's life-and-death struggle with Su Chan neared its end, the cultivation world remembered his sacrifice in the Mysterious Wasteland Tower and mobilized to rescue him. Thousand Mechanisms City and Giant Deer City began attacking the demon abysses, while Su Chan unleashed a wave of black swords that swallowed Xu Taiping.

• Gongshu Nanxing proposed that Thousand Mechanisms City attack the Red Silk Demon Grotto and use the wounded Heartless Demon Emperor as leverage to bargain with Su Chan.
• The old city lord gave Gongshu Bai command of Thousand Mechanisms City's troops and all nine martial armories.
• Zhang Nian announced that Giant Deer City would attack the Ninth Demon Abyss and fired thirty thousand Great Sun Golden Flame Bombs.
• Cultivators across the heavens remembered Xu Taiping's sacrifice in the Mysterious Wasteland Tower and began seeking ways to rescue him.
• Su Chan turned the half-mountain of swords into a wave of black swords that engulfed Xu Taiping.

Xu Taiping continued fighting Su Chan despite his depleted qi, blood, and strength, but Su Chan used his sword mountain to repeatedly knock him through the ruins. The spectators saw Su Chan’s attacks as deliberate humiliation of Xu Taiping, True Martial Heaven, and the Shangqing Realm.

• Xu Taiping burst through the tide of black swords, and Zhang Moyan realized his qi and blood had run dry.
• Xu Taiping invoked the Ancestral Sage Raging Thunder Form and punched at Su Chan, but the black swords blocked his attack.
• Xu Taiping’s Water-Cutting Blade bought him time, but black swords pierced his body and disabled his right arm.
• Su Chan sent the black swords at Xu Taiping, who answered with the Baxia Form but was repeatedly thrown into the ruins by the sword mountain.
• Watching cultivators accused Su Chan of deliberately humiliating Xu Taiping, True Martial Heaven, and the Shangqing Realm.