Chapter Summaries

Lu Chen visited Ye Fan in Stone Village and traded the complete Dao Palace Scroll of the Western Emperor Scripture for Ye Fan’s Phoenix Blood Red Gold. After Ye Fan entered seclusion to cultivate, the Black Emperor returned to the village and bit Lu Chen, leaving the two trading insults until Fifth Master Zhang calmed the dog.

• Lu Chen arrived at Stone Village, where Wang Shu and Lei Bo guarded the entrance, and reunited with Ye Fan.
• Lu Chen offered Ye Fan the complete Dao Palace Scroll of the Western Emperor Scripture in exchange for his Phoenix Blood Red Gold.
• Ye Fan accepted the trade and entered seclusion to cultivate the scripture.
• While searching the village for stone implements, Lu Chen was bitten by the Black Emperor, who was drawn to the scent of his powerful flesh.
• Lu Chen flew out of the Black Emperor’s reach, and Fifth Master Zhang eventually soothed the dog.

Lu Chen and Ye Fan spent a festive evening with the Black Emperor and the Zhang family before Lu Chen recognized that Fifth Master Zhang’s ancestral stone furnishings might conceal treasures. He began cutting them open and paid Fifth Master Zhang two hundred jin of source, leaving the search unresolved.

• Lu Chen, Ye Fan, and the Black Emperor shared roast lamb with Fifth Master Zhang and the villagers, and the Black Emperor sensed traces of immortal medicine on Lu Chen and Ye Fan.
• Lu Chen asked Fifth Master Zhang about the Zhang family's ancestral stone furnishings and offered to pay their weight in source.
• Ye Fan examined the furnishings but could not detect anything unusual with his current knowledge of Source Arts.
• Lu Chen cut open five stone stools and found nothing inside them.
• Lu Chen gave Fifth Master Zhang two hundred jin of source, and Fifth Master Zhang tried to refuse the fortune.

Lu Chen found a Human Origin Fruit inside a stone implement, then sealed it away after the Big Black Dog ate a piece and collapsed from its poison. After the dog recovered, he took revenge on Ye Fan, while Lu Chen secluded himself in a stone forest to refine Divine Source and pursue a breakthrough.

• Lu Chen opened a stone roller at Fifth Master Zhang’s home and found a fragrant Human Origin Fruit.
• The Big Black Dog tried to steal the fruit, ate a small piece, and collapsed in convulsions; Lu Chen explained that it was a sacred treasure that became poisonous if eaten unrefined.
• Lu Chen sealed the fruit in a jade cauldron, and he and Ye Fan left the other stone implements unopened at Fifth Master Zhang’s home.
• After recovering from the poison, the Big Black Dog ambushed Ye Fan repeatedly to take revenge on Lu Chen.
• Lu Chen secluded himself in a remote stone forest and began absorbing a piece of Divine Source to reach great perfection in the Dao Palace realm.

Lu Chen perfected his Dao Palace Realm, used the Azure Emperor’s Essence Blood to undergo a complete bodily rebirth, and traveled toward the Northern Region Holy City. Near the city, he encountered the Purple Mansion Holy Son, an old foe, traveling with the Purple Mansion Holy Maiden and their disciples.

• Lu Chen absorbed a million jin of Divine Source and brought his Five Great Divine Treasuries to perfection.
• He refined three drops of Azure Emperor’s Essence Blood, shedding his flesh and bones and transforming his body.
• Lu Chen left the stone forest and traveled north for over half a month toward the Holy City.
• Near the Holy City, Lu Chen spotted the Purple Mansion Holy Son in a passing cloud of purple mist, accompanied by the Holy Maiden and other disciples.

Lu Chen encountered the Purple Mansion Holy Son near Holy City and fought him after their past enmity resurfaced. He overpowered the Holy Son despite their difference in cultivation and raised a phoenix-wing strike to finish him.

• The Purple Mansion Holy Son recognized Lu Chen and vowed to avenge his earlier defeat and seize his divine mark purple gold pagoda.
• Lu Chen shattered the Holy Son’s purple divine swords with his fists and dispersed his lightning attack with Buddhism’s Six-Character True Words.
• Lu Chen summoned the Reincarnation Gate, whose suction pulled the Holy Son in until he used the Heavenly Demon Lamp to resist.
• Lu Chen’s Reincarnation Divine Light collided with the lamp’s green flames, leaving the Holy Son badly injured and shocking the watching cultivators.
• Lu Chen appeared before the weakened Holy Son and brought down a phoenix-wing strike capable of cutting through a thousand zhang of sky.

Lu Chen fought the Purple Mansion Saintess after she intervened to save the gravely wounded Purple Mansion Holy Son. Their battle shook the surrounding mountains and continued as her innate Dao embryo wielded the Mountain River Diagram against Lu Chen’s Divine Phoenix Secret Art.

• The Purple Mansion Saintess caught Lu Chen’s killing blow and prevented him from killing the Purple Mansion Holy Son.
• Lu Chen challenged the Saintess and revealed that he knew she possessed an innate Dao embryo.
• The Saintess summoned the Mountain River Diagram, and she and Lu Chen clashed with manifested mountains.
• The Saintess used her Dao-aligned power to dispel Lu Chen’s flaming phoenix and tried to draw him into the Diagram’s world.
• Lu Chen resisted the pull and pressed his attack with the Divine Phoenix Secret Art as their battle tore through the landscape.

Lu Chen and the Purple Mansion Saintess fought fiercely, displaying strength that stunned the gathered cultivators. As Lu Chen’s Five Elements Divine Ring and Star-Scrambling Finger pressed the battle onward, the Purple Mansion Holy Son ambushed him, drawing blood and prompting Lu Chen to summon five figures.

• Lu Chen and the Purple Mansion Saintess exchanged powerful attacks despite their difference in cultivation realms, while spectators debated her strength and standing.
• Lu Chen brought out the Five Elements Divine Ring and clashed it against the Purple Mansion Saintess’s Mountain River Diagram.
• Lu Chen unleashed the Star-Scrambling Finger, and the Purple Mansion Saintess answered with a beam of purple light, whose collision killed several nearby cultivators.
• The Purple Mansion Holy Son attacked Lu Chen from behind with a purple divine sword, cutting his palm before Lu Chen dodged away.
• Lu Chen called the Five Elements Ring back and made five figures appear around him.

Lu Chen killed the Purple Mansion Holy Son with the Five Elements Ring, then faced Supreme Elder Huang Gu’s pursuit. After surviving Huang Gu’s first attacks, Lu Chen used the Immortal-Slaying Gourd to kill him, leaving the watching cultivators and Purple Mansion disciples stunned.

• Lu Chen drove the Five Elements Ring with his five Dao Palace deities and annihilated the Purple Mansion Holy Son.
• Huang Gu attacked Lu Chen to avenge the Holy Son, but Lu Chen evaded his strike with his Phoenix Wings.
• Lu Chen released the supreme yang divine fire from the Immortal-Slaying Gourd, forcing Huang Gu to retreat from the flames.
• Lu Chen invoked “Treasure, Please Turn Around!” and sent an Immortal Sword from the gourd to behead Huang Gu.
• The watching cultivators and Purple Mansion disciples stared in disbelief as Huang Gu died.

Lu Chen killed the Purple Mansion Holy Land’s Supreme Elder, escaped notice in the Holy City by changing his appearance, and became a target of the Holy Land’s execution order. As Ye Fan’s exposed treasure drew the attention of major powers, Lu Chen headed to a Holy Land stone shop after hearing about eight gamblers who had shaken the city.

• Lu Chen rejected the Purple Mansion Saintess’s challenge and left after revealing that she possessed the innate Dao embryo constitution of the Queen Mother of the West.
• The Golden-Winged Little Peng King challenged Lu Chen, the Purple Mansion Saintess, the Yaoguang Holy Son, and Ji Haoyue, while the Purple Mansion Holy Land issued an execution order for Lu Chen.
• Ye Fan defeated Ji Family disciples in Kunzhou, exposed the Cauldron of All-Things Mother Qi, and drew the attention of the Various Holy Lands.
• Lu Chen entered the Holy City in disguise and planned to seek rare treasures in the Holy Lands’ stone shops.
• Lu Chen heard that eight gamblers had alarmed the Jiang Family and declared they would win a Saintess, then headed toward a Holy Land stone shop.

Lu Chen arrived in the Holy City and went to the Yaoguang Stone Workshop, where he found Yao Yuekong and Jin Chixiao gambling against each other. As Yao Yuekong struggled to choose his final stone, Lu Chen stepped in and recommended one.

• Lu Chen entered the Holy City and headed to the Yaoguang Stone Workshop.
• Lu Chen learned that Yao Yuekong and Jin Chixiao were competing in a seven-round stone-gambling contest for twenty thousand jin of pure source.
• Lu Chen found Jin Chixiao ahead after six rounds, having uncovered five hundred jin of source while Yao Yuekong had found less than a hundred.
• Yao Yuekong hesitated over four stones beneath an ancient tree and asked his companions for advice.
• Lu Chen tapped a washbasin-sized stone and said it looked good.

Lu Chen, posing as Zhou Feng, helped Yao Yuekong win a stone-gambling wager against Jin Chixiao by guiding him to a piece of valuable purple crystal Source. He then led Yao Yuekong and several Demon Race youths into the Yaoguang Stone Workshop’s costly Heaven-Class Stone Garden, where their next gamble awaited.

• Lu Chen secretly used his Source Heavenly Arts to identify Source inside a stone, and Yao Yuekong chose it on his advice.
• Yao Yuekong cut out fist-sized variant purple crystal Source worth two thousand jin of pure Source, while Jin Chixiao’s stone proved worthless.
• Jin Chixiao paid Yao Yuekong the wager of twenty thousand jin of Source and left, and Lu Chen introduced himself as Zhou Feng.
• Yao Yuekong invited Lu Chen to dine, but Lu Chen said he wanted to gamble at the Yaoguang Stone Workshop before leaving.
• Lu Chen walked with Yao Yuekong and several Demon Race youths into the Heaven-Class Stone Garden despite warnings about its extreme prices, drawing the attention of the old men inside.

Disguised as Zhou Feng, Lu Chen entered Yaoguang Stone Workshop’s Heaven-Class Stone Garden with Yao Yuekong and other Demon Race youths, where they saw the garden’s astonishing prices and rare stones. Lu Chen bought a modestly priced stone and declared himself a Source Arts expert, provoking the old relics who doubted him.

• Lu Chen used the Great Art of Changing Heaven and Earth to disguise himself as Zhou Feng and entered the Heaven-Class Stone Garden with Yao Yuekong and several Demon Race youths.
• A Source Master explained that the garden’s stones were aimed at wealthy old relics, and the group was stunned by a blood-red stone priced at three hundred thousand jin of source.
• After examining the garden’s stones, Lu Chen used his Source Heaven Divine Sense to select a greenish stone beside a lake and paid three thousand jin of source for it.
• Several old relics mocked Lu Chen’s chances, and Yao Yuekong challenged their certainty that the youths would find nothing rare.
• Lu Chen boasted that he was a highly accomplished Source Arts expert, angering the old relics.

Lu Chen wagered that his stone contained a valuable treasure, and the source-cutting master revealed a fist-sized piece of divine source. After winning ten thousand jin of source from Chen Yuping, Lu Chen prepared to sell the treasure so he could buy another stone.

• Lu Chen challenged the elders to wager ten thousand jin of source on the contents of his stone, and Chen Yuping accepted.
• The source-cutting master opened Lu Chen's stone and uncovered a radiant piece of divine source larger than a fist.
• The elders valued the divine source at at least a hundred and fifty thousand jin of source, and Yao Yuekong praised Lu Chen's Source Arts skill.
• Lu Chen claimed his wager from Chen Yuping, who paid him ten thousand jin of source despite his dismay.
• News of the divine source spread through the Holy City, and Lu Chen told Yao Yuekong he would cut another stone after selling it.

Lu Chen cut a second treasure from the Yaoguang Stone Workshop’s Wind-Cave Stone: divine source containing forty-nine ancient insect kings, valued at more than six hundred thousand jin of source. He proposed sending the rare insects to the Heavenly Demon Pavilion for auction, leaving the desperate elders to compete for them there.

• Lu Chen sold his first piece of divine source to the Yaoguang Holy Land for one hundred and eighty thousand jin of pure source and continued choosing stones.
• Lu Chen selected the Wind-Cave Stone, priced at one hundred and twenty thousand jin of source, and cut it open himself.
• Lu Chen uncovered divine source containing forty-nine ancient insect kings, which the elders valued at more than six hundred thousand jin of source.
• The old relics clamored to buy the insect kings, and Lu Chen offered to auction them through the Heavenly Demon Pavilion.
• The elders accepted Lu Chen’s auction plan, while Chen Yuping regretted gambling ten thousand jin of source against him.

Lu Chen used his winnings to buy and cut open Yaoguang Stone Workshop’s Blood Sacrifice Altar, uncovering the Divine Silkworm Princess sealed inside with a decaying Battle Spear. He stored the princess and prepared to leave, while powerful factions invited him to join them.

• Heavenly Demon Pavilion delivered three hundred thousand jin of Source to Lu Chen, who combined it with his remaining funds to buy the Blood Sacrifice Altar.
• Lu Chen cut the altar open from a distance, and its stones released a terrifying killing intent from a rust-covered Battle Spear.
• The altar revealed the Divine Silkworm Princess sealed in strange silver Source, pierced through the heart by the spear.
• Lu Chen recognized that the princess still had a thread of life and stored her in a Spatial Artifact.
• Lu Chen chose not to cut open more stones, and powerful factions invited him to join them as he prepared to leave.

After Lu Chen’s astonishing Source Arts feats made him the focus of the Holy City’s major powers, he joined Yao Yuekong, the Great Xia Imperial Prince, and the Yaochi Saintess for a banquet at the Illusory Cuisine House. There he declared that he would seek immortality if it existed—or forge a path to become the first immortal if it did not, leaving his companions inspired.

• Lu Chen declined invitations from elders and attended a banquet with Yao Yuekong, the Great Xia Imperial Prince, and the Yaochi Saintess.
• Yao Yuekong and the Great Xia Imperial Prince explained that the Illusory Cuisine House’s floating palaces imitated the Heavenly Court established by the Azure Emperor.
• The group discussed whether immortals existed and recalled the Bronze Immortal Palace, which Yao Yuekong called a demon palace that had consumed many powerful cultivators.
• Lu Chen declared that he would pursue eternal life if immortals existed, or defy heaven and forge his own Immortality Great Dao if they did not.
• Yao Yuekong, the Great Xia Imperial Prince, and the Yaochi Saintess praised Lu Chen’s ambition and raised their cups to him.

Lu Chen revived the Divine Silkworm Princess by removing the spear that had pinned her and treating her with the Azure Emperor’s Essence Blood. After she awoke, he explained that more than a million years had passed and that the world had changed since the primordial era.

• Lu Chen left the Holy City and established a sealed cave abode to revive the Divine Silkworm Princess, still trapped in silver divine source.
• Lu Chen communicated with the nearly lifeless princess, removed the Divine Spear from her chest, and fed her two drops of the Azure Emperor’s Essence Blood over a month.
• The silver divine source shattered, and the healed Divine Silkworm Princess awoke and thanked Lu Chen for saving her.
• Lu Chen told the Divine Silkworm Princess that more than a million years had passed and that the Primordial Myriad Races had vanished, though some might still sleep beneath the earth.
• The Divine Silkworm Princess gave Lu Chen the Divine Spear and the fragments of the silver divine source.

Lu Chen brought the recovering Divine Silkworm Princess to the Holy City, then traveled to Licheng after news broke that a clue to the Nine Secrets had surfaced. At the mass grave outside Licheng, he watched powerful young cultivators gather and faced a tense exchange with the Purple Mansion Saintess.

• Lu Chen bought a courtyard in the Holy City with Yao Yuekong’s help and let the injured Divine Silkworm Princess recover there.
• News spread that an ancient bell linked a cultivator’s family to one of the Nine Secrets, Xing, and Lu Chen decided to investigate its lead in Licheng.
• Lu Chen left the Holy City and waited above the mass grave outside Licheng while cultivators searched for the underground palace.
• The Yaoguang Holy Son and the Golden-Winged Little Peng King fought nearby as Lu Chen watched among the gathered Holy Sons and Saintesses.
• The Purple Mansion Saintess confronted Lu Chen over his killing of the Purple Mansion Holy Son, and he challenged her to avenge him while she remained composed.

Lu Chen and the gathered young prodigies converged in Licheng as clues to the Nine Secrets drew in the Eastern Wasteland’s major forces. When the earth was opened at the confirmed site, a horde of Yin Generals and Yin Horses surged out, leaving the gathered cultivators facing a new threat.

• Ji Haoyue confronted Lu Chen over the deaths of Ji Family disciples, but Ji Ziyue stopped him from fighting until they found the Nine Secrets.
• The Yaoguang Holy Son and the Golden-Winged Little Peng King fought to a draw, while Lu Chen waited as the others excavated tombs around Licheng.
• The Jiang Family, Wanchu Holy Land, Great Evolution Holy Land, Purple Mansion Holy Land, Dao Yi Holy Land, the descendants of the Thirteen Great Bandits, and the Demon Race arrived at the site.
• Eight Purple Mansion disciples threatened Lu Chen, whom they hoped to kill to compete for the vacant position of Holy Son, but they held back amid the gathered powers.
• Ji Haoyue and the other young prodigies displayed their fighting spirit as tensions rose, while Lu Chen remarked that the battle for the Great Emperor’s path seemed premature.
• Someone cleaved open the earth, releasing a sinister surge of yin qi as Yin Generals and Yin Horses charged out and attacked.

Lu Chen entered the Underground Palace after the major factions and found the Holy Sons and Holy Saintesses immobilized by a force field in the Hall of Light. As Ye Fan used the Cauldron of All-Things Mother Qi to enter the field and attack his rivals, Lu Chen prepared to deal with the trapped Purple Mansion disciples himself.

• The major factions fought through the Yin Things and rushed into the Underground Palace, while Lu Chen waited before entering with solar divine flames.
• Lu Chen reached the Hall of Light and found the Holy Sons and Holy Saintesses trapped by a field from the Divine Altar, with Yan Ruyu unable to use the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon effectively.
• Lu Chen mocked the trapped Purple Mansion disciples, who threatened him, but his divine power dissolved when he tried to strike them from outside the field.
• Ye Fan entered with the Cauldron of All-Things Mother Qi, shrugged off the field, and beat the Yaoguang Holy Son and the Golden-Winged Little Peng King.
• Ye Fan offered to kill the eight Purple Mansion disciples and the Purple Mansion Saintess, but Lu Chen declined and prepared to enter the force field himself.