Chapter Summaries

He Pingsheng bought Six-Bath Clear Dew and learned that traveling to the Vermilion Bird Emperor Domain required several Immortal Ship transfers. After buying tickets, he went to explore the Trading Fair while waiting for the next ship.

• He Pingsheng paid two hundred high-grade Spirit Stones for Six-Bath Clear Dew, leaving yellow springs aura as the last material he needed for the Tenfold Fusion Pill.
• He Pingsheng asked a Commerce Association elder how to reach the Vermilion Bird Emperor Domain, and the elder advised him to travel by Immortal Ship.
• He Pingsheng and Hao Cang visited the Immortal Ship Plaza, where He Pingsheng discovered that the journey required three transfers and would take about five months.
• Hao Cang bought two tickets for a ship departing in more than twenty days, and told He Pingsheng about the Trading Fair and temporary Daoist Grounds.
• He Pingsheng paid for admission and headed to Trading Fair Twenty-One.

He Pingsheng attended Trading Fair No. 21, where he offered pills and Heavenly Pine Mystic Yellow Dew while seeking a sixth-grade talisman. He failed to find a talisman but traded a supreme-grade Divine-Breaking Pill for lightning-infused ten-thousand-year-old peach wood.

• He Pingsheng entered Trading Fair No. 21 alone and learned that its formations displayed everyone’s trade offers and requests on a central stone stele.
• He Pingsheng offered supreme-grade Transformation Pills, supreme-grade Divine-Breaking Pills, and Heavenly Pine Mystic Yellow Dew, and requested a sixth-grade offensive or defensive talisman.
• He Pingsheng spotted Scarlet Fire Loquat among the listed items, but no one offered a sixth-grade talisman.
• A woman in blue asked to trade for one of He Pingsheng’s supreme-grade Divine-Breaking Pills and offered spirit stones or pills.
• He Pingsheng declined the woman’s first offers, then accepted her fifth-grade, lightning-infused ten-thousand-year-old peach wood in exchange for a Divine-Breaking Pill.

He Pingsheng traded Heavenly Pine Mystic Yellow Dew for eight Scarlet Fire Loquats, then negotiated with a void refinement woman for her sixth-grade Immortal Ghost Talisman. He offered his supreme-grade Thick Earth Mountain-Shaking Seal, and the woman examined it as the exchange remained unresolved.

• He Pingsheng exchanged ten drops of Heavenly Pine Mystic Yellow Dew for each of a cultivator's eight Scarlet Fire Loquats.
• He Pingsheng withdrew his other listings and left only his request for a sixth-grade talisman on the stone tablet.
• A void refinement woman offered He Pingsheng a low-grade Immortal Ghost Talisman that could summon a first-layer void refinement yin ghost.
• He Pingsheng offered his supreme-grade Thick Earth Mountain-Shaking Seal and said the woman would need to compensate him because it was worth more than her talisman.
• The woman examined the seal and acknowledged its quality, noting that void refinement cultivators generally used Spirit Treasures.

He Pingsheng traded the Thick Earth Mountain-Shaking Seal for a middle-grade spirit vein soul, then gathered ingredients to make Ice Jade Loquat Paste. With twenty days before the Great Ship departed, he settled into the Immortal Ship Plaza’s temporary cultivation ground to practice Myriad Annihilations Return to Origin.

• He Pingsheng exchanged the Thick Earth Mountain-Shaking Seal with a female Void Refinement cultivator for her middle-grade spirit vein soul.
• He Pingsheng declined to trade with an elderly Void Refinement cultivator who asked about sixth-grade talismans, then left the Immortal Ship Plaza’s trading sessions.
• He Pingsheng visited three commerce associations and gathered enough ingredients to make eight portions of Ice Jade Loquat Paste.
• He Pingsheng told Hao Cang they would use the public temporary cultivation ground instead of finding an Immortal Guest House.
• He Pingsheng set up a second-grade formation in the cultivation ground and began practicing Myriad Annihilations Return to Origin.

He Pingsheng met Liu Haoran, who asked him to verify that Master Heavenly Secrets had given him twelve failed Sacred Essence Pills. After confirming they were genuine waste pills, He Pingsheng took them to study and promised he might provide Liu Haoran’s mother with a supreme-grade Sacred Essence Pill within a hundred years; he then left for Immortal Ship Plaza, bound for the Vermilion Bird Emperor Domain.

• Three days before the Great Ship sailed, Liu Haoran summoned He Pingsheng to Shangyong Hall through a Heartbond Talisman.
• Liu Haoran told He Pingsheng that Master Heavenly Secrets had produced twelve waste pills while trying to refine Sacred Essence Pills.
• He Pingsheng examined the pills and confirmed they were failed Sacred Essence Pills, though he could not tell whether they had been made from Liu Haoran’s materials.
• He Pingsheng took the twelve waste pills to study and said he might be able to give Liu Haoran’s mother a supreme-grade Sacred Essence Pill within a hundred years.
• He Pingsheng told Liu Haoran he was heading to the Vermilion Bird Emperor Domain to explore the Netherworld Emperor Palace, and Liu Haoran gave him another Heartbond Talisman to stay in contact.
• He Pingsheng bid Liu Haoran farewell and returned to Immortal Ship Plaza.

He Pingsheng secured his and Hao Cang’s rooms aboard the great ship with increasingly powerful formations, then used the Treasure-Gathering Basin to produce Ice Jade Loquat Paste. He gave Hao Cang a bottle of the valuable restorative pellets as the ship continued its voyage.

• He Pingsheng and Hao Cang settled into neighboring rooms on the great ship, and He Pingsheng used Hao Cang’s fifth-grade formation plate to set up a Twin Divine Formation.
• The great ship lifted off and accelerated away from Emperor City, while He Pingsheng checked its control room and found that four Spirit Transformation Stage cultivators operated it.
• He Pingsheng enhanced the formation plate in the Treasure-Gathering Basin, then completed the fifth-grade formation to block Spirit Transformation cultivators’ divine sense and warn of Void Refinement Realm intrusion.
• He Pingsheng enhanced materials and refined Ice Jade Loquat Paste, producing thirty-two batches of pellets that could replenish a Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator’s depleted dantian.
• He Pingsheng gave Hao Cang about a hundred Ice Jade Loquat Paste pellets, and Hao Cang thanked him emotionally.

He Pingsheng enhanced a spirit vein soul and a continent map, gaining two high-grade spirit vein souls and detailed maps of factions and resources. After preparing by giving Hao Cang the resource map to memorize, He Pingsheng completed his long journey and arrived at Vermilion Bird Emperor City.

• He Pingsheng learned that Hao Cang had perfected the Nascent Soul Chapter of the Mysterious Gate Tranquil Mind True Formula and gave him Formless Big Dipper Nails to practice.
• He Pingsheng enhanced the spirit vein soul into two high-grade spirit vein souls, but kept them because he did not yet have territory.
• He Pingsheng enhanced the Complete Heavenly Fire Map into a faction distribution map and a resource distribution map covering the Heavenly Fire Continent.
• He Pingsheng gave Hao Cang the resource map to memorize and tried enhancing an Immortal Ghost Talisman and Sacred Essence Pills, but both attempts failed.
• He Pingsheng traveled by Immortal Ship for roughly half a year, then arrived at Vermilion Bird Emperor City.

He Pingsheng learned that the Netherworld Emperor Palace contained the yellow springs aura he needed, but at first thought it had closed for nearly a thousand years. He discovered it remained open for most of a century and that he could still enter as long as he was at the nascent soul realm.

• He Pingsheng and Hao Cang arrived in Vermilion Bird Emperor City and hired a rabbit demon cultivator to show them around.
• He Pingsheng asked the rabbit about the Netherworld Emperor Palace and learned it opened once every thousand years, remained open for a hundred years, and contained yellow springs aura.
• Hao Cang confirmed that the map showed no other source of yellow springs aura, so He Pingsheng planned to leave the city and seek a breakthrough before traveling to the Thunderwaste Continent.
• The rabbit clarified that the Netherworld Emperor Palace had opened twelve years earlier and was still accessible, with visitors allowed to enter and leave during its hundred-year opening.
• He Pingsheng learned that entrants had to be at the nascent soul realm and became eager to enter the palace to find yellow springs aura for his wife's alchemy.

He Pingsheng learned that entering the Netherworld Emperor Palace required a Netherworld Immortal Token and arranged transport to its entrance. He arrived at the palace’s black vortex, where a powerful woman guarded the entrance, and learned that he could not enter if he reached the Spirit Transformation Stage.

• He Pingsheng learned that only cultivators ranked in the top ten thousand on the Sacred Fire Ranking could apply for a Netherworld Immortal Token, though tokens could also be bought from others.
• The rabbit told He Pingsheng that Nascent Soul Realm cultivators took two or three years to travel to the palace entrance, so He Pingsheng asked to be taken to a commerce association for faster transport.
• The rabbit brought He Pingsheng to the Sacred Fire Commerce Association, where he rewarded the rabbit before asking an elder about a token and a ride.
• The elder said the association could not provide a token, but agreed to fly He Pingsheng and Hao Cang to the palace entrance in exchange for ten supreme-grade pellets of fifth-grade Ice Jade Loquat Paste.
• Seven or eight days later, He Pingsheng arrived at the palace’s black vortex and saw a powerful woman guarding it as countless people waited below.
• The elder warned He Pingsheng that even with a Netherworld Immortal Token, he could not enter after reaching the Spirit Transformation Stage, then flew away.

He Pingsheng learned that obtaining a token to enter the Netherworld Emperor Palace was difficult, but discovered that he might trade a tempting treasure to a Void Refinement Realm woman for a way inside. After watching a returning cultivator sell his token to a new entrant, he realized tokens would keep circulating as cultivators left the palace after breakthroughs and wisdom severance.

• He Pingsheng paid a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator to learn that most of the huge crowd was waiting to buy tokens from people leaving the Emperor Palace.
• He Pingsheng gave the cultivator Heavenly Pine Mystic Yellow Dew, and the man secretly explained that a valuable treasure might persuade the red-robed Void Refinement Realm woman to let him enter.
• He Pingsheng waited and watched a Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator emerge from the vortex, confirming that cultivators could break through inside the palace but could not return after leaving.
• A crowd surrounded the returning cultivator, and a peak Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator bought his token before entering the vortex.
• He Pingsheng realized that cultivators leaving after wisdom severance would repeatedly put tokens back into circulation.

He Pingsheng traded the Southern Bright Sky-Piercing Halberd for a Netherworld Immortal Token and gained entry to the Netherworld Emperor Palace. Inside, he found a world resembling the Spirit Realm and hoped it still contained Yellow Springs aura.

• The woman in red knocked down several cultivators who tried to present Tokens hidden in rings, while leaving them unharmed.
• He Pingsheng sent Hao Cang to stay behind, cultivate, and refine the Formless Big Dipper Nails before approaching the woman with a ring containing the Southern Bright Sky-Piercing Halberd.
• After the woman knocked He Pingsheng into a corner, another red-clad woman gave him a ring containing a Netherworld Immortal Token in exchange for his halberd.
• He Pingsheng openly presented the Token, and the woman in red allowed him to enter while warning him that breaking through to Spirit Transformation would prevent him from leaving and returning.
• He Pingsheng entered the Netherworld Emperor Palace and wondered whether Yellow Springs aura remained there.

He Pingsheng entered the Netherworld Emperor Palace and obtained a map by trading two pellets of Ice Jade Loquat Paste. He learned the Yellow Springs lay nearby and set off for them, but Bone Jade pursued him to rob him.

• He Pingsheng explored the Emperor Palace's first region and found its treasures largely picked over.
• Two demon cultivators, a great ape and the bird Bone Jade, stopped He Pingsheng and told him they were leaving after suffering Wisdom Severance.
• He Pingsheng traded two pellets of Ice Jade Loquat Paste to the great ape for a map that showed the Yellow Springs in the first region.
• The great ape advised He Pingsheng to head for the second region, but He Pingsheng flew toward the Yellow Springs to gather its Aura and revive Qiao Huizhu.
• Bone Jade decided to pursue He Pingsheng for his treasures and Netherworld Token, caught up with him, and claimed he wanted to borrow something.

He Pingsheng reached the Yellow Springs, gathered its aura, and refined twenty-four supreme-grade Tenfold Fusion Pills. He summoned Qiao Huizhu’s soul and revealed her preserved body, preparing to bring her back to life.

• He Pingsheng used his Soul Banner’s ghost heads to kill Bone Jade, who had tried to rob him, and collected Bone Jade’s rings.
• He Pingsheng enhanced a map of the Netherworld Emperor Palace and learned it had six vast areas before traveling for more than twenty days to reach the Yellow Springs.
• He Pingsheng gathered Yellow Springs Aura, completing the materials needed to refine the Tenfold Fusion Pill.
• He Pingsheng refined twelve pills and enhanced them into twenty-four supreme-grade pills.
• He Pingsheng summoned Qiao Huizhu’s soul, showed her the pills, and brought out her preserved body.

He Pingsheng restored Qiao Huizhu's body and used a Tenfold Fusion Pill to reunite her soul with it, bringing her back to life. Her cultivation surged to the twelfth layer of the Nascent Soul Realm, and after half a year of stabilizing it, she prepared to undergo tribulation and break through to Spirit Transformation.

• He Pingsheng set up protective formations and put Qiao Huizhu's corpse in the Treasure-Gathering Basin to restore its bodily functions.
• After a night, He Pingsheng found that Qiao Huizhu's body had become one of the living dead, and he used a Tenfold Fusion Pill to fuse her soul with it.
• Qiao Huizhu came back to life and thanked He Pingsheng for saving her.
• Qiao Huizhu's cultivation rose from the second layer to the twelfth layer of the Nascent Soul Realm, though neither she nor He Pingsheng knew why.
• Qiao Huizhu spent half a year stabilizing her cultivation, and He Pingsheng told her to undergo tribulation and break through to Spirit Transformation.

He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu underwent their Spirit Transformation tribulations beside the Yellow Springs, then celebrated Qiao Huizhu’s restored body. After spending several days in their formation, He Pingsheng emerged with enhanced talismans and pills but remained unable to improve two mysterious treasures.

• Qiao Huizhu took a Divine-Breaking Pill and passed her eight-nine tribulation using her body, Ice Dance, and an Earthroot Talisman, attaining Spirit Transformation.
• He Pingsheng passed his three-nine tribulation with the blood-colored turtle shell and also attained Spirit Transformation.
• Qiao Huizhu told He Pingsheng that her body had been restored to an unblemished state, and he took her into their overlapping arrays.
• Several days later, He Pingsheng emerged after enhancing an Immortal Ghost Talisman into two Ghost King Talismans and twelve waste Sacred Essence Pills into twenty-four supreme-grade pills.
• He Pingsheng failed to enhance the damaged Formation Plate, the blood-colored turtle shell, or spirit stones beyond high grade.

He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu traveled toward the deeper zones of the Netherworld Emperor Palace, where cultivators had to comprehend Daoist Laws to advance. After enhancing Heavenly Innocence Pills and beginning to study the Reincarnation Daoist Law, He Pingsheng broke through two Spirit Transformation Dao Obstacles while Qiao Huizhu continued comprehending.

• He Pingsheng gave Qiao Huizhu a Netherworld Token taken from a Child-Snatching Bird cultivator and found ten low-grade Heavenly Innocence Pills in the cultivator’s ring.
• He Pingsheng enhanced the pills into twenty supreme-grade pills and gave half to Qiao Huizhu, explaining that they greatly increased comprehension for ten years.
• After a month of travel, He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu reached the passage between the first and second zones, where cultivators were comprehending the Reincarnation Daoist Law.
• He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu swallowed Heavenly Innocence Pills and began comprehending the law beneath its enormous black-and-white manifestation.
• Three years later, He Pingsheng broke through the Dao Obstacle for the second Spirit Transformation layer while Qiao Huizhu continued comprehending.
• After another six years of study, He Pingsheng broke through the Dao Obstacle for the third Spirit Transformation layer.

He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu entered the second zone and traveled to a passage filled with the Laws of Creation. After years of comprehension, Qiao Huizhu began creating a Divine Ability, and He Pingsheng stood guard as her green vortex grew stronger.

• He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu entered the lush second zone, where He Pingsheng identified the Laws of Creation ahead.
• During their journey, He Pingsheng gave Qiao Huizhu two supreme-grade Heaven Tier talisman classics containing methods for crafting eighth-grade talismans.
• After more than a month, He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu reached the second passage and began comprehending the Laws of Creation.
• Three years later, He Pingsheng advanced another layer in his Dao Obstacles while Qiao Huizhu entered a deep state of comprehension and began creating a Divine Ability.
• A middle-aged cultivator warned He Pingsheng that Qiao Huizhu's growing aura might disturb others, so He Pingsheng prepared to protect her.
• Qiao Huizhu swallowed another Heavenly Innocence Pill, and the green vortex above her head became more distinct.

He Pingsheng defended Qiao Huizhu’s Dao comprehension when Qian Lan, a prodigy of the Great Order Peacock tribe, demanded that they leave. After Qian Lan attacked Qiao Huizhu and disrupted the others’ cultivation, He Pingsheng killed him.

• Yan Xiaosheng warned He Pingsheng that Qiao Huizhu’s growing Dao Comprehension vortex would disturb nearby cultivators and identified the powerful tribes and prodigies around them.
• Six months later, Qian Lan demanded that He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu leave their place, but He Pingsheng refused because Qiao Huizhu was still comprehending the Dao.
• He Pingsheng pierced Qian Lan with the Heaven-Deficiency Divine Spear and forced him off the stone stele.
• Qian Lan attacked Qiao Huizhu with his fire fan, and He Pingsheng blocked the strike with the Divine Turtle phantom, disrupting the other cultivators’ Dao comprehension.
• When Qian Lan threatened He Pingsheng and invoked his tribe, He Pingsheng killed him with the Black Divine Spear.

He Pingsheng protected Qiao Huizhu while she comprehended a Daoist Law Divine Ability, killing Qian Lan when he disrupted her. After five years, Qiao Huizhu mastered Boundless Creation, a power that could rapidly grow a seed into a medicinal plant, and she and He Pingsheng entered the third area.

• He Pingsheng killed Qian Lan with a casual strike and warned the gathered cultivators not to disturb Qiao Huizhu's comprehension.
• Yan Ling rebuked Hong Luan for urging her to challenge He Pingsheng, pointing out that he had effortlessly defeated a cultivator ranked near her on the Sacred Fire Ranking.
• He Pingsheng continued cultivating and guarding Qiao Huizhu as five years passed and the vortex above her grew nearly solid.
• Qiao Huizhu awakened, told He Pingsheng she had comprehended a creation Divine Ability, and joined him in opening the barrier to the third area.
• Qiao Huizhu demonstrated Boundless Creation by growing a low-grade seed into a medicinal plant within a dozen breaths, astonishing He Pingsheng.

He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu reached the third passage after learning more about Qiao Huizhu’s Boundless Creation Divine Ability. There, the gathered cultivators invited He Pingsheng to attempt a trial that none of them had passed.

• Qiao Huizhu told He Pingsheng that she had broken through two layers and described how her Boundless Creation Divine Ability could alter laws, heal injuries, and transform the five elements.
• He Pingsheng asked Qiao Huizhu to inscribe the Divine Ability, but she said she needed more time to understand it.
• A month later, He Pingsheng and Qiao Huizhu arrived at the third passage, where about two hundred cultivators were gathered.
• The elephant-trunked cultivator questioned He Pingsheng about his Sacred Fire Ranking, and He Pingsheng said he had entered with a purchased Token and was not ranked in the top ten thousand.
• Han Jingshu introduced herself as the only human in the ranking’s top three hundred, while He Pingsheng identified himself as the Rogue Cultivator Dragon Hibernate.
• The elephant-trunked cultivator invited Dragon Hibernate to try the third trial, which none of the gathered cultivators had passed.