Chapter Summaries

Su Mo gathered the Academy disciples and Girl to explore a blessed land, bringing Black Horse and waking First Senior Brother from an unusual dream so he could join them. The nine-member group left the Academy in a carriage, just before the Dean returned and found everyone gone.

• Su Mo persuaded the disciples to join Fourth Senior Brother and Fifth Senior Brother on an expedition to explore a blessed land, and invited Girl along.
• The group agreed to bring Black Horse and went to First Senior Brother's room to wake him using a jade slip.
• They entered First Senior Brother's dream, where they found him as a sleeping child hugging a memorial tablet, then woke him when the tablet's eyes opened.
• First Senior Brother agreed to join the expedition, and the nine people departed the Academy in Black Horse's carriage.
• The Dean returned with an immortal herb, found the Academy empty, and sighed.

Su Mo intervened when cultivators stole from a mortal vendor, then used the incident as a pretext to raid the Setting Sun Sect’s Blessed Land. Meanwhile, Great Hua’s emperor resolved to seek a way to survive the coming calamity, the Dean warned that time was running out, and eerie figures emerged from a fissure searching for the Netherworld Lord.

• Su Mo paid a vendor for goods taken by cultivators and told him to stay home for a while.
• Su Mo and his senior brothers decided to visit the Setting Sun Sect’s Blessed Land to recover their principal and interest.
• The emperor told the golden dragon phantom he would gamble everything to find a way to save the people, despite the bleak future it foresaw.
• The Dean consumed the borrowed immortal herb and warned that Heaven’s Final Calamity was coming, with no Confucian Sage left to sever heaven.
• Eerie figures emerged from a fissure at the edge of the sky and asked where the Netherworld Lord was.

Su Mo learned that his fourth and fifth senior brothers cultivated the Feng Shui Dao and knew the locations of many sects’ ancestral grounds. Their discussion of burial sites left everyone awkwardly avoiding the brothers’ suggestion that they all be buried together.

• Su Mo asked why sect ancestral grounds were separate from their sects, and his fourth and fifth senior brothers explained that they knew the locations of ancestral grounds across the land.
• Gu Yu told Su Mo that the fourth and fifth senior brothers cultivated the Feng Shui Dao, which they used to read earth veins and locate blessed places.
• Su Mo asked where the Academy’s ancestral ground was, prompting his brothers to regard him as a promising figure in their trade.
• Su Mo asked his fellow disciples for their real names, and Sixth Senior Sister revealed that hers was Er Niu before Gu Yu urged her to keep it secret.
• The fourth senior brother described a burial site on Hengduan Peak, and the fourth and fifth senior brothers proposed that everyone be buried there together.

Su Mo and the others searched a barren mountainside for a rumored grand tomb, while Fourth Senior Brother and Fifth Senior Brother revised their unreliable map. Su Mo used Confucian words of truth to make a shovel dig and then opened a tunnel, leaving the group facing the tomb entrance.

• Su Mo questioned whether the tomb beneath the setting-sun landscape belonged to the Setting Sun Sect, prompting Fourth Senior Brother and Fifth Senior Brother to correct their map of ancestral burial grounds.
• After the group confirmed the tomb likely did not belong to the Setting Sun Sect, Gu Yu told them to dig, and Su Mo summoned a Luoyang Shovel with the Confucian Dao.
• Su Mo made the Luoyang Shovel dig by itself, astonishing everyone.
• At the alluring figure's suggestion, Su Mo spoke another word of truth to open the tomb, but Great Calamity warned him about inviting karma.
• The ground collapsed and revealed a dim tunnel.

A passage opened into the Divine Tomb, the other side of the Divine Realm, drawing powerful figures toward Great Hua. Su Mo and his companions descended through the passage and reached a massive stone gate, which opened by itself as Su Mo approached.

• An elderly man recognized that the True Divine Realm had opened and hurried with his disciple toward Great Hua, explaining that its other side was called the Divine Tomb.
• An elderly woman told the girl in purple that the Divine Realm's other side had opened and insisted they enter in their true bodies.
• Su Mo and his companions examined the newly opened passage, then entered it with Girl and Luo Yin while Black Horse stayed behind.
• After walking downward for about an hour, Gu Yu led the group to an enormous ancient stone gate that resisted their attempts to open it.
• As Su Mo approached the gate, it rumbled and slowly opened on its own.

Su Mo and the others were swept through the Ancient Stone Gate and found themselves in an unfamiliar part of the Divine Realm. The group stood on a stone bridge over black water as eternal lamps lit the way wherever Su Mo stepped.

• The Ancient Stone Gate opened as Su Mo approached, but he and the others agreed not to enter and turned to leave.
• The black barrier suddenly swallowed Su Mo, the little girl, and the Academy group, while a strange man appeared and warned that the Divine Realm was no place for humans.
• Su Mo woke on a stone floor and checked that the little girl and the others were safe.
• Su Mo recognized the Divine Realm's aura, and the group realized they were on a stone bridge surrounded by darkness and unfathomable black water.
• Su Mo asked everyone to wait, then walked forward as eternal lamps lit along the bridge with each step.

Su Mo and his companions entered the Divine Tomb, the vast and dangerous side of the Divine Realm said to hold the secret of the gods’ fall and eternal life. As Su Mo led them across a bridge lined with memorial pillars, he saw the names of those who had died in the Heavenly Cataclysm and wondered what choice he would make if such a day came again.

• First Senior Brother explained that the Divine Tomb had appeared only once before and that its secrets might offer a path beyond Questioning the Void.
• Su Mo discovered that the bridge’s oil lamps lit only when he approached, and he took the lead while asking Luo Yin to watch over the little girl.
• Sixth Senior Sister found an inscription honoring Yu Weisheng, a sword cultivator who fell during the Heavenly Cataclysm.
• Su Mo found another inscription honoring Chu Heng, who protected more than seven hundred thousand people before falling in the same catastrophe.
• Su Mo realized that every pillar along the bridge bore an epitaph and wondered whether he could follow the predecessors’ example if the catastrophe returned.

Su Mo found two handkerchiefs bearing Girl’s handwriting on the river and continued with her to the end of the stone bridge, where they met the Confucian Sage. He sat down to play the Sage’s unfinished game, then secretly asked Great Calamity to teach him how to play.

• Luo Yin noticed Su Mo was troubled, but he said nothing and led the group onward across the bridge.
• Sixth Senior Sister spotted a handkerchief in the river, and Su Mo found Girl’s handwriting embroidered on it: “You’re here...”
• A second handkerchief floated to Su Mo, bearing the message, “I’m waiting for you at the end of the long river...”
• Girl took Su Mo’s hand and walked beside him as the group passed thousands of Eternal Lamps and reached the end of the bridge.
• The group met an illusory Confucian Sage, and Su Mo recognized him from a remnant of his consciousness in the Ghost Domain.
• Su Mo agreed to play the Confucian Sage’s unfinished game, then asked Great Calamity for help, prompting the Sage to accuse him of cheating.

Great Calamity took Su Mo’s place in a game with the Confucian Sage Remnant, but she abruptly ended the match and received all of the remnant’s accumulated soul power. She fell into a deep sleep, leaving Su Mo and the others to leave the Divine Realm without her protection, while the remnant dissipated beside their unfinished game.

• Great Calamity appeared beside Su Mo, and the little girl surprised everyone by revealing that she could see her.
• Great Calamity played the Confucian Sage Remnant and warned him not to involve Su Mo in his plans.
• Great Calamity grew impatient, but the Confucian Sage Remnant transferred all his soul power to her, forcing her into a deep sleep.
• Su Mo felt panic at losing Great Calamity’s protection, then left through a door with the little girl, Gu Yu, and the others.
• The Confucian Sage Remnant returned to the empty table, placed a final black stone, sang an opera, and dissipated before finishing the song.

Cultivators discovered a passage to the Divine Realm in a peaceful village and killed every villager to keep its location secret. The unmarried woman died cursing them as the village was left in ruins.

• An elderly cultivator and dozens of cultivators found a passage to the Divine Realm in the village.
• The clan chief pleaded for the villagers’ lives, but an immortal sword killed him.
• The strapping young fellow charged the cultivators with a sickle and was killed before he could see the unmarried woman again.
• The villagers fought back, but the cultivators slaughtered them all.
• The unmarried woman cursed the cultivators before an immortal sword pierced her chest.

Su Mo and his companions chose to leave the Divine Realm and helped the little girl learn to fly while searching for an exit. Elsewhere, a little spirit ginseng was lured onto a stony patch with spirit soil and captured by cultivators.

• Su Mo and the others agreed to seek an exit from the Divine Realm instead of exploring for opportunities.
• Su Mo used Confucian Dao words to give the little girl wings, then flew with her after she became frightened at the height.
• The group flew through the Divine Realm while searching for an exit.
• A little spirit ginseng emerged from the earth and cautiously approached a pile of spirit soil on a stony patch.
• The little spirit ginseng ate the spirit soil and tried to wrap some up for its mother.
• Several cultivators surrounded the little spirit ginseng, which realized it could not burrow away and regretted disobeying its mother.

The little spirit ginseng watched its mother die protecting it from hunters, then feared that Su Mo and his companions would take her body. Su Mo buried the mother in the hole the little spirit ginseng had dug, and the surviving spirit ginseng remembered him as he left.

• The bearded man and his companions cornered the little spirit ginseng, but its mother attacked them and helped it escape.
• A hunter shot the mother with a spirit arrow as she shielded her child, and the little spirit ginseng carried her into the grass before burying her.
• Su Mo and his companions found the dead mother and the grieving little spirit ginseng, which pleaded with them not to take her body.
• Su Mo gently placed the mother in the little spirit ginseng's grave and covered her with earth, explaining that she had no medicinal potency left.
• After Su Mo and the others left, the little spirit ginseng returned to its mother's grave, burrowed beside her, and remembered the white-robed, white-haired man.

Su Mo and his companions found an exit from the Godless Divine Realm after Fourth and Fifth Senior Brothers mapped its outskirts and theorized that its center held a dangerous Ghost Gate formation. After leaving, Su Mo felt watched again, and the group emerged into an eerily silent village.

• Fourth Senior Brother and Fifth Senior Brother showed the group their map and explained that the Divine Realm's central region might be a Ghost Gate where Nine Dragons Paying Homage brought great calamity.
• Su Mo urged the two seniors to investigate the formation, but they refused and hurried toward the exit instead.
• First Senior Brother confirmed the black, rippling gate led outside, and the group passed through it.
• As he left, Su Mo felt the same unsettling sensation of being watched that he had experienced inside the Divine Realm.
• The group noticed footprints in the sloping tunnel, then emerged to find a village quiet to the extreme.

Su Mo discovered that cultivators had slaughtered a village to conceal a newly opened Divine Realm entrance, and the revelation stirred a strange power and a vengeful spirit within him. After viewing the village’s memories and assuring the Academy disciples he was fine, he sent them back to the Academy and chose to return to the Divine Realm alone.

• Su Mo noticed the village had no cooking smoke or people, and found that its homes had been untouched for several days.
• First Senior Brother found an Aura-Concealing Formation Disk, and Su Mo concluded the villagers had been killed to hide the Divine Realm entrance he had opened.
• Su Mo’s Dao heart showed signs of succumbing to demons, and he summoned the vengeful spirit of a murdered village woman.
• Su Mo used the Memory-River Spirit Jade to reveal that several cultivators had slaughtered the village after the ground collapsed and exposed a Passageway.
• Su Mo told the Academy disciples to return to the Academy while he went back to the Divine Realm.

Su Mo chose to return to the Divine Realm with Gu Yu to settle the karma surrounding the village massacre, despite his serious Great Dao wound. He grasped a trace of karmic power and began following the vengeful spirit’s connection to her killers, while his new composure unsettled Gu Yu.

• Third Senior Sister insisted on accompanying Su Mo, while he sent the little girl and the others back to the Academy with Luo Yin.
• Fourth Senior Brother warned Su Mo to avoid several perilous places, especially the site where nine dragons bowed in worship, before the carriage left with everyone but Gu Yu.
• After the others departed, Su Mo coughed blood and revealed that his Great Dao wound had been worsening as he suppressed it.
• Su Mo wrestled with the causes and effects behind the village massacre, and his Confucian Robe repeatedly changed from white to black as he contemplated karma.
• Su Mo concluded that he was karma itself, sensed a trace of karmic power, and reached out as if grasping the link between the vengeful spirit and her killers.
• Su Mo told Gu Yu to step back because there would soon be no room left to stand where they were.

Su Mo revealed his second Dao, the Ghost Dao, and used the Book of Life and Death to send over a hundred vengeful spirits toward the Divine Realm. After Gu Yu helped him through the backlash, they set off for the Divine Realm, where a ruthless sword cultivator’s party headed deeper to find the Holy Maiden and deliver a broken sword to the Holy Sect.

• Su Mo told Gu Yu that when the Confucian Dao could not fulfill his wishes, he could use the Ghost Dao to replace rites with arms.
• Su Mo summoned the Book of Life and Death and used its Karmic Chain to direct over a hundred vengeful spirits toward the Divine Realm.
• Su Mo suffered a backlash from using the power of karma, and Gu Yu supported him as he prepared to enter the Divine Realm with her.
• An elderly sword cultivator told his surviving disciples that they would give a broken sword to the Holy Sect in exchange for its backing, dismissing the deaths of their companions and the rogue cultivators they had sacrificed.
• The elderly sword cultivator ordered his party to head deeper into the Divine Realm, expecting to find the Holy Maiden’s party near an altar.

A group of sword cultivators tried and failed to dispel the mysterious “cause” marks that appeared on their foreheads after retrieving the Holy Sect’s relics. Meanwhile, a hundred vengeful spirits entered the Divine Realm and killed Mo Dao as they continued toward its center.

• An elderly sword cultivator and his disciples discovered blue-black “cause” marks on their foreheads and failed to cut them away or refine them.
• After hearing eerie voices while refining the marks, the sword cultivators decided to deliver the Holy Sect’s relics and ask the Holy Sect’s party to remove the curse.
• A hundred vengeful spirits entered the Divine Realm, chanting that they were neither living nor dead and were bound by unsevered cause and effect.
• Mo Dao mocked a wounded young man who had vowed to avenge his junior sister, then attacked the approaching vengeful spirits.
• Mo Dao collapsed and died when his saber struck the spirits, who stepped over his body and continued on their way.

Su Mo and Gu Yu trapped an Ancient Sword Sect party in a Dragon-Trapping Formation so the Vengeful Spirits pursuing them could catch up. The elderly sword cultivator recognized Su Mo’s connection to the curse and led his disciples in trying to break free.

• The elderly sword cultivator led his exhausted disciples toward the Divine Realm’s center as the curse’s strange voice grew clearer and the oppressive void slowed their progress.
• The elderly sword cultivator triggered hidden formation plates, raising a Dragon-Trapping Formation around his party.
• Gu Yu and Su Mo appeared outside the formation, and Gu Yu explained that Sixth Senior Sister’s plates could hold a Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator for a quarter of an hour.
• Su Mo said he had trapped the party to settle a thread of karma, and the elderly sword cultivator realized Su Mo was behind the curse.
• The elderly sword cultivator ordered his disciples to break the formation and attacked its golden lines with sword light.

Su Mo led the Vengeful Spirits of a slaughtered village against the sword cultivators who had killed them, while the Fish Life Disk repelled their assault and restored their memories. Though fear made most of the spirits retreat, one female ghost chose to attack again and dissipated against the golden fish.

• Su Mo reminded the trapped cultivators that the approaching Vengeful Spirits were the Mortals they had slaughtered in the village at the Divine Realm’s entrance.
• The elderly sword cultivator declared that the strong had the right to kill the weak, and Su Mo sent the spirits through the formation to seek vengeance.
• The spirits’ attacks were checked by the elderly cultivator’s Fish Life Disk, and Gu Yu recognized the Buddhist artifact as a weapon against ghosts.
• The elderly sword cultivator used the Fish Life Disk’s Golden Cores to scatter the ghostly mist, awakening the spirits’ memories and their fear of Immortal Cultivators.
• A female ghost thanked Su Mo, then charged a golden fish and vanished into smoke.

Su Mo watched the resentful ghosts overcome their fear of Immortals and fight the cultivators who had slaughtered them, affirming his resolve to protect mortals. As the ghosts sacrificed themselves against the golden twin fish, their Mortal Will awakened across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

• A male resentful ghost followed the Vengeful Spirit’s example and charged the twin fish, but dissipated in blue smoke.
• Su Mo turned to leave with Gu Yu, and his black Confucian Robe faded back to white as he struggled with his lack of power.
• An elderly resentful ghost shrieked for Su Mo to wait, then charged the cultivators; its sacrifice prompted the other ghosts to kneel and salute Su Mo.
• Su Mo accepted the ghosts’ farewell salute and bowed back, while the purple-robed girl watched him and saw mortals differently for the first time.
• The hundred-odd ghosts charged the sword cultivators, and their attacks repeatedly struck the twin fish as they perished.
• Su Mo told Gu Yu that protecting mortals was the meaning of his second Dao, as Mortal Will awakened across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.