Recaps

Wang Quan used [Days Past in a Single Thought] to recruit imprisoned evil beings and bring them to the Third-Layer World on a great black banner. The two-headed youth became the Yin and Yang Bird-Head King, and the newly arrived rebels attacked the local evil beings who refused to join them.

• Wang Quan spent five million strands of Dharma Power to travel to the imprisoned evil beings and persuade them to follow him to a new world.
• The great tree arrived in the Third-Layer World, and the evil beings climbed aboard and wove themselves into a banner that broke through the void.
• The black banner pierced the boat carrying evil beings and descended toward Wang Quan, who sent the two-headed youth to carry its pole.
• The banner pierced the youth's spine, transforming him into the Yin and Yang Bird-Head King, while Wang Quan's smoke cloud entered his body.
• Wang Quan told the Bird-Head King that the smoke cloud would be refined when he died, and the Bird-Head King began gathering underlings to protect himself.
• When the Third-Layer World natives refused to rebel, the imprisoned evil beings attacked them and cried, "Get them! Eat them!"

Wang Quan led the Second-Layer evils in subduing the native evils and began teaching them the Fundamental Method of the Way of Idiocy to make them happy and stronger. As the rebels processed captives through his magic implement, a force arrived to challenge their uprising.

• The Second-Layer evils overwhelmed the native evils, bound them, and swore allegiance to Wang Quan, while the Yin and Yang Bird-Head King resented their loyalty to him.
• Wang Quan sent the evils to capture others and build his temple, while ordering the Bird-Head King to fly the rebellion banner and lead their future campaigns.
• The Bird-Head King defeated dozens of evils who arrived by boat and brought them before Wang Quan, who decided to teach them the Fundamental Method of the Way of Idiocy.
• Wang Quan forced a native evil to circulate the method until it became happy, then made a tent-like magic implement that imprinted and circulated the method for other evils.
• The Second-Layer evils began pushing captured natives through the implement, but black clouds and war drums announced an approaching force that condemned their rebellion.

Wang Quan watched the Third-Layer World’s army pursue the Bird-Head King and saw second-layer evil beings spark rebellions within its ranks. As seventy-two rebel kings emerged, a voice revealed that the False Reincarnation King was the army’s supreme commander, leaving Wang Quan bewildered.

• The Yin and Yang Bird-Head King tried to persuade the Third-Layer World’s army that his rebellion was harmless, but the natives charged, forcing him and the second-layer evil beings to flee.
• Wang Quan disguised himself as a breeze and observed the army, while some second-layer evil beings hid in temples and one became the Wondrous Tree King by killing gods and devils.
• A second-layer evil being infiltrated the native army, sparked a fight, and declared itself the Blood River King; dozens of others followed, splitting the army into rebel factions.
• Wang Quan released the Seventy-Two Paths of Smoke and Dust around the rebel kings, hoping their deaths would strengthen it.
• A voice predicted the rebel kings’ flagpoles and Wang Quan’s Seventy-Two Paths of Smoke and Dust could become twelfth-tier Magic Treasures, then identified itself as the False Reincarnation King, the army’s supreme commander.

Wang Quan discovered that the False Reincarnation King was formed from the obsessions of several Reincarnation Kings and wanted to explore the Third-Layer World with him. When a punitive army approached to destroy the False Reincarnation King, Wang Quan fled instead of standing by his new companion.

• The False Reincarnation King revealed that he had been the Ninth Reincarnation King and was now a combination of the obsessions of the First through Ninth Reincarnation Kings and an unknown Reincarnation King.
• The False Reincarnation King explained that he had seized a rebel banner and wanted to search the Third-Layer World for a landmark from his unknown obsession's homeland.
• Wang Quan persuaded the False Reincarnation King to become his companion and proposed that they build a safe zone with help from the army's troops.
• The False Reincarnation King warned that the legitimate army was approaching to capture and annihilate him because he had been both the commander and the last rebel leader.
• Wang Quan declined to fight alongside the False Reincarnation King and sped away to explore the Third-Layer World alone.

Wang Quan escaped the battle that seemingly killed the fake Reincarnation King and began building a third-story pavilion in a remote area. After capturing and magically subduing local evil creatures to serve as laborers, he concealed them when a native army approached and urged them to pray it would pass by.

• Wang Quan fled the fake Reincarnation King's fight with a terrifying force, then escaped again when a beam of white light destroyed the mountain beneath him.
• Wang Quan traveled a million miles, inspected the barren region, and sent paper figures to capture local evil creatures as workers.
• Wang Quan used the Idiocy Artifact and a straw-hat artifact to clear the captured creatures' minds, make them loyal, and teach them how to build a third-story pavilion.
• Wang Quan directed the creatures to start making adobe bricks while he planned to establish a safe zone and gain greater privileges.
• A large native army advanced toward the construction site, so Wang Quan hid the workers with gray smoke and told them to pray the army would ignore them.

Wang Quan repeatedly tried to build a tower and establish a safe zone, but passing armies kept disrupting him. After turning to brutal lashings to force the evil beings to work, he stored them in his Hundred-Treasure Pouch and faced the approaching armies with a new attack.

• Wang Quan's spell was broken by the Reincarnation King's army, so he fled with an evil being that begged him for help.
• Wang Quan learned the army was campaigning against the seventy-two rebel kings, then transformed captured evil beings into adobe-brickmaking clans and put them to work on a tower.
• Wang Quan's repeated tower-building attempts failed whenever armies or rebel kings appeared, and he grew furious.
• Wang Quan named the first evil being [Flagellator] and gave it whipping techniques to force the others to work.
• When another enormous army approached, Wang Quan gathered the evil beings into his Hundred-Treasure Pouch and prepared to unleash Sunshine-Universal Illumination.

Wang Quan summoned a projection of the Present World's great sun, which burned evil beings across the Third-Layer World and left the area around him a white wasteland. He put the surviving evil beings to work and wondered why the world had shown him no favor for killing so many of them.

• Wang Quan used his privilege to summon the great sun, whose light scorched evil beings throughout the Third-Layer World and erased those nearest him.
• Surviving creatures of the Old World rejoiced at the sunlight, then mourned when the world's own faint golden glow was destroyed by evil beings.
• Wang Quan released [Flagellator] and its companions from the Hundred-Treasure Pouch and learned they had been beaten by the other evil beings.
• Wang Quan ordered [Flagellator] to whip the evil beings and made them dig pits and build pavilions with the scorched soil.
• Wang Quan sat on the Cloud of Auspiciousness and wondered why killing so many evil beings had earned him no favor from the world.

Wang Quan built a tower and established the Third-Layer World's safe zone, linking it to the Second-Layer World and other realms. After completing the four-way access achievement, he found that the world offered him no favor and wondered if it had died.

• Wang Quan ordered the [Flagellator] to whip the native evils into finishing the tower's first floor.
• Wang Quan and the evils completed the three-story tower, and paper people carved Daoist scriptures while he blessed them with the [Self-Crossing Scripture].
• Wang Quan performed a ritual to connect the Third-Layer World's safe zone to the Second-Layer World's safe zone, while watching for an attack.
• Milky-white light poured from the tower, driving the native evils away until the [Flagellator] whipped them into submission.
• Wang Quan discovered that the safe zone restored his Dharma Power, was expanding, and connected the Underworld, Present World, and Second-Layer safe zone.
• Wang Quan completed the four-way access achievement but received no favor from the world, leading him to wonder whether it had died.

Wang Quan discovered that the Third-Layer World had contaminated his body and perceptions, then learned from Beitang Xue that safe zones could not fully cleanse such corruption. He allowed Beitang Xue and her companions to establish safe zones across the White Land, while planning to pursue his own goal of completing the four connections.

• Wang Quan realized the Third-Layer World’s contamination had made him treat evils as farm workers, so he sealed his senses and used scriptures to cleanse himself inside the safe zone.
• Beitang Xue and several cultivators entered Wang Quan’s safe zone and asked permission to settle on the White Land.
• Beitang Xue explained that Third-Layer contamination could only be fully removed by returning to the Present World for purification with the great sun and [Great Sun Essence].
• Wang Quan agreed that Beitang Xue and her companions could build safe zones around his, since he had completed the four connections and saw no disadvantage in sharing the White Land.

Beitang Xue and the other Golden Core cultivators discovered that Wang Quan’s safe zone could cleanse Evil from them, unlike their own. After purging the corruption, Beitang Xue offered to connect Wang Quan with her disciple in the Far Western Land.

• Beitang Xue found that her bronze courtyard safe zone still harmed an Evil being, but it did not cleanse the Evil inside her or her companions.
• Beitang Xue and the other Golden Core cultivators visited Wang Quan’s safe zone, where black smoke rose from them as it drew out the Evil within their bodies.
• Wang Quan stayed guarded while he and the visitors silently waited for the safe zone to cleanse them.
• After his body returned to normal, Wang Quan briefly went outside and discovered that the Third-Layer World’s Evil quickly affected him again.
• Beitang Xue finished cleansing the Evil within herself and offered to have her disciple in the Far Western Land contact Wang Quan.

Wang Quan learned that Beitang Xue and the other Golden Core Cultivators wanted to know how his safe zone purged evil, but they could neither hear nor see the [Self-Crossing Scripture] when he recited it. They agreed to use his safe zone for cleansing in exchange for recitations of the People-Crossing Scripture or Dharma Power, with the group settling on steep payment terms.

• Beitang Xue offered Wang Quan a magic treasure if he could help explain how his safe zone purged evil, and Wang Quan tried reciting the [Self-Crossing Scripture].
• Beitang Xue and the other Golden Core Cultivators said they could neither hear nor see Wang Quan while he recited the scripture, and they ruled out the safe zone's four-way connection as the sole explanation for its powers.
• Wang Quan agreed to let the cultivators purge their evil aura in his safe zone if they paid for each visit.
• Beitang Xue proposed ten thousand recitations of the People-Crossing Scripture, and Wang Quan raised the price to a hundred thousand after suggesting that cultivators could grow extra mouths.
• Wang Quan set a payment of ten million strands of Dharma Power for those who did not know the scripture, and the cultivators bargained it up to twenty million before both sides agreed.

Wang Quan’s methods helped the White Land grow into a vast safe stronghold, while he met [Ghost Emperor Heart] in the Underworld after being summoned. [Ghost Emperor Heart] said it was leaving Emperor’s Tomb City for a remote place and hinted they might never meet again.

• Golden Core Cultivators joined safe zones around Wang Quan’s zone, forming a stronghold of fifty or sixty zones that cleansed cultivators of evil in exchange for Dharma Power or scripture recitations.
• A Dao Seal Golden Core cultivator watched evil creatures being cultivated to draw evil aura from the White Land and learned that Wang Quan had devised the method.
• Wang Quan left the Third-Layer World for Stone City after seeing Beitang Xue and the other cultivators establish the safe stronghold.
• [Ghost Emperor Heart] contacted Wang Quan through Ruo Jinghong and arranged to meet him in the Underworld.
• [Ghost Emperor Heart] told Wang Quan it was leaving Emperor’s Tomb City for a remote place, and Wang Quan joked that it should give him a Daoist scripture or Magic Treasure before admitting its business.

[Ghost Emperor Heart] warned Wang Quan that divinations foretold a coming war spanning the Underworld and the Present World, then left to seek refuge with old friends. Wang Quan arranged for ghosts and monsters from City No. 95 to accompany him, while the previous city lord was mistakenly chosen as cannon fodder.

• [Ghost Emperor Heart] told Wang Quan to keep a low profile and use his authorizations to summon the [Sky Patrol Magic Treasure] and the [Drowning Dao Court] quickly if enemies appeared, because war would soon make them unavailable for ordinary summons.
• Wang Quan doubted that Underworld unrest could affect the united cultivators of the Present World, but [Ghost Emperor Heart] warned that resentment among the Demon Race and new-method cultivators could ignite conflict across both worlds.
• [Ghost Emperor Heart] offered to guide and shelter Wang Quan if he became threatened, then asked to take ghosts and monsters from City No. 95 as cannon fodder.
• Wang Quan ordered loyal ghosts and monsters to gather strong candidates from the alleys, and they selected the previous city lord because they considered him an unproductive outsider.
• The previous city lord mistook his roommates' attention for interest in his hidden identity or body, then was carried to a crowded crossroads where he recognized several ruthless ghosts and monsters.

[Ghost Emperor Heart] led the former city lord and a procession of ghosts and monsters to build a city in the Underworld, only to discover that the destination was already tied to Wang Quan and his people. Unwilling to remain on Wang Quan’s turf, [Ghost Emperor Heart] asked about fleeing elsewhere and was offered a boat.

• [Ghost Emperor Heart] promised the ghosts and monsters grand homes in a new city, while the former city lord secretly planned to report Wang Quan for building it illegally.
• The former city lord and the others were forced to haul bundles and carts along the same route he had taken while fleeing, and ravens repeatedly caught escapees and returned them.
• [Ghost Emperor Heart] arrived at a familiar city lord’s residence and learned from a ghost god that Foundation Establishment cultivators serving under Wang Quan had become untouchable bandits in the region.
• [Ghost Emperor Heart] realized Wang Quan had already established influence there through his Dao companion and subordinates, and asked to leave before Wang Quan found him.
• The ghost god offered to arrange a boat to send [Ghost Emperor Heart] fleeing overnight, and [Ghost Emperor Heart] questioned the plan.

[Ghost Emperor Heart] prepared to flee with the ghosts aboard a supernatural ship, hoping to avoid meeting Wang Quan, the Flower-Scatter Daoist. City Lord Gui Mie 996 tried to gather evidence against Wang Quan but learned his ancestral residence was being taken along, and the ship arrived as the ghosts lined up to board.

• The ghost god explained that the ship had been forged from a heaven-born treasure bearing the Flower-Scatter Daoist's mark and carried the power and lingering obsessions of three dead powerhouses.
• [Ghost Emperor Heart] insisted they leave immediately, and the ghost god went to fetch the ship while [Ghost Emperor Heart] gathered the ghosts.
• City Lord Gui Mie 996 secretly recorded himself accusing Wang Quan of illegal construction and abduction, then endured a little ghost's lashes while preserving his evidence.
• The ghost god told City Lord Gui Mie 996 that the new city lord had lost a bet to Lord Flower-Scatter and planned to take the city lord's residence when leaving.
• The ghosts loaded the residence onto carts and prepared to board the ship, while [Ghost Emperor Heart] considered fleeing to the Far South or Far East.
• A bone-winged ship arrived with a weeping, flower-holding figure at its bow, blood tears becoming dragons, and a towering ring-headed giant on its deck.

Gui Mie 996 fled the Underworld aboard the Terminator, carrying [Ghost Emperor Heart] into the Third-Layer World to hide from the Flower-Scatter Daoist. In Stone City, Wang Quan saw that the city was prospering but discovered deep resentment among the Monsters and New-Method Cultivators, leaving him puzzled about their dissatisfaction.

• Gui Mie 996 boarded the Terminator and planned to hide in the Third-Layer World, believing the Flower-Scatter Daoist could not reach him for centuries.
• The Terminator carried [Ghost Emperor Heart] through the Present World and Second-Layer World into the Third-Layer World, where his golden light destroyed nearby creatures of Evil.
• The Terminator brought [Ghost Emperor Heart] to a vast white safe zone, and he decided to descend and hide there.
• Wang Quan surveyed Stone City's growth and noticed that Monsters resented their labor, scarce resources, and lack of suitable mates.
• Wang Quan found New-Method Cultivators even more resentful, with some cutting corners or sabotaging work, and wondered why they were dissatisfied despite their unusually safe conditions.

Wang Quan disguised himself as a New-Method Cultivator and discovered their resentment came from wanting rapid cultivation and freedom from labor, despite lacking the means to achieve their ambitions. He used his authority to spare them and Demon Race cultivators from frontline combat while forcing them to cultivate and worship under threat of brutal punishment.

• Wang Quan disguised himself and joined New-Method Cultivators working in the fields to learn why they resented their circumstances.
• A New-Method Cultivator complained that they should receive spiritual resources and serve as cultivators rather than farm for martial artists.
• Wang Quan realized that New-Method Cultivators lacked the ability to obtain the resources they demanded and were meant to serve Orthodox Cultivators as laborers and expendable materials.
• Wang Quan returned to the Fire Mulberry Tree and changed the New-Method Cultivators' and spirits' assigned work, removing their opportunity to fight on the front lines.
• Wang Quan provided dense spiritual energy, spirit stones, and compulsory daily cultivation time, then ordered New-Method Cultivators and Demon Race cultivators to worship constantly or face severe punishment.

Wang Quan explained his new rules to Ruo Jinghong as New-Method Cultivators and monsters were forced through exhausting rounds of worship, with those who resisted consigned to labor as souls and corpses. He insisted he had given them a chance through abundant cultivation resources, while Ruo Jinghong questioned whether they would regret their treatment.

• Ruo Jinghong asked Wang Quan why he had changed the rules after New-Method Cultivators and monsters complained about avoiding the front lines.
• Wang Quan and Ruo Jinghong argued over how to deal with those who refused work, while Big Wind-Driller and Little Wind-Driller led cultivators and monsters in repeated rounds of worship fueled by potent medicine.
• When some worshippers tried to leave, Orthodox Cultivators captured their souls in Human Sovereign Banners, where hired ghosts forced them to train in Yin Soul Formations.
• Zombies carried corpses underground, where workers processed them and zombies refined new companions.
• Ruo Jinghong asked whether the people would regret their treatment, and Wang Quan said they would eventually be content because they could cultivate in a spiritual-energy haven and become stronger.

Wang Quan and Ruo Jinghong decided to punish New-Method Cultivators and monsters who wasted the chance they had been given, turning their bodies into materials and laborers. Stone City was transformed into a system where the living had to worship celestial forces to earn points and avoid being taken for processing.

• Wang Quan explained to Ruo Jinghong that he had given the New-Method Cultivators and spirits a chance, but they had failed to value it.
• Ruo Jinghong proposed processing the offenders into zombies, vengeful souls, Flesh Fields, and White Bone Strongmen, and Wang Quan told her to set up facilities in remote locations across the four cardinal directions.
• The next day, Stone City's sky was filled with organs used to process materials and Human Sovereign Banners that darkened the city and held vengeful souls.
• Shadow souls seized monsters and New-Method Cultivators who failed to worship diligently and dragged them to the processing artifacts.
• Wang Quan announced that New-Method Cultivators and monsters had to worship day and night to earn points, and numbers appeared on their foreheads that counted down to their processing.

Wang Quan used the Great Sun’s projection to confront a dangerous being in the Third-Layer World, then escaped back to the Present World. Mistaking the great ship Terminator for Wang Quan’s vessel, Black-Robed Ghost and other powerful beings pursued [Ghost Emperor Heart], and they decided to capture the ship first.

• Stone City and City No. 95 changed their rules, and seven or eight years passed as Wang Quan adjusted regulations across several safe zones.
• Wang Quan sensed a deadly threat in the Third-Layer World and used the Great Sun’s projection each year to illuminate it before returning to the Present World.
• With detection artifacts, Wang Quan saw a ghostlike black-robed being that threatened to catch him and seize his authority to summon the Great Sun.
• Black-Robed Ghost and more than a dozen powerful beings mistook the aura aboard Terminator for Wang Quan and demanded that [Ghost Emperor Heart] hand over the Great Sun’s projection authority.
• [Ghost Emperor Heart] fled aboard Terminator while Black-Robed Ghost and the others pursued, and they resolved to capture the ship before hunting Wang Quan again.

Over seven or eight years, Wang Quan’s annual Great Sun projections expanded the White Land, where Beitang Xue began refining a new sun with spirit monsters. Meanwhile, Wang Quan focused on his studies and the Underworld’s preparations for a Magic Treasure, and Ying Jiaren finally came to meet him.

• Wang Quan summoned the Great Sun once a year, weakening evil and expanding the White Land by a million li in every direction.
• Beitang Xue used [Big Face] and [Sun Flower Spirit] monsters to create a Great Sun Totem, and she told cultivators she hoped to refine it into a real Great Sun.
• Beitang Xue sold pairs of the spirit monsters to Golden Core Cultivators, who began developing the White Land and studying the evil beings that thrived there.
• Wang Quan continued studying Daoist Scriptures and cultivation methods while ghosts and monsters in City No. 95 gathered materials to refine a Magic Treasure.
• Ying Jiaren came to find Wang Quan when their agreed meeting time arrived.

Ying Jiaren reunited with Wang Quan and gave him a golden-bone combat method called [The Emperor Declares: Four Faces Look Down Upon the Eight Directions of Heaven]. Wang Quan determined that it was an incomplete Daoist Scripture, which allowed both of them to learn it.

• Wang Quan told Ying Jiaren about his years of study, his stalled progress, and his plans to refine Magic Treasures for his Three Heads and Six Arms form.
• Ying Jiaren described building eight model cities to spread Wang Quan’s approach to foundational development, and explained that Stone City’s dangers made it a poor place for newcomers to learn.
• Ying Jiaren gave Wang Quan a chest containing a golden skeleton inscribed with [The Emperor Declares: Four Faces Look Down Upon the Eight Directions of Heaven].
• Wang Quan recognized the inscription as an incomplete Daoist Scripture and explained that its incompleteness meant Ying Jiaren could learn it and pass it on.
• Wang Quan studied the scripture and found it was a complex combat method with principles resembling Three Heads and Six Arms.

Wang Quan mastered an incomplete Daoist Scripture and discussed future development plans with Ying Jiaren before she departed to seek its missing portion. After Ruo Jinghong confirmed that the necessary materials had been gathered, Wang Quan decided to begin refining a Magic Treasure immediately.

• Wang Quan mastered the incomplete Daoist Scripture and found that its multidirectional combat technique complemented [Three Heads and Six Arms].
• Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren examined the Fire Mulberry Tree and settled plans for their different approaches to developing the layered worlds.
• Wang Quan asked Ying Jiaren to look for bump-covered Spirit Monsters in Bitter Cold City and have them cultivate the [Way of Idiocy] Fundamental Method.
• Ying Jiaren agreed to meet Wang Quan every five or ten years and took the golden skeleton to search for the missing portion of [The Emperor Speaks: Gazing Imperiously upon the Four Sides and Eight Directions of Heaven].
• Ruo Jinghong reported that the Underworld had gathered enough materials, and Wang Quan decided to start refining a Magic Treasure immediately while she watched.

Ying Jiaren refined [Fire Crow Soldiers] with the Fire Mulberry Trees and investigated reports of Bump Spirit Monsters across the cities. She gathered more than a thousand of them to cultivate the [Way of Idiocy], leaving some eager and others resisting.

• Ying Jiaren used the Fire Mulberry Trees and incense cloud to refine [Fire Crow Soldiers] that would grow into ten battle formations and help wear away the Bitter Cold Land’s abnormal weather.
• After learning that Bump Spirit Monsters had appeared in Bitter Cold City, Ying Jiaren found that they were mostly present in cities with completed internal cycles.
• Ying Jiaren asked the rulers of those cities to send her Bump Spirit Monsters, and they delivered more than a thousand without requesting repayment.
• Ying Jiaren declared the Bump Spirit Monsters the foundation of the [Way of Idiocy] and ordered them to cultivate it.
• When one Bump Spirit Monster refused and killed herself, Ying Jiaren dismissed her corpse and taught the remaining monsters the method; some welcomed it while others sensed something was wrong.

The Officiant Daoist Nun and Dream Nun oversaw preparations across three thousand li to refine Wang Quan’s treasures, directing tens of millions of ghosts, monsters, and descendants of ghost gods. When the laborers grew tired, they called on Fairy Qin, who sent out a bronze courtyard filled with centaurs.

• Ghosts and monsters built deep trenches and pits, then covered towering steel constructs with flesh and fascia to create enormous working machines.
• The Officiant Daoist Nun fired cannons to begin the ceremony, while spirit monsters led the crowds in cheering for Lord Flower-Scatter and brought out materials for the treasures and weapons.
• The Officiant Daoist Nun directed the living beings as they laid bone ropes, planted banners, and gathered shadows across three thousand li.
• After three days and nights of organizing the work, Dream Nun contacted Fairy Qin for help when the ghosts and monsters grew tired.
• Fairy Qin said her troops were ready, enlarged a bronze courtyard in the air, and opened its gates as alluring centaurs charged out.