Chapter Summaries

Wang Quan gained the Second Layer ghost gods’ support for an eventual expedition to connect the Third Layer of the Underworld. When he returned to the Second-Layer World, he found Stone City’s safe zone transformed by the widespread worship of the Great Sun and the work of its inhabitants.

• The Second Layer ghost gods thanked Wang Quan for connecting worlds and agreed to help him reach the Third Layer, despite its dangerous inhabitants.
• Wang Quan proposed taking uncanny ghosts into the Third Layer, using his treasures and offerings to support the expedition, and set a departure window of six months to a year.
• After Wang Quan left, the ghost gods released the sealed beings, erased some of their memories, and departed unnoticed.
• Wang Quan returned to the mortal world, worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, restored his Lifebound Divine Ability, and strengthened his lantern.
• Wang Quan entered the Second-Layer World and found Stone City’s safe zone filled with Sun Flower Spirits, a spreading Fire Mulberry Tree, cultivated plants, inscribed scriptures, and cultivators reciting the People-Crossing Scripture.
• Wang Quan saw powerful evil beings disintegrate into ash as soon as they entered the safe zone.

Wang Quan learned how the Second Layer’s safe zone used the Fire Mulberry Tree to expand and protect its inhabitants, and considered whether the Totem School’s methods could help them survive Heaven’s Collapse. He discovered that the Dao Court had already created and spread a worship scripture, while the safe zone’s residents had chosen to venerate the tree instead.

• Wang Quan found that the Second Layer’s safe zone had grown self-sufficient by using the Fire Mulberry Tree’s inscribed leaves to strengthen its defenses and cultivate life.
• A Golden Core Cultivator showed Wang Quan the Fire Tree Whip, a weapon refined from the tree’s branches that could destroy evil beings.
• Wang Quan agreed that the cultivators could feed the Fire Mulberry Tree essence, qi, and spirit, but warned them not to create unjust laws to extract it.
• Wang Quan discovered that a worship scripture drew a small share of worshippers’ essence, qi, and spirit to the tree while granting them some of its power.
• Wang Quan considered promoting Totem School methods after Heaven’s Collapse, then learned from the Golden Core Cultivator that the Dao Court had already spread its own worship scripture and sent stone statues for veneration.

Wang Quan learned how the Dao Court’s stone people could serve as powerful totems and arranged for them to be worshiped across several settlements. In the Third-Layer World, he discovered an immense, battered metal giant, and Ruo Jinghong hurried him toward its head without explaining why.

• Wang Quan examined eighteen stone people and found their fading True Spirit Halos showed they were dying elders who could be used as totems.
• Wang Quan told a Golden Core cultivator to distribute and worship the statues, warning that each lineage or town should take only one.
• The cultivators divided the statues among themselves, while Wang Quan arranged for Officiant to place Stone City’s statues and learned Qian Xiuyue and Senior Sister Round Face were already worshiping theirs.
• Wang Quan entered the Third-Layer World and found cultivators repairing a gigantic, scarred metal figure that had been excavated.
• Ruo Jinghong flew down from the giant, wrapped Wang Quan in colorful smoke, and rushed him toward its head without answering his questions.

Wang Quan read Ghost Emperor Heart’s letter and learned that the damaged giant was the Mechanical Heavenly Emperor, a powerful treasure sent as compensation for taking his safe zone. With its control method in hand, Wang Quan set off with Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and Tongtong the Yellow Steed to inspect the control room.

• Ruo Jinghong brought Wang Quan inside the giant, where he saw cultivators and mechanical figures slowly repairing its mechanisms.
• Ruo Jinghong and Mei Niang wrestled over Tongtong the Yellow Steed until Wang Quan interrupted them and asked about the giant.
• Mei Niang explained that Ghost Emperor Heart had delivered the giant six months earlier and left Wang Quan a letter.
• Wang Quan read that Ghost Emperor Heart had sent him the Mechanical Heavenly Emperor and included instructions for controlling it.
• Wang Quan recognized similarities between the giant’s machinery and the Mechanical Brain taught by the Taboo Emperor, then headed to the control room with the others.

Wang Quan explored the Mechanical Emperor's head and discovered the ancient giant was a living emperor whose consciousness was sealed. He told the others he could not control it, though he had secretly gained control and lied after sensing something.

• Wang Quan searched the mechanical head with Clear Wind Slips into Dreams and concluded that its true control center was elsewhere.
• Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and the others failed to track Wang Quan after he vanished, then watched the Mechanical Emperor begin to revive.
• Wang Quan explained that the giant was a living Mechanical Emperor, an ancient emperor gravely wounded in war whose consciousness would not awaken for eight or ten thousand years.
• Wang Quan proposed building an even more terrifying Mechanical Emperor and said the group would head to the Fourth Layer in a few days.
• Wang Quan stayed deep in the Mechanical Emperor's head and concealed that he could control it, having sensed something that made him lie.

Wang Quan secretly gained partial control of Mechanical Emperor: Winter and learned fragments of its memories about the Abyss and the Great Unification Era. After discovering that repairing it would take ten thousand years, he prepared to leave for the Fourth-Layer World, but a battle among groups of Evil interrupted the departure.

• Wang Quan concealed his ability to control Mechanical Emperor: Winter and questioned its confused consciousness about the Abyss and its past.
• Mechanical Emperor: Winter described the Abyss as a prison created by a taboo being and recalled a war that shattered it.
• Wang Quan calculated that repairing Mechanical Emperor: Winter would take at least ten thousand years, during which its former consciousness would continue to collapse.
• Wang Quan decided to keep the devastating weapon in the Third-Layer World and use it only in a moment of crisis.
• Ruo Jinghong told Wang Quan that the Fourth-Layer World expedition was ready and that resources and over ten thousand lanterns had arrived.
• Wang Quan went to meet the Dao Seal Golden Cores, but saw groups of Evil charging into battle outside the safe zone.

Wang Quan and the Dao Seal Golden Core cultivators entered the Fourth-Layer World to establish a safe zone, but found Stone City destroyed and powerful evil creatures hunting its inhabitants. They took shelter in Mei Niang's underground cultivation grounds, where a survivor explained that the Great Terrors were powerful beings who had fallen from battles in the sky.

• Wang Quan and the others prepared an altar, sacrificed to the Fourth-Layer World, and entered it with the Dao Seal Golden Core cultivators riding on his Dharma Form of Heaven and Earth.
• Wang Quan and the cultivators found Stone City in ruins, where mountain-like evil creatures devoured other creatures.
• Ruo Jinghong led the group through the ruins and into Mei Niang's underground passage, where they decided to build a safe zone and investigate what had happened aboveground.
• The group reached a palace full of frightened evil creatures, which scattered and called them the Great Terror.
• Wang Quan tested a lantern on one creature, which endured its light for three breaths before turning to ash.
• A second evil creature told Wang Quan that powerful beings had fought in the sky, destroyed cities, and fallen into the area, where they preyed on others to recover their strength.

Wang Quan and the cultivators learned that Fourth Layer natives and the [Madmen] organization had left powerful evil beings alive, then cleared the underground palace and began building a safe zone. Their small safe zone failed to connect with the others, so they tried to expand it as cloud pillars burrowed toward them.

• Wang Quan and the others learned from the evil beings that Fourth Layer natives and [Madmen] had fought, leaving surviving evil beings scattered across the ruins.
• Wang Quan offered the remaining evil beings a chance to live as plants in exchange for submission, but they attacked and the Golden Core Cultivators exterminated them.
• Wang Quan and the cultivators hung lanterns and carved scriptures to create a one-foot-square safe zone in the underground palace.
• When the new safe zone failed to connect with the others and cloud pillars burrowed toward them, Ruo Jinghong urged everyone to keep expanding it.
• The cultivators used lanterns, scriptures, rites, and cleansing treasures to enlarge the safe zone, but their expressions grew ugly as it expanded.

Wang Quan discovered that the safe zone’s expansion was birthing powerful Evil creatures from the Abyss, so he traveled to the Taboo Emperor to ask how to stop them. He challenged the Emperor to a fight, but his defenses, combat abilities, and cultivation vanished before the youth asked him to repeat himself.

• A newly born Evil creature emerged from the safe zone’s dark earth, boasted of its power, and was destroyed, leaving behind a diary that Wang Quan gave to a black-cloaked Golden Core cultivator to refine.
• Mei Niang read the Evil creature’s diary aloud, and Ruo Jinghong urged her to focus as more Abyss-born Evil creatures attacked the safe zone.
• Wang Quan left the others his Evil-cleansing items and used [Shifting Stars] to travel to the source of the Fury River.
• Wang Quan reached the Taboo Emperor’s Era Fragment and entered the Glazed Glass River scene after covering himself with defensive and close-combat Divine Abilities.
• Wang Quan challenged the youth to fight, but his Divine Abilities and cultivation collapsed, leaving him at Qi Refining-level Nature Cultivation as the youth asked what he had said.

Wang Quan questioned the youth about the Abyss and received a scripture for subduing its creatures, then returned to the mortal world and expounded scripture before traveling back to the Fourth Layer of the Underworld. He asked Ruo Jinghong to bring him an evil creature so he could test the youth’s method.

• Wang Quan told the youth about the evil creature’s diary, the palace fragment, and the maid in the Historical Fragment, prompting the youth to attack him and reflect on his past and loneliness.
• The youth explained that the Abyss had shattered in an ancient war and could not have produced the evil creatures, then taught Wang Quan a scripture to subdue them if they were native to the Abyss.
• The youth told Wang Quan to grow stronger and return to the source of the Glazed Glass River to claim what she had left behind, and Wang Quan left the Era Fragment.
• Wang Quan expounded scripture to cultivators gathered beneath the Glazed Glass River, then used the [Shifting Stars] divine ability to return to the Fourth Layer of the Underworld.
• Wang Quan asked for an evil creature to test his new method, and Ruo Jinghong pulled one out and tossed it in front of him.

Wang Quan tested the Taboo Emperor’s scripture on evil creatures and discovered it could soothe them to sleep. As the safe zone continued expanding, he used the scripture to calm a giant evil creature, prompting the other hulking creatures to demand to know why it could sleep.

• Mei Niang stuffed dudou into Evil’s mouth while Wang Quan recited the Taboo Emperor’s scripture, calming Evil and two other creatures until they fell asleep.
• Wang Quan confirmed the creatures were not from the Abyss, and Ruo Jinghong explained that safe zones had spread through the Second-Layer Worlds and reached the Third and Fourth Layers in some places.
• Wang Quan and the cultivators continued expanding their safe zone despite growing dangers and the weakening of their protective resources.
• When mountain-sized evil creatures began digging near the safe zone, Wang Quan went outside to confront one and found that smaller creatures eating its fur made it grow weaker.
• Wang Quan recited the Taboo Emperor’s scripture until the agitated giant creature fell asleep, and another hulking creature slapped it and demanded to know why it got to sleep.

Wang Quan and the cultivators put the great Evils to sleep by reciting scripture, while Wang Quan disguised himself as an Evil to learn why they were converging on Stone City. He discovered they planned to destroy a Land of Evil and heard that doing so could make an Evil become an Evil God, then asked for an explanation of dimensional ascension.

• Wang Quan recited scripture beside the great Evils, putting them to sleep, and taught the cultivators how to do the same.
• An External Path Golden Core cultivator used his stored corpses and Dharma Power to have others recite scripture and recover energy while he returned to work on the safe zone.
• Wang Quan surveyed Stone City, transformed into an Evil, and slapped one of the approaching Evils to question him.
• The Evil said he had come from the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss to destroy the Land of Evil in Stone City's ruins and become a true Evil God.
• Wang Quan asked what an Evil God was, and the Evil began explaining dimensional ascension to the gathered Evils.

Wang Quan persuaded a group of evil beings to recruit others for cross-border work, promising hardship, mining, and Green Fly Coins. He arranged for the ghost god to contact Black Hand, warning that he would involve the Dao Court if he could not find him.

• Wang Quan told the evil beings that enduring hardship could lead to dimensional ascension and promised to take them across the border to work for money.
• Wang Quan explained that recruiting more evil beings would bring better treatment, and the excited beings scattered to recruit others.
• Wang Quan chained one evil being to a banner pole and ordered him to guard the gathering place.
• Wang Quan contacted Ruo Jinghong and the other cultivators, who agreed to help spread word of his plan.
• Wang Quan visited the Third-Layer World and the Second-Layer World to make arrangements, then asked the ghost god to contact Black Hand.
• Wang Quan told the ghost god he would find Black Hand himself or have the Dao Court act, prompting the ghost god to contact him immediately.

Black Hand was summoned by the Ghost Gods and carried a ring to Wang Quan, who asked him to find a route from the Fourth-Layer World so its evil beings could be brought to work in the Underworld. The ring’s owner, the Tenth Reincarnation King, witnessed Wang Quan’s shameless request as Wang Quan prepared to send Black Hand to the Fourth-Layer World.

• Black Hand enjoyed the wealth he earned by bringing evil beings to work, then accepted a message asking him to visit the Ghost Gods in City No. 95.
• The Ghost Gods gave Black Hand a ring and told him to deliver its owner’s message to Flower-Scatter Daoist Wang Quan.
• Black Hand traveled for three days and nights to Wang Quan’s enormous refining project, where the ring’s vertical eye watched him.
• Wang Quan asked Black Hand to find a route from the Fourth-Layer World and bring its evil beings to work in the Underworld.
• Black Hand admitted he did not know where the Fourth-Layer World was, and Wang Quan offered to send him there so he could search for a route.

Black Hand reluctantly left its home to carry out Wang Quan’s errand in the Fourth-Layer World. Wang Quan negotiated with the Tenth Reincarnation King, agreeing to accept his Reincarnation Divine Ability in exchange for a future favor, while insisting he could be trusted.

• Black Hand’s concubines packed its luggage, and it left its mountain of Green Fly Coins for the Fourth-Layer World.
• The Tenth Reincarnation King told Wang Quan he had hidden his thoughts in the ring to evade the True Reincarnation King and asked him to help fight that enemy.
• The Tenth Reincarnation King described his Reincarnation Divine Ability, which could summon past and future selves, and Wang Quan became interested.
• Wang Quan agreed to take the Divine Ability if the Tenth Reincarnation King owed him a future favor, and promised he would not send him to his death.
• The Tenth Reincarnation King doubted Wang Quan’s claim that he was kindhearted, and Wang Quan called that quality one of his fine traits not worth mentioning.

Wang Quan persuaded the Tenth Reincarnation King to teach him the Reincarnation King Divine Ability, then struggled to comprehend its most obscure parts even with the help of multiple brains and the Scripture Repositories. When he tried to teach it to Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and the others, they could neither understand nor remember it, suggesting the Divine Ability had cultivation restrictions.

• Wang Quan convinced the Tenth Reincarnation King to explain the Reincarnation Divine Ability, and the Tenth Reincarnation King taught it to him before the ring and eyeball crumbled away.
• Wang Quan studied the [Reincarnation King Divine Ability] in the Second-Layer and Third-Layer Scripture Repositories, gradually understanding more of its difficult passages.
• Wang Quan entered the Fourth-Layer safe zone with all his brains and Inverted Wisdom attached, and told the cultivators there that he had received an obscure Divine Ability.
• Wang Quan began teaching the Divine Ability to Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and the others, but they could not understand or retain even its opening passages.
• Wang Quan concluded that the [Reincarnation King Divine Ability] had cultivation restrictions.

Wang Quan studied reincarnation abilities while helping expand the safe zone, and Black Hand led a massive host of Evil creatures toward the Underworld to work. After a year of progress, Wang Quan struggled with the Daoist Scriptures and was invited by Ruo Jinghong to study them together with Tongtong.

• Wang Quan studied the General Compendium of Unorthodox Paths while his Yang Spirit recited scripture to expand the safe zone.
• Black Hand rallied Evil creatures into a huge migrating army, and Wang Quan explained that they were following the Route Runners' path into the First Layer of the Underworld.
• Over the next year, the cultivators took turns expanding the safe zone and refining their abilities, while Wang Quan built a foundation for studying the Reincarnation King Divine Ability and other Imperial Scriptures.
• Tongtong told Wang Quan that Ruo Jinghong wanted to study the Daoist Scriptures with him, and suggested that the three of them discuss the Dao together.

Wang Quan and the cultivators expanded their Fourth Layer safe zone by recruiting Golden Core cultivators, accelerating its growth despite concerns about sharing the Favor. Their progress was interrupted when a group claiming the area as [Madmen] territory demanded that they leave.

• Wang Quan discussed the Dao with Ruo Jinghong, then resumed secluded cultivation after Mei Niang asked to join them next time.
• Over the following year, the safe zone grew to more than ten feet across, and Ruo Jinghong studied memories and last words left behind by slain evil beings.
• Wang Quan urged the cultivators to focus on expanding the safe zone, while Ruo Jinghong dismissed fears about the powerful beings that had become evil beings after death.
• As the rising tide of evil beings slowed their progress, Wang Quan and the others invited Golden Core cultivators to send down their Yang Spirits and help expand the safe zone.
• Many Golden Core cultivators arrived, and their Yang Spirits and Golden Cores helped the safe zone expand faster, though Ruo Jinghong and the others regretted sharing the Favor.
• The External Path's Dao Seal Golden Core warned the group that three-headed, six-armed cultivators had surrounded them and demanded they leave, claiming the area belonged to [Madmen].

Wang Quan confronted the Madmen Organization, whose members plotted to provoke him into attacking first. After discovering that none of them were Legend Beings, he challenged them to fight for the territory, and they eagerly accepted.

• The cultivators prepared their Divine Abilities after seeing an image of the strange Madmen and learning they were Primordial Spirit-level beings without Dao Seals.
• The cultivators intercepted the Madmen's secret transmissions and learned they intended to anger their leader so they could claim a reason to kill him.
• Wang Quan stopped Ruo Jinghong from posing as their leader and stepped through the projection to face the Madmen himself.
• Wang Quan recognized the Madmen Organization's backing but was disappointed to find no Legend Beings among its members.
• The Madmen mocked Wang Quan and claimed the territory as their own, while he challenged them to kill him or be killed by him.
• The Madmen declared that Wang Quan had become angry and rushed to fight.

Wang Quan used [Shift Stars and Transpose the Dipper] to kill one Madmen member and then destroy the rest of their thousand-strong group. Ruo Jinghong and the others abandoned their plans to fight as the resulting treasure fragments formed a lush safe area.

• Wang Quan ignored Ruo Jinghong’s plan to test the Madmen members and rose into the sky to use [Shift Stars and Transpose the Dipper].
• A bird-headed Madmen member charged at Wang Quan and exploded into red light before reaching him.
• Wang Quan challenged the Madmen members to break his Divine Ability, but their attacks failed against the starlight.
• Wang Quan snapped his fingers and used the star formations to destroy the remaining Madmen members and their possessions.
• The fragments of the Magic Treasures formed mountains, lakes, and rivers, and their power drove back the evil force.
• Mei Niang complained that Wang Quan had left them no enemies to fight, while Ruo Jinghong explained that his Divine Ability was exceptionally powerful.