Chapter Summaries

Over a hundred thousand black-smoke apparitions vanished across the Heavenly World, leaving experts uneasy and the First Imperial District silent. In the Mortal World, Wang Quan’s group investigated the New-Method Cultivators, then sent monsters down from the clouds to seize some for study.

• The black smoke appeared across the Heavenly World, and powerful figures in the four great regions suspected the First Imperial District was settling accounts with them.
• Wang Quan and the others watched the smoke dissipate along with the boys and girls, while both armies withdrew to their camps.
• Wang Quan proposed capturing New-Method Cultivators to test whether Greater Divine Abilities could overcome their strange adaptations.
• Wang Quan’s group lowered monsters on Ascension Ropes into the New Method camp, where some monsters died on impact and others abducted cultivators.
• The remaining New-Method Cultivators panicked at the monsters falling from the sky and called for rites to dispel the ill omen.

New Method natives mistook the Monsters descending from the cloud for an ill omen and learned bizarre sacrificial rites from a possessed companion. As the New Method bigwigs argued over who should take the blame for their failed experiment, Jiang Wuwei took three black woks of blame onto his back and warned them that something serious had happened outside.

• Wang Quan and the others lowered Monsters on ropes from a cloud, prompting New Method natives to demand sacrifices to dispel what they thought was an ill omen.
• A New Method native whose head briefly split open taught the crowd one thousand and one bizarre sacrificial methods in the name of the [Emperor of Withering and Flourishing].
• The New Method bigwigs argued over the cannon fodder's spontaneous combustion and deaths while avoiding blame for [Flesh and Blood Hardening].
• Jiang Wuwei saw strange howls, curses, weeping, and magical combat outside, then volunteered to shoulder the blame and took three black woks onto his back.
• Jiang Wuwei urged the New Method bigwigs to go outside, but they dismissed the disturbance as natives clamoring for sacrifices.

Jiang Wuwei fled to the Twelfth Pass after New-Method Cultivators began sacrificing millions of their own to summon the Emperor of Withering and Flourishing. He begged the Old Cultivation Method masters for help, and Wang Quan agreed on the condition that Jiang Wuwei obey them.

• New-Method big shots witnessed robed cultivators sacrificing their companions to summon the Emperor of Withering and Flourishing, then fled to the Heavenly World.
• Jiang Wuwei tampered with the big shots' abandoned bodies and traveled to the Twelfth Pass to seek help.
• Wang Quan and the others studied captured New-Method Cultivators but found no sign of anything inauspicious within them.
• Jiang Wuwei knelt before the masters and blamed the Extraterritorial Heavenly Devils for forcing him to lead the New-Method army and contaminating cultivators.
• Wang Quan offered to help Jiang Wuwei if he obeyed, and Jiang Wuwei readily agreed.

Wang Quan and the Old Cultivation Method cultivators set hidden divine abilities in bodies at the New-Method camp, inspected the uncanny treasure [Flesh and Blood Hardening], and took valuables and golden cores. Meanwhile, New-Method officials returned to the Heavenly World to report their army’s destruction, and the Ministry director prepared to receive an honored guest.

• Wang Quan and the other Old Cultivation Method cultivators planted dormant divine abilities in bodies inside the New-Method command tent, intending to trigger them against the Extraterritorial Heavenly Devils.
• Jiang Wuwei explained the ominous aura around [Flesh and Blood Hardening], and Grotto Heaven and Blessed Land cultivators examined it before one of them stored it in a Hundred-Treasure Pouch for later refinement.
• Wang Quan and the others searched the New-Method warehouses and took valuables; Jiang Wuwei gave Wang Quan over a hundred thousand golden cores and promised to grow more for the other Golden Cores.
• Dozens of New-Method big shots returned to the Heavenly World and told the director of the Ministry of Personnel that over a hundred thousand combat experts had been reduced to dust and ashes.
• A retainer announced an honored guest, so the Ministry director sent the New-Method big shots to wait in a side room and went to greet the visitor.

The Ministry of Personnel supervisor gave the New Method a black box that could summon powerful fighters, while mysterious figures across the Heavenly World collected dark beings in identical boxes. Back in the Mortal World, the New Method leaders used their box to interrupt the sacrifices and summon their practitioners.

• The unlucky New Method fellow deflected the supervisor’s questions, and the supervisor gave him a black box containing mighty combatants and taught the group its ritual.
• The supervisor questioned warehouse keepers and accountants about [Flesh and Blood Creation], sensed that examining their memories would bring certain death, and severed his own memory of the matter.
• Experts in several Heavenly World districts summoned pitch-black figures with scarlet eyes, then captured them in black boxes identical to the New Method’s.
• The New Method bigwigs awoke in the Mortal World after a day and night away and found that the flesh-and-blood sacrifices had continued unchecked.
• Jiang Wuwei struggled to gather the New Method practitioners, so the unlucky fellow suggested striking the black box; when a bigwig rang it, the practitioners stopped their rites and stared at it.

New Method cultivators used the black box to resurrect Chen Xi, who challenged the Old Cultivation Method fighters and fought a Legend Golden Core. The Legend Golden Core summoned an illusory mountain that pinned Chen Xi beneath it and began grinding her down.

• The New Method army followed an unlucky cultivator carrying the black box to the Twelfth Pass, where Wang Quan and the others were grinding away at the [Flesh and Blood Hardening] treasure.
• The unlucky cultivator beheaded a New Method cannon fodder cultivator over the black box, which infused the corpse with black light and resurrected it as Chen Xi.
• Chen Xi challenged a Legend Golden Core, while Wang Quan and the other Legend Cultivators watched cautiously.
• The Legend Golden Core transformed into a black-smoke giant and summoned a mountain to bind Chen Xi and crush her beneath it.
• The mountain pinned Chen Xi to the ground and began grinding her down as the Legend Golden Core laughed.

Chen Xi broke free from the Legend Golden Core’s mountain and killed him repeatedly until his resurrection measures ran out. His Purple Mansion escaped into the sky, leaving behind his wish to be a beast in his next life.

• The Legend Golden Core’s Mountain-Summoning Divine Ability collapsed, freeing Chen Xi, who vowed to kill him rather than endure another five hundred years of imprisonment.
• Chen Xi donned a cloak of black smoke and fought the Legend Golden Core inside his Great Dark Heaven, shattering his black sun and dark sky.
• Chen Xi killed the Legend Golden Core more than a hundred times as his death-substitution and resurrection measures revived him again and again.
• Wang Quan and the others mistook the Legend Golden Core’s desperate looks and prepared to seize his Purple Mansion when his resurrections ran out.
• The Grotto Heaven Grand Cultivator’s ring stopped them, and the Legend Golden Core’s Purple Mansion vanished into the sky as he wished to be a beast in his next life.

Red-eyed Chen Xi overwhelmed the Legend Golden Cores, while Wang Quan recognized her origins and claimed he could kill her with one finger. As Chen Xi unleashed a barrage of bizarre techniques, Wang Quan advanced to face her.

• A Legend Golden Core’s curse revealed that Chen Xi’s soul belonged to a bizarre monster, but trying to visualize it caused him to lose his memories and collapse.
• Red-eyed Chen Xi defeated another Legend Golden Core, and Wang Quan noticed her techniques resembled those in the General Compendium of Unorthodox Paths.
• Wang Quan stopped a cultivator from challenging Chen Xi and said he had recognized her origins from a Historical Fragment.
• Wang Quan declared that one finger would be enough to kill Chen Xi, while the Officiant Daoist Nun and others prepared to celebrate his victory.
• Chen Xi challenged Wang Quan and spread her black cloak across hundreds of li before unleashing over a thousand bizarre techniques toward him.

Wang Quan defeated the red-eyed young Chen Xi by finding a flaw in her Golden Crow World Annihilation divine ability. After she asked him to recover the memories hidden in her brain, he killed her, buried her with an epitaph, and announced her death.

• The red-eyed young Chen Xi unleashed Golden Crow World Annihilation, sending a three-legged crow with a blazing sun and bow toward Wang Quan.
• Wang Quan entered the crow's head and explained that he had used a flaw in Chen Xi's divine ability to bypass its attack.
• Wang Quan repeatedly stabbed Chen Xi in the head until she asked him to retrieve the memories of her ten thousand years of imprisonment.
• Chen Xi confessed that she had only wanted to become an immortal, then died after Wang Quan wrenched off her head.
• Wang Quan wrote an epitaph, buried Chen Xi's corpse with Death Declaration, and announced her death to the world.
• The Officiant Daoist Nun ordered the cannons fired as Wang Quan stood beneath fireworks holding Chen Xi's head.

Wang Quan used Chen Xi’s memories to learn about the strange beings and guided a Legend Golden Core to defeat the second challenger. Chen Xi was restored as a headless immortal beneath a gravestone, while the New-Method Cultivators prepared for further battles.

• Wang Quan killed Chen Xi, then studied her memories and discovered that she had spent ten thousand years climbing an enormous chained creature to seize plum wine before entering an unknown space with more than a hundred thousand companions.
• Wang Quan sent Chen Xi’s head to the epitaph, where she reattached it unsuccessfully and met a group of boys and girls who asked her to put on clothes.
• The New-Method Cultivators opened a second box and released a Golden Core fighter who challenged Wang Quan.
• A Legend Golden Core fought the challenger, followed Wang Quan’s instructions to exploit his weaknesses, and beheaded him.
• The victorious Legend Golden Core celebrated with female Monsters, then gave the corpse to Wang Quan as payment for his guidance.

Wang Quan guided the Old Cultivation Method fighters to defeat every New Method combatant summoned from the black box, earning Favor as the New Method leaders grew desperate. The Ministry of Personnel supervisor learned that stronger experts were being stocked for the treasure, but the New Method army was told to hold on while its leaders waited for help.

• Wang Quan helped Legend Golden Cores defeat the black box’s Golden Core combatants, then collected their cores and brains while earning Combat Favor.
• Wang Quan guided traditional Primordial Spirit fighters to defeat the summoned experts, and the New Method leaders released groups of combatants that lost across every realm.
• Jiang Wuwei carried and polished black pots as the New Method leaders blamed and struck him after he predicted their defeats.
• The New Method leaders withdrew their army, which returned to camp and continued building altars and chanting scriptures.
• The New Method unlucky wretch contacted the Ministry of Personnel supervisor, who learned that the black box had not yet been stocked with many experts.
• The important figure told the Ministry of Personnel supervisor that stronger experts were being added and instructed the New Method forces to hold on longer.

The New Method cultivators received only encouragement from their masters, while Wang Quan and the Old Cultivation Method cultivators continued harvesting their cultivation. Wang Quan offered the New Method big shots a business deal that could earn them merits, leaving them intrigued.

• The experts tasked with summoning souls complained about their endless assignments, and their leader revealed that his previous team had worked itself to death.
• The unlucky New Method cultivator told the New Method big shots that their masters planned to fill the black boxes with experts but offered only encouragement.
• Jiang Wuwei reported that Wang Quan and the others had come to harvest New Method cultivators again, while the big shots admitted they had grown used to it.
• Wang Quan told the New Method big shots that the Old Cultivation Method cultivators needed them to recover for another harvest, and he argued that both groups were being exploited.
• Wang Quan offered the New Method big shots a business deal, claiming they could earn merits in abundance.

Wang Quan persuaded the New Method bigwigs to stage victories over the Old Cultivation Method and report them as military merits, with Jiang Wuwei agreeing to take the blame if their deception was exposed. A fabricated battle report reached the Ministry of Personnel's supervising official, who saw images of the supposed victory and the New Method’s triumphant declaration.

• Wang Quan learned that the New Method bigwigs sought immortal ascension slots for carrying out orders to destroy Old Cultivation Method cultivation.
• Wang Quan explained that replacing the Old Cultivation Method would take tens of thousands of years, far beyond the bigwigs’ lifespans, and offered to help them fake victories for merits.
• The New Method bigwigs agreed to stage battles and destroy prepared cities, while Jiang Wuwei offered to take the blame if the plan was exposed.
• A retainer told the Ministry of Personnel's supervising official that the New Method had overwhelmingly defeated the Old Cultivation Method in the Mortal World.
• The supervising official examined the battle report and its images, which showed a ruined city, defeated Old Cultivation Method Cultivators, and New-Method Cultivators shouting, “The New Method is eternal!”

A Ministry of Personnel administrator sent a staged battle report up the imperial chain, and a powerful figure rewarded the New-Method army. In the Mortal World, the New Method leaders staged another battle report and then used their preparations to kill a powerful figure released from a box.

• The Ministry of Personnel administrator recognized that the battle images were real but the victory was staged, then sent the report onward with a comment praising the New Method army's advance.
• An important person criticized the report's crude acting but passed it up the chain, and a powerful figure ordered a storehouse of wealth given to the army.
• In the Mortal World, Wang Quan and the others staged a battle in a newly built city, recording New-Method fighters defeating Orthodox Cultivators.
• After the staged report, the New-Method group prepared a battlefield and opened a box that released a powerful figure who had been imprisoned for thirty thousand years.
• Wang Quan and the Legend Golden Cores quickly suppressed and killed the released figure, and Wang Quan wrote his epitaph and proclaimed his death.

Wang Quan helped the New Method bigwigs earn repeated Heavenly Spiritual Root rewards by submitting battle reports, then persuaded them to promise him large numbers of Nascent Souls and consider future cooperation. As they celebrated their gains, Jiang Wuwei wondered whether he would ever have a chance to become an immortal.

• The New Method bigwigs received three thousand Heavenly Spiritual Roots for their first battle report and explained their value to Wang Quan.
• Following Wang Quan's advice, the bigwigs submitted hundreds of battle reports over two years, earning rewards while Wang Quan and his allies gained Combat Favor.
• At a celebration, a New Method bigwig promised Wang Quan a million Nascent Souls, and the others made similar promises.
• Wang Quan proposed that the bigwigs cooperate with him after becoming immortals by arranging combat opportunities, exchanging resources, and helping one another across worlds.
• Jiang Wuwei received none of the rewards and wondered whether he could still ascend while watching New-Method and Old Cultivation Method Cultivators enjoy themselves together.

After the First Great Camp’s blood-soaked cultists returned to normal, they revealed themselves as ancient New Method beings and demanded control of the New Method. Their arrival threatened to separate Jiang Wuwei from the New Method big shots who had been supporting him.

• Wang Quan agreed to accompany Jiang Wuwei to investigate the First Great Camp after its strange inhabitants returned to normal and demanded that the Second Great Camp submit.
• Wang Quan and the other cultivators found one thousand and one uncanny New Method beings guarding the First Great Camp, claiming they would lead the New Method and refusing to throw magical duels.
• The Blessed Land and Grotto Heaven cultivators learned that the Dao Court would not interfere in future magical duels, while the uncanny beings decided to annex the Second Great Camp.
• The New Method big shots received orders to return to the First Great Camp and leave Jiang Wuwei in charge of the Second Great Camp.

Wang Quan organized an all-out assault on the New Method First Main Camp after the New Method big shots prepared to leave. As billions of spells and Divine Abilities struck, the uncanny New Method beings found themselves surrounded and prepared to fight for their lives.

• Wang Quan told the New Method big shots to pretend they were preparing to return while the Old Cultivation Method forces attacked the uncanny New Method beings.
• Wang Quan gathered Legend Golden Cores, Primordial Spirit Dharma Forms, and Blessed Land and Grotto Heaven Cultivators to bombard the New Method First Main Camp in two hours.
• Cultivators throughout the Twelfth Pass prepared to attack, and the uncanny New Method beings realized they faced an all-out assault backed by a Sky Patrol Magic Treasure.
• A cannon fired, followed by billions of spells and Divine Abilities surging toward the camp.
• One uncanny New Method being tried to flee but was forced back by Magic Treasures, Blessed Lands, and Grotto Heavens blocking every direction.
• The uncanny New Method beings urged one another to use their last-resort techniques and fight for their lives.

The orthodox cultivators bombarded the New Method First Main Camp, but its Flesh and Blood Altars endured. Wang Quan authorized a Sky Patrol Strike with the Chariots and Neighing Horses, confident it would destroy the altars.

• The Officiant Daoist Nun fired a spirit-filled shell into the New Method First Main Camp, and the ensuing bombardment wiped out its structures while the Flesh and Blood Altars survived.
• The Blessed Land and Grotto Heaven cultivators focused their attacks on the altars, but the altars linked together and withstood the torrents of spells and divine abilities.
• Wang Quan told the Grand Cultivators he could launch a Sky Patrol Strike and urged them to retreat.
• A New Method entity recognized the Chariots and Neighing Horses and began explaining how to disrupt its inner workings.
• The Sky Patrol Magic Treasure charged toward the altars as Wang Quan told the Officiant Daoist Nun to prepare a celebration called Victorious Wang Quan.

The Orthodox Cultivators watched a Sky Patrol Magic Treasure crack under the uncanny New Method cultivators’ attacks, then learned it had been repaired and began planning another assault. Wang Quan and the grand cultivators gathered ninety thousand cultivators from each of three realms to activate the Nine Dragons Blowing Fire diagram.

• The uncanny New Method cultivators attacked a Sky Patrol Magic Treasure, which cracked and fled before the monitoring treasure confirmed it had been patched up.
• The Grotto Heaven Grand Cultivators warned Wang Quan not to waste another Sky Patrol Magic Treasure, and Wang Quan said he had no authorization left.
• A Grotto Heaven Grand Cultivator proposed using the Nine Dragons Blowing Fire diagram, and the cultivators decided to operate it with Dharma Forms supported by Primordial Spirits and Golden Cores.
• Wang Quan and the grand cultivators gathered ninety thousand cultivators each from the Primordial Spirit, Dharma Form, and Golden Core realms.
• The Grotto Heaven Grand Cultivator brought out the Nine Dragons Blowing Fire diagram and prepared to test its endurance against the uncanny New Method cultivators.

Wang Quan coordinated the Golden Core cultivators inside the [Nine Dragons Blowing Fire] Diagram and helped prepare their fire arts and battle strategy. The formation launched its first attack, sending nine immense fire winds toward an outer Flesh and Blood Altar.

• Wang Quan distributed the Golden Core cultivators among the nine dragons and used crystal brains to select thirty-six fire arts for them to cultivate.
• Wang Quan encouraged the cultivators to sever their existing techniques and learn the perfect fire arts before battle.
• Wang Quan, a Legend Primordial Spirit, and a Legend Dharma Form chose a plan to attack in three successive waves.
• Wang Quan gathered the Golden Core cultivators' Dharma Power and shook the [Golden Core Commander] banner to begin the attack.
• The Grotto Heaven Grand Cultivator empowered the formation, and its nine fire dragons unleashed fire winds toward an outer Flesh and Blood Altar.