Arc 20Chapters 476–500
No recap yet.
No recap yet.
Taotie emerged from Li Yuan and swallowed him, then attacked Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng with power strengthened by its prey. Lin Mo summoned a white armored giant to save Xue Qingcheng, leaving them facing Taotie inside its protection.
Lin Mo opened the Void Suppression Demon-Sealing Record, which transported him to a strange sea where he witnessed a white-robed Sword Immortal slay the Eight-Tentacled Behemoth. The Sword Immortal gave Lin Mo his golden sword, and Lin Mo returned to the cave with dozens of Daoist inscriptions in his mind, leaving him with a possible means to fight Taotie.
Lin Mo used the sword immortal’s sword intent to slay Taotie, but discovered that the beast had transformed into an indestructible Demon Egg. Meanwhile, powerful Nether Venerables gathered to worship at a strange altar in the Netherworld.
Nine Bone Nether Venerable learned that Taotie had been sealed and left to return to the Nine Netherworlds Abyss, determined to capture the intruders. In the Gourd Space, Lin Mo studied the Void Suppression Demon-Sealing Record and decided he and Xue Qingcheng should leave the Abyss before Nine Bone arrived.
Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng traveled to the Dry Jade Continent to investigate its severe evil soul seal outbreak, while Lin Mo attempted and failed to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm. They entered Bluestone Ghost City and discovered that many cultivators had become soul slaves while the unaffected were enslaved.
Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng discovered that the Saint King had helped the Netherworld conquer the Dry Jade Continent and used evil rain to strengthen his followers while tormenting the remaining unsealed slaves. When a crowd surrounded them, Lin Mo claimed they wanted to pledge themselves to the Saint King, but an elderly soul slave responded skeptically.
Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng let themselves be captured so they could get close to the Saint King and investigate his hidden motives. Instead, Xi Ying sent them to labor at the quarry supplying ore for the unfinished Heavenly Nether Sacred Tower, whose purpose Lin Mo suspected might be tied to the Netherworld’s invasion.
Lin Mo brought the mine slave Qin Baochuan into his Gourd Space and freed him from his Soul-Locking Cuff. Qin Baochuan revealed that he was a former sect master whose sect had fallen fighting the Evil Spirits, and explained how the Sacred King enslaved defeated sect leaders.
Lin Mo began a covert plan to free the Dry Jade Continent’s powerful cultivators from Xi Ying’s Soul-Locking Cuffs while concealing their escape with counterfeit cuffs. He and his allies rescued nearly all the slaves at the Quarry and began expanding the operation to other work sites.
Lin Mo learned from Luo Lan that the Saint King had ordered the Heavenly Nether Sacred Tower built as a fortified structure, then went undercover with Xue Qingcheng to investigate the Dry Jade Continent. After the Saint King announced a Heaven-Connecting Ceremony, Lin Mo captured a young soul slave to question him.
Lin Mo learned that the Saint King’s annual Heaven-Connecting Ceremony promised Soul Slaves and Evil Beasts a chance to become Netherworld immortals by winning a Divine Flame Evil Fruit. Suspecting the fruit’s promise was a deception, he left the captured young man restrained and questioned what the reward really was.
Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng entered the Ascension Ceremony at the Nether Seclusion Temple and were transported to the Heaven-Ascending Platform, where thousands of soul slaves and evil beasts gathered. A refined young man approached them, and Xue Qingcheng revealed that she could not see through his cultivation.
Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng watched the first Heavenly Road Step appear and saw the soul slaves and evil beasts slaughter one another to reach it. After the mysterious young man returned and hinted that he knew their identities, Lin Mo chose to stay his course, and he and Xue Qingcheng suspected the man was the Saint King.
Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng survived the bloody levels of the Ascension Ceremony while keeping their strength concealed, until only they and Xu Damou remained. Xu Damou proposed sharing the Divine Flame Evil Fruit at the final level, but Xue Qingcheng looked down on him as the thousandth level approached.
Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng followed Xu Damou beyond the thousandth Heavenly Road Step, where the supposed Divine Flame Evil Fruit transformed into a Netherworld Evil Treasure Furnace Cauldron. After it devoured Xu Damou and the entire thousandth step, they retreated into the Gourd as it began consuming the level beneath them.
Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng survived the cauldron’s scorching flames inside the Gourd Space, then discovered the young man from the Ascension Ceremony using the essence blood of soul slaves and evil beasts to hatch a gigantic demon egg. They attacked him, but he vanished before their blows could land.
Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng confronted the Saint King, but his power easily countered Lin Mo’s strongest attacks. As Lin Mo worked to activate the Heavenly Pivot Sword Puppet, Xue Qingcheng tried to hold the Saint King off and was saved from a fatal strike by a giant hand of white light.
Lin Mo’s Spirit-Slaying Sword Intent failed to harm the Saint King, who revealed that he ruled the Dry Jade Continent and controlled its power of rules. Lin Mo and Xue Qingcheng escaped inside the Gourd Space, but the Saint King pursued them with a meteor storm.
After escaping the Saint King's meteor attack, Lin Mo decided to learn the Saint King's weaknesses by capturing Xi Ying, and he set a plan in motion with the Dry Jade Continent's cultivators. Xi Ying discovered that the construction-site slaves had vanished and their Soul-Locking Cuffs had been removed, leaving her shocked by the apparent revolt.
Lin Mo and his companions ambushed Xi Ying at the Quarry, trapping her and the eight hundred Soul Slaves with their formations. Lin Mo brought Xi Ying to his Gourd Space and restrained her there, declaring that even the Saint King could not save her.
Lin Mo forced Xi Ying to face the former slaves she had tormented, and she agreed to reveal what she knew about the Saint King. Xi Ying said he had willingly surrendered the Dry Jade Continent to the Netherworld and sworn loyalty to Xuantian Nether Venerable, leaving Lin Mo to ask whether she knew of any weakness he could exploit.
Lin Mo learned that the Saint King’s enlightened spirit consciousness was the source of his wisdom and power, and that destroying it could make him mortal. Qin Baochuan proposed infiltrating the Saint King’s Homage Ceremony to attack him, while Lin Mo warned that Xi Ying’s role could threaten their plan.
Lin Mo’s cultivation remained stuck at the golden core pinnacle despite a year of effort in the Gourd Space, so he prepared to assassinate the Saint King during the Homage Ceremony. When the ceremony began, a towering beastman appeared in place of the Saint King, leaving Lin Mo stunned.
Lin Mo discovered that the giant-axe beastman hailed as the Saint King was not the refined young man he had encountered before, so he tried to retreat with Qin Baochuan. The beastman attacked, but Lin Mo escaped with Qin Baochuan on a Wood Dragon, prompting the beastman to lock down Bluestone Ghost City and order a hunt for them.
After escaping the Giant-Axe Orc, Lin Mo returned to the Divine Temple's Quarry and learned that people recognized two different figures as the Saint King. He set out to seek Venerable Buyi, hoping to learn the truth, while Xue Qingcheng proposed investigating the Saint King's identity separately.