Chapter Summaries

Lin Mo tried to stop three Tai Sui Gate Fiends from escaping through a spatial passage, but even his four Ancient Swords could not destroy it. The Blood-Colored Sphere in his dantian then unleashed a mysterious power that made Gu’s blood and qi run wild, collapsing the passage and leaving all three fiends exposed to Lin Mo’s sword attack.

• Lin Mo sent twenty-four Spirit-Devouring Vine swords at Gu’s spatial barrier, and Gu recognized temporal power suppressing his spatial divine ability.
• Gu opened a spatial passage to escape, but Lin Mo’s four Ancient Swords only nearly collapsed it before the passage stabilized.
• The Blood-Colored Sphere in Lin Mo’s dantian released red light that passed through the spatial passage and caused Gu’s blood and qi to run out of control.
• Wei Chen and Yin tried to support Gu as his disrupted magical power caused the spatial passage to collapse.
• Lin Mo’s curled-branch swords, Spirit-Devouring Vine swords, and Ancient Swords engulfed Wei Chen, Gu, and Yin in a vast river of sword light.

Lin Mo killed Wei Chen and his companions, and the Spirit-Devouring Vine absorbed their special spiritual roots, granting him thunder, space, and sound spiritual roots. After storing his spirit plants, Lin Mo noticed that time around Wu Zheng had slowed dramatically.

• Wei Chen and his two companions burned their essence blood and took Tai Sui Pills, but Lin Mo's sword-light attack tore them apart.
• The Spirit-Devouring Swords absorbed the dead fiends' spiritual roots and transformed them into thunder, space, and sound spiritual roots within Lin Mo.
• Lin Mo realized he now possessed eleven spiritual roots and wondered whether his Treasure Gourd could help him acquire a time spiritual root.
• Lin Mo stored the Spirit-Devouring Vine and Azure Sun Vine, then noticed Wu Zheng moving as though time around him had slowed more than tenfold.

After eliminating the Tai Sui Gate Fiends, Lin Mo discovered that time seemed to slow around him and that his dantian was transforming in an unprecedented way. He left for the Azure Cloud Sect, where a spirit plant seed formed in his dantian, then entered the Treasure Gourd to explore its space.

• Lin Mo noticed Wu Zheng's movements and speech seemed more than ten times slower, told him the Tai Sui Gate Fiends were gone, and flew back to the Azure Cloud Sect to enter seclusion.
• Lin Mo's Father, Lin's Mother, and Qin Sang Sang saw Lin Mo hurry into his bedroom and sensed that his bearing and cultivation had changed.
• Lin Mo examined his dantian and saw his Dao platforms and other powers merging into a spirit plant seed nourished by his eleven spiritual roots.
• Lin Mo suspected he had advanced past Foundation Establishment into a pseudo core stage, though he could not tell whether the seed would become a golden core or sprout into something else.
• Lin Mo set up a concealment formation, took out the Treasure Gourd, and entered the Gourd Space.

Lin Mo discovered the Azure Emperor's Pharmacopoeia beyond the expanded boundary of the Gourd Space and gained its contents in his Sea of Consciousness. He suspected its pages were also conveying a message he would need to comprehend for himself.

• Chen Li told Lin Mo that the Gourd Space's boundary had expanded and an ancient tome had appeared beyond it.
• Lin Mo recognized the tome's cover as the Azure Emperor's Pharmacopoeia, though he could not read its contents at first.
• Lin Mo traced the title's characters and asked Chen Li to compare his writing with the tome's; Chen Li bluntly said Lin Mo's was vastly inferior.
• The pharmacopoeia opened and rapidly displayed forty-eight hundred pill recipes, which Lin Mo absorbed into his memory while Chen Li saw only blank pages.
• Lin Mo realized most recipes required unfamiliar ingredients and high cultivation, and worried about the fate of the Azure Emperor.
• Lin Mo inferred that the turning pages might convey a message beyond the contents already stored in his memory, and decided to watch them again.

Lin Mo discovered a powerful sealing formation hidden in the Azure Emperor's Pharmacopoeia and recreated it using 4,600 Azure Sun Vine tendrils, naming it the Grass and Wood Demon-Sealing Formation. When he tried to control it, the formation rapidly drained his divine sense, threatening to leave him permanently comatose.

• Lin Mo realized the Pharmacopoeia's illustrations concealed a sealing formation requiring 4,600 spirit plants, and decided to substitute Azure Sun Vine tendrils.
• Lin Mo separated 4,600 tendrils and arranged them according to the formation patterns, shaping each to resemble a different spirit plant.
• The tendrils absorbed spiritual energy and their auras rose to the Golden Core level, revealing the formation's immense potential.
• Lin Mo named the formation the Grass and Wood Demon-Sealing Formation and began moving its tendrils along the formation lines.
• Lin Mo's attempt to control the formation consumed about a tenth of his divine sense, and he risked exhausting it completely within ten breaths.

Lin Mo tested the Grass and Wood Demon-Sealing Formation and realized its immense Divine Sense cost made it too dangerous for him to use casually. After receiving an invitation from Du Zhong, he went to the Black Market and hinted that he was interested in Du Zhong’s offer concerning ascension.

• Lin Mo stopped testing the formation after its first variation consumed a tenth of his Divine Sense, then told Chen Li to watch over the Spirit Plants.
• Qin Sang Sang gave Lin Mo a letter from Du Zhong, and Lin Mo asked her to return Wang Erhu’s Storage Bag to him.
• Lin Mo burned Du Zhong’s letter, spent the day with Qin Sang Sang and his parents, then left for the Black Market after nightfall.
• Lin Mo saw that the Black Market had grown busier since Han Kang reached the nascent soul stage and asked the queued disciples to give him privacy.
• Lin Mo set up a Small Concealment Formation, met Du Zhong, and said he was interested in the matter of ascension.

Lin Mo learned that the Tai Sui Gate blamed a powerful Upper Realm being for draining the Divine Continent’s spiritual energy and planned to revive its sleeping Holy Lord. He accepted a token to attend the Heaven-Bearing Ceremony on Divine Punishment Island, intending to go alone and decide whether it was safe after seeking a divination.

• Du Zhong told Lin Mo that a mighty being from the Upper Realm was draining the Divine Continent’s spiritual energy and preventing ascension.
• Du Zhong revealed that disruptions to the Tai Sui Gate’s recent sacrifice had delayed the Holy Lord’s revival.
• Du Zhong gave Lin Mo a Tai Sui Token and invited him to the Heaven-Bearing Ceremony on Divine Punishment Island in half a month.
• Lin Mo accepted the token but resolved not to join the Tai Sui Gate and planned to attend the ceremony alone.
• Lin Mo left the Black Market and decided to ask Dantai Jingyu to divine whether attending the ceremony would bring ill omens.

Lin Mo sought Dantai Jingyu’s divination before setting out east toward the Endless Marshlands, but an unknown power interfered with the reading. Despite the warning that his journey’s fortune remained uncertain, Lin Mo resolved to leave immediately to pursue the Tai Sui Gate, carrying Luan Xiuping’s protective Two-World Bell.

• Lin Mo praised Dantai Jingyu’s earlier divination and revealed that he had condensed a pseudo core.
• Dantai Jingyu divined Lin Mo’s journey and sensed an unknown power obscuring heaven’s secrets, making the results uncertain.
• Dantai Jingyu left to report the strange interference to his father and Grand Elder Zhuge, and warned Lin Mo not to act rashly.
• Luan Xiuping recognized that Lin Mo would leave to confront the Tai Sui Gate regardless of the divination’s warning.
• Luan Xiuping gave Lin Mo the Two-World Bell for protection, and Lin Mo accepted it before setting out at once.

Lin Mo traveled through the Eastern Isles to Divine Punishment Island and was stunned by the enormous force of Tai Sui Gate Fiends gathered for the Heaven-Bearing Ceremony. After landing on the island, he noticed its strange traces of tribulation lightning and spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

• Lin Mo reflected on the Eastern Isles’ sparse Teleportation Arrays and the limits of his efforts to weaken Tai Sui Gate.
• As Lin Mo neared Divine Punishment Island, he saw hundreds of thousands of Tai Sui Gate Fiends, including vast numbers of Foundation Establishment Cultivators and Golden Core True Lords.
• Lin Mo realized Du Zhong had invited him to witness a display of Tai Sui Gate’s power, but he remained undaunted by the gathering.
• Lin Mo joined the crowd landing on Divine Punishment Island and observed the tribulation lightning remnants that avoided living creatures.
• Lin Mo searched the island for the ceremony site, then spotted a familiar face he had not seen in a long time.

At Divine Punishment Island, Lin Mo discovered that Xun Bin had survived and secretly marked him, then witnessed the Tai Sui Gate raise an ancient Bronze Gate and begin a blood sacrifice. The chapter left Lin Mo realizing that controlled followers were being killed as offerings to summon the Holy Lord Phantom.

• Lin Mo spotted Xun Bin, secretly placed a divine sense imprint on him, and resolved to kill him after the ceremony.
• A nearby Golden Core True Lord sensed a divine sense fluctuation, but a roar from the island's center drew him and the crowd away.
• Lin Mo joined hundreds of thousands of Tai Sui Gate fiends as an enormous Bronze Gate covered in demon patterns rose from a vast pit.
• An elderly voice from the gate announced that the World-Saving Holy Spirit was about to awaken and ordered the fiends to summon the Holy Lord Phantom.
• The fiends offered Tai Sui Pills while others walked into red light and vanished, and Lin Mo realized the victims were controlled people being used as living sacrifices.

Lin Mo witnessed the Tai Sui Gate sacrifice more than a hundred thousand controlled cultivators to summon the Holy Lord Phantom, then realized the concealed Bronze Gate was tied to a powerful being beneath the earth. After the ceremony ended, he spotted Xun Bin alive and followed him west, determined to capture him.

• Lin Mo recognized that the Tai Sui Gate Fiends were mind-controlled cultivators being sacrificed as they marched into the Bronze Gate, including Xun Bin.
• The Bronze Gate opened a crack, released ink-black air, and summoned a seven-horned Holy Lord Phantom as the Tai Sui Gate Fiends worshiped him.
• The Holy Lord Phantom extended a six-fingered claw before fading, and the Bronze Gate concealed itself while Lin Mo sensed that a powerful being remained hidden within it.
• Lin Mo inferred that the Bronze Gate was a sealing treasure and rejected the risk of searching for the Holy Lord's true body.
• Lin Mo saw Xun Bin leave with a Golden Core True Lord and secretly followed them west across Divine Punishment Island, intending to capture Xun Bin alive.

Lin Mo ambushed the Golden Core True Lord, Xun Bin, and eight other Tai Sui Gate Fiends, killing the eight and sealing the pair in the White Sun Tower. He brought the captives into the Treasure Gourd Space, where the Golden Core True Lord discovered he could neither use his powers nor move freely.

• Lin Mo used the Spirit-Devouring Vine and White Sun Tower to capture the seventh-layer Golden Core True Lord and Xun Bin.
• Lin Mo killed the eight nearby Tai Sui Gate Fiends with his Curled-Branch Swords, collected their belongings, and burned their bodies to ashes for Chen Li.
• Lin Mo flew to a medium-sized island, set up a Seventh-Grade Concealment Formation, and entered the Treasure Gourd Space.
• Lin Mo released the Golden Core True Lord and Xun Bin from the White Sun Tower into the Gourd Space.
• The Golden Core True Lord found himself unable to use his divine sense or Dharma Power, while Chen Li appeared nearby as a resentful ghost.

Lin Mo captured Xun Bin and a Golden Core True Lord in the Gourd Space and questioned them about the Holy Lord. He learned that the Holy Lord’s awakening could be delayed by repairing a Demon-Suppressing Ancient Stele or sealing the fissure beneath it.

• Lin Mo used the Gourd Space’s power to restrain and torment the Golden Core True Lord, then confronted the terrified Xun Bin about his ties to the Tai Sui Gate.
• Lin Mo threatened to experiment on Xun Bin to uncover how the Tai Sui Gate controlled minds, while Xun Bin feared the worst.
• Lin Mo questioned the Golden Core cultivator surnamed Feng, who revealed that the Bronze Gate was a Demon-Suppressing Ancient Stele damaged by the Tai Sui Gate and that the Holy Lord had summoned four great sacred spirits.
• Feng said the other four realms would become the Holy Lord’s Dao Field, but claimed he knew nothing about the fissure or how to delay the awakening.
• Xun Bin revealed that the fissure connected to the Divine Land Dragon Vein, that nine Demon-Suppressing Ancient Steles existed, and that repairing the damaged stele or sealing the fissure could delay the Holy Lord’s awakening.

Lin Mo learned that the Earth Rift was tied to the Holy Lord’s awakening, but Xun Bin knew no way to repair the Demon-Suppressing Ancient Stele. After waiting in the Treasure Gourd for more than twenty days outside, Lin Mo set out for Divine Punishment Island again to try sealing the rift.

• Lin Mo questioned Xun Bin about the ancient stele and Earth Rift, then destroyed Feng and shattered Xun Bin’s dantian before leaving him in Chen Li’s care.
• Lin Mo gathered the spoils, considered using the Grass and Wood Demon-Sealing Formation on the Earth Rift, and chose to wait safely inside the Treasure Gourd.
• Lin Mo cultivated for more than half a year inside the Gourd Space while over twenty days passed outside, and Xun Bin grew awed by his abilities.
• After learning how much time had passed, Lin Mo left the Treasure Gourd and flew toward Divine Punishment Island again.

Lin Mo investigated the ocean Demon Beasts gathering on Divine Punishment Island, then returned to the ancient demon-suppressing stele to seal the fissure with the Grass and Wood Demon-Sealing Formation. He began activating the formation after growing a vast ring of vines around its opening.

• Lin Mo noticed low-rank ocean Demon Beasts fleeing the waters and gathering on Divine Punishment Island, though he found no clear cause.
• Lin Mo tasted the seawater, decided the unusual signs were too faint to pursue, and marked a late ninth-rank fish monster so he could detect if stronger beasts arrived.
• Lin Mo secretly investigated the island's center with the Gu-Devouring Bee and confirmed that the ancient demon-suppressing stele and fissure remained there.
• Lin Mo released the Spirit-Devouring Vine and Azure Sun Vine, then used spirit spring water to grow thousands of vines around the fissure.
• Lin Mo began activating the Grass and Wood Demon-Sealing Formation, declaring that the vines would form its seal.

Lin Mo sealed the fissure beneath Divine Punishment Island with thousands of immensely powerful vines, then headed back to the Azure Cloud Sect. Far away in the Endless Marshlands, a Flood Dragon Skeleton sacrificed itself to unleash a spreading sea of blood and toxic mist toward Divine Punishment Island.

• Lin Mo formed a golden net of 4,600 vines that absorbed abundant spiritual energy and approached Golden Core perfection.
• Lin Mo confirmed that the late ninth-rank fish monster remained alive and that no eighth-rank marine Demon Beast had reached Divine Punishment Island, then flew east toward the Azure Cloud Sect.
• In the Endless Marshlands, a vast vortex dragged nearby Demon Beasts into its center and ground them to pieces.
• A Flood Dragon Skeleton emerged from the vortex, gazed toward Divine Punishment Island, and flooded the sea with blood as it disintegrated.
• The Flood Dragon Skeleton's remains produced gray-black mist, and the blood sea and mist dissolved every marine Demon Beast they touched as they advanced toward Divine Punishment Island.

Strange forces transformed the Western Region, Southern Frontier, and Far Northern Icefield, bringing calamities that drained spiritual power and disrupted the natural order. The chapter ended with a frail old turtle emerging from the heart of the icefield.

• A Nameless Buddha Statue became a three-headed, six-armed figure whose gray-black radiance spread across the Western Region, draining Buddhist disciples’ merit and turning the dead into wandering souls and walking corpses.
• The Esoteric Sect Leader and Zonge suppressed the attacks on Buddha Hand Peak, but the Western Region’s Buddha light faded and the land fell into darkness and chaos.
• A gigantic skeletal woman in a burning red robe crossed the Southern Frontier, consuming spiritual energy and weakening the land’s earth vein qi.
• A white-haired woman performed a three-day ritual in the Far Northern Icefield, sacrificing herself as a crack widened beneath her and polar night arrived early.
• A frail old turtle crawled out of the heart of the icefield.

Lin Mo advanced to the golden core stage by easily surviving all nine tribulation bolts, while his unusual spirit seed sprouted in place of a golden core. He wondered what would happen to the spirit plant when he eventually reached the nascent soul stage, unaware that its glow was strengthening his already formidable body.

• Lin Mo returned to the Azure Cloud Sect, reported his trip to Luan Xiuping, and continued cultivating while Han Kang remained in seclusion.
• After more than two years of cultivation inside the Gourd Space, Lin Mo sensed that the spirit seed in his dantian was close to sprouting and prepared to face the golden core tribulation.
• Han Kang emerged from seclusion and told Lin Mo that his treasures and foundation made the tribulation unlikely to endanger him.
• Lin Mo blocked all nine rounds of tribulation lightning with the White Sun Tower, allowing only a trace of the final bolts to temper his body.
• After the tribulation, Lin Mo discovered that the spirit seed had shattered its pod and grown an emerald shoot with three thousand rootlets and twelve branches.
• Lin Mo wondered whether the spirit plant would shatter or bear a nascent-soul-like fruit when he advanced, while its faint halo continued to strengthen his body.

After Lin Mo’s Golden Core advancement ceremony, Qionghengzi and Qiongsongzi revealed that disasters had struck across the Divine Land, including a deadly blood sea spreading through the Endless Marshlands. Suspecting the catastrophe was connected to the Holy Lord of Tai Sui Gate, Lin Mo agreed to investigate the blood sea at Divine Punishment Island.

• Allied sects and factions gave Lin Mo precious gifts, which he entrusted to the Azure Cloud Sect before his advancement ceremony ended.
• Qionghengzi and Qiongsongzi told the gathering that calamities had struck the Western Region, Southern Frontier, Northern Plains, and Endless Marshlands.
• Qiongsongzi warned that the blood sea could engulf the Eastern Isle within half a year and dissolve living creatures into pus and blood.
• Lin Mo recounted his visit to Divine Punishment Island and said the Holy Lord Phantom’s actions might be connected to the disasters.
• Tantai Yan and Zhuge Fengming refused to divine a solution, fearing the karmic backlash would kill them.
• Lin Mo volunteered to test whether his physique could counter the blood sea, and four Nascent Soul Great Cultivators promised to protect him as he set out for Divine Punishment Island.

As the Spirit Turtle Sect’s thousand-foot Patriarch neared death, it sensed that its long-lost elder brother was approaching and sent Ling Yushu to find him, claiming he could resolve the Blood Sea Tide. Far away, Lin Mo’s strange spirit plant pointed him north while he traveled with Qiongsongzi toward Divine Punishment Island.

• The elders told Ling Yushu that the ancient turtle had only a few days left to live and that its death would leave Spirit Turtle Island vulnerable to the Blood Sea.
• The ancient turtle sensed its missing elder brother nearby and told Ling Yushu to bring him to the sect, saying he could resolve the Blood Sea Tide.
• Ling Yushu took three elders and flew north in the direction indicated by the ancient turtle.
• While traveling with Qiongsongzi toward Divine Punishment Island, Lin Mo noticed that the twelve buds on his strange spirit plant all pointed north.