Chapter Summaries

Lin Mo and his allies killed Yao Qing, but the Evil Spirit escaped as black mist despite their efforts. They recovered the White Bone Altar, and Lin Mo’s World Tree blood began to suppress the evil will inside it, leaving open the possibility that he could claim the artifact.

• Xue Qingcheng’s sword light killed Yao Qing and ended her blood sacrifice, while the Evil Spirit escaped through the sealed space as black mist.
• Lin Mo put away the Big Dipper Formation Diagram, and Gu Youfang reassured Xue Qingcheng that the failed ambush was not her fault.
• Hai Dafu raised the White Bone Altar from the sea and explained that the Seven Baleful Nether Venerable had refined it.
• Puyuan tried to cleanse the altar with a Buddhist mantra seal, but its evil will shattered the seal and injured him.
• Lin Mo struck the altar with a drop of his essence blood, causing its bones to turn green as his World Tree bloodline began suppressing the evil will.

Lin Mo and his allies prepared to hunt the wounded evil spirit again, then traveled with Hai Dafu to the Deep Sea Stone Formation to reunite with the refugees from the Eastern Isles. There, Hai Beier used the Conch Horn and considered asking Lin Mo to help contact Cao through his spore clone.

• Lin Mo renamed the purified White Bone Altar the Spirit Plant Altar, and Puyuan urged him to use it against the evil spirit.
• Gu Youfang promised to have the Penglai Commerce Association build Teleportation Arrays in the Northern Frontier and Western Region to help locate and pursue the evil spirit.
• Lin Mo thanked Hai Dafu for protecting his parents and the Azure Cloud Sect, then traveled with Hai Dafu and Xue Qingcheng to the Deep Sea Stone Formation.
• The survivors from the Eastern Isles sheltered in the stone formation, while Dragon Hall's Sect Master Long Shengye entered death seclusion after most of his people were killed.
• Hai Beier took out the Conch Horn and thought Lin Mo might be able to contact Cao through his spore clone.

Lin Mo returned to the Deep Sea and reunited with Hai Beier, his family, and Azure Cloud Sect elders. Luan Xiuping gave him a beast-hide diagram that might lead to the Seven Baleful Nether Venerable's Sealing Grounds.

• Lin Mo told Hai Beier that the Evil Spirit's avatar had escaped but weakened, then took her seaweed spores to cultivate with spirit spring water.
• Lin Mo visited his parents, Lin Xiaohe, and Qin Sang Sang in the Deep Sea Stone Formation and recounted his recent experiences.
• Lin Mo met Han Kang and Luan Xiuping, who welcomed him back and caught him up on their cultivation.
• Luan Xiuping gave Lin Mo a beast-hide diagram from Jingyu and said deciphering it might reveal the Seven Baleful Nether Venerable's Sealing Grounds.

Lin Mo investigated how to break the Tai Sui Gate’s Soul-Control Secret Art and considered using gourd spirit spring water to cleanse its victims. He found a note in the Azure Emperor’s Pharmacopoeia suggesting that a Year-Infant Fruit could substitute for missing ingredients in the Nine-Turn Demon-Cleansing Pill.

• Lin Mo studied the baffling animal hide and decided to wait for Dantai Jingyu to emerge from seclusion.
• Lin Mo planted Hai Beier’s seaweed spores in the Gourd Space and saw signs that Senior Cao’s divine sense would soon awaken.
• Lin Mo planted Soaring Lotus seeds and Cloudfrost Fruit, then examined Xun Bin for traces of the Tai Sui Gate’s Soul-Control Secret Art.
• Lin Mo found that the corrupt aura seemed to reside in Xun Bin’s flesh and blood, and he considered how gourd spirit spring water might purify it without endangering victims.
• Lin Mo searched the Azure Emperor’s Pharmacopoeia for a suitable pill and found that a Year-Infant Fruit could replace the missing ingredients for the Nine-Turn Demon-Cleansing Pill.

Lin Mo discovered that Senior Cao’s matured seaweed clone had reproduced a pattern matching Dantai Jingyu’s divination, suggesting Cao was still alive but trapped somewhere. After investigating Cao’s birthplace with Hai Dafu, Lin Mo conjectured that the undersea currents might lead to the Other Planes.

• Lin Mo cultivated in the Gourd Space for twenty days, finding that the Jianmu Sapling absorbed most of the spiritual energy while his own Dharma Power grew only slightly.
• Lin Mo found that the matured Seaweed Spores had formed Senior Cao’s likeness and produced a pattern nearly identical to the markings on Luan Xiuping’s beast hide.
• Lin Mo inferred that Senior Cao’s true body had not perished and that the clone carried a limited divine soul imprint, then went to seek Hai Dafu’s help.
• Hai Dafu could not identify the pattern and advised Lin Mo to ask Dantai Jingyu, but Lin Mo chose not to risk troubling him with further divination.
• Hai Dafu took Lin Mo to Cao’s birthplace among the undersea currents, where Lin Mo compared them with the beast-hide pattern.
• Lin Mo proposed that Cao might have come from the Other Planes and that the currents could be hidden passages leading there.

Hai Dafu explained that the Spirit Origin Continent was Senior Cao's homeland and opened a plane passage so Lin Mo could travel there. Lin Mo entered the passage, protected by the Spirit Tortoise Shell Armor, as Hai Dafu held it open.

• Hai Dafu told Lin Mo that cultivators from the Divine Continent had explored hundreds of planes but found no path to ascension, and said Senior Cao likely came from the Spirit Origin Continent.
• Hai Dafu took Lin Mo to the plane barrier in the deep sea, where Lin Mo confirmed that the currents matched clues pointing to the Spirit Origin Continent.
• Lin Mo decided to travel there alone to learn what Senior Cao wanted and whether the continent held the opportunity he needed.
• Lin Mo gave Hai Dafu a rootlet of the Spirit-Devouring Vine so it could signal him to reopen the passage if Lin Mo needed help returning.
• Hai Dafu broke the plane barrier and stabilized the spatial passage, and Lin Mo sped into it on the Nine-Colored Auspicious Clouds with the Spirit Tortoise Shell Armor protecting him.

Lin Mo discovered a vast population of giant turtles feeding on seemingly endless seaweed in the Spirit Origin Continent and suspected they were descendants of the Eastern Isle Old Turtle. After following their leader for three days and two nights, he reached a human-inhabited island that was itself an enormous turtle.

• Lin Mo observed countless island-sized turtles eating seaweed and asked whether the seaweed had a clan, but they could not understand his words.
• The largest turtle reacted with reverence when Lin Mo showed it the Spirit Tortoise Shell Armor, and he sensed that the turtles shared a faint connection with the Senior Turtles.
• Lin Mo suspected the giant turtles were descendants of the Eastern Isle Old Turtle and followed their leader toward a distant island.
• After three days and two nights, Lin Mo saw that the island inhabited by human cultivators was itself an immense giant turtle.

Lin Mo met the Super Giant Turtle and learned that the Spirit Origin Continent had been devastated by a fiend and its Evil Spirit Clones. The continent’s few survivors depended on the aging Turtle Ancestor, while Lin Mo recognized that its Evil Soul Seals resembled the corruption affecting Xun Bin and the Sword Sect’s Ninth Elder.

• The Super Giant Turtle recognized Lin Mo through his connection to the Eastern Isle’s old turtle and summoned a white-haired cultivator to speak with him.
• Lin Mo told the old man how he had helped kill High Priest Yao Qing and severely wound the Evil Spirit Man on the Divine Continent.
• The old man explained that a sealed fiend had escaped decades earlier, leaving tens of thousands of Evil Spirit Clones behind and killing the Spirit Origin Continent’s six pinnacle experts.
• The old man said fewer than a million people remained and that the aging Super Giant Turtle’s protection had kept humanity from extinction.
• The old man revealed that the fiend’s Evil Soul Seals turned allies against one another, and Lin Mo connected them to the corrupt aura on Xun Bin and the Sword Sect’s Ninth Elder.
• Lin Mo asked whether the Primordial Antiquity Cultivators had left any way to counter the Evil Soul Seals, and the old man said the continent would not be in such dire straits if they had.

Lin Mo learned that the Spirit Plant Temple held nine Starry Ancient Swords and set out to retrieve them, revealing his World Tree bloodline and promising to return within three days. Elsewhere, a blue-robed cultivator disguised as an eerie young man killed his companion while pursuing the swords.

• The tall elder explained that a mysterious blue-robed man had sealed the ancient fiend with spirit plants and left nine Starry Ancient Swords at the Spirit Plant Temple, which evil spirits now guarded.
• Lin Mo connected the swords to his own Big Dipper Nine Swords and revealed that he possessed the World Tree bloodline through the Jianmu sapling in his dantian.
• The tall elder gave Lin Mo a map to the Spirit Plant Temple, and Lin Mo gave the colossal turtle mid-grade spirit spring water to restore its vitality.
• Lin Mo promised to retrieve the Starry Ancient Swords within three days and flew toward the temple, while the elder worried about the evil spirits and controlled cultivators guarding it.
• An eerie red-eyed young man killed his lean companion with an emerald sword and revealed himself to be an unfamiliar blue-robed cultivator standing on Nine-Colored Auspicious Clouds.

Lin Mo continued killing soul slaves in the Ancient Ge Mountains while disguising himself, but the evil spirits linked their life auras and ordered them to kill anyone suspicious. A soul slave recognized Lin Mo’s impersonation of Guo Xiong and attacked him with a giant mountain.

• The uncanny young man killed a human who had willingly served the evil spirits, then resolved to weaken the temple’s defenders before pursuing the Ancient Swords.
• The alluring man learned that more than seventy soul slaves had died in the Ancient Ge Mountains and linked the auras of over three hundred Human Race cultivators, ordering them to kill anyone suspicious.
• Lin Mo killed his seventy-fourth target, disguised himself as the dead soul slave, and continued patrolling the mountains to hide his identity.
• A middle-aged soul slave recognized that Lin Mo was impersonating Guo Xiong and summoned a massive dusky yellow mountain to crush him.

Lin Mo was exposed when the Heavenheart Sunflower Gall failed to mimic a soul slave’s altered life aura, but he killed the attacker and uncovered the red mist’s role in identifying him. As he resolved to face the Spirit Plant Temple alone, an alluring female soul slave attacked his mind with a sound-wave ability.

• The middle-aged soul slave bound Lin Mo with an earth technique and attacked him with a spike and a flame-wreathed treasure, but Lin Mo’s armor and the jianmu sapling’s energy protected him.
• Lin Mo’s Greenwood Mystic Gourd Sword pierced the middle-aged soul slave’s forehead, and an eerie red mist appeared as the soul slave died.
• Lin Mo realized the red mist had altered the soul slave’s aura and made the Heavenheart Sunflower Gall’s imitation imperfect, so he abandoned the disguise and burned the corpse.
• Lin Mo considered seeking help from Miss Qingcheng but decided to face the Spirit Plant Temple by himself, despite the powerful evil spirit within it.
• A female soul slave flew toward Lin Mo and used an alluring sound-wave ability to invade his sea of consciousness.

Lin Mo broke free of Hu Niangzi’s charm and fought back against the Nascent Soul middle-stage cultivator with his treasures and wood techniques. After transforming into a Wood Spirit Incarnation, he formed a weakened Big Dipper Sword Formation and cut Hu Niangzi in two.

• The Jianmu sapling freed Lin Mo from Hu Niangzi’s Acacia Ballad, and he slashed at her pink ribbon with the Greenwood Mystic Gourd Sword.
• Hu Niangzi attacked Lin Mo with a Transparent Spiderweb and her ribbon, but Lin Mo used the Spirit-Devouring Vine and Greenwood Sword Rain to resist.
• Lin Mo recognized Hu Niangzi’s strength and drew on surrounding wood-element energy to transform into a thirty-zhang Wood Spirit Incarnation.
• Lin Mo formed the Big Dipper Sword Formation with nine green sword rays and cleaved Hu Niangzi’s body in two.

Lin Mo captured Hu Niangzi’s nascent soul and brought her into the Treasure Gourd’s world, where he forced her to reveal what had happened at the Spirit Plant Divine Hall. Her account left him facing a Hundred-Flower Nether Venerable who was likely as powerful as a first- or second-layer Spirit Transformation cultivator.

• Lin Mo destroyed Hu Niangzi’s body, intercepted her fleeing nascent soul, and imprisoned her in the Treasure Gourd’s world.
• Lin Mo restrained Hu Niangzi with the world’s invisible shackles and demanded answers about the Spirit Plant Divine Hall.
• Hu Niangzi explained that three evil spirit men had hunted survivors, guarded the divine hall, and controlled human soul slaves.
• Hu Niangzi said the surviving human cultivators had settled on the Super Giant Turtle while the evil spirits dwindled to just over three thousand.
• Hu Niangzi identified the terrifying fiend as the Hundred-Flower Nether Venerable and estimated that he possessed first- or second-layer Spirit Transformation strength.

Lin Mo learned that the Hundred-Flower Nether Lord and two Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivators guarded the Starry Ancient Swords, then resolved to steal the swords rather than confront them directly. After killing Hu Niangzi, he prepared a formation and used her corpse as bait to draw the soul slaves into an ambush.

• Hu Niangzi told Lin Mo that the Hundred-Flower Nether Lord and two Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivators guarded the temple, and that the Nine Ancient Swords had recently emitted starlight.
• Lin Mo realized the swords' flash coincided with his own brief summoning of the Nine Ancient Swords half a month earlier and suspected they shared an origin.
• Lin Mo decided to seize the Starry Ancient Swords using his defensive treasures and Spirit Plant Altar rather than fight the temple's guardians head-on.
• Lin Mo annihilated Hu Niangzi's Nascent Soul and returned to the Ancient Ge Mountains.
• Lin Mo planted the Spirit-Devouring Vine with diluted Spirit Spring Water and formed an underground Plant Demon-Sealing Formation using four thousand six hundred vines.
• Lin Mo released Hu Niangzi's corpse, expecting its eerie red mist to lure the soul slaves into his trap.

Lin Mo confronted the Soul Slaves who gathered around Hu Niangzi’s corpse and wiped out hundreds of them with golden vines. After sparing three Golden Core Soul Slaves who retained some humanity, he set off for the Spirit Plant Divine Hall.

• Hundreds of Soul Slaves rushed to Hu Niangzi’s corpse and concluded that her killer was a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator nearby.
• Lin Mo arrived and condemned the Soul Slaves for serving the Evil Spirit, provoking them to attack him.
• Lin Mo summoned 4,800 golden vines that trapped and killed hundreds of Soul Slaves, including dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Lin Mo spared three Golden Core Soul Slaves who had not attacked and retained some humanity, then took them into the Gourd Space.
• Lin Mo incinerated the corpses and flew toward the Spirit Plant Divine Hall on the Nine-Colored Auspicious Clouds.

Lin Mo attacked Hundred-Flower Nether Lord at the Spirit Plant Divine Hall, hoping to reach the nine Starry Ancient Swords. The two white-robed elders sacrificed themselves in a fiery explosion that engulfed Hundred-Flower Nether Lord, leaving the battle’s outcome uncertain.

• Hundred-Flower Nether Lord told the two white-robed elders that his master would return and promised them power if they sided with the Nether Clan.
• Lin Mo arrived on the Spirit Plant Altar, and Hundred-Flower Nether Lord recognized it as an artifact associated with Seven Baleful Nether Venerable.
• Lin Mo unleashed the Spirit-Devouring Vine and the Big Dipper Sword Formation against Hundred-Flower Nether Lord, whose crimson mist dissolved the attacks while being drained by them.
• Hundred-Flower Nether Lord ordered the two elders to capture Lin Mo, but they attacked him instead.
• The two elders exploded themselves and their Nascent Souls, engulfing Hundred-Flower Nether Lord in blood-colored flames.

After two white-robed elders sacrificed themselves to cripple the Hundred-Flower Nether Lord, Lin Mo recovered nine more Starry Ancient Swords and used the Big Dipper Sword Formation to destroy the enemy. The eighteen swords then fused into nine brand-new longswords before him.

• Two white-robed elders detonated themselves, damaging the Hundred-Flower Nether Lord and destroying much of the mountain and Spirit Plant Temple.
• Lin Mo used the Spirit Plant Altar to search the ruins and uncovered nine Starry Ancient Swords that flew to him on their own.
• The Hundred-Flower Nether Lord recognized Lin Mo's World Tree Bloodline and realized his race's intelligence had been deceived.
• Lin Mo summoned the Big Dipper Formation Diagram and used the Big Dipper Sword Formation to annihilate the Hundred-Flower Nether Lord, despite the damage to the diagram.
• Lin Mo bowed to honor the two elders, and all eighteen ancient swords resonated before fusing into nine brand-new longswords.

After fusing the Starry Ancient Swords and killing the Hundred-Flower Nether Lord, Lin Mo faced the Spirit Origin Continent’s expulsion and prepared to return to the Divine Continent. He left the tall old man a golden vine as a way to call for help, then contacted Hai Dafu from the plane barrier.

• Lin Mo realized the Spirit Origin Continent’s heaven and earth will was expelling him after he had spent half a month there.
• Lin Mo told the tall old man that he had killed the Hundred-Flower Nether Lord and that the Starry Ancient Swords had fused with his Nine Ancient Swords.
• Lin Mo gave the tall old man a golden vine and promised to help evacuate the Spirit Origin Cultivators if the Hundred-Flower Nether Venerable returned.
• Lin Mo said farewell to the tall old man and the Super Giant Turtle, then traveled to the seabed plane barrier.
• Lin Mo sent a message through the golden vine asking Hai Dafu to open a plane passage back to the Divine Continent.

Lin Mo returned from the Spirit Origin Continent and warned Hai Dafu, Xue Qingcheng, and Hai Beier that evil soul seals threatened cultivators across the Divine Continent. He set a plan in motion to mass-produce Nine-Turn Demon-Cleansing Pills and left with Xue Qingcheng to hunt the evil spirit incarnation.

• Xue Qingcheng broke open the plane barrier and pulled Lin Mo safely out of the spatial passage after he returned from the Spirit Origin Continent.
• Lin Mo told Hai Dafu, Xue Qingcheng, and Hai Beier about the Spirit Origin Continent’s destruction and the evil soul seals he had found on a Sword Sect elder.
• Lin Mo proposed killing the evil spirit incarnation and making tens of millions of Nine-Turn Demon-Cleansing Pills to cleanse the seals before they activated.
• Lin Mo gave Hai Dafu a barrel of special spirit liquid to help ripen Year-Infant Fruit, and Hai Dafu departed for the Alchemy Sect to organize the effort.
• Lin Mo told Hai Beier to keep guarding the Deep Sea Stone Formation and set off with Xue Qingcheng for the Southern Frontier to find the evil spirit incarnation.

Lin Mo used his World Tree bloodline to search the Southern Frontier for the Evil Spirit Incarnation, while he and Xue Qingcheng awkwardly discussed their relationship. He found the incarnation in an underground chamber about seven million li away and set off with Xue Qingcheng to confront him.

• Lin Mo recalled how the Tai Sui Gate attacked the Azure Cloud Sect, causing Cloud Crane High Person to fail his tribulation, and traced the gate's later disappearance to the Southern Frontier.
• Xue Qingcheng offered to send the Snow Demon army to search the region, but Lin Mo said he could use the World Tree Phantom's roots to find the Evil Spirit Incarnation without alerting him.
• Xue Qingcheng told Lin Mo she would stop questioning his decisions, and Lin Mo blushed as he suggested they would need to inform his parents before becoming Dao companions.
• Lin Mo connected his divine soul to the World Tree Phantom and searched across the Southern Frontier through its rootlets.
• Lin Mo sensed a stern-faced man in an underground chamber near a broken Primordial Teleportation Array, identified him as the Evil Spirit Incarnation, and urged Xue Qingcheng to go with him.