Chapter Summaries

Gu Changqing secretly preserved a wisp of Fuxi’s true spirit in his Wine Gourd while Houtu challenged Hongjun and the Heavenly Dao Seal. The chapter ended as Hongjun summoned the Creation Jade Disc to face Houtu.

• Gu Changqing watched Houtu’s return with confidence and reflected that her survival would prevent Hongjun from destroying the Witch Clan and erasing him.
• Gu Changqing revealed that he had rescued Fuxi’s wisp of true spirit and was nourishing it in his Wine Gourd until it could safely enter reincarnation.
• Hongjun rebuked Houtu for defying the Heavenly Dao, but Houtu declared that she would break the Heavenly Dao Cage and return to the world.
• Houtu struck with the Azure Dragon of the Earth Dao, weakening the Heavenly Dao Seal further.
• Hongjun summoned the Creation Jade Disc, unleashing its laws and Chains of Order as the two prepared to clash.

Hongjun brought out the Creation Jade Disc to suppress Houtu, but she answered with the Book of Life and Death and the newly formed Eternal Cycle Reincarnation Brush, unleashing the Earth Dao’s power. The clash shook the universe, and Hongjun’s startled reaction left the battle’s outcome uncertain.

• Hongjun summoned the Creation Jade Disc and sent its three-thousand-Dao power bearing down on Houtu.
• Houtu called forth the Book of Life and Death, a gift from Gu Changqing, and the Eternal Cycle Reincarnation Brush formed from the Earth Dao origin.
• Gu Changqing watched from Mount Shu and confidently told Ji Ren to wait and see whether Houtu could emerge from the battle.
• Houtu activated both treasures and drove the Earth Dao’s power toward the Creation Jade Disc.
• The collision shattered countless stars, and Hongjun’s expression changed as Houtu’s strength stunned all who witnessed it.

Houtu used the Book of Life and Death and the Eternal Cycle Reincarnation Brush to match Hongjun’s power and push the Creation Jade Disc into retreat. Hongjun then fused the Heavenly Dao Divine Wheel with the disc, raising its power as the battle continued.

• Houtu’s Earth Dao torrents tore through the heavens and shook the Primordial World, while onlookers realized her power rivaled Hongjun’s.
• At Mount Shu, Ji Ren questioned Gu Changqing about Houtu’s strength and his accurate prediction, and Gu Changqing called Hongjun a puppet of the Heavenly Dao Will.
• Houtu’s Earth Dao power struck the Creation Jade Disc, dimming its radiance and erasing its laws as Hongjun fell onto the defensive.
• Hongjun summoned the Heavenly Dao Divine Wheel and fused it with the Creation Jade Disc, causing its power to surge.

Houtu summoned the Earth Dao Divine Wheel to counter Hongjun’s Heavenly Dao power and revealed that it could seize the power of living cultivators. Hongjun was left shocked by her ability to manifest it.

• Hongjun empowered by the Heavenly Dao attacked the Underworld, destabilizing the Six Paths of Reincarnation and dimming Houtu’s treasures.
• Dijiang called on the Eleven Ancestral Witches to deploy the Dutian Divine Fiends Formation and help Houtu, but she pushed them away from the battlefield.
• Houtu declared that the Earth Dao could manifest its own divine wheel and summoned the Earth Dao Divine Wheel.
• The Earth Dao Divine Wheel stabilized reincarnation and drew magic power, laws, and other forces from cultivators across the Primordial World into Houtu’s use.
• Hongjun reacted with fury and disbelief at Houtu’s Earth Dao Divine Wheel.

Houtu revealed that Gu Changqing’s wine had helped her condense the Earth Dao Divine Wheel, then clashed with Hongjun as their Daos threatened everything nearby. The battle remained unresolved, but Hongjun’s face turned pale, leaving all living beings fearing he was about to lose.

• Houtu credited Gu Changqing’s wine with helping her condense the Earth Dao Divine Wheel, astonishing the living beings and enraging Hongjun.
• Gu Changqing remained on Mount Shu, dismissing the battle and returning to his drinking, while Hongjun focused on suppressing Houtu instead of attacking him.
• Hongjun enlarged the Creation Jade Disc and sent its Heavenly Dao Divine Wheel crashing against Houtu’s Earth Dao Divine Wheel.
• The clash froze the surrounding world, and a Mighty Expert died after his primordial spirit was annihilated by the spreading power of the great Dao.
• Nuwa warned the living beings that the battle’s laws could destroy anything they touched, prompting them to retreat more than a hundred million miles.
• As the clash continued, Hongjun’s expression shifted and his face turned pale, making the onlookers fear he was about to lose.

Houtu defeated Hongjun by shattering the Heavenly Dao Divine Wheel and left him questioning how he could have lost. She dismissed his Heavenly Dao and status as Dao Ancestor as nothing special.

• Houtu stepped onto the Earth Dao Divine Wheel and attacked Hongjun, who poured his power into the Heavenly Dao Divine Wheel.
• Houtu struck with the Earth Dao Divine Wheel and Eternal Cycle Reincarnation Brush, annihilating the Heavenly Dao’s laws and shattering its wheel.
• Hongjun coughed up blood after his defeat, while the watching sages and living beings stared in shock.
• Hongjun demanded to know how Houtu could defeat him, and she told him his Dao was lesser and nothing special.
• Hongjun froze, fixated on Houtu’s words.

Houtu decisively defeated Hongjun and openly defied his threats, leaving his authority in tatters. Laozi and Yuanshi persuaded Hongjun to withdraw, while Hongjun vowed to settle the matter later.

• Houtu mocked Hongjun after defeating him, and the watching beings celebrated his loss of prestige.
• Tongtian struggled with his conflicting feelings about his master Hongjun losing to his disciple Gu Changqing, while Nuwa questioned whether becoming a Heavenly Dao Sage was the highest path.
• Hongjun threatened Houtu with doom for defying Heaven, but Houtu challenged him to do his worst and left him speechless.
• Laozi and Yuanshi arrived and urged Hongjun to retreat, fearing Houtu might also target their sects.
• Hongjun accepted their advice, vowed not to let the matter rest, and stormed away as Houtu disregarded him.

After defeating Hongjun, Houtu turned her power against the Demon Court and annihilated the Demon Race. The chapter ended with the Demon Court in ruins and the Witch-Demon conflict brought to a close.

• Houtu ignored the departing Hongjun and warned Di Jun and Taiyi that the Demon Race would perish.
• Di Jun ordered the Primal Chaos Star Dou Great Array deployed, using the Sun Star as its core, but Houtu shattered the formation with one strike.
• Di Jun and the others pleaded for Hongjun to save the Demon Race, but he did not respond.
• Houtu flooded the Demon Court with the power of the Earth Dao, destroying its buildings and killing Di Jun, Taiyi, the Ten Demon Saints, and countless demons.
• The battle fell silent, and all living beings realized that the Demon Race no longer existed.

After Houtu annihilated the Demon Race, Nuwa vowed to repay her for Fuxi’s death when she became strong enough, then departed. In Zixiao Palace, Hongjun, Laozi, and Yuanshi mourned the Profound Gate’s losses, and Hongjun blamed the Heavenly Dao for withholding power.

• The Witch Clan celebrated Houtu’s victory as all living beings witnessed the Demon Race’s destruction.
• Houtu asked Nuwa whether she still intended to fight, and Nuwa vowed to avenge Fuxi when she had the strength.
• Nuwa departed without fighting Houtu, and the gathered Mighty Experts dispersed as the battle ended.
• In Zixiao Palace, Yuanshi lamented the Demon Race’s destruction and the Profound Gate’s losses while Hongjun remained furious.
• Hongjun cursed Houtu and Gu Changqing, then blamed the Heavenly Dao for withholding its power, shocking Laozi and Yuanshi.

After Hongjun admitted that the Heavenly Dao Will had limited his power, it bestowed origin laws and the Heaven-Shaking Coffin, leaving him suspicious of its motives. On Mount Shu, Gu Changqing explained to Ji Ren that Houtu defeated Hongjun because she controlled the Earth Dao, while Hongjun was controlled by the Heavenly Dao.

• Hongjun told Laozi and Yuanshi that the Heavenly Dao Will had repeatedly denied his requests for greater authority, contributing to his defeat by Houtu.
• The Heavenly Dao bestowed origin laws and the Heaven-Shaking Coffin upon Hongjun, who wondered whether it could still perceive Houtu.
• Ji Ren asked Gu Changqing how he had predicted Houtu's victory and why she had proved stronger than Hongjun.
• Gu Changqing told Ji Ren that Hongjun was merely a representative controlled by the Heavenly Dao, while Houtu truly controlled the Earth Dao.

Ji Ren pondered Gu Changqing’s teaching that true cultivation meant transcending the Heavenly Dao and taking one’s fate into one’s own hands, while Gu left Mount Shu after the Demon Race’s defeat. In the Underworld, the Ancestral Witches celebrated their victory and Houtu praised Gu Changqing, until his drunken voice cautioned that their supreme authority was still far off.

• Ji Ren questioned whether cultivators had been wrong to revere the Heavenly Dao, and Gu Changqing told him that cultivating the Dao meant cultivating the body, while cultivating fate required transcendence.
• Gu Changqing reflected that Houtu alone had transcended the Heavenly Dao and explained through his actions that he intended to follow a path bound by neither the Heavenly Dao nor the Earth Dao.
• Gu Changqing left Mount Shu, while Ji Ren realized that his master had likely stationed himself there to protect the humans from a desperate Demon Race attack.
• Dijiang, Zhu Jiuyin, Zhurong, Xuanming, and the other Ancestral Witches celebrated the Demon Race’s destruction and Houtu’s victory over Hongjun.
• Houtu credited Gu Changqing for the Witch Clan’s achievements and said she would share future glory with him, prompting Gu’s drunken voice to warn that it was too early to claim supreme authority.

Gu Changqing congratulated the Twelve Ancestral Witches on the end of the Measureless Calamity, then warned that Hongjun could grow stronger through the Heavenly Dao and threaten Houtu again. The witches accepted that a future clash might await them and resolved not to fear Hongjun, as Gu Changqing anticipated the Primordial World's true grand age was beginning.

• Gu Changqing arrived in the Underworld and congratulated the Twelve Ancestral Witches on the Demon Race's extinction and the end of the Measureless Calamity.
• Dijiang and the other witches bowed to Gu Changqing and thanked him for helping their clan survive.
• Gu Changqing warned that their victory had rewritten the Heavenly Mandate, so he could no longer foresee their path, and cautioned that Hongjun might surpass Houtu again.
• Houtu confirmed that Hongjun's power came from the Heavenly Dao, which could grant him greater authority than she could withstand.
• Xuanming worried about a future fight with Hongjun, but Zhurong and the others declared that the Witch Clan would not fear him.
• Gu Changqing watched the witches regain their resolve and said the Primordial World's true grand age was about to arrive.

Gu Changqing anticipated a golden age in which the Witch Clan and Earth Dao could challenge Hongjun’s dominance. The Earth Dao then birthed its Underworld deities, transforming the Underworld and granting Gu Changqing most of the resulting merit.

• Gu Changqing said he should raise his strength and prove the Dao of Primordial Unity before the coming golden age, impressing Dijiang and the others.
• A divine stele formed in the Underworld as the Earth Dao’s power gathered, and Gu Changqing recognized the phenomenon as the birth of Earth Dao deities.
• Fengdu emerged, knelt before Houtu, and was appointed to oversee the Netherworld Bureau and judge the dead.
• The Five Ghost Emperors, the Ten Halls of Yama, the Four Meritorious Officers, and the Ten Yin Commanders appeared, and their arrival transformed the Underworld.
• The birth of the deities brought vast merit to the Underworld, and Houtu sent fifty to sixty percent of it to Gu Changqing, who accepted it and thanked her.

Gu Changqing used Houtu’s merit to evolve the Long Body Heaven-Battling Art, a cultivation technique that draws in Heavenly Dao qi and strengthens its practitioner’s origin and Dao foundation. He then asked Houtu to let a surviving wisp of true spirit enter the Human Realm Path for reincarnation and re-cultivation, and she agreed without hesitation.

• Gu Changqing summoned the Merit Golden Wheel and used his divine sense to evolve a new art as laws and Heavenly Dao qi gathered around him.
• Gu Changqing named the new cultivation technique the Long Body Heaven-Battling Art and explained how it could draw in Heavenly Dao qi to improve a practitioner’s foundation.
• Houtu promised Gu Changqing that he could freely take merit from the Underworld in the future.
• Gu Changqing presented a surviving wisp of true spirit and asked Houtu to send it through the Human Realm Path for reincarnation and re-cultivation.
• Houtu opened the Human Realm Path without asking whom the true spirit belonged to, surprising Gu Changqing with her trust.

Gu Changqing sent Fuxi’s lingering true spirit into reincarnation with Houtu’s help, then wandered the world while cultivating and demonstrating his growing mastery of wine and sword. He headed for the Undying Volcano to search the fallen Phoenix Clan’s ancestral seat for its hidden wealth, and was astonished by what he found there.

• Gu Changqing sent Fuxi’s true spirit into the human realm path, and Fuxi thanked him as he vanished.
• Gu Changqing thanked Houtu for trusting him, then left the Underworld after exchanging pleasantries.
• Gu Changqing wandered the world, absorbing laws through his Long Body Heaven-Battling Art as onlookers praised his wine and sword paths.
• Gu Changqing wondered whether the fallen Phoenix and Qilin Clans had left treasures behind and made for the Undying Volcano.
• Gu Changqing entered the silent, ruined Undying Volcano and marveled at the Phoenix Clan’s ancestral grotto-heaven.

Gu Changqing looted the Phoenix Clan’s treasury inside the Undying Volcano and discovered the origin of the Southern Bright Separation Flame. He captured the divine flame in his Wine Gourd and considered using it to brew wine for Ao Cunxin.

• Gu Changqing swept up the precelestial plants and immortal herbs growing inside the Undying Volcano.
• Gu Changqing broke into the Phoenix Clan’s treasury, collected its treasures, and complained that it held no fine wine.
• Gu Changqing sensed a fierce heat and followed it to a small flame that he identified as the origin of the Southern Bright Separation Flame.
• Gu Changqing used his Wine Gourd to subdue the Southern Bright Separation Flame and capture it.
• Gu Changqing wondered whether he could use the divine flame to brew wine for Ao Cunxin.

Gu Changqing encountered Kong Xuan, a Phoenix survivor with the Five-Colored Divine Light, after leaving the Undying Volcano. As Gu Changqing drew his sword to kill the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal, an unseen voice urged him to stay his hand.

• Gu Changqing considered combining Ao Cunxin's Dragon bloodline with Phoenix and Qilin powers, then left the Undying Volcano with the Southern Bright Separation Flame's origin.
• Kong Xuan ambushed Gu Changqing, but Gu Changqing evaded the attack and recognized the five-colored divine bird.
• Gu Changqing revealed that Kong Xuan was born from Yuanfeng's blood essence and foretold his fate as the Western World's Peacock Wisdom King.
• Kong Xuan demanded the Phoenix Clan's treasures and ordered Gu Changqing to leave, provoking Gu Changqing to summon the Purple-Green Nine Heavens Sword.
• Gu Changqing realized Kong Xuan was only a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal and prepared to strike, but an unseen voice asked him to stay his hand.

Gu Changqing confronted Yuanfeng, who revealed she had survived as a remnant soul and offered her life-bound plume in exchange for Kong Xuan's life. He agreed to take Kong Xuan into the Interception Sect, leaving Kong Xuan stunned and uncertain.

• Gu Changqing sensed Yuanfeng within the Undying Volcano and revealed that he knew she had survived.
• Yuanfeng manifested as a dying remnant soul and explained she had been unable to protect the Phoenix Clan because she could not leave the volcano.
• Yuanfeng asked Gu Changqing to spare Kong Xuan and offered her life-bound plume as payment.
• Kong Xuan objected, warning that surrendering the plume would make Yuanfeng cease to exist.
• Yuanfeng asked Gu Changqing to take Kong Xuan into the Interception Sect and teach him its Dao arts.
• Gu Changqing accepted the plume and agreed to protect Kong Xuan, who remained bewildered.

Yuanfeng died after entrusting Kong Xuan to Gu Changqing, who led him away from the Undying Volcano. Rather than return to the Interception Sect, Gu Changqing headed for Qilin Cliff to seek the Qilin Clan’s riches.

• Yuanfeng praised Gu Changqing, asked him to take Kong Xuan as his disciple, and died as the Southern Bright Separation Flame vanished.
• Grieving Kong Xuan followed Gu Changqing out of the Undying Volcano to honor Yuanfeng’s dying wish.
• Gu Changqing turned toward Qilin Cliff, explaining that he intended to seek the Qilin Clan’s accumulated riches.
• Mighty Experts recognized Kong Xuan as Yuanfeng’s son and discussed how Yuanfeng had secured his future by entrusting him to Gu Changqing.
• Kong Xuan wondered why the onlookers envied him for following Gu Changqing rather than envying Gu Changqing for taking the Phoenix Clan’s treasures.

Gu Changqing and Kong Xuan explored the ruins beneath Qilin Cliff, where Gu Changqing gave Kong Xuan a sword forged from a Phoenix Clan member’s bone. They found the Qilin Clan’s wine vault, but Gu Changqing froze and darkened at what he saw inside.

• Gu Changqing and Kong Xuan arrived at Qilin Cliff and reflected on how the ancient clans had been destroyed despite their former power.
• In a cave, Gu Changqing found a sword forged from a Phoenix Clan member’s bone and gave it to Kong Xuan, who accepted it.
• The two continued deeper into the abyss, passing ordinary Spirit Treasures that did not interest Gu Changqing.
• Gu Changqing sensed a treasure he wanted and led Kong Xuan to a great hall filled with the fragrance of wine.
• Gu Changqing entered the Qilin Clan’s wine vault, then froze and darkened at the sight inside.