Chapter Summaries

Ouyang rescued Leng Qingsong from the Nine Hells and sent him back to the surface, where Leng Qingsong astonished Tai'a and Dongxu Zi with his strength. After more than a year asleep in a spirit ice coffin, Ouyang woke in his room and demanded to know who had shut him inside.

• Ouyang carried Leng Qingsong out of the sand, teased him with an old lullaby, and hinted that he had a secret about the Green Lotus Sword Intent.
• Ouyang used his True Essence to send Leng Qingsong out of the Nine Hells and told him to wait at home.
• Tai'a and Dongxu Zi watched Leng Qingsong emerge from Thousand Sand Valley and marveled that he had reached the Spirit Division Realm at such a young age.
• Leng Qingsong returned to the Azure Cloud Sect, where Chen Changsheng joined him beside Ouyang's spirit ice coffin.
• Ouyang woke after more than a year in the coffin, sat up, and cursed whoever had shut him in it.

Ouyang awoke after sleeping for a year, three months, and seventeen days, and returned to Little Mountain Peak. He reunited with his junior brothers and Hu Tutu, who had believed he was gone, and the chapter ended with her crying in his embrace.

• Ouyang woke from the ice coffin and learned from Chen Changsheng that he had been asleep for over a year.
• Chen Changsheng told Ouyang that Xiao Bai was seeking his Dao and Tutu was studying at Jade Maiden Peak, while Leng Qingsong explained he had arranged for the fox demon to protect her.
• Ouyang asked for food, then fell asleep beneath a courtyard tree as Leng Qingsong kept watch and Chen Changsheng waited beside him.
• Hu Tutu returned from school and saw that Ouyang had awakened; she tried to greet him formally, but he affectionately teased her.
• Hu Tutu broke down crying as Ouyang welcomed her back.

After waking from a year-long sleep, Ouyang recovered at Little Mountain Peak as disciples and friends visited, while he uncovered the trouble his junior brothers had caused. He challenged Leng Qingsong and Chen Changsheng to a bet, leaving their future plans uncertain.

• Ouyang woke and returned to Little Mountain Peak, where Hu Tutu and visitors from across the Azure Cloud Sect welcomed him.
• Dongxu Zi examined Ouyang and confirmed he would recover with rest, while the women visiting him scolded him and sent Hu Tutu back to Jade Maiden Peak.
• Ouyang noticed visitors glared at Chen Changsheng, who had started writing down the names of 541 people for future special attention.
• Ouyang decided to go to Azure Cloud Peak and confronted Chen Changsheng and Leng Qingsong over Leng Qingsong's destruction of Questioning Sword Peak.
• Ouyang told his two junior brothers they acted as if the world should follow their wishes, then proposed a bet.

Ouyang proposed betting on Bai Feiyu’s cultivation when he returned from seeking his Dao, predicting that he would fall back to the Nascent Soul Realm. He reflected on why his gifted junior brothers needed to face hardships themselves, while worrying about what would happen to them if he could not watch over them.

• Ouyang suggested that he and his junior brothers bet on Bai Feiyu’s cultivation realm when he returned from his journey.
• Chen Changsheng predicted Bai Feiyu would reach Spirit Division, while Leng Qingsong expected him to become a Great Cultivator.
• Ouyang bet that Bai Feiyu would regress to the Nascent Soul Realm because he was handling God-Sealing himself.
• Ouyang recognized that his gifted junior brothers were arrogant and inexperienced, but decided not to shield them from the hardships they needed to face.
• Ouyang recalled Leng Qingsong’s desperation in the Nine Hells and wondered whether Hu Yun had once worried about him in the same way.

Ouyang defended Chen Changsheng and Leng Qingsong before the Sect Master, then summoned the Azure Cloud Sect’s inner disciples and elders to Azure Cloud Peak. With Chen Changsheng’s paper figures poised over the crowd, Ouyang prepared to call out their names.

• Dongxu Zi questioned why Ouyang was taking such a complicated approach to dealing with Hu Yun’s plans, and Ouyang said he wanted peace of mind.
• Dongxu Zi told Ouyang that Leng Qingsong had damaged Questioning Sword Peak’s gate and Chen Changsheng had cursed the Sect, and demanded Little Mountain Peak explain their actions.
• Ouyang claimed Chen Changsheng and Leng Qingsong had acted for the Sect’s benefit and asked Dongxu Zi to ring the Summoning Bell to clear their names.
• The Summoning Bell brought the inner disciples, elders, and attendants to Azure Cloud Peak, where Leng Qingsong and Chen Changsheng appeared before them.
• Ouyang arrived in his wheelchair and announced he had a treasure to show; Chen Changsheng released paper figures that made the crowd fear they were marked by a formation curse.
• Ouyang asked the gathered Sect members to answer when he called their names, while Dongxu Zi stopped the elders and attendants from acting.

Ouyang explained that Chen Changsheng’s paper figures were one-use Paper Substitutes that could block a fatal attack, winning over the Azure Cloud Sect after demonstrating their power. The sect members treasured the figures, while Ouyang quietly considered how cheaply he had bought their favor.

• Ouyang distributed a paper figure to everyone in the square, including the elders, attendants, and Leng Qingsong, alarming them with its apparent curse.
• Ouyang claimed responsibility for the figures and explained that he had asked Chen Changsheng to make them as Paper Substitutes.
• Ouyang infused the figures with true essence, revealing that each could block one fatal attack for its owner.
• Ouyang slashed Leng Qingsong with his own sword, but the paper figure took the blow and split while Leng Qingsong remained unharmed.
• The sect members carefully put away their figures and looked at Chen Changsheng with gratitude, while Ouyang reflected that he had bought their favor for only a few thousand true essence points.

Chen Changsheng received the Azure Cloud Sect disciples’ gratitude after Ouyang returned the protective hexes as life-saving treasures, and he pledged himself to the sect. Though the thought of saving the world that had fallen in his previous life frightened him, Ouyang and Leng Qingsong helped him stand firm and accept the responsibility.

• The Inner Disciples thanked Chen Changsheng for the hexes Ouyang had returned to them, and Chen thanked Ouyang for turning his precautions into a favor.
• Chen Changsheng pledged to live and die with the Azure Cloud Sect, and the disciples hailed him as their Holy Son.
• Dongxu Zi decided that keeping Little Mountain Peak in the sect would benefit its future, while the disciples set aside their anger over Questioning Sword Peak being split.
• Chen Changsheng considered whether he could prevent the apocalypse from his previous life, then grew afraid that he lacked the strength to bear the burden.
• Ouyang pressed a hand to Chen Changsheng’s back and urged him to straighten up, while Leng Qingsong pushed Ouyang’s wheelchair.
• Chen Changsheng drew courage from his senior and junior brothers and faced the crowd with renewed resolve.

Ouyang gave Little Bie San his hemp rope and learned that Tutu was ready to seek a Demon God inheritance. He then set off with Dongxu Zi for Great Spirit Mountain Temple to find out whether the Buddha Ancestor had died.

• Ouyang gave Little Bie San the hemp rope and invited him to choose a new name someday.
• Ouyang stood from his wheelchair, then pretended to remain disabled so others would treat him more gently.
• Handsome Guy told Ouyang that Tutu had reached the ninth level of the Nascent Soul Realm and should seek a Demon God inheritance.
• After the meal, Ouyang said he was leaving, and Leng Qingsong and Chen Changsheng offered to accompany him.
• Dongxu Zi arrived and questioned Ouyang about going to Great Spirit Mountain Temple, but Ouyang said he wanted to see whether the Buddha Ancestor had gone to the Western Heaven.

Ouyang planned to visit the Great Spirit Mountain Temple and learned that Hui Zhi intended to use Buddhism’s internal crisis to integrate it into Daoist orthodoxy. The two recognized that the plan would require a crucial person and named its next step: “Transforming the Hu into Buddhas.”

• Ouyang told Hui Zhi he would visit the Great Spirit Mountain Temple to see whether its Buddhist Holy Son had fallen to the devil.
• Hui Zhi warned Ouyang that the temple was guarded by True Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats, but Ouyang said he could call on Dongxu Zi to destroy it.
• Hui Zhi explained that he wanted to integrate Buddhism into Daoist orthodoxy and had made arrangements for the temple’s monks to face the consequences of his plan.
• Ouyang realized Hui Zhi’s scheme would bring a devastating purge upon Buddhism so it could be remade within the orthodox Dao.
• Ouyang and Hui Zhi agreed that completing the plan would require a crucial person, and said, “Transforming the Hu into Buddhas!”

Ouyang planned to visit the Great Spirit Mountain Temple with Dongxu Zi, partly to fulfill a system mission and partly to help Buddhism replace its monks. After Leng Qingsong and Chen Changsheng fought over who would accompany him, Ouyang refused to take either and promised that Little Mountain Peak could visit Hu Tutu’s hometown after he returned.

• Ouyang decided that Zhao Qiansun would be a suitable candidate for Buddhism’s plan to Transform the Hu into Buddhas and hoped to force him into the role.
• Ouyang summoned Dongxu Zi to join a raid on the Great Spirit Mountain Temple, and Dongxu Zi arrived at Little Mountain Peak.
• Leng Qingsong and Chen Changsheng argued over who would accompany Ouyang, threatening to fight with their sword intent and formations.
• Ouyang stopped the argument and said that neither Leng Qingsong nor Chen Changsheng would go, while Dongxu Zi offered to accompany him.
• Hu Tutu arrived wanting to play the suona, then nearly cried when she learned Ouyang was leaving, so Ouyang fed her osmanthus cake and suggested a group visit to her hometown after his return.

Ouyang and Dongxu Zi set out for the Great Spirit Mountain Temple, only to discover its teleportation formation had been shut down and a spatial barrier blocked their way. They arrived in the Buddhist-ruled White Elephant City, where the chanting of its mortal residents affected their minds.

• Ouyang persuaded Leng Qingsong and the others to let him travel with Dongxu Zi, then handed comics to the disciples guarding the Teleportation Formation.
• Dongxu Zi discovered that the formation to the Great Spirit Mountain Temple had not been used since the Azure Cloud Sect's grand ceremony and that the temple had shut it down.
• Dongxu Zi tore open space and traveled with Ouyang, but repeated spatial folding brought them to a city outside the temple's territory.
• Ouyang and Dongxu Zi observed the city's foreign customs and heard Buddhist chanting that unsettled cultivators' minds.
• Ouyang read the name above the city gate: White Elephant City.

Ouyang and Dongxu Zi discovered that White Elephant City’s mortals had been turned into part of a magic artifact and encountered a Spirit Division Realm cultivator posing as a Buddhist holy figure. Dongxu Zi pinned the man to the ground with a casual gesture, leaving the fate of the city and its people unresolved.

• Dongxu Zi explained Buddhist imagery while Ouyang noticed that the city’s mortals smiled and chanted scriptures even after being struck by a carriage.
• Dongxu Zi identified the mortals as part of a magic artifact, and his attempt to affect them with a breeze only caused them pain.
• Ouyang shouted an insult that silenced the crowd’s chanting and made the smiling mortals stare at him angrily.
• A six-tusked white elephant arrived carrying a burly man who claimed that Ouyang and Dongxu Zi had an affinity with Buddha and urged them to take refuge in Buddhism.
• Dongxu Zi saw through the man’s display and pressed him to the ground with a single gesture.

Dongxu Zi and Ouyang confronted a Spirit Division Realm Buddhist cultivator in White Elephant City while searching for Hui Zhi. Dongxu Zi sealed the city and threatened to kill the man despite his link to its believers.

• Dongxu Zi shattered the brawny man's Golden Body, but the man revived unharmed as mortals across White Elephant City remained unnaturally still.
• Ouyang asked where Hui Zhi was, prompting the brawny man and the city's mortals to turn hostile.
• Dongxu Zi seized the brawny man through the air and suppressed his Divine Soul and True Essence.
• The brawny man claimed to be the undying True Buddha, but Dongxu Zi's Dao Resonance sealed White Elephant City off from the outside.
• The brawny man warned that killing him would harm the city's believers, and Dongxu Zi replied that one more city's worth of deaths would hardly matter.

Ouyang and Dongxu Zi learned that Great Spirit Mountain Temple’s abbot, Kongming, had died and that the temple’s territory was sealed against spatial travel. Dongxu Zi flew toward the temple to force his way through, leaving Ouyang and Pu Cong behind.

• Ouyang questioned Pu Cong, who explained that Hui Zhi had become the temple’s abbot after Kongming passed into nirvana.
• Dongxu Zi was shocked to learn of Kongming’s death and realized that a Tribulation Transcendence Stage expert had sealed the space around them.
• Ouyang suspected Pu Cong had alerted the temple, but Pu Cong denied it and was forced to point out the direction to the temple.
• Dongxu Zi told Ouyang to follow and flew west toward Great Spirit Mountain Temple.
• As Dongxu Zi advanced, sonic booms shook the Buddha Light and the temple’s defenders’ roars turned into screams.

Ouyang subdued Pu Cong and learned that the city was created through a secret method for cultivating power from the faith of Buddhist believers. The method, called the Ten Thousand Li Buddha Kingdom, left Ouyang concerned about the believers’ loss of free will.

• Pu Cong attacked Ouyang after Dongxu Zi left, but Ouyang struck him and sent him crashing into the city wall.
• Ouyang reduced Pu Cong’s cultivation to Foundation Establishment, beat him down, and frightened him with a kitchen knife until Pu Cong agreed to answer his questions.
• Pu Cong explained that Hui Zhi had devised a method to revitalize Buddhism by turning believers’ faith into cultivation power.
• Ouyang saw that the believers had lost their emotions and desires, and feared that the method would lead cultivators to treat people as tools and fight over followers.
• Pu Cong named the secret method the Ten Thousand Li Buddha Kingdom.

Ouyang discovered that Hui Zhi’s Ten Thousand Li Buddha Kingdom was spreading rapidly and could turn Buddhist cities into an engine for expanding Buddhism, while binding their founders to their sites. He raced to join Dongxu Zi at the Great Spirit Mountain Temple, where Dongxu Zi’s destruction of a dozen golden Buddhas brought forth Buddhism’s Thousand-Armed Buddha.

• Ouyang learned from Pu Cong that the Eight Hundred Arhats had long been establishing Buddha Kingdoms and that more than half of the Thirty-Six Bodhisattvas had begun doing so.
• Pu Cong explained that he could not leave the city because he had become one with it, so Ouyang raced toward the Great Spirit Mountain Temple.
• Ouyang passed cities filled with emotionless, devout mortals and saw Dongxu Zi fighting a dozen enormous golden Buddhas.
• Dongxu Zi shattered the great Buddhas with his whisk, then dismissed the Buddhist Golden Body.
• Golden light gathered the shattered Buddhas into a single immense figure with countless arms, revealing Buddhism’s Thousand-Armed Buddha.

Ouyang headed for the Great Spirit Mountain Temple while Dongxu Zi stayed behind to face its enormous Buddha, formed by the Twenty-Four Bodhisattva Fruits. Dongxu Zi used One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones to create two copies of himself, and the three charged the Buddha as their battle shook heaven and earth.

• Ouyang called out to Dongxu Zi, who ordered him to go to the Great Spirit Mountain Temple and investigate what had happened there.
• After Ouyang left, Dongxu Zi faced the giant Buddha and welcomed the fight against the Great Cultivators who had joined to form it.
• Dongxu Zi used Slashing the Three Corpses to create two Daoist copies with strength equal to his own.
• The three Dongxu Zis exchanged attacks with the Buddha, blocking its golden light and Brahma Sound while their strikes failed to harm it.
• The Buddha unleashed millions of fists and palms, and the three Dongxu Zis joined together and charged toward it.

Ouyang sneaked toward the Great Spirit Mountain Temple while Dongxu Zi drew its defenders into battle, then used an enormously enlarged Flying Stone Technique to attack the Buddhist holy site. The temple survived and hurled the rocks back at Ouyang and Dongxu Zi, who retreated.

• Ouyang reached the Great Spirit Mountain Temple and saw that Dongxu Zi’s battle had left its defenses exposed.
• Ouyang used the Flying Stone Technique to create and drop a gigantic rock toward the temple.
• The temple’s Mountain-Guarding Grand Formation failed to stop the ordinary rock, and the Thousand-Armed Buddha tried to block it.
• Ouyang sent a second gigantic rock crashing into the first, breaking the giant Buddha and burying the temple in dust and stone.
• A golden hand emerged from the temple, caught both rocks, and hurled them at Ouyang and Dongxu Zi.
• Dongxu Zi grabbed Ouyang and retreated from the incoming rocks.

Ouyang and Dongxu Zi confronted Great Spirit Mountain Temple after its Buddha Palm used the city’s inhabitants to shield the temple from their attacks. Hui Zhi emerged as a powerful Integration Realm cultivator, and after he challenged Dongxu Zi’s insults toward Kongming, Ouyang knocked an apple core against his forehead and mocked him.

• Ouyang and Dongxu Zi realized the temple’s Golden Buddha Palm was formed from Buddha City and had sacrificed most of its inhabitants to block their attacks.
• Dongxu Zi condemned Buddhism and prepared to attack, but Great Spirit Mountain Temple sent a golden corridor out to meet them.
• Hui Zhi appeared with eighteen senior monks, eight hundred arhats, and thirty-six bodhisattvas; Ouyang’s Attribute Panel revealed Hui Zhi had reached the Integration Realm, third layer.
• Kongtiao accused Dongxu Zi of attacking the temple, but the monks backed down when Hui Zhi stepped forward to defend Buddhism’s honor.
• Hui Zhi told Dongxu Zi his cultivation came from dreams and asked him to show restraint when speaking of Kongming; Dongxu Zi seized him by the neck.
• Ouyang hit Hui Zhi’s forehead with an apple core and asked why he was putting on airs.

Ouyang and Dongxu Zi discovered that Hui Zhi could revive after being killed and had gained immense power by gathering Buddhist believers through his secret art. Hui Zhi explained that his believers were inscribed on his body, leaving Ouyang to wonder who had been tattooed in an intimate place.

• Ouyang noticed that Hui Zhi's title had changed to "Heavenly Dao Abandoned One" and questioned what it meant.
• Ouyang tried to bargain with Hui Zhi, but Dongxu Zi snapped his neck and then crushed him into bloody pulp.
• Hui Zhi revived both times and declared that Dongxu Zi could not kill him.
• Hui Zhi revealed that he had a few thousand believers, and Ouyang realized his secret art drew power from Buddhist cultivators and their Buddha Kingdoms.
• Hui Zhi said only believers inscribed on his body counted as converts, prompting Ouyang to ask who was tattooed down there.