Chapter Summaries

Hui Zhi revealed that Buddhism had created the Three Thousand Buddha Kingdoms, making him effectively impossible to kill while its vast numbers of believers remained. Ouyang challenged Hui Zhi’s claim that the kingdoms offered earthly bliss, leaving Hui Zhi unable to explain where their resources came from.

• Hui Zhi told Dongxu Zi that Buddhist leaders supported his plan and that the Three Thousand Buddha Kingdoms had already been established.
• Ouyang realized that Buddhism’s believers had made Hui Zhi represent nearly all of Buddhism, while Dongxu Zi fell silent under the weight of the Daoist Sect’s role in Buddhism’s oppression.
• Dongxu Zi accused Hui Zhi of enslaving people’s minds, but Hui Zhi showed him a miniature Buddha Kingdom and argued that Buddhism provided for its inhabitants.
• Ouyang asked how the Buddha Kingdoms obtained the resources to sustain their people, and Hui Zhi claimed Buddhist Cultivators took responsibility for them.
• Ouyang noticed the inhabitants had only ill-fitting clothes and enough food to fill their bellies, then mocked Hui Zhi for making unsupported claims.

Ouyang confronted Hui Zhi at the Great Spirit Mountain Temple, condemning Buddhism’s use of ordinary people as sources of faith. After Hui Zhi challenged Dongxu Zi to explain their arrival, Ouyang declared that they had come to wipe Buddhism out, putting the monks on guard.

• Ouyang judged Buddhism’s faith-gathering practice to be a danger that would ultimately destroy it, and recognized Hui Zhi as an unstable threat.
• Hui Zhi asked Ouyang why he bore him such prejudice, then told him the Great Spirit Mountain Temple would not welcome an enemy.
• Hui Zhi reminded Dongxu Zi that Buddhism had remained within the Western Lands under an old agreement, and asked why he had attacked the temple.
• Dongxu Zi could not explain why he had come, while Ouyang claimed they had arrived seeking instruction in Buddhist Dharma.
• Ouyang announced that they had come to wipe Buddhism out, causing the monks to ready their artifacts and secret arts.
• Hui Zhi accused Ouyang of making reckless claims, and Ouyang insisted that he would have to destroy Buddhism to justify his declaration.

Ouyang tried to kill Hui Zhi, but Dongxu Zi intervened and explained that Buddhism was protected by a Heavenly Dao rule. Dongxu Zi said he would handle the conflict through the Azure Cloud Sect’s deep ties with Buddhism.

• Ouyang manifested an Optimus Prime-like golden body and blasted half of Hui Zhi’s golden body apart with its ray gun.
• Buddhist abbots manifested their golden bodies and surrounded Ouyang as Hui Zhi restored his own form.
• Hui Zhi called on Dongxu Zi to act, and Dongxu Zi transported Ouyang to a white space, stopping him from attacking.
• Dongxu Zi warned that killing Hui Zhi would require destroying Buddhism and its billions of living beings, because Buddhism’s existence was permitted by the Heavenly Dao.
• Ouyang argued that Hui Zhi threatened the whole world, and Dongxu Zi explained that Hui Zhi was strengthening himself by making Buddhist cultivators absorb living beings.
• Dongxu Zi told Ouyang to leave the matter to him, saying that Buddhism and the Azure Cloud Sect had deep ties.

Dongxu Zi and Hui Zhi negotiated over the territory Buddhism would control, while Ouyang pondered the Heavenly Dao’s rules and questioned Buddhism’s purpose. A giant Buddha revealed that it knew Ouyang’s master, Hu Yun, then drew Ouyang into a Lotus Flower Pond as the bargaining continued.

• Dongxu Zi warned Hui Zhi that Buddhism’s mind-enslaving methods could turn the other holy lands against it, and Hui Zhi invited him to negotiate.
• Abbot Whitebrow transported the group to the Great Hero Hall, where Hui Zhi demanded land for Buddhism and he and Dongxu Zi haggled over its territory.
• Ouyang reflected on the Heavenly Dao’s rules and wondered what Hui Zhi meant by rebuilding Buddhism as he watched the giant Buddha.
• The giant Buddha appeared before Ouyang, recognized him as Hu Yun’s disciple, and told him not to resist because they were old acquaintances.
• The giant Buddha pulled Ouyang away, and he awoke beside a Lotus Flower Pond while Dongxu Zi continued arguing with Hui Zhi.

Ouyang was carried by a mysterious boat into a silent lotus pond where he could not use his true essence, and he provoked the unseen being there by trying to pick a lotus blossom. The voice finally revealed itself as a golden-bodied Buddha seated on a giant lotus, while Ouyang remained unaware of the seriousness of the encounter.

• Ouyang found his true essence had vanished when something in the pond clasped his hand, then boarded a boat that emerged from the water.
• As the boat carried Ouyang deeper into the pond, he tried to grab a lotus blossom and fell into the water when it dodged him.
• Ouyang seized the blossom and tried to tear it off until a voice ordered him to let it go.
• The voice told Ouyang the seedpod was ordinary and scolded him for trying to vomit, while Ouyang argued and recited a crude poem about lotus blossoms.
• The lotus leaves parted, revealing a golden-bodied Buddha seated on a gigantic lotus blossom.

Ouyang met Dharma, the First Abbot of Great Spirit Mountain Temple, who revealed that he was Ouyang’s Fourth Martial Uncle. Dharma explained that Buddhism’s turmoil was a tribulation meant to expose and resolve its problems, then hinted that he had guided Hui Zhi and may have given him the secret technique he used.

• Ouyang encountered the golden Buddha on a lotus platform and teased him about being Hu Yun’s wife.
• Dharma introduced himself as the First Abbot of Great Spirit Mountain Temple and revealed that he was Ouyang’s Fourth Martial Uncle.
• Ouyang kowtowed to Dharma and tried to get a first-meeting gift, but Dharma slapped his hands away.
• Dharma explained that Buddhism’s upheaval was a tribulation and a test of whether it could continue to exist.
• Dharma said he had separated Hui Zhi’s goodness after the monk’s return from the Azure Cloud Sect, then hinted that he might have given Hui Zhi the secret technique he comprehended.

Dharma revealed that Ouyang’s Fifth and Sixth Martial Uncles had inherited Buddhism’s legacy and that all three Martial Uncles had died after undergoing Dao Integration. He gave Ouyang a mysterious gift and charged him with carrying out the plan to merge Buddhism into the Daoist Sect, leaving Ouyang to propose dividing Buddhism’s household with Hui Zhi.

• Dharma told Ouyang that the Buddhist Sutra’s legacy had passed to Ouyang’s Fifth and Sixth Martial Uncles, who had both undergone Dao Integration.
• Ouyang learned that Dharma had also died, then questioned why he had to carry out the plan to merge Buddhism into the Daoist Sect.
• Dharma urged Ouyang to find his own path and gave him a first-meeting gift from the three Martial Uncles.
• Ouyang returned to the Main Hall with the gift and realized his Martial Uncles had left him a difficult problem.
• Ouyang walked between Dongxu Zi and Hui Zhi and suggested they stop arguing and discuss splitting up Buddhism’s household.

Ouyang challenged Hui Zhi’s leadership and claimed he was Buddhism’s Holy Son, provoking the monks in the Great Hero Hall. The Twelfth-Grade Merit Golden Lotus appeared above Ouyang, leaving the assembly stunned and suggesting Buddhism had chosen him.

• Ouyang openly called for Buddhists to leave with him, arguing against Hui Zhi’s actions and confronting the division within the temple.
• Hui Zhi and the white-browed monk rejected Ouyang’s challenge, while Dongxu Zi offered to leave and warned that no one could stop him.
• Ouyang claimed the venerable Dharma had promised him the title of Buddhist Holy Son, and the monks angrily mocked him.
• The Twelfth-Grade Merit Golden Lotus bloomed above Ouyang, displaying its recognition of him before the shocked assembly.
• Ouyang arrogantly demanded to know who still doubted him, while the monks wondered whether he truly was the Buddhist Holy Son.

The monks learned that Ouyang had gained the Twelfth-Grade Merit Golden Lotus’s recognition, making him a possible successor who could restore Buddhism. Hui Zhi accepted Ouyang as the next Great Abbot, and White-Browed Kongtiao proposed shaving Ouyang’s head and making him a monk.

• The chapter recounted how two Buddhist sages founded Buddhism and how the first abbot prophesied that the Golden Lotus’s chosen one would lead Buddhism back to glory.
• Ouyang mocked the monks after the Twelfth-Grade Merit Golden Lotus appeared above his head, while Hui Zhi struggled with resentment and a black Lotus Platform took root beneath his Divine Soul.
• Hui Zhi suppressed the Lotus Platform and calmly proposed that Ouyang become Buddhism’s Great Abbot, despite the monks’ objections.
• Ouyang asked whether he could expel Hui Zhi after becoming abbot, and Hui Zhi replied that he could practice wherever Buddha remained in his heart.
• White-Browed Kongtiao invited Ouyang to have his head shaved and become a monk, leaving Ouyang astonished.

Kongtiao invited Ouyang to become a monk and lead Great Spirit Mountain Temple, hoping he could counter Hui Zhi’s radical faction. Hui Zhi threatened to leave, throwing the temple into turmoil, and Ouyang ended the uproar by rejecting the role and berating the monks.

• Kongtiao asked Ouyang to shave his head, join Buddhism, and preside over Great Spirit Mountain Temple after seeing the Twelfth-Grade Merit Golden Lotus above him.
• The conservative faction saw Ouyang as a potential rival to Hui Zhi, while Hui Zhi privately regarded him as a threat.
• Hui Zhi challenged Kongtiao’s stance and announced that he would leave Great Spirit Mountain Temple.
• Hui Zhi’s followers erupted in protest and considered building a separate temple for him.
• Ouyang shouted down the crowd, called them a disgrace to Patriarch Bodhidharma, and said he did not want to become a monk.

Ouyang rejected becoming Buddhism’s First Abbot, while Dongxu Zi proposed allowing Buddhism to spread east in exchange for splitting the religion. The chapter ended with Dongxu Zi declaring that Buddhism must split.

• Ouyang insisted that he would never become the First Abbot, but Hui Zhi suspected he was pretending to be modest.
• Ouyang tried to knock the Twelfth-Grade Merit Golden Lotus off his head, then grabbed Dongxu Zi’s beard and demanded to know whether he had planned this.
• Dongxu Zi restrained Ouyang, drove a protesting monk from the Main Hall, and told Kongtiao that he would discuss Buddhism’s internal matter.
• Dongxu Zi proposed sending monks with Ouyang to persuade him to join Buddhism and to protect the Golden Lotus, while allowing Buddhism to spread east.
• Dongxu Zi announced that Buddhism must split, fixing his gaze on Hui Zhi.

Dongxu Zi forced the Great Spirit Mountain Temple to allow Buddhist cultivators to travel east with Ouyang, splitting the community. Hui Zhi remained in control of the temple after conservatives departed, while Kongtiao withdrew to prepare for secluded cultivation.

• Dongxu Zi proposed splitting Buddhism as a condition for Ouyang and the monks to travel east, and Hui Zhi weighed the threat against his ambitions.
• White-Browed Kongtiao agreed to let Buddhist cultivators leave, and Hui Zhi demanded that those who left no longer be recognized by the Great Spirit Mountain Temple.
• Kongtiao chose to stay and named Ci Hang to lead the departing monks, then Dongxu Zi and Ouyang left the hall with Ci Hang following them.
• Fewer than forty monks left with Ci Hang, taking their disciples and granddisciples and comprising about a tenth of Buddhism's strength.
• Kongtiao withdrew to his meditation chamber, while Hui Zhi remained behind and privately rejoiced that no one could restrain him.

Dongxu Zi challenged Ouyang to question whether his own beliefs were any more righteous than Hui Zhi’s and Ling Feng’s, arguing that killing Hui Zhi would leave Ouyang responsible for Buddhism’s followers. He urged Ouyang to build his strength and find loopholes in Heaven’s rules instead of acting prematurely.

• Ouyang left the Great Hero Hall with Dongxu Zi and a crowd of monks following him, then asked whether Dongxu Zi feared the three Buddha Venerables.
• Dongxu Zi used a barrier to speak privately with Ouyang and asked whether Hui Zhi’s pursuit of his Dao was any less valid than Ouyang’s.
• Dongxu Zi explained that Hui Zhi and Ling Feng both followed their convictions, and questioned whether killing was enough to make one a devil.
• Ouyang asked whether his greater strength gave him the right to kill Hui Zhi, but Dongxu Zi warned that doing so would leave Ouyang responsible for rebuilding Buddhism.
• Dongxu Zi told Ouyang to learn patiently, strengthen himself, and seek loopholes in Heaven’s rules.

Dongxu Zi led Ouyang and the Conservative Faction monks from the Great Spirit Mountain Temple to the Azure Cloud Sect, where they prepared to settle the monks at Questioning Sword Peak. He told Ci Hang to carry on the hopes of his masters, and Ci Hang named their new path Zen Buddhism.

• Dongxu Zi discovered that Buddhism had removed the Spirit Stones from its Teleportation Gate and made Ouyang supply stones he had pried from the Azure Cloud Sect’s Sect-Guarding Grand Formation.
• Dongxu Zi activated the gate and left for the Azure Cloud Sect, while Ci Hang and the monks bid farewell to the Great Spirit Mountain Temple and followed with their believers and disciples.
• At the Azure Cloud Sect, Ouyang proposed settling the monks on Questioning Sword Peak, and Dongxu Zi agreed to divide the peak between them and the girls from Penglai Immortal Mountain.
• Dongxu Zi inspected the golden cicada in Ci Hang’s wooden box, identified it as a relic formed after Ci Hang’s Eldest Master passed into nirvana, and urged Ci Hang to honor his masters’ hopes.
• When Dongxu Zi asked Ci Hang to choose a new name for their path, Ci Hang declared, “Zen Buddhism!”

Dongxu Zi explained to Ouyang that the world’s many peoples and paths could not be governed by a single principle, and that the rules people relied on had been discovered through painful trial and error. He ended by revealing that the cost of restoring order after the Immortals fell was the loss of five of the Seven Azure Cloud Disciples of old.

• Ci Hang asked Ouyang for his opinion on Buddhism, and Ouyang agreed clumsily before Ci Hang requested a place for his group to settle and revise their scriptures.
• Dongxu Zi took Ouyang to a pavilion and showed him a map that revealed how tiny the Azure Cloud Sect’s territory was within the vast world.
• Dongxu Zi explained that the Human and Demon Races occupied an enormous, partly unexplored world with many different paths and principles.
• Dongxu Zi recalled surviving the chaotic era after the Immortals’ fall, when he met his master and senior brother and eventually became part of the Azure Cloud Sect.
• Dongxu Zi told Ouyang that only he and Uncle-Master Su remained of the Seven Azure Cloud Disciples of old.

Ouyang spoke with Dongxu Zi about the coming Great Calamity, the sacrifices of those who came before, and the future of his junior brothers. He left urging Dongxu Zi to live and entrust the future to the younger generation, while Dongxu Zi watched him go and disappeared with the map.

• Dongxu Zi questioned whether Ouyang's junior brothers' paths could be accepted as justice, and Ouyang answered that strength would decide whose way prevailed.
• Dongxu Zi took the Twelfth Grade Golden Lotus of Merit from Ouyang and learned that Ouyang had chosen one of Dongxu Zi's future disciples to inherit it.
• Ouyang asked when the Great Calamity would come, but Dongxu Zi said no one knew its timing or nature.
• Ouyang warned Dongxu Zi not to rush off to die and said those who came before should no longer have to die for those who came after.
• Dongxu Zi watched Ouyang leave, praised his words, seized the map, and vanished.

Hu Tutu worried that her senior brothers would reject her if they learned she was a Qingqiu Spirit Fox, while Chen Changsheng tried to understand her sudden distress. The Tibetan fox revealed that Hu Tutu carried the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox bloodline, whose innate divine ability was Future Prediction.

• Chen Changsheng noticed Hu Tutu had lost her appetite and asked what was troubling her, but she denied anything was wrong.
• Hu Tutu secretly hurried to her godmothers' place, fearing her senior brothers would discover she was a demon and reject or harm her.
• Chen Changsheng asked Leng Qingsong and the Tibetan fox about Hu Tutu's worries, and the Tibetan fox explained that she feared her identity would be exposed.
• The Tibetan fox said Hu Tutu was an inheritor of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox bloodline and revealed that its divine ability was Future Prediction.

The Tibetan Fox explained that the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox could change the future and revealed her ancestor’s role in the fall of the Immortals. Ouyang, Leng Qingsong, and Chen Changsheng learned that the ancient catastrophe began with a war among the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin races, while the Fox secretly helped Li Taibai become an Immortal.

• The Tibetan Fox claimed the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox could change the future, though it admitted it did not know how the ability worked.
• Ouyang returned, and Leng Qingsong and Chen Changsheng were relieved to see him safe.
• Chen Changsheng told Ouyang that Hu Tutu was troubled because she feared her fox-demon identity would be exposed.
• The Tibetan Fox said the birth of the previous Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox had brought about the Immortals’ fall.
• The Tibetan Fox recounted how the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin races fought, were suppressed by the Immortals, and were divided into the myriad races.
• The Tibetan Fox revealed that the first Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox helped Li Taibai attain the Dao, enabling him to slay the Immortals.

Ouyang learned that Hu Tutu carried the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox bloodline, a secret that could make powerful factions target her. He warned Chen Changsheng and Leng Qingsong to protect her and not scheme against her, then reassured a fearful Tutu that he would forgive her even if she had lied to him.

• Ouyang connected the altered history of the Immemorial Era and Li Taibai’s campaign against the Immortals to the system he carried.
• The Tibetan Fox warned Ouyang that revealing Hu Tutu’s Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox bloodline would bring attacks from the Demon Race, Human Race, Devil Race, and Immortals.
• Ouyang told Chen Changsheng and Leng Qingsong to look after Tutu and never use their schemes against her.
• Hu Tutu returned nervously and explained that she had come back early to see Ouyang and had not skipped lessons.
• Ouyang embraced Tutu, told her he would forgive her even if she lied to him many times, and she began to sob.

Hu Tutu revealed her fox form to Ouyang after fearing he would reject her, but learned that everyone already knew she was a fox. The chapter ended with Hu Tutu joining dinner in her red fox form, while the Tibetan Fox watched with relief.

• Ouyang comforted Hu Tutu as she cried and promised that she would not be driven off Little Mountain Peak.
• Hu Tutu revealed her fox ears and tail to Ouyang, who accepted her without concern.
• Ouyang told Hu Tutu that he and the others had known she was a fox for a long time, and Hu Tutu realized she had worried for nothing.
• Ouyang stroked Hu Tutu's tail, then apologized when she protested; she blushed when he called her cute.
• Hu Tutu took her usual place at dinner as a red fox, while the Tibetan Fox watched her with comfort.