Recaps

Chu Xingchen returned to the Sect, found Yuankong in a newly reforged body, and agreed to let him try Buddhist methods to treat the unconscious Li Zi. Yuankong accepted the task after Chu Xingchen bargained him down to testing one pill a day.

• Chu Xingchen returned to the Sect and reassured Chen Baiqing that Li Xingtian was safe and still in Central Province.
• Chu Xingchen entered the Main Hall, where Li Yingling revealed that the burly monk was Yuankong, and Chu Xingchen immobilized him when he tried to leave.
• Chu Xingchen examined Yuankong and found that his temporary reforged body did not meet the conditions for discipleship, though Chu Xingchen still intended to make him test pills.
• Chu Xingchen brought out the unconscious Li Zi, and Yuankong diagnosed her divine sense as tangled and offered to try Buddhist methods to treat her.
• Yuankong agreed to take Li Zi for treatment after Chu Xingchen reduced his pill-testing obligation from two pills a day to one.

Chu Xingchen searched for a suitable cultivation method for Cui Hao, rejecting the Demon-Suppression Bureau’s manuals as useless. He returned to the sect with a method ready, but Cui Hao tried to flee when Chu Xingchen announced it.

• Yuankong told Chu Xingchen that his altered appearance would supposedly return to normal once he reached Foundation Establishment, then left carrying Li Zi.
• Chu Xingchen decided to spend the Skyglow Sect’s compensation on further construction and assigned Ning Kun to oversee the work.
• Chu Xingchen searched the Demon-Suppression Bureau’s library for a cultivation method for Cui Hao, found its manuals worthless, and abandoned the search there.
• At a sect gathering, Lin Luoyu noticed that Cui Hao avoided Chu Xingchen despite the Qi-Nourishing Pills improving his cultivation.
• Chu Xingchen returned with a cultivation method for Cui Hao, who tried to run but was immobilized by a spell.

Chu Xingchen gave Cui Hao a dazzling cultivation manual and promised to teach him personally, while Cui Hao believed his master had prepared the supreme method to make up for his poor aptitude. The chapter left Cui Hao grateful and oblivious to why his senior sisters pitied him.

• Cui Hao begged Chu Xingchen to let him cultivate on his own, but changed his mind when he saw the golden manual Chu Xingchen held.
• Li Yingling and Chen Baiqing recognized the manual as a likely source of trouble and looked at Ning Qianqian with pity, while Lin Luoyu thought Cui Hao would finally catch up with the others.
• Cui Hao eagerly accepted the cultivation method and opened it, finding its characters profound and impossible to understand.
• Chu Xingchen said he would teach Cui Hao the method himself because it was too profound for him to ask Li Yingling for help.
• Cui Hao concluded that Chu Xingchen valued him and had chosen a supreme method to compensate for his poor aptitude, but Li Yingling responded with a pitying gaze.

Chu Xingchen brought Cui Hao to the Martial Training Hall and taught him the self-created Heaven-Burning Li-Jin Great Dao Heart Method, presenting it as a powerful secret technique. Cui Hao began cultivating it and found it blended smoothly with his existing practice.

• Chu Xingchen led Cui Hao into the Martial Training Hall to explain his new heart method.
• Chu Xingchen told Cui Hao to keep the method secret and promised to adjust it as Cui Hao progressed.
• Chu Xingchen explained the Heaven-Burning Li-Jin Great Dao Heart Method, whose passages Cui Hao recognized as resembling the Spirit-Nourishing Art.
• Cui Hao dismissed the resemblance and praised Chu Xingchen's teaching after quickly understanding the method.
• Cui Hao began cultivating the new method and found that the spiritual energy from his Qi Refining Divine Art circulated without resistance.

After Cui Hao was taken away to learn his heart method, Li Yingling welcomed Ning Qianqian into the Sect gathering and teased Chu Xingchen over dinner. Cui Hao finished cultivating and realized his new technique was powerful, then set out to ask his master to refine it further.

• Li Yingling stopped Ning Qianqian from working and insisted she sit down to eat with the others.
• Chu Xingchen joined the meal, told everyone not to disturb Cui Hao while he cultivated, and praised Ning Qianqian's grilled meat.
• Li Yingling accused Chu Xingchen of wronging her when he teased her about causing trouble.
• Cui Hao finished cultivating and found that his new heart method absorbed spiritual energy far faster than the Qi Refining and Spirit-Nourishing Art.
• Cui Hao decided to find Chu Xingchen and ask him to fine-tune the technique.

Xie Lingyu reflected on how Central Province’s sects seized control of the world’s main spirit veins, then stood on Pearl-Gem Peak as her master teased her about having a sweetheart. The chapter left Xie Lingyu facing her amused master without answering the accusation.

• The narration described how the Heavenly Derivation Sect intercepted two-thirds of the spiritual energy flowing through its main spirit vein.
• The Profound Clarity Heavenly Sect’s seizure of a main vein triggered the first Reverse Punitive Campaign, in which it devastated Dongsheng Shenzhou and retained control at great cost.
• Other sects followed the Profound Clarity Heavenly Sect’s example until the eighteen main spirit veins were divided among powerful sects.
• Xie Lingyu, nearing the peak of the Golden Core stage, cultivated on the Cloud-Ascending Terrace at Pearl-Gem Peak.
• Xie Lingyu’s master teased her for thinking about her sweetheart and said she had seemed different since returning.
• Xie Lingyu turned to look at her master but did not respond to the teasing.

Bai Xuanling defended Xie Lingyu’s past actions and explained the Heavenly Derivation Sect’s brutal history as the Central Province Eighteen Demonic Sect. She teased Xie Lingyu about Chu Xingchen, then revealed he had stirred up trouble in Sunset Valley and asked Xie Lingyu to bring him to meet her.

• Bai Xuanling told Xie Lingyu she had done nothing wrong and blamed the Sect Leader for exiling her.
• Xie Lingyu recalled that Bai Xuanling had once slaughtered seven sects and later forced the Sect Leader to promise an early end to Xie Lingyu’s punishment.
• Xie Lingyu reflected that the Heavenly Derivation Sect’s reputation for order concealed its origins as the merciless Central Province Eighteen Demonic Sect.
• Bai Xuanling teased Xie Lingyu about having a sweetheart and named Chu Xingchen as the person she suspected.
• Xie Lingyu stopped when Bai Xuanling hinted at news of Chu Xingchen, and Bai Xuanling said he had stirred up trouble in Sunset Valley and invited Xie Lingyu to bring him over.

Chu Xingchen and his disciples celebrated Lin Luoyu’s birthday with gifts, longevity noodles, decorations, and a song. Their gathering was interrupted by an unfamiliar woman in a pale blue dress, who looked over the group and remarked that Chu Xingchen was good-looking.

• Chu Xingchen sensed that Li Xingtian’s cultivation had advanced and felt reassured about his disciple’s safety.
• Chu Xingchen found Lin Luoyu waiting at the sect and learned that Li Yingling had sent her to stay behind.
• Li Yingling returned with the others and surprised Lin Luoyu with a birthday gift and a celebration.
• Ning Qianqian brought Lin Luoyu longevity noodles, and Chu Xingchen led everyone in singing a birthday song.
• An unfamiliar woman arrived at the sect entrance, surveyed the group, and told Chu Xingchen he was quite good-looking.

Bai Xuanling, Xie Lingyu’s older sister and a Tribulation Transcendence powerhouse, visited Chu Xingchen’s sect and invited him and his disciples to join the Heavenly Derivation Sect. Chu Xingchen declined for now, but Bai Xuanling decided to stay at the sect and have his room prepared for her.

• Bai Xuanling arrived at Chu Xingchen’s sect, introduced herself as Xie Lingyu’s older sister, and told him to call her big sister.
• Chu Xingchen tried to send Li Yingling and the other disciples away, but Bai Xuanling saw through his excuse and teased him about resembling Xie Lingyu.
• Bai Xuanling asked Chu Xingchen about his future plans and invited him and his disciples to join the Heavenly Derivation Sect, but he said he was not considering it for now.
• Bai Xuanling gave Lin Luoyu a bottle of pills for her birthday, and Lin Luoyu thanked her and ate her longevity noodles.
• Bai Xuanling said she planned to stay at the sect for a while, so Chu Xingchen ordered Li Yingling to clear out his room for her.

Bai Xuanling met Chen Baiqing and questioned her about Chu Xingchen and his Sect before offering Chu Xingchen guidance. When he mentioned his strange alchemy problem, Bai Xuanling asked to watch him refine pills.

• Bai Xuanling found Chen Baiqing reading, introduced herself, and traded a bottle of pills for one of the girl's candied fruits.
• Bai Xuanling asked Chen Baiqing what Chu Xingchen did at the Sect, and Chen Baiqing said he cultivated, taught them, and knew alchemy.
• Chu Xingchen joined them and asked Bai Xuanling how Xie Lingyu had been; Bai Xuanling called his Sect lax and offered to help manage its disciples.
• Chu Xingchen declined Bai Xuanling's offer to discipline his disciples but accepted her offer to answer his questions.
• Chu Xingchen told Bai Xuanling that his pills were difficult to swallow and caused a strange sensation, so she asked him to show her how he refined them.

Bai Xuanling watched Chu Xingchen refine a Qi-Nourishing Pill and found his technique flawless, but tasting one revealed the powerful, strange rejection effect he had warned her about. Suspecting his furnace might be responsible, she offered him her personal Refining Pill Furnace and told him to make another batch.

• Bai Xuanling asked Chu Xingchen to refine a basic Qi-Nourishing Pill and judged his alchemy technique to be excellent.
• Bai Xuanling praised the finished pills, then tasted one at Chu Xingchen's urging.
• The pill's fierce rejection effect alarmed Bai Xuanling, who destroyed its medicinal potency and questioned Chu Xingchen about his alchemy.
• Bai Xuanling examined another pill and suspected the Refining Pill Furnace might be causing the side effect.
• Bai Xuanling took out her personal Refining Pill Furnace, let Chu Xingchen borrow it, and ordered him to refine another batch.

Bai Xuanling took Chu Xingchen’s unusually potent but harsh Qi-Nourishing Pills to study, while Chu Xingchen eagerly planned to ask the Tribulation Transcendence powerhouse for help with his sect and disciples. Two days later, she realized he had been piling more requests on her and angrily called him shameless.

• Bai Xuanling examined Chu Xingchen’s pills, found their medicinal effects concentrated but their side effects unusually severe, and agreed to investigate them.
• Chu Xingchen gave Bai Xuanling all the pills he had refined, and she promised to report her findings in a couple of days.
• Chu Xingchen reflected that Bai Xuanling was genuinely helpful and began thinking of more matters for her to advise him on, including his disciples’ cultivation and the sect’s formations and feng shui.
• Two days later, Bai Xuanling confronted Chu Xingchen beside a pool and accused him of going too far with his requests.

Bai Xuanling upgraded Chu Xingchen’s mountain-guarding formation and revised Cui Hao’s cultivation method while helping the sect with its needs. After she joined the sect’s barbecue gathering, Chu Xingchen asked her to provide one more thing: a Spirit Field.

• Bai Xuanling rebuilt the sect’s mountain-guarding formation with valuable foundations and gave Chu Xingchen a jade token to control it.
• Chu Xingchen brought Bai Xuanling his revised cultivation method, and she refined it into the Heaven-Burning Li-Jin Great Dao Heart Method, extending its progression to the Nascent Soul realm.
• Bai Xuanling examined the sect’s Spirit Gathering Formation and told Chu Xingchen it was already too good to improve safely.
• Bai Xuanling joined the sect’s barbecue gathering, then Chu Xingchen approached her again and asked what the sect was missing.
• Chu Xingchen told Bai Xuanling that the sect needed a Spirit Field.

Chu Xingchen and Bai Xuanling established a Medicine Field at the Sect’s Back Mountain, then joined the disciples’ thirty-seventh Whole-Sect Gathering. Bai Xuanling reflected on the Sect and its members before Chu Xingchen invited her to take part in the bonfire celebration.

• Bai Xuanling agreed to help Chu Xingchen prepare a plot for spirit plants, and he set up the cultivation ritual under her direction.
• With Bai Xuanling’s support and donated seeds, the Medicine Field was established, and Ning Qianqian was put in charge of tending it.
• Bai Xuanling examined the Sect and considered its loose organization, Chu Xingchen’s influence, and the qualities of its disciples.
• At the bonfire gathering, Chu Xingchen offered Bai Xuanling mortal wine and invited her to join the celebration so no one would be left out.
• Bai Xuanling stood to join the gathering and warned Chu Xingchen not to blame her if she spoiled the mood; he said he would blame his eldest disciple.

After the Whole-Sect Gathering, Bai Xuanling finished her visit to Chu Xingchen’s sect and gave him a Heavenly Derivation Token as an investment in its potential. She left with her murderous intent eased, while wondering whether the sect’s hidden talents were connected to the ordained cycles of the world.

• Bai Xuanling joined the Whole-Sect Gathering, shared food with Chen Baiqing, and drank two cups as a penalty after Li Yingling reproached her.
• During her stay, Bai Xuanling watched Chu Xingchen and the disciples improve the sect and found its disciples unusually talented.
• Chu Xingchen gave Bai Xuanling six bottles of pills he had refined, and she accepted them as payment for her help.
• Bai Xuanling gave Chu Xingchen a Heavenly Derivation Token that could make people who feared the Heavenly Derivation Sect give way to him in Central Province.
• Bai Xuanling could offer no solution to Chu Xingchen’s alchemy problem, then said goodbye and considered visiting the sect again to unwind.

Xie Lingyu hurried to Heavenly Derivation Peak after learning Bai Xuanling was forcing Perfect Tonic Pills on the Sect Leader. Bai Xuanling emerged satisfied and declared that three bottles of pills had not replenished his Source Qi, blaming his depletion on a lack of restraint.

• Qinghe told Xie Lingyu that Granny Bai was pinning down the Sect Leader and feeding him bottles of Perfect Tonic Pills.
• Xie Lingyu rushed to Heavenly Derivation Peak and found the peaks' leaders watching Bai Xuanling's Sword Formation rather than breaking through it.
• Peak Master Mo and the Law Enforcement Hall elder admitted they were waiting for reinforcements before attempting to rescue the Sect Leader.
• The Sect Leader wailed from inside the formation that Bai Xuanling might as well kill him, and the Sword Formation then retracted.
• Bai Xuanling told Xie Lingyu she had fed the Sect Leader three bottles of superior Perfect Tonic Pills, but they had not replenished his Source Qi.

Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu waited at Desolate Ridge as bait for demons, while their sect joined the campaign against the demon uprising at Origin Mountain. Cui Hao suspected Li Yingling had deliberately placed them in danger, and the chapter ended with him watching the unsuspecting Lin Luoyu.

• A tiger spirit became a Demon King, raised a banner at Origin Mountain, and rallied demons against the Black Tortoise Kingdom.
• The kingdom and several sects sent forces to fight the demons, while Nascent Soul cultivators and most Golden Core cultivators stayed back.
• Chu Xingchen agreed to let his disciples gain experience and equipped them with teleportation talismans and protective Dharma Treasures.
• Li Yingling sent Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu to ambush patrolling lesser demons and capture some for information.
• Cui Hao questioned the exposed ambush site, then concluded Li Yingling meant for him and Lin Luoyu to serve as bait.

A weasel-led patrol squad of lesser demons encountered Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu hiding in the Withered Grass Slope Plains and attacked them. Lin Luoyu killed the wild boar demon with a single sword strike, and the weasel realized the pair were formidable opponents.

• The weasel and its patrol squad discussed their dangerous lives and their hopes for the Demon Kingdom.
• The weasel scented humans hiding in the grass and ordered the squad to fire a volley of crossbow bolts.
• Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu emerged unharmed, and Lin Luoyu agreed to fight while Cui Hao took on the lizard demon.
• Lin Luoyu charged the wild boar demon and wild ox demon, then killed the boar with a swift sword strike.
• The weasel shouted that the humans were tough opponents as the wild boar's world spun away.

Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu served as bait while Li Yingling tracked the fleeing demons to their camp and destroyed it. After seeing the demons’ gruesome treatment of human victims, Li Yingling understood why humans fought them without mercy.

• Lin Luoyu killed a boar demon, and the remaining demons retreated while crossbow bolts slowed her pursuit.
• Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu followed the demons to rocky ridges and realized they had been used to lead Li Yingling to the demons’ camp.
• Li Yingling cut through a mountain with an azure sword strike and devastated the demon camp.
• Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu found Li Yingling standing near the camp, where a pot contained boiled human arms and three wounded demons lay before her.
• Li Yingling recalled Chu Xingchen showing them burned villages and realized the demons had carried human victims away to eat them.

Chu Xingchen attended the wartime alliance assembly in Yunzhou City while keeping Chen Baiqing away from the fighting. Li Yingling returned with captured demons and asked Chu Xingchen to give them pills, leaving their interrogation in his hands.

• The Black Tortoise Kingdom formed a wartime alliance after delays and appointed a government cultivator as its temporary leader.
• Chu Xingchen accepted the government’s arrangement for his sect to hold a prominent seat at the alliance assembly in Yunzhou City.
• Chen Baiqing asked Chu Xingchen why her younger siblings could go but she could not, and he told her she was too young to witness the fighting.
• Chu Xingchen told Chen Baiqing that Li Yingling would return soon, and she eagerly anticipated hearing her senior sister’s stories.
• Li Yingling flew into Yunzhou City with her junior siblings and three wounded demons, then asked Chu Xingchen to give them pills.

Chu Xingchen examined the three demons Li Yingling brought back and used pills and spells to restrain them before questioning them. The wild ox demon began experiencing the effects of the pills as a strange dream, then recognized the place where it had begun while patrolling with the other demons.

• Li Yingling gave the three demons healing pills, and Chu Xingchen immobilized the weasel demon after it threatened him.
• Chu Xingchen inspected the demons and decided the gentle but dull-witted wild ox demon might be suitable as a disciple.
• Li Yingling left the interrogation to Chu Xingchen, who also restrained the snake demon when it woke.
• The wild ox demon dreamed it had returned to its camp, where the weasel told it to join a patrol across the eastern plain.
• During the patrol, the wild ox demon heard the weasel complain about searching the plain and recognized the bushes where its dream had begun.

The Wild Ox Demon repeatedly relived the patrol squad’s doomed encounter with human ambushers, then watched his warnings go unheeded as the Outpost Camp was destroyed in his visions. At the Teahouse, Chu Xingchen questioned the surviving demons and gave Li Yingling a letter containing far more detailed intelligence than she had extracted.

• The Wild Ox Demon recognized the grass where Old Pig had died in a previous vision and warned the Weasel Demon that powerful humans were lying in ambush.
• The Patrol Squad repeated the encounter, and the Wild Boar Demon was beheaded before the demons fled toward the Outpost Camp.
• The Wild Ox Demon warned the camp about a pursuing Golden Core True Person, but she arrived and destroyed it with one sword stroke.
• The Wild Ox Demon woke from another vision and tried to stop the patrol, while the Weasel Demon dismissed his warning and led the squad toward the Eastern Plains.
• At the Teahouse, Chu Xingchen showed the demons the Wild Ox Demon’s repeating dream and persuaded the Snake Demon to talk.
• Chu Xingchen gave Li Yingling a letter containing the intelligence she had just gathered, then told her to leave professional work to the professionals.

After Chu Xingchen reviewed Li Yingling’s first operation and urged her to rely more on others, she led the next alliance meeting in Yunzhou City in his place. When a sect leader implied that her Sect should provide a Nascent Soul elder, Li Yingling answered by setting Chu Xingchen’s Heavenly Derivation token on the table and challenging him to repeat himself.

• Chu Xingchen told Li Yingling that she had acted too hastily during her first operation and advised her not to handle everything herself.
• Chu Xingchen left the decisions about the coming operations and the three lesser demons to Li Yingling.
• Three days later, Li Yingling attended the alliance meeting in Yunzhou City with Chen Baiqing, Cui Hao, and Lin Luoyu, while Chu Xingchen stayed away.
• Zhao Chun said the alliance needed three more Nascent Soul elders as a safeguard and asked the assembled sects to provide them.
• A middle-aged sect leader suggested the Black Tortoise Kingdom should turn to Li Yingling’s nearby Sect for an elder.
• Li Yingling placed Chu Xingchen’s Heavenly Derivation token on the table and asked the sect leader to repeat what he had said.

Li Yingling used a jade token to prove her connection to the Heavenly Derivation Sect, prompting the gathered sects to accept their assignments for reclaiming lost territory. When they asked why the Heavenly Derivation Sect had become involved, she said the sects of the Black Tortoise Kingdom had chosen to handle the crisis themselves.

• Li Yingling activated the jade token, revealing the Heavenly Derivation Sect's emblem and convincing the assembled sect representatives of its authenticity.
• The middle-aged man who had resisted cooperation and the other sect representatives agreed to take part in the campaign.
• Zhao Chun assigned the sects their tasks, including having the Cloudsky Sect attack from the west and cut off the demon troops' reinforcements.
• Zhao Chun announced that the first phase of the plan would begin in seven days.
• An elderly representative asked whether the tiger demon's rise in Desolate Ridge was connected to demons from Central Province.
• Li Yingling replied that the Heavenly Derivation Sect had not chosen to handle the crisis; the sects of the Black Tortoise Kingdom had chosen to do so themselves.

Tiger Seven and Broken Abacus faced Desolate Ridge’s looming war and planned to escape the Demon Lord’s scheme with a stratagem. Meanwhile, Chu Xingchen received a letter from Central Province as he studied a map and prepared for the conflict.

• Tiger Seven complained to Broken Abacus that Desolate Ridge’s palace was crumbling, food was scarce, and the Black Tortoise Kingdom and Xiazhou Dynasty were preparing to attack.
• Broken Abacus blamed Tiger Seven’s leadership and explained that Desolate Ridge could no longer feed its gathered demons or avoid war.
• Tiger Seven proposed fleeing, but Broken Abacus warned that the Demon Lord would stop them and proposed the Human Book’s stratagem, Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell.
• Tiger Seven worried that demons had no future, and Broken Abacus said humans remembered every grievance against them.
• Chen Baiqing brought Chu Xingchen a letter from Central Province while he studied a map, and Chu Xingchen sighed after reading it.