Recaps

Chu Xingchen and Ru Nan repaired relations between their sects while Li Yingling arranged a limited Hinayana Buddhism pilot to support Li Junzi’s reforms. Wuwang traveled to the Southern Jambu Continent to oversee it as Li Yingling revealed that she and Chu Xingchen had devised a way to secure land for the temples.

• Lin Luoyu told Chu Xingchen about her childhood and her longing to reassure her mother, then gained the Heaven and Earth Righteousness trait when her righteousness qi surged.
• Li Yingling emerged from seclusion as a Spirit Transformation cultivator, and Chu Xingchen met Ru Nan to defend the Buddhist Sect and propose cooperation against the Heavenly Demons.
• Chu Xingchen and Ru Nan agreed to work together, and Chu Xingchen encouraged Lin Luoyu to help Li Junzi pursue her reforms and become a Second Sage.
• Chen Baiqing persuaded Zhao Xuan to invite Li Junzi to the Black Tortoise Kingdom, while Li Yingling and Zhang Miaoyu arranged for Yun Li to handle negotiations with the Buddhist Sect.
• Ru Nan accepted Chu Xingchen’s statement clearing the Buddhist Sect’s name and chose Wuwang to oversee Hinayana Buddhism, but Li Yingling later demanded a limited pilot in Southern Jambu Continent.
• Cui Hao questioned travelers about Li Junzi’s New Policies and helped stir public discussion, while Buddhist monks arrived in the Black Tortoise Kingdom.
• Chu Xingchen apologized to Ru Nan for his disciples’ plan to use Hinayana Buddhism to support Li Junzi, and Ru Nan agreed to promote it despite expecting the effort to fail.
• Ru Nan sent Wuwang to the Southern Jambu Continent, and Li Yingling told Li Junzi’s group that the pilot temples could receive land offerings that would belong to the Central Province Buddhist Sect.

Wuwang’s effort to spread Hinayana Buddhism spiraled into rebellion before Li Yingling and Li Junzi’s reforms contained the crisis. Meanwhile, Chu Xingchen pursued Xu Linglong’s demonic schemes, recruited Yuankong, and left him with a new path as Qian Qing watched him depart.

• Yun Li advised Wuwang to give commoners strengthening drinks and farming tools, and Wuwang’s support helped ignite a rebellion in Cangwu Kingdom under Hinayana Buddhist banners.
• Li Yingling and Chen Baiqing arrived to manage the unrest, but Chen urged Wuwang to decide whether he would risk everything to unite the masses, while Li Yingling offered reforms and warned that time was running out.
• Fang Jing denounced the followers’ violent version of Hinayana Buddhism at Jingci Temple, was beaten, and was healed by Cui Hao, who learned that the Buddhist Sect had told the temple to stand aside.
• Cui Hao and Chen Baiqing pressed Wuwang to act as the crisis worsened, while Li Junzi prepared to implement the New Policies and troops departed the capital.
• Chu Xingchen visited Firmament Rhyme Hall and assembled a team with Ye Antao and Yunxiao to investigate Xu Linglong’s rituals, while Winter Melon uncovered evidence of an attempt to reconnect with the Heavenly Demon Realm.
• Xu Linglong attacked Chu Xingchen with a scarlet arrow, and he hid his injured condition while ordering a search for her spies and preparing a major move against her.
• Cangwu Kingdom implemented reforms that suppressed extremist believers and eased tensions, while Chen Baiqing returned to the Heavenly Derivation Sect to check on Chu Xingchen.
• Chu Xingchen found Yuankong performing in Jiangyue City and asked him to leave Qian Qing behind, then accepted Yuankong as his disciple and gave him a sutra and a karmic staff before departing at dawn.

Chu Xingchen gathered allies and used a hidden plan to confront Xu Linglong at sea, where her Authority and Boluo’s Wish Power kept the battle from ending. The arc left Xu Linglong still fighting as Boluo ordered another move, while Bai Xuanling arrived at Cloud Dream Pavilion and demanded entry.

• Chu Xingchen sent Chen Baiqing to take charge of urgent Jade Token decisions, then entrusted her with the Heaven's Way Map and Winter Melon.
• Chu Xingchen and his allies traced shifting spirit veins, organized a search for the Cross-Realm Grand Formation, and prepared to draw Xu Linglong out.
• Xie Lingyu reached the early integrated body stage after a surge of Dao resonance and joined Chu Xingchen as bait.
• Cui Hao broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm with Zheng Zhaoling guarding him, then declared his intention to change the lot of cultivators.
• Xu Linglong lured Chu Xingchen to sea and unleashed thousands of demons, but Xie Lingyu cut through them with overwhelming sword strikes.
• Xu Linglong used the power planted in Winter Melon’s Sea of Consciousness to make it attack Chu Xingchen, and Winter Melon wounded him before Chu Xingchen defeated it.
• Chu Xingchen revealed his Tribulation Transcendence cultivation and fought Xu Linglong, but her Authority reversed his Spiritual Power until he drew her into a close-range attack and pierced her abdomen.
• Eight Tribulation Transcendence Cultivators surrounded Xu Linglong, but she activated Boluo’s crystal and renewed her Authority as Boluo ordered the child beneath the lotuses to act.
• Cui Hao sensed an arrival from the east, and Bai Xuanling appeared above Cloud Dream Pavilion and ordered its gates opened.

As the Great Calamity began, the sects uncovered the Devils’ ritual and prepared for war while Chu Xingchen pursued alliances and dealt with the people drawn to the Heavenly Derivation Sect. The stretch ended with Yuankong agreeing to represent Chu Xingchen in a collaboration with the Buddhist Sect.

• Bai Xuanling gave Cui Hao a Jade Token revealing that Devils were moving Spirit Veins in Northern Jambudvipa to activate a Grand Formation, and Cui Hao sent Zheng Zhaoling to coordinate the sects.
• Crimson pillars appeared across the continents, and Li Yingling led an investigation with Li Xingtian, who went undercover among Evil Cultivators and recruited Gao Fang as a guide.
• Gao Fang approached a pillar and was overtaken by a crimson Divine Soul force before Li Yingling and the Tribulation Transcendence Cultivators sealed him for study.
• Chu Xingchen demonstrated the crimson fluctuation in Gao Fang’s Divine Soul to the sect leaders, then learned from Bai Xuanling that weak Spirit Veins were converging on a hidden ritual formation.
• Boluo told Meiyu that the Devils planned to build a Grand Formation using Spirit Vein branches and sacrifices, while Qian Qing set out to find Yuankong and Chen Baiqing returned to reconcile with Li Yingling.
• Li Yingling welcomed Qian Qing and offered to help contact Yuankong, while Sandong and Qinghe showed Qian Qing around the sect and explained that she could not cultivate without a Spiritual Root.
• At Great Thunderclap Temple, Chu Xingchen secured Ru Nan’s agreement to waive Wuwang’s punishment and arranged Buddhist Sect benefits and publicity.
• Chu Xingchen met Yuankong outside Yuzhou City, advised him to write to Qian Qing, and recruited him to represent Chu Xingchen in a Buddhist Sect collaboration with Ru Nan.