Chapter Summaries

Chu Xingchen led the three sects’ forces across the Western Ox-He Continent and ordered them to pressure the Buddhist Sect, while Huang Miao blocked the Buddhist forces at the Pudu River. The chapter left the temples under attack and the Buddhist Sect unable to cross the river.

• Chu Xingchen’s coalition swept across the Western Ox-He Continent, destroying Buddhist temples and sects that resisted.
• Chu Xingchen told Yan Yun to lead the three sects to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple and to answer Buddhist threats with even fiercer threats.
• Chu Xingchen gave Lychee protective Dharma Treasures and urged her to stay alive, then left to confront the approaching monks.
• Huang Miao barred the Buddhist Sect from crossing the Pudu River and claimed the Profound Clarity Heavenly Sect had jurisdiction there.
• An Arhat reported that the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple was under attack and the Right Sound Dharma Temple might also be under attack, and Huang Miao intercepted the report and taunted the Buddha.

Li Xingtian and Yan Yun led Heavenly Derivation Sect cultivators in an assault on the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, whose abbot defended its neglect of starving refugees. After killing him, the cultivators distributed the temple’s grain and made arrangements for the refugees, while Yan Yun hurried on as the conflict with the Buddhist Sect intensified.

• Yan Yun confronted the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple’s abbot over its refusal to help refugees, and he blamed the Heavenly Derivation Sect for cutting off the continent’s spirit veins.
• Li Xingtian attacked the abbot and denounced him, declaring that he would destroy the temple even if he could not win the argument; Yan Yun then killed the abbot with one strike.
• Wang Lin led his squad through the temple, killing monks who resisted while sparing those who did not fight and avoiding needless damage to places that could shelter people.
• Yan Yun ordered the temple’s grain reserves distributed, refugees whose homes had been cleared escorted back, and guards and logistics arranged.
• Yan Yun left to continue the campaign as Yuyang Daozi headed for Right Sound Dharma Temple and Chu Xingchen sought Xu Jin at Bodhisattva Man, with Huang Miao facing pressure at the Pudu River.

Xu Jin stayed with a remote tribe in Bodhisattva Man and tried to understand a drawing that seemed to predict an approaching ritual or disaster. When a female savage arrived with urgent news, Xu Jin sensed something outside and went to investigate.

• Xu Jin refused the middle-aged savage's roasted rat and used Spiritual Power to put it into the man's mouth.
• Xu Jin studied the savage's drawing of the moon and crazed demons, which seemed to depict something happening after a certain number of days.
• Xu Jin asked the middle-aged savage to take him to the place shown in the drawing, but could not understand the man's gestures about the timing.
• A female savage entered the hut, gesturing and making excited sounds, and Xu Jin sensed something outside with his Divine Sense before leaving to investigate.

Chu Xingchen reunited with Xu Jin and learned that the tribespeople’s lunar ritual would take over twenty years to activate. They traced its absorption of Spirit Stones and Moonlight Crystals above the Endless Sea, where Xu Jin’s blood triggered a reaction in the moonlight.

• Chu Xingchen used an illusion technique to communicate with the tribespeople and learned they believed they were taking part in an ancient trial.
• Chu Xingchen interpreted the tribesman’s gestures and told Xu Jin the moon ritual would take over twenty years to complete.
• Chu Xingchen told Xu Jin that Yan Yun, Yuyang Daozi, and the Grand Elder had also arrived, then took Xu Jin’s Spatial Ring to find the ritual.
• Chu Xingchen scattered spiritual power and moonlight over the Endless Sea to trace where the ritual absorbed them.
• Chu Xingchen cut Xu Jin’s wrist, and the moonlight sank into the sea along with his blood.

Chu Xingchen and Xu Jin opened a Secret Realm beneath the Endless Sea, but Xu Linglong attacked before they could enter. Bai Xuanling defeated her group and prepared to investigate the realm alone, leaving Xu Jin stung by her judgment of his cultivation as meager.

• Xu Jin and Chu Xingchen completed the blood-fueled Ritual, opening a Secret Realm beneath the Endless Sea.
• As a dozen-odd auras approached, Chu Xingchen and Xu Jin prepared to enter the realm and defend themselves.
• Xu Linglong led the arrivals and attacked Chu Xingchen, but Bai Xuanling appeared and annihilated the group, revealing that Xu Linglong had sent a clone.
• Bai Xuanling criticized Chu Xingchen's plan to draw out their enemies, and he said Xu Linglong had seemed unconcerned that the realm was discovered.
• Bai Xuanling chose to investigate the Secret Realm alone and told Chu Xingchen and Xu Jin not to follow because their cultivation was meager.

The Buddhas gathered at Great Thunderclap Temple to discuss the Three Sects’ entry into the Western Ox-He Continent and the Buddhist Sect’s response. Hua Wu argued that the sect had neglected the suffering caused by rampaging Demon Beasts, leaving the assembly silent.

• Buddhas from across the Buddhist Sect assembled at Great Thunderclap Temple, where Ru Nan welcomed them and called for discussion.
• The Eight-Turn True Buddha warned that the Three Sects were destroying Buddhist temples and could eventually seize Great Thunderclap Temple.
• Hua Wu True Buddha said the Buddhist Sect had failed to help the Western Ox-He Continent’s people as Demon Beasts rampaged there.
• The Eight-Turn True Buddha defended the sect’s actions and said its Buddhas had tried to cross the Pudu River to provide support.
• Hua Wu pointed out that the river had been unguarded when the Demon Beasts first began rampaging and asked why the Buddhas saw only their own hardships; the hall fell silent.

Hua Wu True Buddha and the Buddhas debated how to respond to the Three Great Sects’ actions in the Western Ox-He Continent, then agreed to send Buddhist Child Wukong to seek passage across the Pudu River. Li Yingling teased Li Xingtian with a made-up story about Lin Luoyu, and he believed her.

• Tian Ying True Buddha argued that the Buddhist Sect should investigate the Three Great Sects’ intentions rather than abandon the Western Ox-He Continent.
• Ru Nan Buddha approved Tian Ying True Buddha’s proposal to send a Buddhist Child across the Pudu River first.
• Eighth-Turn True Buddha recommended Buddhist Child Wukong for the mission, and Ru Nan accepted him.
• Ru Nan kept Hua Wu True Buddha behind after the council as the other Buddhas waited at the Great Thunderclap Temple.
• Li Yingling praised Li Xingtian for supposedly making an abbot kill himself, then claimed Lin Luoyu had done the same, and Li Xingtian believed her.

At Golden Radiance Mountain, Li Yingling reunited with Li Xingtian and Lin Luoyu, who explained that Cui Hao was teaching Buddhist believers practical ways to care for themselves. At the Right Sound Dharma Temple, Yuyang Daozi realized Chen Baiqing had steered events toward its destruction to give Chu Xingchen leverage over the Buddhist Sect.

• Li Yingling teased Li Xingtian after he returned from tearing down the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple.
• Lin Luoyu told Li Yingling that Cui Hao was still teaching Buddhist believers how to live well as mortals and had done good work.
• Li Yingling worried that Li Yuyang was still at the Right Sound Dharma Temple, while Lin Luoyu assured her that Yuyang Daozi was there to protect her.
• Yuyang Daozi reflected on how Chen Baiqing had helped push events toward the destruction of the Right Sound Dharma Temple.
• Chen Baiqing said the temple’s destruction would give Chu Xingchen leverage over the Buddhist Sect and more room to act.

Wukong led a small Buddhist party to the Pudu River under orders to enter the Western Ox-He Continent, while secretly tasked with investigating the three sects and local opinion. Huang Miao destroyed Buddha Ru Nan’s missive but let Wukong cross because someone whose words carried more weight had mentioned him.

• Wukong returned to the Buddhist Sect, where he remained free to move but was given several covert tasks by three Buddhas before being sent toward the Western Ox-He Continent.
• Wukong reached the Pudu River and bowed to True Buddha Yuan Gui, who warned him not to force a crossing if Huang Miao refused.
• Wukong approached Huang Miao alone and presented Buddha Ru Nan’s missive, saying he had come to lead a party to safety.
• Huang Miao crushed the missive and dismissed Ru Nan’s authority, but then allowed Wukong to cross because someone had spoken up for him.
• Wukong realized Huang Miao was referring to Chu Xingchen and wondered why his name seemed useful everywhere.

Wukong secured passage across the Pudu River for himself and his fellow disciples through Huang Miao’s favor to Chu Xingchen. Meanwhile, Cui Hao met a starving boy on Jinshan Flatland and gave him a literacy primer through Lin Luoyu, while Li Junzi led a trapped team of cultivators at Zhaomang Ridge and insisted they face the danger together.

• Huang Miao let Wukong bring any companions he wished across the Pudu River, and Wukong summoned the Buddhist cultivators who had followed him.
• Cui Hao approached a poor boy hiding behind a dead tree, but the boy fled after asking for his ragged clothes back.
• Lin Luoyu told Cui Hao that Master was returning and gave him a literacy primer to pass on to the boy.
• At Zhaomang Ridge, Yun Chuan asked Li Junzi what the team should do next as they remained deep in the beast-tide devastation.
• Li Junzi said they should not venture farther if the area had been evacuated, and Yun Chuan insisted the team would stay together whether they withdrew or pressed on.

Li Junzi reflected on why she had entered the Western Ox-He Continent and resolved to seek help for it at Right Sound Dharma Temple. At Jinshan Zhao, Chu Xingchen told Yan Yun that the tomb at Bodhisattva Man had been designed to use a lost Rules Crystal to resurrect a fallen Tribulation Transcendence cultivator.

• Li Junzi thanked her companions and said she would continue toward Right Sound Dharma Temple while they rested and went their separate ways.
• Li Junzi recalled seeing refugees flee the Western Ox-He Continent, realizing the scale of its devastation, and deciding to do what she could to help.
• Chu Xingchen returned to Jinshan Zhao, where Yan Yun asked how he had lost Xu Jin and Bai Xuanling.
• Chu Xingchen explained that he, Bai Xuanling, and Xu Jin had explored the tomb at Bodhisattva Man and discovered a ritual connected to the barrier over the Endless Sea.
• Xu Jin copied the formation three times, and Bai Xuanling determined that its missing core had been a Rules Crystal with flesh-and-spirit attributes.
• Bai Xuanling concluded that the formation had gathered blood qi and spiritual power to rebuild the dead cultivator’s body and spiritual essence, potentially bringing them back to life.

Chu Xingchen examined the failed Secret Realm plot and accepted Xu Linglong’s challenge to deal with the Buddhist Sect’s demons in the Western Ox-He Continent. He reunited with his disciples and promised Cui Hao a warm-handed lesson.

• Chu Xingchen recognized that Xu Linglong had left Dao Resonance behind to force him to distinguish the Buddhist Sect’s demons from its monsters, and he agreed to handle the affair.
• Bai Xuanling sealed the remaining Dao Resonance, and Xu Jin accompanied her back to Central Province so the three sects could study it.
• Yan Yun told Chu Xingchen that Lingyu had reached Nascent Soul Perfection and was coming to the Western Ox-He Continent, then urged him to guide her through her next breakthrough.
• Yan Yun described her Dao as grasping the myriad threads of heaven’s secrets, while Chu Xingchen described his as accepting that all things were fate.
• Chu Xingchen joined Cui Hao, Li Yingling, Li Xingtian, and Lin Luoyu in the courtyard, then teased Cui Hao about teaching him a lesson with his big hand.

At Right Sound Dharma Temple, Yuyang Daozi spoke with the former abbot about the calamity and Chen Baiqing, while the old monk questioned how she had become so devoted to her master. Chen Baiqing confronted him, then sent Yuyang to meet an important visitor from Junzi Mountain and promised the monk that her master would hear his accusations from her directly.

• Yuyang Daozi waited as the former abbot contemplated a Go stone, then questioned him about his wager with Chen Baiqing, his past, and the calamity in the Western Ox-He Continent.
• The old monk asked where Yuyang had met Chen Baiqing and how he had subdued her; Yuyang explained that she was his friend's disciple and praised her as a good young woman influenced by her master.
• The old monk speculated that Chen Baiqing might have become a demoness without her master, and Chen Baiqing entered the hall and rebuked him for discussing her behind her back.
• Chen Baiqing told Yuyang that an important person from Junzi Mountain was approaching and asked him to meet them personally; Yuyang recognized who she meant and left.
• Chen Baiqing accused the old monk of trying to warn her master against her and said he would get the chance to call her a demoness to her master's face.

Li Junzi and Yun Chuan encountered Chen Baiqing and Yuyang Daozi while traveling through the Demon Beast crisis toward Right Sound Dharma Temple. There, they found a massive coalition of powerful cultivators assembled, leaving Yun Chuan wondering why so many great sects had come to Western Ox-He Continent.

• Yun Chuan and Li Junzi fought off Demon Beasts, which fled past them as if pursued by something terrifying.
• Yun Chuan prepared to scout ahead, but Chen Baiqing and Yuyang Daozi arrived from Right Sound Dharma Temple and reassured the group.
• Chen Baiqing examined Li Junzi, then invited her and her companions to rest at Right Sound Dharma Temple.
• Yuyang Daozi carried the group to the temple, where Yun Chuan saw hundreds of Golden Core cultivators, Spirit Transformation cultivators, and many Great Dao Sect disciples protecting refugees.
• Yuyang Daozi told Li Junzi that Chu Xingchen had led the response and that the Profound Clarity Heavenly Sect and Heavenly Derivation Sect had also come in full force.
• Yun Chuan wondered whether the great sects’ arrival in Buddhist territory meant they were preparing for war against the Buddhist Sect.

Yuyang Daozi brought the group to the Great Hero Hall, where Li Junzi met an old monk who recognized her Broken Pen and claimed to have known the Second Sage. When Chu Xingchen arrived and learned that something had happened to Chen Baiqing, he attacked the monk and destroyed half the hall.

• Yuyang Daozi rebuked the old monk and warned Li Junzi not to engage with him, but the monk recognized her Broken Pen and greeted it as an old acquaintance.
• Li Junzi bowed to the monk out of respect for his seniority, while Yuyang Daozi accused him of shamelessly claiming connections and ordered him aside.
• Yuyang Daozi led everyone into the Great Hero Hall to wait out the lingering turmoil, and Chen Baiqing served tea while telling Li Junzi that Chu Xingchen and Fourth Junior Sister were coming.
• Chu Xingchen arrived with Fourth Junior Sister and Second Senior Brother, then questioned Yuyang Daozi after noticing Chen Baiqing’s lowered head.
• Yuyang Daozi directed Chu Xingchen to the old monk, and Chu Xingchen transformed Myriad Forms into azure light and destroyed half of the Great Hero Hall.

Chu Xingchen confronted an old monk who had sensed that Chen Baiqing was a Demoness no longer bound by heaven and earth. After Li Xingtian and Lin Luoyu helped him wound the monk, Chu Xingchen defended his disciple and reassured her that he would always stand by her.

• Li Xingtian and Lin Luoyu joined Chu Xingchen in attacking the old monk, whose Buddha light could not stop Chu Xingchen’s Myriad Forms from piercing his shoulder.
• Chu Xingchen asked whether the old monk accepted the sword strike, and the monk agreed before explaining that he had sensed Chen Baiqing might be a Demoness.
• Chu Xingchen rejected the monk’s concern about Chen Baiqing’s nature and said she should be free if he were gone, while any consequences belonged at his door.
• The old monk apologized, and Chu Xingchen withdrew Myriad Forms and returned to Chen Baiqing.
• Chu Xingchen mussed Chen Baiqing’s hair, pinched her cheek, and told her, “Master is here.”

Chu Xingchen reunited Li Junzi with Lin Luoyu and arranged for Li Junzi’s group to rest before questioning the old monk about the token of Guangming Buddha. He asked the monk to help Radiance Buddha, and the chapter ended with the monk agreeing to hear the request.

• Chu Xingchen gave the old monk the token of Guangming Buddha, then greeted Li Junzi and reunited her with Lin Luoyu.
• Chu Xingchen sent Chen Baiqing to arrange food and lodging for Li Junzi and her companions, while Lin Luoyu stayed to catch up with her teacher.
• Chu Xingchen thanked Yun Chuan and the others for looking after Li Junzi, then teased Yuyang Daozi about Lin Luoyu being mistreated.
• Chu Xingchen asked the old monk whether Radiance Buddha had sent him to find him, then asked whether he would help Radiance Buddha with a task.
• After Chu Xingchen pretended to leave, the old monk stopped him and agreed to hear what he had to say.

Wukong reached the ruined Right Sound Dharma Temple and used his connection to Chu Xingchen to gain entry past the Great Dao Sect’s guards. Inside, he met Ru Zhong Buddha, who unexpectedly asked whether Wukong knew Chu Xingchen.

• Wukong found the Right Sound Dharma Temple surrounded by powerful formations and guarded by Great Dao Sect cultivators.
• Wukong identified himself as Buddhist Child Wukong and asked to inspect the temple, but the leading disciple initially refused him entry.
• Wukong said he knew Chu Xingchen, and the leading disciple let him pass after receiving a message.
• Wukong and the Buddhist cultivators crossed the guarded refugee encampments and entered the ruined temple.
• Wukong found Ru Zhong Buddha praying alone in the half-destroyed Great Hero Hall.
• Ru Zhong Buddha asked Wukong whether he knew Chu Xingchen, leaving Wukong astonished.

Wukong met Buddha Ruzhong at the ruined Right Sound Dharma Temple, where Ruzhong ordered the Buddhist cultivators accompanying him to stay and work while Wukong continued his assignment alone. Outside, Chu Xingchen claimed Wukong owed him eight favors for invoking his name at the temple’s eight formations and said he had a small matter for Wukong to handle.

• Wukong told Buddha Ruzhong that the Great Thunderclap Temple wanted to know why he had not intervened, and Ruzhong said he had lost three wagers and would answer for the consequences himself.
• Wukong asked whether Ruzhong would help if trouble arose on the Western Ox-He Continent, and Ruzhong agreed only if he was able.
• Ruzhong ordered the Buddhist cultivators accompanying Wukong to stay and work at the Right Sound Dharma Temple, refusing Wukong’s offer to stay in their place.
• Ruzhong used his Buddha light to eject Wukong from the Great Hero Hall and shut the doors, leaving Wukong to depart alone.
• Chu Xingchen confronted Wukong outside the temple and claimed he owed eight favors for using Chu Xingchen’s name to pass through eight formations.
• Wukong accepted the debt after Chu Xingchen threatened to use his name in return, and Chu Xingchen said he had a small matter for Wukong to handle.

Chu Xingchen persuaded Wukong to seek out Guangming Buddha and use Mahayana Buddhism to reform the Buddhist Sect from within, then prepared to leave with Chen Baiqing. Back at the temple, Li Yingling ordered Cui Hao to write a hundred-thousand-word account praising her.

• Chu Xingchen showed Wukong the rebuilt Right Sound Dharma Temple and argued that the Buddhist Sect's silence had helped worsen conditions across the Western Ox-He Continent.
• Chu Xingchen urged Wukong to find Guangming Buddha and persuade him to use Mahayana Buddhism to dismantle the Buddhist Sect from within, and Wukong agreed to try.
• Wukong departed into the Western Ox-He Continent, and Yuyang Daozi asked Chu Xingchen whether the monks could be trusted.
• Chu Xingchen said they had to try and announced he would take Chen Baiqing with him, while Yuyang Daozi pretended not to mind losing her help.
• Cui Hao complained that Chu Xingchen had not brought him along, and Li Yingling reminded him of his hundred-thousand-word piece belittling her.
• Li Yingling ordered Cui Hao to write a hundred thousand words praising her, and he accepted while planning to make the praise unbearably flattering.