Chapter Summaries

Xiao Hua and Ao Sheng searched the Smoke Trees for Ao Zhantian, navigating dangerous Sea Thorns and finding him inside a hidden cave at Chengqiu Peak. Xiao Hua entered the cave area by tearing an enormous clump of Cooking Smoke from the seabed.

• Ao Sheng gave Xiao Hua a shell inscription containing Dragon Language Heavenly Art after reporting that he had returned the Purple Dragon Crown to the Great Elder.
• Ao Sheng guided Xiao Hua into the Smoke Trees and explained how the tough, thorned Cooking Smoke and sudden Sea Thorns endangered those inside.
• Xiao Hua’s counterattack against a Sea Thorn triggered more Sea Thorns, and his powerful divine sense later drew a barrage that he blocked with a water shield.
• Xiao Hua followed a fluctuation of magical power to Chengqiu Peak and discovered a hidden cave where Ao Zhantian was trapped.
• Ao Sheng stayed outside the cave while Xiao Hua approached it and tore a massive clump of Cooking Smoke roots from the seabed.

Xiao Hua rescued Ao Zhantian from an ancient formation on Dragon Island and discovered the Water Qi Ascending to the Origin Heavenly Heart sealed inside. After enduring the formation’s lightning and retrieving the Heavenly Heart, Xiao Hua prepared to leave Dragon Island with Ao Zhantian, promising Ao Sheng he would return to take him training if the Dragon Hall agreed.

• Xiao Hua found Ao Zhantian trapped in spring flowers inside a deep-sea passage and used Innate True Water to free him from the formation.
• Confucian cultivator Xiao Hua sensed Heavenly Heart within the formation, and Xiao Hua entered it using the Innate True Water as cover.
• Xiao Hua collected the Innate Heavy Water and recovered a deep-blue tortoise shell containing the Heavenly Heart, then fought off the formation’s lightning.
• Xiao Hua returned to Ao Sheng, kept Ao Zhantian in the Kunlun Mirror until they left Dragon Island, and prepared to board the Dragon Ship.
• Ao Sheng clung to Xiao Hua as he departed, and Xiao Hua promised to take him away for training if the Dragon Hall permitted it.

Xiao Hua parted from Ao Sheng and Ao Zhantian after teaching Ao Zhantian on the journey back to Cangxian Continent. He sent Little White Dragon out to travel and discussed with Dragon Vein Xiao Hua how their separate cultivation might affect his own, then prepared to awaken Jiang Hong.

• Xiao Hua gave Ao Zhantian a magical treasure and spent several months expounding his cultivation insights to him aboard the Dragon Ship.
• After arriving at Cangxian Continent, Xiao Hua declined Ao Zhantian’s invitation to stay and urged Ao Sheng to cultivate diligently and help renew the Dragon Clan.
• Xiao Hua left with Ao Zhantian, then parted from him on land and watched him depart by flying boat.
• Xiao Hua released Little White Dragon, who took Xiao Hua’s likeness and set off to travel while promising to avoid provoking Dragon Island.
• Dragon Vein Xiao Hua joined Xiao Hua, and they discussed the other incarnations’ desire to travel and the risks of Dragon Vein Xiao Hua leaving before Xiao Hua reached the Integration stage.
• Xiao Hua and Dragon Vein Xiao Hua agreed that Xiao Hua should enter seclusion, but Xiao Hua asked whether they should first awaken Jiang Hong.

Xiao Hua revived Jiang Hong, who reunited with Liu Yi and became Dragon Vein Xiao Hua’s disciple. As Xiao Hua returned toward the Soaring Dragon Mountain Range, he stored the relics from the Diecui Relic Realm and began refining a weapon from the strange insect’s remains.

• Dragon Vein Xiao Hua used a secret art to awaken Jiang Hong, and Xiao Hua told her that Liu Yi was inside the Kunlun Mirror.
• Xiao Hua released Liu Yi, and he and Jiang Hong reunited and shared their feelings.
• Dragon Vein Xiao Hua accepted Jiang Hong as his disciple, after which Xiao Hua sent her and Liu Yi into the Kunlun Immortal Realm.
• Xiao Hua had Fu Zhiwen drive the Heavenly Steed Flying Carriage toward the Soaring Dragon Mountain Range while he entered the space and reviewed the collected relics.
• Jade Slip Xiao Hua sent the Dragon Sacrifice to a secluded place, refined the strange insect’s tail into the Spirit Severing Primordial Light, and observed Xiao Guo’s mysterious state.

Jade Slip Xiao Hua helped Little Lei and the Divine Strength Centipede cultivate before Xiao Hua encountered Qiongqiong on his journey. Qiongqiong brought him to meet her mistress, who turned out to be Xin Xin, and their reunion ended with her inviting him to sit and share wine.

• Jade Slip Xiao Hua taught Little Lei a thunder-beast cultivation method and sent him into the Thunder Water to comprehend it.
• Jade Slip Xiao Hua gave the Divine Strength Centipede Dragon Cleansing Liquid and placed it near the Dragon Sacrifice and strange insect's corpse.
• Xiao Hua sensed a powerful display of lights, flowers, and Vast Righteous Qi ahead of the Heavenly Steed Flying Carriage.
• Qiongqiong greeted Fu Zhiwen and invited Xiao Hua to meet her mistress inside a flower-veiled pavilion.
• Xiao Hua discovered that Qiongqiong's mistress was Xin Xin, and they spoke about their hidden identities and Li Jing.
• Xin Xin invited Xiao Hua to sit and brought out fruit and wine.

Xiao Hua reunited with Xin Xin, and she told him that the Immortal-Buddha War had been averted through a compromise between the Immortal Emperor and the Great Sun Tathagata. She explained the nearly impossible conditions for the newly begun mission to seek Buddhist scriptures in the Pure Land, leaving Xiao Hua puzzled about why the Immortal Palace had made the mission so difficult.

• Xin Xin shared immortal peaches and her homemade wine with Xiao Hua, and the two clasped hands as they caught up on their lives.
• Xin Xin warned Xiao Hua to keep a low profile and revealed that the Immortal Emperor and the Great Sun Tathagata had reached a compromise that ended the threat of war.
• Xin Xin explained that the compromise allowed Buddhist preaching in Cangxian Continent and Confucian teaching in the Pure Land, but required a trial called Seeking Scriptures in the Pure Land.
• Xin Xin said the Buddha child must travel from Changsheng Town to the Great Thunder Sound Temple and back, teach Confucian doctrines in the Pure Land, and preach Great Ascension Buddhist scriptures throughout the Nine Provinces.
• Xin Xin added that the Buddha child could have no cultivation and could not borrow Dharma power, while the Immortal Emperor, the Great Sun Tathagata, and the Great Sage of the Demon Race could not intervene directly.
• Xiao Hua questioned why the Immortal Palace had imposed such difficult conditions when the Great Sun Tathagata had agreed to compromise.

Xiao Hua and Xin Xin discussed the Pure Land scripture-seeking journey and its likely conspiracies, and Xiao Hua suspected the chosen monk Chun Zang was Jiang Liuer. As Xin Xin and Xiao Hua shared what seemed to be a farewell, a storm broke out, and Xin Xin suddenly went rigid in his embrace, her eyes opening in shock and delight.

• Xin Xin told Xiao Hua that the scripture-seeking journey would draw interference from the Hundred Schools of Thought, Buddhist factions, demons, and Daoist cultivators, while the Immortal Palace and Great Thunder Sound Temple protected the seeker.
• Xin Xin revealed that Manjushri Bodhisattva was searching Changsheng Town for a scripture-seeker and named the likely monk as Chun Zang of Golden Mountain Temple; Xiao Hua suspected he was Jiang Liuer.
• Xin Xin gave Xiao Hua a jade slip containing the As-You-Wish Staff forging method and primordial magnetism locations, then explained True Confucian and its search for lost Confucian cultivation methods.
• Xin Xin raised a farewell cup and told Xiao Hua they might not meet again; after she drained it, thunder and rain ravaged the flower pavilion.
• Xiao Hua embraced Xin Xin and kissed her forehead, and Xin Xin suddenly stiffened and opened her eyes in disbelief and delight.

Xiao Hua returned toward the Soaring Dragon Mountain Range, helping Fu Zhiwen’s parents enter the Kunlun Immortal Realm and reuniting with the Creation Sect. After hearing that Changsheng Town awaited a Buddhist challenger for the journey to the Pure Land, Xiao Hua realized Jiang Liuer did not have to be the only one sent.

• Xiao Hua parted from Xin Xin and learned from Fu Zhiwen that Qiongqiong had left behind a cryptic farewell.
• Xiao Hua agreed to take Fu Zhiwen’s family into the Kunlun Immortal Realm and went to Pingshan Kingdom to bring his parents, though they refused to leave their home.
• Xiao Hua sent Fu Zhiwen into the space to accompany his parents and flew on to the Creation Sect, where he met Xiong Yi, Lan Dianzi, and Li Xiang.
• Xiao Hua arranged to take some of the refugees the Creation Sect had recruited as disciples and said he planned to visit Changsheng Town to see the Buddhist challenge.
• After hearing about the Buddha Ranking and the proposed journey to the Pure Land, Xiao Hua realized that someone other than Jiang Liuer could go seek the true scriptures.

Xiao Hua hurried to Changsheng Town to stop Chunzhuang from uncovering the Buddha Ranking, while discovering that Buddhist influence had transformed the town and Jiangchao Temple. Chunzhuang arrived at Jiangchao Ridge and began his devout ascent as the attention of the Cangxian Continent and the Pure Land gathered upon him.

• Xiao Hua sent Wang Zhengfei and his mother into the Kunlun Immortal Realm, then collected the prepared children and their houses into his space before leaving Soaring Dragon Mountain Range.
• Xiao Hua disguised himself as Zhang Xiaohua and flew to Changsheng Town, where he found immense Buddhist power of faith and saw that Jiangchao Temple had become a Buddhist stronghold.
• A Confucian cultivator told Xiao Hua that the Buddha Ranking was inside Jiangchao Temple, which barred Confucian cultivators from entering.
• Xiao Hua left Changsheng Town to disguise himself as a novice monk and return to Jiangchao Temple.
• Chunzhuang arrived by raft at Jiangchao Ridge, while the elderly boatman revealed himself as a suffering Buddhist practitioner and vanished into the void.
• Chunzhuang climbed Jiangchao Ridge with a kowtow at every step as the town fell silent and countless beings turned their attention toward him.

Chun Zang took down the Buddha decree and accepted the mission of Seeking Scriptures in the Pure Land, vowing to travel there and back on foot to spread Buddhism across Cangxian Continent. Xiao Hua reached Jiangchao Temple too late to stop him, and Manjushri Bodhisattva proclaimed Chun Zang’s journey before the people of Changsheng Town.

• Chun Zang worshipped Guanyin Bodhisattva and vowed that her golden body and sacred ground would be restored in Cangxian Continent.
• Xiao Hua sensed the powers sealing Changsheng Town and tried to reach Jiangchao Temple while unable to use his divine sense or move freely.
• Chongping showed Chun Zang the Buddha decree for Seeking Scriptures in the Pure Land, and Chun Zang resolved to take it down.
• Xiao Hua entered the temple and warned Chun Zang of the journey’s dangers, but Chun Zang affirmed that he would accept the mission.
• Chun Zang took down the decree, breaking the confinement over Changsheng Town, and Manjushri Bodhisattva charged him to make the journey there and back on foot.
• Chun Zang declared his resolve to travel with only ordinary abilities, and the Buddhists of Changsheng Town chanted in celebration.

Xiao Hua left Jiangchao Temple and waited for the Pure Land scripture journey to draw attention away from Changsheng Town so he could retrieve the Yuzhou Cauldron. After he and Dragon Vein Xiao Hua took it, a Confucian Great Grandmaster ambushed them, and Xiao Hua struck back with sword light and lightning.

• Xiao Hua left Jiangchao Temple, reflected on Changsheng Town, and chose not to interfere with Chun Zang’s path.
• Dragon Vein Xiao Hua sensed the Yuzhou Cauldron beneath the Liao River, and Xiao Hua hid there until Changsheng Town was deserted.
• Xiao Hua and Dragon Vein Xiao Hua located the Yuzhou Cauldron and pulled it free, drawing the other eight cauldrons toward it.
• A Confucian Great Grandmaster revealed himself, imprisoned Xiao Hua and the cauldrons, and accused Xiao Hua of killing Kong Hongwu and acting at Yaotai Mountain.
• Dragon Vein Xiao Hua attacked the Great Grandmaster, and Xiao Hua broke the enemy’s restraints with sword light and unleashed lightning.

Xiao Hua escaped the Confucian cultivator’s ambush near the Yuzhou Cauldron, but the seventh-grade Yuan force Great Grandmaster pursued and cornered him. Xiao Hua resisted the cultivator’s domain with lightning and his formidable body, but the pursuer gathered his power for another attack.

• Xiao Hua used his sword strike to break the confinement, gathered the nine cauldrons, and escaped with Earth Evasion as the Confucian cultivator tried to stop him.
• Xiao Hua fled through the Liao River and took to the skies, while experts from Jiangchao Temple and other cultivators followed the pursuit.
• Xiao Hua realized the Confucian cultivator had driven him away from Changsheng Town to prevent the Buddhist sect from interfering, but he could not turn back through the sealed region.
• On the third day of flight, the Confucian cultivator used his domain to suppress Xiao Hua’s lightning and attacked with an ancient halberd.
• Xiao Hua’s bronze-colored body endured the halberd’s strike and damaged the weapon, but the Confucian cultivator restored his domain and surrounded him with three incarnations.

Xiao Hua broke the Great Confucian Grandmaster’s law domain and escaped after being badly wounded by an Imperial Star Thorn. The Grandmaster pursued him for days, while Xiao Hua headed toward the place of Earth Fire Wind Thunder and considered the danger posed by the Grandmaster’s master.

• The Great Confucian Grandmaster formed four Law-Binding Chains that sealed Xiao Hua inside a thousand-mile domain and accused him of rebellion and stealing the Nine Cauldrons of Hidden Immortal.
• Xiao Hua used the Soaring Flood Dragon Scissors to split the chains, then beheaded the Grandmaster’s true body with the Spirit Severing Primordial Light.
• An Imperial Star Thorn hidden in the Grandmaster’s Vast Righteous Qi struck Xiao Hua, tearing open his right side, while Xiao Hua’s Heartbroken Sorrow destroyed one of the Grandmaster’s avatars.
• Xiao Hua transformed into lightning and escaped through a passage blasted through the collapsing domain, and the Grandmaster regenerated and gave chase.
• During more than ten days of pursuit, Xiao Hua repeatedly evaded the Grandmaster, who used a triangular Imperial Artifact to prepare a technique against him.
• Xiao Hua recognized the landscape near Qilin’s void trial and flew toward the place of Earth Fire Wind Thunder, fearing the Grandmaster’s powerful master.

Xiao Hua entered a spatial rift in the Earth Fire Wind Thunder to escape the Great Confucian Grandmaster pursuing him, but the cramped passage and incoming reinforcements trapped him in a desperate fight. The chapter left Xiao Hua facing two Great Confucian Grandmasters as one attacked his manifested selves with a giant sword and sealed the surrounding void.

• Xiao Hua searched the Earth Fire Wind Thunder for a spatial rift while the armored Great Confucian Grandmaster followed close behind.
• The pursuing Grandmaster discovered the rift, sent a magical artifact through it, and entered after Xiao Hua, suffering damage from Xiao Hua's fire talismans.
• Xiao Hua sensed another Confucian cultivator approaching from the far end of the Void Passage and rushed into a wider space to avoid being cornered.
• A thin Confucian cultivator intercepted Xiao Hua and attacked with three-colored True Qi that formed flying swords.
• Xiao Hua summoned Confucian cultivator Xiao Hua and green-robed Xiao Hua, who countered with sword strikes and lightning.
• The thin Confucian cultivator transformed his Silver Vine Flower into a giant sword and sealed the void around Xiao Hua with sword threads.

Xiao Hua fought Sun Hao and Sun Cheng as they trapped him between the Blazing Heaven Furnace and the Earth Casting Furnace. He revealed his genuine True Five-Clawed Dragon form and escaped the sealed void, leaving the two Great Grandmasters stunned and covetous.

• Xiao Hua resisted Sun Hao’s attacks while searching for an escape route, but Sun Hao revealed he wanted Xiao Hua’s Nine Cauldrons to reach the Literary Star.
• Sun Cheng arrived with the Earth Casting Furnace, and he and Sun Hao used their furnaces to seal the void and slow Xiao Hua with icy flames.
• As the two Great Grandmasters closed in, Xiao Hua summoned Dragon Vein Xiao Hua, revealing his True Five-Clawed Dragon form.
• Sun Cheng and Sun Hao recognized the Dragon Language Heavenly Art and realized Xiao Hua was a genuine True Five-Clawed Dragon.
• Dragon-shaped Xiao Hua weakened the icy flames, then carried Xiao Hua out of the void with a wisp of two-colored spirit fire.

Xiao Hua escaped Sun Cheng and Sun Hao through a spatial passage, only to emerge into the domain of another Confucian Great Grandmaster. He broke free from the new pursuer’s grasp and charged toward him after an unexpected beam struck the pursuer.

• Xiao Hua fled into a winding spatial passage while Sun Cheng and Sun Hao pursued him, and Sun Hao was blasted back by Xiao Hua’s traps.
• Xiao Hua laid fire talismans as he ran, reached a dead end, and tore open a rift to escape the passage.
• Xiao Hua emerged into a stormy space, where a third Confucian Great Grandmaster trapped him with Earth Qi Returning to Origin.
• The Great Grandmaster seized Xiao Hua with his progeny body, but Dragon Vein Xiao Hua shattered the spatial seal and freed him.
• The Great Grandmaster tried to capture Dragon Vein Xiao Hua, but an inexplicable beam struck him, and Xiao Hua rushed toward him.

Xiao Hua triggered the first tribulation of more than a hundred scattered Nascent Souls while beginning his own advancement, trapping Wu Han and the two Immortal Palace inspectors within the heavenly restriction. The lightning tribulation struck, destroying Wu Han’s defenses and Dragon Kui as Xiao Hua’s body also collapsed beneath its force.

• Xiao Hua swallowed pills and summoned more than a hundred scattered Nascent Souls, who formed the Duotian Star Array around Wu Han.
• Wu Han crushed more than a dozen Nascent Souls and tried to seize Xiao Hua, but Xiao Hua shattered Wu Han’s domain and began advancing.
• Sun Cheng and Sun Hao arrived, recognized the scattered Nascent Souls’ first tribulation, and warned Wu Han to flee.
• Unable to teleport out of the sealed space, Wu Han deployed a shield, Dou Xian Armor, Dragon Kui, and a manifested child body for protection.
• Sun Cheng and Sun Hao discussed Wu Han’s defenses and worried about Xiao Hua’s growing power as the tribulation lightning descended.
• The lightning tribulation collapsed Xiao Hua’s body, destroyed Wu Han’s shield inscriptions, and reduced Dragon Kui and its dragon phantom to nothing.

Xiao Hua’s Formless Nascent Soul drew in vast spiritual tides and triggered successive tribulations that struck the already wounded Wu Han. As a four-colored tribulation gathered around Xiao Hua, Sun Hao and Sun Cheng fled, while the danger to Wu Han remained unresolved.

• Wu Han survived the lightning that destroyed his avatar, but a hundred scattered Nascent Souls then struck him with another barrage, shattering his Dou Xian Armor and badly wounding his body.
• The scattered Nascent Souls vanished as Xiao Hua’s pressure and divine sense surged, and Sun Hao warned that Wu Han might be unable to absorb Vast Righteous Qi or survive.
• Five-colored spiritual tides swept across thousands of miles toward Xiao Hua’s hidden Formless Nascent Soul, cutting Wu Han off from Vast Righteous Qi.
• Xiao Hua’s Formless Nascent Soul drew down a scattered-Nascent-Soul tribulation, and its lightning struck Wu Han, destroying another half of his body.
• Sun Hao and Sun Cheng prepared to capture Xiao Hua after the lightning passed, but four-colored tribulation clouds formed and a stronger Heaven and Earth Restriction forced them to retreat.

Xiao Hua survived a demon’s lightning tribulation and advanced his escape technique, but Sun Cheng and Sun Hao continued pursuing him. After signaling True Confucian for help, he flew into a strange region whose mountainlike outlines left him wondering where he had ended up.

• Xiao Hua’s lightning tribulation killed Wu Han, destroying both his body and Primordial Spirit.
• After the tribulation ended, Xiao Hua realized he could not defeat Sun Cheng and Sun Hao, but his Lightning Evasion Technique advanced to Lightning Transcending Six Paths as he fled.
• Sun Cheng and Sun Hao pursued Xiao Hua with their Blazing Heaven Furnace and Earth Casting Furnace, keeping pace with his faster escape.
• With his strength insufficient to defeat them, Xiao Hua activated True Confucian’s token, which released a streak of five-colored light, but no one came to help him.
• After several dozen days of pursuit, Xiao Hua entered a strange expanse filled with mountainlike outlines, while Sun Cheng and Sun Hao recognized the place and planned to trap him there.

Xiao Hua was trapped between Sun Jian and the pursuing Great Confucian Grandmasters Sun Cheng and Sun Hao, and learned that the forbidden Black Ruins Mountain was also called Heavenly Prison, where no cultivator had ever survived. After rejecting surrender and trying to bargain for his life, Xiao Hua was enclosed by the grandmasters’ furnaces and suppressed by their flames and domain power.

• Xiao Hua encountered Sun Jian at Black Ruins Mountain and asked him to report his intelligence to the Immortal Emperor, but Sun Jian warned him not to approach.
• Sun Jian revealed that Black Ruins Mountain was Heavenly Prison, a place from which no cultivator had ever returned alive, and Xiao Hua abandoned the idea of entering it.
• Xiao Hua offered Sun Cheng and Sun Hao the Cosmic Bag in exchange for his life, but they said they could not promise to release him.
• Xiao Hua refused to surrender, and Sun Cheng and Sun Hao activated the Blazing Heaven Furnace and Earth Casting Furnace to trap him.
• Sun Cheng and Sun Hao unleashed their flames and Vast Righteous Qi, suppressing Xiao Hua’s abilities as their secondary bodies forced the furnaces to close around him.