Chapter Summaries

The white-robed scholar revealed that the Sacred Court had lured the Lord of the Dead into a trap while sending an infiltrator to investigate the Netherworld Domain. He identified Minglong as a reincarnated spy, and the Lord of the Dead learned that reincarnation could extend life but not overcome death.

• The Lord of the Dead realized the white-robed scholar's rules had trapped him so the Sacred Court could explore the Netherworld Domain's secrets.
• The Lord of the Dead deduced that an undercover agent had been planted among his people and claimed he had a backup plan.
• The white-robed scholar named Minglong as the spy, but the Lord of the Dead initially rejected the accusation because he had raised Minglong from childhood.
• The white-robed scholar explained that Minglong had mastered reincarnation, and the Lord of the Dead recalled his adopted son's unusual knowledge and origins as the first surviving fusion born from a yin fetus.
• The white-robed scholar revealed that each successful reincarnation left Minglong with a mark of time and that nine marks meant certain death; even the Sacred Ancestor and the Immortal Lord could not erase them.
• The Lord of the Dead mocked the Sacred Court's failure to attain immortality, and the white-robed scholar replied that the rules governing human life and death could not be changed, even by the Heavenly Dao.

The Lord of the Dead learned that Minglong was the Nine Refinements True Lord, a reincarnator wielding the Nine Refinements Body, and revealed that he had a powerful backup plan. In the Black Mist, Xu Zimo sensed the Holy Court’s rules trapping the Lord of the Dead and confronted the approaching Nine Refinements True Lord.

• The white-robed scholar said Minglong was known as the Nine Refinements True Lord, who had condensed the Nine Refinements Body through reincarnation.
• The Lord of the Dead dismissed the Nine Refinements True Lord as inferior to the backup plan he had left behind, which had once represented an entire era.
• Xu Zimo sensed that the Lord of the Dead’s aura had vanished and realized that a newly established rule in the Netherworld Domain had trapped him.
• Xu Zimo recognized that the Holy Court’s rule had received Heaven and Earth’s approval, then sensed a seemingly weak but dangerous figure approaching.
• Xu Zimo emerged from the Black Mist as the Nine Refinements True Lord headed toward the place where the Lord of the Dead had always stayed.

Xu Zimo confronted True Lord Nine Refinements, who had come to investigate Netherworld Domain while Lord of the Dead was trapped. After Xu Zimo overwhelmed him and blocked his escape, True Lord Nine Refinements unleashed the power of his nine reincarnations and transformed into a godlike state.

• True Lord Nine Refinements searched Netherworld Domain for its secrets while Lord of the Dead was trapped, but Xu Zimo emerged from the Black Mist and challenged him.
• True Lord Nine Refinements claimed to be Minglong, Lord of the Dead's son, but Xu Zimo suspected his motives and attacked.
• True Lord Nine Refinements used rivers of time to counter Xu Zimo, but Xu Zimo shattered them and sent him flying with a single finger.
• True Lord Nine Refinements survived the blow, then tried to scatter his nine reincarnation seeds to escape, but Xu Zimo imprisoned the surrounding void.
• True Lord Nine Refinements activated Nine Refinements Become a God and drew on the power of his nine lifetimes, growing into a godlike figure.

Xu Zimo defeated and killed Nine-Forged True Lord, revealing himself as the Devil Master and refusing to disclose the secret hidden in the Black Mist. Meanwhile, the Lord of the Dead watched the Sacred Court’s plans collapse as the laws shattered and the white-robed scholar faded away.

• Nine-Forged True Lord used his nine powers to attack Xu Zimo, but Xu Zimo crushed his assault and seized him in the Black Mist.
• Xu Zimo identified himself as the Devil Master, and Nine-Forged True Lord recognized him as the Sacred Court’s greatest threat.
• Nine-Forged True Lord refused to reveal who was behind him or what he knew, so Xu Zimo erased his body and divine soul.
• The white-robed scholar sensed Nine-Forged True Lord’s death and demanded to know what lay in the Black Mist, while the Lord of the Dead refused to explain.
• As the laws shattered, the white-robed scholar’s false body faded away after threatening the Lord of the Dead, who rejected his claim of power.

Xu Zimo helped the Lord of the Dead protect the Netherworld Stone and agreed to investigate why Thousand Calamities Apocalypse had stopped attending meetings. He then returned to the Divine Continent to find the final ultimate good in Demon City.

• The Lord of the Dead thanked Xu Zimo for protecting the Netherworld Stone and promised to help him defy Heaven when the time came.
• The Lord of the Dead told Xu Zimo that Thousand Calamities Apocalypse had missed several meetings and asked him to investigate in the Ghost God Domain.
• Xu Zimo agreed to check on Thousand Calamities Apocalypse, then returned to the Divine Continent to gather the final ultimate good needed for the Eighteen Levels of Hell.
• Xu Zimo discovered that the final ultimate good was hidden in Demon City, a lawless place that had appeared on the former homeland of the Bliss Sect.

Xu Zimo arrived at Demon City and observed its rule by the Three Major Powers, its dangers, and the tribute demanded at its gates. As he waited to enter, the guards rejected the gold offered by Sister Liu’s group and demanded that she sleep with them.

• Xu Zimo traveled to Demon City and learned that Blood River Valley, Corpse Burning Mound, and Doomsday Temple controlled the city, while a ten-thousand-year-old demon was said to be its true ruler.
• Xu Zimo joined the line outside Demon City and overheard Sister Liu and her companions discuss seeking medicine and relying on their Bright Moon Sect ancestor, Moon Picking Fairy.
• Xu Zimo saw the gate guards kill a visitor who refused to pay tribute as the line moved toward the city entrance.
• Sister Liu’s group offered the guards a bag of gold, but the guards threw it aside and demanded that she sleep with them to enter.

Xu Zimo entered Demon City, killed two gate guards and a street attacker, then sought out the Medicine King, Lu Simiao. He met Liu Ruyan, who warned him that the Corpse-Burning Tomb was looking for him, and asked her whether Lu Simiao might be responsible for Demon City’s horrors.

• Two Corpse-Burning Tomb guards tried to extort Liu Ruyan’s group, and Xu Zimo crushed them to blood when he entered the city.
• Xu Zimo killed a madman who attacked him in the street and continued toward Lu Simiao’s Medicine King Shop.
• Xu Zimo learned that Lu Simiao treated people only after they had completed three good deeds, and saw a long queue of desperate petitioners outside his shop.
• Liu Ruyan warned Xu Zimo that the Corpse-Burning Tomb was searching for him and explained she had come seeking medicine for her poisoned ancestor.
• Xu Zimo asked Liu Ruyan whether Lu Simiao was good or evil, then suggested that he might be the chief culprit behind Demon City’s state.

Xu Zimo brought Liu Ruyan to Treasure Cliff, promising that a treasure there could persuade the Medicine King to help cure her ancestor. As four crimson lights appeared from the Sacred Beasts, Xu Zimo prepared to show Liu Ruyan how to find the true supreme treasure.

• Xu Zimo urged Liu Ruyan to come with him, saying that finding one thing would make the Medicine King agree to help her ancestor.
• Xu Zimo led Liu Ruyan and the Moonlight Sect group to Treasure Cliff, where treasures fell from the mouths of four blood-soaked Sacred Beasts.
• Xu Zimo told Liu Ruyan to obtain the cultivation techniques of Blood River Valley and Corpse Burning Mound, and the Tiger Head youth went to find them.
• The Blood River surged over the Sacred Beast statues, and four crimson lights appeared as the gathered treasure seekers prepared to compete for them.

Xu Zimo recovered the four treasures at Treasure Cliff and challenged the crowd to test his blade, while Liu Ruyan watched. Blood River Valley’s Moon Picking Fairy arrived and confronted Liu Ruyan for not seeking her out after coming to Demon City.

• People fought brutally over the treasures, but Liu Ruyan decided not to join them.
• Xu Zimo froze the void, reclaimed the four treasures, and warned the crowd that he would not share them.
• When the crowd stirred up resistance, Xu Zimo drew Overlord Shadow and invited them to sharpen his blade by fighting him.
• Blood River Guards surrounded Treasure Cliff and escorted Moon Picking Fairy, Dugu Yun’s favored concubine, to the scene.
• The Tiger Head youth pointed out Liu Ruyan, and Moon Picking Fairy asked why she had not come to find her.

Moon Picking Fairy met Liu Ruyan at Treasure Cliff and refused to help Xu Zimo against Corpse Burial Mound. The Black Soul Mage arrived with his guards and confronted Xu Zimo over two deaths at the City Gate.

• Moon Picking Fairy invited Liu Ruyan to stay with her and promised to ask Medicine King Lu Simiao to help Ancestor Golden Flower.
• Liu Ruyan asked Moon Picking Fairy to spare Xu Zimo because he had protected her, but Moon Picking Fairy refused.
• Xu Zimo challenged Moon Picking Fairy, angering her and prompting the Blood River Guards to draw their blades.
• The Black Soul Mage arrived at Treasure Cliff with Corpse Burial Mound guards, and his men faced off against the Blood River Guards.
• The Black Soul Mage ignored Moon Picking Fairy and asked Xu Zimo whether he had killed two people at the City Gate.

Xu Zimo faced Black Soul Mage and Moon Picking Fairy in Devil City, then revealed overwhelming strength by cutting down Black Soul Mage’s followers and blasting him from his sedan chair. After Black Soul Mage’s strange body was exposed, he unleashed the Corpse King secret art on the fallen black-robed figures.

• Black Soul Mage demanded that Moon Picking Fairy leave Xu Zimo to him, while Xu Zimo warned Liu Ruyan not to return with her ancestor.
• Black Soul Mage sent his black-robed followers to attack Xu Zimo, who killed them all with a single slash.
• Black Soul Mage’s black dragons failed to harm Xu Zimo, and Xu Zimo struck Black Soul Mage from his sedan chair.
• Black Soul Mage’s jar-bound body and tentacles were revealed, shifting the crowd’s support toward Xu Zimo.
• Black Soul Mage engulfed the slain black-robed figures in black qi and began using the Corpse King secret art of Burial Corpse Mound.

The Black Soul Mage unleashed his Corpse King and ordered it to kill Xu Zimo, but Xu Zimo subdued it effortlessly and began destroying the mage. Demon City then summoned a force to reject Xu Zimo, which he suppressed before turning toward Moon Picking Fairy.

• The Black Soul Mage summoned his Corpse King, whose Corpse Qi infected nearby low-cultivation cultivators and whose dried corpses fed it their hearts.
• The Corpse King charged Xu Zimo, but Xu Zimo seized it with an invisible hand and lifted it helplessly into the air.
• The Black Soul Mage offered Xu Zimo a place in the Burial Corpse Mound, but Xu Zimo refused and sent Overlord Shadow into him to destroy him.
• Demon City released a force to drive Xu Zimo away, but Xu Zimo subdued it and then looked toward Moon Picking Fairy.

Xu Zimo exposed Moon Picking Fairy’s Painted Skin deception and killed her after she attacked him with the Blood River guards. He then revealed the four treasures from Treasure Cliff and asked the tiger head youth whether he had found cultivation techniques.

• Moon Picking Fairy begged Liu Ruyan to save her, but Xu Zimo refused and warned Liu Ruyan that Moon Picking Fairy had meant her harm.
• Moon Picking Fairy ordered the Blood River guards to attack Xu Zimo and tried to flee, but his descending cage crushed the guards and trapped her.
• Xu Zimo peeled away Moon Picking Fairy’s false face and exposed her Painted Skin method, revealing that she had targeted Liu Ruyan’s appearance.
• Moon Picking Fairy became crazed after her true face was revealed, and Xu Zimo slapped her to death.
• Xu Zimo showed the four treasures from Treasure Cliff and asked the tiger head youth whether he had found cultivation techniques.

Xu Zimo used the Blood Sea Scripture and Corpse Incineration Body to create a strange figure and sent it into the Blood River at Treasure Cliff. The four sacred beast statues shattered, and a black treasure chest emerged from the swirling river as the crowd watched.

• Xu Zimo demonstrated that the two cultivation manuals, when pushed to their limits, produced a sea of blood and a strange figure.
• Xu Zimo commanded the strange figure to walk across the Blood River toward Treasure Cliff, while others who tried to enter were devoured.
• The figure was slowly swallowed by Treasure Cliff, putting immense pressure on it and the four sacred beast statues.
• The four sacred beast statues shattered, black qi poured out, and the Blood River began rotating counterclockwise.
• A black treasure chest rose from the center of the river, and the crowd eyed it greedily but hesitated to act against Xu Zimo.

Xu Zimo slaughtered the people who tried to seize the treasure and revealed that the chest held Dead Man Beads bearing mysterious imprints. As Blood River Valley and Corpse Burial Mound sealed Devil City with the Blood Corpse Grand Formation, Xu Zimo brought Liu Ruyan to Doomsday Temple, where its abbot opened the gate.

• Xu Zimo froze the crowd reaching for Treasure Cliff and killed them all with Overlord Shadow.
• Xu Zimo opened the treasure chest and showed Liu Ruyan the skull-made Dead Man Beads and their obscure inscriptions.
• Xu Zimo told Liu Ruyan that Blood River Valley and Corpse Burial Mound did not merit his concern and called himself Eternal or Devil Master.
• Blood River Valley and Corpse Burial Mound activated the Blood Corpse Grand Formation over Devil City, but Xu Zimo said he had no intention of leaving.
• Xu Zimo arrived at Doomsday Temple with Liu Ruyan and had the strange man knock on its gate.
• The Doomsday Temple abbot opened the gate as dust billowed out and the sky above the temple stirred.

Xu Zimo entered the Doomsday Temple to retrieve a soul and revealed that Demon City and its inhabitants were illusory. Inside, he told Liu Ruyan how the Bliss Sect became powerful and began explaining the greed that led to its downfall.

• The old monk admitted that the Doomsday Temple had awakened to the illusory nature of Demon City and allowed Xu Zimo to take the dead man's soul.
• Xu Zimo entered the temple's main hall and identified its statue as Sikong Xingyun, Sect Master of the Bliss Sect.
• Xu Zimo explained that the Bliss Sect fulfilled people's desires in exchange for their willing service as cultivation cauldrons.
• Xu Zimo said the Bliss Sect's rapid growth ended when its fifteenth Sect Master obtained a treasure that promised to free the sect from needing cauldrons.

Xu Zimo revealed to Liu Ruyan that the strange person was a demon born from a ganoderma, and that the Medicine King Lu Simiao had been the Bliss Sect’s fifteenth-generation Sect Master who sealed it. Xu Zimo used Sikong Xingyun’s prayer beads to crack the statue sealing the demon’s soul, leaving the old monk resigned to its release.

• Xu Zimo told Liu Ruyan that the strange person was a ganoderma turned into a demon by the Bliss Sect’s blood souls, which had destroyed the sect before Lu Simiao sealed it.
• Xu Zimo revealed that Lu Simiao, the Medicine King, had been the Bliss Sect’s fifteenth-generation Sect Master and had sought redemption for the sect’s sins.
• Liu Ruyan asked why Xu Zimo was reuniting the demon’s divided form, flesh, and soul, but he turned his attention to Sikong Xingyun’s statue instead of answering.
• Xu Zimo placed Sikong Xingyun’s prayer beads before the statue, causing cracks to spread through it and loosening the seal on the strange person’s soul.
• The old monk watched the statue crumble and accepted that the sealed soul would have to be faced.

Xu Zimo freed the strange man sealed inside Sikong Xingyun’s statue and used greed to control him, ordering him to destroy Demon City again. Surrounded by walking corpses and the leaders of Blood River Valley and the Corpse Burial Mound, Xu Zimo prepared to face the forces gathering against him.

• Xu Zimo dismissed demons as ants as Sikong Xingyun’s statue shattered and the crimson light entered the strange man.
• The strange man revived, declared that Lu Simiao had failed to seal him forever, and offered Xu Zimo a wish.
• Xu Zimo asked the strange man to destroy Demon City, but the strange man questioned his motives as walking corpses surrounded the Doomsday Temple.
• Xu Zimo used greed to control the strange man and led him out to fight the forces besieging the temple.
• The Blood Ancestor and Dugu Yun confronted Xu Zimo over Zhaiyue’s death, while Qing Shi Tiandi arrived seeking vengeance for the Black Soul Mage.

Xu Zimo revealed to Reverend Doom that Demon City’s inhabitants were illusions created in connection with Lu Simiao, while the Blood Ancestor and the Clear World Heavenly Emperor attacked the Temple of Doom. The strange person unleashed a power that erased their forces, and Lu Simiao arrived as Reverend Doom challenged the two rulers to consider whether they had ever tried to leave Demon City.

• The Blood Ancestor and the Clear World Heavenly Emperor surrounded the Temple of Doom and demanded that Reverend Doom explain why Xu Zimo was there.
• Reverend Doom recognized that Xu Zimo could make the dream disappear, and Xu Zimo named Lu Simiao as the sliver of truth Reverend Doom had sought.
• Reverend Doom realized that Demon City’s inhabitants had been designed like machines, and Xu Zimo suggested they had been created to repay an Inner Demon.
• The Blood Ancestor and the Clear World Heavenly Emperor sent their blood rivers and walking corpses to attack Xu Zimo and the Temple of Doom.
• Xu Zimo forced the strange person to make a hand seal, causing a wave of power to destroy the walking corpses and dry up the blood rivers as Lu Simiao sensed the change and rushed to the Temple.
• Reverend Doom told the Blood Ancestor and the Clear World Heavenly Emperor that they were illusory and asked whether they had ever considered leaving Demon City.

The old monk revealed that Demon City’s inhabitants were fabricated beings who could not leave the city, and that Lu Simiao had created them. After Lu Simiao disintegrated the Pure World Heavenly Emperor with a glance, Xu Zimo told him he had come for his kindness.

• The old monk explained that Demon City’s people were trapped by a program and identified Xu Zimo, Liu Ruyan, and Lu Simiao as real.
• The Blood Ancestor tried to leave Demon City but found himself unable to move and collapsed in despair.
• Lu Simiao revealed that he had created the inhabitants and had done so to seal away a demon.
• The Pure World Heavenly Emperor attacked Lu Simiao, who disintegrated him with a glance from the eye between his brows.
• Lu Simiao asked Xu Zimo why he had come, and Xu Zimo said he had come for Lu Simiao’s kindness.