Chapter Summaries

Cheng Xinzhan brought Mount Lü Vice Sect Master Zang Faxian to Peach Blossom Garden to build an altar for an attack on Mu Longzhang, then began raising a Five Thunders Altar of his own. He left Mu Longzhang’s wooden dragon incarnation targeted by a curse, with the rites still underway.

• Cheng Xinzhan showed Zang Faxian the deep Thousand-Foot Pool, and Zang confirmed it could support Mount Lü’s Lins hui Altar.
• Zang Faxian said he needed twenty-one days to build his altar and planned to curse Mu Longzhang after deploying troops; Cheng Xinzhan agreed to act with him twenty-eight days later.
• Cheng Xinzhan told Zang he would also curse Mu Longzhang’s wooden dragon incarnation, using skin and hair taken from it as a link.
• Cheng Xinzhan located a dragon-vein convergence atop Brush-Rack Mountain and began constructing a Heavenly Gang False-Form Expulsion Altar.
• Cheng Xinzhan placed a talisman depicting Mu Longzhang on the altar and pinned it with the Wuying Seal, whose underside held traces of the incarnation’s skin and blood.

Cheng Xinzhan and Zang Faxian coordinated their altars to curse Mu Longzhang and launch a surprise assault on Ailao Mountain. Mu Longzhang and his incarnation were struck down, Mount Lü troops passed through Zang Faxian’s gateways to attack, and Cheng Xinzhan began dismantling his altar after sensing the outcome was settled.

• Cheng Xinzhan strengthened his Heavenly Gang False-Form Expulsion Altar and sent Zang Faxian’s Dragon Horns and the Sleepy Bug through the Dharma Realm to a cavern beneath Ailao Mountain.
• Zang Faxian used the Lins hui Altar to curse Mu Longzhang, immobilizing his original body and sealing his essence, qi, and spirit inside it.
• Cheng Xinzhan cast Curse Thunder at the same time, destroying Mu Longzhang’s External Incarnation and leaving behind a dragon-shaped vine.
• Zang Faxian opened the altar’s gateways and sent Mount Lü troops through them toward Ailao Mountain, then entered the gateway himself.
• Cheng Xinzhan saw the Life Lamp go out and the wooden sword bind Mu Longzhang’s true body, then began withdrawing his magic and dismantling the altar.

Cheng Xinzhan completed his magical treasures and advanced his Fate Embryo to the Dragon Bow stage before discussing his cultivation and plans with Ji Hehe. Ji Hehe told him Patriarch Qu would soon ascend and had summoned him, with news about the Immortal Realm waiting to be explained.

• Cheng Xinzhan finished refining the sword furnace and Dragon Rope while his Fate Embryo reached the Dragon Bow transformation.
• Ji Hehe praised Cheng Xinzhan’s cultivation and advised him to study lotus forms for his next transformations.
• Cheng Xinzhan proposed going to Luofu Mountain to study spiritual lotuses and take Mu Longzhang to the Yuyang front.
• Ji Hehe approved the plan but told Cheng Xinzhan to visit Patriarch Qu at Five Palaces Mountain first.
• Ji Hehe explained that Patriarch Qu would soon ascend and that Cheng Xinzhan could witness it; Cheng Xinzhan declared he expected to attain Earthly Immortality within eighty years.
• Cheng Xinzhan asked about the Immortal Realm’s influence on the lower realm, and Ji Hehe sent him to Patriarch Qu for an answer.

Cheng Xinzhan visited Patriarch Qu at Five Palaces Mountain, where he learned that contact between the Immortal Realm and the human realm had been severed for over five hundred years and that turmoil was brewing in heaven. Patriarch Qu connected the Dragon Sand Prophecy to the possibility of eight hundred Earthly Immortals being appointed, and Cheng Xinzhan agreed to reserve opportunities for members of his school; Patriarch Qu then offered to answer his cultivation questions.

• Cheng Xinzhan visited Patriarch Qu and saw that the Ginseng Fruit Tree had grown into a towering tree that continued to grow rapidly.
• Patriarch Qu explained how communication between the realms failed, Immortals stopped descending, and the passage between heaven and the human realm closed five hundred years earlier.
• Patriarch Qu told Cheng Xinzhan that conflict over establishing a new Heavenly Court had divided the Immortal Realm and recalled a warning to prepare for a prolonged separation.
• Patriarch Qu linked the Dragon Sand Prophecy to the uncertain Immortal Realm and the prospect of eight hundred Earthly Immortals being formally appointed.
• Cheng Xinzhan agreed to reserve opportunities for his school if he gained the power to appoint Earthly Immortals, and Patriarch Qu offered to answer his cultivation questions.

Cheng Xinzhan witnessed Patriarch Qu’s public ascension and received a precious Daoist text from Patriarch Mi, who then revealed that Dragon-Tiger Mountain had secretly probed Three Pure Ones Mountain and that someone from its ranks had ascended to warn the heavens. Suspecting the Zhang Lineage was protecting those responsible for the seal incident, Cheng Xinzhan left for Yuyang to cultivate and slay demons before pursuing his vengeance.

• Patriarch Qu taught Cheng Xinzhan about the Void Arts, then ascended publicly on a stairway of purple smoke as Cheng Xinzhan watched.
• Patriarch Mi arrived to take Patriarch Qu’s place, gave Cheng Xinzhan her annotated book on Daoist characters, and received his unfinished book on the sounds and meanings of Daoist scriptures.
• Patriarch Mi disclosed that a descended Immortal from Dragon-Tiger Mountain had secretly divined the location and condition of the Ginseng Fruit Tree, but Patriarch Qu had detected and dispersed the scrutiny.
• Cheng Xinzhan connected the timing of the Dragon-Tiger Dharma Assembly’s seal-viewing ritual to the Zhang Lineage’s possible role in the seal incident, while Ji Hehe condemned Dragon-Tiger Mountain.
• Patriarch Mi detected that someone from Dragon-Tiger Mountain had secretly ascended to warn the Zhengyi Sect, and Cheng Xinzhan resolved to seek vengeance in the mortal world.
• Cheng Xinzhan took his leave to travel to Yuyang, cultivate the Dao, and slay demons.

Cheng Xinzhan returned to Yuyang after more than thirty years, retrieved plum wine he had buried with Shen Zhaoming, and reached the frontline hub at White Cloud Mountain. Learning Shen Zhaoming was defending Tiger Gate, Cheng Xinzhan set out to reinforce him.

• Cheng Xinzhan crossed Meiling, found the plum wine he and Shen Zhaoming had buried, and took one jar to share with him.
• Cheng Xinzhan arrived at Wengyu Temple on White Cloud Mountain with Mu Longzhang, whose presence triggered the Sea-Suppressing Tower’s spirit mirror and alerted the guards to a supposed demon attack.
• Cheng Xinzhan froze the cultivators’ incoming attacks with his [Fix] incantation, and Jiang Qianxi recognized him through his Heavenly Thunder Discernment Gesture.
• Cheng Xinzhan learned that Shen Zhaoming was defending Tiger Gate against demons advancing upstream from the Southern Sea.
• Cheng Xinzhan left White Cloud Mountain and headed south along the Central River to reinforce the defenders at Tiger Gate.

At Cross Gate, Shen Zhaoming and the Daoist defenders fought off a Southern Sea assault during the winter campaign. Shen gravely wounded a powerful jiao dragon and pursued him despite Song Jishu’s warning not to chase a cornered foe.

• The chapter described the Pearl River system and the shifting battles between the Eastern Daoist Sect and Green Robe’s forces across Yuyang’s waterways.
• The Southern Sea’s demons and monsters attacked the Daoist defenses at Cross Gate as the dry season neared its end.
• Song Jishu held the formation’s Emptiness Mansion position against a charging Si Jiao while Shen Zhaoming moved to support the defenders.
• Shen Zhaoming opened his Dharma Eye and blasted through the Si Jiao’s neck, gravely wounding him.
• The Si Jiao fled toward Cloud Ladder Mountain, and Shen Zhaoming pursued despite Song Jishu’s warning.

Shen Zhaoming killed Shan Xingzhou with a hidden Flying Sword but was trapped by a Demon Web and threatened by a Fourth Realm demon. Just as the demon’s lightning struck, a young Daoist riding a Snow Lion appeared and dispersed it, leaving the demon demanding to know who he was.

• Shan Xingzhou lured Shen Zhaoming toward Cloud Ladder Mountain, but Shen’s Flying Sword struck through his defenses and killed him.
• The Evil Ghost Devil Lord’s Demon Web trapped Shen, whose water-bright whisk and divine generals resisted its flames.
• A previously unseen Fourth Realm demon attacked Shen with a ghostly Banner Flag and a bolt of purplish-black lightning.
• Sect Master Zou sent nine grass blades toward Shen as a Three-Pronged Flying Fork pursued them, but neither reached him in time.
• After a voice told Shen to stop, a Daoist riding a Snow Lion emerged from a rift and dispersed the lightning with his Four-Colored Feather Whisk.
• The Fourth Realm demon asked the newly arrived Daoist who he was.

Cheng Xinzhan rescued Shen Zhaoming, seized the demon’s Demon Web, and joined Daoist Shizheng against the newly emerged Egui Zi at Cloud Ladder Mountain. As the battle began, Egui Zi unleashed his bloodstained treasures and thunderbolts, and Cheng Xinzhan advanced to meet them.

• Cheng Xinzhan dispelled the yin lightning, burned away the Demon Web, and captured it with his Dragon Rope and Red Gourd.
• Cheng Xinzhan sent Shen Zhaoming toward Hengmen Waterway while the lion followed to protect him.
• Daoist Shizheng arrived, recognized the demon as Chou Po, and explained that Longbrow had sealed him five hundred years earlier.
• Cheng Xinzhan and Daoist Shizheng attacked Chou Po and the giant demon, who warned Chou Po about Cheng Xinzhan’s strength.
• Chou Po sent seven torture-blade treasures and three powerful lightning attacks at Cheng Xinzhan, who advanced and mocked his Thunder Arts.

Cheng Xinzhan countered Egui Zi’s thunder and water attacks with talisman formations, a summoned mountain, and his Golden Core, while a hidden attacker struck Egui Zi. The attacker revealed himself as Mu Longzhang, now called Zuo Feizi, and claimed to follow the Scripture Master.

• Cheng Xinzhan used his Thunder Sword, Spell Umbrella, and Thunder-Attracting Talismans to absorb the thunder from Egui Zi’s human-skin banner and pin it in place.
• Egui Zi summoned a Cloaked Ape Dharma Form, which lashed a river’s worth of water at Cheng Xinzhan’s formation.
• Cheng Xinzhan summoned a mountain to block the water whip, then used his Golden Core’s white radiance to flatten a massive tide rising from Lingding Ocean.
• A concealed attacker stabbed Egui Zi from behind, and Egui Zi’s Flying Claw Silk-Entangling Rope collided with the attacker’s dragon claw.
• The attacker identified himself as Mu Longzhang, revealed the name Zuo Feizi, and said he now followed the Scripture Master.

Cheng Xinzhan and Zuo Feizi joined forces to trap Egui Zi, using their treasures and the Earth Book to overwhelm his demonic techniques. Egui Zi escaped over the Southern Sea by sacrificing his body, leaving Cheng Xinzhan to regret his moment of carelessness.

• Cheng Xinzhan and Zuo Feizi attacked Egui Zi from opposite sides, while Zuo Feizi’s Wood Flood Dragon and Cheng Xinzhan’s Earth Book blocked his escape.
• The Crimson Flying Fork abandoned Egui Zi and fled toward Nine-Dragon Island, while Egui Zi gave up the human-skin Banner Flag and tried to escape.
• Egui Zi scattered thousands of monkey shadows, but Zuo Feizi’s treasures and Cheng Xinzhan’s Earth Book trapped them among snow mountains.
• Egui Zi unleashed his Nascent Soul Dao Domain, but Cheng Xinzhan summoned a Ghost-Slaying Army that destroyed the black watery realm and its ghosts.
• Egui Zi began a Body Disintegration art, but the human head from the Banner Flag attacked Cheng Xinzhan and briefly delayed him.
• Egui Zi sacrificed his body and escaped with his spirit, Nascent Soul, and core more than five hundred li over the Southern Sea.

Cheng Xinzhan retook Cloud Ladder Mountain and strengthened the Eastern Daoist Sect’s foothold on the western shore of Lingding Ocean. He gave Zuo Feizi new treasures, then examined the vine dragon and planned to use Dragon Thunder to awaken its intelligence again.

• Cheng Xinzhan trapped and seized Egui Zi’s seven torture implements as the Southern Demon Cult fled Cloud Ladder Mountain, and Shen Zhaoming led the Eastern Daoist Sect’s forces to reclaim it.
• Cheng Xinzhan established new formations around Cloud Ladder Mountain and made it a stable stronghold for the Eastern Daoist Sect.
• Cheng Xinzhan refined Egui Zi’s torture implements and banner pole into fetal artifacts and gave them to Zuo Feizi.
• Cheng Xinzhan studied the Dragon Rope and learned that Zuo Feizi had killed the vine spirit after it developed the apertures and divine ability needed to become an external incarnation.
• Cheng Xinzhan decided to use Dragon Thunder to restore the vine spirit’s intelligence and awaken it as a dragon.

Cheng Xinzhan used Dragon Thunder to awaken and invest the vine as the azure dragon Shi Yujun, then traveled to Silver Vase Mountain to obtain access to Luofu Mountain and the Lotus Grotto-Heaven. The chapter ended with Green Robe offering Egui Zi a new spirit body in exchange for a task and revenge.

• Cheng Xinzhan performed the Dragon Thunder altar rite, transforming the vine into a spiritual azure dragon and pledging it to eight hundred meritorious deeds.
• Cheng Xinzhan dotted the dragon's eyes, named him Shi Yujun, and invested him as the Thunder-Ruling, Demon-Binding Azure-Tassel General.
• Li Dongmiao, the Hu brothers, and Egui Zi watched the new dragon's emergence from afar, while Egui Zi vowed to see how long Cheng Xinzhan could keep succeeding.
• Cheng Xinzhan visited Zou Shizheng at Silver Vase Mountain and received a jade token granting him access to Luofu Mountain and the Lotus Grotto-Heaven.
• Green Robe appeared before Egui Zi and offered to give him a new spirit body in return for carrying out a task and taking revenge.

Cheng Xinzhan entered Luofu Mountain’s Lotus Grotto-Heaven to cultivate and quietly advanced his Dragon Bow Fate Embryo among its wondrous lotus pools. Meanwhile, Egui Zi’s curse against Cheng failed to find him, and the Green-Robed Ancestor ordered Egui Zi to keep the curse ready for when Cheng emerged.

• Cheng Xinzhan arrived at Luofu Mountain, where Xu Shiren welcomed him and guided him to pay respects at Chongxu Abbey.
• Xu Shiren led Cheng Xinzhan through White Lotus Lake into Lotus Grotto-Heaven and explained how he could explore and leave.
• Cheng Xinzhan spent days moving among the lotus pools and meditating as his Dragon Bow Fate Embryo changed.
• On Penghu Island, Egui Zi used a head atop a skull altar to curse Cheng with a figure made from black hair.
• The curse could not locate Cheng, and Egui Zi said Lotus Grotto-Heaven or another force had hidden him from it.
• The Green-Robed Ancestor ordered Egui Zi to keep casting until Cheng emerged, warning that the coming Summer Flood would test his seclusion.

After a year of secluded cultivation in Luofu Mountain’s Lotus Grotto-Heaven, Cheng Xinzhan completed the Lotus Chamber transformation and continued developing his Fate Embryo while sensing a concealed threat. He congratulated Xu Shiren on breaking through to the Fourth Realm, then left the grotto-heaven and departed Luofu Mountain with his sleeping lion.

• Cheng Xinzhan formed the Lotus Chamber stage of his Fate Embryo, sensed a hidden attempt to harm him, and used separate Primordial Spirits to guard against danger while contemplating lotus roots.
• After another half-year, Cheng Xinzhan heard Xu Shiren’s Fetal Sound and watched the Vice Sect Master break through to the Fourth Realm.
• Cheng Xinzhan congratulated Xu Shiren and gave him a string of sixteen purified Jiao Pearls before returning to his lotus contemplation.
• In the summer of the 474th year of Ming, Cheng Xinzhan recalled his Primordial Spirit and asked Xu Shiren to lead him out of the grotto-heaven.
• Cheng Xinzhan told Xu Shiren he sensed lurking enemies, declined to hide on Luofu Mountain, and left Chongxu Abbey on his still-sleeping lion.

Cheng Xinzhan waited on a remote island for the enemy who had been plotting against him, then fought back when Egui Zi used an altar curse to attack him. Cheng resisted the first assaults and traced the ritual connection to Wave-Stilling Cave, where his counterattack struck the Skull Altar as Egui Zi made a final attempt.

• Cheng Xinzhan settled on a nameless island in the Lingding Ocean, concealed it with the Eight-Treasure Cloudlight Handkerchief, and prepared to face his enemies.
• Egui Zi spotted Cheng Xinzhan through the Flying Heaven Barbarian and, at Green Robe’s command, used a Hairy Man to curse him from Wave-Stilling Cave.
• Cheng Xinzhan dispelled the curse’s black mist with the Golden Light Body-Protecting Divine Mantra and stopped his Primordial Spirits from being drawn away with a Soul-Calming Incantation.
• Cheng Xinzhan raised his White Jade Dharma Seal into an altar and began a Thunder Altar Rite, following the magical link toward the enemy altar.
• Egui Zi’s first two curses failed and injured him, so Green Robe forced him to make a third attempt using a towering Skull Altar and a Cloaked Ape Dharma Form.
• As the Flying Heaven Barbarian bit the Hairy Man, a fissure opened above the Skull Altar and a silver-purple lightning bolt struck toward it.

Cheng Xinzhan battled a hidden attacker through spatial rifts while Egui Zi’s curse severed his head and a swarm of golden silkworm gu assaulted him. He concealed a second Thunder Arts strike and destroyed Egui Zi’s altar, leaving Egui Zi suffering the backlash and the Green-Robed Ancestor unable to retaliate.

• The Green-Robed Ancestor sent a golden silkworm gu through the spatial fissure instead of helping Egui Zi defend the altar, while Egui Zi used his Nascent Soul Dao Domain to shield it from Cheng Xinzhan’s first lightning bolt.
• Cheng Xinzhan discovered that Egui Zi’s decapitation curse had separated his head from his body, and the lion caught his rising head before it could be carried away.
• The golden silkworm gu multiplied into a vast swarm and attacked Cheng Xinzhan, who used his magical treasures and Silk-String Puppet Technique to defend himself and control his headless body.
• Cheng Xinzhan concealed a second Thunder Arts ritual behind clouds and tide sounds, then sent another bolt through a spatial rift and closed it immediately.
• The second lightning bolt struck and destroyed Egui Zi’s altar, triggering the curse’s backlash and leaving Egui Zi screaming as the Green-Robed Ancestor failed to counterattack.

Cheng Xinzhan fought the endlessly multiplying Golden Silkworm Gu and discovered that their poison could bring down Lion. He trapped the insects inside the Earth Book and used combined spiritual flames to destroy them all, while the Green-Robed Ancestor wondered how his target had escaped.

• Lion reunited Cheng Xinzhan's head with his body, then used his spell-roar to destroy many Golden Silkworm Gu, but the insects continued to multiply.
• Cheng Xinzhan tested his spiritual flames and found that certain combinations could kill the Gu Insects instantly.
• The Golden Silkworm Gu poison erupted in Lion, so Cheng Xinzhan stabilized him with Nine-Transformation Jade-Truth Powder and sealed the battle inside the Earth Book.
• A fiery-red lotus incarnation carried the Earth Book north, while the Green-Robed Ancestor arrived too late to catch Cheng Xinzhan and spoke with Lan Qiao.
• Inside the Earth Book's Paper-Page World, Cheng Xinzhan combined the flames around each insect, producing countless lotuses that killed every Golden Silkworm Gu.

Cheng Xinzhan brought a poisoned lion to Dong Shouren, who saved it and prescribed a year-long treatment using jade needles. Cheng then asked how to observe the guoran beast for his fetal formation, and Dong revealed that refining a particular spirit pill would let him see its true form.

• Cheng Xinzhan hurried to Feixia Mountain and asked Dong Shouren to save the lion poisoned by gu insects.
• Dong Shouren used green and scarlet jade needles to stabilize the lion and draw out its poison, instructing Cheng Xinzhan to monitor the treatment for a year.
• Cheng Xinzhan told Dong Shouren that an unseen attacker had used an altar and curses to send the insects, but said he would investigate the enemy himself.
• Cheng Xinzhan asked where he could observe the guoran beast, the spirit form needed for his fifth transformation of fetal formation.
• Dong Shouren explained that guoran patterns appeared on ancient artifacts and imperial robes, then said a spirit pill called Spirit Monkey Scoops the Moon would reveal the beast's true form when its furnace opened.

Cheng Xinzhan gathered rare ingredients and refined the Sanyuan Spirit-Nourishing Pill on Feixia Mountain. After eighty-one days, the furnace opened and three pills manifested as playful spirit monkeys above Rain-Hued Peak.

• Cheng Xinzhan asked Fang Weimin to teach him the Spirit Monkey Scoops the Moon phenomenon and chose to learn the Sanyuan Spirit-Nourishing Pill.
• Cheng Xinzhan collected White Dew and moon essence, received earthly-origin ingredients from Fang Weimin, and prepared his own true saliva for the pill.
• Cheng Xinzhan processed the ingredients and followed the required timing and fire methods to refine three portions of pill paste in his sword furnace.
• Cheng Xinzhan kept the furnace warm for eighty-one days while meditating and tending the flame.
• Cheng Xinzhan opened the furnace, and three streaks of white light emerged as spirit monkeys that frolicked in the pill smoke before hiding their faces from onlookers.