Chapter Summaries

Cheng Xinzhan fought the demons in the Thunderstorm Sea, killing several while concealing the extent of his abilities. After Yu Peiyang knocked him onto a reef and Bo Wuqing trapped him in his Red-Powder Skeletons, Cheng Xinzhan unleashed golden Yang Fire, but the demon kings’ giant hand found only an empty reef when the flames cleared.

• Cheng Xinzhan used spells and the Cinnabar Eye to behead a blue-faced demon, then killed Qiu Laoqi with Dragon Thunder and a sword strike.
• Cheng Xinzhan killed the fleeing whip-wielding demon with Nether Capital, then fought Yu Peiyang while drawing other demons into the melee.
• Cheng Xinzhan killed four more demons, but Yu Peiyang struck him onto the reef with her spear.
• Bo Wuqing trapped Cheng Xinzhan beneath his Red-Powder Skeletons and prepared to drain his essence blood and primal yang.
• Cheng Xinzhan cast Burn and unleashed golden Yang Fire that consumed the Red-Powder Skeletons and drove the demons away.
• A demon king reached into the flames to seize Cheng Xinzhan, but found nothing on the reef after the fire dispersed.

After escaping the Thunderstorm Sea, Cheng Xinzhan met Huanzhu Louzhu in Jingwei City, where he strengthened his resolve to oppose the demonic path and left a painting on the Jingwei Wall. Back at his sect, he recounted his journey to the sect leader and explained his measured plan for forming a Golden Core.

• Cheng Xinzhan escaped the Thunderstorm Sea using Huanzhu Louzhu's translocation Formation Diagram and thanked the Sword Immortal for saving him.
• Cheng Xinzhan told Li Shanshou about the Three Corpses and declared that he hoped to protect ordinary people from the demonic path.
• Li Shanshou improved Cheng Xinzhan's bone sword with primal magnetic titanium gold and brought him to meet Jingwei City Lord Yuan Xiuyong.
• Yuan Xiuyong gave Cheng Xinzhan a token, and Cheng Xinzhan painted a Jingwei carrying a little sword on the Jingwei Wall.
• Cheng Xinzhan returned to his sect, spoke with the sect leader about his journey, and explained his plan to form a vitality-focused Golden Core using Yellow Pole Zhengwu Baleful Intent and a rain Gang.

Cheng Xinzhan received rare Abundant Rain Gang dew from Ji Hehe to help form his core and donated baleful water to the sect treasury. Returning to Carefree Cave, he discovered that Gu Qin had become his junior sister Gu Xinshu, while learning that his master had left without revealing where she was going.

• Ji Hehe told Cheng Xinzhan about the Abundant Rain Gang, a spirit gang preserved as dew after its remnants transformed into the Layered Clouds Veiling Heavenly Gang, and gave him two taels of the dew.
• Cheng Xinzhan donated a catty of Purple Fire Rotten Peach Baleful Intent to replenish the treasury and agreed to notify Ji Hehe before forming his core.
• Cheng Xinzhan returned to Carefree Cave and found that Gu Qin had taken human form and greeted him as Gu Xinshu, his junior sister.
• Old Bai explained that the mountain master had tested Gu Qin in a dream, accepted her as a disciple, and asked Cheng Xinzhan to teach her Daoist cultivation.
• Cheng Xinzhan learned that his master had left without saying where she was going and resolved to teach Gu Xinshu and form his core sooner.

Cheng Xinzhan taught his new junior sister, Gu Xinshu, the basics of cultivation before reflecting on his experiences with the three branches of the demon cult and committing himself to forming a Golden Core to protect the human world. He concluded that although he already had the spiritual ingredients and magical power needed, his Yellow Court still needed preparation, and opening the right bodily apertures would be crucial to forming his core.

• Cheng Xinzhan gave Gu Xinshu Dragon-Screaming Water Thunder Gang and told her she could be herself rather than follow Old Bai’s ideas about how human women should behave.
• Cheng Xinzhan explained breath regulation, visualization, and the Five Elements to Gu Xinshu, then spent hours teaching her the Five-Character Mantra before she retreated underwater to nap.
• Cheng Xinzhan reviewed his encounters with the Southern, Northern, and Overseas Demon Cults and resolved to prioritize forming a Golden Core over perfecting his Second Realm.
• Cheng Xinzhan considered how the Yellow Court, magical power, and Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha worked together in Golden Core formation.
• Cheng Xinzhan recognized that he had the true fire and great medicine but still needed to prepare his Yellow Court by choosing suitable apertures and paths for Plowing the Court.

In 443 of Ming, Cheng Xinzhan began Plowing the Court by guiding Yellow Pole Zhengwu Baleful Intent through his apertures toward the Yellow Court. After Crown Prince Bingling subdued the baleful dragon and rode it into the Yellow Court, Cheng Xinzhan succeeded on his first attempt, while a vast yellow dragon formed in the sky above Three Pure Ones Mountain.

• Cheng Xinzhan accepted Living Flesh Mending Paste from Palace Master Ji Hehe and entered seclusion at Carefree Cave as Xinshu, Third Younger Sister, Dengge'er, and Old Bai waited outside.
• Cheng Xinzhan poured Yellow Pole Zhengwu Baleful Intent into his left eye and contained its rampaging yellow dragon with his prepared Gang, flying sword, and ocular technique.
• Cheng Xinzhan guided the yellow dragon along the Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian toward the Yellow Court, using mercury-coated apertures to control its passage.
• Inside the Spleen Palace, Crown Prince Bingling seized the yellow dragon and rode it out through Burong and down the meridian toward Tianshu.
• Dragon-Screaming Gang and thunder at Tianshu made the dragon veer toward the Yellow Court, where Crown Prince Bingling drove it into the great aperture and Cheng Xinzhan succeeded in Plowing the Court.
• The Ninefold Cloud Restriction Great Formation activated, and yellow clouds gathered above Three Pure Ones Mountain into the shape of a dragon spanning the horizon.

After successfully opening his Yellow Court, Cheng Xinzhan traveled with Dong Shouren and Huo Jingyan to Juqü Mountain to thank the Shangqing Sect and discuss cooperation. There, he manifested his Inner Landscape Deities for True Person Chengchu and Daoist Nengyue, whose stunned silence left their judgment of his progress unresolved.

• Cheng Xinzhan confirmed that the Yellow Dragon True Baleful Intent had safely passed through his apertures, then learned that nine days had passed while he cultivated.
• Ji Hehe sent Cheng Xinzhan, Dong Shouren, and Huo Jingyan to Juqü Mountain to thank the Shangqing Sect, discuss lending Cheng Xinzhan inner landscape scriptures, and convey Three Pure Ones Mountain’s support for a proposed Daoist alliance.
• Dong Shouren, Huo Jingyan, and Cheng Xinzhan arrived at Juqü Mountain, where Daoist Nengyue welcomed them and escorted them to meet True Person Chengchu.
• True Person Chengchu recognized Cheng Xinzhan’s successful opening of the Yellow Court, and Daoist Nengyue asked to see his Inner Landscape Deities.
• Cheng Xinzhan manifested several of his Inner Landscape Deities for True Person Chengchu and Daoist Nengyue, who fell silent after seeing them.

Dong Shouren and Cheng Xinzhan secured Shangqing Sect scriptures and a teaching alliance with Three Pure Ones Mountain, then learned the Blood God Child was an Immortal Realm demon who had possessed a Shangqing immortal. Nengyue Daoist revealed evidence that the Blood God Child was likely Deng Yin, an expelled Emei disciple who had turned to the demonic path.

• Nengyue Daoist and True Person Chengchu agreed to let Cheng Xinzhan study the Shangqing scriptures and become a Scripture-Transmission Elder after forming his core, while Three Pure Ones Mountain pledged support against demons.
• Dong Shouren and Huo Jingyan promised Three Pure Ones Mountain would help Juqü Mountain fight the demonic sects, and Nengyue Daoist disclosed that the Blood God Child had reached the Immortal Realm.
• Nengyue Daoist explained that Gu Chen had escaped Juqü Mountain after the Blood God Child possessed the World-Remaining Immortal, defeated two wandering immortals, and drained the immortal's body of its essence blood.
• Nengyue Daoist said the Blood God Child used Shangqing Daoist arts and suspected that he had originated in the Emei Sect.
• Nengyue Daoist identified the likely Blood God Child as Deng Yin, Ren Shou's gifted former junior brother, who had been expelled from Emei and turned demonic.

Cheng Xinzhan learned that Emei had long imprisoned fiends for its disciples to slay, while Blood God Child was freeing them and coordinating demonic forces. After three years teaching on Juqü Mountain, Cheng Xinzhan prepared to return to his sect and form his Golden Core, with plans to become Juqü Mountain’s Scripture-Transmission Elder afterward.

• Cheng Xinzhan questioned why True Person Long Eyebrow had suppressed notorious fiends instead of killing them, and Daoist Nengyue said Emei had imprisoned fiends for later generations of disciples to defeat.
• Daoist Nengyue explained that Blood God Child had escaped Long Eyebrow’s restrictions, gathered demonic forces, and might release more imprisoned fiends; the Daoists discussed plans to counter the threat.
• Dong Shouren and Huo Jingyan agreed to rally Yu Zhang’s Daoist sects behind Juqü Mountain’s efforts, then left Cheng Xinzhan to cultivate there until he could form his Golden Core.
• Three years later, Cheng Xinzhan delivered his final Four Seasons Dharma Assembly lecture on Thoughtless Cliff and announced that he would return to his sect for secluded cultivation.
• Shan Nengyue told the assembled listeners that Cheng Xinzhan would become Juqü Mountain’s Scripture-Transmission Elder after forming his core, and thousands of cultivators accompanied him as he departed.

Cheng Xinzhan returned to Three Pure Ones Mountain and formed his Golden Core on Five Palaces Mountain by merging the yellow dragon and azure tiger within his Yellow Court. The sect contained the core-formation phenomena, and Cheng Xinzhan ended the chapter with a flawless Golden Core illuminating his Inner Vision World.

• Cheng Xinzhan returned to the sect, reported to Sect Leader Dong, and told Ji Hehe he was ready to form his core.
• Ji Hehe assigned Cheng Xinzhan to form his core on Five Palaces Mountain, where Patriarch Qu advised him to practice humility and let nature guide his Spirit Preservation Dao.
• Cheng Xinzhan drew the Abundant Rain Gang through his Yin Palace and kidney meridian, where the Taiyin Emperor subdued it and led it into the Yellow Court.
• Cheng Xinzhan used five-element spiritual flames to refine the azure tiger and Yellow Dragon True Baleful Intent, then used his Whale Inhalation Divine Ability to replenish his magical power.
• Cheng Xinzhan merged the azure and yellow spiritual qi into a Golden Core as rain and visions of a dragon and tiger appeared, while Patriarch Qu and the sect leaders contained the phenomena.
• Cheng Xinzhan saw a flawless Golden Core shining in his Yellow Court, while the rain fell across Yu Zhang.

Cheng Xinzhan examined his new Golden Core and learned that its first Elixir-Washing Tribulation would arrive in about fifty years, giving him time to prepare but delaying the opening of his Purple Tower. After forming his core, he became Pear Snow Mountain’s Mountain Lord while remaining an elder at Bright Governance Mountain, and the chapter left him summoned to discuss the Haoran Alliance.

• Cheng Xinzhan saw tribulation clouds around his Golden Core and estimated that his first Elixir-Washing Tribulation would arrive in about fifty years.
• Immortal Qu praised Cheng Xinzhan’s high-quality Golden Core and advised him to seek ways to bring the first tribulation forward.
• Ji Hehe named Cheng Xinzhan Mountain Lord of Pear Snow Mountain, while arranging for him to remain an elder at Bright Governance Mountain and teach the Spirit Preservation Dao as well.
• Ji Hehe told Cheng Xinzhan that Sukong was safe in the North, searching for the place where the previous Northern Yin Hall Master was imprisoned.
• Cult Master Dong called Cheng Xinzhan to Origin Yin Hall and suggested he visit the Haoran Alliance.

After forming his Golden Core, Cheng Xinzhan joined the Haoran Alliance at Purple Tenuity Mountain, where Zhao Wuji taught him a secret art and assigned him to the Southern Borderlands. Cheng Xinzhan reunited with old friends and asked them to join his mission to help Redwood Ridge reestablish itself.

• Cheng Xinzhan flew to Purple Tenuity Mountain and learned that the alliance headquarters had been established there.
• Cheng Xinzhan reunited with He Jiyuan and insisted that their friendship should not change because he had become a Golden Core Feather Master.
• Zhao Wuji taught Cheng Xinzhan the Supreme Unity Primordial Core Embryo Lightning-Fire Form-Tempering Secret Method and assigned him to the Southern Borderlands.
• Cheng Xinzhan met He Jiyuan, Feng Ji Hu, Pu Jixuan, Zeng Jinian, Sun Miaoshu, Huang Miaoluo, and Fang Weimin, who had gathered to greet him.
• Cheng Xinzhan told his friends he was heading to the Southern Borderlands and asked whether any of them would accompany him.

Cheng Xinzhan gathered a formidable group of young Golden Core and Second Realm cultivators for a demon-slaying expedition in the Southern Borderlands. They entered the Miao Borderlands, where the Southern Demon Cult’s expansion had left the region in turmoil.

• Cheng Xinzhan recruited Fang Weimin and Huang Miaoluo, then visited Juqü Mountain and enlisted Li Chengyan and Wang Chengyi.
• Cheng Xinzhan visited Swordpoint Mountain, where Meng Xuqí and Meng Xuyi agreed to join him, and learned they had become talented thunder cultivators under a Supreme Grand Elder’s guidance.
• At Gezao Mountain, Cheng Xinzhan learned that Du Nianxian and Lu Jigang had died, then persuaded Song Jishu to join the expedition.
• Cheng Xinzhan recruited Shen Zhaoming from West Mountain, but could not find Lan Yuqing at the Mount Lu Sword Sect’s station.
• Cheng Xinzhan led his assembled companions south as True Person Chengchu ordered someone to keep watch over them.
• The group entered the Miao Borderlands, where Green Robe’s rise and the Southern Demon Cult’s expansion had weakened the local powers and spread fear.

Cheng Xinzhan and his companions reached Lost-Trace Lake, where Redwood Ridge’s survivors were besieged by the Southern Demon Cult. After assessing the enemy forces, they devised a plan to enter the encirclement and contact the survivors.

• Cheng Xinzhan found Chestnut Creek Stockade deserted and saw signs that the Demon Fiends had passed through, then continued deeper into the wilderness with his companions.
• Song Jishu and Huang Miaoluo tried to lift Cheng Xinzhan’s spirits by joking about Xinchेंnzi’s title and recalling Cheng Xinzhan’s Southern Dipper Rankings.
• Cheng Xinzhan explained that Redwood Ridge’s survivors had fled to Lost-Trace Lake, where roughly ten thousand people were surrounded by at least fifty thousand Demon Fiends.
• The group reached Lost-Trace Lake and identified the forces of Yang Xuanla, Long Youpo, and Yao Kaijiang among the besiegers.
• Cheng Xinzhan proposed splitting into three teams, with his group entering Lost-Trace Lake while the other two created a diversion outside the demonic formation.
• Cheng Xinzhan, Shen Zhaoming, and Huang Miaoluo prepared to enter the lake, while the other teams planned to seek an opening away from Long Youpo’s forces.

Cheng Xinzhan, Shen Zhaoming, and Huang Miaoluo broke through the demonic cults’ siege and reached Hong Changbao at Lost-Trace Lake. After learning that Red-Haired Ancestor was dead and his body had been made into a corpse puppet, Hong Changbao vowed revenge and heard why the Daoist sects had come to help Redwood Ridge.

• Yao Kaijiang watched as righteous cultivators attacked the Yelang Cult with thunder, starlight, and talismans, while Yang Xuanla and Long Youpo refused to intervene.
• Cheng Xinzhan led Shen Zhaoming and Huang Miaoluo through the Blood River Formation with his pure yang sword light, and Song Jishu and the other cultivators withdrew after they entered the mist.
• Cheng Xinzhan revealed his identity and introduced Shen Zhaoming and Huang Miaoluo to Hong Changbao, who welcomed them into the refuge.
• Hong Changbao asked whether Red-Haired Ancestor was alive, and Cheng Xinzhan told him the ancestor had died and Red Corpse Wu Lao had refined his body into a corpse puppet.
• Hong Changbao swore to avenge his master, and Cheng Xinzhan explained that the Daoist sects had come because they would not abandon Redwood Ridge to the demonic sects.

Hong Changbao explained Redwood Ridge’s defenses and worsening condition at Lost-Trace Lake as Cheng Xinzhan and the other orthodox cultivators considered how to aid them and strike the demonic sects. Cheng Xinzhan suspected the sickened survivors had been infected with plague, and his Mosquito Gu found plague insects in a wounded man’s blood.

• Hong Changbao agreed that Redwood Ridge would eventually counterattack and described Lost-Trace Lake’s defenses, hidden formations, and the survivors’ dwindling supplies.
• Cheng Xinzhan sent Song Jishu and the others to seek local allies while he, Shen Zhaoming, and Huang Miaoluo planned to exploit the summer floods and the demonic sects’ divisions to attack Yao Kaijiang.
• Huang Miaoluo noticed that Redwood Ridge’s people looked sickly, and Shen Zhaoming determined that hunger and depleted blood could explain their condition.
• Cheng Xinzhan reasoned that the survivors were too weak for hunger alone to explain their illness and asked whether something carried by water could harm them without being poison.
• Cheng Xinzhan suspected plague, released a Mosquito Gu onto a wounded Redwood Ridge cultivator, and watched it feed on plague insects in the man’s blood.

Cheng Xinzhan identified and cured a plague afflicting Redwood Ridge, then joined Hong Changbao and Wu Xuanmiao in planning an attack on Yao Kaijiang. After reinforcements arrived and the summer rains swelled the Wu River, the forces prepared to strike beneath the storm.

• Cheng Xinzhan revealed that plague insects were weakening Redwood Ridge's people and demonstrated that his Celestial Yellow Detoxification Pills could cure them.
• Cheng Xinzhan refined and distributed pills while Hong Changbao organized their distribution, curing the survivors over the following days.
• Wu Xuanmiao reported that he had failed to secure reinforcements, and Cheng Xinzhan proposed using Lost-Trace Lake's terrain and the coming floods to kill Yao Kaijiang.
• Cheng Xinzhan, Shen Zhaoming, and Wu Xuanmiao practiced coordinating the lake's mist and flood formations, and Wu Xuanmiao agreed to help lead the waters downstream.
• Song Jishu sent Cheng Xinzhan the message “Just as you wished,” and Cheng Xinzhan told Wu Xuanmiao to raise the waves upstream.
• On the seventeenth day of the fifth month, a violent storm covered Lost-Trace Lake as its mist spread and a deep sound rose from upstream along the Wu River.

Liu Tian Fang and the Redwood Ridge reinforcements launched a fierce assault on Yao Kaijiang’s forces, while Cheng Xinzhan and Shen Zhaoming helped devastate the Yelang Cult’s mountain stronghold. As Yao Kaijiang’s hidden treasures and betrayal came to light and Long Youpo prepared to join the fighting, a powerful blue rainbow arrived from the north.

• Liu Tian Fang shattered the Yelang Cult’s mountain defenses with his swordlight, then joined Hong Changbao in attacking Yao Kaijiang.
• Cheng Xinzhan summoned Heavenly Thunder as Shen Zhaoming lifted the Wu River over Lost-Trace Lake and crushed most of Yao Kaijiang’s demonic soldiers.
• Yao Kaijiang released walking corpses from a bronze coffin while Redwood Ridge’s fighters battled his guards and forces.
• Hong Changbao realized Yao Kaijiang had become a mercury-blood bronze corpse and opened the Yelang Earth Treasury, and Yao Kaijiang admitted he had betrayed his master partly out of jealousy of Hong Changbao.
• Long Youpo’s blood dragon burned away Cheng Xinzhan’s mist, prompting him to prepare to join the battle as Long Youpo and Yang Xuanla moved to intervene.
• A voice denouncing the demonic fiends came from the north, and a powerful blue rainbow appeared across the sky.

Zhou Qingyun of Emei arrived at Lost-Trace Lake and used Azure Cord to kill Wu Yuechou and drive Blood-Vine Granny Long Youpo into retreat. Cheng Xinzhan joined her in attacking Yang Xuanla, whose water ghosts were stopped by Cheng’s Five Thunders Spell.

• Long Youpo sent Wu Yuechou to probe the fighting, but Zhou Qingyun’s Azure Cord strangled him and destroyed his Primordial Spirit and Golden Core.
• Zhou Qingyun arrived and asked the Daoists whether Cheng Xinzhan had been rescued; Cheng emerged from the lake and revealed he was unharmed.
• Zhou Qingyun attacked the Blood-Vine Cult’s mountain, prompting Long Youpo and her followers to flee through the Blood River.
• Azure Cord and Cheng Xinzhan’s Peach Capital forced Yang Xuanla to defend himself after Zhou Qingyun pursued him.
• Yang Xuanla summoned water ghosts, but Cheng Xinzhan’s Five Thunders Spell protected Zhou Qingyun and burned the ghosts away.

Cheng Xinzhan and his allies overwhelmed Yang Xuanla, destroying his yin river and forcing him to detonate his Golden Core. As Yang Xuanla’s Primordial Spirit fled, Cheng Xinzhan trapped and destroyed it, while Yao Kaijiang escaped amid the chaos.

• Zhou Qingyun’s Azure Cord drove Yang Xuanla back as Cheng Xinzhan summoned the Lord of Taiyin, who split and purified the yin river while Song Jishu delivered its water ghosts.
• Song Jishu crushed the Bronze Puppet, and Shen Zhaoming helped cleanse the remaining yin water as Yang Xuanla lost his arm and ghost jar.
• Wang Chengyi struck Yang Xuanla with a silver arrow from his already-formed Primordial Spirit, and the allies surrounded the Demon Fiend as the cultists were hunted down.
• Yang Xuanla summoned his Golden Core Dharma Form and detonated his Golden Core, blasting away his attackers as Yao Kaijiang used the disruption to escape.
• Cheng Xinzhan intercepted Yang Xuanla’s fleeing Primordial Spirit with his Yin-Yang Five-Phases Binding Hoop and destroyed it.

After the demon cults were defeated at Lost-Trace Lake, Cheng Xinzhan pressed Hong Changbao to strengthen Redwood Ridge by attempting to form a Nascent Soul, while the allies divided their spoils and chose their next steps. Two months later, Cheng Xinzhan and Shen Zhaoming arrived at Red Armor Mountain in Kuizhou, where Shen reflected on the history of jiao dragons and their slaughter.

• Cheng Xinzhan explained that his sect had passed down the secret art that let him refine an External Incarnation, which had intercepted Yang Xuanla's Primordial Spirit.
• Zhou Qingyun declined the group's invitation to stay and left, while the survivors returned to Lost-Trace Lake and discussed how to prevent demon cultists escaping in future battles.
• Hong Changbao planned to rebuild Redwood Ridge at Lost-Trace Lake and agreed to attempt gestating a Dao Embryo after the area had settled.
• The allies divided the spoils and settled their plans: Song Jishu stayed to help with the formation, several Haoran Alliance cultivators remained to guard Lost-Trace Lake, and other companions departed or went their own way.
• Two months later, Cheng Xinzhan and Shen Zhaoming reached Red Armor Mountain in Kuizhou, where Shen remarked that their founding master had been too fond of killing jiao dragons.