Chapter Summaries

Cui Jiuyang, Ming, and Ao Dongping killed the decayed Dragon King and discussed Ming’s fragmented memories and Guixu’s ancient Great Yaomo. The Heart-Stealing Divine Ape returned in the form of Sun Wukong, and Cui Jiuyang tried to win his favor with Dragon Palace fruit.

• Cui Jiuyang and Ming killed the Dragon King, took the Four Seas Seal and Rosy Glow Bead, and Ming swallowed the Dragon Soul.
• Cui Jiuyang questioned Ming about his past, but Ming remembered little beyond visiting the South Heavenly Gate and seeing Guixu’s Great Yaomo gather to discuss escaping.
• Ao Dongping suggested that the ancient Great Yaomo might know how to leave Guixu, while Ming said they might recognize him in his dragon form.
• The Heart-Stealing Divine Ape returned disguised as Sun Wukong and explained that he had come to investigate the fight.
• Cui Jiuyang offered the divine ape two immortal fruits, which he eagerly ate before staring at Cui Jiuyang for more.

Cui Jiuyang, Ming, and Ao Dongping learned about Guixu’s dangers and the scarce ways out before drifting toward its center. They discovered a seemingly dead Soul-Seizing Sky Fish was alive and evaded divine sense, then escaped its attack as it floated quietly behind them.

• Cui Jiuyang questioned the Heart-Stealing Divine Ape, who warned them about dangerous Great Yaomo and admitted that Guixu’s starving inhabitants wanted to eat them.
• Ao Dongping asked about gatherings and escape routes, and the divine ape explained the few perilous ways out before promising to take them to the next food distribution in ten days.
• Cui Jiuyang healed Ao Dongping with the Crane Feather, Ming concealed his aura, and the three drifted on a Great Yaomo’s skeleton for three days.
• The group found a Soul-Seizing Sky Fish skeleton with an unfamiliar blade of grass growing in its eye socket, and Ming went to investigate it.
• Ming realized the sky fish was alive and warned Cui Jiuyang, who struck it with Three Chi Seven as its toothed tail-mouth tried to swallow them.
• Ming assumed dragon form and carried Cui Jiuyang and Ao Dongping back to their skeleton after the sky fish released Three Chi Seven, while the fish appeared dead again.

Cui Jiuyang and his companions endured Guixu’s dangers until the Heart-Stealing Divine Ape brought them to Yanshi Yaorang, a protected farmland cultivated by the ancient Great Yaomo. They entered the extraordinary realm, where crops grew from Fierce Beast corpses, and Cui Jiuyang praised the Immortals’ ingenuity.

• Cui Jiuyang cautiously explored Guixu and found rare Water Abyss Crystals, while Ming warned that transforming into a water spirit could cost cultivation and draw them into the sea.
• Ao Dongping grew increasingly affected by Guixu’s laws and mistook a distant water pillar’s activity for an approaching threat.
• On the tenth day, Cui Jiuyang summoned the Heart-Stealing Divine Ape, who agreed to take the group to where the Immortals gathered for their harvest.
• Ming carried Cui Jiuyang, Ao Dongping, and the divine ape to a portal beneath a huge water pillar, and they entered a sheltered realm isolated from Guixu’s laws.
• Cui Jiuyang saw Yanshi Yaorang’s sunlit fields, where crops grew from Fierce Beast remains, and praised the Great Yaomo for creating the farmland.

Cui Jiuyang asked the Great Yaomo how to escape Guixu and learned that every route was dangerous, but realized that the Dragon Palace’s Second and Third Highnesses might have weakened a rift in the Bottomless Sea Trench. The chapter ended with Cui Jiuyang hopeful that their bodies could make the escape possible.

• The Heart-Stealing Divine Ape brought Cui Jiuyang and Ming to a gathering of Great Yaomo on a cliff and introduced them to the assembled immortals.
• After the Great Yaomo divided their grain, Cui Jiuyang asked how to leave Guixu, and they described the deadly water pillars and other risky routes.
• Celestial Dog explained that rifts weakened when the remains of Yaomo inside them absorbed their tearing forces, though judging a rift’s safety required a dangerous guess.
• Cui Jiuyang thanked the Great Yaomo while hiding his excitement, because the Dragon Palace’s Second and Third Highnesses had recently fallen into the Bottomless Sea Trench.
• The chapter’s standalone note described a revised passage in which the Ninth Lady shared liquor with her Nuo Mask and then drank with Cui Jiuyang.

Cui Jiuyang and Ming searched Guixu for the fissure holding the two Dragon Princes, hoping their remaining bodies could help them escape. After finding the fissure, they saw Zhu Yan and two other Great Yaomo rush inside ahead of them, threatening to unleash the tearing forces.

• The Heart-Stealing Divine Ape gave Cui Jiuyang three monkey hairs, explained why the yaomo army had fought Heavenly Court, and left him to face the South Heavenly Gate himself.
• Cui Jiuyang and Ming carried the disoriented Ao Dongping through Guixu’s lightless boundary while searching for the fissure.
• Ming sensed the Dragon Clan’s aura at a fissure, and Cui Jiuyang decided they would enter with Ming shielding them.
• Zhu Yan and two other Great Yaomo charged into the fissure ahead of Cui Jiuyang and Ming, disturbing its balance of power.
• Cui Jiuyang told Ming to catch up and kill the three Great Yaomo so their flesh and blood could help plug the fissure’s holes.

Cui Jiuyang and Ming pursued the Great Yaomo through the deadly fissure between Guixu and the upper realm, wounding an Earthfire Giant Toad and catching up to a Heaven-Trapping Beast. As they tried to trap the beast between shifting openings, it shoved Ming off course, and Cui Jiuyang struck it from behind.

• Ming carried Cui Jiuyang through the fissure, where they caught up to the Earthfire Giant Toad and mangled its tail with Ming’s Hooked Halberd.
• The toad inflated itself into a ball and fell back toward Guixu, while its shed flesh created openings that helped Cui Jiuyang and Ming advance.
• Cui Jiuyang and Ming caught up with the second Great Yaomo, a Heaven-Trapping Beast, and realized its tough hide made it difficult to kill.
• Cui Jiuyang proposed splitting up to trap the beast between openings, and they each occupied one as the beast took the third.
• When only one opening appeared, the Heaven-Trapping Beast shoved Ming off course, and Cui Jiuyang plunged his sword into its back.

Cui Jiuyang and Ming killed Zhu Yan in the fissure and escaped Guixu with the Heart-Stealing Divine Ape, who promised not to harm the mortal world before departing. Ming then warned Cui Jiuyang that the Dragon Princes might all be dead, prompting them to hurry toward the Dragon Palace.

• Cui Jiuyang pulled Ming out of danger, and together they used the Heaven-Trapping Beast's remains to advance through the fissure while pursuing Zhu Yan.
• Three monkeys emerged from Cui Jiuyang's robe and kicked Zhu Yan back into the fissure's path, where Cui Jiuyang and Ming killed him.
• The three monkeys merged into the Heart-Stealing Divine Ape, who revealed he had escaped Guixu using Steal Heaven and Change Sun.
• The Heart-Stealing Divine Ape accepted Cui Jiuyang's Immortal Fruit, said their debts were settled, and departed to roam the mortal world.
• Ming urged Cui Jiuyang to hurry to the Dragon Palace, warning that all the Dragon Princes might die; Cui Jiuyang rushed to investigate their fiefdoms.

Cui Jiuyang and Ming inferred that the Dragon Princes were fighting over the succession after the Dragon King vanished into Guixu. At the Sea-Heaven Pillar, Ao Han trapped the princes in a formation, while Ao Lie used the crisis to accuse the sixth prince of murder and prepare to strike.

• Cui Jiuyang and Ming saw that the lesser yaomo in two fiefdoms remained peaceful and concluded the Dragon Princes had begun fighting among themselves.
• The Dragon Princes learned that the Dragon King had disappeared at a Sea Eye, presumed he had entered Guixu, and abandoned the arena tournament in favor of preparing their forces for war.
• Ao Han activated the Sea-Heaven One-Line Grand Formation and sealed the Dragon Princes inside the Sea-Heaven Pillar, but they emptied the Warm Jade Storehouse and prevented Sea-Heaven's Wrath from killing them.
• Ao Lie repeatedly visited the eighth prince's body, then publicly blamed the sixth prince for killing him and called for punishment.
• The sixth prince arrived at the banquet hall with his Dragon Guards, unaware that Ao Lie had prepared a confrontation.

Ao Lie’s attempt to seize control of the Dragon Princes ended in his death and a devastating explosion, while Ao Ming ambushed Ao Han near the Sea-Heaven Pillar. Ao Han survived with severe injuries, and the struggle for the East Sea remained unresolved.

• Ao Lie accused the sixth prince of murdering Eighth Brother, then tried to restrain him with the Dragon-Binding Rope and attack him with the Dragon-Beating Whip.
• The sixth prince resisted the rope and smashed Ao Lie’s head with a Bone Mallet, killing him in the banquet hall.
• Ao Lie’s Dragon Guards self-detonated, destroying Ao Han’s banquet hall, killing the sixth prince’s guards, and leaving the sixth prince severely injured and unconscious.
• The Dragon Princes grew suspicious of one another as outside armies mobilized, while Ao Han searched for resources to power the Sea-Heaven One-Line Grand Formation.
• Ao Ming ambushed Ao Han from a trench with his spear and treasured sword, severely wounding him before fleeing when Ao Han’s troops formed a defensive battle formation.

Cui Jiuyang and Ao Dongping learned that the dragon princes’ armies were surrounding the Sea-Heaven Pillar while the princes remained trapped inside, and Cui Jiuyang resolved to restore order in the Four Seas. When fighting erupted inside, he began weakening the Sea-Heaven One-Line Grand Formation with Ming’s help.

• Ao Han lost consciousness from qi deviation after his plans collapsed, and his subordinates carried him away from the Sea-Heaven Pillar.
• Cui Jiuyang, Ming, and Ao Dongping arrived outside the Sea-Heaven Pillar and questioned the Yellow-Spotted Fish Demon about the situation.
• Ao Dongping learned that the dragon princes’ forces were guarding against one another, while Cui Jiuyang let the Yellow-Spotted Fish Demon return home with his crystal stones.
• Cui Jiuyang said they needed to lift the siege, pacify the dragon princes, and find a Dragon King who could stabilize the Four Seas.
• Fighting broke out inside the Sea-Heaven Pillar, and the troops outside deployed their battle formations amid growing confusion.
• Cui Jiuyang asked Ming to freeze the spiritual vein beneath the Sea-Heaven Pillar, then sent Three Chi Seven into the formation to inspect its nodes.

Cui Jiuyang and Ming entered the Sea-Heaven Pillar, where the Dragon Princes had slaughtered its inhabitants and transformed into corrupted skeletal creatures. After discovering their black spiritual power countered The Eight Extremes, Cui Jiuyang learned that pure spiritual power could dissolve it, and the pair found Ao Tai hiding in the spirit stone Treasure Vault.

• Cui Jiuyang altered the Sea-Heaven Grand Formation with Three Chi Seven, allowing him, Ming, and Ao Dongping to enter the Sea-Heaven Pillar.
• Cui Jiuyang and Ming found drained demon corpses throughout the pillar and realized the Dragon Princes had used the Bloodline Ancestral Return Method to absorb their blood.
• A corrupted skeletal Dragon Prince attacked them, and Cui Jiuyang discovered its black spiritual power resisted The Eight Extremes while Ming dismantled it.
• Cui Jiuyang found that pure spiritual power silently canceled the black power, and he and Ming used this method to defeat the corrupted Dragon Princes.
• Cui Jiuyang and Ming discovered that Ao Tai had survived by hiding with maidservants in Ao Han's spirit stone Treasure Vault.

Cui Jiuyang and Ao Dongping chose to make Ao Tai Dragon King while Cui Jiuyang went to save Ao Han from Ao Ming. Cui Jiuyang reached Ao Han’s defended hideout at the Demon Cave, where a trembling lesser demon confronted him.

• Cui Jiuyang and Ao Dongping decided Ao Tai was the safest choice for Dragon King because Ao Ming and Ao Han had both practiced the Bloodline Ancestor-Returning Technique.
• Ming used Dragon Qi to sense that Ao Ming was pursuing Ao Han, and Ao Dongping spotted Ao Ming’s troops waiting outside the Sea-Heaven Pillar.
• Cui Jiuyang agreed to find Ao Han and promised Ao Dongping he would spare him, while Ao Dongping and Ming took Ao Tai toward the Dragon Palace.
• The three left the Sea-Heaven Pillar separately, with Cui Jiuyang riding his sword toward Ao Han’s location.
• Cui Jiuyang found Ao Han’s troops defending the Demon Cave and landed at its entrance, where a frightened lesser demon came out to question him.

Cui Jiuyang entered the Demon Cave and found Ao Han gravely wounded, then learned that Ao Han had never planned to use his brothers’ bodies for the Bloodline Ancestor-Returning Technique. Ao Han supported Ao Tai as Dragon King over himself or Ao Ming, and Cui Jiuyang pressed him to confirm his choice.

• Cui Jiuyang accepted two pieces of Sea-Growing Warm Jade from the Demon Army officer but stayed at the cave entrance until Ao Han invited him inside.
• Cui Jiuyang examined Ao Han’s injuries, clarified that he was Cui Jiuyang rather than Cui Chengshou, and demanded the Sea Eye Spell Canon papers.
• Cui Jiuyang showed Ao Han the devastation caused by the Bloodline Ancestor-Returning Technique, and Ao Han handed over the papers while explaining that he had not intended to kill his brothers for the technique.
• Ao Han admitted he had considered using the old Dragon King’s body for the technique after inheriting the throne, and Cui Jiuyang questioned his filial devotion.
• Ao Han said Ao Tai should become Dragon King because Ao Han was crippled and Ao Ming was too ruthless to rule, and Cui Jiuyang asked whether he truly meant it.

Cui Jiuyang healed Ao Han enough to remove the corruption from his wound, then left to find Ao Ming before he could threaten him again. After tracking Ao Ming through the sea, Cui Jiuyang caught him in fish form and learned that Ao Ming had used his own severed tail to practice the Bloodline Ancestral Return Method.

• Cui Han told Cui Jiuyang that Ao Ming’s sword wound would not heal and warned that the Sea Eye Spell Canon’s evil arts made Ao Ming unfit to rule the Four Seas.
• Cui Jiuyang used the Eight Extremes and the Crane Feather to clear the corruption from Ao Han’s wound, then left him to recover while promising to find Ao Ming.
• Cui Jiuyang released the Eight Extremes spiritual power, followed it out of the Ocean Trench, and traced Ao Ming’s hidden presence to a kelp forest.
• Cui Jiuyang caught Ao Ming while he was disguised as a tiny fish and found that Ao Ming’s sinister power repeatedly canceled out the Eight Extremes.
• Ao Ming revealed that he had severed part of his own dragon tail and used it to practice the Bloodline Ancestral Return Method.

Cui Jiuyang captured Ao Ming, studied the Dragon Princes’ Sea Eye Spell Canon, and grew suspicious of how The Eight Extremes responded to its spells. At the Dragon Palace, Ao Dongping and Ao Tai sought the ministers’ support, and two officials went to inspect the Dragon Princes’ life tablets.

• Ao Ming explained that refining his own severed dragon tail strengthened his demonic power without the impurities caused by refining another dragon’s body, and Cui Jiuyang decided his talent made him too dangerous to leave free.
• Cui Jiuyang offered Ao Ming service under his command or death, then used The Eight Extremes to cleanse his demonic power and imprisoned him in the Five Warlords Register.
• Cui Jiuyang read the Sea Eye Spell Canon and noticed that The Eight Extremes seemed to cooperate when he tried to cast its spells, leaving him wary before he flew toward the Dragon Palace.
• Ao Dongping brought Ao Tai before the Dragon Palace ministers and presented Ming as a witness to the late Dragon King’s departure for Guixu; Ming confirmed his account when prompted.
• The ministers debated verifying the Dragon Princes’ deaths, and the Dragon Palace guard commander and a Langguan from opposing factions went to inspect the life tablets.

Ao Dongping helped secure Ao Tai’s enthronement as Dragon King, then returned Cui Jiuyang’s lost poem to him. Cui Jiuyang carved it beside the East Sea and encountered the Ji River Turtle Chancellor, while the story then shifted to the restored Jidu Shrine and the Ji River Water God.

• Ao Dongping announced that Ao Han had relinquished his claim, and Ao Tai revealed that his palace maid was pregnant.
• The Dragon Palace ministers chose Ao Tai as Dragon King and began preparing his enthronement ceremony.
• Cui Jiuyang arrived as the ceremony was underway, confirmed the succession with Ming, and left the Dragon Palace with him.
• Ao Dongping gave Cui Jiuyang Dragon Palace treasures and the poem that had been carved on a reef in the Bohai Sea.
• Cui Jiuyang carved the poem into a reef on the East Sea shore and met the Ji River Turtle Chancellor.
• The narration introduced the Ji River Water God, whose spirit endured in the Ji River Grand Formation as lesser demons gathered at the Jidu Shrine.

Ninth Lady and the Turtle Chancellor planned to reopen a sealed Ji River Water Eye as the shrine’s power recovered, while teasing each other about Ninth Lady’s hoped-for reunion with Cui Jiuyang. The Yellow River River Lord learned that Jidu Shrine had returned and wondered whether the Ji River’s revival would threaten his rule.

• Ninth Lady meditated in Jidu Shrine and thought of Cui Jiuyang as her cultivation grew.
• The Turtle Chancellor told Ninth Lady that a Ji River Water Eye could be opened, and she agreed to provide the strength for his plan.
• The Turtle Chancellor teased Ninth Lady about marrying Cui Jiuyang and suggested asking Old Fifth Yang to bring red cloth for a wedding dress.
• A carp spirit reported to the River Lord that someone had opened a Ji River Water Eye from outside and released the great demons sealed within.
• The River Lord questioned Grandmother Hunsha, who traced the disturbance to Jidu Shrine’s return and its new Chief Sacrificer.
• The River Lord learned that the Clear Source Water Lord’s spirit might remain and considered the threat of the Ji River rising again.

Siliuer persuaded the Yellow River Lord to seek marriage with the Ji River’s Ninth Lady as a way to claim the Ji River’s water eyes and veins, and she carried his betrothal gifts to Jidu Shrine. The Ninth Lady and Turtle Chancellor received her, but the chapter ended as Siliuer began presenting the treasures.

• The Yellow River Lord dismissed the Ji River as no concern until Siliuer proposed taking its sealed water eyes and recruiting the powerful yaomo within them.
• Siliuer appealed to the River Lord’s desire for a successor to the Yellow River Nine-Bend Nuo by suggesting he marry the Ji River’s Ninth Lady.
• The River Lord approved the marriage scheme, declaring that the Ji River would become his wife’s dowry, and promised Siliuer two water eyes for her demon-poison swamp.
• Siliuer transformed into a graceful young man, took treasures and two squads of demon soldiers, and went to Jidu Shrine as the River Lord’s envoy.
• The Toad Monster reported Siliuer’s arrival to the Turtle Chancellor and Ninth Lady, and the Turtle Chancellor went to receive her while the Ninth Lady changed into her ritual robes.
• After exchanging compliments, Siliuer placed her bamboo basket on the table and began laying out its treasures.

Siliuer brought three powerful gifts from the Yellow River River Lord to Jidu Shrine and revealed that he intended to marry Ninth Lady. Ninth Lady rejected the proposal, while eagerly awaiting Cui Jiuyang’s return after receiving the Numinous Treasure writing brush he sent.

• Siliuer presented Ninth Lady with three treasures meant to restore and strengthen the Ji River, but Ninth Lady refused to accept them without earning them.
• Ninth Lady greeted the Board-Ribbed Mange Qilin, who delivered a Numinous Treasure writing brush from Cui Jiuyang and said his master was transforming Divine Path Heaven.
• Ninth Lady became delighted with Cui Jiuyang’s brush and disappointed to learn he was still on Divine Path Heaven’s main peak.
• Siliuer tried to leave without revealing her purpose, but Ninth Lady returned her gifts and asked her to go.
• Siliuer angrily compared her gifts with the brush, then disclosed that the Yellow River River Lord wanted to marry Ninth Lady and make her mistress of the Yellow River.
• Ninth Lady’s expression hardened, and she shouted a rebuke at Siliuer.

After rejecting the Yellow River Water Palace’s marriage proposal, Ninth Lady left the Jidu Shrine and wandered through Jining City, missing Cui Jiuyang. She ended up at the Two-Meat Shop, where she began eating alone while Fifth Master Yang quietly ensured she was left undisturbed.

• Siliuer returned to the River Lord and complained that the Ji River had rejected her proposal, so he ended the marriage negotiations and promised to find her a temporary lake.
• Ninth Lady stored the Utmost Sincerity Brush in the Water Palace’s Treasure Vault, left the Jidu Shrine, and found that her favorite foods in Jining City no longer tasted good.
• Ninth Lady visited the noodle seller who kept Cui Jiuyang’s fortune-telling equipment and asked to buy it, but he said it belonged to Cui Jiuyang and could not be sold.
• Fifth Master Yang secretly protected Ninth Lady from men following her and ordered his guards to prepare the Two-Meat Shop for her visit.
• Ninth Lady reached the Two-Meat Shop and ordered four dishes, then sat beside the Canal and began eating as the old man returned to his chopping.