Chapter Summaries

Qing Chen manipulated the Dragon Gate Gathering scores to secure Gao Yuliang a place in the top ten. The rankings were recorded with Hua Tieshou in eleventh place and Gao Yuliang in tenth.

• Gongsun Yang presented Li Feiyu and Xu Xiake’s Storage Bags, and their scores pushed Gao Yuliang down to tenth place.
• Qing Chen found Hua Tieshou’s Storage Bag contained materials worth 343 points, then invalidated the damaged Black Ghost Leopard materials and reduced his score to 313.
• Ji Cangming and the other Assistant Examiners stayed silent or supported Qing Chen’s ruling, and Qing Chen recorded the reduced score.
• Qing Chen gave up his share of the materials and let the Assistant Examiners decide how to divide it among themselves and the Managers.
• Ji Cangming wrote the rankings, placing Hua Tieshou eleventh with 313 points and Gao Yuliang tenth with 340 points.

Qing Chen persuaded Zhongli Duantian to give him the Three-Turn Scarlet Jade Furnace by claiming True Person Budong had directed him to it. He also bought two low-grade storage rings, then balked at the thirteen-thousand-spirit-stone price.

• Zhongli Duantian angrily refused Qing Chen's request for the Three-Turn Scarlet Jade Furnace, despite Qing Chen citing the sect's rules.
• Qing Chen claimed True Person Budong and his eldest senior brother had recommended the furnace for his pill refining.
• Zhongli Duantian relented out of respect for True Person Budong and gave Qing Chen the Three-Turn Scarlet Jade Furnace.
• After Qing Chen admired Zhongli Duantian's storage ring, Zhongli offered to sell him some.
• Qing Chen agreed to buy two low-grade storage rings, then protested when Zhongli quoted a price of thirteen thousand spirit stones.

Qing Chen bought two Storage Rings from Zhongli Duantian and stored the Three-Turn Scarlet Jade Furnace, intending to give it to Yue Ting if he proved his alchemy talent. He then unveiled the Dragon Gate Gathering’s Gold Ranking above True Disciple Peak, revealing the names of the top hundred disciples.

• Qing Chen paid Zhongli Duantian thirteen thousand spirit stones for two Storage Rings and used one to store the Three-Turn Scarlet Jade Furnace.
• Qing Chen considered giving the furnace to Yue Ting if Yue Ting demonstrated exceptional skill refining pills.
• More than a thousand disciples gathered at True Disciple Peak and grew impatient while waiting for the Dragon Gate Gathering results.
• Qing Chen arrived and warned the crowd against causing trouble before taking out the Gold Ranking Dharma Artifact.
• Qing Chen displayed the Gold Ranking in the sky, listing the top hundred disciples, with the top ten designated as the Top Ten Disciples.

Gao Yuliang celebrated reaching tenth place on the Gold Ranking and resolved to prove himself in the Vajra Mound trial, while Baili Tingfeng led the rankings. Hua Tieshou discovered he had missed the top ten and stood in disbelief, unaware that someone had schemed to leave him in eleventh place.

• Deng Ziyue congratulated Gao Yuliang on ranking tenth, and Gao Yuliang tearfully thanked Qing Chen for helping him reach the Top Ten Disciples.
• Qing Chen announced the rankings, with Baili Tingfeng in first place, Li Feiyu second, Miao Wushang third, and Xu Xiake and Sikong Zhaixing also among the leaders.
• Gao Yuliang decided he would fight the favored disciples in the Vajra Mound trial and defend his pride despite the rankings already being set.
• Sikong Zhaixing teased Miao Wushang about placing third, and Miao Wushang reminded him that he had protected him during the trial.
• The disciples gathered around the ranked cultivators, while Baili Tingfeng drew attention as the top-ranked contestant.
• Hua Tieshou protested that he had killed many demon beasts but had not made the rankings, unaware that someone had schemed to place him eleventh.

Hua Tieshou failed to place in the Gold Ranking's top ten and nearly left True Disciple Peak after Ji Bochang mocked him. He stayed to hear Qing Chen's cultivation lecture, which urged the disciples to seek strength and forge their own paths to foundation establishment through slaughter.

• Hua Tieshou lamented missing the top ten, while Ji Bochang boasted of ranking fourth and mocked his results.
• Hua Tieshou's anger awakened his demonic qi, but he suppressed his killing intent and prepared to leave True Disciple Peak.
• Hua Tieshou heard Qing Chen expound on the Dao and remembered the chief examiner's customary cultivation lecture.
• Qing Chen described his path of killing and blood, declaring that strength and longevity justified any price.
• Qing Chen urged the disciples to carve a path to foundation establishment through slaughter before departing, and the disciples thanked him and bade farewell.

Lin Changsheng and the Demon Lotus Sect ambushed the Sun Household party traveling from Mysterious Constancy Island to Hidden Spirit Island, overwhelming them with Demon Guards and refined corpses. After capturing the survivors, Lin Changsheng reprimanded Jueqing for nearly exposing their hidden position and considered how the grudge ghosts might strengthen his Hundred Ghost Banner.

• A transformed mother falcon repeatedly struck the invisible barrier hiding the Demon Lotus Sect's cave, and Jueqing's saber energy vanished when it hit a strange gray current.
• Lin Changsheng pulled the falcon into his Hundred Ghost Banner and warned Jueqing to erase evidence without exposing their formation.
• Lin Changsheng questioned the captured Liu Huaide and Sun Youcai after the Demon Lotus Sect defeated the Sun Household party with Demon Guards and refined corpses.
• Lin Changsheng's Hundred Ghost Banner absorbed many Sun Household disciples as grudge ghosts, and he calculated that a few hundred might let the dharma artifact advance into a spirit artifact.

Lin Changsheng captured the Sun and Liu Households and learned that they had hidden two tokens beneath a hillside. As his men dug for them, an unknown cultivator attacked the formation and revealed himself, threatening everyone there.

• Lin Changsheng captured the Sun Household's head and elders, then lured the Liu Household's head and party into a formation and subdued them.
• Liu Huaide and Sun Youcai revealed that their households had massacred Great Qin's imperial family and the Cao Household while searching for two tokens and a Treasure Map.
• Sun Youcai told Duan Tianya that the tokens were buried fifty or sixty zhang beneath a hillside, and Duan Tianya promised to spare the surviving cultivators if the account was true.
• Lin Changsheng sent his subordinates underground to dig for the tokens, but the hillside and Cold Crow Formation began shaking as cultivators attacked.
• An unseen cultivator cackled that Lin Changsheng's group had dealt with his trouble and scouted the way, then threatened to leave them with intact corpses.

Cao Yuan, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, attacked the Cold Crow Formation, forcing Lin Changsheng and the Demon Lotus Sect disciples to defend themselves with the Suspended Skull Battle Formation. The formation's power slowed Cao Yuan's assault, and he revealed that he had been watching Lin Changsheng investigate the descendants of the Great Qin Dynasty.

• Cao Yuan appeared at the edge of the Cold Crow Formation, and Liu Huaide and Sun Youcai recognized him as the head of the Cao Household.
• Jueqing attacked Cao Yuan with his saber, but Cao Yuan's protective spiritual radiance barely reacted to the strike.
• Lin Changsheng ordered everyone to form up, and the Demon Lotus Sect disciples assembled the Suspended Skull Battle Formation.
• Lin Changsheng controlled the formation as its skull unleashed venomous black-light snakes, forcing Cao Yuan to summon golden-armored soldiers and slow his efforts to break the Cold Crow Formation.
• Lin Changsheng threatened Cao Yuan, who replied that he had watched Lin Changsheng investigate the descendants of the Great Qin Dynasty.

Cao Yuan battled Lin Changsheng’s formations with his spirit artifact Book Scroll, but a Netherworld Arrow and an early second tier Netherworld Demon Spider turned the fight against him. After breaking the skull-shaped battle formation, Cao Yuan attempted to flee into the sky.

• Cao Yuan revealed that the supposed descendant of the Great Qin Dynasty was a pawn he had planted and that the dynasty’s descendants had died out long ago.
• Cao Yuan used his low-grade Spirit Book to summon a Golden Saber Cavalry General and Long Halberd Soldiers, pushing back the Cold Crow Formation and Suspended Skull Battle Formation.
• A Netherworld Arrow attacked Cao Yuan from behind, piercing his Golden Kill Character and destroying two Long Halberd Soldiers.
• A Netherworld Demon Spider charged Cao Yuan, damaged the Golden Saber Cavalry General, and was stabbed in the abdomen by its saber.
• Cao Yuan inscribed several Kill Characters to shatter the skull-shaped black light, then shot upward to escape.

Cao Yuan tried to flee the Demon Lotus Sect, but the sect’s ambush drove him into a trapping formation controlled by Blood Sun Devil Envoy Su Zixuan. With Cao Yuan trapped, Xie Yu realized how powerful the sect was and felt fortunate to have joined it.

• Cao Yuan escaped the Netherworld Demon Spider and Lin Changsheng, but a copper-armored refined corpse ambushed and wounded him.
• Cao Yuan used the Burning Blood Evasion Technique to flee on a Blood Shuttle, but Su Zixuan activated the Small Five-Element Inverted Trapping Formation and blocked his escape.
• Su Zixuan appeared inside the formation as the Blood Sun Devil Envoy, while the Demon Lotus Sect disciples bowed to her.
• Lin Changsheng revealed that he and Su Zixuan had planned the trap to draw out Cao Yuan.
• Xie Yu marveled at the Demon Lotus Sect’s powerful fighters, formations, and treasures, and felt fortunate to have joined it.

Su Zixuan, Lin Changsheng, and their allies surrounded and killed Cao Yuan, then captured his divine soul and strengthened the Hundred Ghost Banner. Lin Changsheng gave Su Zixuan Cao Yuan’s Storage Bag and the Ghost Mantis token to deliver to Lord King of Qin'guang.

• Su Zixuan ordered the copper-armored refined corpse, Netherworld Demon Spider, and Lin Changsheng’s group to attack Cao Yuan, trapping him in their formation.
• Cao Yuan struggled against the combined assault, but Su Zixuan’s Redwood Fire left him exposed to the others’ attacks.
• The copper-armored refined corpse tore out Cao Yuan’s heart, drained his blood, and killed him.
• Lin Changsheng took Cao Yuan’s Storage Bag while Su Zixuan drew out his divine soul, which Lin Changsheng sealed inside the Hundred Ghost Banner.
• Lin Changsheng gave Su Zixuan Cao Yuan’s Storage Bag and the Ghost Mantis token, asking her to deliver them to Lord King of Qin'guang.

Su Zixuan secured the Ghost Mantis Token and ordered Lin Changsheng to keep the operation secret before reporting to her master. Qing Chen considered who might have targeted his faction and oversaw the Gold Ranking disciples’ trials at the Vajra Mound, where Baili Tingfeng reached the fourth layer.

• Su Zixuan took Cao Yuan’s command token and Storage Bag, then ordered Lin Changsheng to place divine soul restrictions on the sect members involved and conceal the operation.
• Su Zixuan hurried to the Demon Lotus Sect’s core branch to report the matter to her master.
• Qing Chen arrived at the underground palace and sent a Ten-Thousand-Li Voice Transmission Talisman after learning Lin Demon Envoy was away.
• Qing Chen suspected several Gold Ranking disciples of targeting Gao Yuliang and Deng Ziyue, and planned to interrogate them when he had time.
• Qing Chen led the ten Gold Ranking disciples through the Vajra Mound trial; Baili Tingfeng reached the fourth layer, while Gao Yuliang’s account revealed that a white-bearded old monk copied challengers’ methods.

Qing Chen met with Su Zixuan, who had stabilized her Foundation Establishment cultivation and advanced to a low-grade second-tier formation master. She reported that her group had killed Cao Yuan and obtained four Ghost Mantis Tokens and a jade-slip beacon, which Qing Chen linked to the Blood Jiangshi Legacy Mansion on Immortal-Severing Island.

• Qing Chen returned to his cultivation chamber and began refining the corpses of Yue Household elders with the Pojun White Bone Banner.
• Su Zixuan arrived wearing the Blood Sun Devil Envoy's mask and told Qing Chen that she had stabilized her cultivation and become a low-grade second-tier formation master.
• Su Zixuan gave Qing Chen four Ghost Mantis Tokens and a jade slip containing a formation beacon.
• Su Zixuan explained that her group had lured out and killed Cao Yuan, head of the Cao Household, and found the items in his storage bag.
• Qing Chen recognized the beacon as a likely key to the secret realm on Immortal-Severing Island, the Blood Jiangshi Legacy Mansion hidden in the Ghost-Crying Mountain Range.

Qing Chen and Xu Jiuling approached the Blood Jiangshi Legacy Mansion as the Forbidden Grand Array entered its one-day spectacle, and Xu Jiuling warned him about the mansion’s unpredictable, dangerous trials. A vast cloud mass then appeared above the Condensed Jade Sect’s War Treasure Ship, with something enormous moving inside it.

• Qing Chen watched the Overturning Heaven and Earth Four Symbols Formation unleash its terrifying celestial phenomena around Immortal-Severing Island.
• Xu Jiuling explained that the phenomena marked the formation’s waning period and described the Heavenly Will Four Symbols Scripture woven into it.
• Xu Jiuling told Qing Chen that the mansion’s trials changed each time, could be fatal, and had once barred him from entering the Inner Hall.
• A vast cloud mass rose above the War Treasure Ship, and Qing Chen and Xu Jiuling saw an immense outline moving within it.

The Condensed Jade Sect and Blackwood Island confronted each other after Purple Centipede True Person’s Purple-Winged Centipede appeared above the War Treasure Ship. Tensions eased when the Impermanence Sect’s Five-Dragon Carriage arrived, and Purple Centipede True Person was relieved by its arrival.

• The Purple-Winged Centipede emerged from the clouds and frightened the cultivators aboard the Condensed Jade Sect’s War Treasure Ship.
• Xu Jiuling identified the beast and warned that it belonged to Blackwood Island’s Second Island Lord, Purple Centipede True Person.
• Heavenfire True Person drove the centipede back and demanded that Blackwood True Person come forward.
• Blackwood True Person arrived aboard a blood-black treasure ship, and Ten Thousand Souls True Person appeared, making the two Blackwood Island lords fall silent.
• The Impermanence Sect’s Five-Dragon Carriage arrived beside Blackwood Island’s ship, easing Purple Centipede True Person’s concern about Ten Thousand Souls True Person.

The Condensed Jade Sect, Impermanence Sect, Blackwood Island, and Dian Cang Sect gathered at Immortal-Severing Island, where their Golden Core experts nearly came to blows before Dian Cang True Person eased the tension. Qing Chen remained puzzled by the meditation cushion that had recently entered his Sea of Qi on its own.

• The Impermanence Sect arrived with four Core Formation True Persons, and Nine Swords True Person and Mysterious Altar True Person exchanged barbs with the Condensed Jade Sect.
• Dian Cang True Person arrived on the White Rainbow Spirit Crane and calmed the tense confrontation between the ten Golden Core True Persons.
• Xu Jiuling told Qing Chen that he had prepared his Sea of Qi Spirit Artifacts to strike during the confrontation.
• Qing Chen recalled that the worn meditation cushion he had found on Northern Mang Mountain had inexplicably entered his Sea of Qi a few days earlier.

Qing Chen and Xu Jiuling discussed the easing standoff among the Four Sects and the Impermanence Sect’s powerful talisman inheritance. Qing Chen learned about the Three Great Treasure Talismans while the Golden Core True Persons remained gathered overhead.

• Qing Chen told Xu Jiuling that he believed the conflict would not erupt because the rival sects had used the Third-Tier Peak Spirit Stone Mine as a pretext to seek treasures in the Blood Jiangshi Legacy Mansion.
• Xu Jiuling lamented the Condensed Jade Sect’s decline, and Qing Chen encouraged him by imagining their generation restoring the sect’s standing.
• The arrival of Dian Cang True Person and Spirit Crane True Person eased the tense standoff among the ten Golden Core True Persons.
• Qing Chen asked Xu Jiuling about the Impermanence Sect’s talisman inheritance, and Xu Jiuling explained that its reusable talismans were crafted using methods for refining magic treasures and spirit artifacts.
• Xu Jiuling described the Celestial Master and Glazed Net Spirit Talismans, then explained how the Five-Dragon Carriage Treasure Talisman’s speed depended on the flood dragon essences refined into it.

Qing Chen waited as the Golden Core powers negotiated over access to the Blood Jiangshi's abandoned estate, while Xu Jiuling explained the three great treasure talismans. The negotiations appeared unfavorable to the Condensed Jade Sect, and the arrival of two powerful outsiders hinted that more forces were entering the contest.

• Xu Jiuling described the Yin-Yang Heavenly Halberd Treasure Talisman's growing power and revealed that the Impermanence Sect's first-ranked One-Origin Mysterious Qi Treasure Talisman remained a mystery.
• Qing Chen decided to seek the outer hall's opportunities using the locations recorded in the Jade Slip from True Person Budong, avoiding a contest with Golden Core cultivators over the Inner Hall.
• The Azure Wave Archipelago's twelve Golden Core True Persons reached a consensus, leaving True Person Huo dissatisfied while Mysterious Altar True Person and Purple Centipede True Person appeared pleased.
• Ten Thousand Souls True Person announced that old friends and new arrivals had come, and two mist-shrouded treasure ships approached from the east and west.
• Qing Chen recognized the eastern ship's dense Corpse Qi and sensed a powerful Buddhist aura aboard the western ship, concluding that both groups came from outside the Azure Wave Archipelago.

Qing Chen watched cultivators from the Three Corpse Archipelago and Cold Mountain Archipelago join the four Azure Wave Archipelago sects to break the Blood Jiangshi legacy estate’s Forbidden Grand Array. Xuan Zhen True Person led the Golden Core cultivators in activating six Illusion-Breaking Mirrors, and their combined light formed a huge hexagram rune as they struck.

• Qing Chen and Xu Jiuling identified the approaching ships as belonging to corpse-path cultivators from the Three Corpse Archipelago and monks from Cold Mountain Temple in the Cold Mountain Archipelago.
• Jingxin Dharma Master and Ghost Corpse True Person arrived, and Ten Thousand Souls True Person reminded them of their agreement to contribute materials for breaking the formation.
• After waiting nearly an hour, Qing Chen watched Xuan Zhen True Person arrange more than twenty Golden Core cultivators around six bronze Illusion-Breaking Mirrors.
• Xuan Zhen True Person called for the cultivators to pour their magic power into the mirrors and announced that they had only enough power for one strike.
• When the appointed moment came, the six mirrors released dazzling light that converged into a hundred-zhang hexagram rune.

The assembled factions breached the Forbidden Grand Array around Immortal-Severing Island and confirmed that the island beyond was barren. Qing Chen entered the passage with Condensed Jade Sect cultivators, carrying several mysterious items and sensing that unseen eyes were watching him.

• Xuan Zhen True Person used the Six Extremes Demon-Slaying Illusion-Breaking Formation to open a hundred-zhang breach in the Forbidden Grand Array.
• Ghost Corpse True Person sent a silver-armored corpse through the breach, and it returned unharmed after confirming the island was barren and its spiritual energy had nourished the array and legacy abode.
• Ten Thousand Souls True Person and Ghost Corpse True Person exchanged barbs while Qing Chen looked through the breach and remembered people and places from his past.
• Ten Thousand Souls High Person, Jingxin Dharma Master, and Ghost Corpse True Person coordinated the factions' entry into the array in groups.
• Ten Thousand Souls High Person signaled Qing Chen and the Condensed Jade Sect group to enter, and Qing Chen followed him toward the breach with several valuable and mysterious items.
• Qing Chen felt as though invisible eyes were watching him at the breach, but saw nothing unusual as he prepared to enter.