Chapter Summaries

Qing Chen and his companions framed their advance into Miaochong Prefecture as a desperate act of loyal courage, while shifting responsibility onto Jia Daoyi. Centipede-Insect Daoist learned that Qing Chen’s thirty-thousand-strong army had fortified a position outside Wind-Splitting Gorge and ordered a coalition army mobilized to stop it.

• Qing Chen submitted a memorial declaring that he and Ye Wushang, Wuxin, and Lei Bao would establish an outpost near Fengsplit Gorge Valley, and the three men publicly pledged to follow him.
• The memorial cast the advance as loyal and necessary while accusing Jia Daoyi and placing the pressure on Anman Prefecture.
• Ma Kui reported that Qing Chen’s thirty thousand troops had occupied a ridge outside Wind-Splitting Gorge and were building defenses linked to local spirit and earth veins.
• Centipede-Insect Daoist warned that losing Wind-Splitting Gorge County would weaken the rebels’ territorial fortune and strengthen Great Jin’s forces.
• Centipede-Insect Daoist ordered a coalition army assembled from the prefectural garrison, sects, and counties, with Ma Kui in command.

Centipede-Insect Daoist ordered Ma Kui to lead forty thousand troops against Qing Chen, while Qing Chen explained that he wanted Miaochong Prefecture’s forces to gather for a decisive battle. The chapter left the opposing armies preparing for a major confrontation outside Wind-Splitting Gorge.

• Centipede-Insect Daoist promised Ma Kui forty thousand troops by stripping soldiers from several counties, drawing elites from the Prefectural City, and conscripting sects and rogue cultivators.
• Ma Kui accepted command and vowed to bring back Qing Chen’s head or submit to military law.
• At the Miao-Conquest Army camp, Lin Changsheng questioned why Qing Chen had not seized Wind-Splitting Gorge County while its garrison was unprepared.
• Qing Chen explained that a slow campaign would not suit his need to earn military merit and gather resources for his plans to become a Nascent Soul True Lord.
• Qing Chen told Lin Changsheng that he wanted Miaochong Prefecture’s forces and neutral cultivators to gather, grow anxious, and seek a decisive battle.

Qing Chen planned to lure Miaochong Prefecture's forces into a decisive battle at Wind-Splitting Gorge, while rival commanders and officials dismissed his strategy as reckless. As the enemy gathered to attack, Qing Chen quietly prepared his troops and warships for battle.

• Qing Chen told Lin Changsheng that he would use the camp at Wind-Splitting Gorge as bait to draw out Miaochong Prefecture's forces, and ordered him to finish the defenses and reward the soldiers.
• Wei Ting read Qing Chen's report and consulted Chan Master Wuxiang, True Lord Yunmiao, and the Guanyin Tower Master, who disagreed over whether Qing Chen's advance was wise.
• Tie Ming received Qing Chen's message but could not read it while preparing to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Young Master Lingxu, Qingpeng True Person, and Zhaoshenzi mocked Qing Chen and celebrated news that forty thousand troops led by Ma Kui were marching on his camp.
• Qing Chen watched Body Cultivators drill formations and practice with two Treasure Ships inside the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda.

Qing Chen inspected the World Inside the Tower, where he had secretly restored two Treasure Ships and assembled a hidden fleet while building a vast army of battle-hardened Body Cultivators. With his own body cultivation at the Half-Step Undying Realm and the tower’s forces prepared, he waited in Fengsplit Gorge Valley to crush Miaochong Prefecture’s approaching army.

• Qing Chen secretly repaired two supposedly lost Treasure Ships, silenced the Artifact Refiners who knew of the work, and gathered more than thirty Warships in a hidden valley.
• Qing Chen’s Half-Step Undying Realm physical strength drove the World Inside the Tower to expand into a vast, vertically developed realm with dense spiritual energy.
• Qing Chen trained six million mortals through relentless battles against Flying Yakshas, Demon Generals, armored corpses, and the White Bone Demon Tide, then supplied resources to strengthen his warriors.
• Lie Feng, Bu Jingyun, Little Stone, and Xiao Cangfeng joined the six Vajra Realm Body Cultivators, while more than three hundred reached the Boulder Realm and over eight thousand reached the Body Tempering Realm.
• Qing Chen reviewed his hidden fleet and drilled army, prepared to ambush the forces Miaochong Prefecture was gathering to attack him at Fengsplit Gorge Valley.

Ma Kui dismissed Qing Chen’s Miao-Conquest Army as timid while preparing his own forces for a decisive attack. Meanwhile, Qing Chen’s agents spread recruitment notices across Miaochong Prefecture, stirring hope and suspicion among rogue cultivators and small cultivation groups as Wu Gui’s forces began inspections.

• Ma Kui mocked Qing Chen for keeping his thirty thousand troops in camp, but continued integrating his forty thousand soldiers before attacking.
• Ma Kui ordered his divisions to hold their positions and intensify their siege and formation-breaking drills.
• Lin Changsheng, Xu Jiuling, and the others distributed Qing Chen’s recruitment notices and promises of rewards through covert channels across Miaochong Prefecture.
• Rogue cultivators and members of small sects debated whether Great Jin would protect and reward them or whether its promises were a trap.
• Wu Gui’s forces began checking Spirit-Energy Copper Rail consumption and forbade people from leaving.

Qing Chen used intelligence from Tie Qingniu and his campaign of persuasion to prepare for an assault on Wu Gui’s forces in Miaochong Prefecture. He ordered the Miao-Conquest Army to ready itself for battle at the hour of the Dragon the next day.

• Rogue cultivators and small lineages weighed whether to support Qing Chen, while some secretly sent people to investigate the fighting at Wind-Splitting Gorge.
• Qing Chen surveyed the enemy camps and reflected on how doubt and hope could weaken Wu Gui’s forces from within.
• Qing Chen studied a jade slip from Tie Qingniu that detailed Miaochong Prefecture’s defenses, troop deployments, and Golden Core officers.
• Qing Chen secretly returned to the Miao-Conquest Army camp and ordered Xu Jiuling to assemble the officers.
• Qing Chen ordered the army to check its equipment and prepare for an assault the next morning, promising rewards if they won.

Qing Chen positioned the Miao-Conquest Army for battle and used a deliberately public challenge to provoke Ma Kui. Enraged by the humiliation and the rumors spreading through town, Ma Kui ordered his entire army to fight the next morning.

• Qing Chen assigned Wuxin and Lin Changsheng to the left-wing vanguard, Lei Bao and Xin Bairen to the right wing, and Ye Wushang to the Central Army.
• Qing Chen ordered Xu Jiuling to record the battle and told Xue Qingxia to spread an insulting challenge to Wind-Splitting Gorge County's defenders, reaching local cultivators before Ma Kui.
• Ma Kui received Qing Chen's challenge and initially recognized it as an attempt to provoke him, but learned that its insults had spread throughout town and his camp.
• Ma Kui smashed a desk in fury and ordered all four divisions to prepare to meet the Miao-Conquest Army the next morning.

Qing Chen sent Wuxin Dharma Master and Lin Changsheng to lead a battalion against Ma Kui’s challenge, and their disciplined formation routed Miaochong Prefecture’s troops. Seeing his forces overwhelmed, Ma Kui decided to launch an all-out assault before Qing Chen’s army could reveal more of its strength.

• Ma Kui ordered his generals to prepare for battle, and the news spread through Wind-Splitting Gorge County.
• A Miaochong Prefecture general challenged Qing Chen to send out a battalion, and Qing Chen dispatched Wuxin Dharma Master and Lin Changsheng.
• Lin Changsheng led two thousand cultivators in an Arrowhead Formation that smashed into the enemy’s Rock-Solid Giant Shield Formation.
• Lin Changsheng’s forces used killing-intent chains and Wuxin Dharma Master’s power to overwhelm the Miaochong Prefecture soldiers and break their commander’s attack.
• Ma Kui recognized that Qing Chen’s troops were a disciplined, battle-tested army and ordered his generals to launch an all-out assault.

Ma Kui committed Miaochong Prefecture’s forty-thousand-strong army to battle, but Qing Chen launched the Miao-Conquest Army before the enemy could finish forming up. Qing Chen’s troops broke through the vanguard and were then surrounded, where they held their formation as the clash became a brutal melee.

• Ma Kui ordered his Front Army to attack, his flanks to encircle the enemy, his Central Army to prepare the Myriad Ghosts Paying Homage Formation, and his Rear Army disciplinary troops to prevent retreat.
• Qing Chen issued commands through the Formation Talisman and led the Miao-Conquest Army in a rapid arrowhead charge before Miaochong Prefecture’s formations were ready.
• Qing Chen’s main force swallowed the disordered Miaochong Prefecture troops fighting Lin Changsheng and Wuxin, and their veterans joined the advancing formation.
• Qing Chen’s army struck Ma Kui’s newly formed Three Talents Baleful-Intent-Breaking Formation, shaking it and throwing it into chaos.
• Ma Kui’s Central Army and flanks counterattacked and surrounded Qing Chen’s troops, but Qing Chen directed his thirty thousand soldiers to hold firm in the ensuing slaughter.

Qing Chen used his command of the Miao-Conquest Army and his blood-path laws to withstand Ma Kui’s powerful formation strike. He then seized Ma Kui’s distraction to launch attacks on both wings, leaving the battle in a brutal stalemate.

• Qing Chen coordinated the outnumbered Miao-Conquest Army with precise formations, while Ma Kui struggled to control his less disciplined troops.
• Ma Kui activated the Myriad Ghosts Worshiping the Sect Formation and formed a Giant Ghost Claw to strike the Miao-Conquest Army.
• Qing Chen combined his blood-path rules, demonic power, and a High-Grade Fortune Talisman to block the Giant Ghost Claw with the Blood Prison Heaven-Crushing Formation.
• A thousand elite Miao-Conquest Army warriors broke through Miaochong Prefecture’s right wing, forcing Ma Kui to divert his attention.
• Qing Chen ordered Lin Changsheng and Ye Wushang to attack the enemy’s Front Army, inflicting heavy casualties on its Coiled Serpent Formation.
• Ma Kui tried to aid the Front Army, but Qing Chen drove the Giant Whale Treasure Ship into the weakened Giant Ghost Claw and kept Ma Kui occupied.

Qing Chen secretly deployed an elite body-cultivator force behind enemy lines while the main armies fought at Wind-Splitting Gorge. The force overwhelmed the defenders of Withered Skeleton County, and the chapter ended with the garrison fleeing and its commander incapacitated.

• Qing Chen's hidden formations sealed off communications around Wind-Splitting Gorge while his elite troops waited in Withered Skeleton and Black Miasma Counties.
• Two magic-treasure-grade warships emerged from the mountains and advanced on the county seats.
• The defenders of Withered Skeleton County panicked at the sight of the warship and its thousands of body cultivators.
• Lie Feng, Lian Chengbi, and "Little Stone" led the force as the warship's cannons shattered the county's defensive formation.
• The bombardment and the cultivators' overwhelming pressure knocked the Foundation Establishment commander unconscious and sent the remaining defenders fleeing.

Great Jin forces captured two counties in Miaochong Prefecture, swiftly replacing their formations and banners while Qing Chen kept Ma Kui occupied. Ma Kui sensed that the loss of the counties had weakened his army’s formation and fortune, leaving the battle’s outcome in doubt.

• Lie Feng ordered Great Jin’s body cultivators to seize the county’s strategic nodes, destroy rebel formations, and establish Great Jin’s formations.
• Bu Jingyun, Duan Lang, and Xiao Cangfeng led an assault on Black Miasma County, blasting through its defenses and killing its flag officer.
• Bu Jingyun’s forces seized key facilities and replaced the local fortune formations, capturing both counties in less than two hours.
• Qing Chen suppressed Ma Kui in battle, and Ma Kui sensed that his army’s battle formation and Miaochong Prefecture’s fortune had weakened sharply.

Qing Chen exploited the loss of the enemy’s fortune to break Ma Kui’s army and its battle formation. At Heavenly Abyss Pass, Wei Ting sensed the shift in Great Jin’s fortune and ordered his troops to press their advantage.

• Qing Chen detected that the earth-vein nodes had changed hands and ordered the Miao-Conquest Army to charge Ma Kui’s weakened forces.
• Lin Changsheng, Lei Bao, and Ye Wushang led their formations into the disordered Miaochong Prefecture army, whose ranks collapsed amid spreading panic and heavy losses.
• Ma Kui realized Qing Chen’s surprise force had captured the county seat, then suffered a severe backlash when Qing Chen’s Blood Prison Heaven-Crushing Formation shattered the gigantic ghost claw.
• At Heavenly Abyss Pass, Wei Ting sensed Great Jin’s fortune increase and Wu Gui’s army’s fortune decline, while Chan Master Wuxiang suspected Qing Chen’s surprise force had succeeded.
• True Lord Yunmiao doubted that Qing Chen could have captured a city, but Wei Ting ordered the central army and left wing to attack while the right wing held position.

Tie Ming sensed a major shift in fortune and suspected Qing Chen had succeeded in Qiongzhou. Qing Chen’s forces captured three counties, weakening Wu Gui’s fortune and leaving Wind-Splitting Gorge County isolated.

• Tie Ming sensed rising fortune power and wondered whether Qing Chen had caused it in Qiongzhou.
• True Lord Chongxu noticed Wu Gui’s forces weakening and led a counterattack at White Stone County, while Young Master Lingxu and Qingpeng True Person doubted Qing Chen could have taken a city.
• Lie Feng and Bu Jingyun sent two elite forces toward Coiled Snake County under Qing Chen’s secret orders.
• The Jin forces overwhelmed Coiled Snake County’s small garrison and established Great Jin’s formations there.
• Withered Skeleton, Black Miasma, and Coiled Snake Counties all changed banners, leaving Wind-Splitting Gorge County surrounded by Great Jin’s fortune.

Qing Chen routed Ma Kui’s army at Wind-Splitting Gorge and pursued Ma Kui after he fled using Blood Shadow Escape. Arhat Fengchi intercepted Ma Kui, who fought back with a ghost-faced shield as he tried to escape around him.

• Qing Chen ordered the Miao-Conquest Army to crush the fleeing Miaochong Prefecture forces and pursue them into neighboring counties.
• Ma Kui crushed a Jade Talisman to use Blood Shadow Escape and fled while Qing Chen chased him.
• Ma Kui gained thousands of li on Qing Chen, but a chilling battle intent continued to track him.
• Qing Chen summoned Arhat Fengchi, who appeared ahead of Ma Kui and halted his blood-colored escape light with a raised hand.
• Ma Kui unleashed his Dharma Nascent Soul’s origin power through a ghost-faced shield and tried to circle around Arhat Fengchi.

Qing Chen and Arhat Fengchi overwhelmed Ma Kui, and Qing Chen trapped him in the White Bone Immortal-Locking Yuanchen Gourd. Ma Kui’s body was ground away, and Qing Chen sealed his remaining Dharma Nascent Soul before withdrawing his treasures.

• Arhat Fengchi relentlessly attacked Ma Kui, breaking through his defenses despite the damage and spirit stones the fight consumed.
• Qing Chen arrived and activated the five demon banners to form the Twelve Earthly Branches Mara Grand Formation.
• Qing Chen summoned the White Bone Immortal-Locking Yuanchen Gourd and dragged the wounded Ma Kui inside.
• Ma Kui failed to escape or detonate his Dharma Nascent Soul, and Qing Chen refused his surrender.
• The gourd ground away Ma Kui’s body, and Qing Chen caught and sealed his remaining Dharma Nascent Soul.

Qing Chen led the pursuit that nearly wiped out Miaochong Prefecture’s forty-thousand-strong army after killing Ma Kui. The few survivors reached the city as its defenders and leaders confronted the scale of their defeat.

• Qing Chen displayed Ma Kui’s head, shattering the routed soldiers’ morale, and ordered the Miao-Conquest Army to pursue them.
• Lin Changsheng, Ye Wushang, Lei Bao, and the Demon Lotus Sect veterans led the slaughter as Qing Chen advanced aboard the Giant Whale Treasure Ship.
• Elite interception squads commanded by Lie Feng, Bu Jingyun, Duan Lang, Lian Chengbi, Xiao Cangfeng, and Little Stone trapped and drove the fleeing troops back toward Qing Chen’s forces.
• After two days of pursuit, fewer than two thousand wounded survivors reached Miaochong Prefectural City, leaving its defenders horrified by the army’s destruction and Ma Kui’s death.
• The Centipede-Insect Daoist recalled losing contact with Ma Kui, learning that the three counties had fallen, and discovering Ma Kui’s soul tablet had shattered; he dared not send more troops against Qing Chen.

The Centipede-Insect Daoist fortified the Prefectural City and blamed Ma Kui for Miaochong Prefecture’s defeat. At Heavenly Abyss Pass, Wei Ting received Qing Chen’s report of a stunning victory and praised him as a rare general.

• The Centipede-Insect Daoist ordered the Prefectural City’s defenses activated, demanded reinforcements from the remaining counties, and drafted cultivators to defend the city.
• The Centipede-Insect Daoist, the Ghost Fiend Sect Master, and the Prefectural Assistant blamed Ma Kui for the defeat and prepared a report that portrayed the city as still holding firm.
• At Heavenly Abyss Pass, Wei Ting received an urgent message from Qing Chen through the Mystic Origin Communication Array.
• Qing Chen reported that his army had retaken Wind-Splitting Gorge, Withered Skeleton, Black Miasma, and Coiled Snake, killed Ma Kui, and annihilated his forty thousand troops.
• Wei Ting praised Qing Chen, while Chan Master Wuxiang, the Guanyin Tower Master, Lingxu True Person, and the other commanders stared at the report in disbelief.

Qing Chen’s victory over Ma Kui and the recovery of four counties prompted Wei Ting to seek a generous reward for him from Xiao Canglan. At headquarters, a Qing Clan general questioned whether Qing Chen should be rewarded before Miaochong Prefecture was fully pacified.

• Chan Master Wuxiang and the Guanyin Tower Master praised Qing Chen’s victory, while True Lord Yunmiao was humiliated after his predictions proved wrong.
• Wei Ting ordered Qing Chen’s victory report circulated through the army and declared that he would personally petition for a reward.
• Wei Ting presented Qing Chen’s report to Xiao Canglan and the assembled Nascent Soul Battle Generals, confirming the capture of four counties and the defeat of Ma Kui’s forty thousand troops.
• Tie Zhan praised Qing Chen’s accomplishments and called for a generous reward.
• A Qing Clan Battle General acknowledged Qing Chen’s merit but argued that rewards should wait until he had pacified all of Miaochong Prefecture.

Xiao Canglan rewarded Qing Chen for his victories and promised to petition for a noble rank if he recovered all of Miaochong Prefecture. Unaware of the decree, Qing Chen captured Poison Drool County and prepared to continue his campaign against Wu Gui.

• Xiao Canglan silenced objections to Qing Chen's promotion and praised his battlefield achievements.
• Xiao Canglan promoted Qing Chen to Fifth Rank, granted him authority over Miaochong Prefecture, troops, supplies, treasures, and doubled battle rewards for his soldiers.
• Xiao Canglan promised to petition the Immortal Dynasty for a noble rank if Qing Chen recovered all of Miaochong Prefecture, while Wei Ting withdrew with credit for recognizing him.
• Qing Chen led twenty thousand soldiers and eight Giant Whale Treasure Ships against Poison Drool County, breaking its barrier and blasting its walls.
• Qing Chen killed the defenders' Golden Core commandant with the Pojun Battle Halberd, and the remaining defenders fled as his army captured the city within half an hour.