Chapter Summaries

Qing Chen chose his own Blood Path, completed three rules threads and nearly a fourth, then spent fifteen years condensing his third Brahma-Blood Demon Wheel. He broke through to the Nascent Soul peak and absorbed the last essence of the blood sea.

• Qing Chen rejected Blood Fiend's and Carefree Marquis's paths and established his Way of Blood: slay the source of blood, take its nature, and let all blood enter his furnace.
• Over seven years of enlightenment, Qing Chen completed his third Blood Path rules thread and condensed most of a fourth.
• Qing Chen repeatedly failed to condense his third Brahma-Blood Demon Wheel, studying each backlash and adjusting the wheel's structure.
• After fifteen years of seclusion, Qing Chen completed his third Brahma-Blood Demon Wheel and reached the Nascent Soul peak in Blood Path magic power.
• Qing Chen gathered the remaining blood-sea essence into a Dark Gold Blood Pearl and swallowed it, refining it with his three demon wheels.

Qing Chen emerged from his cultivation with immense gains, while Tie Ming confronted Xu Jiuling, Hua Tieshou, and Su Zixuan over military supplies that had reached the Azure Wolf King Tribe. The confrontation ended with Tie Ming demanding to know what they had been doing while his elder brother remained in seclusion.

• Qing Chen completed his training, reaching Nascent Soul peak and forming a third Brahma-Blood Demon Wheel as his Blood Path Rules and physical strength advanced.
• Tie Ming presented armor, talismans, and a formation plate used by the Azure Wolf King Tribe, accusing the Governor-General's Office of letting Great Jin military equipment reach its enemies.
• Hua Tieshou privately recognized that he and many other powerful groups had profited from the trade routes that funneled the goods to the Golden Tent Khanate.
• Su Zixuan denied that the Governor-General's Office had directly sold military equipment to the Khanate and ordered Ye Wushang to investigate merchants, contracts, and customs records.
• Tie Ming rejected Su Zixuan's response and accused the officials of deception, inaction against the barbarians, and neglecting Qingyao while his elder brother remained secluded.

After more than twenty years in seclusion, Qing Chen returned to the Governor-General’s hall at Nascent Soul Peak and confronted Tie Ming over his questions about military equipment reaching the Golden Tent Khanate. He admitted the trade was part of his plan and used his divine soul power to force Tie Ming to stop asking, leaving the smuggling operation’s profits an acknowledged but dangerous secret.

• Qing Chen entered the hall, shattered the military equipment and formations, and revealed his cultivation had reached Nascent Soul Peak.
• Qing Chen suppressed Tie Ming with two pats on the shoulder and mocked the weakness of his body.
• Qing Chen ordered Su Zixuan to tell Ye Wushang to stop investigating, then admitted he had arranged the trade in military equipment with the Golden Tent Khanate.
• When Tie Ming objected that the equipment had killed Iron Household cultivators, Qing Chen warned him that knowing too much could get him killed.
• Qing Chen trapped Tie Ming in an illusion of a sea of blood and a demon lotus, making him beg for his life and promise not to ask further.
• Qing Chen told Tie Ming the trade was one part of his plan, while recognizing that the covert smuggling and wartime profits were no longer genuine secrets.

Qing Chen revealed that he had spent decades profiting from border trade while preparing for a major war against the Golden Tent Khanate. He proposed a joint invasion with Tie Hengjiang, leaving Tie Ming stunned by the scale of the plan.

• Qing Chen reflected that smuggling profits had financed his cultivation, treasures, and preparations for Spirit Transformation, but the trade had begun to run its course.
• Qing Chen marked routes on a map showing a coordinated assault from Yanmen Pass and Shanhai Pass into the Golden Tent Khanate.
• Qing Chen told Tie Ming to inform Tie Hengjiang that he would lead a million Border Army soldiers north while Tie Hengjiang attacked the Azure Wolf Royal Court from the Northern Border.
• Qing Chen declared that he would join forces with Tie Hengjiang to attack the Golden Tent Khanate and drive out the barbarians.
• Tie Ming realized Qing Chen had handed him a declaration of war he lacked the authority to accept.

Tie Ming left Yanmen Pass with Qing Chen’s threat of a Northern Expedition and hurried to report it. Meanwhile, Qing Yuanjia fled across the Gouwu Sea with Ding Buxing while Zhu Ritian and the Immortal Dynasty pursued them, and Qing Yuanjia reflected on his failed attempts to achieve Spirit Transformation.

• Tie Ming departed Yanmen Pass carrying Qing Chen’s Blood Jade Treasure Slip, which threatened a million Dao Soldiers would march north once Tie Hengjiang replied.
• Qing Yuanjia dragged the wounded Ding Buxing through the Gouwu Sea as they searched for an irregular entrance to the Reincarnation Dead Sea.
• Ding Buxing used the Reincarnation Soul Lamp to guide Qing Yuanjia toward a reverse-flowing cloud waterfall and warned him about the Star Sea Region’s shifting space and tides.
• Zhu Ritian and a fleet of Immortal Dynasty Treasure Ships closed in, with Zhu Ritian demanding Qing Yuanjia’s Bronze Compass while the Dynasty forces sought Ding Buxing.
• Qing Yuanjia manifested his First-Tribulation Heavenly Wave Rules Domain and recalled how three attempts at Spirit Transformation had failed, leaving him in need of a treasure to aid the process.

Qing Yuanjia recounted how he had joined forces with Ding Buxing to escape Zhu Ritian and follow the Black Jade Ancient Lamp’s secret route to the Reincarnation Dead Sea. After passing through a perilous reverse-flowing cloud waterfall, they reached the forbidden zone’s true outer region, with Zhu Ritian still pursuing them.

• Qing Yuanjia recalled meeting Ding Buxing in a sealed rift valley and helping him escape after the Black Jade Ancient Lamp and Bronze Compass reacted to each other.
• After teleporting to Great Jin’s Southern Borderlands, Qing Yuanjia tried to search Ding Buxing’s soul, but the lamp repelled his divine sense and Ding Buxing offered the Reincarnation Dead Sea route instead.
• Zhu Ritian pursued Qing Yuanjia and Ding Buxing for months as they fled toward the Gouwu Sea, and his Devouring Domain drew close behind them.
• Ding Buxing guided Qing Yuanjia through a reverse-flowing cloud waterfall and warned him not to trust what he saw or examine it with divine sense.
• The Black Jade Ancient Lamp lit a safe path through the waterfall, and Qing Yuanjia and Ding Buxing emerged at the true outer region of the Reincarnation Dead Sea.

Qing Chen launched a million Dao Soldiers from Yanmen Pass on a northern expedition against the Black Fox King Tribe. He revealed that Tie Hengjiang and the Iron Household’s army had secretly advanced into position, then left Pei Xuance in command of Yanmen Pass as the expedition marched north.

• The Thundering Army, Bloodedge Army, and Cangming Army assembled at Yanmen Pass as Qing Chen prepared to lead them north.
• Pei Xuance warned Qing Chen that the army could be exposed to the Black Fox King and Canglang King without support from the Iron Household.
• Qing Chen revealed hidden map markers showing Tie Hengjiang and the Iron Household’s million Dao Soldiers already positioned near the Azure Wolf King Tribe’s territory.
• Qing Chen entrusted Pei Xuance with the auxiliary formation seal and command of the armies remaining at Yanmen Pass.
• Qing Chen ordered the million Dao Soldiers to advance north, laying formation platforms and fortune nodes along their route.

At the Black Fox Royal Court, the Black Fox King’s advisers debated whether Qing Chen’s advance from Yanmen Pass was a genuine attack or a diversion. Yue Ting judged that Qing Chen meant to pin down the Black Fox King while Tie Hengjiang struck the Azure Wolf Royal Court, and revealed that the Kui Spirit Race was preparing to attack the Scarlet Eagle King Tribe.

• A Barbarian Infant priest reported that Qing Chen had led 1.2 million Dao Soldiers north from Yanmen Pass toward Yin River City.
• Wu Lieshan urged the Black Fox King to summon Azure Wolf and Dayuan cavalry to surround Qing Chen, but Wu Yanshuo warned that the advance could be a feint and that those reinforcements were unavailable.
• Wu Yanshuo revealed intelligence that Tie Hengjiang and elite Iron Dao Soldiers had entered the Wolf Fang Mountains, likely targeting the Azure Wolf Royal Court.
• The Black Fox King asked Yue Ting to assess Qing Chen’s advance, and Yue Ting said Qing Chen could pin down the king but could not defeat him outright.
• Yue Ting reported a secret agreement between Great Jin’s Capital Region and the Kui Spirit Race, whose totem warriors were planning to attack the Scarlet Eagle King Tribe.

The Black Fox King considered Qing Chen’s northward advance part of a larger plan targeting the Canglang royal court and asked the Golden Tent ancestral court whether to send reinforcements. As Qing Chen’s million Dao Soldiers marched north, he dismissed his new ranking and reflected on the immense cost of his campaign and rapid rise in strength.

• Yue Ting connected the attacks on the Dayuan Kingdom, the Scarlet Eagle King’s entanglement, Tie Hengjiang’s advance, and Qing Chen’s march, warning that the Canglang royal court might be in danger.
• The Black Fox King reviewed Qing Chen’s Heavenly Gang ranking, which placed him thirty-sixth, and considered whether Qing Chen was meant to distract his forces rather than defeat him.
• Yue Ting advised the Black Fox King to seek guidance from the Golden Tent ancestral court, and the king ordered the Yin River Altar activated to send a message asking whether to reinforce the Canglang royal court.
• Hua Tieshou congratulated Qing Chen on his rise in the rankings while Qing Chen dismissed rankings as meaningless and recalled the prohibitive cost of testing himself in the Trial Space.
• Qing Chen reflected on the billions of spirit stones and resources he had spent to arrange the campaign and accelerate his cultivation, concluding that the investment had been worthwhile.

Qing Chen prepared his campaign against the Black Fox King Tribe, relying on strategic alliances and Xin Bairen's command of the Dao Soldiers. He ordered the army to devastate the tribe's territory and provoke the Black Fox King as it advanced toward Yin River City.

• Qing Chen told Hua Tieshou not to mention his rank on the Heavenly Gang Ranking and recalled his negotiations and private dealings with Yuchi Mingzhao in Loulan.
• Qing Chen learned that Luan-yang Princess had become Venerable Kongming's disciple and called in Xie Xuanwei's debt, sending him to support Tie Hengjiang against the Azure Wolf King Tribe.
• Qing Chen asked Xin Bairen whether he could command more than a million Dao Soldiers, and Xin Bairen said strict orders and capable generals would let him control even ten million.
• Xin Bairen reported that the armies had advanced over two million four hundred thousand li from Yanmen Pass and remained more than three million three hundred thousand li from Yin River City.
• Qing Chen ordered the armies to plunder and slaughter the Black Fox King Tribe's clans, spread a humiliating proclamation, and erect blood steles along the route.

The Black Fox King learned that the Ancestral Court had sent reinforcements to the Azure Wolf Royal Court, but Qing Chen’s insulting proclamation and the Black Fox King’s lingering Dao wound made him wary of rushing into battle. He chose to weaken Qing Chen’s million Dao Soldiers by disrupting their fortune nodes and ordered a strike against Yanmen Pass.

• A phantom from the Golden Tent told the Black Fox King that three hundred thousand Peacock Garrison Guards and a Peacock High Priest were marching to reinforce the Azure Wolf Royal Court, then demanded that he kill Qing Chen over the Blood Stele’s insults.
• The Black Fox King destroyed the Blood Stele and felt the old Dao wound from the Northern Border Furnace battle flare, realizing he remained far from fully recovered.
• Wu Yanshuo showed that the Northwestern Circuit’s Spirit Venerables had accounted-for whereabouts, while the Black Fox King suspected Qing Chen might be drawing him into a trap.
• The Black Fox King rejected a head-on fight and ordered defenses and ambushes at Moon-Cutting Gorge, Blackbone Marsh, Fallen Star Plain, and Three-Yin Returning Wind Ridge to wear down Qing Chen’s army.
• The Black Fox King sent Wu Yanshuo and Wu Lieshan with three hundred thousand Black Fox Blood Guards to strike Yanmen Pass and uproot the fortune nodes behind Qing Chen’s forces.

The Black Fox King revealed his plan to wear down Qing Chen’s forces and trap him outside Yanmen Pass, then launched a surprise assault on the Northwestern army at Fallen Star Plain. Qing Chen activated his Dao Seal but concealed his strongest trump cards, intending to make the Black Fox King believe he could be killed.

• The Black Fox King ordered Wu Yanshuo to harass Qing Chen’s army, destroy Fortune Nodes, and force Qing Chen to pay a price whether he sent troops to defend them or not.
• Three days after the Northwestern Circuit Dao Soldiers entered Fallen Star Plain, the Black Fox King appeared through the Yin River domain and attacked the army.
• Xin Bairen ordered the Cangming Army to protect the central force, the Thundering Army to seal the flanks, and the Bloodedge Army to guard against underground and valley attacks.
• The Cangming Army linked the War Treasure Ships’ defenses with its Black Lotus Formation, while Wei Ting led the Thundering Army in a lightning strike that briefly disrupted the Black Fox King’s domain.
• Qing Chen activated his First-Tribulation Fortune Domain Prototype and used his Nascent Soul Peak magic power and Immortality True Blood to strengthen it.
• Qing Chen kept the Primordial Magnetism Cauldron and Eight White Bone Demon Mara Banners hidden so the Black Fox King would believe he had a chance to kill him.

Qing Chen and the Northwestern armies fought the Black Fox King as his hidden forces used underground roads to strike their perimeter. The Black Fox King then attacked Xin Bairen’s command platform, but Qing Chen intercepted his fox-shaped domain with the Blood River God-Slaying Spear.

• Qing Chen’s blood-magnetism pseudo-domain clashed with the Black Fox King’s Yin River Domain, while Qing Chen recognized that the king was injured.
• The Golden Tent Ancient Road opened, and Black Fox Blood Guards attacked the Bloodedge Army’s flanks, the Thundering Army’s perimeter, and the rear.
• Xin Bairen ordered the armies to contract their lines, disrupt the Blood Guards’ coordination, and seal the ancient road exits; Ye Wushang and Wei Ting struck back.
• The surprise assault inflicted heavy losses on the Northwestern forces, including Dao Soldiers at a Fortune Node and in a valley.
• The Black Fox King formed a giant fox from his Yin River Domain and lunged at Xin Bairen’s command platform.
• Qing Chen insulted the Black Fox King, moved to intercept the attack, and pierced the domain’s black fox through the lower jaw with the Blood River God-Slaying Spear.

Qing Chen repelled the Black Fox King’s attack on Fallen Star Plain, but the enemy’s coordinated strikes threatened Yanmen Pass and the fortune nodes behind the army. Qing Chen refused to split his forces, recognizing that the Black Fox King wanted to draw him away from the million-strong army and its formation.

• Qing Chen struck the Black Fox King with the Blood River God-Slaying Spear and Primordial Magnetism Divine Thunder, while Xin Bairen held the army formations steady.
• The Black Fox King withdrew his Blood Guards and Yin River Domain after declaring that he would wear down Qing Chen’s forces through repeated attacks.
• Xin Bairen reported 5,764 casualties and severe damage to the army’s warships, while the soldiers rallied around Qing Chen for stopping the Black Fox King.
• Wei Ting reported that Wu Yanshuo had attacked Yanmen Pass and Wu Lieshan had struck four fortune nodes in the rear.
• Qing Chen denied Wei Ting’s request to take two hundred thousand Dao Soldiers south, explaining that splitting the army would leave Wei vulnerable to the Black Fox King.

Qing Chen halted the advance on Yin River City and turned the campaign into a protracted war of scattered formations, repeated raids, and resource destruction. Months later, the Northwestern armies had suffered heavy casualties but remained steady, while the Black Fox King was furious that Qing Chen had kept him tied down near Fallen Star Plain.

• Qing Chen ordered the armies to hold the region around Yanmen Pass, avoid pursuing the enemy into the Black Fox Ancient Road, and establish scattered fortune nodes behind Fallen Star Plain.
• Xin Bairen and the armies resisted Black Fox Blood Guard raids without pursuit, while Qing Chen repeatedly confronted the Black Fox King and protected the Northwestern forces.
• The Black Fox King and Wu Lieshan inflicted heavy losses, destroying banners, camps, and War Treasure Ships through attacks launched from ancient underground roads.
• Qing Chen responded by sending out more banners, stripping and destroying the Black Fox vassal tribes' resources, and paying the three armies generous military wages and merit.
• Qing Chen arranged for fallen Northwestern Dao soldiers to be identified and buried with honors, while the Black Fox Blood Guards' bodies were set aside for the Withered Skeleton Treachery-Illuminating Tower.
• After months of fighting and nearly a hundred thousand Northwestern casualties, the Black Fox King grew enraged that Qing Chen had kept him occupied near Fallen Star Plain.

Yue Ting persuaded the Black Fox King to target the Bloodedge Army, exploiting its heavy losses and growing discontent. The Black Fox King accepted the plan, not realizing Yue Ting had deliberately baited him, and the attack now depended on Qing Chen’s response.

• Yue Ting explained that the Bloodedge Army was the weakest of Qing Chen’s three armies because it had suffered the most casualties, received the fewest supplies, and lacked strong leadership.
• Yue Ting proposed that the Black Fox King use his Yin River Domain to isolate the Bloodedge Army while Wu Lieshan led the main force against the central army.
• The Black Fox King tested Yue Ting by ordering him to lead the vanguard, but Yue Ting refused and claimed he was better suited to alchemy and analysis.
• The Black Fox King accepted Yue Ting’s plan and ordered his generals to destroy the Bloodedge Army or face execution.
• Yue Ting left the tent relieved, revealing that he had baited the Black Fox King and hoped Qing Chen could counter the coming attack.

Qing Chen summoned Hua Tieshou and entrusted him with the Sky-Patrolling Dao Seal to stop the Black Fox King from breaking through the Bloodedge Army. Hua Tieshou accepted the dangerous mission, knowing that success would earn him immense rewards and failure would mean death.

• Qing Chen asked Hua Tieshou whether he feared death and warned him that the task could kill him.
• Hua Tieshou recalled how Qing Chen had rescued his cultivation path and declared that he owed his life to his master.
• Qing Chen gave Hua Tieshou the Sky-Patrolling Dao Seal and revealed that the Black Fox King planned to attack the Bloodedge Army.
• Qing Chen ordered Hua Tieshou to trap the Black Fox King regardless of the army’s losses, promising great rewards for success and death for failure.
• Hua Tieshou accepted the order and vowed to shatter his Nascent Soul if he failed.

Qing Chen sent Hua Tieshou to carry out a near-suicidal task while he completed his plan to trap the Black Fox King. Days later, the Cangming Army entered level one combat readiness as a vast Yin River attacked, and Qing Chen used the combined armies’ formations to shield them.

• Qing Chen told Hua Tieshou to conceal the blue-black great seal and survive, even if the Bloodedge Army was destroyed.
• Wang Shisan and Tie Erleng received a year’s military pay and returned to their battalions when Xin Bairen declared level one combat readiness.
• Wang Shisan ordered his soldiers to activate their formations after the sky split open and a vast Yin River appeared.
• Qing Chen summoned the blue-black great seal and combined the power of the three armies’ formations to repel the descending Yin River.

The Black Fox King launched a decisive assault with more than four hundred thousand Blood Guards and used his Yin River Domain’s rule traits to divide the Three Talents Military Formation. Qing Chen struggled to hold him back as the armies fought to maintain their formations, and the Bloodedge Army began to panic after being cut off from the Central Army.

• The Black Fox King unleashed a massive cavalry force and fought Qing Chen with Yin River tributaries that redirected attacks and eroded his Rule Domain.
• Xin Bairen ordered the Thundering Army to shield the Central Army, the Cangming Army to protect its command positions, and the Bloodedge Army to block the Black Fox cavalry on the left.
• Wang Shisan and Tie Erleng led their battalions against the charging Black Fox Blood Guards while the armies’ formations held.
• The Black Fox King split the Yin River into shifting branches that separated the Bloodedge Army from the Central Army and thwarted attempts to reconnect them.
• The Bloodedge Army’s formations wavered as soldiers questioned why they had been left behind, and Hua Tieshou threatened to execute anyone who retreated without orders.

The Black Fox King detonated the Black Fox Tribe’s ancient roads beneath Fallen Star Plain, disrupting the Cangming formations and isolating the Bloodedge Army. He overwhelmed Ye Wushang and advanced on Hua Tieshou, who began a final life-burning technique as the Black Fox King declared himself the victor.

• Wu Yanshuo and Wu Lieshan detonated the Black Fox ancient roads, unleashing spatial turbulence that tore through the Cangming formations and severed connections between the armies.
• Wu Lieshan led the Black Fox Blood Guards against the Central Army while Wu Yanshuo directed the spatial blades toward the Thundering Army, forcing Wei Ting to abandon his support of the Bloodedge Army.
• The Black Fox King crossed the battlefield and appeared above the Bloodedge Army, whose soldiers faltered under his Spirit Transformation pressure and the Blood Guards’ calls to surrender.
• Ye Wushang united the Bloodedge battalions and struck at the Black Fox King, who shattered the attack with one palm and grievously wounded him.
• The Black Fox King advanced on Hua Tieshou, intending to break the Bloodedge Army’s last formation connection, while Hua Tieshou activated multiple life-burning techniques.