Chapter Summaries

Hua Tieshou sacrificed himself to activate the Blue-Black Dao Seal, unleashing Tie Hengjiang’s stored grotto-heaven power and trapping Black Fox King beneath the Thirteen Golden Palaces. Black Fox King transformed into his Yin River Moon-Swallowing True Body and struggled against the descending golden palaces.

• Hua Tieshou sent his final divine soul power into the Blue-Black Dao Seal and exploded his essence blood as Black Fox King’s palm closed in.
• The seal revealed the character [North] and unleashed Tie Hengjiang’s grotto-heaven power, locking down the space around Black Fox King.
• Thirteen golden palaces formed and suppressed Black Fox King’s connection to the Yin River Domain, while Hua Tieshou’s legs were crushed by the residual power.
• Black Fox King transformed into his Yin River Moon-Swallowing True Body and drew the Yin River tributaries into himself to resist the golden palaces.
• The thirteen layers descended as Black Fox King braced against them, his black fur and Yin River Rules Armor collapsing under the pressure.

Qing Chen unleashed his full strength and trapped the wounded Black Fox King inside Tie Hengjiang’s Golden Tower seal, then battered him with the Blood River God-Slaying Spear. The Black Fox King remained alive and fighting as the seal began to weaken, leaving Qing Chen with only a few breaths to finish him.

• Tie Hengjiang’s Golden Tower technique sealed the wounded Black Fox King in place, and the Black Fox King cursed Qing Chen and threatened his family.
• Qing Chen released his Late Immortality blood, Blood Path and Magnetic Origin rules, demon banners, and Northwestern Circuit-Surveying Seal to attack the Black Fox King.
• Qing Chen pierced the Yin River and crossed the battlefield, using the Golden Tower barrier and shifting magnetic force to land successive spear strikes.
• The Black Fox King counterattacked with Yin River claws and divine-soul assaults, wounding Qing Chen and cracking the Mystic Womb Demon Lotus.
• Qing Chen kept pressing his attack as the Black Fox King sensed Tie Hengjiang’s seal would fail within five breaths.

Qing Chen revealed that he had prepared a trap for the Black Fox King, then used the Primordial Magnetism Cauldron and Annihilation Divine Thunder to devastate him. The Black Fox King was left trapped and weakening as he pleaded for his life.

• Qing Chen revealed that he had planted blood-magnetic qi mechanisms on the Black Fox King while learning his rule traits.
• Qing Chen burned the essence blood in his Four Brahma Apertures and activated the Primordial Magnetism Cauldron’s complete domain.
• Qing Chen struck the Black Fox King internally with Primordial Magnetism Annihilation Divine Thunder, while the Northern Border Lock Seals and Star-Burying Immortal-Seizing Blood Hand stopped his escape.
• The Black Fox King’s Primordial Spirit struggled against the seals, but Qing Chen ordered the cauldron to strike again and battered him with repeated spear blows.
• The Golden Palace Barrier remained intact as the Black Fox King weakened, and he offered Qing Chen wealth and political power in exchange for his life.

Qing Chen killed the Black Fox King and captured his intact Primordial Spirit, securing a rare ingredient for the [Purple Mansion Spirit Transformation Pill]. The Black Fox Blood Guards fled Fallen Star Plain, while Qing Chen ordered Great Jin’s armies to hold formation instead of pursuing.

• Qing Chen used the Eight Banners God-Sealing formation and the Immortal-Burying Demon Coffin to capture the Black Fox King's Primordial Spirit alive.
• Qing Chen realized the intact Primordial Spirit could replace the two missing primary ingredients for the [Purple Mansion Spirit Transformation Pill].
• Xin Bairen, Wei Ting, and Ye Wushang reacted to Qing Chen's victory as Great Jin's soldiers shouted that the Governor-General had slain a god.
• Wu Yanshuo ordered the Black Fox Blood Guards to retreat, and Wu Lieshan fled as their forces broke into a rout.
• Qing Chen forbade True Lord-level battle generals from pursuing, and Xin Bairen ordered the armies to regroup, tend the wounded, and secure the remaining Yin River nodes.

Qing Chen saved Hua Tieshou after he destroyed his Nascent Soul foundation to defeat the Black Fox King, then offered him a dangerous chance to rebuild his cultivation. Hua Tieshou agreed to gamble on washing away his ruined Nascent Soul and forming a new one.

• Qing Chen left the surviving Black Fox forces alive and declared Hua Tieshou the foremost contributor to the battle.
• Qing Chen used precious pills, a Supreme-Grade Spirit Stone, and his Blood Path abilities to stabilize Hua Tieshou's injuries and save his life.
• Qing Chen told Hua Tieshou that his ruined Nascent Soul left him unable to cultivate and gave him fewer than six hundred years to live.
• Hua Tieshou rejected a life without cultivation and agreed to take one more gamble.
• Qing Chen proposed washing Hua Tieshou's Nascent Soul back to the Pseudo-Nascent Soul state, then using Blood Cultivation to form a new one, warning that failure would scatter his soul.

After Hua Tieshou agreed to gamble on rebuilding his shattered Nascent Soul, Qing Chen prepared to test his new Brahma Demon Art on him and withdrew from the Black Fox King Tribe rather than risk a fight with the Golden Tent Khanate. Qing Chen raced back to Yanmen Pass with Hua Tieshou, where the defensive formation detected his approach and sounded an alarm.

• Hua Tieshou accepted Qing Chen's plan to recondense his Nascent Soul using the Immortal Demon Nascent Soul Chapter, risking total destruction if he failed.
• Qing Chen decided the Golden Tent Great Khan might retaliate and ordered Xin Bairen to gather the armies and leave without pursuing enemies or advancing on Yin River City.
• Qing Chen collected the Black Fox King's scattered remains and sealed the king's bone ring inside the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda.
• Qing Chen placed Hua Tieshou in a blood jade spirit coffin, entrusted the armies to Xin Bairen and Wei Ting, and flew toward Yanmen Pass.
• As Qing Chen approached Yanmen Pass, the Nine Profound Suppression of the North Formation detected his fast-moving escape light and raised an alarm.

Qing Chen returned triumphantly to Yanmen Pass after killing the Black Fox King, a Spirit Transformation Barbarian King, and the news spread throughout Great Jin. In his sealed underground Blood Hall, he examined the Black Fox King’s remains with greedy interest.

• Qing Chen presented his command token at Yanmen Pass, passed the formation checks, and received a triumphal welcome from Pei Xuance and the others.
• Qing Chen entrusted Hua Tieshou’s failing nascent soul to Su Zixuan and ordered Xu Jiuling to find Nascent-Replenishing Heavenly Fluid before retreating to seclusion.
• The people at the pass marveled that Qing Chen had slain a Spirit Transformation cultivator, and a guard called him a living legend.
• Recording Jade Slips confirmed that Qing Chen had personally destroyed the Black Fox King, and the Fallen Star God-Slaying battle became famous across Great Jin and the Nanhua Realm.
• Qing Chen sealed his underground Blood Halls against prying divine sense, opened the caskets containing the Black Fox King’s remains, and admired the Spirit Transformation corpse.

Qing Chen decided to feed the Black Fox King’s flesh and bones to the Di Jiang Demon Banner to help it become a half-spirit treasure, then broke into the king’s storage ring and inventoried his spoils. He found rare materials and the Nine Netherworlds Soul-Returning Marrow, but was disappointed by the Black Fox King’s modest fortune and ordered Di Jiang to eat.

• Qing Chen chose to use the Black Fox King’s flesh and bones to advance the Di Jiang Demon Banner rather than strengthen his body or condense the fourth Brahma-Blood Demon Wheel.
• Qing Chen spent ten days grinding away the Black Fox King’s divine sense imprint until the Black Fox Sky-Swallowing Ring opened.
• Qing Chen found the Nine Netherworlds Soul-Returning Marrow, which could give Xie Yu’s Blood Jiangshi body a chance to reverse life and death, and noted that Yue Ting’s help made the treasure useful for keeping him loyal.
• Qing Chen found Great White Void-Splitting Divine Iron, two supreme-grade fourth-tier magic treasures, and other supplies, but judged the Black Fox King’s overall fortune poor.
• Qing Chen pointed at the Di Jiang Demon Banner and told it that it was time to eat.

The Imperial Court reviewed Qing Chen’s victory over the Black Fox King and debated whether to reward him with the state dukedom of Duke of Yan. The debate remained unresolved as Xiao Canglan joined the opposition, driven by his hostility toward Qing Chen.

• The Di Jiang Demon Banner absorbed the Spirit Transformation remains in the underground blood hall, and the formation gates sealed it off from outside Divine Sense.
• A dispatch from Yanmen Pass reached Jade Capital Mountain, where officials watched a recording of Qing Chen defeating the Black Fox King and capturing his Primordial Spirit.
• Hu Yong proposed elevating Qing Chen to first-rank Duke of Yan, and several officials backed the motion.
• Ji Huaiyue argued that Qing Chen’s victory depended on others and that the Black Fox King’s stronghold and unrest in the Western Regions remained unresolved.
• Officials opposing the dukedom rallied around Ji Huaiyue and challenged the scale of Qing Chen’s proposed reward.
• Xiao Canglan agreed that Ji Huaiyue had a point, revealing his opposition amid his growing hatred of Qing Chen.

The Eighth Prince defended Qing Chen's achievements as the court debated his reward for slaying the Black Fox King. Emperor Jingtai named Qing Chen First-Rank Cangming Duke but reserved the title Duke of Yan and a Spirit Transformation Spirit Item for the recovery of the Black Fox Royal Court; a year later, a tall figure emerged from the Underground Blood Hall at Yanmen Pass.

• Xiao Canglan opposed granting Qing Chen a founding dukedom and argued that he first needed to conquer the Black Fox Royal Court.
• The Eighth Prince defended Qing Chen and revealed his rise from thirty-sixth to tenth on the Heavenly Gang Ranking.
• The Eighth Prince supported making Qing Chen Duke of Yan, while Zhang Taiyue remained silent during the debate.
• Emperor Jingtai named Qing Chen First-Rank Cangming Duke, raised his official grade to Subordinate First Rank, and granted him the honorary title of Grand Academician of the Inner Cabinet.
• Emperor Jingtai made the title Duke of Yan and a Spirit Transformation Spirit Item conditional on Qing Chen recovering the Black Fox Royal Court.
• A year later, a tall figure emerged laughing from the blood mist in the Underground Blood Hall beneath the Governor-General's Office at Yanmen Pass.

After emerging from seclusion with the Di Jiang Demon Banner advanced to a half-spirit treasure, Qing Chen learned that the Immortal Dynasty’s envoys had been waiting at Yanmen Pass to deliver an imperial edict. He refused to see them and raged over the titles and rewards offered in place of access to a Spirit Transformation Spirit Item, ending by asking Su Zixuan why she was laughing.

• Qing Chen admired the newly advanced Di Jiang Demon Banner and laughed over the Black Fox King’s death.
• Su Zixuan told Qing Chen that Junior Superintendent Wei Jin and other Immortal Dynasty officials had waited more than half a year to proclaim an edict.
• Qing Chen refused to meet the envoys and cursed the Immortal Dynasty for granting him titles instead of the Spirit Transformation resources he wanted.
• Qing Chen condemned Xiao Canglan, Ji Huaiyue, Emperor Jingtai, and the Eighth Prince for their roles in the Imperial Pole Hall’s decisions.
• Su Zixuan recalled Qing Chen’s old habit of cursing after setbacks and felt close to him again as he vented.
• Qing Chen stopped pacing and asked Su Zixuan if she was laughing.

Qing Chen set aside his anger over the Immortal Dynasty’s terms, deciding to accept its titles while continuing to pursue his plans for the Fourth Dream Seal and the Primordial Spirit Fruit. He received Wei Jin and took the Imperial Edict and official insignia, leaving their relationship formally intact.

• Su Zixuan persuaded Qing Chen not to antagonize the Immortal Dynasty before he had reached Spirit Transformation, and Qing Chen agreed to accept the decree while keeping his plans in motion.
• Qing Chen learned that Hua Tieshou was recovering in the underground Blood Pool and allowed him to draw freely from the Secret Treasury.
• Qing Chen ordered Su Zixuan to summon Wei Jin with the Imperial Edict to the Governor-General’s Office.
• Wei Jin waited for hours and told his attendants not to hurry Qing Chen, mindful of Qing Chen’s strength and reputation.
• Qing Chen entered the hall, stopped Wei Jin’s pitch about future rewards, and collected the Imperial Edict, Duke Cangming Golden Register, and Subordinate First Rank Official Seal.

Wei Jin told Qing Chen how Ding Buxing escaped the Eighth Prince’s forces with Qing Yuanjia and entered the Reincarnation Dead Sea. Qing Chen suspected the affair concealed a deeper connection, then dismissed Wei Jin and considered the danger the two men might pose in the future.

• Wei Jin explained that Ding Buxing had stolen the Black Jade Ancient Lamp and betrayed the Eighth Prince after returning from the Chi Xi Ancient Battlefield.
• Wei Jin showed Qing Chen a recording of Qing Yuanjia arriving as the Eighth Prince’s forces cornered Ding Buxing, then helping him escape with the lamp’s power.
• Wei Jin said Spirit Venerable Zhu Ritian pursued Qing Yuanjia and Ding Buxing, but the pair ultimately entered the Reincarnation Dead Sea, apparently with help from the Black Jade Ancient Lamp and Qing Yuanjia’s Bronze Compass.
• Qing Chen realized Qing Yuanjia had been behind the battle at Faneng Temple and resolved not to underestimate the two men if they survived.
• Qing Chen took the Recording Jade Slip and ordered Su Zixuan to escort Wei Jin back to his lodgings.

After leaving Yanmen Pass, Wei Jin celebrated surviving his assignment as a battle between Jin Shizong and Wu Gui raged outside Heavenly Abyss Pass. Jin Shizong’s suppression rules clashed with Wu Gui’s parasitic and evolving gu, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Wei Jin left the hall with Su Zixuan and escaped Yanmen Pass, relieved that he had completed his assignment and spoken up for His Eighth Highness.
• Jin Shizong stood above the devastated basin outside Heavenly Abyss Pass and demonstrated that his suppression rules were nearing the second tribulation and producing Dao marks.
• Jin Shizong froze the region, crushed Wu Gui’s countless gu insects with Spirit Suppression, and severed their links to their master with Spell Severance.
• Wu Gui’s parasitic gu devoured Jin Shizong’s Dao marks, while successive generations evolved to withstand his suppression and severance.
• Jin Shizong’s rules and Wu Gui’s gu clashed repeatedly across the battlefield as their Spirit Venerable battle continued.

Wu Gui faced Jin Shizong while concealing his plan to make Ding Buxing walk the Reincarnation Dead Sea with the Reincarnation Soul Lamp. At Yanmen Pass, Qing Chen revealed the Nine Netherworlds Soul-Returning Marrow to Yue Ting, who recognized it as the item needed to save his master Xie Yu’s fading consciousness.

• Jin Shizong identified the Ten Thousand Gu Source Cauldron’s immense power and demanded to know why Wu Gui had spared Xiao Canglan.
• Wu Gui refused to reveal his plan, which involved Ding Buxing and the Reincarnation Soul Lamp, and challenged Jin Shizong to defeat him first.
• Jin Shizong summoned a pudao-shaped Spirit Treasure, and the world abruptly darkened as their battle began.
• Yue Ting secretly returned to Yanmen Pass after the Black Fox King’s death, and Qing Chen showed him a vial containing Nine Netherworlds Soul-Returning Marrow.
• Yue Ting recognized the fifth-tier low-grade marrow he had sought for years and stopped himself from reaching for the vial.

Qing Chen gave Yue Ting the Nine Netherworlds Soul-Returning Marrow to improve Xie Yu’s chances and asked whether Yue Ting could refine a Purple Mansion Spirit Transformation Pill. Yue Ting explained that the Moon-Worshipping Divine Cult’s Pill Hall and his Dan Ding spirit body let him rehearse pill refinement, leaving Qing Chen impressed by his capabilities.

• Yue Ting examined the Nine Netherworlds Soul-Returning Marrow and confirmed it was genuine.
• Qing Chen gave Yue Ting the marrow for Xie Yu and assured him that his divine soul power surpassed the half-primordial spirit level.
• Yue Ting pledged to help Qing Chen and explained that he had refined many supreme-grade fourth-tier pills while held in the Black Fox Royal Court.
• Yue Ting described the Moon Marrow Furnace in the Pill Hall and its benefits for alchemy.
• Yue Ting revealed his Dan Ding spirit body could create copies of spirit medicines and rehearse pill refinement, astonishing Qing Chen.

Yue Ting explained that his Dan Ding Spirit Body could let him rehearse real pill refinements, and he and Qing Chen discussed how to enter the Reincarnation Dead Sea to use its Alchemy Hall. Inside the Dead Sea, Xuanji True Lord fled a nonhuman Holy Son, who was swallowed up by a Trial Demon Venerable.

• Yue Ting told Qing Chen that his Dan Ding Spirit Body could replicate spirit medicines and trial-refine pills, helping him reach fourth-tier supreme-grade Alchemy Grandmaster and prepare to refine the Purple Mansion Spirit Transformation Pill.
• Yue Ting explained that Demon Lotus Holy Sons could enter the Reincarnation Dead Sea through special trial entrances and described its vast inner world and wondrous landscapes.
• Qing Chen eagerly vowed that he and Yue Ting would explore the Reincarnation Dead Sea together.
• Xuanji True Lord fled through the Dead Sea while a nonhuman Holy Son pursued him for his demon banner.
• Xuanji True Lord hurled the banner toward ruined palaces, revealing an ink-green Trial Demon Venerable that swallowed the Holy Son's escape and pierced his nascent soul with a dragon whisker.

Xuanji True Lord served Heavenly Serpent Demon Venerable by luring Holy Sons into its hunting ground while searching for one of the rare Upper Three Banners that could free it. Five years later, Qing Chen refined his Immortal Demon Nascent Soul Chapter through Hua Tieshou’s cultivation, bringing his ambition to found a complete blood-path school closer to fruition.

• Heavenly Serpent Demon Venerable devoured a Holy Son, rewarded Xuanji True Lord with the demon banner, and demanded news of the Upper Three Banners.
• Xuanji True Lord revealed that he had a lead, but Heavenly Serpent Demon Venerable tortured him for having made a similar claim before and warned him not to deceive it.
• Five years later, Qing Chen supervised Hua Tieshou’s cultivation of the Immortal Demon Nascent Soul Chapter in a blood pool beneath the Governor-General’s Office at Yanmen Pass.
• When Hua Tieshou’s demon embryo nearly went out of control, Qing Chen stabilized it with immortality true blood and revised sixteen characters of the cultivation scripture.
• Qing Chen explained that the original cultivation cycle had been too forceful for other cultivators and continued refining the technique through Hua Tieshou’s progress.

Qing Chen studied the Brahma Demon Art and planned to switch to it after Hua Tieshou completed his recultivation, hoping to advance his Blood Path insights. Su Zixuan reported that declining trade and a sudden halt in major wars had slashed the Governor-General's income, leaving Qing Chen suspicious that a larger change was underway.

• Qing Chen considered how the Brahma Demon Art connected the body, Nascent Soul, and divine soul, and resolved to cultivate it after Hua Tieshou succeeded.
• Su Zixuan brought Qing Chen the annual accounts and reported that the fifteen provinces' taxes and smuggling profits left only a little over three hundred million low-grade spirit stones each year.
• Qing Chen questioned whether factions were skimming profits, but Su Zixuan's records showed that their minor tricks were not the main cause of the decline.
• Su Zixuan told Qing Chen that large battles had stopped between the Ten Thousand Saints Demon Kingdom and the Southwestern Circuit, and between the Azure Wolf King Tribe and the Iron Household.
• Qing Chen rejected the idea that the powers had made peace and suspected that he did not know what was really happening.

Qing Chen investigated the quieting of his smuggling business, then met Tie Hengjiang in a hidden chamber and returned the Primordial Magnetism Cauldron. Tie Hengjiang revealed that Qing Chen would soon be heading to the Reincarnation Dead Sea, leaving Qing Chen wondering how he knew.

• Qing Chen ordered Su Zixuan to contact the Blood God Sect and the Dugu Household about the decline in smuggling.
• Qing Chen sensed someone using the Nine Profound Suppression of the North Formation and secretly traveled through Yanmen Pass's earth veins to meet them.
• Qing Chen found Tie Hengjiang waiting in a concealed stone chamber beneath a waterfall.
• Tie Hengjiang said Qing Chen would soon go to the Reincarnation Dead Sea and asked him to return the Primordial Magnetism Cauldron.
• Qing Chen handed over the cauldron, and Tie Hengjiang erased Qing Chen's imprints and reclaimed it.