Chapter Summaries

Qin Tiexin and Xiao Rou fought incense-ash humanoids that grew stronger whenever they re-formed and attacked their souls with memories of the dead. Xiao Rou discovered that Buddhist martial arts could hinder them, and she urged Qin Tiexin to try the same approach.

• Qin Tiexin realized the humanoids were formed from fallen cultivators’ souls and obsessions mixed with bone dust and incense ash, and that their attacks targeted the soul.
• Qin Tiexin repeatedly cut apart his humanoid, but it kept re-forming stronger and faster while Xiao Rou was repeatedly stunned by its contact.
• Qin Tiexin noticed the re-forming humanoid’s face growing clearer and more twisted as Xiao Rou’s swordsmanship faltered.
• The humanoid disarmed Xiao Rou and drove her into a corner, so she struck it with Prajna Palm and slowed its healing.
• Xiao Rou told Qin Tiexin that Buddhist martial techniques countered the sinister humanoids, then attacked hers with successive Prajna Palms.

Qin Tiexin discovered that Buddhist martial techniques permanently destroyed Incense Ash Monsters and left behind spheres that strengthened Divine Sense. He learned how to awaken the monsters and cultivate them to half-step Golden Core before purifying them, then continued clearing the great hall with Xiao Rou.

• Qin Tiexin used Arhat Fist to destroy an Incense Ash Monster and found a sphere that cleansed and slightly strengthened his Divine Sense.
• Qin Tiexin rescued Xiao Rou from another Incense Ash Monster, then kept the sphere it left behind.
• Qin Tiexin discovered the monsters awakened only when they sensed spiritual power, and deliberately led Xiao Rou toward thick piles of incense ash.
• Qin Tiexin learned that ordinary attacks made the monsters grow stronger each time they reformed, while Buddhist techniques permanently purified them and left better spheres from stronger monsters.
• Qin Tiexin developed a method of using Edgeless to raise a monster to half-step Golden Core, then finishing it with Arhat Fist before it advanced further.

Qin Tiexin gathered Incense Ash Monster orbs on the first floor, shared one with Xiao Rou, and followed the severed arm’s pull up to the monastery’s second floor. There, they found an empty chamber with a black stone platform and eight cultivators, including a formidable Body Refining cultivator who seemed to recognize Qin Tiexin.

• Qin Tiexin stopped letting Incense Ash Monsters reach Golden Core because defeating them consumed too much spiritual power, then collected twenty orbs from the first-floor hall.
• Qin Tiexin gave Xiao Rou a Foundation Establishment early stage orb because she had discovered that Prajna Palm could counter the monsters.
• Qin Tiexin found a staircase behind the largest Buddha statue and followed it upward with Xiao Rou as the severed arm’s response grew stronger.
• Qin Tiexin and Xiao Rou reached a second floor that held only a black stone platform and eight cultivators, including one meditating on the platform.
• Qin Tiexin noticed a burly Body Refining cultivator whose Qi and Blood surpassed his own, and the man stared at him as if recognizing him before looking away.

Qin Tiexin and Xiao Rou learned that the Pure Land Chan Temple’s stone platform matched visitors with cultivation methods and allowed only those who received advanced methods to reach the third floor. As others passed the test and went through the gateway, Qin Tiexin kept memorizing Buddhist scriptures while waiting for his turn.

• Xiao Rou asked a cultivator about the scripture repository and learned that the stone platform selected methods based on each person's nature and compatibility.
• The cultivator told Xiao Rou that Xiao Yan had received an original cultivation method and that Buddhist disciples received preferential treatment.
• A cultivator received an abridged Arhat Fist, could not proceed to the third floor, and left for the stairs.
• Qin Tiexin reasoned that only suitable or advanced methods opened the way to the third floor, then read Buddhist scriptures despite struggling to grasp their meaning.
• Several cultivators received methods that let them enter the third floor, including the burly body cultivator, who obtained an original cultivation method.
• Qin Tiexin continued memorizing Buddhist scriptures as he waited for his turn on the stone platform.

Qin Tiexin used the stone platform in the Pure Land Chan Temple to choose a cultivation method, but he rejected its brightest recommendation after the wooden Buddha Ming'an carved pointed him toward a dim fragment. He obtained an ancient stone slip that appeared to contain a complete method, then stayed behind so Xiao Rou could try the platform before he went to the third floor.

• Qin Tiexin watched a cultivator receive a dull jade slip and leave with a dark expression before taking his own turn on the stone platform.
• The platform examined Qin Tiexin's memories, and he redirected its attention toward the experiences he had gained while disguised as Mingjue.
• Qin Tiexin was about to take the brightest fragment in the scripture repository when the wooden Buddha against his chest trembled and indicated a dim gray fragment.
• Qin Tiexin chose the gray fragment and received a rough, ancient stone slip that the onlookers believed held a complete cultivation method.
• Qin Tiexin stayed beside the platform and told Xiao Rou to try it before he went upstairs, offering to help if anyone threatened her.

Qin Tiexin studied the Sumeru Immovable Instruction and found that its strength, stability, and mental defenses suited his fighting style. He planned to leave the crowded stone platform and cultivate its first nine Earth Wheel layers somewhere secluded.

• Qin Tiexin had Xiao Rou sit on the stone platform before turning his attention to the stone jade slip.
• Qin Tiexin used his Divine Sense to uncover the Sumeru Immovable Instruction and read its stance training, breathing method, visualization, and realm-specific effects.
• Qin Tiexin learned that the instruction strengthened attacks and mental resistance but required the practitioner to stay grounded and could leave them vulnerable to ranged attacks or multiple opponents.
• Qin Tiexin judged the instruction well suited to his head-on fighting style and calculated that its first nine Earth Wheel layers could raise his punching force to nearly a hundred and fifty thousand jin.
• Qin Tiexin committed the instruction to memory and decided to seek a secluded place to cultivate its first nine layers.

Qin Tiexin waited while Xiao Rou underwent the stone platform’s test, refusing Qian Donglai’s offers to buy or borrow his jade slip. Xiao Rou emerged with two jade slips, one ordinary and one original, and Qin Tiexin stopped others from trying to buy the original.

• Qin Tiexin waited beside Xiao Rou as she remained on the stone platform, while other cultivators wondered why he had not gone to the third floor.
• Qian Donglai offered Qin Tiexin up to eighty thousand Spirit Stones for his jade slip, but Qin Tiexin refused because he planned to go to the third floor.
• Xiao Rou spent longer on the platform than the others before it produced a dull jade slip and then a second, golden original cultivation method.
• Xiao Rou looked to Qin Tiexin for help as nearby cultivators offered to buy her original jade slip.
• Qin Tiexin stood with Edgeless and told the bidders that the jade slip was not for sale.

Qin Tiexin and Xiao Rou reached the third floor, where a formation guarded the central area with regenerating bronze puppets. After Xiao Yan failed to reclaim Xiao Rou, Chen Chen invited Qin Tiexin and Xiao Rou to study the Eighteen Bronze Men Formation.

• Qin Tiexin returned Xiao Rou's authentic Jade Slip, and they used their slips to pass through the gates to the third floor.
• Qin Tiexin and Xiao Rou found a ruined floor crowded with onlookers watching a body cultivator fight a dark-golden puppet.
• Xiao Yan recognized Xiao Rou and ordered her to return, but Xiao Rou chose to stay with Qin Tiexin, who told Xiao Yan he had saved her life.
• The body cultivator split the puppet in half, and Qin Tiexin watched the formation restore it alongside several identical puppets.
• Chen Chen introduced himself and invited Qin Tiexin and Xiao Rou to study the Eighteen Bronze Men Formation.

Chen Chen explained that the resources of the Pure Land Chan Temple were sealed behind a formation guarded by eighteen self-repairing bronze men, and proposed breaking it through synchronized attacks. Qin Tiexin agreed to join and walked toward the formation to take Chen Chen’s strength test.

• Chen Chen told Qin Tiexin that Chengxin had sealed Devil Venerable Xuanli and the temple’s resources inside the formation, guarded by eighteen bronze men.
• Chen Chen explained that all eighteen bronze men had to be destroyed within the same incense-stick’s burn to create a chance to break the formation, with the recovered resources divided into eighteen shares.
• Qin Tiexin agreed to join as the sixteenth group after Chen Chen warned that anyone who tried to steal the spoils would become everyone’s enemy.
• Xiao Rou declined to participate and went to wait on a stone platform while Chen Chen’s people kept watch.
• Chen Chen told Qin Tiexin that approaching within five paces would activate a bronze man, and Qin Tiexin walked toward the light barrier carrying Edgeless.

Qin Tiexin entered the formation and defeated a bronze guardian with his bare hands, earning Chen Chen's approval and a place in the group. He withdrew to recover while the formation still needed two more people to activate.

• Qin Tiexin examined the sealed treasures, then chose a shield-bearing bronze guardian to test his strength.
• Qin Tiexin exchanged punches with the guardian and discovered that his strength exceeded its roughly one-dragon power.
• Yan Yue recognized Qin Tiexin as the man he wanted to kill and take treasures from, but held back after witnessing his strength.
• Qin Tiexin battered the guardian with punches and kicks, then shattered its torso with a Primordial Unity Stance Fist before it reassembled.
• Chen Chen praised Qin Tiexin and accepted him into the group, which still needed two more people to activate the formation.
• Qin Tiexin retrieved Edgeless and sat down to regulate his breathing as Xiao Rou watched from nearby.

Qin Tiexin and the others waited for the final two cultivators needed to activate all eighteen bronze figures. After a swift-sword cultivator and Qian Donglai arrived and destroyed their figures, Chen Chen explained the group’s coordinated plan to break the formation.

• A tall, thin sword cultivator arrived and defeated his bronze figure with rapid strikes and precise footwork.
• After a long wait, Qian Donglai arrived with his guard and used two third-tier lightning talismans to destroy his bronze figure.
• When someone objected to Qian Donglai using talismans, he showed a dozen more, and Chen Chen confirmed the rules allowed them.
• With all eighteen people gathered, Chen Chen instructed them to destroy their bronze figures simultaneously at the one-incense-stick mark, then said he would use a Law Artifact to break the formation during their brief restoration interval.
• No one objected, and Chen Chen ordered everyone to get ready.

Chen Chen coordinated eighteen groups to destroy the bronze figures and used a Restriction-Breaking Needle to shatter the formation’s light barrier. The barrier’s collapse released a powerful shock wave that threw the cultivators back, leaving the way beyond it exposed.

• Qin Tiexin and the other cultivators fought their assigned bronze figures while Chen Chen monitored the formation and Xiao Yan watched from its edge.
• At Chen Chen’s command, the eighteen groups destroyed all the bronze figures simultaneously, disrupting the formation.
• Chen Chen rushed to the light barrier and drove a Restriction-Breaking Needle into it until cracks spread across its surface.
• Chen Chen called for everyone to fall back as he and his guards shielded themselves.
• The light barrier shattered, and its released spiritual-power wave hurled the cultivators away; Qin Tiexin braced behind Edgeless as the barrier vanished.

The barrier revealed a vast cache of treasures and a pure white, eleven-bead bracelet hovering between a golden skeleton’s hands. As everyone raced to seize the Mid-Grade Spirit Artifact, Chen Chen gained the lead and lunged toward it with his storage ring ready.

• The barrier cleared to reveal hundreds of thousands of Spirit Stones, rare treasures, and a golden skeleton holding a white bracelet with eleven beads.
• Qin Tiexin noticed the bracelet had one more bead than Jiang Lie’s Jade Slip described and felt his severed arm react to it.
• Everyone abandoned the plan to divide the treasures and charged for the bracelet, with Chen Chen, Xiao Yan, and a purple spirit marten moving ahead of Qin Tiexin.
• Xiao Rou stayed hidden in the shadows as Qin Tiexin used Mountain-Shaking Steps and Burst Step to pursue the leaders.
• Chen Chen used two guards’ shoulders to launch himself toward the skeleton, his activated storage ring ready to take the bracelet.

Cultivators raced to seize the bracelet, but its spiritual barrier shattered and unleashed a force that drained their spiritual power. The beads turned red and black as Devil Venerable Xuanli’s demonic intent emerged.

• Chen Chen, Xiao Yan, the spirit marten, and others reached for the bracelet, but its spiritual power membrane blocked them.
• Qin Tiexin and Yan Yue sensed danger and tried to retreat as the membrane shattered and a suction force began draining spiritual power.
• Chen Chen and Xiao Yan escaped the bracelet’s grasp, while the spirit marten withered to death and its master’s beast-taming ring broke.
• Ten beads turned red and black while one remained golden-white, and Devil Venerable Xuanli’s overwhelming demonic intent burst forth.

Qin Tiexin and the other cultivators accidentally broke the formation that had been wearing away Devil Venerable Xuanli’s soul, allowing him to take form. Xuanli emerged with unstable Golden Core cultivation and turned on them, declaring that they would nourish his body.

• The half-black, half-white bracelet drained the cultivators and the formation’s Spirit Stones, while Chengxin’s golden skeleton began to move.
• Incense ash and bone dust gathered around the skeleton, and the cultivators attacked it as it formed a body.
• Devil Venerable Xuanli emerged unharmed, despite the group’s attacks, and Qin Tiexin sensed his unstable early-stage Golden Core cultivation.
• Xuanli recalled his escape from the seal and the slaughter a thousand years earlier, then judged the cultivators as nourishment for his flesh.
• White powder surged from Xuanli’s body and formed more than a dozen enormous hands that reached to seize everyone in the formation area.

Qin Tiexin and the other cultivators repelled Devil Venerable Xuanli’s first attacks, and Chen Chen trapped and pierced him with the Morning Star Chain and Morning Star Blade. Xuanli broke free with his bead bracelet, opened a hole in the ground, and escaped below.

• Qin Tiexin and the other cultivators destroyed Xuanli’s grasping white hands, prompting him to attack in earnest.
• Xuanli charged Chen Chen, but Chen Chen retreated, recovered his spiritual power with a pill, and took cover behind his guards’ shields.
• Chen Chen used the Morning Star Chain to bind Xuanli, then struck him with the Morning Star Blade, slowing the regeneration of his white body.
• Xuanli activated his bead bracelet to force away the chain and star blades, then smashed open the ground and escaped into the darkness below.

After Devil Venerable Xuanli slaughtered several cultivators to restore his strength, Chen Chen and the others pursued him to the first floor. Qin Tiexin followed to recover the bead linked to his severed arm and found the group fighting Xuanli, who was still being suppressed by their combined attacks.

• Xuanli dragged several cultivators from the first floor to him, crushed them, and absorbed their Blood Qi to stabilize and strengthen himself.
• Chen Chen identified Xuanli as the Devil Venerable from a thousand years ago and jumped down with his guards to pursue him.
• Qian Donglai, Yan Yue, and several clan disciples followed Xuanli, while others fled; Xiao Yan and the Buddhist cultivators stayed behind.
• Qin Tiexin warned Xiao Rou, took Xu Ying’s Qi Recovery Pills, and descended to the first floor after the bead Xuanli carried.
• The severed arm promised to help Qin Tiexin at a critical moment, and he followed the sounds of fighting through the main hall.
• Qin Tiexin saw Chen Chen, Qian Donglai, Yan Yue, and the other cultivators attacking Xuanli, who remained suppressed despite absorbing Blood Qi.

Devil Venerable Xuanli absorbed the Qi and Blood of cultivators in the ruins to restore his strength, then unleashed an incomplete Pill Domain against Chen Chen and the others. As the shield formation collapsed, Xuanli dragged Chen Chen toward him and reached for his face.

• Xuanli recovered from the cultivators’ attacks by reforming his ash body, but his spiritual power weakened as he retreated.
• Chen Chen warned nearby rogue cultivators that Xuanli was about to absorb their Qi and Blood, but Xuanli drained several before they could escape.
• Xuanli’s body grew more lifelike and his Golden Core cultivation surged as he absorbed the rogue cultivators.
• Qin Tiexin recognized Xuanli’s incomplete Pill Domain, which slowed everyone within its range while Xuanli attacked freely.
• Xuanli drained A Si and knocked the remaining guard away, breaking Chen Chen’s shield formation.
• Chen Chen bound Xuanli with the Morning Star Chain, but Xuanli seized it, dragged Chen Chen toward him, and reached for his face.

Qin Tiexin watched Xuanli overwhelm Chen Chen’s group as the fiend grew stronger and the cultivators were driven toward defeat. When the battered survivors could no longer hold out, Qin Tiexin finally attacked with Edgeless.

• Chen Chen used his essence blood to unleash Morning Star Blades, escaped Xuanli’s chains, and received pills from Qian Donglai.
• Yan Yue and the sword cultivator fought Xuanli while Qian Donglai and Chen Chen supported them, but Xuanli rapidly healed and grew stronger.
• Qin Tiexin saw the group being forced back as Xuanli’s speed and strength increased, while most other cultivators fled the first floor.
• Xuanli attacked the retreating group and drained the sword cultivator by absorbing his blood, leaving him unconscious and the others badly injured.
• Qin Tiexin saw Chen Chen, Qian Donglai, and Yan Yue on the verge of collapse, then launched Edgeless at Xuanli with his full strength.

Qin Tiexin fought Xuanli, using Edgeless to expose the golden bones beneath Xuanli’s bone powder and weaken his Pill Domain. As the battle continued and Qin Tiexin was struck hard, Qian Donglai and Chen Chen restored their strength and prepared to support him.

• Qin Tiexin’s throw drove Edgeless into Xuanli’s palm, scattering bone powder and exposing golden bones that weakened Xuanli’s Pill Domain.
• Qin Tiexin struck Edgeless deeper into Xuanli’s shoulder, endured Xuanli’s counterattack, and then traded blows with him using the Heavy Mountain Saber Technique.
• Xuanli fought back with bone-powder spikes, hands, and threads while Qin Tiexin tried to strip away more powder and weaken him.
• Qian Donglai and Chen Chen took Instant Essence Pills, restored their strength, and decided to support Qin Tiexin.
• Xuanli struck Qin Tiexin in the back and sent him flying, but Qin Tiexin landed on one knee and kept Edgeless planted in the ground to steady himself.