Chapter Summaries

Li Qingshan’s star formation slaughtered the Great Powers who had entered it, while his true body remained in the divine cocoon. The surviving spectators learned that a wisp of his divine sense had set the formation’s star-powered Dao in motion, leaving them to confront the terrifying scale of his power.

• The trapped Great Powers discovered that Li Qingshan’s voice and dark-robed figure came from an afterimage, and they mocked it as his true body remained in the cocoon.
• Li Qingshan’s phantom closed his hand, unleashing the star formation and killing the twenty-eight intruders in a few dozen breaths.
• The phantom gathered the corpses and cast them from the formation into the sea, where spectators watched them fall.
• A young cultivator and other witnesses recoiled as they realized the deaths had shattered their assumptions about the Great Powers’ invulnerability.
• An old cultivator identified the phantom as a wisp of Li Qingshan’s divine sense, which had activated the formation’s star-powered Dao without a living controller.

Li Qingshan completed his Nirvana breakthrough as King Seventh Heaven while King Xuansha and King Minggu attacked the Zhoutian Star Formation. The chapter ended with the two foundation Kings staring at his newly revealed power.

• The onlookers watched the Zhoutian Star Formation protect Li Qingshan after its illusory guardian vanished, while none dared attack.
• King Xuansha and King Minggu emerged from a void fissure, and onlookers recognized them as ancient foundation Kings of the Assassin Divine Dynasties.
• King Xuansha and King Minggu unleashed their King divine weapons together and struck the Zhoutian Star Formation with a killing combination.
• The five-colored cocoon split open, and Li Qingshan absorbed the surrounding energy and shattered laws as he emerged from Nirvana.
• Li Qingshan opened his eyes and revealed a presence at King Seventh Heaven, shocking King Xuansha and King Minggu.

Li Qingshan defeated and killed the assassin Kings King Xuansha and King Minggu with his flag-spear, then challenged the unseen force watching from the void. He vanished after warning that he would hunt down the rest himself, leaving the spectators stunned.

• Li Qingshan summoned the eighteen formation flags into a black flag-spear and drove back King Xuansha and King Minggu when they attacked together.
• The Jade Pool Saint and Gu Tianshu observed from a hidden space and recognized the Kings’ assault as a final gamble, while guarding against a possible Emperor Weapon.
• King Xuansha unleashed Yellow Springs, Slash and King Minggu used Nine Nether, Slaughter, but Li Qingshan met their combined attack with Starfall.
• Li Qingshan’s spear thrust killed King Xuansha, destroyed the Bone-Burying Saber, mortally wounded King Minggu, and shattered the Soul-Eroding Sword.
• Li Qingshan purified the Kings’ remains, weapons, and cursed blood, then challenged the hidden watchers to come forward.
• When no one answered, Li Qingshan departed and vowed to collect the rest himself.

After Li Qingshan’s victory over thirty-four powerful enemies, Jade Pool announced a grand gathering as the Big Dipper’s powers sought to approach him. He told the Queen Mother of the West that the gathering would force those powers to choose whether to support destroying Hell and Human World, leaving Jade Pool poised to lead the campaign.

• News of Li Qingshan’s rise spread across the Big Dipper, and powers sent envoys and gifts to Jade Pool, though none met him.
• The Queen Mother of the West announced the Jade Pool Grand Gathering, inviting cultivators from across the Big Dipper.
• Li Qingshan met the Queen Mother of the West in an ancient peach grove and warned that Hell and Human World’s surviving forces would hide and strike again.
• Li Qingshan proposed using the gathering to make powers declare whether they would help exterminate the Assassin Divine Dynasties or remain complicit with them.
• Li Qingshan outlined using Jade Pool’s intelligence and the gathering’s righteous cause to locate and destroy enemy strongholds, and the Queen Mother of the West agreed.

At the Jade Pool Grand Gathering, Li Qingshan received congratulations from the gathered factions after reaching the king realm. The discussion turned to mysterious killings and the Assassin Divine Dynasties, leaving the factions wary of provoking them.

• The Queen Mother of the West opened the gathering and invited Li Qingshan to take the central platform.
• Leaders and representatives from across the Big Dipper congratulated Li Qingshan on severing the Dao and becoming a king.
• Li Qingshan thanked the gathered factions and welcomed them to share Jade Pool’s tea, wine, and discussion of the Dao.
• The Ancient Hua Divine Dynasty’s grand imperial uncle described unexplained deaths at a mine, and other representatives reported similar mysterious attacks.
• The Jiang Family Holy Lord blamed the Assassin Divine Dynasties, while Wang Yangzhan and the Ji Family’s living fossil warned that attacking them could bring devastating retaliation.
• The gathering fell silent as many factions acknowledged the dangers of confronting the Assassin Divine Dynasties.

Li Qingshan forced the factions gathered at the Ancient Land of Dao Source to choose whether to support a campaign against Hell and Human World. Every faction, including the Yin-Yang Sect and the Ji Family, declared in favor and swore an oath, forming an alliance that would pool intelligence and coordinate the purge.

• Li Qingshan argued that Hell and Human World threatened every faction and announced that the Jade Pool would launch a campaign against them regardless of objections.
• Wang Yangzhan and other leaders raised concerns about retaliation, infiltration, and the difficulty of finding the assassins’ hidden strongholds.
• Li Qingshan demanded that each faction declare whether it was in favor or opposed, and the Jiuli Divine Dynasty, the Jiang Family, and other major powers pledged support.
• Wang Yangzhan declared that the Yin-Yang Sect was in favor, and the Ji Family’s living fossil followed with the same declaration.
• The Queen Mother of the West led more than a hundred factions in swearing an oath to cooperate against Hell and Human World.
• The alliance began discussing coordination and intelligence-sharing to locate the assassins’ strongholds and uncover factions connected to the attack in the outer sea.

The alliance launched a coordinated assault on Hell and Human World's strongholds across the Big Dipper, inflicting their greatest losses yet. As rumors spread, Ye Fan was targeted by an assassin in the Holy City, who escaped after their fight left him wary of a possible connection to the purge.

• The Jiang Family, the Purple Mansion Holy Land, the Dao Yi Holy Land, the Jiuli Divine Dynasty, Mount Sumeru, northern families, and the Heavenly Demon Palace destroyed or sealed several Hell and Human World strongholds across the Five Regions.
• Reports of the synchronized raids spread, and cultivators speculated that the alliance had attacked the Assassin Divine Dynasty.
• Ye Fan prepared for a public Source Arts gambling contest after gaining fame and wealth in the Holy City.
• An assassin attacked Ye Fan in his inn room, but Ye Fan dodged the strikes and used the Green Copper's Qi to block further attacks.
• Ye Fan wounded the assassin, who escaped in black mist, leaving drops of Black Blood behind.

Hell and Human World retaliated against the alliance with targeted assassinations, and Hell’s attackers struck Yan Ruyu at the Jade Pool guest residence. Three months into the purge, Yaoguang revealed records linking several alliance members to the offshore assassination attempt, threatening to expose collaborators within the alliance.

• Hell and Human World carried out targeted attacks across the Big Dipper, killing or wounding members of alliance forces and spreading fear.
• Hell assassins attacked Yan Ruyu’s guest residence at the Jade Pool, but she used the Demon Emperor’s Sacred Heart to incapacitate several attackers and drive the rest away.
• Yan Ruyu ordered an investigation and publicized Hell’s attempt to assassinate her, strengthening the demon race’s commitment to the alliance.
• The attacks united alliance supporters and pushed wavering factions to cooperate, while the alliance used clues from captives and informants to pursue the Assassin Divine Dynasties’ deeper bases.
• Yaoguang announced that it had seized Human World files linking at least six or seven unidentified experts from the offshore assassination attempt to alliance members, throwing the implicated forces into turmoil.

After Severing the Dao, Li Qingshan deepened his understanding of the Six Seals of Yuanshi, nurtured three Immortal Divine Medicines, and began recultivating his Five Great Secret Realms. As the alliance’s campaign against the Assassin Divine Dynasty advanced, he prepared to strike three of its hidden hells and left Jade Pool for the mission.

• Li Qingshan comprehended the Six Seals of Yuanshi and began forming a vague insight into a seventh seal concerning the mind, soul, and true spirit.
• The three Immortal Divine Medicines resonated within Li Qingshan’s Bitter Sea, and he nourished them with Life Spring essence, Divine Spring Water, and his Dao insights.
• Li Qingshan absorbed nearly half his accumulated insights and used a method from the Wushi Scripture to begin recultivating his Sea of Bitterness.
• Li Qingshan and the Jade Pool Saint reviewed purges across the Five Regions and discussed the alliance’s campaign against the Assassin Divine Dynasty.
• Li Qingshan said he had located three levels of hell and planned to attack them, while asking Jade Pool to protect Ye Fan discreetly and preserve the alliance’s stability.
• Three days later, Li Qingshan left Jade Pool in secret as factional suspicions grew and Ye Fan’s gambling contest in the Holy City approached.

Li Qingshan tracked down Nether Spring Prison, one of Hell’s branches, and destroyed its hidden stronghold after defeating its three leaders. He learned the locations of other Hell prisons and set his next target on Lava Prison.

• Li Qingshan found Nether Spring Prison hidden in the Withered Bones Mountain Range and confronted its three leaders.
• The three leaders attacked Li Qingshan, but he killed two and captured the middle-aged man for a soul search.
• Li Qingshan learned the locations of several other Hell prisons, including Lava Prison, Frigid Ice Prison, and their secret strongholds.
• Li Qingshan used Six Seals Rotation to collapse Nether Spring Prison’s small world, killing most of its inhabitants and collecting resources from the ruins.
• Li Qingshan left the collapsing realm and headed for Lava Prison, which had a permanent teleportation passage connected to Nether Spring Prison.

Ye Fan faced Nangong Qi in a high-stakes Source Arts wager at the Yaoguang Stone Workshop, where their stone cutting revealed ancient treasures and deadly secrets. Ye Fan won the second round after a Fighting Saint Ape emerged from the Immortal Grave and escaped with the sealed divine maiden and ancient spear.

• Ye Fan and Nangong Qi each chose three costly stones as crowds gathered to watch their wager, while the Black Emperor and Duan De drew attention by discussing their past exploits.
• A Divine Silkworm burst out of a gray stone Ye Fan had detected, and Ye Fan countered Nangong Qi's deadly Earth Vein attacks with his own technique.
• Nangong Qi cut the Blazing Sun Stone and revealed a large piece of Divine Source, but Ye Fan cut the Wind Cave Stone and found ancient insects sealed in Divine Source, winning the first round.
• Nangong Qi opened the Blood Sacrifice Altar and revealed a slain Primordial King sealed with a blood-stained ancient spear, while powerful figures arrived to witness the contest.
• Ye Fan opened the Immortal Grave, releasing a Fighting Saint Ape that seized the sealed maiden and spear before fleeing through a prepared Dao pattern.
• The gathered powers judged the Immortal Grave's contents more valuable than Nangong Qi's find, giving Ye Fan the second-round victory as the Yaoguang Stone Workshop's prized garden lay in ruins.

Ye Fan won the Holy City Source Arts wager with a priceless discovery, while Li Qingshan destroyed nine of Hell’s main branches in one night. As the Big Dipper reeled from the attack, Li Qingshan returned with clues to the remaining strongholds and planned his next move.

• Ye Fan uncovered Seven-Colored Divine Sand, defeated Nangong Qi in the final round, and claimed the wager and the other treasures.
• Ye Fan, the Black Emperor, and Duan De left the Holy City as reports arrived of small worlds collapsing across the regions.
• Li Qingshan destroyed the Frigid Ice Prison and used its coordinates to locate and annihilate six more branches of Hell.
• News spread that nine of Hell’s eighteen main branches had fallen, and the Queen Mother of the West ordered the alliance to strike the remaining forces.
• Li Qingshan collected treasures and clues to Hell’s remaining levels, then headed back to consolidate his cultivation and check on Ye Fan.

Li Qingshan noticed a battle in the Northern Plains, where two Human World assassins ambushed Wang Teng to seize his Chaotic Ancient Emperor Scripture and Nine Secrets: Qian. Wang Teng exhausted his techniques in resistance, but his final charge failed to break their formation and left him near death.

• Li Qingshan detected violent divine power and killing intent in an icy canyon while traveling across the Northern Plains.
• Two Human World assassins cornered the wounded Wang Teng and revealed their intent to seize his Chaotic Ancient Emperor Scripture and Nine Secrets: Qian.
• Wang Teng resisted the assassins' shadow attacks and freezing chains with the Heaven-Disordering Secret Technique and a Severing the Dao strike, briefly escaping their restraints at enormous cost.
• Wang Teng refused to surrender his inheritance, and the assassins trapped him inside the Netherworld Dual Killing Formation.
• Wang Teng burned his life essence to unleash Emperor's Descent and charged into the formation, but the assassins stopped his advance and inflicted grievous wounds as his consciousness faded.

Li Qingshan rescued Wang Teng from Human World assassins in the Ice Valley, healed him, and accepted the Qian Secret as thanks. Wang Teng returned to rally the Northern Plains Wang Family against the weakened Assassin Divine Dynasties, while Li Qingshan headed back to Jade Pool to join the effort against the Nine Hells.

• Li Qingshan appeared in the Ice Valley and erased the two assassins who were about to kill Wang Teng.
• Li Qingshan identified himself, healed most of Wang Teng’s injuries, and warned him that Human World had retaliated against the Northern Plains Wang Family.
• Wang Teng offered Li Qingshan a bone fragment containing the Qian Secret, and Li Qingshan accepted it as useful to his studies.
• Li Qingshan advised Wang Teng to return to the Northern Plains and clear out the Assassin Divine Dynasties’ remnants, whose core foundations had been badly damaged.
• Wang Teng resolved to mobilize the Wang Family against the weakened Assassin Divine Dynasties, while Li Qingshan returned toward Jade Pool and considered the coming effort to divide the spoils from the Nine Hells.

After destroying the Nine Hells, Li Qingshan gave Jade Pool intelligence that helped the alliance cripple Hell’s remaining networks and purge collaborators. He then refined the prototype of his seventh seal in seclusion, learned Yan Ruyu had been living at Jade Pool for months after an assassination attempt, and went to visit her.

• Li Qingshan delivered Jade Pool intelligence on Hell’s strongholds and allies, and the Queen Mother of the West ordered it distributed throughout the alliance.
• The alliance used the intelligence to attack Hell’s remaining forces, while Human World suffered especially severe losses and the listed collaborators faced purges across the Five Regions.
• Li Qingshan studied the Fore Secret and used its insights to advance his Primordial Heart Seal, while consolidating his cultivation over two months of seclusion.
• Li Qingshan remembered Yan Ruyu and learned from Lin Qingyao that she had arrived nearly five months earlier and was moved to Illusory Moon Lake after Human World assassins attacked her at Jade Pool.
• Li Qingshan went to visit Yan Ruyu, leaving Lin Qingyao privately troubled by his concern for the demon princess.

Yan Ruyu confessed that the Azure Flood Dragon King had hoped to arrange a marriage alliance, and Li Qingshan left the possibility open while saying his cultivation remained his priority. After hearing about the alliance’s attacks on Hell and the Human World, Li Qingshan recognized Lin Qingyao’s long-standing care and offered her warmth and support before returning to cultivation.

• Yan Ruyu told Li Qingshan about the proposed marriage alliance and admitted her admiration, while acknowledging the gulf between their cultivation and saying she wanted to be honest and let go.
• Li Qingshan told Yan Ruyu that matters of the heart were not his foremost concern, but he would remember her feelings and leave the future to fate.
• Lin Qingyao reported that the alliance had struck Hell and the Human World, that the Human World had suffered heavier losses, and that Hell now considered Li Qingshan someone best avoided.
• Li Qingshan urged Lin Qingyao to keep pressure on the Assassin Divine Dynasties and to claim the Jade Pool’s fair share of the spoils.
• Li Qingshan thanked Lin Qingyao for her years of care and told her she did not have to walk the cultivation road alone; Lin Qingyao was moved by his concern.
• Li Qingshan returned to cultivation with a more peaceful state of mind.

Li Qingshan recultivated the Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm with the Wushi Scripture, completing its nine transformations and greatly strengthening his body, divine power, primordial spirit, and Dao foundation. After a devastating starry-sky tribulation, he advanced to the eighth minor step of Immortal Platform Third Heaven and set his sights on Great Accomplishment King.

• Li Qingshan reshaped his Divine Bridge with Dao patterns and began the nine transformations of the Other Shore, enduring ordeals involving decay, inner demons, space and time, karma, and reincarnation.
• Li Qingshan completed the nine transformations and found that his recultivated Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm had become vastly more powerful, with physical strength rivaling an ancient Saint King.
• After a hundred days of cultivation, Li Qingshan left the Jade Pool and summoned a tribulation in the starry sky, where he fought the lightning and struck the illusory Primordial Heavenly Court's Southern Heavenly Gate.
• Li Qingshan survived the three-day tribulation and completed the eighth minor step of Immortal Platform Third Heaven.
• Li Qingshan reflected on how quickly he had advanced since Severing the Dao and turned his attention to the ninth level, the realm of a Great Accomplishment King.

Li Qingshan returned from his successful tribulation and learned from Lin Qingyao about the changes in the Big Dipper, including the growing turmoil over the Nine Secrets in Licheng. He planned to claim the treasures connected to Great Emperor Wushi when the clues emerged, while Lin Qingyao prepared to lead Jade Pool disciples there in seven days.

• Li Qingshan returned to the Jade Pool Holy Land, reassured Lin Qingyao that his tribulation had gone smoothly, and asked what had happened during his seclusion.
• Lin Qingyao told Li Qingshan that the Big Dipper had uncovered his origins and described Ye Fan's growing fame, adventures, and plans to enter the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land for a Four Extremes tribulation.
• Lin Qingyao explained that clues to the Nine Secrets had drawn the factions to Licheng, where she would lead Jade Pool's core disciples in seven days.
• Li Qingshan recognized that Licheng held a map to the Movement secret and a temporary palace containing chaos stone connected to Great Emperor Wushi, and resolved to retrieve the emperor's relics.
• Lin Qingyao reported that Yan Ruyu had remained focused on cultivation, then offered Li Qingshan Tranquil Void Embracing Truth Dew to celebrate his progress.

Ye Fan, Duan De, and the Black Emperor entered the ancient tomb beneath Licheng after the Holy Lands battled its yin soldiers, then fought their way through its dangerous underground passages. They reached a great hall, with the Nine Secrets and the tomb’s deeper mysteries still ahead.

• Duan De located the ruins of ancient Licheng and used burial-site calculations to narrow the search to four possible tomb locations.
• The ancient tomb opened and released thousands of yin soldiers, which the Dao Yi Holy Land largely destroyed before the younger generation rushed inside.
• Ye Fan, Duan De, and the Black Emperor waited for the first wave to pass, then prepared a Profound Jade Platform to escape the Holy Lands’ blockade.
• Zixia sensed Dao resonance deep inside the tomb, and the Black Emperor speculated that the place might resonate with her and Ye Fan’s constitutions.
• Ye Fan, Duan De, and the Black Emperor followed the others underground, fought off a scaled yin creature, and reached a great hall.

Li Qingshan’s Dao Palace avatar had already taken the treasures hidden in Great Emperor Wushi’s underground palace while secretly protecting Lin Qingyao and the Jade Pool disciples. When the holy lands’ elders fought over the revealed palace, Ye Fan and the Black Emperor stole it with the Cauldron of All-Things Mother Qi and escaped through a void formation, leaving the great powers furious and Ye Fan’s name spreading across the Eastern Wasteland.

• Li Qingshan’s Dao Palace avatar revealed that he had already taken the Chaos Stone and Ancient Beast-Skin Scroll, then remained to protect Lin Qingyao and the Jade Pool disciples.
• The factions found the Hall of Light empty, but the Black Emperor recognized it as Great Emperor Wushi’s palace, prompting the young prodigies to fight over its core.
• Holy Land elders and ancient figures entered the battle, overwhelming the younger generation as they struggled to claim the palace.
• The Black Emperor identified a hidden formation eye and urged Ye Fan to use the Cauldron of All-Things Mother Qi to draw in the palace while activating a void formation.
• Ye Fan and the Black Emperor escaped with Wu Shi’s Palace inside the cauldron, evading the elders’ attacks and reappearing tens of thousands of li away.
• News of the theft spread rapidly, and Ye Fan became notorious among the great powers.