Chapter Summaries

Lu Li tested his combat strength against the sixth-tier Pagoda Domain, and Primordial Beginning assessed him as capable of matching perfected Void Return with a sixth-tier Law Treasure. As he considered ways to improve his cultivation, an urgent report warned that a million-strong demon army had reached Litian Prefecture.

• Lu Li resisted the Pagoda Domain’s fifty-thousand-times gravity and shattered the attacks of three perfected Spirit Transformation cultivators, then stopped when Primordial Beginning warned that the Law Treasure was nearing damage.
• Primordial Beginning compiled Lu Li’s test data, assessing his normal combat strength as middle Void Return and his maximum burst as late Void Return.
• Lu Li reviewed the report’s recommendations and considered adapting Zongzheng Lie’s cultivation method into one suited to his five-spirit foundation.
• The Primordial Beginning Jade Disc received a highest-priority report from Dong Qing stating that a million-strong demon army had approached the borders of Litian Prefecture.

Baleful Intent Tiger led a huge demon horde into the Demon Manor, unaware that Dong Qing’s Army Suppression Division was tracking its advance and preparing to respond. As the troops deployed across the borderlands, a warning announced that one unit had unexpectedly encountered a Spirit Transformation Demon Beast.

• Baleful Intent Tiger brought its brothers, clans, and enslaved cultivators home after the Prefecture-Breaking War and planned to consolidate power in the Demon Manor.
• The demon horde crossed the ruined defensive walls, while a distant Law Artifact recorded their entry into Litian Prefecture.
• Dong Qing received Lu Li’s message and ordered her soldiers to monitor the demons and evacuate mortal civilians rather than intercept the army immediately.
• The Army Suppression Division mobilized its Left and Right Divisions to track the horde, eliminate its scouts, and keep their positions concealed.
• A horrified warning reached every Army Suppression Division cultivator that their unit had encountered a Spirit Transformation Demon Beast.

Yintong appeared over Litian Prefecture in a deranged state, alarming both the hidden Garrison Army and the demon horde. When Xuanyu discovered Chen Mingshan’s battalion and attacked, an azure-robed figure appeared to confront him.

• Chen Mingshan recognized the damaged, disoriented Yintong and ordered the Blazing Mountain Battalion to remain concealed.
• Baleful Intent Tiger and the other demons realized Yintong’s Divine Soul seemed shattered, leaving him unable to recognize the beast horde.
• Xuanyu detected the hidden human cultivators and decided to capture them and search their souls.
• Chen Mingshan ordered his battalion to retreat and release its Spirit Machinery, then charged Xuanyu himself.
• Xuanyu struck at the battalion, but an azure-robed figure appeared and challenged him.

Lu Li arrived in time to save Chen Mingshan and the Blazing Mountain Battalion, then demanded the million-strong beast horde surrender. After the demons moved to attack, he crushed Xuanyu and unleashed his full power, leaving the horde facing his ultimatum.

• Lu Li stopped Xuanyu's demon claw from striking Chen Mingshan and told him to gather the disciples and prepare for the Dao Court's forces.
• Dong Qing arrived with the Army Suppression Division as Lu Li declared that he would take command of the demon army and beast horde.
• The demons recognized Lu Li from Ao Qing's final command, while the Baleful Intent Tiger brothers accused him of refining their ancestor's treasured bone.
• The demons began preparing to surround Lu Li, but he squeezed Xuanyu's Spirit Transformation body to pieces and destroyed its Divine Soul.
• Lu Li unleashed his full cultivation and dragon Qi, suppressed the million-strong beast horde, and ordered it to surrender or die.

Lu Li killed Baleful Intent Tiger and his two brothers, then subdued the million-strong demon army without slaughtering it. As the Dao Court disciples and Blazing Mountain Battalion praised him, he formally took Dong Qing as his disciple.

• Baleful Intent Tiger tried to flee with Evil Tiger and Slaughter Tiger, but Lu Li intercepted and killed all three with two strikes.
• Lu Li collected the tigers’ silver bones and sensed that absorbing the subdued demon army would violate the limits imposed by his kingly Dao and dragon Qi.
• A perfected Spirit Transformation demon lord submitted to Lu Li, and the million demon beasts bowed and pledged allegiance to the Dao Lord.
• Chen Mingshan, the Blazing Mountain Battalion, and the Dao Court disciples watched in awe and proclaimed Lu Li’s might.
• Lu Li looked toward Dong Qing and said he would take her as his disciple.

Lu Li formally accepted Dong Qing as his third disciple and directed her to organize the million Demon Beasts under the Litian Dao Court. He then summoned the demons, and Ying Fengquan secured a deputy division chief post by offering his wealth and urging the others to do the same.

• Lu Li accepted Dong Qing as his third disciple before the assembled cultivators and Demon Beasts, and she vowed not to fail his teachings.
• Lu Li ordered Dong Qing to organize the million Demon Beasts with the Dao Court's divisions and announced that the Demon Manor would become Litian Dao Court territory.
• Lu Li summoned the Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation demons to a mountain range to take stock of his new forces.
• Ying Fengquan offered his Storage Bag to Lu Li and urged the other demons to contribute their wealth to the Dao Court.
• Lu Li appointed Ying Fengquan deputy division chief of the Ten Thousand Spirits Division, prompting the other demons to hand over their Storage Bags.

Lu Li assigned the captured demons to the newly established Dao Court, while Ying Fengquan eagerly took on the role of enforcing discipline among them. As the million-strong demon army awaited registration and placement, the Dao Court began its plan to monitor, organize, and put the demons to work, advancing its goal of controlling the Western Continent.

• Lu Li collected the demons’ Storage Bags and assigned the Spirit Transformation and Nascent Soul demons to positions in the Dao Court’s divisions.
• Ying Fengquan offered to keep the demons obedient, and Lu Li appointed him deputy division master of the Ten Thousand Spirits Division.
• Lu Li flew above the clouds to monitor the demons, who accepted the Army Suppression Division’s orders to wait three days for registration and assignment.
• A demon insulted Ying Fengquan as a running dog, but Ying Fengquan ignored him and secretly memorized his identity.
• The Dao Court prepared to register and supervise the powerful demons, divide the million-strong army into groups, assign habitats, and employ them across the prefecture’s industries.

Jiang Wuxie, Ye Chenfeng, and their divisions prepared to receive the beast horde and monitor its powerful demons. As Elder Jian revealed that he planned to leave Ye Chenfeng and seek Lu Li’s protection, a mysterious woman appeared and recognized him as a Venerable’s remnant soul.

• Jiang Wuxie learned that the Ten Thousand Spirits Division’s flagship would soon reach the beast horde and privately threatened to slaughter any beasts that resisted.
• Ye Chenfeng ordered the Heaven Surveillance Division to prepare to keep the Spirit Transformation Demon Lords under strict surveillance.
• Ye Chenfeng spoke to his sword pellet and learned that Elder Jian had recovered quickly by absorbing traces of Lu Li’s Dragon Qi.
• Elder Jian told Ye Chenfeng that he could no longer help him and hoped to attach himself to Lu Li for more dragon fortune.
• Ye Chenfeng agreed not to resent Elder Jian and said he would pass his request to Lu Li.
• A woman in snow-white robes stepped out of the void and identified Elder Jian as a Venerable’s remnant soul.

Yinyang Qingfan appeared before Ye Chenfeng’s fleet and nearly attacked it, but Dongfang Jiangxue restrained her under their agreement. Yinyang Qingfan then took Elder Jian and his sword pellet through a shattered void, leaving Ye Chenfeng to urgently contact Lu Li.

• Yinyang Qingfan appeared above the spellship, and Elder Jian warned Ye Chenfeng not to attack her.
• Yinyang Qingfan began to crush the spellship, but Dongfang Jiangxue stopped her by invoking their agreement.
• Yinyang Qingfan argued with Dongfang Jiangxue, then decided to take Elder Jian as a potential source of a soul for her puppets.
• Dongfang Jiangxue stayed silent when Yinyang Qingfan asked to take Elder Jian, and Yinyang Qingfan seized him and his sword pellet before vanishing through the void.
• Ye Chenfeng contacted Lu Li and reported that Elder Jian was gone.

Yinyang Qingfan brought Elder Jian to her puppet workshop, intending to use his remnant soul to create a powerful puppet. After Elder Jian suggested that Lu Li had also come from the upper realm, Yinyang Qingfan reconsidered her assumptions and began to suspect the oracle about a seat rising in the east meant something else.

• Yinyang Qingfan traveled through the void with Elder Jian and planned to turn his Venerable remnant soul into a puppet.
• Yinyang Qingfan brought Elder Jian to her valley workshop, where she showed him her crude, unfinished puppets.
• Elder Jian inferred that Yinyang Qingfan had descended from above and asked whether she had come for Senior Lu.
• Yinyang Qingfan seized Elder Jian and demanded that he explain why he thought Lu Li had also come from the upper realm.
• Elder Jian pointed out that Lu Li and Yinyang Qingfan being in the Western Continent could not be a coincidence, prompting Yinyang Qingfan to reconsider Lu Li's background and the oracle, “The seat shall arise in the east.”

Lu Li learned that Dongfang Jiangxue had taken Elder Jian and reassured Ye Chenfeng that the elder was likely safe for now. He approved Lu Yao’s expanding Spirit Descent research and prepared to enter seclusion to strengthen himself and pursue Spirit Transformation.

• Ye Chenfeng told Lu Li that Dongfang Jiangxue had taken Elder Jian, and Lu Li suspected she might also be behind missing resources and puppets in the Dao Court.
• Lu Li reassured Ye Chenfeng that Elder Jian was probably not in immediate danger and urged him to focus on developing the Dao Court’s strength.
• Primordial Beginning reported that Lu Yao’s team had uploaded a Qi Refinement cultivator’s consciousness into a first-rank puppet, and that she was recruiting volunteers and proposing a Spirit Machinery and soul studies course.
• Lu Li approved Lu Yao’s proposed course at Hidden Dragon Academy.
• Lu Li planned a long period of seclusion to consolidate his cultivation, improve his abilities, and prepare to break through to Spirit Transformation.

Lu Li entered indefinite seclusion after securing Great Xia’s plans and arranging resources for the Dao Court. In the Central Continent, Zou Heng failed to contact Dongfang Jiangxue through the Dongfang ancestral artifact, stripped the Dongfang Household of its rule over Eastern Extremity Prefecture, and called the Hundred Schools to attack the Western Continent’s rising dragon.

• Lu Li finalized plans with Great Xia, ordered the Dao Court to supply his seclusion, and began cultivating indefinitely.
• Zou Heng summoned Dongfang Ce and demanded to know why Dongfang Jiangxue had shown no sign of acting.
• Dongfang Ce’s Secret Method failed to reach Dongfang Jiangxue through the ancestral artifact, confirming that something had gone wrong.
• Zou Heng concluded that another true dragon had arisen in the Western Continent and declared that the Hundred Schools would not allow Great Jin’s return.
• Zou Heng stripped the Dongfang Household of its authority over Eastern Extremity Prefecture and ordered the Hundred Schools to unite against the Western Continent’s rising power.

The Hundred Schools agreed to draw the sea races and the other three continents into a war against Lu Li’s Western Continent. While the Dao Court brought order to the region, Yinyang Qingfan hesitated to target Lu Li because she suspected he might be tied to her sacred revelation; then the name Dongfang Jiangxue sparked a sudden realization.

• The Hundred Schools convened in the Mystic Pivot Yin-Yang Palace, and Zou Heng proposed using the sea races to attack Lu Li’s Western Continent.
• An elder of Wuwei’s Dao argued that the Southern, Northern, and Eastern Continents must also be drawn into the conflict, and the Hundred Schools accepted the plan.
• As Lu Li secluded himself and the Dao Court organized the demons and Pacify the West, Yinyang Qingfan examined the Dongfang Household’s ancestral mirror and considered whether Lu Li was like her.
• Yinyang Qingfan reconsidered her sacred revelation and feared that killing Lu Li might oppose her destined Dao Path.
• After probing Elder Jian’s Divine Soul, Yinyang Qingfan froze when the name Dongfang Jiangxue made her realize something.

Yinyang Qingfan concluded that Lu Li was likely the upper-realm figure described by the sacred oracle and planned to aid him rather than oppose him. While watching him from the shadows, she was struck by the Dao Court’s unusual institutions and became certain of his origins.

• Yinyang Qingfan realized that her oracle-guided future might depend on helping Lu Li through Dongfang Jiangxue, and she resolved to observe him before choosing a side.
• She planned to appear during Lu Li’s greatest crisis, use her abilities to save him, and offer a powerful puppet to repair their rift.
• Yinyang Qingfan secretly watched Lu Li’s peaceful seclusion and grew anxious as his strength increased without any threat appearing.
• She observed the Dao Court’s efficient divisions, its cooperation with demon beasts, and the Hidden Dragon Academy admitting a poor cowherd and providing him with cultivation resources.
• Yinyang Qingfan concluded that Lu Li was definitely someone from the upper realm.

Yinyang Qingfan decided to become Lu Li’s Dao Protector as the upheaval in the Western Continent drew attention from across the Eastern Wasteland. The Southern Continent’s Gu Clan, the Northern Continent’s Ice Palace, and the Eastern Continent’s Azure Lotus Supreme Sect prepared to send their heaven’s chosen west.

• Yinyang Qingfan concluded that Lu Li was extraordinary and resolved to protect him when the time came.
• Gu Yuan decided to lead the Southern Continent’s Gu Clan on a western expedition to pursue the Dragon Qi and assess the possibility of allying with the Western Continent’s dragon.
• Bing Wuhen chose to leave the Northern Continent for the Western Continent, and his master gave him a treasure capable of blocking one strike from a Perfected Void Return cultivator.
• Qing Huayu received orders from the main house and sent the Azure Lotus Supreme Sect to join the Western Continent’s unfolding events.

Ao Li agreed to honor its final oath to the Yin-Yang School but left the timing and extent of its aid to the Western Sea chancellor, wary of the Dragon Fate and determined to survive. A hundred years later, Xu Xiong watched Qian Dabao leave for a Spirit Source Division assignment and eagerly asked when his ordered fourth-tier true-body spirit puppet would arrive.

• Ao Li received the Yin-Yang School’s third decree and decided to help while leaving the details to the chancellor.
• Ao Li’s orders stirred the Endless Western Sea, but its waters remained peaceful for a hundred years.
• Qian Dabao visited Xu Xiong, wished him well for his upcoming two-hundredth birthday, and left to oversee the opening of the Spirit Source Division’s ninety-eighth Silver Hall.
• Xu Xiong reflected on his aging, his difficulty advancing in cultivation, and Qian Dabao’s success in the Dao of Commerce.
• Xu Xiong summoned Baocai and asked when his fourth-tier true-body spirit puppet would arrive.

Xu Xiong checked the details of the fourth-tier puppet body he had ordered and reflected on how much the Dao Court had changed during his century in seclusion. After agreeing to join Wu Changgeng for another battle in the Primordial Beginning Spirit World, he called Yan'er for help and flew across the thriving Litian Prefecture City.

• Xu Xiong reviewed his advanced fourth-tier puppet order and anticipated gaining Nascent Soul-level strength without risking Core Formation.
• Xu Xiong accepted Wu Changgeng's invitation to enter the Primordial Beginning Spirit World, despite warning his master that they would likely lose contribution points.
• Xu Xiong called Yan'er and arranged to meet her outside the Primordial Beginning Spirit World, hoping she could help them earn rewards.
• Xu Xiong boarded his aging flying boat and surveyed the expanded, bustling Litian Prefecture City as he traveled.
• Xu Xiong thought of Jiang Wuxie and wondered how the cold director had fathered a daughter as clever as Yan'er.

Jiang Yan met Xu Xiong and Wu Changgeng at the Heavenly Pivot Division, where Wu Changgeng eagerly prepared to enter the Desperate Survival illusion again. As Jiang Yan checked the opponents, she discovered that Ye Xiaoyun had returned.

• Jiang Yan greeted cultivators at the Heavenly Pivot Division and met Xu Xiong, who said Lu Li would arrive soon.
• Xu Xiong recalled how Jiang Wuxie had spent a century trying to earn a chance to become Lu Li's disciple.
• Wu Changgeng arrived and urged Xu Xiong to join him in Desperate Survival so he could win back his stake.
• Jiang Yan checked the illusion's opponent reports and warned Wu Changgeng that Ye Xiaoyun had returned.

Xu Xiong, Wu Changgeng, and Jiang Yan watched Ye Xiaoyun dominate a Desperate Survival Battle, where his cautious ambushes carried him to victory. After the other contestants returned and confronted him with their complaints, Ye greeted Xu Xiong and Wu Changgeng, then grabbed Jiang Yan’s fox ear for exposing him.

• Jiang Yan opened the live spectator screen and showed Xu Xiong and Wu Changgeng that Ye Xiaoyun was leading the battle with twelve kills.
• Xu Xiong selected Ye’s personal feed, and the three watched him ambush a Golden Core cultivator and claim victory through stealth and quick sword strikes.
• Wu Changgeng recorded Ye’s battles to study them, while Xu Xiong accepted that Ye would win the round again.
• Ye Xiaoyun won the battle, and the returning contestants complained that he had ambushed them once more.
• Jiang Yan called out Ye as he tried to leave, so he greeted Xu Xiong and Wu Changgeng before grabbing her fox ear and accusing her of setting him up.

Ye Xiaoyun returned to the prefectural capital with military dispatches and reunited with Xu Xiong, Master Wu, and Jiang Yan, whose feelings for him were beginning to show. As they traveled to Master Wu’s residence aboard Ye Xiaoyun’s new spellship, Yinyang Qingfan watched the Dao Court from afar, and a presence deep within the city began to awaken.

• Ye Xiaoyun teased Jiang Yan by pinching her fox ears, and the two blushed as their feelings surfaced before Xu Xiong interrupted them.
• Ye Xiaoyun told Xu Xiong that he had delivered his military dispatches and would stay in the capital; Master Wu invited him, Xu Xiong, and Jiang Yan to his residence.
• Ye Xiaoyun summoned a third-tier Lord Suppression Class spellship, and he and the others discussed the Dao Court’s divisions, the sea tribes, and his father’s seclusion.
• Yinyang Qingfan watched the spellship and the thriving capital from high in the void, concluding that Lu Li was central to the Saint’s decree.
• A presence that had lain dormant for a century slowly revived deep within the prefectural capital.