Recaps

Li Boyang investigated Wangshu’s recurring nightmares and discovered that a strange force was splitting off her evil thoughts and dividing her power. After suppressing the manifestations, he entered the dream to uncover the force behind it.

• Li Boyang reassured Wangshu that he would not expel her from the Jade Pool and offered to investigate her dreams.
• Wangshu entered a dream, where her suppressed evil thoughts split into multiple manifestations and made her body insubstantial.
• Li Boyang recognized the phenomenon as a radically altered Six Desires Demon-Dividing Chapter that threatened to divide Wangshu’s will and power.
• Li Boyang used his divided Primordial Spirits and Mind-Reading Divine Ability to suppress Wangshu’s evil thoughts and restore her unified form.
• Li Boyang sent a Primordial Spirit into Wangshu’s dream, adapted to its structure, and traced the strange force back to the reality behind it.

Li Boyang explored Wangshu’s dream and discovered that it concealed an embryonic Alaya Consciousness shared by all things and living beings. He entered it with little Wangshu and found that demon kings embodying universal desires and evil thoughts were approaching them.

• Li Boyang comforted the lonely little Wangshu in her dream with a pinwheel and took her by the hand.
• Li Boyang used [Roaming Spirit and Controlling Qi] to transform the dream and uncover a secret realm connected to all things and living beings.
• Li Boyang recognized the realm as an Alaya Consciousness and suspected its entrance was deliberately inviting him inside.
• Li Boyang entered the Alaya Consciousness with little Wangshu, where they sensed that demon kings embodying desires and evil thoughts were approaching them.

Li Boyang entered the Sea of Alaya Consciousness through little Wangshu’s dream and confronted Pishezhe, the Demon King of fear, by taking on the same form. After overpowering him, Li Boyang began using the power of fear to claim Pishezhe’s place.

• Li Boyang took the form of the Red-Haired Ghost God and revealed that Pishezhe’s appearance had been modeled on him.
• Li Boyang defeated Pishezhe in a clash of fists and trapped him within little Wangshu’s dream.
• Li Boyang explained that he could use distracting thoughts to enter the Sea of Alaya Consciousness just as the Demon Kings used them to descend into the physical world.
• Li Boyang restrained Pishezhe and argued that although fear would always exist, Pishezhe did not have to be the Demon King who embodied it.
• Li Boyang began to consider embodying more than fear as he used Roaming Spirit and Controlling Qi.

Li Boyang analyzed Pishezhe and transformed into a nightmare demon, reshaping Great Sovereign Heaven and awakening Wangshu as a Moon Demon. He became one with the dream realm and declared himself the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon.

• Li Boyang understood how demon kings worked and learned that Pishezhe had tried to replace Wangshu by splitting her personality and twisting her perceptions.
• After analyzing Pishezhe, Li Boyang transformed his Primordial Spirit into the form of a nightmare demon.
• Li Boyang's transformation shook Great Sovereign Heaven, prompting demon kings to flee and causing new desires, demon kings, and rules to emerge.
• Wangshu awakened as her primary personality, gained control over changes in Great Sovereign Heaven, and realized she had become a Moon Demon.
• Li Boyang became formless and inseparable from Great Sovereign Heaven, and the demon kings worshipped him as he announced, "My name is the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon!"

Wu fought a giant kun in the North Sea, revealing that he had cultivated a powerful primordial spirit under Shang Yang’s guidance. When the giant kun used unfamiliar law techniques and Xiluo sensed an influence she suspected came from the Heavenly Demon, she attacked one of them and felt the effects of an inner demon.

• A school of giant kun stirred up the North Sea whirlpool, and Wu emerged to confront them.
• The largest giant kun attacked Wu, who used his primordial spirit to form a crimson storm and battle it.
• Xiluo and Shang Yang watched the fight, and Shang Yang admitted he had guided Wu in cultivating his primordial spirit.
• The giant kun used law techniques to resist the storm, surprising Shang Yang, who denied teaching them.
• Xiluo suspected the Heavenly Demon had taught the giant kun, then attacked a red-eyed one and felt an inner demon’s agitation.

Shang Yang watched Xiluo battle the giant kun and theorized that Lao Zhuang’s repeated failures to attain the Dao might be a deliberate effort to perfect his Dao Path. As Shang Yang joined the fight, Lu Huaijin reached the North Sea seeking the remains of a personality within her.

• Shang Yang told the dragon turtle that Xiluo was holding back her full strength and explained why he was waiting to intervene.
• Shang Yang proposed that Lao Zhuang might be using the Dao Ancestor’s help to perfect a Dao Path spanning past, present, and future.
• The dragon turtle wondered what title Shang Yang would bear in the future as Shang Yang seized an opportunity to join the battle against the giant kun.
• Lu Huaijin climbed to a summit near the Giant Mountain Range and searched the North Sea for the remains of a personality inside her.
• The personality in Lu Huaijin’s mind urged her to find its remains, but Lu Huaijin regarded it as a potential consumable.

Wu Xian explained to Wu Ji why he had accelerated the Witch King Ritual and chosen a successor from the Hundred Lands Mountain Range: Great Xia needed new ideas to keep pace with its growing rival. The Witch Mountain Cauldron was still losing the second Witch King's power, while Wu Xian hoped to strengthen Great Xia before the Hundred Lands Mountain Range could overtake it.

• Wu Ji reported that gods had tried to enter Witch Mountain, and Wu Xian dismissed them as a minor concern.
• Wu Xian said a Dao Attainer had stolen some of the second Witch King's power and planned to use the Witch Mountain Cauldron to perfect their Dao Path.
• Wu Xian told Wu Ji that the Cauldron's weakening power had forced him to hasten the Witch King succession.
• Wu Ji questioned Wu Xian's choice to select the new Witch King from the Hundred Lands Mountain Range, fearing Great Xia might lose influence to it.
• Wu Xian argued that the Hundred Lands Mountain Range was building its core population and that Great Xia needed to learn from it before absorbing its strengths.
• Wu Xian said a Witch King from the Hundred Lands Mountain Range could bring Great Xia the wisdom and ideas it needed to grow stronger.

Wu Xian persuaded Wu Ji that Great Xia should engage with the Hundred Lands Mountain Range’s great integration before the two civilizations became enemies. Wu Ji agreed to help, while Wu Xian revealed his plan to use the tenth Witch King as a bridge toward a future Great Xia led by the eleventh.

• Wu Ji warned that Wu Xian’s plan to invite outsiders into Great Xia would face opposition from powerful groups and could cause disaster.
• Wu Xian argued that engaging with the Hundred Lands Mountain Range now offered a chance to avoid a future war against the Celestial Person.
• Wu Ji asked why the Celestial Person limited integration to outsiders willing to join a core population, and Wu Xian explained that he would not let outsiders simply take the mountain dwellers’ achievements.
• Wu Xian revealed that he viewed the tenth Witch King as a transitional figure who could bring the Celestial Person’s methods into Great Xia and prepare the way for an eleventh Witch King rooted in Great Xia.
• Wu Ji chose to help Wu Xian, and they accepted that history would judge their decision after they committed themselves to the struggle.

Li Boyang used the Dao of Primordial Beginning to bring order to Great Sovereign Heaven, creating demon kings born from righteous thoughts to balance those born of desire. The Heavenly Demon recognized Li Boyang as possibly the Dao Ancestor and fell dormant, while Li Boyang suspected it was Boshun Heavenly Demon.

• Li Boyang rejected using Great Sovereign Heaven to impose his own Dao and judged the Heavenly Demon's Dao of desire too dangerous to spread unchecked.
• Li Boyang revealed the Dao of Primordial Beginning, expanding Great Sovereign Heaven and causing Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other demon kings born of righteous thoughts to appear.
• The new demon kings defined goodness through rigid ideals, turning idealists into zealots who could commit evil while believing they were doing good.
• The Heavenly Demon sensed that the new demon kings opposed those born of desire, but recognized that their arrival strengthened Great Sovereign Heaven rather than damaging it.
• The Heavenly Demon suspected Li Boyang was the Dao Ancestor and chose to fall dormant.
• Li Boyang sensed the Heavenly Demon's brief disturbance and wondered whether it was Boshun Heavenly Demon.

Fu Kui, a Thunder Marsh god unable to complete his cultivation, encountered an external demon while traveling to seek the Dao Ancestor. He trapped the Demon of Greed within himself and tried to persuade it that it could change, leaving it to consider whether its path was truly its own.

• Fu Kui set out for the Hundred Li Mountain Range to seek the Dao Ancestor after becoming stuck in his cultivation.
• An external demon appeared in Fu Kui’s mind and tried to tempt him with the promise of indulging every desire.
• Fu Kui explained that cultivation meant seeing the causes and consequences behind things, and argued that the demon could be reformed because it was a conscious being.
• The Demon of Greed revealed that Fu Kui had trapped it for years and threatened to make all living beings its puppets once it escaped.
• Fu Kui said the demon’s path belonged to the Heavenly Demon, not necessarily to itself, and urged it to find its own path before he either released or killed it.

Fu Kui reached the Hundred Lands Mountain Range and encountered its advanced power network and Heavenly Palace No. 1. After Yinglong recognized his cultivation and learned he was troubled by a heart demon, he directed Fu Kui to seek a travel permit and consult Goddess Chiru for a Demon-Subduing Heart Sutra.

• Fu Kui arrived at the Hundred Lands Grand Canal and refrained from absorbing its electricity so he would not disrupt the power grid or expose himself.
• Fu Kui and the heart demon sensed Heavenly Palace No. 1 and the powerful thunder god stationed aboard it.
• Yinglong emerged from the satellite and confronted Fu Kui, who introduced himself as a seeker of the Dao from Thunder Marsh in Kunlun.
• Fu Kui demonstrated his ability to transmit high-frequency electronic signals, and Yinglong inferred that he had cultivated a Primordial Spirit.
• Yinglong told Fu Kui to obtain a travel permit from Lord Tiaoyao and suggested that he visit Goddess Chiru at the nearby Chiru Temple for a Demon-Subduing Heart Sutra.

After reporting to Lord Tiaoyao and obtaining Chiru’s Demon-Subduing Heart Sutra, Fu Kui discovered that its chapters revealed startling truths about Heart Demons and enabled holders to exchange ideas. As Fu Kui joined their discussion, his Heart Demon realized that people might soon be able to create Heart Demons of their own in Great Sovereign Heaven.

• Fu Kui reported to Lord Tiaoyao at River Pillow Peak and obtained a copy of the Demon-Subduing Heart Sutra at Chiru’s temple.
• Fu Kui read the sutra, which described ordinary Heart Demons, righteous Heart Demons born from the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon, and ways living beings might create Heart Demons in Great Sovereign Heaven.
• Fu Kui discovered that holders of the sutra could communicate through its pages and began exchanging ideas with them.
• Fu Kui answered the other holders’ questions, while they supplied details and corrected his arguments.
• Fu Kui’s Heart Demon grew alarmed that the holders’ discussion could soon lead to people creating Heart Demon incarnations in Great Sovereign Heaven.

Li Boyang, Wangshu, and Chiru discussed whether heart demons could change and become part of the world, while a disguised demon king named Zixiu read the Demon-Subduing Heart Sutra on Spirit Gathering Island. The chapter left Zixiu speaking with Yun Xiu, who had come to study there because of her congenital deficiencies.

• Chiru argued that shared wisdom and universal education could bring a new age, while Wangshu suspected the Sutra's insightful writer was a heart demon.
• Li Boyang suggested that other heart demons might be hiding among the Sutra's readers and argued that demons who learned to think could outgrow their instincts and integrate into the age.
• Zixiu, a former North Sea god transformed into a demon, reflected on how his Butterfly Person identity and carefully cultivated history had helped him hide among the students of Hundred Lands University.
• Yun Xiu flew over to Zixiu and asked whether he was reading the Demon-Subduing Heart Sutra again.
• Zixiu asked Yun Xiu whether she had finished her lessons for the day.

Yinjiao visited Jinjiao to discuss Zixiu and Yun Xiu, whom Li Boyang had sent to cultivate on Spirit Gathering Island. Jinjiao confirmed that Zixiu was a heart demon and explained Yun Xiu’s severe congenital deficiencies, leaving her identity unresolved.

• Yinjiao tested Jinjiao with her Innate Body-Breaking Formless Sword Qi, but he blocked it with his Body-Protecting Gang Qi.
• Yinjiao revealed that her sword technique drew on the path of the heart and could cut through defenses with thought-born force.
• Jinjiao said Li Boyang had sent Yinjiao to investigate Zixiu and Yun Xiu, who had been admitted to Spirit Gathering Island by special permission.
• Jinjiao concluded that Zixiu was a heart demon who had used a loophole in the reincarnation system to be born as a Butterfly Person.
• Jinjiao explained that Yun Xiu truly had congenital deficiencies and that even a restoration pill had only raised her constitution to that of an ordinary Butterfly Person.

Jinjiao and Yinjiao considered why two inner demons had reincarnated as Butterfly People, while Xiluo questioned an intelligent Giant Kun after helping suppress the berserk creatures. The Giant Kun’s revelations showed Wuqi that the crisis involved forces and events far beyond the North Sea.

• Jinjiao suggested that the Butterfly Person might be an inner demon whose reincarnation had gone wrong, and Yinjiao questioned whether two such reincarnations could be coincidence.
• Jinjiao explained that the Butterfly People’s transformations could repair defects and that their migration from the Northern Dark Sea to the South Sea was extraordinary.
• Xiluo found an intelligent Giant Kun after half a month of screening the captured creatures and questioned it while holding the [Jade Pool Heavenly Book].
• The Giant Kun begged Xiluo not to imprison it in the book again and agreed to tell her what it knew.
• Shang Yang explained the [Jade Pool Heavenly Book]’s potential power to Wuqi, who listened as the Giant Kun mentioned Lao Zhuang, the Heavenly Demon, Great Sovereign Heaven, and the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon.
• Wuqi realized that the events surrounding the Giant Kun were part of a cataclysm sweeping across the world.

Xiluo and Shang Yang learned the history of the Giant Kun and discovered that the dragon turtle was Zhenwu, who suspected the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon might be his master's incarnation. At the Northern Dark Sea’s polar edge, Lu Huaijin found Zhuang Zhou’s preserved body, but demanded compensation before helping him return to it.

• The Giant Kun explained how Zhuang Zhou awakened their intelligence, created their collective dream, and left a contingency that drove back Boshun after his death.
• Xiluo and Shang Yang questioned the dragon turtle about the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon, and he identified himself as Zhenwu, also known as Xuanwu.
• Zhenwu said he had studied under the Primordial Beginning Heavenly King and suspected the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon was his master’s incarnation in this era.
• Lu Huaijin reached the Northern Dark Sea’s polar edge and found a dead-looking Giant Kun with fins developing into wings, preserved in permafrost.
• Zhuang Zhou told Lu Huaijin that unsealing his preserved body would let him return to life, but she demanded compensation despite his appeal.

Lu Huaijin demanded the truth about Zhuang Zhou’s origins and plans, and he explained how he had rewritten his origins to pursue the Dao of Great Freedom. He revealed that Boshun, his Heart Demon, had appeared early and followed a rival path, while Lu Huaijin remained wary of how Zhuang Zhou had inherited her Dao lineage.

• Lu Huaijin asked Zhuang Zhou to explain his predicament, his fallback plans, and how he had obtained her Dao lineage.
• Zhuang Zhou insisted that he was her disciple and explained that he had traveled back through time to rewrite his origins in the Dao Ancestor’s era.
• Zhuang Zhou said that the unusual conditions of the era had caused Boshun, his Heart Demon, to appear before he reached Refining Spirit and Returning to Emptiness.
• Zhuang Zhou explained that repeated attempts to prove his Dao had produced Boshun from his failures, attachments, and unwillingness to accept defeat.
• Lu Huaijin questioned why Boshun was stronger than Zhuang Zhou, and Zhuang Zhou said they pursued opposing paths: his Dao of Great Freedom sought personal transcendence, while Boshun’s Dao of Sovereignty over Others’ Transformations sought to make all living beings become himself.

Zhuang Zhou explained that he used Attaining the Dao in Dreams to turn dreams into reality, pulling versions of himself and events from past dreams into existence. He revealed that one dream created the Butterfly People and that another may have reshaped Great Sovereign Heaven with the Witch Mountain Cauldron’s power.

• Zhuang Zhou told Lu Huaijin how his dream of becoming a butterfly taught him the Dao of Great Freedom and led him to devise Attaining the Dao in Dreams.
• Zhuang Zhou explained that before becoming a giant kun, he had dreamed of being humans, spirits, and gods, but failed to make those dreams real.
• After Boshun killed him and took Great Sovereign Heaven, Zhuang Zhou used his Divine Ability to pull things from his past dreams into reality.
• Lu Huaijin realized that the Zhuang Zhou within her was a dream made real, and Zhuang Zhou reassured her that only he remembered his other identities.
• Zhuang Zhou revealed that an earlier dream of becoming a butterfly had created the Butterfly People and that this dream-Zhuang Zhou had perfected his Divine Ability.
• Zhuang Zhou said that dream-Zhuang Zhou had seized part of the Witch Mountain Cauldron’s power, possibly transforming Great Sovereign Heaven and bringing Freedom Through Others into reality.

Li Boyang used Great Sovereign Heaven as an opportunity to create a third world that could buffer the mortal world and the Netherworld. He trapped Boju in the Eight Trigrams Furnace and exposed his attempt to become Great Sovereign Heaven’s Dao, leaving Boju to answer Li Boyang’s accusation.

• Li Boyang entered Great Sovereign Heaven with [Roaming Spirit and Controlling Qi] and found an opening to expose the dormant Boju Heavenly Demon.
• Li Boyang manifested Great Sovereign Heaven as a potential third world, explaining how the [Witch Mountain Cauldron], Zhuang Zhou’s fall, and his own intervention had made its evolution possible.
• Li Boyang summoned the Eight Trigrams Furnace and used the Samadhi True Fire to draw Boju out of hiding.
• Boju appeared within the furnace, and Li Boyang accused him of spreading his will through Great Sovereign Heaven to become its Great Dao.
• Boju claimed he was following the path Li Boyang had left unfinished, while Li Boyang condemned his imitation of Zhuang Zhou and his attempt to impose rigid order without leaving room for change.

Li Boyang revealed that Boshun was not Zhuang Zhou’s Heart Demon but an independent Dao attainer, then explained how he would use Great Sovereign Heaven to repair the Six Paths of Reincarnation and begin creating the myriad worlds. Boshun’s many avatars resisted from within the Heaven, but Li Boyang had already started the process.

• Li Boyang deduced that Boshun’s Dao of the Heavenly Demon was independent of Zhuang Zhou’s Dao of Carefree Wandering because Boshun knew things Zhuang Zhou did not.
• Boshun argued that he could not be killed without destroying the Sea of Alaya Consciousness, since his avatars existed throughout Great Sovereign Heaven.
• Li Boyang activated the Eight Trigrams Furnace and revealed that he planned to use Great Sovereign Heaven to perfect the Six Paths of Reincarnation and evolve the myriad worlds.
• Li Boyang declared that the Dao of Primordial Beginning began with creating heaven and earth, and Boshun’s demon king avatars struggled as power flowed into them.

Li Boyang used the Eight Trigrams Furnace to refine Boshun’s will and reshape Great Sovereign Heaven into the Six Desire Heavens. As the new world entered reality, he declared that all beings, including gods and Celestial Persons, would be subject to reincarnation.

• Wangshu transformed and fought Boshun’s avatars while Buddhas and demon kings born from righteous thoughts joined the battle, converting or defeating many of Boshun’s forces.
• The Eight Trigrams Furnace began refining not only Boshun’s avatar but everything in Great Sovereign Heaven that carried his will, terrifying Boshun.
• Li Boyang explained that gods and Celestial Persons must also enter the Six Paths of Reincarnation and began dividing Great Sovereign Heaven into the Six Desire Heavens.
• As Li Boyang named the heavens and assigned them their purposes, Great Sovereign Heaven entered reality and a new world opened through the Dao of Primordial Beginning.
• Li Boyang decreed that gods, demons, ghosts, monsters, and all other beings of the three realms would be subject to reincarnation.

Li Boyang created the Heavenly Realm as a refuge for gods and Celestial Persons unwilling to reincarnate, completing a Three Realms cycle that protected the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Boshun attained the Dao of the Heavenly Demon through the Sixth Heaven, only to discover that his Dao had become bound to Li Boyang’s Dao of Primordial Beginning.

• Li Boyang declared that all living beings in the Three Realms would enter reincarnation, while the Great Emperor of Fengdu helped the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon stabilize the forming realms.
• The Heavenly Realm emerged between Yin and Yang, offering gods and Celestial Persons a place to exhaust their desires before returning to reincarnation.
• The Netherworld Lord saw that the Six Desire Heavens had increasingly slower time and longer lifespans, with the Heaven of Sovereignty over Others' Transformations above the other five heavens.
• Chang'e watched the Three Realms take shape, while Boshun observed Buddhas and demon kings creating kingdoms within the Six Desire Heavens.
• Boshun transformed the Sixth Heaven into the vessel of his Dao attainment and realized that his Heavenly Demon Dao was now part of Li Boyang’s Dao of Primordial Beginning.

Zhuang Zhou broke free from the frozen glacier as a Giant Kun and transformed into a Peng, setting off to visit the newly manifested Great Sovereign Heaven. He flew into the Six Desire Heavens and arrived at the battlefield where the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon faced the Boshun Heavenly Demon.

• Zhuang Zhou emerged from the glacier and told Lu Huaijin he wanted to visit Great Sovereign Heaven, which he had created.
• Zhuang Zhou transformed from a Giant Kun into a vast Peng and soared into the sky with Lu Huaijin on his head.
• Xiluo, Shang Yang, and the dragon turtle recognized Zhuang Zhou and Lu Huaijin as the Kun Peng passed overhead.
• The sky cracked open, revealing events in the Six Desire Heavens, including the battle between the Primordial Beginning Heavenly Demon and the Boshun Heavenly Demon.
• Zhuang Zhou flew at tremendous speed into the spacetime rifts, split into countless forms, then reunited at the center of the demons' battlefield.

Fu Kui resisted the Heart Demon’s demand to return to Great Sovereign Heaven and watched the battle through the Sea of Alaya Consciousness. In the starry sky, Boshun escaped Zhuang Zhou’s attack and raced toward the Great Yin Star, while Zhuang Zhou was sent after him.

• Fu Kui warned the Heart Demon that returning to Great Sovereign Heaven would mean certain doom, then opened his mind’s gate to watch the battle.
• Boshun abandoned his incarnations and emerged in the starry sky as a demonic god made of countless fire dragons.
• Chang'e struck Boshun with the Shot of No Shooting, but Boshun dismissed her and charged toward the Great Yin Star.
• Boshun’s flames made the Great Yin Star shine during the day, so people on earth saw the sun and moon together in the sky.
• Li Boyang blamed Zhuang Zhou for causing Boshun’s escape, and Lu Huaijin ordered Zhuang Zhou to stop him.
• Zhuang Zhou sheepishly turned and charged after Boshun into the starry sky.

Zhuang Zhou and Chang'e fought Boshun as he tried to assimilate the Divine Laurel Tree and turn the Great Yin Star into his Dao domain. While Li Boyang warned Wangshu not to intervene, Wu Gang appeared and began chopping Boshun’s faces and roots from the tree.

• Zhuang Zhou emerged from the spacetime rift and joined Chang'e in attacking Boshun.
• Boshun sent fire dragons toward the Great Yin Star and spread his faces across the Divine Laurel Tree to assimilate it.
• Zhuang Zhou recognized Boshun’s plan as an attempt to recreate Wangshu’s Moon Demon Dao attainment.
• Wangshu saw Boshun’s assault, but Li Boyang warned that intervening would play into his hands, so she watched.
• Wu Gang appeared with an enormous axe, and Chang'e and Zhuang Zhou held off Boshun as he chopped through the tree’s roots.