Recaps

Luo Qiao learned that the Headless Buddha statue in Biyou Palace was likely the Jade of Spiritual Communication, a treasure forged from a slain patron god and once used by the Longbo Kingdom to defy the gods. The high priest left Luo Qiao to investigate who had used the Jade and how it had ended up on a Golden Ao’s back.

• Luo Qiao asked the high priest to teach him the Longbo Kingdom’s history after deciding to become a history shaman.
• The high priest recounted how the Longbo ruler conspired to kill the kingdom’s patron god, whose transformation into a five-colored wondrous stone became the Jade of Spiritual Communication.
• The Jade gradually influenced the ruler, took on his appearance, and drove him to challenge the gods, after which it was sealed and the ruler’s name was forbidden.
• The high priest told Luo Qiao that no god accepted the Longbo Kingdom again until Yu Guo arrived and led the Giants toward a new future.
• Luo Qiao questioned how the sealed Jade became the Headless Buddha statue, and the high priest challenged him to uncover the truth about the statue, Biyou Palace, and the Golden Ao.

The Longbo Giants' fishing operation trapped the Golden Ao, but the leader stayed hidden until the formation dragged it into a trench. When the leader used Biyou Palace to absorb the formation's lightning, the Longbo Giants shifted the islands and water-vein nodes, leaving it disoriented.

• The Longbo Giants captured Golden Ao trying to escape, removed the Longbo Kingdom ruins from their backs, and released them while searching for their leader.
• Yinglong questioned Xiluo about the Golden Ao's sudden intelligence and Li Boyang's whereabouts, but monstrous waves pulled the formation taut before she answered.
• The Nine Heavens Spirit Lock formation shocked the Golden Ao leader and the Golden Ao that charged in to help it.
• The Golden Ao leader activated Biyou Palace and absorbed the lightning, making the formation plunge and shaking the sea.
• The Longbo Giants moved the floating islands and water-vein nodes, transforming the surrounding waters and disorienting the Golden Ao leader.

Li Boyang taught Luo Qiao about formations and the Way of the Celestial Person, then sent him into Biyou Palace to face a headless Buddha statue as his graduation test. Luo Qiao resisted the statue’s mind-affecting chant and unleashed his Sword Qi, but the statue remained protected by the outline of a Buddhist bronze bell.

• Li Boyang explained that formations harness the infinite power of heaven and earth, and said he taught beings without discrimination.
• Li Boyang sent Luo Qiao through a ring into Biyou Palace, where a headless Buddha statue rose and began chanting.
• The statue’s Sanskrit chant filled Luo Qiao with false pleasure, but Luo Qiao rejected it and regained his clarity.
• Luo Qiao attacked with Sword Qi, striking the statue and causing a bell-like peal as its head began to regrow.
• Luo Qiao launched a storm of Sword Qi, while the statue stood unharmed within the outline of a massive Buddhist bronze bell.

Li Boyang entered a dangerous Mirror Dimension beneath the sea and discovered that the ruined Longbo Kingdom concealed the original site of Biyou Palace. He shattered the dimension and confronted the hidden entity behind it, calling it Xu Jia.

• Li Boyang followed the Heaven and Earth Ring into an interstitial space filled with fragmented Longbo Kingdom ruins.
• The Mirror Dimension severed Li Boyang’s arm through dimensional dislocation, but he restored it and used his Heavenly Eye to perceive the space’s true form.
• Li Boyang found a vast pit at the center of the ruins where Biyou Palace had once stood and questioned who had reshaped the Longbo Kingdom.
• When Li Boyang entered the pit, vortices formed throughout the dimension, but he froze them and caused the Mirror Dimension to collapse.
• Li Boyang addressed the hidden entity as Amitabha Buddha and Xu Jia before vanishing with the shattered dimension.

Śakra and Lu Ya discussed the Buddha land appearing through a spacetime rift and Amitabha Buddha’s return from reincarnation. Lu Ya declared he would seek the mortal world’s cultivation method and claim the Heavenly Emperor’s throne, while Śakra warned that abandoning his obsessions was the proper path.

• Śakra asked who was causing trouble after spotting a spacetime rift in the Buddhist light above Mount Sumeru.
• Lu Ya identified the Buddha land as Amitabha Buddha’s and said Amitabha had returned only a few mortal-world years ago.
• Śakra questioned Lu Ya about whether he still intended to go to the mortal world and challenge him for the Heavenly Emperor’s throne.
• Lu Ya insisted he would never forget his identity as a Golden Crow and the Heavenly Emperor’s son, and vowed to surpass even the Dao Ancestor.
• Śakra recognized that Lu Ya would seek a shortcut through Amitabha Buddha’s reincarnation rather than give up his obsessions.

Li Boyang entered Amitabha Buddha’s realm and found the former Buddha’s reincarnation resisting attempts to restore his memories. Meanwhile, in Biyou Palace, Luo Qiao fought a headless Buddha statue that was transforming by absorbing his Sword Qi and the power of the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare.

• Li Boyang saw the reincarnated man in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and asked whether he was Amitabha Buddha or Xu Jia.
• The man asked Li Boyang to tell him who he really was as Buddhas and bodhisattvas chanted to awaken his former memories.
• Li Boyang used his Dharma Speech Decree to seal the mouths of the chanting Buddhas and bodhisattvas when the man begged them to stop.
• In Biyou Palace, Luo Qiao attacked the headless Buddha statue as it grew a head resembling him and began forming golden dragon wings.
• The statue completed its bronze bells and unleashed the Amitabha Incantation, collapsing Biyou Palace and creating a vast seawater vortex as Luo Qiao retreated behind his Sword Qi.

Luo Qiao battled the Buddha statue as Yinglong’s lightning disrupted its defenses, then used his Sword Qi to draw out a living green lotus sword from its head. He cleaved the statue in two with the weapon, while Yinglong watched in astonishment at Luo Qiao’s control over Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi.

• Yinglong used lightning to stabilize the formation and awaken the Longbo Giants from the Buddha statue’s bewitching chants.
• The Buddha statue continued to overwhelm Luo Qiao, copying his Sword Qi and combat experience as their fight damaged Biyou Palace.
• Yinglong struck the Buddha statue with a thunderbolt, giving Luo Qiao an opening to cut through its bronze pagoda bell.
• Luo Qiao seized the statue’s head and poured Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi into it until a living green lotus sword emerged.
• Luo Qiao slashed the Buddha statue in two with the green lotus sword.

Li Boyang dismantled Amitabha Buddha’s Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and challenged the man to consider creating a truer one. The man began to understand his past incarnation and wondered whether he should inherit Amitabha Buddha’s Dao of Guidance.

• Li Boyang took control of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, erasing Amitabha Buddha’s vows and ending its power to guide people there.
• Li Boyang asked the man whether the Pure Land truly offered ultimate bliss, and the man admitted it was Amitabha Buddha’s fantasy.
• The man argued that beings with desires and obsessions could never be pure, even if they were Buddhas and bodhisattvas.
• Li Boyang suggested the man could inherit Amitabha Buddha’s Dao of Guidance, but warned him to give up if he was unprepared.
• The man began to understand his past incarnation and wondered who had guided him onto the path of cultivation.

Xu Jia recounted how he entered cultivation in the Heavenly Poison Kingdom, lost it to a god’s Mirror Dimension catastrophe, and was found and taught by Fu Kui. His unusual soul let him bypass Yin Deity cultivation and manifest the Sixteen-Foot Golden Body, giving him power to seek revenge.

• Xu Jia began cultivating through the Heavenly Poison Kingdom’s runic newspaper but struggled with Refining Essence into Qi because of his congenital weakness.
• During the world’s dimensional ascension, Xu Jia bypassed Refining Essence into Qi and entered Refining Qi into Spirit Transformation, discovering his exceptional soul talent.
• A god’s attempt to reach higher-dimensional powers brought the Mirror Dimension into the world and swallowed the Heavenly Poison Kingdom, leaving Xu Jia as a golden spirit.
• Fu Kui found Xu Jia in the smooth, hemispherical hollow and taught him to cultivate through his soul without a physical body.
• Xu Jia absorbed Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi and, with the aid of Buddhist chants and mantras, manifested a Yang God that Fu Kui named the Sixteen-Foot Golden Body.

Xu Jia recounted how he discovered that the deity responsible for the Mirror Dimension disaster was his ancestor and learned that the Jade of Spiritual Communication could lead him to the people of the Heavenly Poison Kingdom. He gathered the Jade’s scattered fragments and set out with the Golden Ao to find its main body in the Longbo Kingdom ruins.

• Xu Jia found the dying Ancestor God, learned he was the Heavenly Poison Kingdom’s guardian and Xu Jia’s ancestor, and ended his suffering.
• Xu Jia obtained the physical Mirror Dimension and the Ancestor God’s fragment of the Jade of Spiritual Communication, which had transformed into his prayer beads.
• The Ancestor God suggested that survivors of the Heavenly Poison Kingdom might remain in the Mirror Dimension, giving Xu Jia a reason to keep living and search for the Jade’s fragments.
• Xu Jia used abilities developed through the [Sixteen-Foot Golden Body] to locate the scattered fragments and awaken the intelligence of some Golden Ao.
• Xu Jia led the Golden Ao toward the Longbo Kingdom ruins in the East Sea to search for the Jade of Spiritual Communication’s main body.

Xu Jia explained to Li Boyang how the search for the Jade of Spiritual Communication led him into the Mirror Dimension and the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. After defeating the headless Buddha statue, Luo Qiao healed the Golden Ao leader and chose to teach the Golden Ao.

• Xu Jia told Li Boyang that he would probably still have gone to the East Sea, where he found the Jade of Spiritual Communication and briefly awakened memories of Amitabha Buddha.
• Xu Jia resisted the Buddhas and bodhisattvas trying to restore his past-life memories, then attacked Li Boyang when he entered the Mirror Dimension.
• Luo Qiao and Yinglong defeated the headless Buddha statue, while the wounded Golden Ao leader mourned and the other Golden Ao guarded it.
• Luo Qiao transformed his Body-Protecting Sword Qi into Spiritually Clear Brahma Qi and used it to soothe the Golden Ao and heal their leader.
• Luo Qiao told the Golden Ao leader that he wanted to teach the Golden Ao, though the leader could not understand his words.

Li Boyang returned to the East Sea and found Luo Qiao teaching the Golden Ao to speak, then decided to let the young man pursue his chosen path as a fellow Daoist rather than take him as a disciple. He brought Xu Jia, the reincarnation of Amitabha Buddha, out of the Six Desire Heavens and made him a servant for their onward journey.

• Li Boyang returned to the Longbo Giants' archipelago, where Xiluo told him that Luo Qiao had been teaching the Golden Ao to speak.
• Li Boyang said Luo Qiao had chosen his own path, so he would let him continue as a fellow Daoist instead of taking him as a disciple.
• Xiluo asked Li Boyang about the rift in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and why it had disappeared when he returned from the Six Desire Heavens.
• Li Boyang opened a passage with the [Heaven and Earth Ring] and brought Xu Jia out of the Six Desire Heavens, identifying him as Amitabha Buddha's reincarnation.
• Li Boyang assigned Xu Jia the role of servant, and Xiluo told him to collect the fragments of the 'Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare' for their journey.

Xu Jia parted from the Golden Ao and accepted Luo Qiao’s claim that they were now his disciples. Before leaving, Xu Jia revealed that his prayer beads were a fragment of the Jade of Spiritual Communication and merged them into the Green Duckweed Sword.

• The Longbo Giants loaded the broken Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare onto the steel aircraft carrier and gave Li Boyang and Xiluo gifts.
• Luo Qiao confronted Xu Jia, who said the Golden Ao were his companions and family, not his slaves.
• Luo Qiao declared that the Golden Ao were his disciples and forbade Xu Jia from approaching them again.
• Xu Jia said karma had no distinction between good and evil and argued that no one had died in the disaster, angering Luo Qiao.
• Luo Qiao threatened Xu Jia with the Green Duckweed Sword, and Xu Jia recognized it as the original owner’s Jade of Spiritual Communication.
• Xu Jia merged his prayer beads into the Green Duckweed Sword and explained that its fragments could make it a divine sword, though the Buddha’s head was lost.

Li Boyang and Xiluo turned inland toward Great Xia and Kunlun to investigate the missing head of the Buddha statue, and Xu Jia explained how it had been stolen. Xu Jia suspected the mysterious attacker wanted Amitabha Buddha’s power, leaving the thief’s identity and whereabouts unknown.

• Li Boyang and Xiluo departed the Longbo Giants’ island, while Yao Xi prepared to strengthen Yinglong’s formation for the mountain folk’s arrival.
• Li Boyang changed course inland, and Xiluo realized he meant to investigate the missing Buddha head.
• Xu Jia explained that he had fought a shapeshifting enemy who targeted him rather than the Jade of Spiritual Communication.
• After Amitabha Buddha tried to enlighten Xu Jia and the Buddha statue was beheaded by the Mirror Dimension, the enemy seized its head.
• Xu Jia concluded that the enemy had been seeking Amitabha Buddha’s power all along.

Xingtian City had grown into a vast, highly organized city under Xingtian Shi’s theocratic imperial rule, fueled by technology and trade with the Hundred Lands Mountain Range. The chapter ended with an overseas performer from the Puppeteer Kingdom carrying the famed Horn of Plenty through the city alongside his young companion and a company of puppets.

• Xingtian City expanded into a main city and five satellite cities, with a population approaching ten million.
• Xingtian Shi established a centralized theocratic imperial system that joined divine and royal authority in his person.
• The city used identification rules, a vast formation barrier, satellites, electricity, and spatial-compression containers to manage its people and trade.
• An overseas citizen bought the Horn of Plenty from the mountain folk, though some suspected the supposed source of its endless food and seeds was a scam.
• The old man carrying the Horn of Plenty traveled with a young girl and stiff-moving people and animals, which were puppets made through the Puppeteer Kingdom’s Armor Technique.

An old performer from the Puppeteer Kingdom reflected on his choice to study Armor Technique in Xingtian City and the value of the Hundred Lands Mountain Range’s resources. When monsters ambushed him and his granddaughter, he offered himself in exchange for her safety.

• The old man thought about how the Puppeteer Kingdom’s limited food and resources made the Hundred Lands Mountain Range’s Law Treasures especially valuable.
• A puppet guard fired an explosive iron fist at an unseen attacker, revealing and destroying a vicious beast that had been hiding ahead.
• The puppet people formed a defensive barrier around the old man and his granddaughter, while she readied a talisman launcher.
• The old man called for the attackers to identify themselves, then offered the goods in his carriages in exchange for their lives.
• The destroyed beast reassembled as a half-human, half-beast monster, and identical monsters emerged from the woods, demanding that the old man and his granddaughter come with them.
• The old man asked the monsters to take him and spare his granddaughter.

The old man and his granddaughter fled toward Xingtian City while his puppets fought off the monsters, sacrificing themselves to save them. A pack of Feilian intercepted them, and the old man revealed his combat prosthesis as the story ended with the Feilian identifying his Thousand Mechanism Transformation.

• The old man refused to leave his granddaughter behind, and his puppets attacked the monsters with guns, explosives, fire, and electricity.
• The old man escaped with his granddaughter using mechanical wings while the puppets held off the monsters.
• A regenerating monster pursued them, but a puppet self-destructed and killed it, prompting the puppets to adapt their tactics to destroy the monsters completely.
• The granddaughter mourned the puppets as family, but a sudden cold wind froze the wings and twisted off the old man's prosthetic arm.
• Two Feilian appeared, and one recognized the old man as a puppeteer who had modified his own body.
• The old man landed in a tree, activated his prosthesis, and transformed it into a bladed weapon and steel whip as the Feilian called it a Thousand Mechanism Transformation.

An old man and his granddaughter killed two Feilian attackers using golden silkworm silk and a talisman launcher. In Ganqi City, Luo Lan sensed the deaths and rushed outside the city to investigate, despite warnings from his partner and captain.

• The Feilian recognized the old man's arm as a Thousand Mechanism Transformation and warned each other about its hidden ranged attacks.
• The old man used golden silkworm silk to bind one Feilian, while his granddaughter struck the other with her talisman-sacrifice launcher and a lightning bolt killed him.
• The old man tightened the bindings and killed the remaining Feilian with the finger blades in his hand.
• Luo Lan sensed someone killing people in Ganqi City's territory, drew his axe, and ran toward the outskirts.
• Luo Lan's partner told Squad 317's captain that Luo Lan had gone to investigate, and the captain warned that Luo Lan's teacher and younger sister had died in the Ganqi City Rebellion.

Aboard the steel aircraft carrier, Xiluo, Li Boyang, and Xu Jia watched a battle near Ganqi City and recognized the hidden attacker’s methods as those of the person who stole the Buddha head. The attacker abruptly withdrew after Li Boyang glanced toward the gathering Yuan Qi, leaving Xiluo wondering why he was so cautious.

• Xiluo pointed out a firelit battle below Mount Changyang, and Li Boyang spotted a vortex of Yuan Qi gathering near the battlefield.
• Xiluo identified the fighters as performers from the Puppeteer Kingdom, and Li Boyang traced the Yuan Qi toward Mount Kunlun.
• Xu Jia emerged and suspected that the person who stole the Buddha head was directing Feilian and the vicious beasts.
• The Yuan Qi abruptly flowed back toward Mount Kunlun after Li Boyang looked its way.
• Li Boyang said the attacker had not recognized him, and Xiluo questioned Xu Jia’s account of the attacker’s abilities.

A black-skinned man on Mount Kunlun absorbed the power of Amitabha Buddha’s head and sent his influence to the battlefield, where he defeated the old puppeteer. The old man lost consciousness, and the man turned his attention toward Xiao Ling as she fled to Ganqi City.

• The sixteen-foot man sensed Li Boyang’s oppressive presence, then decided to accelerate his plan and continued absorbing the last Jade of Spiritual Communication.
• As the man transformed and gained twisted powers from Amitabha Buddha’s head, his demonic chanting caused the destroyed Feilian corpse to reassemble.
• The old man sent Xiao Ling toward Ganqi City with the Horn of Plenty, then stood his ground against the transformed Feilian.
• The man attacked the old man, shattered the Thousand Mechanism Transformation, and knocked him unconscious with a palm strike.
• After defeating the old man, the man looked toward the direction Xiao Ling had fled.

Xiao Ling tried to escape with her grandfather, but a mysterious man caught up with them and toyed with her until Luo Lan intervened. As Luo Lan fought the man, he revealed both Taogao Shi footwork and the Xingtian Shi’s battle-shaman power, leaving his identity unclear.

• Xiao Ling fled into the mountain woods, but the man appeared before her while carrying her captured grandfather and ordered her to come quietly.
• Xiao Ling fired a copper pellet inscribed with Thunder Method Talisman Seal Script, but the man caught it and threw it aside, where it struck a tree with lightning.
• Xiao Ling ran toward the main road and called for help, and the man pursued her until Luo Lan arrived and split his body with an enormous axe.
• The man regenerated and fought Luo Lan with one hand while holding the old man, using Cicada-Sealing Steps that Luo Lan recognized as a secret technique of the Taogao Shi.
• The man formed a shamanic hand seal and unleashed the Xingtian Shi’s battle-shaman power, shocking Luo Lan.

Luo Lan and Xiao Ling fought the mysterious man, who used combat techniques familiar to Luo Lan and ultimately escaped with Xiao Ling’s grandfather. Luo Lan comforted Xiao Ling, who was overwhelmed by relief and grief, while the man’s connection to Luo Lan’s dead master remained unexplained.

• Luo Lan used a blade grown from his arm to wound the man, but the man’s mastery of Xingtian combat techniques gave him the advantage.
• Xiao Ling chose to help Luo Lan and fired the Talisman Seal Script launcher at the man.
• The man unleashed his power and began losing ground as Luo Lan regained the upper hand, then paused when Luo Lan called him master.
• Luo Lan demanded to know why the man used his dead master’s moves, but the man escaped into the forest carrying Xiao Ling’s grandfather.
• Xiao Ling stopped Luo Lan from pursuing, and he embraced and comforted her as she wept.

Luo Lan brought Xiao Ling to the Inspection Bureau and urged Xing Jin to activate Ganqi City's defenses, warning that the outsider connected to his master's fighting style might signal a new attack on the Xingtian Shi. Xing Jin refused but secretly reported that the Dao Proving One from three years ago had returned and targeted a performer from the Puppeteer Kingdom.

• Li Boyang used a Bagua Compass to investigate the outsider and concluded that he was familiar with divination methods associated with Li Boyang or the Dao Ancestor.
• Xiluo left the carrier to explore Xingtian City while Li Boyang grew suspicious that the Xingtian Shi had unusually few shaman seers.
• Luo Lan brought Xiao Ling to the Inspection Bureau and demanded that Xing Jin activate Ganqi City's defense barrier, arguing that the earlier rebellion and the outsider's resemblance to his master were connected.
• Xing Jin refused to activate the barrier, arranged papers and protection for Xiao Ling, and ordered guards to take her and Luo Lan away.
• Xing Jin privately contacted his elder brother and reported that the Dao Proving One from three years ago had returned, now targeting a performer from the Puppeteer Kingdom.

Xiluo followed Luo Lan and Xiao Ling after overhearing a commotion, while a disguised culprit recognized her and reflected on the near-erasure of the Xingtian clan’s shamanic lineage. At Xingtian Temple, Wu Zhen struggled to remember her vanished relatives as she and Xingtian Shi vowed to hunt the culprit, who had now targeted the performers of the Puppeteer Kingdom.

• Xiluo overheard a commotion at the Inspectorate and followed Luo Lan and Xiao Ling into the streets.
• A three-foot-tall man recognized Xiluo as the Queen Mother of the West and feared that the Dao Ancestor was nearby.
• The man recalled that he had caused the Ganqi City Rebellion, devoured Xingtian Shi’s great shamans, and nearly severed the Xingtian clan’s shamanic lineage.
• Wu Zhen struggled with contradictory memories of her vanished relatives, while Xingtian Shi promised to help her remember them.
• Xingtian Shi revealed that the culprit had appeared again and targeted the Puppeteer Kingdom’s performers, and Wu Zhen summoned her Ten White Bone Rings and Primordial Spirit as she vowed to kill him.

As Ganqi City tightened security, Xiluo explained that she was teaching Xiao Ling and Luo Lan to cultivate so they could help her win against the culprit behind the Ganqi City Rebellion. Luo Lan reached the great completion stage of Refining Essence into Qi, took a Primordial Spirit Pill, and began forming his Primordial Spirit.

• Xu Jia noticed Ganqi City increasing its guards and activating its barrier screening system, which led suspected spies and smugglers to leave.
• Xiluo told Xiao Ling she was teaching her and Luo Lan because both were tied to the person who stole the Buddha's head and wanted to uncover the truth behind the Ganqi City Rebellion.
• Xiluo said the culprit had taken Xiao Ling's grandfather, but Xiao Ling insisted she was an orphan and had no grandfather.
• Luo Lan meditated beneath a waterfall and used Life Primordial Qi to form Body-Protecting Gang Qi, reaching the great completion stage of Refining Essence into Qi.
• Luo Lan swallowed a Primordial Spirit Pill, and his Primordial Spirit manifested as he began drawing in Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi.