Chapter Summaries

Wu Ji penetrated Yunmeng Marsh’s intricate formation and found a golden totem he believed was the Sea-Calming Cauldron, Kunwu. When the being rejected his demand to return to Great Xia, it revealed that the real Kunwu was elsewhere and attacked him with a Shadow Baleful Intent Dharma Aspect.

• Wu Ji calculated the changes in Yunmeng Marsh’s formations and slipped past the God-Binding Cord by exploiting its limited abilities against non-gods.
• Wu Ji reached a dark water vent and found a golden totem bearing Kunwu’s face.
• Wu Ji told Kunwu that it was the Sea-Calming Cauldron and demanded that it return to Great Xia to stop the East Sea’s flooding.
• Kunwu refused and revealed that Wu Ji would have to find the real Kunwu.
• A Shadow Baleful Intent Dharma Aspect replaced the collapsing totem and fired guns and cannons at Wu Ji.

Li Boyang and Wu Xian revealed how Wu Yao transformed the Sea-Calming Cauldron into Kunwu, and Wu Xian warned that Great Xia would reclaim it. As Wu Xian tried to leave with Wu Luo and Wu Ji, the Netherworld Lord’s curse struck him first.

• Wu Xian told Li Boyang that Wu Yao had received the Sea-Calming Cauldron from the sixth Witch King and transformed it into Kunwu after choosing to leave Great Xia’s path.
• Wu Xian explained that the Hundred Lands Mountain Range should have fallen within the Divine Land Barrier, but Wu Yao’s actions and Kunwu’s identity had concealed the truth from everyone except him.
• Li Boyang asked why floods had struck the East Sea despite Yu Guo suppressing its sea eye, but Wu Xian refused to reveal anything and summoned Wu Luo and the wounded Wu Ji back from Yunmeng Marsh.
• Wu Xian warned Li Boyang that Kunwu belonged to Great Xia, while Li Boyang replied that Kunwu’s own wishes should matter.
• As Wu Xian tried to escape by burning his life force, the Netherworld Lord’s domain returned and its curse, Lord Sacrifice: Incantation of Certain Death, fell upon him.

Li Boyang told Xiluo that Wu Xian’s invasion was meant partly as a warning, then said they should ask Kunwu what he wanted before deciding his fate. Meanwhile, Lingguzi reached the devastated Yan Fang Kingdom and descended into a sinkhole to investigate the strange vitality there, leaving the bronze serpent to guard the site.

• Li Boyang explained to Xiluo that Wu Xian and his companions had come to warn the Hundred Lands Mountain Range about Great Xia’s intentions and the power of great witches.
• Xiluo accused Li Boyang of considering a compromise over Kunwu, but Li Boyang said they should first ask Kunwu for his opinion.
• Lingguzi arrived in the Yan Fang Kingdom and found only scattered flames and lava where Jinjiao, Lady Bagui, and the Six Witches of Kaiming had already departed.
• Lingguzi sensed faint, unusual vitality in the sinkhole where Long Jikui had last been and jumped down to investigate.
• The bronze serpent scattered its body pieces around the sinkhole to guard against intruders while Lingguzi explored below.

Lingguzi discovered and captured Meng Zhang, an immortal divine soul hidden in obsidian, after learning the truth about the Six Witches of Kaiming’s failed immortality experiments. Meng Zhang revealed that the real elixir of immortality had fallen into Jinjiao’s hands, but Lingguzi sealed him inside a finger bone and planned to take him to the Prophet.

• Lingguzi found a green, embryo-like being inside obsidian formed from Long Jikui’s blood and trapped it with seals.
• The creature identified himself as Divine Lord Meng Zhang, a subordinate of Yu Guo, and offered to reveal the location of the real elixir of immortality.
• Meng Zhang’s history revealed that the Six Witches of Kaiming had used him and Long Jikui in experiments with the Immortality Cauldron, while Lady Bagui escaped their control.
• Meng Zhang explained that he had hidden in the obsidian when Jinjiao absorbed Long Jikui, and Lingguzi realized the real elixir had fallen into Jinjiao’s hands.
• Meng Zhang tried to escape, but Lingguzi drew him into a piece of finger bone and considered taking him to the Prophet to refine a complete elixir of immortality.

Li Boyang and Xiluo questioned Kunwu and learned that he had always known he was the Sea-Calming Cauldron and expected Great Xia to come for him. When Kunwu offered to return to help with the East Sea flooding, Xiluo imprisoned him in the pool and ordered the God-Binding Cord to guard him.

• Li Boyang and Xiluo confronted Kunwu at the waterfall pool and asked when he had learned he was the Sea-Calming Cauldron.
• Kunwu said he had known from the beginning and had stayed silent because they had never asked him.
• Kunwu revealed that Wu Xian and the others intended to take him back to Great Xia, as he had expected after failing to respond to Wu Yi's shot at Heaven.
• Li Boyang told Kunwu that Great Xia needed him to curb flooding in the East Sea, and Kunwu began to offer his help.
• Xiluo refused to let Kunwu leave Flying Peak, declared him imprisoned in the pool, and ordered the God-Binding Cord to watch him.
• Li Boyang agreed not to oppose Xiluo's decision.

Li Boyang returned to the mountain god temple and spoke with Yinjiao, who wanted more swords and was tempted to learn artifact refining. Meanwhile, Jinjiao struggled to control his golden gourd as a streak of vermilion blood moved across it, leaving Nüman wondering what it had failed to refine.

• Li Boyang found Xiluo gone and explained to Yinjiao that her demand for Kunwu had only been a pretext.
• Yinjiao asked Li Boyang to refine more swords for her, and he offered to teach her artifact refining instead.
• Li Boyang explained his plans to teach the Five Elements Escape Techniques more widely and said Li Jingshu should focus on divine abilities and commanding gods and ghosts.
• Li Boyang learned that Jinjiao had sent for him and went with Yinjiao to see what had happened.
• At the mountain forest behind Flying Peak, Jinjiao's golden gourd shook violently while a streak of vermilion blood moved across it, and Nüman asked what he had put inside.

Li Boyang discovered that the strange vitality left inside Jinjiao’s golden gourd might help him forge an undying body and resolve the conflict between Kunwu and Xiluo. Meanwhile, Wu Peng found Lady Bagui and concluded that she was the missing ingredient needed to refine a true immortality medicine.

• Jinjiao told Li Boyang that the golden gourd had failed to refine the vitality inside Long Jikui’s corpse.
• Li Boyang touched the gourd, stopped the escaping vitality, and realized its strange endurance might hold the key to his own breakthrough.
• The golden gourd shrank into Li Boyang’s hand as he connected the vitality to the legend of a Divine Witch who lived for over two thousand years after taking an immortality medicine.
• Wu Peng secretly found Lady Bagui’s village and revealed that she had been one of the ingredients used to refine the immortality medicine.
• Wu Peng decided Lady Bagui needed to merge with the God-Terrifying Corpse again to give the Six Witches of Kaiming another chance to create a true immortality medicine.

Wu Peng confronted Lady Bagui in the village and trapped her inside his Barrier Domain, which cut her off from Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi and weakened her. The chapter ended as Lady Bagui challenged his confidence in victory.

• Wu Peng entered the village, and his witchcraft kept the mountain folk from noticing him.
• Lady Bagui recognized Wu Peng as the one behind the immortality medicine and demanded to know if he had brought her fatal tribulation.
• Wu Peng introduced himself as a great witch of the Hundred Spirits Tribe and one of the Ten Witches of Spirit Mountain, then demanded the location of the God-Terrifying Corpse.
• Lady Bagui attacked with her palm-leaf fan, but Wu Peng spread his Barrier Domain across the village and stopped her fire tornado from harming anyone.
• Wu Peng explained that Barrier Domains sever gods from Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, then advanced on Lady Bagui as his vines and an immortal tree appeared.
• Lady Bagui found her power greatly weakened inside the domain but insisted that this did not mean Wu Peng had won.

Li Boyang arrived with Jinjiao and Yinjiao as Wu Peng’s [Barrier Domain] trapped Lady Bagui, and he investigated the powerful Great Xia technique. When Li Boyang forced his way into the domain with a gigantic eye, his intrusion shattered Wu Peng’s convictions and left the barrier collapsing.

• Li Boyang arrived in the village with Jinjiao and Yinjiao and recognized Wu Peng’s barrier as a complete, highly refined technique.
• Li Boyang explained the barrier’s significance and suspected it was a Great Xia art used by great shamans.
• Li Boyang examined the barrier’s structure and opened cracks in it, revealing a domain built around an immortal tree.
• Lady Bagui and Wu Peng looked up as Li Boyang’s gigantic eye pushed through the cracks and observed them.
• Wu Peng’s will and convictions collapsed under the intrusion, causing his body to crack and the immortal tree supporting the domain to wither.

Li Boyang stopped himself from shattering Wu Peng’s Dao heart and received a promise that Wu Peng would answer questions selectively. On Bronze Island, Xiluo learned that Hanging Silk Lady had gone to find Lingguzi, who had run off again, and worried he might cause another dangerous explosion.

• Li Boyang withdrew his hand from the crumbling [Barrier Domain], and Wu Peng voluntarily dismissed it after his convictions nearly collapsed.
• Wu Peng said he would answer Li Boyang’s questions selectively because Li Boyang had stopped before destroying his heart image completely.
• Jinjiao and Lady Bagui stopped Yinjiao from confronting Wu Peng while he was still recovering his convictions.
• On Bronze Island, Xiluo questioned Little Eighteen and learned that Hanging Silk Lady had gone to find Lingguzi, who had run off to gather herbs.
• Xiluo recalled that Lingguzi’s previous pill experiment had nearly blown up Bronze Island, and Little Eighteen asked to be assigned to reception duty in Yunmeng Marsh.

Lingguzi returned with Meng Zhang sealed inside a finger bone and revealed that he was being used as an ingredient in the Elixir of Immortality ritual, alarming Hanging Silk Lady and Lord Tiaoyao. At Gao Family Village, Panhu watched the village prosper and develop new industries, then lost his mother, Old Madam Gao.

• Hanging Silk Lady confronted Lingguzi at the canal, and he admitted he had sought ingredients for the Elixir of Immortality.
• Lingguzi showed Hanging Silk Lady and the eavesdropping Lord Tiaoyao the living Meng Zhang sealed inside a finger bone and explained his role in the ritual.
• Hanging Silk Lady interrupted Lingguzi before he could finish describing the ritual, while Lord Tiaoyao wondered whether the Elixir of Immortality could be created under Li Boyang's protection.
• Panhu continued guiding Gao Family Village's road-building and leather-processing industries, and he agreed with Old Madam Gao that the village should establish an elementary school.
• Old Madam Gao died beside Panhu, who wept as he realized he had lost the person he could depend on.

Li Boyang questioned Wu Peng about the Immortality Cauldron and the Elixir of Immortality, learning how the Six Witches of Kaiming planned to resurrect Wu Yi. Wu Peng revealed that they intended to cultivate a new Immortality Herb by making dying gods fight over it.

• Li Boyang discussed the Barrier Domain and the second Witch King with Wu Peng, then asked him about the Immortality Cauldron and the Elixir of Immortality.
• Wu Peng explained that the Nine Cauldrons formed the foundation of the Divine Land Barrier and that the Six Witches of Kaiming had found the Immortality Cauldron while searching for them.
• Wu Peng said the fifth Witch King had left a ritual for refining the Elixir of Immortality, but had destroyed the ingredients, which had once included a remnant of the Immortality Herb.
• Wu Peng explained that the Six Witches of Kaiming wanted to resurrect Wu Yi and had decided to cultivate the Immortality Herb themselves.
• Wu Peng revealed that the witches planned to use the corpses and divine souls of gods, forcing dying gods to fight over the nascent herb until it became a perfect Elixir of Immortality.

Li Boyang explained that Lady Bagui and the Way of the Celestial Person had made the Immortality Herb’s self-sustaining growth possible, revealing that Lady Bagui was its essential core rather than a supplementary ingredient. He then set aside the discussion of the Elixir of Immortality and turned to the flooding in Great Xia.

• Wu Peng described how the Six Witches of Kaiming used Long Jikui’s corpse and the Immortality Cauldron to cultivate the Immortality Herb and attract deities to transform it into an Elixir of Immortality.
• Li Boyang warned Wu Peng that the process could produce a monster and that the Six Witches had not controlled which beings entered the corpse.
• Li Boyang asked whether Lady Bagui was the only survivor and pointed out that the herb’s growth lacked a sustainable cycle unless something continually supplied it with nourishment.
• Li Boyang concluded that Lady Bagui’s use of the Method of the Celestial Person let the herb draw on Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, making her its crucial core ingredient.
• The Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron stopped facedown, and Li Boyang put it away before changing the subject to the East Sea and Great Xia’s flooding.

Li Boyang learned from Wu Peng that Wu Xian had concealed the Sea-Calming Cauldron’s location and was trying to use it to stop the East Sea floods. Wu Peng agreed that Li Boyang should help Wu Xian obtain the cauldron, then the chapter explained Yu Guo’s history as the first Gonggong and Great Xia’s former mediator between humans and gods.

• Wu Peng deduced that Li Boyang had met Wu Xian and wanted to learn about the East Sea floods and the Sea-Calming Cauldron.
• Wu Peng explained that Wu Xian had used the Immortality Cauldron to distract the other great witches while planning to quell the East Sea floods.
• Wu Peng said he would help Li Boyang learn how the floods began and argued that the great witches should support Wu Xian rather than weaken one another.
• The chapter recounted how Yu Guo, a benevolent water god who helped the first Witch King found Great Xia, became its first Gonggong.
• Yu Guo later left Great Xia after conflict over the Common Lord position and served as a powerful mediator between humans and gods.

Wu Peng explained that the East Sea’s flooding came from the Nether Spring beneath the destroyed Fusang Tree, a passage between the Yin and Yang Worlds that released deadly Water of the Netherworld. Li Boyang realized the spring could threaten all future life, while the Sea-Calming Cauldron was the only known way to restrain it.

• Li Boyang asked whether Yu Guo’s death had caused the East Sea flooding, and Wu Peng said Yu Guo’s death was unconfirmed and Great Xia had prepared extensively for the East Sea.
• Wu Peng explained that the legendary Nether Spring connected the Yin World and the Yang World, and that the Netherworld Lord had once crossed between them through the passage opened by death.
• Wu Peng said the Nether Spring lay beneath the Fusang Tree, destroyed after the Heavenly Emperor’s battle with the Netherworld Lord’s reincarnated body.
• Wu Peng warned that the Water of the Netherworld could extinguish life and harm future generations, and said the Sea-Calming Cauldron was the only known means of restraining the spring.
• Li Boyang understood the danger could grow as the water spread and cursed Wu Yi.

Li Boyang preached about the mind, Witch Law, barriers, and formations while Jinjiao brought Lady Bagui, Hanging Silk Lady, and Lingguzi to Ghost God Cliff with the blood-stained golden gourd. After the group reached the cliff, Yinjiao stayed behind and argued with Wu Peng about her feelings toward Lady Bagui.

• Li Boyang gave a sermon that enthralled Wu Peng and discussed the mind, Witch Law, barriers, and formations.
• Jinjiao led Lady Bagui, Hanging Silk Lady, and Lingguzi toward Ghost God Cliff while Meng Zhang suffered through the pain inside the finger bone.
• Lady Bagui feared that Li Boyang might refine her into the Elixir of Immortality, but Jinjiao reassured her that his master was not that kind of person.
• Wu Peng recognized Lady Bagui as the group passed the mountain god's temple but showed no interest in the incomplete Elixir of Immortality.
• Yinjiao declined to follow the others, and Wu Peng told her that her coldness had made Lady Bagui cautious before Yinjiao kicked him and left.

Li Boyang began refining the Purple-Gold Red Gourd with the formless embryo, while secretly severing Lady Bagui’s connection to the Elixir of Immortality. Kunwu arrived after choosing to face the Nether Spring, and he explained why he was determined to stop the calamity as Xiluo angrily opposed him.

• Jinjiao, Lady Bagui, Hanging Silk Lady, and Lingguzi arrived at Ghost God Cliff, where Lingguzi gave Li Boyang the finger bone containing the formless embryo.
• Li Boyang drew the embryo into the golden gourd and poured Primordial Qi into it to refine the Purple-Gold Red Gourd.
• Li Boyang secretly severed Lady Bagui’s connection to the Elixir of Immortality, freeing her from the sensation of being refined.
• Kunwu arrived with Xiluo in pursuit and told Li Boyang that he had made his decision, while Xiluo warned Li not to help him face the Nether Spring.
• Kunwu explained that Wu Yao had awakened him to pursue a path different from Great Xia’s and that he had known her as a girl struggling to lead her people to survive.

Kunwu revealed her long history with Wu Yao and urged Xiluo to support her plan, but Li Boyang explained how he could separate Kunwu from the Sea-Calming Cauldron. He proposed using the Elixir of Immortality to help Kunwu become a Heavenly Deity, leaving Kunwu stunned by his willingness to give up his only portion.

• Kunwu recalled how she had supported Wu Yao and become the Sea-Calming Cauldron's Totem Deity before they parted ways.
• Kunwu asked Xiluo to consider what Wu Yao would have wanted and to support her choice.
• Li Boyang denied agreeing to hand Kunwu over to Wu Xian and revealed that he had the Elixir of Immortality.
• Li Boyang explained that Kunwu could become a Heavenly Deity and separate from the Sea-Calming Cauldron.
• Li Boyang offered Kunwu the Elixir of Immortality to help her overcome her physical limitations, shocking Kunwu.

Li Boyang began completing the Elixir of Immortality by refining Kunwu in the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron and using a Taiji-powered Eight Trigrams Formation to generate its life-giving essence. As the true elixir resonated with the cauldron, a massive Yuan Qi storm and heavenly punishment gathered over Flying Peak.

• Li Boyang told Kunwu that he needed to enter the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron, and Kunwu agreed to trust him and jumped inside.
• Li Boyang ignited the cauldron’s flames as Kunwu circulated the method he had taught him; Kunwu’s body melted and condensed into a patterned form with a meridian system.
• Li Boyang used his Taiji Diagram to form a three-dimensional Eight Trigrams Formation, separating Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi and creating a stream of vitality inside the cauldron.
• Li Boyang’s Shadow Baleful Intent Dharma Aspects fed precious medicinal ingredients and ores into the cauldron, while Lingguzi realized he was completing the Elixir of Immortality rather than making another one.
• The purple-gold red gourd resonated with the cauldron, drawing in Yuan Qi until a storm swept across Yunmeng Marsh and black clouds gathered over Flying Peak.
• Lightning and thunder filled the clouds as a heavenly punishment far greater than an ordinary heavenly tribulation began to form.

As Li Boyang refined the Elixir of Immortality, its birth drew Heavenly Punishment that threatened the Hundred Lands Mountain Range. Xiluo confronted the thunderclouds while Li Boyang’s tempering of Kunwu awakened his Primordial Spirit.

• Wu Xian recognized that the Heavenly Punishment had been drawn by the birth of a new Elixir of Immortality.
• Li Boyang used the Diagram of Mountains, Rivers, and the Land to take himself, the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron, and the Purple-Gold Red Gourd inside it.
• Heavenly Punishment gathered inside the Diagram, and Xiluo split the thunderclouds with the Baleful Force of the Five Punishments.
• Li Boyang accelerated the pill refinement and repeatedly expanded and tempered Kunwu’s Sea-Calming Cauldron body.
• Kunwu’s consciousness began to reject his body, and he realized that his Primordial Spirit had awakened through Li Boyang’s method.