Chapter Summaries

Xiluo visited Shang Yang on Turtle Island, where she learned that gods across the North Sea were disappearing amid strange changes to the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi. Shang Yang identified the source as a heavenly demon and the still-gestating Heaven of Great Freedom.

• Xiluo bragged to Shang Yang that she had finally avoided being caught by Li Boyang, and refused to return home because she was still searching for North Sea gods.
• Shang Yang explained that Xiluo's habit of defeating local gods had made them hide from her, while Xiluo insisted that fighting was the only way to make them submit.
• Xiluo admired how quickly Shang Yang's dragon turtle had grown into an island, and the dragon turtle nervously greeted her.
• Xiluo told Shang Yang that seven or eight North Sea gods had vanished in less than a month and that the remaining gods had sensed unusual changes in the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi.
• Shang Yang said the changes came from a heavenly demon and the Heaven of Great Freedom, which was still gestating.

The chapter described how the Dao Ancestor’s reforms and the Six Paths of Reincarnation helped the Butterfly People survive and develop into a major population in the Hundred Lands Mountain Range. It introduced Yun Xiu, a Butterfly Person born among the mountain range’s migrants, as the story turned toward her family.

• The Dao Ancestor’s influence spread across the Nine Provinces as his reforms curbed disasters and opposed living sacrifices.
• The Six Paths of Reincarnation enabled more Butterfly People larvae to pupate, while changing customs led parents to raise their young.
• The Butterfly People settled in the Hundred Lands Mountain Range and grew into a population second only to the mountain folk.
• The Three-Eyed Mountain Folk became known as Three-Eyed Divine Beings or Three-Eyed Holy Demons for their divine powers and forceful enforcement of the rules.
• The chapter introduced Yun Xiu as a Butterfly Person born in the Hundred Lands Mountain Range.

Jialuo encouraged the frail Yun Xiu to overcome fear and learn to fly, while reflecting on how teaching the butterfly people had changed her view of them. She demonstrated her Divine Ability and explained that they could grow beyond their current limits, then advised them to focus on cultivating Yuan Qi.

• Jialuo encouraged Yun Xiu as Yun Xiu gradually learned to fly and landed on a nearby treetop.
• Jialuo told the butterfly people that, like Yun Xiu, they could overcome their natural limitations through effort and cultivation.
• Jialuo used Riding Clouds and Driving Mist to summon dark clouds and lightning, then dispersed them.
• Jialuo explained that the butterfly people were better suited to cultivating Yuan Qi than training their bodies or Primordial Spirits.

Wu Zhen learned that Great Xia’s Witch King inheritance ceremony needed the power of her Red Eye Cauldron because someone had stolen part of the Witch Mountain Cauldron’s power. Yue left her wondering whether a Celestial Person or the Netherworld Lord had raided Witch Mountain.

• Wu Zhen examined the cultivation method Li Boyang had adapted for the physically frail butterfly people and reflected on how far cultivation had developed in the Hundred Lands Mountain Range.
• Yue visited Wu Zhen and discussed how cultivation, communication, and other changes had reshaped Great Xia.
• Yue told Wu Zhen that the Divine Witch had begun selecting the tenth Witch King and that they might need to borrow her Red Eye Cauldron for the inheritance ceremony.
• Wu Zhen realized something had gone wrong with the Witch Mountain Cauldron, and Yue confirmed that an intruder had stolen part of its power.
• Wu Zhen asked Yue whether a Celestial Person or the Netherworld Lord had attacked Witch Mountain.

Yue told Wu Zhen that a Dao-seeker from another timeline was targeting the ability to refine the false into the real, then revealed that Great Xia had selected candidates for the tenth Witch King from the Hundred Lands Mountain Range. Li Boyang explained to Wangshu why Wu Xian’s decision to include Yinglong supported the changing era and urged her to weigh the consequences before acting.

• Yue told Wu Zhen that the suspected culprit was a Dao-seeker from another timeline, not Li Boyang or the Netherworld Lord, and Wu Zhen agreed to help the future candidate obtain the sixth Witch King's wisdom and power.
• Yue revealed that Great Xia had selected Li Jingshu, Li Xi, Nü E, and Yinglong as candidates for the tenth Witch King.
• Wu Zhen was shocked that Yinglong, who was not human, had been nominated, and Yue said Wu Xian wanted Great Xia to embrace a unified civilization and the new era.
• At the Immortality Tree, Wangshu questioned why Li Boyang allowed Great Xia to select candidates in the Hundred Lands Mountain Range.
• Li Boyang explained that Wu Xian’s decision could keep Great Xia from becoming an enemy of the changing age, then taught Wangshu to consider the benefits, drawbacks, and consequences before acting.

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.