Chapter Summaries

The High Priest led the Longbo Giants into battle against a gathering of Golden Ao after one of the creatures awakened spiritual intelligence. When they found the Golden Ao carrying the Longbo Kingdom’s former palace and a headless Buddha statue, the statue’s eerie halo drove the creatures into a frenzy.

• The High Priest explained that Golden Ao could develop spiritual intelligence, then ordered Cang Qing to protect Yao Xi while the others searched for their leader.
• Yao Xi unleashed wind, waves, and lightning against the Golden Ao as Cang Qing shielded her and promised revenge for Luo Qiao.
• The intelligent Golden Ao surfaced, carrying the Longbo Kingdom’s former palace and a headless Buddha statue on its back.
• The High Priest urged the Longbo Giants to kill the leader, and they charged the Golden Ao, smashing islands and knocking creatures aside.
• The intelligent Golden Ao tried to flee, but the headless Buddha emitted a halo that made it and the other Golden Ao turn berserk and attack.

Luo Qiao emerged from a Golden Ao’s corpse with a powerful Body-Protecting Sword Qi, shocking Qingyue and drawing Li Boyang and Xiluo’s attention. After Qingyue rescued him from another Golden Ao, the Golden Ao leader briefly regained its senses and fled underwater.

• Qingyue searched the battlefield for Luo Qiao while Li Boyang reassured him and Xiluo predicted Luo Qiao would emerge.
• Luo Qiao burst from a Golden Ao’s corpse in a surge of Sword Gang and Sha Qi, revealing faint traces of Body-Protecting Sword Qi.
• Xiluo recognized Luo Qiao’s sword ability as resembling Li Boyang’s unique Body-Protecting Sword Qi, and Li Boyang confirmed it was his technique.
• Luo Qiao wondered at the power of the Divine Ability he had derived from the Breathing Method as a crazed Golden Ao charged him.
• Qingyue struck the Golden Ao with Great Stele Hand and smashed its head, provoking the nearby Golden Ao into greater frenzy.
• The Golden Ao leader mourned the creature’s death, regained some reason, and submerged itself to escape the battle.

Li Boyang explained to Luo Qiao why the Longbo Giants needed written history and urged him to preserve the Longbo Kingdom’s past. Luo Qiao realized Li Boyang wanted him to become the Longbo Kingdom’s historian shaman.

• Luo Qiao wondered whether the Longbo Giants needed to risk their dwindling numbers fighting the Golden Ao over worthless ruins.
• Li Boyang explained that the Longbo Giants had relied on elders’ stories instead of objective written records, leaving them unable to learn from their kingdom’s rise and fall.
• Li Boyang argued that the Longbo Kingdom’s ruins, traditions, and surviving Longbo Giants proved its history mattered, then transformed himself into a Longbo Giant.
• Li Boyang urged Luo Qiao to compile the kingdom’s history with the elders’ help and preserve evidence from its ruins.
• Luo Qiao asked whether Li Boyang wanted him to become the Longbo Kingdom’s historian shaman.

Li Boyang urged Luo Qiao to consider preserving the history of the Longbo Kingdom, warning that the truth might put him at odds with the high priest. He revealed himself as the Dao Ancestor and awakened Luo Qiao’s innate divine ability, Lucid Sword Heart, leaving Luo Qiao’s Gang Qi transforming into sword energy.

• Luo Qiao realized Li Boyang wanted him to preserve and investigate the Longbo Kingdom’s history, and Li Boyang warned that uncovering the truth could make the high priest his enemy.
• Luo Qiao guessed that Li Boyang was the Dao Ancestor and recognized him as the source of the Breathing Method.
• Li Boyang explained that Luo Qiao was an innate divine being whose talent had been wasted because the Longbo Kingdom had fallen before he was born.
• Li Boyang demonstrated his sword ability by silently parting the sea with black-and-yellow Sword Qi, then named Luo Qiao’s talent the lucid sword heart.
• Luo Qiao understood that his move against the Golden Ao had come from the Breathing Method and began unconsciously shaping his Gang Qi into swords.

Xiluo confronted Yinglong over his role in bringing the Longbo Giants into the Hundred Lands Mountain Range. Yinglong explained that the Giants would serve as a pilot site for expanding the Mystic Garden Barrier, a plan supported by Nü E and Lu Huaijin’s faction.

• Xiluo asked the Longbo Giants’ high priest whether their decision to join the Hundred Lands Mountain Range was their own or their god’s decree.
• Yinglong revealed himself at the shrine and admitted that he had promised to bring the Longbo Giants into the mountain range.
• Yinglong explained that his father had tracked Li Boyang and Xiluo to the East Sea, and Xiluo warned him not to break his promise to the Giants.
• Yinglong said Lu Huaijin’s faction was pursuing outward expansion and that the Longbo Giants would be a pilot site for the Mystic Garden Barrier.
• Yinglong explained that Nü E had approved the pilot-site plan after Great Xia’s opposition had stalled barrier expansion five years earlier.

Xingtian City’s sale of mechanical and mechanism beasts helped spark a massacre and the Battle for Kunlun, as the Federation of the Xia accused the city of betrayal and demanded its technology. Xingtian Shi rejected the demands and entered the war, with the West Sea Dragon Race joining Xingtian City against Great Xia.

• The Hundred Lands Mountain Range’s innovations spread through Xingtian City, which had sold mechanical and mechanism beasts to the outside world for about five years.
• Slaves in states near Xingtian City used the beasts to rebel, and the fighting escalated into a massacre that killed ordinary citizens and some great witches and gods.
• The Ten Witches of Spirit Mountain developed spells against the beasts, helping the great witches and gods halt the massacre and bringing Great Xia officially into the war.
• The gods of Great Xia accused Xingtian City of betrayal, demanded it stop selling the beasts and hand over its technology, and sought to investigate its ties to the Hundred Lands Mountain Range.
• Xingtian Shi rejected Great Xia’s demands and joined the fighting, while the shamans sided with Great Xia’s gods.
• Ao Shun led the West Sea Dragon Race to support Xingtian City, and the conflict expanded into a war between gods, great witches, and warriors.

After the Three-Eyed Holy Demons broke the siege of Xingtian City with supplies and defeated Great Xia’s gods, the city and Kunlun joined the Mystic Garden Barrier. Fu Kui then established the Nine Provinces Barrier, giving intelligent beings the choice of joining either side and leaving both Great Xia and the mountain folk displeased.

• The war around Xingtian City dragged on for three months until the city faced starvation after missing the spring sowing season.
• The mountain folk sent steel aircraft carriers loaded with supplies to Mount Kunlun and Xingtian City, then routed the gods of Great Xia with coordinated formations and Law Treasures.
• The lands of Kunlun, including Xingtian City, became part of the Mystic Garden Barrier, which travelers with the mountain folk’s Navigation Map could cross freely.
• Fu Kui became the eleventh Witch King of Great Xia, united intelligent beings across the land, and restarted the Divine Land Barrier as the Nine Provinces Barrier.
• Fu Kui taught local beings to integrate their earth and water veins, allowing them to join the Nine Provinces Barrier or the Mystic Garden Barrier by choice.

The Hundred Lands Mountain Range chose the Longbo Giants as allies for a pilot site in the East Sea, aiming to integrate its earth and water veins despite the Golden Ao and possible objections. As Yao Xi oversaw the shifting islands, she questioned the motives of Li Boyang and Xiluo and remained wary of the newly appeared Sea God.

• Lu Huaijin’s pilot site plan gained the support of every village representative in the Hundred Lands Assembly, and the Hundred Lands Mountain Range decided to cultivate steadfast allies beyond its borders.
• Xiluo realized Yinglong and the others had chosen the Longbo Giants, whose survival depended on joining the Hundred Lands Mountain Range and whose Luo Qiao had attracted Li Boyang’s interest.
• Yinglong planned to integrate the earth and water veins in part of the East Sea, relying on Divine Lord Meng Zhang’s silence and intending to deal with the East Sea Dragon Race and Golden Ao.
• Yao Xi arranged for the Longbo Giants to move islands into a formation that would unite the local veins and trap the Golden Ao.
• Yao Xi worried that Li Boyang and Xiluo had an unusual purpose and told Qingyue she could not simply trust the Sea God who had suddenly appeared.

Li Boyang discovered that Yinglong had helped the Longbo Giants weave a powerful net using Mist and Cloud Gauze and golden resin. Xiluo explained that the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare would use electricity to catch every Golden Ao in the waters, while the East Sea Dragon Race cleared the other creatures away.

• Li Boyang saw the Longbo Giants weaving Mist and Cloud Gauze with golden resin and learned that Yinglong had taught them the technique.
• Li Boyang reflected on Yinglong’s exceptional talent and how his self-doubt had hindered his cultivation.
• Xiluo revealed that Yinglong had designed the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare to conduct electricity through the sea and catch the Golden Ao.
• Xiluo told Li Boyang that the East Sea Dragon Race had agreed to clear the waters of other creatures beforehand.
• Li Boyang realized the dragon gods’ names were already recorded in Xiluo’s Jade Pool Heavenly Book.

Yinglong confronted Ao Guang in the East Sea Crystal Palace, demanding the Dragon Race’s help with the Hundred Lands Mountain Range’s plans. Divine Lord Meng Zhang secured the Dragon Race’s cooperation and revealed that the Golden Ao had been guided to the East Sea to reach a headless statue in Biyou Palace, made from a strange stone left by a dead god.

• Yinglong threatened Ao Guang, who refused to involve the East Sea Dragon Race in the conflict between the Hundred Lands Mountain Range and Great Xia.
• As the Dragon Race prepared to fight, Divine Lord Meng Zhang appeared and questioned Yinglong’s heavy-handed approach.
• Yinglong revealed the Jade Pool Heavenly Book, and Divine Lord Meng Zhang explained that Yinglong had provoked Ao Guang because he looked down on the Dragon King’s loss of drive.
• Divine Lord Meng Zhang promised the East Sea Dragon Race would help the Hundred Lands Mountain Range establish a Mystic Garden Barrier, on condition that the Golden Ao and other East Sea life were not harmed.
• Divine Lord Meng Zhang revealed that someone had guided the Golden Ao to the East Sea to reach a headless Buddha statue in Biyou Palace.
• Divine Lord Meng Zhang explained that the statue had begun as a strange stone formed from a god’s remains, retaining the power to reflect the forms of all things.

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.