Chapter Summaries

Li Boyang showed the Deception Rabbit how fire serpents lived and warned that one of his future students would lead many others to become transformation-skilled Heavenly Demons. He revealed that the Deception Rabbit would die trying to stop her, leaving the Rabbit to realize Li Boyang had come to rewrite his fate.

• A fire serpent died and dozens of new serpents emerged, competing until one survived; Li Boyang then moved the newborn serpents into other candle flames.
• Li Boyang explained that the fire serpents could teach the Deception Rabbit’s students to value life, and warned that transformation arts might lead them onto the Evil Dao.
• Li Boyang foretold that one woman would surpass the Deception Rabbit, lead most of his students onto the Demon Path, and establish the Myriad Transformations Demons.
• The Deception Rabbit learned that he would die trying to stop his student and that his death would cause her to fall fully into demonhood.
• After trading jokes and laughing together, the Deception Rabbit thanked Li Boyang for coming to change his future death.

Li Boyang warned Deception Rabbit about his behavior and asked him to watch over Lü Yan, then revealed that the Dao Proving of the Dao of Immortals had only narrowly succeeded because the Fusang Great Emperor died. Meanwhile, Xiluo left the Hundred Lands Mountain Range for the East Sea, prompting Qiongxiao and Bixiao to suspect she was connected to the last Dao Proving.

• Li Boyang cautioned Deception Rabbit to study divination and be more careful as a teacher.
• Li Boyang asked Deception Rabbit to watch over Lü Yan and keep him from straying down the wrong path.
• Li Boyang told Deception Rabbit that the Dao Proving had narrowly succeeded because the Fusang Great Emperor had died.
• Xiluo flew out of the Hundred Lands Mountain Range toward the East Sea, and Nü E dismissed the delayed barrier alert.
• Bixiao and Qiongxiao discussed Xiluo's movements and suspected she had ties to the last Dao Proving.

Yao Xi warned Luo Qiao that the title “Cult Master Tongtian” carried dangerous responsibilities because his followers’ shared ideal could drive them to extremes. She urged him to understand the consequences of his teachings and balance ideals with rules before accepting the role.

• Yao Xi admired the murals and reliefs in Biyou Palace while Luo Qiao followed her.
• Yao Xi questioned why Luo Qiao accepted the name “Cult Master Tongtian” and warned that others might be trying to entrap him with it.
• Yao Xi explained that a cult gathered people around a shared ideal and could descend into fanaticism.
• Yao Xi predicted that Luo Qiao’s followers might challenge Heaven and asked whether he would support or restrain them.
• Yao Xi urged Luo Qiao to understand the burden of the title and to combine ideals with rules.

Yao Xi and Luo Qiao explored the Longbo Kingdom’s history and discussed how written records preserve not only events but a people’s thoughts and spirit. Yao Xi argued that history shamans could shape a civilization’s character, while Luo Qiao considered the limits of an observer’s perspective.

• Yao Xi reflected on the murals and reliefs, concluding that the Longbo Giants had declined after losing contact with the outside world.
• Luo Qiao explained that the Longbo Kingdom had never developed writing and that Great Xia had spread its civilization and writing across the era.
• Yao Xi asked Luo Qiao why he had added written accounts only to more recent murals, and he said he could record only history he had personally witnessed.
• Yao Xi urged Luo Qiao to include the Longbo Giants’ feelings and choices, arguing that history shamans could shape their people’s character and help create a powerful civilization.

Yao Xi discovered that Luo Qiao had been guarding Chi, a Great Luo Golden Immortal’s Primordial Spirit, in an endless corridor inside Biyou Palace. Luo Qiao explained how he sustained Chi and why repeated attempts to create a suitable body had failed, while Yao Xi began to understand the Queen Mother of the West’s frequent visits.

• Yao Xi and Luo Qiao reached the endless corridor, where a golden light revealed the hidden Primordial Spirit Luo Qiao had been entrusted to protect.
• Luo Qiao admitted that the light was Chi and explained that the Dao Ancestor had warned him of the danger and taught him Mediation of Creation to sustain Chi’s vitality.
• Luo Qiao used Mediation of Creation to gather the golden light into an egg-like form, where Yao Xi glimpsed the unformed Three-Legged Golden Crow.
• Luo Qiao said that Chi needed an undying, indestructible body, but the body made from seven-colored lotus roots and the body refined from an Elixir of Immortality had both failed.
• Yao Xi realized that the Queen Mother of the West’s repeated visits were attempts to find a suitable material, while Luo Qiao said he had begun considering other approaches.

Yao Xi told Luo Qiao that the Six Witches of Kaiming might be investigating the Elixir of Immortality. On Penglai Island, Yunxiao caught Wu Di near her herb garden and proposed a new punishment: he could teach her alchemy.

• Yao Xi questioned Luo Qiao about the Six Witches of Kaiming after saying she had come because someone else might have noticed the place.
• Yunxiao confronted Wu Di, who denied trying to steal herbs and blamed his brother for earlier intrusions.
• Wu Di complained about Yunxiao’s past punishment, when he had to wear a giant tortoise shell while greeting visitors at the docks.
• Yunxiao offered to change Wu Di’s punishment and asked him to teach her to refine pills.
• Wu Di asked whether Cult Master Tongtian had already taught Yunxiao alchemy.

Wu Peng visited Wu Fan and Wu Yang on Mystic Garden Island and found Wu Fan using new tools from the Hundred Lands Mountain Range to automate pill refining. Wu Fan defended the method as a way to handle ordinary pills and make time for new formulas, assuring Wu Peng that he would not lose his skills.

• Wu Peng overheard Wu Yang and Wu Fan discussing the Mountain Folk’s supply of medicinal ingredients and learned that Tongtian had never learned pill refining.
• Wu Peng found Wu Fan watching an automated pill-refining setup that included a new Pill Platform from the Hundred Lands Mountain Range.
• Wu Peng worried that relying on the tools would weaken Wu Fan’s skills and eventually make witch doctors and Alchemists unnecessary.
• Wu Fan argued that automation handled only ordinary pills and gave Alchemists more time to develop new formulas, while the Mountain Folk still had many skilled Alchemists.
• Wu Yang compared the process to their earlier automated refinement of the Corpse of the Punished Remains, and Wu Fan assured Wu Peng that he would never forget his pill-refining skills.

Wu Yang used a bronze-doll network to gather information across the Ten Continents and Three Islands, while Wu Lü managed the Six Witches of Kaiming’s profitable shop on Mystic Garden Island. As Wu Lü worried about his siblings’ spending and Wu Yang’s online shopping, he reflected on how the Mountain Folk’s Star God Network had expanded into long-distance commerce.

• Wu Peng promised Wu Yang the proceeds from selling the bronze dolls after she complained about managing the information network and demanded compensation.
• Wu Yang asked where Wu Di was, and Wu Peng awkwardly said that he would be away for a while.
• Wu Lü counted the shop’s profits and complained that Wu Yang and Wu Fan’s spending habits could threaten the business.
• Wu Lü recalled how the Mountain Folk’s Star God Network had grown from a communication and learning network into a platform for online trading.

Wu Xiang visited Zhao Gongming to order supplies through his Mission Accomplished trading business and offered a Taiyi Marrow Cleansing Pill as a deposit. Zhao Gongming sent Qingji to fulfill the order, leaving Wu Xiang marveling at the blend of myth and technology.

• Wu Xiang complained about Zhao Gongming's hidden warehouse, then browsed his runic newspaper to choose supplies.
• Wu Xiang offered Zhao Gongming a Taiyi Marrow Cleansing Pill refined by his younger brother as a deposit.
• Zhao Gongming agreed to obtain the medicinal ingredients at a discount and said he would watch for Wu Yang's luxury goods.
• Zhao Gongming summoned Qingji, who took the order and vanished underground to deliver it.
• Wu Xiang left the warehouse reflecting on how the world had become harder for him to understand.

Zhao Gongming connected the bronze dolls’ signals and the arrival of the Kaiming and Spirit Mountain witches to a possible leak about Grandmother Mountain God. Meanwhile, Yunxiao brought Wu Di into her garden, where he discovered the seven-colored lotus and met the little girl Hanzhi who emerged from it.

• Zhao Gongming reflected on the Taiyi Marrow Cleansing Pill and realized the bronze dolls were collecting information through signals he could intercept but not decipher.
• Qingji told Zhao Gongming that Wu Di had tried to enter Yunxiao’s garden again, and Zhao suspected someone had leaked Grandmother Mountain God’s whereabouts.
• Yunxiao led Wu Di into the center of her garden and asked why he and Wu Peng had repeatedly sneaked in.
• Wu Di admitted that they had been searching for the Elixir of Immortality, not the lotus pond.
• Wu Di saw the radiant seven-colored lotus and recognized signs of an Innate Deity’s birth.
• Yunxiao greeted Hanzhi, and a little girl emerged from the lotus and threw herself into Yunxiao’s arms.

Wu Di explained that the Seven-Colored Lotus was connected to the Dao Ancestor and could have become his immortal incarnation, making Hanzhi far more than an ordinary Innate Deity. Yunxiao was left stunned and wondered why Wu Di had revealed the secrets.

• Wu Di told Yunxiao that the Six Witches of Kaiming had sought Elixirs of Immortality to improve their own imperfect version and had avoided the Hundred Lands Mountain Range because of their history with the Dao Ancestor.
• Wu Di revealed that the Queen Mother of the West had visited Longbo Kingdom more often than Yunxiao knew and that Hanzhi’s birth had little to do with the lotus being an Elixir of Immortality.
• Wu Di told Yunxiao and Hanzhi that the Seven-Colored Lotus had nearly become the Dao Ancestor’s incarnation, and Hanzhi might otherwise have been an undying lotus-root incarnation.
• Yunxiao asked Wu Di why he had shared these secrets, and he said she deserved to know because she had let him see her lotus pond.

Xiluo stopped Chan Master Huanglong from interfering with Sovereign Lord Donghua’s reincarnation, stripping him of his cultivation and divine status. Huanglong abandoned the Path of Spirit and set off for Kunlun to pursue the Dao of Immortals, hoping to join the Twelve Golden Immortals.

• Xiluo encountered Chan Master Huanglong, who admitted he was delaying Chi’s rebirth to improve his own chances of attaining the Dao.
• Xiluo reached across time and space and struck Chan Master Huanglong with Divine Lightning of the Nine Heavens.
• Chan Master Huanglong survived but lost his cultivation, his connection to Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, and his chance to attain the Dao through the Path of Spirit.
• Chan Master Huanglong changed into Daoist robes, renamed himself True Person Huanglong, and decided to pursue the Dao of Immortals.
• True Person Huanglong headed to Kunlun to seek a place among the Twelve Golden Immortals.

Li Boyang and Deception Rabbit discussed Huanglong’s attempt to rewrite his origins and the Dao Proving Ones watching Xiluo, while Li Boyang kept his reasons for stepping back from rebuilding his incarnation to himself. He then showed Deception Rabbit exchange students from the Mystic Sculpture Nation arriving at the Thread of Sky, prompting Deception Rabbit to wonder if his future student was among them.

• Li Boyang explained that Huanglong’s transformation from Chan Master to Daoist had changed his fate and spared him a future conflict with Lü Yan.
• Deception Rabbit questioned why Li Boyang had abandoned attempts to rebuild the pure yang Primordial Spirit’s body, but Li Boyang refused to explain.
• Li Boyang used the Kunlun Mirror to show the Hundred Lands Mountain Range and the entrance to Thread of Sky.
• Deception Rabbit recognized dove people from the Mystic Sculpture Nation aboard a ferry and wondered if his future student was among the exchange students.

Rain Master Shang Yang confronted a Dove Person who had become the response body of a future Buddhist. After hearing his explanation, Shang Yang asked for his name and teacher, and the Dove Person identified himself as Maudgalyayana, an arhat under Amitabha Buddha.

• Shang Yang appeared before a Dove Person meditating on a mountaintop in the North Sea Eye and objected to him claiming the Dove People as his dependent race.
• The Dove Person said he was the monk's body in a past life and that he had descended in response to the Dove Person's wish.
• Shang Yang accused him of using the Dove Person's desire to secure a response body, but the monk argued that he had saved the Dove Person from death and was answering living beings' requests.
• Shang Yang recognized the monk's Divine Ability and acknowledged that his commitment to delivering living beings differed from other Buddhas he had encountered.
• Shang Yang asked the Dove Person for his name and future teacher, and the monk introduced himself as Maudgalyayana, an arhat under Amitabha Buddha known as Foremost in Divine Abilities.

Shang Yang questioned Maudgalyayana about his arrival and learned that he hoped to become the first cause of the Buddha child’s birth, while his fellow disciple Ananda had arrived earlier. Maudgalyayana sensed new ripples in the Long River of Time, as the story shifted back several days to Xu Jia at the boundary of Kunlun and the West Sea.

• Shang Yang challenged Maudgalyayana’s belief in predestination, and Maudgalyayana said he wanted to influence the Buddha child’s birth through cause and effect.
• Maudgalyayana explained that Ananda, his junior brother, was foremost in learning and had come to this era before him, possibly laying plans already.
• Maudgalyayana sensed fresh ripples in the Long River of Time and suspected they were connected to Shang Yang.
• The story shifted back several days to Kunlun and the primitive West Sea, where the West Sea Dragon Race ruled amid wild beasts, spirits, monsters, and barbarian gods.
• Xu Jia, gaunt and nearly out of vitality, was among the Rogue Cultivators drawn to the boundary between Kunlun and the West Sea.

Xu Jia explained why he had rejected immortality and devoted himself to understanding the suffering of all living beings. He recounted how he discovered Chi’s consciousness within a banished six-eared golden snub-nosed monkey, while the giant ape remained imprisoned in Xu Jia’s barrier.

• The giant ape demanded to know how long Xu Jia would keep him imprisoned, and Xu Jia said the imprisonment would last until his death.
• Xu Jia told the giant ape that he had relinquished immortality to inherit Chi’s path and hear the suffering of all living beings.
• Xu Jia recalled traveling with Li Boyang, attaining Daluo, and later leaving for Kunlun to guide its savage gods and spirits.
• Xu Jia developed a divine ability to perceive the hearts of living beings and used it to find Chi’s consciousness in the Sea of Alaya Consciousness.
• Xu Jia found Chi’s owner: a young six-eared golden snub-nosed monkey banished by his troop because his ability to read hearts frightened them.

Xu Jia recalled raising Six Ears and confronting the future Venerable Ananda who had awakened within him. As Six Ears insisted that killing the Pure Yang Primordial Spirit served the great tide, Xu Jia revealed that Ananda would need to bring about the birth of a crucial figure—even if that meant killing his master and father.

• Xu Jia raised Six Ears from a rejected cub, and the two formed a deep father-son bond.
• Six Ears gradually became the future Venerable Ananda, revealing that he knew Xu Jia was Li Boyang's student and declaring his future as a Buddha.
• Xu Jia urged Six Ears to abandon his plan to kill the Pure Yang Primordial Spirit, calling the target crucial to the rise of the Dao of Immortals.
• Six Ears rejected the idea of a great tide and claimed other Dao Proving Ones would support his attack because they also opposed the Pure Yang Primordial Spirit's rebirth.
• Xu Jia asked why Six Ears had spared him before, then revealed that Ananda would have to bring about the birth of the born Buddha, even if he had to kill his master and father.

Six Ears tried to break free and attack Xu Jia, who used the Mirror Dimension to summon a serene version of Six Ears and suppress him. The two Six Ears began matching each other’s transformations, leaving their confrontation unresolved.

• Six Ears rejected his lingering affection for Xu Jia and struck the golden barrier to escape.
• Xu Jia invoked a Buddhist intonation and rained lightning on Six Ears, but Six Ears cracked the barrier with another punch.
• Xu Jia used Refining Falsehood into Reality through the Mirror Dimension, bringing forth a calm version of Six Ears who explained that Ananda’s vast desires made the ability unsuitable for him.
• The mirror version caught Six Ears’s fist and forced him back, while Xu Jia said it possessed Six Ears’s abilities without Ananda’s influence.
• Six Ears transformed into a four-armed form with a lotus beneath his feet, and the mirror version copied his Divine Ability of Freely Willed Manifestation.

Xu Jia destroyed Śāriputra’s future śarīra, but Mahākāśyapa arrived from the future and shattered the golden barrier. The four-armed Six Ears escaped with Xu Jia into a hidden grotto-heaven and prepared to kill him.

• Xu Jia caught and crushed Śāriputra’s future śarīra before it could reach the golden barrier.
• Mahākāśyapa descended from the future and broke the golden barrier with a single finger.
• The four-armed Six Ears escaped with Xu Jia into a blessed grotto-heaven as the four-eyed Six Ears cried out after them.
• Xu Jia urged the four-armed Six Ears to reconsider his path, but Six Ears said he would see his father off on his final journey.

At Biyou Palace, Xiluo and Yao Xi discussed why Chi would not be born and the danger of the Long River of Time’s turbulence. Their conversation was interrupted when the Yin World Nether Spring erupted and a rift opened between the mortal world and the Netherworld.

• Xiluo continued trying to help Chi emerge from his golden egg, but Yao Xi suggested he disliked the body prepared for him.
• Yao Xi warned Xiluo that the Long River of Time had been turbulent since her arrival and said she feared for the Longbo Kingdom.
• Xiluo told Yao Xi that Luo Qiao was strong enough to protect the kingdom and urged her to trust her younger brother.
• A tremendous boom shook Golden Ao Island, and Yao Xi sensed the Long River of Time surge.
• Yao Xi identified a rift between the mortal world and the Netherworld and declared that the Yin World Nether Spring had erupted.