Chapter Summaries

Li Boyang learned that the Yin World Nether Spring had erupted and went to the Yunmeng Jade Pool Realm to investigate, leaving the Kunlun Mirror with Li Jingshu. He flew to the great moon to speak with Wangshu while Li Jingshu watched the spring and the Sea-Calming Divine Needle.

• Li Boyang discovered that the Yin World Nether Spring had erupted and asked Jinjiao to keep Yinjiao under punishment while he left.
• Li Boyang arrived in the Yunmeng Jade Pool Realm and gave Li Jingshu the Kunlun Mirror, telling her to intervene if necessary.
• Li Boyang reminded Li Jingshu that she and Yinjiao had recently nearly harmed Single Horn Si with medicinal pills.
• Li Boyang flew toward the great moon to visit Wangshu, while Li Jingshu watched the Sea-Calming Divine Needle suppressing the Yin World Nether Spring.

The Sea-Calming Divine Treasure’s violent vibrations stirred a tsunami and sent Netherworld Qi surging through the Yin World Nether Spring. Ox-Head revealed that someone was trying to enter reincarnation with their memories and obsession intact, leaving Divine Lord Meng Zhang baffled about who would attempt such a dangerous route.

• The Sea-Calming Divine Treasure shook violently, causing a tsunami across the East Sea, and Divine Lord Meng Zhang and the East Sea dragons rushed to the Yin World Nether Spring.
• Divine Lord Meng Zhang and Ao Guang saw chaotic Netherworld Qi spilling into the living world as the boundary between the two worlds destabilized.
• Seventy-two streams of Netherworld Qi formed thirty-six rays of spell light, which merged into the Netherworld Sword as Ox-Head crossed into the Yang World.
• Ox-Head told Divine Lord Meng Zhang that a soul on the Yang World’s side had forcibly opened the Yin World Nether Spring to reincarnate.
• Ox-Head explained that the soul wanted to bypass the proper process and reincarnate with its memories and obsession intact, leaving Divine Lord Meng Zhang questioning why it would take that risk.

As the Yin World Nether Spring drew opportunists, Ancient God Jiufeng and other Dao Proving Ones tried to use the turmoil in the Long River of Time to enter the era with their memories intact. Divine Lord Meng Zhang and Ox-Head attacked their projections, and the East Sea Dragon Race began sweeping the waters as the story ended in a storm of lightning and battle.

• Xuankuzi charged toward the Yin World Nether Spring, but Divine Lord Meng Zhang struck him aside and Ox-Head bound his fragile soul with the Netherworld Sword.
• Divine Lord Meng Zhang spotted dozens of Dao Proving Ones appearing in the sky and demanded to know whether they intended to interfere.
• Jiufeng declared that the open gates of the Yin World offered Dao Proving Ones a chance to be born in the era with their memories intact and rewrite their destinies.
• Ox-Head dismissed the figures as projections and attacked them with the divided Netherworld Sword.
• Divine Lord Meng Zhang ordered the East Sea Dragon Race to clear the waters, and lightning began striking cultivators attempting to enter the area.

As the battle over the Yin World Nether Spring spread across the East Sea, Zhao Gongming and the Mountain Folk fought to protect others while many Rogue Cultivators abandoned their allies. Inspired by their example, Yunxiao joined the fight, seeing how cultivation could mean changing the world's future together.

• Yunxiao watched the East Sea Dragon Race and cultivators battle over the Yin World Nether Spring as the conflict spread across the sea.
• Zhao Gongming charged into the fighting, sheltered Rogue Cultivators, drove off an ambusher, and summoned Metal Geng Divine Thunder.
• The Mountain Folk coordinated through the Star God Network and joined Zhao Gongming, stabilizing one section of the battlefield despite their small numbers.
• Yunxiao admitted that she had made excuses for the Rogue Cultivators and resolved to discuss improving their morality with her Master.
• After discussing the title Celestial Worthy of the Dao and Virtue, Yunxiao joined the battle and reflected that cultivators could change the world's future together.

As the Yin World Nether Spring’s eruption triggered prison riots across Fengdu, Ye Ming found most of the Ghost Gods had escaped, but the Palace of Zhoujue Yin Heaven had stayed loyal and protected its ghost officers. Shao Hao revealed that the palace’s master called himself Yama and believed he was merely undergoing trials as a disciple of the Great Emperor of Fengdu.

• Ye Ming questioned Shao Hao about whether he would join the prison break, and he insisted he would remain in the Heavenly Palace of Mingchen Naifan Wucheng.
• Ye Ming scanned the inner-city palaces and found four empty, with their Ghost Gods escaped and their ghost officers abducted.
• Ye Ming discovered the Ghost Gods of the Palace of Zhoujue Yin Heaven had stayed behind, fought the escapees, and sheltered ghost officers.
• Shao Hao explained that the palace’s master had once been called Mara, had renamed himself Yama, and believed he was a disciple of the Great Emperor of Fengdu undergoing trials.

The Great Emperor of Fengdu offered Yama freedom, but Yama refused to leave the Palace of Zhoujue Yin Heaven. Instead, the Great Emperor appointed him the first head of the Ten Halls of the Nether Capital as Dharma King Yama, and Yama eagerly accepted.

• Yama suppressed the Ghost Gods in the Palace of Zhoujue Yin Heaven, while saving the Yin Deities and ghost officers from the Nether Spring's influence.
• The Great Emperor of Fengdu appeared in Yama Hall, and Yama greeted him as his master and disciple.
• The Great Emperor offered to set Yama free, but Yama insisted he did not want to leave and maintained that he was the Great Emperor's disciple.
• The Great Emperor told Yama he had decided to establish the Ten Halls of the Nether Capital and asked him to lead them as their first head.
• The Great Emperor offered Yama the title Dharma King Yama and authority to wield the true Book of Life and Death and appoint officials and troops.
• Yama knelt and accepted the appointment, pledging to serve the Great Emperor.

Dharma King Yama was born with one-tenth of the Great Emperor of Fengdu’s divinity and authority, revealing a power that reshaped the Netherworld around him. Meng Po saw his emergence as the start of a planned transformation toward the Ten Halls, Eighteen Levels of Hell, and a more complete system for guiding souls.

• A golden decree descended on the Palace of Zhoujue Yin Heaven, and Yama manifested as a towering Dharma King who crushed Shao Hao beneath his foot.
• Yama strode through Fengdu and crossed the River of Forgetfulness as buildings, streets, and the land itself moved to clear his way to Cold Spring Prison.
• Meng Po realized Yama’s birth would allow Fengdu’s authority to extend beyond the nine largest prison springs and govern the expanding Netherworld.
• Meng Po envisioned a future system of the Ten Halls and Eighteen Levels of Hell, with judges and impermanence envoys selected from those who distinguished themselves during the upheaval.
• Meng Po asked Diting whether this uncertain future could come to pass, then thought of the absent Heaven-Eroding Lord, who she believed was cultivating in seclusion.

Divine Lord Meng Zhang confronted Maudgalyayana, who slipped past his defenses and entered the Yin World Nether Spring. The Sea-Calming Divine Treasure and Netherworld rejected Maudgalyayana, revealing the extraordinary soul of Xu Jia, Amitabha Buddha’s reincarnated incarnation, as Dao Proving Ones coveted the chance to reincarnate as a Buddha.

• Divine Lord Meng Zhang unleashed a lightning domain against the attackers, and Torch Dragon emerged with his Candle-Holding Fire to burn across the battlefield.
• Maudgalyayana appeared and attacked with steel feathers formed through Fetal Transformation and Shape Shifting, but Divine Lord Meng Zhang trapped them in his magnetic field.
• Maudgalyayana used The Ends of the Earth Within Reach to bypass Divine Lord Meng Zhang and enter the Yin World Nether Spring.
• The Netherworld rejected Maudgalyayana, while the Sea-Calming Divine Treasure disrupted the boundary between the worlds.
• Maudgalyayana’s transformations exposed the soul within him as Xu Jia’s, Amitabha Buddha’s special reincarnated soul, which made the Dao Proving Ones eager to claim a Buddha’s rebirth.

Six Ears questioned why Maudgalyayana had forced open the Yin World Nether Spring and suspected someone else had helped him. At the Cloud Dream Jade Pool Mirror, Li Jingshu saw that Dao Proving Ones were targeting Xu Jia’s unusual soul, but the apparent shortcut to proving their Dao Paths looked like a trap.

• Six Ears recalled killing Xu Jia and wondered why Maudgalyayana had sent Xu Jia’s soul through the Yin World Nether Spring.
• Six Ears realized that Maudgalyayana likely lacked the power to open the spring alone and wondered who had intervened.
• Li Jingshu used the Kunlun Mirror to see that Xu Jia’s soul carried growing karma and had drawn the attention of the Dao Proving Ones.
• Li Jingshu recognized that Xu Jia’s soul could let Dao Proving Ones establish their Dao Paths while retaining their memories, but the opportunity seemed dangerously perfect.
• The Dao Proving Ones suspected that Maudgalyayana’s failure to cross the spring was no coincidence.

Jiufeng tried to kill Maudgalyayana, but he trapped her with Buddha Kingdom in the Palm and revealed that he came from the future. Li Jingshu then used the Kunlun Mirror to attack Dao Proving Ones across multiple spacetimes, deliberately stirring the Long River of Time to expose those in hiding.

• Jiufeng transformed into nine birds and slipped past Divine Lord Meng Zhang to attack Maudgalyayana in the gap between the worlds.
• Maudgalyayana trapped Jiufeng’s final incarnation in Buddha Kingdom in the Palm, and his Mind-Reading Divine Ability revealed her confusion about his identity.
• The Dao Proving Ones realized Maudgalyayana had never visited the Purple Firmament Palace and grew wary of acting against him.
• Li Jingshu used the Kunlun Mirror to summon a skeletal claw that froze Dao Proving Ones and reached across spacetimes to attack them.
• Li Jingshu stirred the Long River of Time with the Kunlun Mirror, hoping to force those hiding across time to reveal themselves.

Li Jingshu used the Kunlun Mirror to confront Mahākāśyapa and reveal the Dao of Xuanming across the Three Realms. The Dao Proving Ones watched from hiding as they wondered whether she planned to prove her Dao.

• Maudgalyayana sensed Li Jingshu’s attack stirring the Long River of Time and crushed Upāli’s prayer bead to summon Mahākāśyapa.
• Mahākāśyapa met Li Jingshu’s Xuanming claw with his Buddha’s hand, but her Kunlun Mirror pierced it and wounded him.
• Li Jingshu explained that the Kunlun Mirror, not her own cultivation, let her stand against Mahākāśyapa.
• Li Jingshu manifested the river linking the Three Realms, revealing the Dao of Xuanming to the astonished Dao Proving Ones.
• The Dao Proving Ones hid in other dimensions and watched to see how the confrontation between Li Jingshu and Mahākāśyapa would unfold.

Maudgalyayana used Mahākāśyapa’s distraction to break through toward the Netherworld, where he survived the River of Forgetfulness with Amitabha Buddha’s aid. Horse-Face and Ox-Head pursued him, and the chapter ended with Maudgalyayana blocking Ox-Head’s sword using Three Heads and Six Arms.

• Jiufeng realized Mahākāśyapa was buying time while Divine Lord Meng Zhang and Li Jingshu pressed their attack.
• Maudgalyayana adapted to the chaos between the worlds and moved toward the Netherworld barrier, but Ox-Head charged to stop him as Horse-Face pursued with a chain that restrained two Dao Proving Ones.
• Maudgalyayana kicked Ox-Head aside, entered the Netherworld, and burrowed into the River of Forgetfulness.
• Amitabha Buddha’s soul empowered Maudgalyayana’s Arhat Golden Body, allowing him to survive the river, while Horse-Face followed under the protection of the Netherworld Lord’s undying body.
• Horse-Face’s chain dragged the two Dao Proving Ones into the River of Forgetfulness, where they were corroded, and Maudgalyayana threw the chain back.
• Ox-Head returned with his Netherworld Sword, and Maudgalyayana manifested Three Heads and Six Arms to block all thirty-six rays of its spiritual light.

As Maudgalyayana fought his way toward Fengdu, he admitted to Jiufeng that he wanted to preserve the Buddha's son's past-life wisdom and change his fate. Dharma King Yama emerged from Cold Spring Prison and overwhelmed Maudgalyayana in the River of Forgetfulness, leaving Ox-Head and Horse-Face to seize his soul.

• Ox-Head and Horse-Face struggled to contain the escaped Ghost Gods and Ghost Kings while fighting Maudgalyayana, who advanced toward Fengdu with Amitabha Buddha's power.
• Maudgalyayana told Jiufeng he wanted the Buddha's son to retain his past-life wisdom and avoid entering nirvana beneath the sala trees.
• Jiufeng questioned Maudgalyayana's ability to change the Buddha's son's fate and recalled that Mahākāśyapa had arranged the opening of the Yin World Nether Spring.
• Dharma King Yama emerged from Cold Spring Prison and struck Maudgalyayana down into the River of Forgetfulness.
• Dharma King Yama ordered Ox-Head and Horse-Face to seize Maudgalyayana's soul, and Horse-Face threw his chains toward him.

Jiufeng broke free from Maudgalyayana’s Buddha Kingdom in the Palm, awakened her five-colored peacock incarnation, and swallowed Maudgalyayana’s golden body and Amitabha Buddha’s soul. As the peacock became the Peacock Great Wisdom King, the battle between Li Jingshu, Mahākāśyapa, and Divine Lord Meng Zhang shook the Three Realms.

• Maudgalyayana struggled against Horse-Face’s chains while Dharma King Yama noticed Jiufeng trapped in his palm.
• Jiufeng shattered the Buddha Kingdom in the Palm with her Five-Colored Divine Light, dissolving Dharma King Yama’s Netherworld flames.
• Jiufeng swallowed Maudgalyayana’s broken golden body and Amitabha Buddha’s soul, and her five-colored peacock incarnation gained power across time and space.
• Mahākāśyapa said it did not matter who escorted Amitabha Buddha into reincarnation so long as the Buddha retained the wisdom of his past lives.
• Li Jingshu denounced the rule-breakers as her face formed from the Heavenly River, while her battle with Mahākāśyapa and Divine Lord Meng Zhang shook the Three Realms.

Li Boyang and Wangshu observed Mahākāśyapa’s costly return to his peak and recognized the insight in his method. Li Boyang then formed a star-forged sword that descended to sever the causal connections of Dao Proving Ones.

• Li Boyang studied how Mahākāśyapa had reversed cause and effect to return to this era, realizing the method would cost Mahākāśyapa both his peak and his Dao Path.
• Wangshu recognized that Mahākāśyapa had sacrificed himself and his Dao Path for a brief return to his former strength.
• Li Boyang raised his hand as if drawing a sword, and Wangshu tossed him seven specially engraved coins.
• Li Boyang transformed the coins into the Seven Stars Treasured Sword and drew on the stars and Heavenly River to form a sword spanning heaven and earth.
• Dao Proving Ones watching across the Long River of Time sensed an ominous danger as Mahākāśyapa recognized the sword’s power to sever cause and effect.
• The star-forged sword descended and cut the causal connections linked to Dao Proving Ones.

Li Boyang’s sword severed the Dao Proving Ones’ ties to their true bodies and exposed Maitreya Buddha at the Fusang Tree. Maitreya empowered a surviving impostor of Six Ears, who attacked the original, and Six Ears fought back with his iron staff.

• Li Boyang’s sword severed karma between the Dao Proving Ones and their true bodies, dragging those hidden in other dimensions into the present world.
• Six Ears recognized Maitreya Buddha, who revealed that the Pure Yang Dao Ancestor’s Primordial Spirit was not beneath the Fusang Tree and that Six Ears’ enemy had been waiting there.
• A second Six Ears emerged from the Mirror Dimension and attacked the original, empowered by Maitreya Buddha’s Buddhist light.
• The impostor accused Six Ears of abandoning Father and killing him, then tore off his extra ears and declared that he had returned from hell for revenge.
• The impostor split into more than a hundred clones, but Six Ears escaped their encirclement and struck nearby clones with an iron staff.

As the two Six Ears fought across the Ten Continents and Three Islands, Yunxiao, Wu Di, and Zhao Gongming withdrew the remaining Rogue Cultivators from danger and wondered who had trained the monkeys. Zhao Gongming identified their likely teacher as Xu Jia, whose refusal of immortality left Yunxiao and Wu Di astonished.

• Maitreya Buddha smiled beneath the Fusang Tree, then vanished after a lotus bloomed beneath his feet.
• Yunxiao helped Zhao Gongming and the others move Rogue Cultivators away from the shock waves of the two monkeys' battle.
• Yunxiao and Wu Di recognized that the monkeys' many techniques suggested a connection to the Dao Ancestor.
• Zhao Gongming told Yunxiao and Wu Di that Xu Jia, the Dao Ancestor's servant, had helped create the Heaven-Escaping Boat, established Heart-Refining Island, and taught cultivation to many beings.
• Zhao Gongming explained that Xu Jia had refused the Queen Mother of the West's offer of immortality, saying he sought a perfect cycle of reincarnation instead.

Luo Qiao confronted Maitreya Buddha and uncovered that he had intervened in the Long River of Time not simply to ensure his birth, but to rewrite his origins and become the Buddha Ancestor’s present-day successor. Maitreya acknowledged that Luo Qiao’s Knowledge of Past Lives had exposed the plan he had carefully hidden.

• Maitreya Buddha appeared at Biyou Palace, where Luo Qiao recognized him as the future World-Honored One and second sage of Tushita Heaven.
• Maitreya explained that he needed the Buddha Ancestor to enter nirvana in order to be born, and Luo Qiao realized he had secretly intervened in Maudgalyayana’s fate.
• Luo Qiao questioned whether the Buddha Ancestor, carrying Xu Jia’s memories, would truly refuse nirvana, and recognized that the outcome remained uncertain.
• Luo Qiao deduced that Maitreya was accelerating his birth to change from the Future Buddha into the Present Buddha by taking the Buddha Ancestor’s soul for reincarnation.
• Maitreya admitted that he had prepared to enter the era unnoticed but had failed to account for Luo Qiao.

Maitreya Buddha revealed that the sword strike severing his karma had freed him from his original self’s plans, and he chose to seek a destiny beyond becoming Buddhism’s future sage. Luo Qiao confronted him in Biyou Palace, and their battle displayed power nearing the limits of the Three Realms.

• Maitreya Buddha explained that Mahākāśyapa’s intervention exposed his plan and that Li Boyang’s sword severed his connection to his original self.
• Luo Qiao realized Maitreya Buddha might be acting on his own will, and Maitreya said he would no longer settle for becoming a sage of Buddhism.
• Maitreya declared that he, Ajita, could pursue the same path as Lü Dongbin and become a Pure Yang Dao Ancestor.
• Luo Qiao attacked, but Maitreya hid his true body in another dimension; Luo Qiao followed using Heavenly Gang Steps to locate him.
• Maitreya Buddha and Luo Qiao fought across dimensions, disrupting the East Sea and forcing Mahākāśyapa, Divine Lord Meng Zhang, and Li Jingshu to ease their own battle.
• The Dao Proving Ones watched from Purple Firmament Palace as the clash approached the limits of conventional combat, while the Three Realms’ supreme powers remained a barrier to greater destruction.

Yao Xi opened her Mind-Aspect Barrier, revealing a vast vision of a restored Longbo Kingdom, while Xiluo recognized the ambition in her heart. The Pure Yang Primordial Spirit emerged as a child who rejected looking like Li Boyang, and he began to recall that his self-awareness may have started when he first sensed Li Boyang.

• Yao Xi expanded her Mind-Aspect Barrier into a vast Longbo kingdom and said she would restore the kingdom in the real world.
• Xiluo praised Yao Xi’s ability, while the Pure Yang Primordial Spirit began transforming inside the barrier.
• The Pure Yang Primordial Spirit emerged as a child and told Xiluo, “I'm not Li Boyang.”
• The Pure Yang Primordial Spirit admitted that he instinctively hated looking like Li Boyang, causing the Ginseng Fruit to revert to its monstrous infant form.
• Xiluo asked when the Pure Yang Primordial Spirit gained self-awareness, and he recalled that it may have begun when he first sensed Li Boyang.