Chapter Summaries

Qi Yun fought Yue Rong through a fierce battle, using iron-sand techniques and a concealed Sword Qi strike to defeat him. Before Qi Yun could act further, a mysterious power took Yue Rong away, leaving Qi Yun to suspect another Foundation Establishment True Person was involved.

• Qi Yun evaded Yue Rong's demon-body attacks and used bone skulls and an iron-sand fist to hold him at bay.
• Yue Rong unleashed the Metal-Burning Demon Flame, forcing Qi Yun to spend much of his True Qi maintaining an iron-sand barrier.
• After the flame died out, Qi Yun struck Yue Rong's Qi pathway with concealed Sword Qi, disrupting his Yao Qi and Blood Qi and knocking him unconscious.
• A vast power appeared and made Yue Rong's body vanish before Qi Yun could act further.
• Qi Yun found the marks where Yue Rong had fallen and wondered if another Foundation Establishment True Person had intervened.

After defeating Yue Rong, Qi Yun used the outer residence disciples’ awe to escape with the Dharma Enlightenment Bells, then disguised himself in a nearby town to recover before returning to the Wuji Sacred Sect. There, he sensed the familiar presence of Yao Qi.

• The outer residence disciples called Qi Yun their champion after seeing him defeat Yue Rong, and he threw them twenty Dharma Enlightenment Bells to distract them.
• Qi Yun escaped while the disciples fought over the bells, then traveled away from the usual route back to the Wuji Sacred Sect.
• Fearing ambushes near the sect gates, Qi Yun chose a prosperous mortal town where he could recover safely.
• Qi Yun changed into a blue-gray outfit and disguised himself as a wealthy young scholar.
• As Qi Yun prepared to enter the town, he sensed a familiar presence and wondered if it was Yao Qi.

Qi Yun sensed a faint, unusually pure Yao Qi in Great Pond Town and followed it to a dying child whose mother begged the town for help. After witnessing the woman’s desperate prayer to save her son, Qi Yun remained outside her home in the rain.

• Qi Yun first avoided pursuing the injured yao, then changed his mind when he sensed an extraordinary bloodline in its Yao Qi.
• Qi Yun rested at the Zi Study Hall inn and heard a woman begging the townspeople to help her sick child.
• The townspeople refused to help the woman after seeing the unnaturally silent child, and she carried him home through the rain.
• Qi Yun followed the woman to her poor home and saw that the child was barely breathing.
• The woman knelt and begged the heavens to take her life instead of her son's, while Qi Yun watched from outside.

Qi Yun ambushed a wounded demon child before it could drain a dying boy’s vitality and discovered that his Basic Sword Qi could exploit the sword wounds restraining the demon. After killing it and refining its spiritual treasure, Qi Yun saw Basic Sword Qi reach full progress and begin turning gold, hinting at a major upgrade.

• The demon child entered the hut and prepared to steal the dying boy’s vitality to heal its injuries.
• Qi Yun trapped the demon child with an iron hand and talismans, then drew it outside and revealed he intended to use it to refine his techniques.
• The demon child mocked Qi Yun, but his Basic Sword Qi aggravated the sword wounds across its body.
• Qi Yun struck the demon child’s forehead with Sword Qi, causing the demon child to crumble and vanish.
• Qi Yun refined the demon child’s spiritual treasure, and the Law Technique Panel showed Basic Sword Qi at 100% with its lettering turning gold.

Qi Yun’s major Law Technique update replaced Basic Sword Qi with Southern Ming Sword Devil and transformed his body. After testing the new art, he killed the demon child, helped stabilize the rescued child, and left to seek spiritual treasures for Foundation Establishment.

• Qi Yun received the Southern Ming Sword Devil Law Technique as Basic Sword Qi was removed, and the new Dao intent refined his physique.
• Qi Yun practiced the new art, wrapped himself in Southern Ming Li Fire, and unleashed a powerful crescent of Sword Qi.
• Qi Yun realized the major update let him fully understand the Law Technique’s principles and resolved to search for rare spiritual treasures.
• Qi Yun saw that the child’s breathing had steadied after the demon child’s death and gave the child spirit medicine.
• Qi Yun told the woman she had earned the medicine for helping lure the demon child, then vanished as a breeze.

Qi Yun entered the Hall of All Dharmas and found a passage lined with flames containing labeled insights from past cultivators. Suspecting the insights hid traps, he concealed himself and prepared to use Six Desires Bewitching Powder on a fellow disciple to test them.

• Ding Tai collected Qi Yun’s Dharma Enlightenment Bell and welcomed him into the Hall of All Dharmas.
• Qi Yun passed through the hall’s doors and arrived in an ancient passage lined with flames containing cultivators’ insights.
• Qi Yun suspected the insights were traps and hid while waiting for other outer residence disciples to arrive.
• When no one dared test the insights, Qi Yun spotted a lone disciple examining green flame and took out Six Desires Bewitching Powder.

Qi Yun spent more than twenty days observing disciples who used the Hall of All Dharmas’ candle flames, finding no obvious ill effects before choosing Wei Zhen’s insights on reaching the Qi Refining Fifth Layer. The insights triggered his breakthrough, and the chapter left him newly established at the fifth layer.

• Feng Yang touched a candle flame and instantly mastered the Blood Corpse Incantation, praising the Hall of All Dharmas.
• Qi Yun secretly observed disciples taking candle flames for more than twenty days and recorded their reactions without finding anything unusual.
• Qi Yun concluded that each disciple could take only one candle flame and chose Wei Zhen’s insights on breaking through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.
• Qi Yun touched the flame, absorbed Wei Zhen’s insights, and broke through as his five kinds of Qi formed an inner lesser celestial circuit.

Qi Yun broke through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer with help from a candle in the Hall of All Dharmas, then discovered and burned away a hidden heart-thought. He realized the candle was part of a possession method and suspected the inner court hall might be a testing ground for it.

• Qi Yun used Wei Zhen's insights from a candle flame to break through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.
• The Skull Incantation's skulls warned Qi Yun of a covert attack, so he transformed into the Southern Ming Sword Devil and searched his sea of consciousness.
• Qi Yun found and burned a hidden heart-thought, intercepting information that identified it as part of the possession method External Devil Stains One's Own Dao.
• Qi Yun learned that the method could steer a host's future cultivation path and help its original owner recover memories of past lives.
• As he prepared to leave, Qi Yun wondered whether the inner court Hall of All Dharmas contained stronger heart-thoughts and served as an experiment for the Holy Sect.

After the Contest of All Dharmas, Qi Yun assessed his gains and weighed the danger of Li Chong’s proposed ambush against Yue Rong. During four months of cultivation, he refined [Iron Sand Method] into version 4.0, which let him temporarily strengthen and heat iron sand into steel capable of striking at Qi Refining Third Layer or matching a cultivator of his own level.

• Qi Yun returned to his residence with [Southern Ming Sword Devil] and Qi Refining Fifth Layer cultivation, and considered his chances of winning the Earth Origin Champion title.
• Qi Yun judged that Li Chong’s proposed ambush on Yue Rong was too dangerous to attempt unless it could be carried out without a trace.
• Four months passed as Qi Yun refined [Iron Sand Method] to version 4.0 and learned to turn iron sand into temporary hundred-tempered steel while casting the technique.
• Qi Yun tested the strengthened iron sand by forming a steel ball and hurling it into a wall with force comparable to a Qi Refining Third Layer cultivator’s strike.
• Qi Yun heated the iron sand until it glowed scarlet, formed it into a blazing saber, and split an upgraded rockery with a slash matching a cultivator of his own level.

Qi Yun tested the transformed Iron Sand Method and considered combining it with talismans before the Holy Sect announced a mandatory campaign against the Zombie Alliance at Great Black Mountain. He joined the mass departure of outer prefecture disciples, planning to use the battle to strengthen his Skull Incantation.

• Qi Yun tested his hundred-refined-steel iron sand and found it could withstand high temperatures and threaten ordinary cultivators.
• Qi Yun used Evil-Dispelling Baleful Intent-Breaking Talismans on the iron sand and considered drawing talismans directly onto it for use in battle.
• The Holy Sect announced that disciples from all nine outer prefectures had to fight the Zombie Alliance at Great Black Mountain, with heads and identifying tokens determining their results.
• Qi Yun deduced that the campaign might test the situation without provoking a full war involving the Azure Sect, and he resolved to go.
• Qi Yun packed his things as over a thousand outer prefecture disciples left the mountain gates to fight the Zombie Alliance.

The Zombie Alliance ambushed the Holy Sect disciples at Great Black Mountain with the Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array and a horde of corpses. Qi Yun fought through the attack and led the disciples toward Yuan Hai’s opening in the array after divinations indicated it was safe.

• The Zombie Alliance’s array trapped the arriving Holy Sect disciples, and walking corpses, iron corpses, and bronze corpses attacked them.
• Qi Yun used hundred-refined steel sand to destroy the corpses around him, including an iron corpse, and cleared space in the horde.
• Yuan Hai identified himself as the true cultivator stationed at the Holy Sect’s market town and opened a breach in the array with dark-green light.
• Qi Yun called on disciples versed in divination to assess the breach, and their readings all foretold good fortune.
• Qi Yun led the martial and sword cultivators toward Yuan Hai’s opening while the other disciples provided support, and together they broke through the trap.

Qi Yun used his Iron Sand Method to blast through the enhanced zombie horde and help the Holy Sect disciples survive the failing breakout. He suppressed the Bronze-Armored Corpse long enough for the disciples to retreat, but knew he could not kill it without revealing all his trump cards.

• The Zombie Alliance strengthened the zombies with the Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array, making the breakout stall as the creatures kept attacking even after being dismembered.
• Qi Yun unleashed Iron Sand Method--Wild Arrow Strikes, destroying the zombies in his path and restoring the disciples’ advance.
• The Zombie Alliance cultivators summoned a powerful Bronze-Armored Corpse, which shattered the disciples’ binding techniques and sent them reeling.
• Qi Yun struck the Bronze-Armored Corpse with a blazing iron-sand fist and drove it into the ground.
• Qi Yun ordered the Holy Sect disciples to withdraw while he suppressed the corpse, which he could not kill without using all his trump cards.

After escaping a Zombie Alliance ambush, Qi Yun learned that the Holy Sect market had been badly damaged and that the enemy had brought ten powerful true cultivators and their Bronze-Armored Corpses. The disciples concluded the Azure Sect was preventing either side from deploying true cultivators, and prepared to exploit the balance of forces to settle their grudges.

• The Holy Sect disciples reached their devastated market and met Yuan Hai, the injured cultivator stationed there.
• Qi Yun told Yuan Hai that disciples from all nine outer courts were arriving, but Yuan Hai warned that the Zombie Alliance had ten true cultivators and ten Bronze-Armored Corpses.
• Shen Fan suggested the Holy Sect had sent outer court disciples because the Zombie Alliance had suffered a backlash after deploying its stronger forces.
• Qi Yun proposed that the Azure Sect was behind the backlash, and the disciples reasoned that its cultivators were killing any true cultivators who entered the fight.
• The Holy Sect disciples concluded the Zombie Alliance was also constrained and smiled as they prepared to settle their grudges.

The Holy Sect outer court disciples launched a counterattack against the Zombie Alliance while Qi Yun searched for the grand array’s core. As the Zombie Alliance awakened its hidden forces and summoned three Bronze-Armored Corpses, the marketplace array shattered, and Yuan Hai revealed that Qi Yun had seen through his deception.

• More than four hundred Holy Sect outer court disciples charged out of the marketplace and fought the Zombie Alliance’s corpse horde.
• Wu Cang ordered the [Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array] fully activated, waking 123 buried Zombie Alliance cultivators and summoning three Bronze-Armored Corpses.
• Qi Yun used Yuan Hai’s Jade Slip map to locate the grand array’s core in a mountain hollow and prepared to strike it.
• The marketplace’s dark green array suddenly shattered, and Yuan Hai straightened up and admitted that Qi Yun had seen through him.

Qi Yun exposed the false Yuan Hai and destroyed the market array supporting the Zombie Alliance’s [Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array], turning the battle at Great Black Mountain in the Holy Sect’s favor. As he fought the disguised enemy and a strange zombie, he learned that the Zombie Alliance had created Law Corpses capable of casting techniques.

• Qi Yun retrieved the corrupted Great Void Jade Tally and explained that Yuan Hai’s act was too openly weak to fool a Holy Sect disciple.
• Qi Yun revealed that the Holy Sect’s disciples had pretended to fall for the Zombie Alliance’s scheme while the remaining five hundred-odd Outer Palace disciples surrounded them.
• Qi Yun destroyed the market array’s disc, cutting off the support for the [Nine Yin Nine Resentments Grand Array] and weakening the Zombie Alliance’s zombies.
• Qi Yun and the false Yuan Hai attacked each other, while a blue-faced zombie appeared behind Qi Yun and fought his three white-bone skulls.
• Yuan Hai revealed that the zombie was a Law Corpse, a new variety created by refining vicious ghosts with zombies, and explained that Great Black Mountain was seized to produce them.

Qi Yun defeated Yuan Hai by unleashing the Southern Ming Sword Devil, then discovered Yuan Hai carried a storage bracelet instead of a Storage Bag. Inside it, Qi Yun found an exquisitely crafted wooden box that stirred a familiar feeling in him.

• Qi Yun fought Yuan Hai’s three Law Corpses with hundred-refined steel sand and summoned bronze wolfhounds to join the battle.
• Yuan Hai raised more than a dozen iron corpses, but Qi Yun vanished and revealed his Southern Ming Sword Devil form behind him.
• Qi Yun severed Yuan Hai’s arm and beheaded him with Southern Brightness Devil Fire Sword Qi, then noted the technique’s backlash and resolved to improve his cultivation.
• Qi Yun searched Yuan Hai’s body, found a copper bracelet, and burned away its hidden mark to uncover a storage space far larger than a Storage Bag.
• Qi Yun opened the storage bracelet and retrieved an exquisitely crafted wooden box that stirred a familiar feeling in him.

Qi Yun discovered that Skull Incantation could devour a target’s blood essence and turn it into cultivation, then tested the new effect on the battlefield. After draining several Zombie Alliance cultivators, he began hunting stronger targets to accelerate his growth.

• Qi Yun refined the blood-jade skull and learned that Skull Incantation could convert slain targets’ blood essence into cultivation.
• Qi Yun used a sand-iron hand to crush a Zombie Alliance cultivator and the zombie shielding him.
• Qi Yun’s white-bone skull drained the cultivator’s essence, replenishing Qi Yun’s True Qi and slightly advancing his cultivation.
• Qi Yun attacked more Zombie Alliance cultivators with sand-iron chains and spikes while the skull drained their essence.
• Qi Yun targeted better-cultivated Zombie Alliance fighters as his sand iron and skull worked together to kill and plunder them.

Qi Yun used the Skull Incantation and Iron Sand Method to slaughter Zombie Alliance cultivators and replenish his cultivation, cleansing the Sha Qi he gained with talismans. As night fell, he stood atop a mountain of corpses and looked down at the remaining demonic sect disciples.

• Qi Yun unleashed Black Rope Hell, using iron sand chains to seize Zombie Alliance cultivators while the white-bone skull drained their blood essence and cultivation.
• Qi Yun noticed Essence Devouring gave him Sha Qi, then cleared it away with Evil-Dispelling Baleful Intent-Breaking Talismans.
• The Zombie Alliance cultivators fled from Qi Yun, but his chains hunted them down as the battle wore on and he grew stronger while the exhausted fighters retreated to recover.
• Qi Yun collected the heads of his victims in the jade scroll spindle and continued fighting until sunset faded and fatigue began to affect him.
• Qi Yun stood atop a mountain of corpses and stared down at the remaining demonic sect cultivators, who fell silent beneath his gaze.

After the Holy Sect won the battle at Great Black Mountain, Qi Yun restrained himself from pursuing the fleeing Zombie Alliance disciples and was praised by Pei Lin for his role. Pei Lin said the sect would reward Qi Yun with a grand gift and promised every outer court disciple three hundred Sacred Yuan.

• A blue-robed Azure Sect cultivator appeared, praised Qi Yun as a future worthy opponent, and flew away after revealing his Qi Refining Great Perfection cultivation.
• Qi Yun decided not to attack the wounded Zombie Alliance disciples, who fled once he turned away.
• Pei Lin arrived and praised the Holy Sect disciples, telling Qi Yun that the inner court had recorded his performance and that he would become the Double First-Place Champion.
• Pei Lin told Qi Yun that the sect was pleased with his victory and had a grand gift waiting for him upon his return.
• Pei Lin announced that every outer court disciple would receive three hundred Sacred Yuan, prompting the disciples to celebrate.

After the Great Black Mountain assessment, Ding Tai brought Qi Yun to meet his teacher, a Foundation Establishment True Person living in a humble temple on the second tier of Great Void Mirror Heaven. The True Person greeted Qi Yun with gentle concern, which made Qi Yun suspect something was wrong.

• Pei Lin urged the exhausted disciples to return to the Holy Sect after the Zombie Alliance's defeat, and the group made the journey back safely.
• Ding Tai met Qi Yun at the sect gates and took him by golden cloud to visit his teacher on the second tier of Great Void Mirror Heaven.
• Ding Tai explained that his teacher had fallen into the Avici Slaughter Dao before a True Lord saved him, and that he used Buddhist Withering and Flourishing Chan to suppress his demonic nature.
• Qi Yun bowed to the elderly Foundation Establishment True Person, who remarked on Qi Yun's young age and hardships.
• The True Person's gentle concern made Qi Yun feel that something was wrong.