Chapter Summaries

Kong Wenxuan began his Golden Core breakthrough on Longevity Mountain while the Kong Household guarded against both an attack and the danger of his demonic nature. After forming an embryonic core and merging his Peacock Bloodline into it, he created a true Golden Core, but the bloodline’s demonic backlash erupted.

• Kong Wenxuan entered seclusion atop Longevity Mountain as the Kong Household deployed its cultivators, beasts, and Peacock Dao Soldiers to protect him.
• Kong Wenxuan circulated the Five Elements True Scripture and quickly found harmony between his primal essence and Spirit Law.
• Kong Wenxuan gathered and fused his primal powers in his Purple Mansion, shaping an embryonic Golden Core.
• A half-illusory Five-Colored Peacock emerged from Kong Wenxuan and entered the embryonic core, infusing it with his Peacock Bloodline.
• The Golden Core began pulsing like a living heart and became capable of nurturing a Nascent Soul Dharma Idol.
• The awakened Peacock Bloodline unleashed a powerful demonic backlash within Kong Wenxuan.

Kong Wenxuan fought the Fourth-Tier Peacock Bloodline Demonic Nature Backlash inside his Purple Mansion after forming his Golden Core. He defeated it with the Great Five Elements Sword Formation, stabilized his cultivation, and became the Kong Household's first Golden Core True Person.

• A Five-Colored Peacock emerged from Kong Wenxuan's Golden Core and tried to swallow it while corrupting his Purple Mansion.
• The Peacock True Spirit Star sent Five-Colored Starlight to help, but its power proved too weak to suppress the backlash.
• Kong Wenxuan held back the Five-Colored Divine Light and attacked the demonic peacock with the Great Five Elements Sword Formation.
• Kong Wenxuan used the Golden Core's power to strengthen the formation and strike through gaps in the peacock's demonic-cloud defenses.
• Kong Wenxuan cleaved the Five-Colored Peacock in two, causing it to return to and merge with his Golden Core.
• Kong Wenxuan stabilized his Golden Core Stage cultivation and became the Kong Household's first Golden Core True Person.

Kong Wenxuan successfully advanced to the Golden Core Stage after suppressing the Demonic Nature Backlash, making the Kong Household a lineage with its first Golden Core True Person. The Spiritual Qi storm faded as Peacock County Seat celebrated True Person Wenxuan’s breakthrough.

• A Spiritual Qi storm formed above Longevity Mountain, revealing that a cultivator was completing a Golden Core breakthrough and prompting people across Peacock County Seat to congratulate the Kong Household.
• Kong Wenxuan faced a Five-Colored Peacock formed from his bloodline’s Demonic Nature Backlash, but he suppressed and destroyed it.
• Patriarch Kong Changgeng and the others protecting Kong Wenxuan realized he had succeeded and congratulated him as True Person Wenxuan.
• The Kong Household’s members and people throughout the city joined in celebrating Kong Wenxuan’s advancement to the Golden Core Stage.
• The Spiritual Qi storm poured into Longevity Mountain and gradually dissipated amid the citywide congratulations.

After Kong Wenxuan reached the Golden Core Stage, he led the Kong Household in pushing the Peacock True Spirit Star beyond the Eighth-Grade True Spirit Heaven. The star broke through the zenith and began ascending toward the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven, where demon beasts and demon birds gathered to attack it.

• Kong Wenxuan declined a Golden Core celebration banquet and said he would wait until the Kong Household advanced to a Seventh-Grade True Spirit Lineage.
• Three months after reaching the Fourth-Tier Golden Core Stage, Kong Wenxuan began the Peacock True Spirit Star's ascension, deciding that waiting to strengthen himself further would waste time.
• Kong Wenxuan and the Kong Household channeled their minds, consciousness, and power into the Peacock True Spirit Star, while Kong Wenxuan infused it with his Golden Core power.
• The Five-Colored Peacock True Spirit manifested above the star and stirred the power of heaven and earth's five elements as the star broke through the Eighth-Grade True Spirit Heaven's zenith.
• The Peacock True Spirit Star entered the chaos and surged toward the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven as demon beasts and demon birds coalesced to attack; a city identical to the Peacock County Seat appeared atop the star.

Kong Wenxuan and the Kong Household began their Rank Advancement Trial to raise the Peacock True Spirit Star to the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven by defending a projected Peacock County Seat. The Five Elements Grand Formation devastated the first waves of attackers, but the chapter ended with the Kong Household facing the trial’s greater dangers.

• Kong Wenxuan and the Kong Household faced a City Defense Trial against more than ten thousand attacking Demon Beasts, demon birds, and other creatures.
• Kong Changgeng ordered the Kong Household disciples to take their defensive positions and activate the city-protecting formation.
• Kong Yujin and the formation masters activated the Five Elements Grand Formation, which Kong Wenxuan had prepared with the Lineage during the previous three months.
• The formation transformed into the Five Elements Sword Formation and unleashed Third-Tier sword attacks against the attackers.
• The sword formation killed more than half the incoming enemies before the Kong cultivators needed to fight, but the more dangerous part of the trial still lay ahead.

On the Peacock True Spirit Star, Kong Changgeng and the Kong Lineage defended the county seat as endless Demon Beasts and demonic birds overwhelmed the Five Elements Sword Formation. The chapter leaves the battle raging, with the defenders holding their walls against the attackers.

• The Five Elements Sword Formation slaughtered waves of attackers, but growing numbers of Third Tier Demon Beasts and demonic birds broke through and reached the county seat.
• Kong Changgeng ordered the Lineage forces and Peacock Dao Soldiers to defend the walls, while Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment disciples formed battle formations against the lower-tier enemies.
• Kong Yushuo used the Crimson Fire Divine Sword to kill Third Tier attackers with swift strikes, while Kong Yuyin's Azure Wood Divine Sword split into hundreds of sword lights and cut down enemies in a relentless barrage.
• Kong Wenzhang fought Third Tier enemies with his two Second Tier divine swords, relying on the formations behind him and extra protection directed by Kong Yujin to hold his wall.
• Kong Changgeng defended the final wall, where his battle differed from those of the other Purple Mansion cultivators.

Kong Wenxuan watched the Kong Household hold off the lower-tier Demon Beasts during the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven advancement trial, while Patriarch Kong Changgeng’s illusion technique helped defend the northern wall. The battle shifted when a Fourth-Tier seven-colored peacock Demon Beast charged the county seat, bringing a force that cultivators below the Fourth Tier could not withstand.

• Patriarch Kong Changgeng used his Black Water Talisman Slip to trap attacking Demon Beasts and demonic birds in a Soul-Bewitching Illusion, causing them to fight one another.
• Kong Wenxuan continued channeling his Golden Core power into the Peacock True Spirit Star as he monitored the battle and saw the Kong Household’s disciples and Purple Mansion cultivators repel the lower-tier attackers.
• Kong Wenxuan recognized that the Kong Household’s Five Elements True Scripture gave its limited forces exceptional strength, allowing them to hold the county seat against growing waves of First- through Third-Tier Demon Beasts.
• A Fourth-Tier seven-colored peacock Demon Beast emerged from the chaotic space and charged toward the county seat, unleashing a surge of heaven-and-earth power beyond the ability of cultivators below the Fourth Tier to withstand.

Kong Yujin used Kong Wenxuan’s Golden Core power to operate the Fourth-Tier Five Elements Grand Formation, which defended the county city and killed a Fourth-Tier Seven-Colored Peacock Demon Beast. The Peacock True Spirit Star grew, but more enemies appeared and a Ten Thousand Demons Formation surged toward it.

• Kong Wenxuan supplied Golden Core power to the city-protecting formation, allowing Kong Yujin and the formation masters to activate its Fourth-Tier Five Elements Talisman Formation.
• The Five Elements Talisman Formation withstood the Seven-Colored Peacock Demon Beast’s attack, and Kong Yujin then activated the offensive Five Elements Sword Formation.
• The Five Elements sword lights shattered the beast’s defenses and killed it, sending its starlight into the Peacock True Spirit Star.
• The Peacock True Spirit Star grew closer to the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven, and Kong Wenxuan recognized the Kong Household’s improved strength.
• More Fourth-Tier Demon Beasts and members of the Demon Race charged from the chaos and formed a Ten Thousand Demons Formation that attacked the Peacock True Spirit Star.

Kong Wenxuan realized the attackers’ Ten Thousand Demons Formation explained why established lineages could fail the trial to advance to Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven. As the formations clashed, demons broke onto the Peacock County Seat’s walls, where the Kong Household fought them and began suffering casualties.

• Kong Wenxuan concluded that the Ten Thousand Demons Formation explained the Wildebeest Jiao Household’s failed advancement trial by neutralizing the city’s defensive formation.
• Demon Beasts and members of the Demon Race formed the Ten Thousand Demons Formation and battered the county seat’s Five Elements Talisman Formation.
• Kong Yujin and the other formation masters operated the Five Elements Sword Formation, striking the attackers and tearing gaps in their formation.
• The two formations overlapped, allowing demons and Demon Beasts to reach the county seat’s walls.
• Kong Changgeng, Kong Yushuo, and the other leaders ordered the Kong Household disciples and Peacock Dao Soldiers to fight the attackers on the walls.
• Kong Household disciples and Peacock Dao Soldiers were gravely wounded or killed, vanished from the True Spirit Star, and could no longer participate in the trial.

Kong Wenxuan reflected on why the Rank Advancement Trial tested formations and large-scale warfare before a Fourth-Tier peacock attacked the Kong Household fighters with Soul-Bewitching Illusion Light. He stopped the attack with the Great Five Elements Sword Formation, while the more powerful Great Five Elements Primordial Magnetism Sword Formation remained beyond his current cultivation.

• Kong Wenxuan considered how the Rank Advancement Trial prepared rising lineages for large-scale battles and the Outer Heaven Battlefield.
• A Fourth-Tier peacock in the Ten Thousand Demons Formation unleashed Soul-Bewitching Illusion Light toward the Kong Household fighters.
• Kong Wenxuan recognized that the peacock Demon Race's bloodline inheritance focused on Soul-Bewitching Illusion Techniques and that the younger Kong Household disciples could not withstand the attack.
• Kong Wenxuan summoned the Five Elements Divine Swords and used the Great Five Elements Sword Formation to tear apart the incoming illusion light.
• Kong Wenxuan noted that he would need to advance his swords and reach the Late Golden Core Stage before he could use the Great Five Elements Primordial Magnetism Sword Formation.

Kong Wenxuan and Kong Yujin broke through the Ten Thousand Demons Formation and led the Kong Household in a counterattack against the Demon Race. As Fourth Tier enemies emerged with their strength restored by the formation, Kong Wenxuan charged inside to pursue the Peacock.

• Kong Wenxuan wounded the Fourth Tier Peacock with the Great Five Elements Destruction Sword Light, but it escaped into the Ten Thousand Demons Formation.
• Kong Yujin directed the Five Elements Sword Formation to join Kong Wenxuan’s assault, and together they cut open a large section of the enemy formation.
• Kong Wenxuan split his sword light into more than four hundred attacks, while the Kong Household clansmen joined in slaughtering the Demon Beasts and members of the Demon Race inside.
• Fourth Tier enemies emerged from the formation, and Kong Wenxuan saw that the Peacock had recovered its strength and injuries.
• Kong Wenxuan ordered Kong Yujin to hold back the Fourth Tier enemies and drove his sword formation into the Ten Thousand Demons Formation to suppress and kill the Peacock.

Kong Wenxuan used the Great Five Elements Sword Formation to overcome a Fourth-Tier Peacock Demon inside the Ten Thousand Demons Formation and kill him. The demon’s essence raised the Peacock True Spirit Star, bringing the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven close at hand.

• Second Aunt Kong Yujin used the Five Elements Sword Formation to hold back the other Fourth-Tier Demon Race members and Demon Beasts while Kong Wenxuan attacked the Peacock Demon.
• Kong Wenxuan’s Great Five Elements Sword Formation blocked the Peacock Demon’s Soul-Bewitching Illusion Technique and resisted the Ten Thousand Demons Formation’s suppression.
• The Peacock Demon used a feather fan to unleash an orderly elemental storm, but Kong Wenxuan split his Great Five Elements Destruction Sword Light and broke the storm apart.
• When the Peacock Demon tried to flee, Kong Wenxuan expanded the sword formation to a thousand zhang and trapped him inside.
• Kong Wenxuan’s sword lights destroyed the Peacock Demon’s defenses and killed him, and his starlight merged into the Peacock True Spirit Star, bringing the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven close.

Kong Wenxuan realized the rank advancement trials also helped True Spirit Lineages learn from their bloodline counterparts, though the Kong Household’s Five Elements True Scripture made such insights harder to gain. After he and the Kong Household defeated the demons in the trial, the Peacock True Spirit completed its ascension to the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven.

• Kong Wenxuan concluded that the trials could guide True Spirit Lineages’ cultivation by exposing them to higher-level versions of their inherited techniques.
• Kong Wenxuan decided the Five Elements True Scripture was more valuable than perfecting the Peacock Soul-Bewitching Scripture and turned his attention back to the battle.
• Kong Wenxuan used the Great Five Elements Sword Formation, with Second Aunt Kong Yujin and the others operating the city-protecting formation, to slay the remaining Fourth-Tier enemies.
• The Ten Thousand Demons Formation collapsed after its Fourth-Tier defenders were slain, and the Kong Household’s cultivators and Peacock Dao Soldiers wiped out the remaining enemies.
• The slain demons and Demon Beasts became starlight that raised the Peacock True Spirit Star into the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven, where the Five-Colored Peacock True Spirit completed its transformation into a Seventh-Grade Peacock True Spirit.

After the Peacock True Spirit Star reached the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven, Kong Wenxuan and the Kong Household chose to continue the Rank Advancement Trial rather than settle for its basic completion. They prepared to face a large-scale assault by True Martial World forces, and Kong Wenxuan recognized the attackers as cultivators representing the five elements.

• The Peacock True Spirit Star ascended to the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven, completing the basic Rank Advancement Trial, but Kong Wenxuan and the Kong Household decided to continue toward a stronger star.
• Kong Wenxuan and the Kong Household reorganized their ranks and city-protecting formations as war drums sounded and True Martial World forces charged from every direction.
• Kong Yujin, Kong Changgeng, and the others ordered the formations raised, while Kong Wenxuan prepared to fight with power replenished by the Seventh-Grade True Spirit Star.
• Kong Wenxuan identified new Rushou, Zhurong, and Houtu martial cultivators alongside the previously encountered elemental forces, and concluded that the True Martial World was based on the five elements.

Kong Wenxuan’s family defended the county town on the True Spirit Star as attacking martial cultivators besieged it with battle formations. When five Fourth Tier Five Elements martial cultivators threatened the city’s defenses, Kong Wenxuan took to the air and fought them with his Five Elements Divine Swords, finding their similar techniques instructive.

• Second Aunt Kong Yujin activated the city’s protective formation as the Five Elements Sword Formation and clashed with the attackers’ Five Elements True Martial Grand Formation.
• The Kong Household’s members defended the city walls while Kong Changgeng, Kong Yushuo, Kong Yuyin, and Kong Wenzhang fought Third Tier opponents.
• Kong Wenxuan saw five Fourth Tier martial cultivators approach from the five directions and judged that their attacks could overwhelm the city’s defenses.
• Kong Wenxuan rose into the air and engaged the five opponents, matching his Azure Wood, Crimson Fire, White Metal, Black Water, and Yellow Earth Divine Swords against their weapons.
• Kong Wenxuan’s five sword battles remained evenly matched, and he gained insight from facing opponents whose powers resembled his own.

Kong Wenxuan fought five Fourth-Tier Five Elements martial cultivators, using the battle to study their Five Elements Dao before his Third-Tier swords began to suffer damage. He trapped the attackers in the Great Five Elements Sword Formation and killed the Jumang martial cultivator, while the other four remained inside the formation.

• Kong Wenxuan clashed with the five Fourth-Tier martial cultivators and studied their Five Elements techniques, but his Third-Tier Five Elements Divine Swords began to weaken against their Fourth-Tier weapons.
• Kong Wenxuan recalled the swords, restored their damage with Golden Core power, and used them to form the Great Five Elements Sword Formation.
• Kong Wenxuan expanded the formation across the Peacock True Spirit Star, trapping all five martial cultivators and bombarding them with coordinated Five Elements sword attacks.
• Kong Wenxuan directed the sword lights toward gaps in the cultivators' defenses, and the Fourth-Tier Jumang martial cultivator was cut apart and killed.
• The Jumang martial cultivator's body, weapon, and armor became starlight that merged into and strengthened the Peacock True Spirit Star.

Kong Wenxuan and the Kong Household survived the martial cultivators’ assault and the later attacks from the True Emperor Realm and True Immortal Realm, despite losing most of their disciples and their protective formation. They defeated every attacker and raised the Peacock True Spirit Star to an upper seventh-rank True Spirit Star.

• Kong Wenxuan used the Great Five Elements Sword Formation to slay the five Fourth Tier martial cultivators and break apart the enemy’s Five Elements True Martial Grand Formation.
• Kong Yujin defended the county city with the Five Elements Talisman Formation while Kong Wenxuan destroyed the five-colored giant; the Kong Household then killed the remaining martial cultivators and passed the second stage of the Rank Advancement Trial.
• Kong Wenxuan used the Five Elements Divine Swords to repair and strengthen the city-protecting formation against the True Emperor Realm armies, but the battle left the formation collapsed and Kong Wenzhang and Kong Yujin dead.
• Kong Wenxuan fought the final assault by cultivators from the True Immortal Realm after the county’s defenses failed, while the city was breached and most of the Kong Household disciples were killed or wounded.
• Kong Wenxuan and the surviving Kong Household disciples slew every attacker and raised the Peacock True Spirit Star to an upper seventh-rank True Spirit Star.

After the Kong Household’s Peacock True Spirit Star rose to Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven, Kong Wenxuan’s county magistrate rank and official seal advanced to the seventh rank. He arranged a grand celebration for the lineage’s promotion and began refining his Five Elements Divine Swords in the time before the banquet.

• The Kong Household’s Peacock True Spirit Star ascended to Seventh-Grade True Spirit Heaven, prompting congratulations from nearby True Spirit Lineages.
• Kong Wenxuan’s Magistrate’s Official Seal absorbed starlight and Five-Colored Starlight, advancing to a Seventh-Rank Magistrate’s Official Seal.
• Kong Wenxuan reviewed the newly available Imperial Dynasty treasury options and decided to keep the lineage’s accumulated merit for future needs.
• Kong Wenxuan and the patriarch set the rank-advancement banquet for three months later and confirmed plans with the congratulating lineages.
• Kong Wenxuan thanked Ya Zhaoying and Bi Yanshu, then began refining his Five Elements Divine Swords whenever he could.

Kong Wenxuan began upgrading the Azure Wood Divine Sword into a Fourth Tier Law Treasure, using Fourth Tier Red Pine spirit wood and an Earth Sha Treasure Restriction. He realized that completing the Five Elements Divine Swords would require finding corresponding Earth Sha powers, while the Azure Wood Divine Sword’s refinement also strengthened his Golden Core and Peacock Bloodline.

• Kong Wenxuan calculated that refining all five swords and preparing to reach the Nascent Soul Realm would take decades, so he resolved to advance his swords as quickly as circumstances allowed.
• Kong Wenxuan observed how the Seventh-Grade Peacock True Spirit Star’s Five-Colored Starlight was nourishing the Peacock Secret Realm.
• Kong Wenxuan chose to upgrade the Azure Wood Divine Sword first because he had Fourth Tier Red Pine spirit wood and could conveniently obtain wood-element Earth Sha from the Geng Household.
• Kong Wenxuan sent an Earth Sha Treasure Restriction into the Azure Wood Divine Sword and drew the Red Pine spirit wood’s essence into it.
• Kong Wenxuan’s Golden Core absorbed spiritual power and spirituality from the refining process, slightly strengthening both his Golden Core and Peacock Bloodline power.

The Kong Household held a grand celebration for its advancement to a seventh-grade True Spirit lineage, drawing delegations from neighboring commanderies. The festivities turned into a test of the household’s younger cultivators, with contests planned at three cultivation levels.

• Representatives from True Spirit Lineages across Bifang and neighboring commanderies gathered at Peacock Manor to celebrate the Kong Household’s advancement.
• Kong Wenxuan hosted the banquet and preached on the Dao of the Five Elements.
• Visiting lineages proposed contests between younger cultivators, offering interests in trade routes and marketplace shops as rewards while testing the Kong Household’s strength.
• Kong Wenxuan accepted the proposal, confident in the household’s younger members and their cultivation of the Five Elements True Scripture.
• The lineages set contests for Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, and the Purple Mansion Stage, and the Kong Household agreed to enter all three.