Chapter Summaries

Zhen Xuzi discovered records of the Blessed Earth Immortal and, influenced by Ren Qing’s dream Art, became convinced that the giant corpse Buddha embodied it. Ren Qing prepared to exploit the factions with Resurrection Pills while continuing to develop Arts, including a fortune-sensing method.

• With the Insect Nest Daoist Temple abandoned and threatened by other factions, Zhen Xuzi used Wuzhi Insect Men’s flesh to nourish Heavenly Dao Worm Eggs and searched Great Cold True Person’s belongings for ways to hasten their hatching.
• Zhen Xuzi found a scroll depicting a gigantic Heavenly Dao Worm, researched the Blessed Earth Immortal in the temple’s records, and collapsed after hearing Great Cold True Person’s words echo in his mind.
• Zhen Xuzi dreamed of the Insect Nest and a vast Heavenly Dao Worm, then awoke sensing the Blessed Earth Immortal’s aura in the giant corpse Buddha and began worshipping it.
• Ren Qing used his dream Art to convince Zhen Xuzi and other Insect Men that he was the Blessed Earth Immortal, while preparing Resurrection Pills to restore cultivators’ bodies and harvest their lifespan.
• Ren Qing replenished Jailer Hall’s Arts, continued deducing new methods, and began adapting Shell-Binding Turtle to create an Art that could foretell fortune and calamity.

Shell-Shedding Layman discovered that the Heavenly Dao Worm people worshipped the Blessed Earth Immortal, whose strange insects healed their wounds, and suspected a true Immortal was influencing the Immortal Gate. Ren Qing exploited the rumors to prepare the factions for flight while planning to pose as a true Immortal and harvest their followers.

• Shell-Shedding Layman watched cultivators kill a zombie emerging from the corpse mirror and noticed that the Heavenly Dao Worm people were unusually vigorous and lightly injured.
• Shell-Shedding Layman secretly followed the Insect Men and saw them worship the Blessed Earth Immortal as insects healed their wounds, leading him to suspect a true Immortal was involved.
• Yang God Realm cultivators from the factions learned of the Blessed Earth Immortal and secretly planned to withdraw from the Immortal Gate's vicinity.
• Ren Qing judged his preparations mostly complete, assigned tasks to the Jailer Hall, and continued developing an Art based on Shell-Binding Turtle.
• Ren Qing sent more zombies through the corpse mirror and signaled Zhen Xuzi and the other Insect Men to recruit believers from other factions.
• Ren Qing planned to use dream Arts and the Ghost Envoy Realm Disguise Technique to impersonate a true Immortal, harvest the factions, and leave the Dead Man Forbidden Zone.

Daoist Lingxiao emerged from the corpse mirror as a monstrous fusion of zombies and slaughtered the Yang God Realm cultivators who tried to stop him. As he approached the encampment, the crowd cried out to the Blessed Earth Immortal and Zhen Xuzi confronted him, with a mysterious figure appearing atop Lingxiao’s head.

• The Moulting Hermit investigated collapsing White Bone Hillocks and found the scavenger insect nests filled with corpses as Corpse Qi surged into the corpse mirror.
• Daoist Lingxiao emerged as a towering mass of fused corpses, and Old Monk Zong Qing led the Yang God Realm cultivators in attacking him.
• Daoist Lingxiao advanced into the White Zombie stage and then the Green Zombie stage, killing or capturing the Yang God Realm cultivators while Old Monk Zong Qing fled into the corpse mirror.
• Daoist Lingxiao headed toward the encampment to devour its tens of thousands of cultivators, while the crowd remained calm and called out to the Blessed Earth Immortal.
• Zhen Xuzi stepped out to confront Daoist Lingxiao, and a figure appeared atop the giant corpse’s head.

Ren Qing impersonated the Blessed Earth Immortal to control the chaos around the corpse mirror, subdue Daoist Lingxiao, and establish Jailer Hall as a trading partner for the stranded factions. After learning Daoist Lingxiao had cultivated the mysterious Pill Brain Method, Ren Qing continued his experiments and completed several new Arts, including the one he planned to cultivate.

• Ren Qing transformed himself into a convincing Blessed Earth Immortal, overwhelmed the cultivators at the corpse mirror, swallowed Daoist Lingxiao, and returned the Yang God Realm cultivators to their encampment.
• Jailer Hall cultivators led by Han Li emerged from the giant corpse Buddha's mouth and built a temporary encampment, prompting the factions to consider cooperating with them.
• Ren Qing used Information Flow to discover that Daoist Lingxiao had cultivated the Pill Brain Method, and he monitored the Mirror World through disease strains left on Old Monk Zong Qing.
• Jade Splendor True Person traded Resurrection Pills with the factions, which offered people and foundational Arts in exchange after experiencing the pills' temporary restorative effects.
• Ren Qing refined Shell-Binding Turtle, completed Han Li's Blood Mycelium Record, created Shellback Person, and finished developing Turtle Longevity for his own cultivation.

Ren Qing advanced Turtle Longevity into a powerful means of divining and avoiding danger, then fused the Disaster Aversion Method’s Eerie Transformations to form the supernatural ability Human World Walker. As the Dead Man Forbidden Zone grew more ominous, he prepared to withdraw while continuing to gather lifespan and resources.

• Ren Qing chose Turtle Longevity’s Calamity-Avoiding One path and advanced it, gaining hexagrams that revealed opportunities and hidden dangers in the Dead Man Forbidden Zone.
• Ren Qing added Hexagram Mark, Shattered Shell, and Death Hexagram, then advanced Turtle Longevity to the Yin Messenger Realm and gained the ability to see ominous signs and hidden chances of survival.
• Ren Qing ordered Jade Splendor True Person to accelerate the Resurrection Pill trade, selected insect-man cultivators to take with him, and had Li Tiangang investigate how to leave the Dead Man Forbidden Zone.
• The factions began refining resources from living people to buy Resurrection Pills, so Jade Splendor True Person cut their price to half to prevent further destruction.
• Ren Qing fused the Disaster Aversion Method’s Eerie Transformations and reached Yin Messenger Realm Grand Completion, awakening Human World Walker, which let him erase and replace creatures within the Disguise Technique’s range while inheriting their memories and Arts.

Ren Qing tested Human World Walker and investigated signs that the Mirror World’s corpse transformations were worsening, while preparing Jailer Hall to leave the Dead Man Forbidden Zone. As acid rain fell and the giant corpse Buddha began sinking away, Ren Qing watched the withdrawal begin and prepared to advance his dream Arts.

• Ren Qing tested Human World Walker, confirming it erased his presence and let him sense and replace nearby cultivators.
• Ren Qing used Turtle Longevity and the Mirror World to identify hanging corpses and upside-down zombies as likely sources of the coming calamity.
• Ren Qing had Xiao San’er and the other artifact refiners prepare defenses against yin qi while Jailer Hall gradually withdrew its cultivators.
• Acid rain fell for the first time in the Dead Man Forbidden Zone, and Ren Qing inferred that corpse transformations in the Mirror World had begun changing the Forbidden Zone.
• Ren Qing connected with the giant corpse Buddha as it began sinking away, while Jade Splendor Daoist arranged for several hundred Insect Men to return inside.
• Ren Qing monitored the withdrawal and prepared to promote his dream Arts to the Ascension Ladder.

Ren Qing advanced his dream Arts as the Dead Man Forbidden Zone collapsed under worsening supernatural weather, while visions revealed how the five Jailer Methods had arisen from people driven to madness. He realized the Heavenly Dao had gone mad.

• Zhen Xuzi met Great Cold True Person, learned about his connection to Blessed Earth Immortal, and took Great Cold True Person’s words, “Unity of knowledge and action,” as the start of a plan.
• Li Tiangang organized the Insect Man cultivators to complete a Yin Gathering Array, which drew yin aura into the giant corpse Buddha’s stomach for collection and cultivation.
• The Dead Man Forbidden Zone deteriorated as an animate sun and moon appeared, acid rain flooded the land, and trapped Yang God Realm cultivators succumbed to aberration and madness.
• Ren Qing destroyed his aberrating fungal souls and Ghost Shadows, then spent five thousand years of lifespan to advance the Ascension Ladder.
• Ren Qing witnessed the origins of the Eye-less Method, Dream Butterfly Method, Nightmare Art, Tai Sui Scripture, and Six Maladies Method in visions of their creators’ ruin.
• Ren Qing concluded that the Heavenly Dao Worm had influenced people to comprehend Arts and that the Heavenly Dao itself had gone mad.

Ren Qing faced the Heavenly Dao on the Ascension Ladder and repeatedly revised his Ascension Method after discovering that his first two creations were unsuitable. He completed a method linking dreams and disease, then awoke safely in the giant corpse Buddha’s stomach with no apparent Aberration.

• Ren Qing suppressed his breakthrough and realized that creating an Ascension Method required contact with the Heavenly Dao.
• Ren Qing’s soul left his body and encountered a statue of Primordial Heavenly Venerate amid scripture recitations.
• Ren Qing created the Nightmare Sickness Technique, but learned it could not accommodate other Arts and had a limit of the Heavenly Eerie Realm, so he erased it.
• Ren Qing created Dreaming Command, but discovered its limit was only the Yang God Realm, and erased it as well.
• Ren Qing formed an Ascension Method based on controlling the world’s dreams and connecting dreams with disease, then endured the statue’s destruction and the Heavenly Dao’s strange manifestation.
• The Information Flow returned Ren Qing’s soul to his body, where he awoke with only dehydration and no apparent signs of Aberration.

Ren Qing created the Zhi Li Technique, recultivated his dream Art to the Yang God Realm, and gained the pseudo Immortal Position of Zhi Li Dream Immortal. As he prepared to stabilize his cultivation, fresh cracks appeared in his divination turtle shell, and he sent the giant corpse Buddha toward white lights deep in the Dead Man Forbidden Zone.

• Ren Qing examined the Zhi Li Technique, confirmed that it could lead to the Earth Immortal level, and discovered his Immortal Position was Zhi Li Dream Immortal.
• Ren Qing spent Wine Mines to recultivate the Zhi Li Technique through its realms and reach the Yang God Realm.
• The Zhi Li Technique briefly covered the giant corpse Buddha and its cultivators in multicolored fungi, while Dream City’s projections gained the ability to sense their true bodies’ Arts.
• Ren Qing inspected his strengthened dream Art and confirmed that Zhi Li Dream Immortal remained a pseudo Immortal Position because he had not yet become an Immortal.
• Cracks spread across Ren Qing’s divination turtle shell, so he controlled the giant corpse Buddha to follow streaks of life force through the Dead Man Forbidden Zone toward the outside world.

Ren Qing accelerated the giant corpse Buddha’s excavation, then guided it through the corpse lake while studying the Information Flow’s new ability to reveal hidden details about cultivation methods. After the Buddha reached the Corpse Stench Plains and the danger around it eased, a giant chain plunged from the clouds into the ground.

• Ren Qing activated the giant corpse Buddha’s mutated organs, and Jailer Hall’s cultivators coordinated to strengthen it and speed its excavation.
• Ren Qing discovered that the Information Flow could inspect objects within a hundred meters and reveal hidden information about the Corpse Scripture and Xuantian Method.
• Five days later, the giant corpse Buddha broke through into the expanded corpse lake, where Ren Qing saw an ominous black mist and directed it toward vitality at the lake’s edge.
• Ren Qing sent weaker cultivators back to the stomach world and used flesh Artifacts carrying fungus souls to probe the lake, helping heal some of the cracks on his turtle shell.
• Ren Qing guided the giant corpse Buddha out of the corpse lake and onto the Corpse Stench Plains, where a giant chain plunged from the clouds into the ground.

Ren Qing fled the Dead Man Forbidden Zone as the Corpse Immortal battled the Great Compassionate Maitreya Bodhisattva. After the battle, an unseen figure followed the Corpse Immortal, apparently seeking to parasitize it.

• Ren Qing took control of the giant corpse Buddha, escaped the chains and tsunami, and hurried away from the Dead Man Forbidden Zone.
• Ren Qing used the Information Flow to learn that the Corpse Immortal had forcibly advanced by devouring an Immortal Position, becoming the Soul Snatching Ghost Immortal.
• The Corpse Immortal emerged and attacked the Great Compassionate Maitreya Bodhisattva, whose body had mastered the Corpse Scripture.
• Ren Qing fled across the Corpse Blood Plain while Buddhist aura arrived and transformed the fight into a devastating clash between Buddhism and Daoism.
• After the Great Compassionate Maitreya Bodhisattva was defeated, the Corpse Immortal left with his corpse, and an unseen figure followed it to pursue a chance to parasitize it.

Ren Qing settled the Forbidden Corpse in a secluded gorge and began a new cultivation plan to conceal the Corpse Scripture’s risks while preserving its potential. He stripped the incomplete scripture from himself, then chose to cultivate the Corpse Blood Scripture’s Corpse Poisoner route.

• Ren Qing transformed the giant corpse Buddha into the Daoist-styled Forbidden Corpse and organized Jailer Hall’s affiliated factions into six veins.
• Worried that the Great Compassionate Buddha Qi might target him, Ren Qing avoided Cishi and led the Forbidden Corpse to a mist-covered gorge for secluded cultivation.
• Ren Qing determined that reaching the Heavenly Eerie Realm required twenty thousand years of lifespan and decided to make the Corpse Scripture a secondary Art.
• Ren Qing used the Stomach World to remove the incomplete Corpse Scripture from his body, leaving its Withered Bones Land as a cultivation base for Jailer Hall’s zombies.
• Ren Qing selected the Corpse Poisoner route of his Corpse Blood Scripture and began cultivating it in closed-door seclusion.

Ren Qing advanced the Corpse Blood Scripture and made it the primary art over the Corpse Scripture, severing the Corpse Immortal’s traces. He continued cultivating in seclusion, while the chapter ended with someone coming to the canyon in search of immortality.

• Ren Qing raised the Corpse Blood Scripture and Bone Tooth Method through their transformations, then linked them beneath the Night Roaming Poison Corpse and severed the Corpse Immortal’s traces.
• Ren Qing considered entering the Mirror World but rejected using the Eerie Mirror Walker and asked Xiao San'er to refine an Eerie Fetus Artifact from Mirror Immortal Eerie Objects.
• Ren Qing spent five hundred years of lifespan advancing the Night Roaming Poison Corpse to the final stage of the Yin Messenger Realm.
• Ren Qing recovered Daoist Lingxiao’s Corpse Core, completed the Bone Tooth Method’s three Eerie Transformations, and consumed the Corpse Core to fuel Eerie Transformation Fusion.
• Ren Qing remained in secluded cultivation as the canyon recovered from the battle between immortals and Buddhas, until someone arrived seeking immortality.

Tang Sheng and Jade Splendor Daoist investigated increasingly disturbing apparitions in Dream City's abandoned temples and encountered a headless, six-armed figure chanting secret Buddhist teachings. Li Tiangang identified it as Song Zongwu, but the figure vanished immediately, leaving the cause of the disturbance unknown.

• Tang Sheng and Jade Splendor Daoist prepared to watch the temples at dawn after years of unexplained noises, blood stench, and apparitions.
• A headless figure with six arms appeared in the temple, chanting scriptures that Tang Sheng recognized as possibly referring to the Buddha's ten bodies.
• Li Tiangang arrived and identified the figure as Song Zongwu, whereupon it disappeared and the Maitreya statue returned.
• Li Tiangang summoned his subordinates to investigate whether the worsening disturbances originated outside the Forbidden Corpse.

Ren Qing emerged from seclusion with his Corpse Dao spells at the Lifeless Immortal stage and investigated the strange figure believed to be Song Zongwu. Using Forbidden Corpse to inspect the plains, he discovered inverted Buddhist monks driving nomads and their sheep toward the canyon, revealing a new threat.

• Li Tiangang questioned the Hundred-Eyed Tiger Demons and learned that nomads had settled on the plains, but his inspection found no anomaly.
• Ren Qing concluded that the figure in the temple was likely Song Zongwu, whose consciousness had become muddled and instinct-driven.
• Ren Qing demonstrated Lifeless Dead by tearing off his arm, sending it crawling away, and regrowing a new one.
• Ren Qing reviewed his breakthrough to the Lifeless Immortal and the enhanced powers of his Unyielding Bone Zombie.
• Ren Qing used Forbidden Corpse to inspect the plains and saw inverted Buddhist monks on skull thrones driving sheep and nomads toward the canyon.

Ren Qing investigated the suspicious shepherds and their trade in fine-wool sheep, then prepared ways to learn their language and enter the Mirror World for Buddha aura. He left Xiao San'er with a Dream Flower and recognized that his new artifact-forging method could make use of the Mirror World's many cultivators.

• Ren Qing observed Buddha corpses slaughter sheep while the shepherds fled into a canyon, and he sensed that the flock—not the shepherds—was the corpses’ main target.
• Li Tiangang reported that the shepherds traded sheep every three days, ignored their flock’s welfare, and had settled near the forbidden corpse despite the lack of fodder.
• Ren Qing ordered Li Tiangang to obtain a fine-wool sheep and had artifact refiners transform the secondary head’s ears into magic artifacts so he could investigate the shepherds’ speech.
• Ren Qing visited Xiao San'er, put him to sleep, and gave him a Dream Flower to help his cultivation before learning that he had developed the Demonic Fetus Artifact Forging Method.
• Ren Qing planned to use the Corpse Mirror to enter the Mirror World and gather Buddha aura, realizing its cultivators could serve as materials for artifacts.

Ren Qing tested the Demonic Fetus Artifact Forging Method and used a new gateway artifact to investigate the Mirror World, where he found hundreds of transformed cultivators and began harvesting their lifespans. After returning to the stomach world, he examined a dead sheep whose organs resembled those of a woman, raising questions about the sheep and their shepherds.

• Ren Qing forged an Eerie Fetus Artifact, sealed it in the Land of White Bones, and used the Demonic Fetus Artifact Forging Method to create a gateway into the Mirror World.
• Ren Qing sent avatars through the gateway, discovered hundreds of cultivator bodies in the Mirror World, and ordered them moved out for resources.
• Ren Qing identified several powerful cultivators in the Mirror World, including the Insect Nest's Queen Mother, the Laughing Lion Arhat, and the Wolf Devouring Daoist.
• Ren Qing used Dream Flowers to draw weaker cultivators' consciousnesses into the South Mountain small world and began collecting their lifespans.
• Li Tiangang brought Ren Qing a dead fine-wool sheep, and Miss Bai observed that its organs resembled a woman's and had changed after death.

Ren Qing investigated the shepherds’ strange pilgrimage and disguised himself as the dead monk Zong Qing to approach the Buddhist forces and learn what had happened to Song Zongwu. After advancing his Disaster Aversion Method to the Yang God Realm, he encountered the shepherds, who first called him a demon and then suddenly hailed him as Buddha.

• Ren Qing used the Forbidden Corpse’s mutated ears to learn that the shepherds had gathered for a sacrificial festival, though their connection to the canyon and Song Zongwu remained unclear.
• Ren Qing disguised himself as Zong Qing and advanced his Disguise Technique to the Yin Messenger Realm, while Li Tiangang and Miss Bai prepared for possible war.
• Ren Qing advanced his Disaster Aversion Method to the Yang God Realm, gaining Non-Immortal Gate and glimpsing the dangerous Eerie Gate before closing it.
• Ren Qing stored the Forbidden Corpse in the Stomach World, used Jianmu Merit to conceal the canyon’s pits, and headed toward the shepherds’ tribe.
• The shepherds found Ren Qing lying unconscious, called him a demon, and then abruptly began addressing him as Buddha.

Ren Qing encountered All-Living Buddha, whose Body of All Beings was an Esoteric Buddhist Sect creation attributed to the Nameless Ascetic Monk. After learning that All-Living Buddha meant to take him to Three Bodhis, Ren Qing gathered the human sheep and ordered Jailer Hall to prepare for a possible battle.

• Ren Qing pretended to be Zong Qing and drew All-Living Buddha out of the shepherds, who called him Lion Buddha Son.
• All-Living Buddha revealed the Body of All Beings and invited Ren Qing to join the Esoteric Buddhist Sect and travel to Three Bodhis.
• Ren Qing used Information Flow to learn that the Nameless Ascetic Monk had created the Body of All Beings, and he saw All-Living Buddha present a Flesh Lotus Throne made from women's wombs.
• All-Living Buddha said Tathagata Buddha had pointed him toward Ren Qing and offered him tens of thousands of human sheep.
• Ren Qing healed the shepherds, drew the fine-wool sheep into his stomach world, and ordered Jailer Hall to transform the Jailer Corpse for a potential fight.

Ren Qing entered the Esoteric Buddhist Sect’s hidden stronghold at Three Bodhis and discovered that the statue contained a vast world created by the Void Body. He approached the thousands of monks gathered beneath it as they suffered mutations climbing the statue.

• Ren Qing learned that the All-Living Buddha’s followers called Buddha corpses Buddha Demons, while he considered the name hypocritical.
• The shepherds reached Three Bodhis, sacrificed their horses, and used the altar to bring more than a hundred lambs into being.
• Ren Qing followed the old man into the forest and identified the statue as Three Bodhis, noticing that one of its heads resembled Song Zongwu.
• Ren Qing crawled through a hollow tree and learned that the Void Body had been created by the Nameless Ascetic Monk.
• Ren Qing emerged into a world where Three Bodhis was colossal and monks fought for its golden blood.
• Ren Qing approached more than ten thousand monks seated beneath the statue and saw that those climbing it gradually mutated.