Chapter Summaries

After stabilizing his Sixth Layer cultivation, Qin Lu returned to the fallen Mingde City and ordered the army to raid northeast while the main northern battlefield remained undecided. He left Qin Wu, Su Wanchang, and Gan Ling leading the advance toward the Qian Cultivation Sect as they began plundering the region.

• Qin Lu reflected that his dual cultivation had strengthened him, but he continued concealing his true cultivation and ordered Qiao Mei to prepare her people to assist from within when he led the army north.
• The allied forces breached Mingde City, whose garrison collapsed after three of its four Qi Condensation cultivators died and the last one fled; the city was emptied amid slaughter, surrender, and insect attacks.
• Qin Lu's Azure Giant Centipede and myriad insects devoured the battlefield's dead, gaining nourishment and producing insect demons for the Qin Clan.
• Su Wanchang and Gan Ling reported that the other northern battlefields remained unresolved, with the main front at a stalemate.
• Qin Lu told Qin Wu, Su Wanchang, and Gan Ling to mobilize northeast and plunder the Qian Cultivation Sect and other resources, explaining that the escaped Mingde City cultivator was now effectively on their side.
• Qin Wu, Su Wanchang, and Gan Ling divided responsibilities and led their armies north, wiping out clans and sects as they raided.

Wang Xu struggled with the suffering caused by the army’s rampage, and Meng Yu urged him to decide whether he would accept the world’s disorder or gain the power to change it. At White Creek Monastery, Qin Wu’s forces overwhelmed its defenders’ Dao soldiers and drew out the vice sect master, setting up a fight between six Qi Condensation combatants and the monastery’s leader.

• Qin Wu, Su Wanchang, and Gan Ling agreed to attack White Creek Monastery, lure out its allies, and divide the spoils with seventy percent going to the Qin Clan.
• The army burned, killed, and plundered as it marched, while Wang Xu looked down on the devastation and struggled with his compassion for the people.
• Meng Yu told Wang Xu that he could change the world by becoming powerful enough to suppress it or by creating a power capable of uniting it, then gave him a Qi Condensation Pill.
• White Creek Monastery’s disciples used arrays to summon Dao soldiers that held off Soul Severing, impressing Qin Wu with their potential as a military formation.
• Qin Wu attacked White Creek Peak with five corpse puppets and Soul Severing, and their spiritual pressure shattered the Dao soldiers and injured the defenders.
• The White Creek Monastery vice sect master appeared, revealing Qi Condensation Third Layer cultivation and reacting with alarm to the five bizarre corpse puppets.

Qin Wu and the Five Poison Corpse Puppets destroyed White Creek Monastery after killing its deputy sect master and breaking its protective formation. Qin Wu then looked north as reinforcements approached, while Su Wanchang, Gan Ling, Meng Yu, and Qiao Mei attacked the two cultivators guarding the Qian Cultivation Sect.

• The white-robed deputy sect master ordered White Creek Monastery’s disciples to form Dao Soldiers and defend the sect.
• Qin Wu destroyed the deputy sect master’s Law Artifact and battered the monastery’s grand formation, then lured the old Daoist away from its protection.
• The Five Poison Corpse Puppets surrounded and poisoned the deputy sect master before tearing him apart and eating him.
• White Creek Monastery’s disciples panicked, its formation collapsed, and the Five Poison Corpse Puppets spread poison and slaughtered the sect’s inhabitants.
• Qin Wu watched the northern horizon for incoming cultivators while Su Wanchang, Gan Ling, Meng Yu, and Qiao Mei surrounded Immortal Hongyang and Immortal Ziyang.

Qin Lu turned the battle for Duanyang Lesser Dao District in his forces’ favor by killing Immortal Hongyang and annihilating Immortal Ziyang. He ordered his troops to take over the district and promised rewards to those who helped expand the Qin Clan’s power.

• Immortal Ziyang overwhelmed Su Wanchang, Gan Ling, and Meng Yu, crippling Su and forcing Meng Yu to focus on dodging.
• Immortal Hongyang drove Qiao Mei back while insulting her, but Qin Lu appeared behind him and used the Soul-Losing Incantation before poisoning and piercing him with Jinyuan Needles.
• Qin Lu used the Tai'e Sword to destroy Immortal Ziyang with a single strike.
• Qin Lu ordered his forces to treat Su Wanchang and seize the entire Duanyang Lesser Dao District, killing anyone who resisted.
• Qin Lu promised promotions, spirit treasures, land, and other rewards to soldiers and subordinate forces for exceptional service.

Da Zhou's armies swept through Daliang as the war spread, while Hanbang rose as a force in Chiyuan State. Qin Lu and his allies assembled outside the Flower Willow Courtyard and prepared to wear down its defensive formation, leaving the grand battle about to begin.

• Da Zhou conquered Liuyuan Dao District, and Bai Xiao defeated Madam Flower Willow after three days of fighting, breaking through a fortified city with his white iron halberd.
• Four Dao Foundation forces from Chiyuan State submitted to Da Zhou, while Liu Ji built Hanbang into a growing sect that harassed Daliang's western positions.
• Qin Lu gathered the armies of Yingchuan, Yunmeng, and Yunchuan outside the Flower Willow Courtyard, where his subordinate commanders hoped to earn a chance to reach Qi Condensation.
• Qin Lu ordered the low-ranking Warrior armies to attack first and exhaust the courtyard's formation, with formation masters and his own strength as later options.
• A Bai Clan cultivator relayed Qin Lu's orders through sound-transmission jade clips, and Qin Lu judged that Bai Xiao relied on brute force more than strategy.

Qin Lu led the allied forces into battle against the Flower Willow Courtyard’s powerful puppet army and fought a black bird puppet while concealing his best weapon. The battle remained perilous, with the puppets inflicting heavy casualties and the flood dragon puppet overpowering several cultivators.

• Qin Lu ordered the allied armies to advance with recruited auxiliary troops at the front and told Qin Wu to flee if the battle turned against them.
• The allied forces advanced on the Flower Willow Courtyard, but its formations deployed a vast puppet army that stopped their assault.
• Qin Lu sent thirty mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivators, including himself, to confront the Eighteen Heavenly Gang Beast Puppets.
• Qin Lu pierced the black bird puppet’s head with the Jinyuan Needle, but the attack barely affected it because it was a puppet.
• Qin Lu fought the black bird puppet with an iron staff, spells, and the Jinyuan Needle, while a flood dragon puppet smashed one cultivator and held several others at bay.

Qin Lu helped destroy the Flower Willow Courtyard’s puppet beasts while Bai Xiao’s army began wearing down its grand formation with mass assaults. The formation weakened but remained intact, so Bai Xiao ordered the Yangzhou Dao Soldiers and Qi Condensation cultivators to join the effort to break it.

• Qin Lu destroyed the black bird and flood dragon puppets, then collected them and went to assist other battlefields.
• Jia Fei of the World-Pacifying Temple thanked Qin Lu, who concealed his connection to Jia Fei’s dead junior brother, Luo Shizhong.
• Qin Lu and the other cultivators destroyed the eighteen Qi Condensation puppet beasts, while Qin Lu collected three puppets.
• Bai Xiao ordered more than a million soldiers to attack the Flower Willow Courtyard’s grand formation and allowed its defenses to be worn down by their deaths.
• Bai Xiao had the armies withdraw and ordered the Yangzhou Dao Soldiers to form the Tiger Sha Military Formation while Qi Condensation cultivators helped break the formation.

Qin Lu held back while the cultivators and Yangzhou Dao Soldiers shattered the Flower Willow Courtyard’s formation, triggering a vast poison cloud that engulfed the battlefield. He absorbed and countered the poison, then led his group toward Jia Fei as the Courtyard’s hunting squads began killing isolated cultivators.

• Qin Lu recalled Meng Yu’s divination and warned his group to conserve strength while other cultivators tested the Flower Willow Courtyard’s defenses.
• The Yangzhou Dao Soldiers and hundreds of cultivators attacked together, breaking the formation and releasing a deep-purple poison cloud.
• The poison cloud overwhelmed ordinary soldiers and warriors, while Qin Lu recognized the Courtyard’s plan to turn the area into a poison domain.
• Qin Lu absorbed the poison and released a countering toxin to protect his group and the troops.
• Qin Lu led his group toward Jia Fei, and the Flower Willow Courtyard’s hunting squads began ambushing isolated cultivators, killing dozens.

Jia Fei and the fleeing cultivators were pursued through the Rosy Dawn Poison Sea by a black-spear cultivator whose Annihilation Dao Rhyme made his attacks devastating. After Jia Fei was killed, poison struck the pursuers, and five figures and a giant insect confronted the survivors.

• Jia Fei urged the fleeing cultivators to stand and fight, but they continued running as the black-spear cultivator killed two more of them.
• A rear guard called on Jia Fei to join forces, then fled when Jia Fei stopped, leaving him to face the pursuers alone.
• The black-spear cultivator shattered Jia Fei's Black Gold Coiling Dragon Staff and killed him in fewer than five breaths.
• Poison overcame three pursuers and sickened two others, while the black-spear cultivator used his Annihilation Dao Rhyme to suppress the toxin and ordered a retreat.
• Five figures emerged from the poisonous clouds, and a giant insect attacked the black-spear cultivator with venom that corroded his Spiritual Power barrier.

Qin Lu and his allies surrounded a powerful black-spear cultivator and fought him through a battle of poison, spear, and sword. The black-spear cultivator was overwhelmed by accumulated poison and attacks, leaving Qin Lu’s side to wear him down.

• The black-spear cultivator fought off Five Viscera but suffered deadly poison and a crippled left arm.
• The black-spear cultivator unleashed Spear Intent, driving back the Five Poison Corpse Puppets and forcing Qin Lu to reveal himself.
• Qin Lu gathered Gan Ling, Su Wanchang, Qiao Mei, the Qing Centipede, and the remaining corpse puppets to surround the isolated opponent.
• Qin Lu and the black-spear cultivator clashed directly, while Qin Lu’s allies and puppets harried the black-spear cultivator and three corpse puppets fell.
• The black-spear cultivator’s attacks grew increasingly disordered as poison and relentless assaults wore him down.

Qin Lu killed the black-spear cultivator, then led his group through the Flower Willow Courtyard, defeating its defenders and breaking into its spirit medicine garden. There, they found numerous rare plants and encountered an old Daoist who urged them to leave.

• Qin Lu defeated the black-spear cultivator, whose Annihilation Dao Rhyme ultimately destroyed him, and took his black spear.
• Qin Lu and his companions continued through the Flower Willow Courtyard, killing cultivators and losing three of the Five Poison Corpse Puppets.
• Qin Lu used replacement formation plates obtained from the Huang Clan to disable formations blocking their path.
• Qin Lu's group entered the spirit medicine garden and found abundant First-Tier and Second-Tier plants, along with Third-Tier Spirit Plants protected by inner formations.
• An old Daoist with an enormous forehead and a red birthmark offered Qin Lu's group a few Second-Tier Spirit Plants and asked them to leave.

Qin Lu recognized that Heding Old Child was an intelligent Spirit Plant and fought him with his Toxic Miasma Spirit Body and Qing Centipede as poison clouds engulfed the medicine garden. Their poison techniques proved evenly matched, and Qin Lu offered to leave and even shelter Heding Old Child, but the tree told him to worry about himself.

• Qin Lu agreed with the old man's warning about the danger of taking valuable Spirit Plants and realized the old man was Heding Old Child, an Illusory Form Demon Tree.
• Heding Old Child vanished into white smoke and covered the medicine garden with a deep purple poison cloud.
• Qin Lu used his Toxic Miasma Spirit Body to resist the poison and drew the others into the Spirit Beast Jade when they began showing signs of poisoning.
• Qin Lu summoned Qing Centipede, and the two combined their poisons against Heding Old Child's cloud and skull-shaped attack, fighting to a standstill.
• Qin Lu proposed that they stop fighting and offered Heding Old Child a place to cultivate in peace, but Heding Old Child told Qin Lu to look after himself.

Qin Lu defeated Heding Old Child by unleashing an army of poison soldiers formed from fragments of his own divine soul. He offered the Illusory Form Demon Tree a chance to leave the Flower Willow Courtyard, but Heding Old Child chose death out of gratitude to the sect and his long-dead master.

• Qin Lu and Heding Old Child clashed with poison creatures, poisonous clouds, sword-rays, and tree branches, but neither gained the advantage.
• Qin Lu summoned ten thousand poison soldiers and more than a dozen poison generals, revealing that he had created them by repeatedly splitting his divine sense and repairing it with Soul-Awakening Tea.
• Qin Lu's army consumed Heding Old Child's life-bound poison and dispelled the illusion hiding the medicine garden's true form: a field of bones and a withered black demon tree.
• Qin Lu threatened the Illusory Form Demon Tree with the Tai'e Sword and urged Heding Old Child to leave the Flower Willow Courtyard, arguing that the sect would never let him advance to the third tier.
• Heding Old Child admitted defeat but refused to abandon the sect, explaining that his long-dead master had asked him to protect it and that he remained bound by gratitude.
• Heding Old Child asked Qin Lu to kill him, saying that a thousand years of life was enough and that Qin Lu still had a road ahead.

After Qin Lu harvested the medicinal garden, Da Zhou gained the upper hand as the poison clouds cleared and Flower Willow Courtyard’s forces were driven into a desperate fight. Liu Zhen intervened in Madam Flower Willow’s battle with Bai Xiao and offered Liuyuan to the Bai Clan in exchange for sparing the sect’s people and preserving its legacy.

• Qin Lu gathered the Illusory Form Demon Tree’s remains and harvested the spirit plants and medicinal herbs in the revealed garden.
• As the poison clouds dissipated, Da Zhou cultivators exposed and surrounded Flower Willow Courtyard’s high-level Qi Condensation cultivators.
• Flower Willow Courtyard’s disciples mourned their lost elder and fought or tried to escape as their sect faced destruction.
• Madam Flower Willow fought Bai Xiao despite her injuries and shattered willow-branch Law Treasure, explaining that she was protecting the master who had raised her and the sect that had sheltered her.
• Liu Zhen arrived and destroyed Bai Xiao’s attack, then offered Liuyuan to the Bai Clan in return for ending the fighting and sparing Flower Willow Courtyard’s people and legacy.

Bai Xiao and Liu Zhen negotiated the Flower Willow Courtyard’s retreat, while Qin Lu looted its medicine garden and planned to search its scripture repository. The chapter left Liu Zhen’s abandoned disciples and the approaching cultivators at risk as Qin Lu moved on.

• Bai Xiao agreed to let Liu Zhen’s people withdraw in exchange for a Third-Tier Wisdom King Jade Heart, while the Flower Willow Courtyard’s inheritances stayed behind.
• Liu Zhen gathered the surviving cultivators, mourned Senior Heding and Hao'er, and led his people east aboard a flying boat, leaving lower-ranking disciples behind.
• Qin Lu collected Spirit Plants and high-grade spirit soil from the medicine garden and considered the danger posed by the missing Mystic-Penetrating Willow.
• Qin Lu decided to search the scripture repository for backup inheritances after concluding the treasury was probably empty.
• Several cultivators arrived and hurried toward the medicine garden to seize its Spirit Plants and spirit soil.

Qin Lu fought through the Hall of Ten Thousand Dharmas' formations while the Flower Willow Courtyard collapsed around him. He broke into the hall and set a warning formation outside before entering.

• The cultivators who reached the medicine garden found its valuable Spirit Plants and high-grade spirit soil had already been dug up.
• Qin Lu judged that the Flower Willow Courtyard had fallen, while soldiers hunted its disciples and resistance groups across the mountains.
• Qin Lu reached the Hall of Ten Thousand Dharmas and found five layers of formations blocking his way.
• Qin Lu sent his poison corpses to self-destruct and attacked with the Qing Centipede and Tai'e Sword, breaking through all five formations.
• Qin Lu set up a warning formation outside the hall before entering.

Qin Lu seized a vast collection of inheritances from the Flower Willow Courtyard and went into hiding to secure his gains. Half a year later, he learned that Daliang had fallen, the Qin Clan had repelled an attack, and several powers were searching for the disguised cultivator who stole the inheritance.

• Qin Lu filled his Qiankun Pouches with cultivation methods and immortal arts inheritances, disguised himself, and escaped underground using the Earth King Divine Travel Talisman.
• Qin Lu hid for half a year and reached the Qi Condensation Seventh Layer.
• Qin Lu cured Su Wanchang, Gan Ling, and Qiao Mei of poison, restrained them with house centipedes, and rewarded the Su and Gan families with inheritances and Spirit Plants.
• Su Wanchang reported that Da Zhou had conquered Daliang and that the wounded Demon-Quelling True Person had fled with the imperial family to the Nine Nations Alliance.
• Su Wanchang reported that the second young master, aided by Su Wanchang and Gan Ling, had repelled powers attacking the Qin Clan, while Zhang Xuan, Gongsun Zhe, and Fu Hua had died.
• Su Wanchang warned Qin Lu that several powers, including the Yan Miao Bai Clan, were investigating the black-robed cultivator who had taken the Flower Willow Courtyard's core inheritance.

After learning that Zhang Xuan had fallen, Qin Lu concealed the Qin Clan’s strength and directed its allies to build influence without attracting attention. Three years later, the clan had organized Yingchuan’s Twenty-Four Peaks into specialized grounds for its growing resources and inherited arts.

• Qin Lu mourned Brother Zhang’s death, then ordered Su and Gan to spread word that he had returned gravely injured and could not advance, while Qiao Mei established the Jade Maiden Sect at the Wuzhi Mountains and developed Yingchuan.
• Qin Lu planned to appear weak but unthreatening while recording those who might target the Qin Clan, and Su, Gan, and Qiao Mei agreed to follow his orders.
• Over the next half year, other forces accepted the belief that Qin Lu’s Dao Path had been severed, allowing the Qin Clan to develop quietly and treat the Zhang Clan’s remaining territory with consideration.
• Three years later, Qin Lu’s clan had established concealment formations and assigned all Twenty-Four Peaks to its members, with dedicated grounds for talismans, alchemy, artifact refinement, Confucian cultivation, formations, and other clan affairs.

At the Daoist Learning Academy, Wang Xu taught children competing Daoist theories while the Qin Clan’s third generation displayed unusual talents and ambitions. Qin Mingyue worried that he would be sent to the Insect Abyss if he failed to advance in cultivation.

• Wang Xu lectured the children on different ways to understand and govern through the Dao.
• Qin Mingyuan listened closely to the theories of yin and yang, drawing on his Spirit-Observing Dao Eyes and ranking third in cultivation among the Qin Clan’s third generation.
• The chapter described Qin Minghan’s exceptional cultivation and rumored compassion, along with Qin Mingdao’s strange habits and contract with a Nine-Segment Frost Centipede.
• Zhang Yi, Gan Long, and Su Qin debated whether laws or rites should form the foundation of a state.
• Qin Mingzheng studied a Six-Sided Lock while Qin Mingyue urged him to pursue cultivation and boasted about their father’s martial bearing.
• Qin Mingzheng warned Qin Mingyue that their father would send him to the Insect Abyss if he failed to reach the True Martial Three Realms that month, and Qin Mingyue lamented his slow progress.

Wang Xu accepted Su Qin, Gan Long, and Zhang Yi as disciples, while the Qin Clan’s children speculated that Qin Mingdao and Qin Zhuang were preparing to reach Qi Condensation. Qin Xiao and Qin Zhuang then broke through, with Qin Zhuang’s Forest Peak Giant Deer advancing alongside him.

• Wang Xu accepted Su Qin, Gan Long, and Zhang Yi as disciples and planned to take them to Cloud Dream Mountain to cultivate.
• Qin Mingwan asked why several clan elders and her father had been secluded, and Qin Mingyuan guessed that Qin Mingdao and Qin Zhuang were preparing for Qi Condensation.
• Qin Xiao used the Cauldron Primordial Dao-Seeking Method to refine a captured Flower Willow Courtyard disciple into a human pill, raising his aptitude to one inch of spiritual radiance.
• Qin Xiao completed Qi Condensation and manifested his Yang Wood Sovereign Dao at Cavern Profound Peak.
• Qin Zhuang broke through to Qi Condensation at Spirit Deer Peak, and the Forest Peak Giant Deer advanced with him.