Chapter Summaries

Five years of peaceful cultivation at White Cloud Temple ended when an urgent report revealed that Devil Cultivators had launched mass blood sacrifices across the Clear Blue Kingdom. The chapter left Yun Du and the protectorates facing a spreading calamity caused by the fugitive Zhou Yuan and his followers.

• The disciples and halls of White Cloud Temple continued their routines while the bear lineages and Shi Jian steadily advanced their cultivation and businesses.
• Sun Mao brought Yun Du an urgent report from the Ming Province Protectorate, announcing a Devil calamity.
• Devil Cultivators fleeing hardship in the Jin Kingdom slipped into the Clear Blue Kingdom and hid among its provinces.
• Five months earlier, Zhou Yuan used a forbidden Blood Dao technique and the sacrifice of millions to form a blood-colored Golden Core.
• Zhou Yuan escaped three rounds of pursuit by the Di Prefecture Southern Protectorate and contacted thousands of scattered Devil Cultivators.
• Zhou Yuan and his followers carried out simultaneous blood sacrifices at more than a dozen sites, killing countless people and turning ten thousand miles of territory into a ghost realm.

Yun Du kept White Cloud Temple focused on defending its own territory as blood sacrifices spread in other provinces, then handled a zombie outbreak in Heming County caused by a damaged Spirit Vein. The outbreak was suppressed and repairs and inspections were ordered, while the wider calamities remained beyond the Northern Protectorate.

• After hearing Sun Mao's report about blood sacrifices, Yun Du declined to intervene elsewhere and ordered stronger patrols, defenses, and checks on unfamiliar Rogue Cultivators.
• Yun Du directed White Cloud Temple to activate the city's defensive formations, repair communication formations, and send patrol teams throughout its jurisdiction.
• For over a month, the Northern Protectorate remained calm as White Cloud Temple maintained its precautions and neighboring blood sacrifices were suppressed.
• Sun Mao learned that over a thousand zombies had erupted near Heming County and sent teams to investigate the outbreak and the nearby Spirit Vein.
• White Cloud Temple's teams burned the zombies and discovered that a crack in a neglected Spirit Vein had let Yin Qi seep from an underground cavern.
• Yun Du ordered the crack sealed and mortal cemeteries across the counties inspected, while the Northern Protectorate returned to its peaceful routine.

Lord Rat secretly gathered yin-aspected materials from cleared zombie sites and sent them to Laosan in the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm. Laosan used them to build a Yin Qi cave, while the Spirit Rat Line quietly developed the secret realm as Shi Jian’s hidden second base.

• Lord Rat led twelve gray rat demons to Heming County and collected zombie bones, yin-tainted soil, and Corpse Yin Crystals from the abandoned graveyard.
• Over the next two months, Lord Rat’s group secretly scavenged six more sites where zombies had been cleared, gathering and storing yin-aspected resources for Laosan.
• Every three months, two experienced rat demons carried the accumulated materials across Ming Province to the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm and delivered them to Laosan.
• Laosan repaired part of the palace complex, dug dwellings, and contained the Hurricane Demons in Gale Gorge with a crude repelling formation.
• Laosan built a Yin Qi cave from the Corpse Yin Crystals, spiritual soil, and bone fragments, allowing him to cultivate yin and wind together.
• The Spirit Rat Line continued developing Nine Winds Valley in secret as Shi Jian’s second foothold and potential escape route.

As the devil calamity spread through the Clear Blue Kingdom, Zhou Yuan escaped to the Jin Kingdom, while Ming Province remained mostly untouched. Lord Rat developed a new Yin Rat Line, and Shi Jian strengthened his soul until his Divine Sense reached Nascent Soul level.

• Zhou Yuan evaded three pursuits by a Nascent Soul True Lord and took refuge with the Blood Bone Devil Sect in the Jin Kingdom.
• White Cloud Temple dealt with the few corpse tides and suspicious Rogue Cultivators in Ming Province, while Yun Du continued to avoid entangling the temple in wider affairs.
• Shu Laosan cultivated yin-attribute spirit lands in the Nine Winds Valley secret realm and began establishing the Yin Rat Line with Lord Rat's support.
• Shi Jian used thirty Enlightenment opportunities, strengthening his soul and bringing his Divine Sense to Nascent Soul level.
• Shi Jian extended his tangible Divine Sense across the Ming Province Northern Protectorate and gained the power to threaten Golden Core cultivators with a soul impact.

Shi Jian used his five remaining Enlightenment chances on a clever young Azure Ape after surveying Beast Pasturing Mountain and its thirty-six organized demon tribes. The ape awakened to self-awareness, while Beast Pasturing Mountain remained under Lei Huan’s rule and Shi Jian’s distant authority.

• Shi Jian considered who might benefit from his five Enlightenment chances and swept his Divine Sense across Beast Pasturing Mountain.
• Shi Jian surveyed the thirty-six tribes, including Lei Huan’s central tribe, the white foxes, and the Azure Apes, who cultivated Spirit Plants and brewed fruit wine.
• Shi Jian chose a clever young Azure Ape and poured all five Enlightenment chances into it, awakening its self-awareness.
• Shi Jian reflected on how Lei Huan had united the mountain’s tribes and assigned them distinct roles under Shi Jian’s authority.
• The tribes’ representatives gathered twice each month to kowtow toward Purple Firmament Peak, where they believed their king lived.

Qing Qi grew into a gifted Green Ape who mastered Spirit Plant cultivation and fruit wine brewing, while Lei Huan ordered his talent kept secret from human cultivators. The chapter ended by showing how the thirty-six clans credited their peace and security to the patriarch on Purple Firmament Peak.

• Qing Qi awakened his spiritual intelligence at one year old, learned to speak and cultivate, and named himself Qing Qi.
• By age three, Qing Qi had mastered brewing fruit wine and used Azure Wood Spiritual Qi to improve a fermenting batch.
• Lei Huan learned of Qing Qi’s talent and ordered his subordinates to keep the news from human cultivators so the cub would not be captured or harmed.
• The clans of Beast Pasturing Mountain prospered under the protection of the White Cloud Temple’s name, Lei Huan, and the White Fox Clan.
• The Demon Beasts of the thirty-six clans remembered how the patriarch’s protection had secured their peace and offered their monthly pilgrimages out of gratitude.

Shi Jian learned of an ancient method for transforming humans into demons and worked with Purple Firmament to remake it into a tool for controlling cultivators. He planned to introduce the Marrow-Cleansing Sainthood Transformation Instruction in the Liang Kingdom through the green ape clan.

• Shi Jian asked Purple Firmament about methods that could turn human cultivators into demons, and Purple Firmament described the Blood-Devouring Transformation Instruction.
• Shi Jian decided to exploit the Liang Kingdom’s political tensions and chose the green ape clan on Beast Pasturing Mountain to spread the method.
• Shi Jian and Purple Firmament modified the instruction, building in requirements for Shi Jian’s Essence Blood and measures that would make transformed cultivators dependent on him.
• Shi Jian made transformation irreversible at Foundation Establishment, ensuring cultivators would be recognized as demons by righteous cultivators.
• Shi Jian chose the name Marrow-Cleansing Sainthood Transformation Instruction for the revised method.

Shi Jian sent Cang Ya and Bi Luo of the Green Ape Tribe to the Liang Kingdom to spread the Marrow-Cleansing Sainthood Transformation Instruction and establish a sect serving the demon race. They accepted the mission, while Shi Jian viewed the future sect as another foothold and means of protection.

• Shi Jian summoned Cang Ya and Bi Luo to Purple Firmament Peak and questioned them about their experience with human society.
• Shi Jian gave Cang Ya the Marrow-Cleansing Sainthood Transformation Instruction and ordered the pair to infiltrate the Liang Kingdom, recruit struggling cultivators, and build a sect.
• Shi Jian explained that the method turned human cultivators into irreversible Demon Humans who would serve the demon race.
• Shi Jian persuaded Cang Ya and Bi Luo with promises of protection, resources, a future home for their clan, and cultivation guidance for Qing Qi.
• Cang Ya and Bi Luo accepted the mission and left to prepare for their journey.
• Purple Firmament observed that Shi Jian was planning for the distant future, while Shi Jian considered the Liang Kingdom sect a third strategic foothold alongside White Cloud Temple and Nine Winds Valley.

Cang Ya and Bi Luo infiltrated the Lin Household by killing its Ancestor, Lin Changsong, and assuming his identity. Cang Ya then gave the timid clan head Lin Yue an evil cultivation method, leaving him horrified by its demands.

• Cang Ya and Bi Luo traveled to You Prefecture and chose the declining Lin Household as their target.
• The apes ambushed and killed Lin Changsong in Black Mud Swamp, then Cang Ya copied his appearance using his face and a Demon Race Secret Method.
• Cang Ya and Bi Luo returned to the Lin residence, where Cang Ya introduced Bi Luo as a trusted friend and guest elder.
• Cang Ya privately gave Lin Yue the Marrow-Cleansing Sainthood Transformation Instruction and told him to study it.
• Lin Yue discovered that the method required raw flesh and five kinds of hearts, and recognized it as the way of an Evil Cultivator.

Cang Ya pushed Lin Yue to cultivate the Marrow-Cleansing Sainthood Transformation Instruction, which quickly strengthened him and began to warp his disposition. After Cang Ya learned that Lin Changhai planned an attack, he trapped and killed the first elder and his followers, leaving Lin Yue more fearful and hungry for power.

• Cang Ya pressured Lin Yue into cultivating the technique with beast hearts, and Lin Yue made rapid progress as his temperament began to change.
• Bi Luo reported that Lin Changhai had planted spies, and Cang Ya ordered her to wait for the first elder to make a move so he could purge the clan’s opposition.
• A wood beetle sent Cang Ya the details of Lin Changhai’s plan to attack him with Rogue Cultivators.
• Lin Changhai led dozens of followers to attack Cang Ya’s empty chamber, but Cang Ya and Bi Luo trapped them in a deadly vine formation.
• Cang Ya killed Lin Changhai and all the rebels, then told Lin Yue to claim they had colluded with Devil Cultivators; Lin Yue accepted the story and became even more determined to gain power.

After taking control of the Lin Household, Cang Ya used Holy Blood to recruit and transform Rogue Cultivators into loyal Demon Humans. Beneath the household, Bi Luo established the Sacred Blood Sect, whose believers prepared to resist the great immortal clans.

• Cang Ya consolidated control of the Lin Household, recruited live-in sons-in-law, and gave Li Tie Holy Blood and the Marrow-Cleansing Sainthood Transformation Instruction.
• Li Tie advanced in cultivation but became addicted to Holy Blood, and more than twenty other live-in sons-in-law suffered the same dependence and began showing signs of Demonization.
• Cang Ya ordered Bi Luo to hide mutated cultivators in a secret spiritual site on the back mountain.
• Bi Luo gathered Rogue Cultivators and brainwashed Lin Household members in an abandoned mine, where they declared their devotion to the Sacred Sect.
• Cang Ya supplied the sect through the Lin Household's businesses while Bi Luo recruited and indoctrinated followers with promises of strength and resistance against the great immortal sects and clans.

Five years after the Sacred Blood Sect began cultivating followers through sacred blood, Bi Luo sent its rapidly growing forces to destroy the Chen Household, led by the transformed Li Tie. The sect spread across Taizhen Commandery while Cang Ya concealed its role from the Mysterious Water Sect, then secretly sent a message after its steward departed.

• Li Tie reached Foundation Establishment Early Stage after five years of sacred-blood cultivation, while Bi Luo rallied hundreds of followers and ordered an attack on the Chen Household.
• Li Tie and the Sacred Blood Sect members broke through the Chen Household's formation, killed Chen Tai, slaughtered the household, and looted its storehouse.
• Rumors of the Sacred Blood Sect spread through Taizhen Commandery, drawing desperate low-ranking cultivators and increasing its membership to more than a thousand.
• Cang Ya warned that the Mysterious Water Sect would respond to the massacre, then met its steward Song Changfeng and denied knowing anything about the attack.
• Cang Ya bribed Song Changfeng with a Storage Bag, saw him off, and used a communication Jade Slip to send a secret message.

Shi Jian supplied Essence Blood that helped the Sacred Blood Sect strengthen its followers, and Cang Ya and Bi Luo established a profitable black market in Coiling Dragon Valley. The market’s success cut deeply into the Mysterious Iron Gang’s business, leaving its leader Tie Wuya uncertain how to respond to the mysterious sect.

• Shi Jian condensed three drops of Essence Blood, which Lord Rat’s Wind Rats carried to Fallen Leaf County.
• Bi Luo appointed Li Tie and five other Foundation Establishment cultivators as the Sacred Blood Sect’s six grand protectors, assigning them to command followers across Taizhen Commandery.
• Cang Ya and Bi Luo agreed to build an underground black market in Coiling Dragon Valley to fund the sect and recruit useful followers.
• The Sacred Blood Sect opened the market, where Li Tie killed bandits who tried to intimidate traders, establishing its reputation and drawing more than a thousand cultivators each day.
• Tie Wuya learned that the Sacred Blood Sect had taken much of the Mysterious Iron Gang’s business, but his hall masters could not identify who backed it.

The Mysterious Iron Gang withdrew to its headquarters while Tie Wuya tried to avoid provoking the Sacred Blood Sect. Cang Ya ordered a surprise attack, and Li Tie led the sect’s forces in breaking the gang’s defenses.

• Tie Wuya rejected a proposal to enlist the Mysterious Water Sect and ordered the Mysterious Iron Gang to pull back and defend its branches.
• Li Tie reported the gang’s movements to Cang Ya and Bi Luo in the Coiling Dragon Valley black market.
• Cang Ya ordered the Sacred Blood Sect to destroy the Mysterious Iron Gang before it could rally support.
• Li Tie led five hundred sect members toward the gang’s headquarters and assigned the protectors to eliminate sentries and block escape routes.
• Li Tie and his forces attacked the manor, shattered its defensive formation, and charged inside.

The Sacred Blood Sect destroyed the Mysterious Iron Gang, killed its leader Tie Wuya, and seized the gang’s wealth. Bi Luo disguised the massacre as the work of Jin Kingdom Devil Cultivators, prompting Taizhen Commandery to impose martial law while the sect went underground to consolidate its gains.

• The Sacred Blood Sect’s fanatical members broke through the Mysterious Iron Gang’s defenses with their body-tempered strength and brutal tactics.
• Li Tie fought Tie Wuya, endured his attacks in Demonization form, and overpowered him, while Bi Luo stopped Tie Wuya’s escape with poisonous vines.
• Li Tie killed Tie Wuya, and the Sacred Blood Sect slaughtered the remaining gang members and looted the underground treasury.
• Bi Luo used ghostly green flames to make the corpses appear to have been killed by the Blood Bone Devil Sect of the Jin Kingdom.
• The Mysterious Water Sect blamed Jin Kingdom Devil Cultivators for the destruction, and Taizhen Commandery went under martial law.
• The Sacred Blood Sect withdrew from public view and focused on absorbing the Mysterious Iron Gang’s territory and resources.

Six years after the Sacred Blood Sect withdrew from sight, Cang Ya had turned its Coiling Dragon Valley black market into a powerful operation and planned to disguise the sect with genuine devil cultivators and varied cultivation methods. As the Kunyuan Secret Realm prepared to open, he offered Bi Luo the Green Ape Clan’s place and asked her to enter.

• Over six years, the Mysterious Water Sect hunted for devil cultivators in Taizhen Commandery while the Sacred Blood Sect stayed hidden and Cang Ya built the Coiling Dragon Valley black market.
• Bi Luo delivered devil-path cultivation methods, and Cang Ya ordered copies distributed to lower and middle ranks to conceal the sect’s true connection to the Demon Race.
• Cang Ya explained that he had recruited genuine rogue Devil Cultivators as branch leaders and planned to infiltrate Guangling Commandery gradually rather than confront Evergreen Valley directly.
• Bi Luo reported that the Kunyuan Secret Realm would open in a few years and that White Cloud Temple had received twenty places, while the Old Ancestor had ten.
• Cang Ya gave Bi Luo the Green Ape Clan’s place in the secret realm and asked her to go, saying the sect would remain under his watch.

As the Kunyuan Secret Realm opened after a century, White Cloud Temple prepared its human and demon elites to seek Heaven and Earth Qi. The group reached the crowded mountain range, where Yun Du and Shi Jian learned of the powerful factions gathering and agreed to focus on the core blessed lands while protecting Lu Xun.

• Bi Luo accepted a jade token and vowed to win a fortuitous opportunity for the clan in the Kunyuan Secret Realm.
• Sun Yao and nine other elites were appointed to represent the White Cloud Temple lineage, and Yun Du urged them to put survival first.
• Shi Jian sent ten Foundation Establishment demons to the secret realm, ordering them to prioritize the Demon Race and protect Lu Xun.
• White Cloud Temple's flying boat reached the Kunyuan Mountain Range, where Yun Du reunited with True Person Qingshan of the Azure Light Gate.
• Qingshan warned Yun Du and Shi Jian that major sects had gathered in great numbers and that demonic cultivators might have entered using rogue cultivators' slots.
• Yun Du outlined the secret realm's regions and targeted the core blessed lands, while Shi Jian argued that Lu Xun needed the experience despite the danger.

Sun Yao led the White Cloud Temple and Azure Light Gate group through the Kunyuan Secret Realm after they all gathered in the Giant Tree Forest. They killed five Azure Edge Sect disciples who ambushed them, then moved cautiously between the Grand Purity Sect and the Azure Edge Sect.

• Sun Yao and the other cultivators entered the Kunyuan Secret Realm, while Shi Jian and Purple Firmament discussed the dangers awaiting them.
• Sun Yao regrouped the scattered members of her party in the Giant Tree Forest, and Bi Luo identified their location and advised them to avoid a nearby battle.
• The party found three corpses marked by the Grand Purity Sect's Purple Yang True Fire and tried to skirt the sect's path.
• Five Azure Edge Sect disciples ambushed the party with a formation, but Sun Yao ordered an attack and her group swiftly killed them.
• Bi Luo collected the Azure Edge Sect disciples' Storage Bags, and Sun Yao led the party onward through the gap between the two sects.

Sun Yao’s group reached the Ten Thousand Dao Marsh, where rival sects had gathered to seize the newly matured Cloud and Water Heaven and Earth Qi. As the factions clashed, White Cloud Temple and Azure Light Gate made their move, and Sun Yao confronted three Grand Purity Sect cultivators at the central island.

• After more than half a month of travel, Sun Yao’s group reached the Ten Thousand Dao Marsh and saw that rival sects had surrounded it.
• Sun Yao ordered the group to hide in an underwater cavern and wait for the Heaven and Earth Qi to mature.
• Three days later, a pillar of Qi rose from the central island, and the gathered factions erupted into battle.
• Sun Yao led White Cloud Temple and Azure Light Gate out of hiding toward the island while Kuang Dou and Liu Qing disrupted the Vast Righteousness School’s formation.
• Sun Yao broke through to the island but was confronted by three Grand Purity Sect cultivators led by the purple-robed youth.
• Sun Yao unleashed ice swords and cloud chains against the three cultivators as Sun Chengzu rushed to her aid with twelve flying swords.

Sun Yao’s group fought Han Yue and the Grand Purity Sect for access to the giant island’s core, while other factions battled across the flooded realm. Sun Yao used Cloud Dao True Intention to slip past Han Yue and reached the island’s core, with the Heaven and Earth Qi only three hundred zhang away.

• Han Yue used his Purple Yang True Fire to counter Sun Yao’s water wyrm and wounded her brother Sun Chengzu with fire snakes.
• Lu Xun arrived to help and struck a Grand Purity Sect cultivator with lightning, allowing Sun Chengzu to pin the man to a boulder with a flying sword.
• Han Yue released a fire spirit puppet, which blasted Lu Xun away and forced Sun Yao’s group onto the defensive.
• Kuang Dou and Liu Qing’s forces fought the Vast Righteousness School, while the Profound Purity Sect clashed with another Grand Purity Sect contingent elsewhere in the flooded realm.
• Sun Yao ordered Shi Mo and Shi Pan to hold off the fire spirit puppet, then used Cloud Dao True Intention to envelop Han Yue in thickening mist.
• Sun Yao passed Han Yue and entered the giant island’s core, nearing the Heaven and Earth Qi.