Chapter Summaries

The battle at Heavenly Void Pass intensified as Shi Jian and the rat demon army harvested corpses and treasures while the defenders struggled to hold the city-protecting array. The Yin Corpse Sect revealed its Netherworld Sha Lightning, and the chapter ended with the weapon poised to strike the array as the Golden Core elders were held back.

• Sun Mao and Zhao Yanshan fought Devil Cultivators at the wall while Foundation Establishment cultivators clashed across the battlefield.
• Shi Jian killed five Qi Refining Devil Cultivators with purple lightning, while Kuang Dou and Shi Mo waited for more corpses to fall.
• Lord Rat directed tens of thousands of giant rats through underground tunnels to collect corpses, Law Artifacts, and Storage Bags.
• The city-protecting array weakened as three of Heavenly Void Pass's thirty-six array towers ran out of Spirit Stones and exploded.
• The Yin Corpse Sect revealed its white-bone warship and charged its Netherworld Sha Lightning, while three Supreme Purity Sect Golden Core elders were blocked by five Golden Core Devil Cultivators.
• The Sha Lightning sphere grew to dozens of zhang across, leaving the defenders convinced that Heavenly Void Pass's array was about to be broken.

Shi Jian unleashed Purple Firmament’s power and destroyed the Yin Corpse Sect’s bone warship with one strike, shocking both armies and the Nascent Soul cultivators. He shrank back to five zhang as the battlefield stared at him in stunned silence.

• Shi Jian charged the bone warship while ten Golden Core Devil Cultivators fought six defenders above Heavenly Void Pass.
• Two Devil Cultivators attacked Shi Jian, but his body rebounded a bone mountain and his lightning extinguished their corpse flames.
• Shi Jian called on Purple Firmament, then grew to twenty zhang as destructive lightning runes spread across his body.
• Shi Jian formed a lightning spear and struck the bone warship, destroying it and killing the hundreds of Devil Cultivators aboard.
• The battlefield fell silent, and the Nine-Headed Poison Lord and Heavenly Corpse Old Devil questioned how such a powerful Lightning Bear had appeared under the Supreme Purity Sect.

Shi Jian destroyed the Devil Cultivators’ city-breaking weapon, but the power of his transformation left him exhausted and exposed. Five Golden Core Devil Cultivators attacked him as reinforcements arrived, while the enemy pressed its assault on Heavenly Void Pass’s defensive formation.

• The Nine-Headed Poison Lord and Heavenly Corpse Old Devil recognized that Shi Jian’s power came from an unstable but extraordinarily forceful secret method.
• Shi Jian’s strike destroyed the city-destroying weapon, lifting the defenders’ morale and shaking the Devil Cultivators.
• The Devil Cultivators noticed Shi Jian weakening and sent five Golden Core cultivators to surround and kill him.
• True Person Yun Du and True Person Qingshan tried to protect Shi Jian, but their attacks could not stop the Devil Cultivators.
• Three Supreme Purity Sect elders broke away from their opponents and joined the battle, holding back several Golden Core Devil Cultivators.
• The remaining Devil Cultivators formed a formation and attacked Heavenly Void Pass’s defensive formation while their troops launched a fierce assault.

Shi Jian and the Supreme Purity Sect elders fought off the Golden Core Devil Cultivators, with Shi Jian breaking the Ten Thousand Corpses Grand Formation and creating an opening for True Person Qingshan to injure its caster. The Devil Cultivators retreated, and the elders hurried back to support the Heavenly Void Temple, where five more Devil Cultivators were attacking.

• A Golden Core corpse cultivator raised a corpse king while other Devil Cultivators unleashed poisonous insects, vengeful souls, corrosive blood, and Silver-Armored Corpses against Shi Jian and the Supreme Purity Sect elders.
• The leading elder placed a jade talisman on Shi Jian's forehead to defend his mind against the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.
• Shi Jian fired Purple Firmament Divine Lightning at the bronze and iron corpses, destroying nearly a thousand and breaking the Ten Thousand Corpses Grand Formation.
• True Person Qingshan struck the weakened corpse cultivator with an azure vine whip, knocking him from the sky and leaving his fate unknown.
• The remaining Golden Core Devil Cultivators retreated, and Yun Du and the other elders set out to support the Heavenly Void Temple and ambush the five Devil Cultivators attacking its grand formation.

Shi Jian helped repel the Devil Cultivators from Heavenly Void Pass, then hid how much strength he had left while collecting the battlefield spoils. Elder Chen of the Supreme Purity Sect tried to recruit him with promises of abundant resources, but Shi Jian remained noncommittal and privately rejected the idea.

• The five Devil Cultivators attacking Heavenly Void Pass retreated after the Supreme Purity Sect elders counterattacked, and the Devil Cultivators withdrew from the battlefield.
• Shi Jian returned to the White Cloud Temple camp, accepted a Storage Bag of Spirit Stones and demon remains from Yun Du, and pretended to be more exhausted than he was.
• Lord Rat reported that Shi Jian's forces had recovered over a thousand Storage Bags and other battlefield materials, and Shi Jian ordered the useful supplies sent to Purple Firmament Peak.
• Elder Chen gave Shi Jian a third-tier Jade Bone Pill and offered him ten times White Cloud Temple's resources if he joined the Supreme Purity Sect.
• Shi Jian told Elder Chen he would think it over, then privately dismissed the offer because he did not want to be bound by the sect's rules.

Shi Jian’s forces scavenged the battlefield outside Heavenly Void Pass while the pass remained quiet, but a battle report revealed that the other fronts were collapsing. Opening Yang Pass had fallen after Yan Qiu betrayed its defenders, though the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect killed him after he helped them seize the city.

• Lord Rat reported the corpses and spoils his rat descendants had gathered, and Shi Jian kept the mid-grade Spirit Stones while allocating the rest to White Cloud Temple and Beast Pasturing Mountain.
• Shi Jian told Lord Rat, Kuang Dou, and Shi Mo to hunt minor Devil Cultivators and share the resources they gained with the other branches.
• True Person Yun Du and True Person Qingshan brought Shi Jian a report describing heavy casualties and breaches at several passes.
• Yun Du and Qingshan revealed that Yan Qiu had betrayed Opening Yang Pass, destroyed part of its formation, and helped the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect kill thousands and defeat its defenders.
• Yun Du explained that the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect had slaughtered Yan Qiu’s disciples and drained his Essence Blood after the betrayal.

At Heavenly Void Pass, Shi Jian urged the shaken defenders not to lose hope after Opening Yang Pass was breached and True Lord Liufang was gravely injured. As the Devil Cultivators nearly overwhelmed the inner city, True Lord Xuanyuan returned and drove off their Nascent Soul leaders, allowing the Supreme Purity Sect to retake the outer city.

• True Person Qingshan reported that Opening Yang Pass had fallen, True Lord Liufang was near death, and the inner city was surrounded by the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect.
• Shi Jian reassured True Person Yun Du and True Person Qingshan that Wei Kingdom's ancient great sects still had trump cards despite the crisis.
• At Opening Yang Pass, Old Devil Xueling and Poison Lord Bichun attacked the inner city's formation while True Lord Liufang struggled to defend it.
• True Lord Xuanyuan appeared, crushed thousands of Devil Cultivators with an azure palm, and dispelled the poisonous miasma and Blood Qi with an ancient bronze cauldron.
• True Lord Xuanyuan forced Old Devil Xueling and Poison Lord Bichun to flee, and the Wei Kingdom cultivators counterattacked.
• The Supreme Purity Sect retook Opening Yang Pass's outer city within half a day.

True Person Qingshan received reports that the Supreme Purity Sect had retaken key passes, killed Devil Dao leaders, and gained Hehuan Valley as an ally, turning the war in Wei Kingdom’s favor. After Elder Chen ordered a full counterattack into Jin Kingdom, Shi Jian and Yun Du mobilized their forces and planned to seize Fenghe Sect’s resources for White Cloud Temple.

• True Person Qingshan learned that True Lord Xuanyuan had retaken Opening Yang Pass and driven Old Devil Xueling away.
• True Person Qingshan received a report that True Lord Tianxing had killed the Heavenly Sha Sect patriarch’s physical body in a surprise attack at Heavenly Pivot Pass.
• True Person Qingshan learned that Devil Lord Hongfen had defected at Heavenly Authority Pass, helping True Lord Hanling kill Devil Lord Kugu and defeat the remaining Devil Cultivators.
• Elder Chen ordered the forces to pursue the enemy and join a full-scale invasion of Jin Kingdom’s four Devil Dao sects.
• Shi Jian and Yun Du mobilized their forces, and Shi Jian told Sun Mao to alert White Cloud Temple so it could seize Fenghe Sect’s resources and Blessed Lands.

After the Wei Kingdom forces routed the Devil Cultivators at Heavenly Void Pass, they pursued them into Jin territory to plunder its Devil Dao strongholds. The chapter left Shi Jian, Yun Du, and Qingshan leading an expedition into Black Sha Commandery, while White Cloud Temple's forces separately prepared to raid Fenghe Sect.

• Elder Chen ordered the counterattack, and the Wei Kingdom cultivators pursued the fleeing Devil Cultivators across the plain.
• Shi Jian, Yun Du, and Qingshan hunted down enemies as the Wei forces routed the Jin Kingdom army.
• Sun Mao told Zhao Yanshan that White Cloud Temple would leave the main force and raid the leaderless Fenghe Sect.
• At Ghost Gate Pass, Elder Chen ordered the Wei army to split up and plunder the commanderies of Profound Province.
• Shi Jian, Yun Du, and Qingshan led more than a thousand cultivators toward Black Sha Commandery and destroyed a Devil Cultivator lineage along the way.

Shi Jian shattered Yin Wind Valley’s protective formation, killed its Golden Core guardian, and led the allied cultivators into the valley. Lord Rat then found a trail toward a likely treasury and Blessed Land underground, and Shi Jian, Yun Du, and Qingshan followed it.

• Shi Jian destroyed the formation’s two spiritual nodes, and he broke the weakened Ten Thousand Bones Yin-Locking Formation with a lightning strike.
• True Person Bone Sha fled, but Shi Jian caught him and killed him before he could detonate his Golden Core.
• Shi Jian swallowed Bone Sha’s Golden Core and took his storage ring while Yun Du and Qingshan finished dealing with the Silver-Armored Corpses.
• Yun Du ordered the allied forces to attack, and the White Cloud Temple and Azure Light Gate cultivators swept through Yin Wind Valley’s remaining Devil Cultivators.
• Lord Rat sensed a dense source of Spiritual Qi along the underground yin vein and led Shi Jian, Yun Du, and Qingshan toward the likely treasury and Blessed Land.

Shi Jian, True Person Yun Du, and True Person Qingshan looted Yin Wind Valley’s treasury and stripped its Profound Yin Cold Pool of its resources before learning that the Fenghe Sect had fallen to the White Cloud Temple. The White Cloud Temple had seized the sect’s foundation and two Blessed Lands, greatly expanding its resources.

• True Person Qingshan opened Yin Wind Valley’s poisoned treasury, and Shi Jian, Yun Du, and Qingshan divided its Spirit Stones, spiritual materials, Cultivation Methods, and Law Treasures.
• Lord Rat discovered a hollow wall, and Shi Jian broke through it to reveal a Profound Yin Cold Pool and Ice Soul Grass.
• Yun Du proposed draining the pool and harvesting the grass, so Shi Jian, Yun Du, Qingshan, and the rat demons spent a day and night stripping the cavern of its resources.
• Sun Mao sent Shi Jian word that the Fenghe Sect had fallen, its elites were gone, and its treasury and two Blessed Lands were now in White Cloud Temple’s hands.
• Shi Jian and Yun Du welcomed the victory, which had removed a major threat and greatly increased White Cloud Temple’s foundation.

While Shi Jian recovered in Yin Wind Valley, the Supreme Purity Sect’s campaign devastated the Jin Kingdom and left its remaining devil sects surrounded. Shi Jian explained why the sect had paused its advance, and the others agreed that a drawn-out standoff would give everyone time to absorb their gains.

• Shi Jian ordered Lord Rat to sort and pack the valuable Yin Qi ores they had collected in Yin Wind Valley.
• Yun Du delivered a battle report describing how nine Nascent Soul experts destroyed the Yin Corpse Sect and captured its two ancestors.
• True Person Qingshan reported that the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect fled to the Blood Bone Devil Sect, while Devil Lord Hongfen defected from Hehuan Valley after killing Devil Lord Lu Xia.
• Yun Du explained that the Blood Bone Devil Sect and Heavenly Sha Sect were surrounded by ten Supreme Purity Sect Nascent Soul experts, but the attackers had not begun a decisive assault.
• Shi Jian said the Supreme Purity Sect was likely pausing because its forces were occupied claiming territory and because a costly battle could weaken its hold over the Jin Kingdom.

Shi Jian, True Person Yun Du, and True Person Qingshan stripped Black Sha Commandery of its resources for their sects. After extracting Yin Wind Valley’s third-tier Spirit Vein for White Cloud Temple, they swept the nine counties and left the region largely barren.

• True Person Yun Du relayed Elder Chen’s order to plunder Black Sha Commandery, and Shi Jian called for them to begin extracting its Spirit Veins.
• Shi Jian assigned Yin Wind Valley’s third-tier Spirit Vein to White Cloud Temple and promised True Person Qingshan compensation.
• True Person Yun Du and True Person Qingshan led their array masters in extracting seventy percent of the third-tier Spirit Vein and sealing it in a jade casket.
• Shi Jian and his companions swept Black Sha Commandery’s nine counties, extracting twelve second-tier Spirit Veins and seizing or destroying other resources.
• Yun Du and Qingshan’s forces stripped the counties’ spirit fields, mines, herbs, medicines, and spirit beasts, leaving Black Sha Commandery depleted.

Shi Jian returned to White Cloud Temple with the enormous spoils from the campaigns against the Jin Kingdom and began putting plans in place to strengthen both the temple and his Demon Race forces. He withdrew the demons into Beast Pasturing Mountain and settled into cultivation, aiming to break through to the Golden Core Middle Stage.

• Shi Jian tallied White Cloud Temple’s spoils from Black Sha Commandery and ordered the forces to withdraw before they provoked resentment from Wei Kingdom’s other powers.
• As the flying ships crossed the war-ravaged Jin Kingdom, Shi Jian reflected on the shifting balance among Wei Kingdom’s three great sects and vowed to lead the Demon Race to rise in the future.
• Two flying ships returned to White Cloud Temple with their spoils, and Yun Tianfan wept with joy while Sun Mao and Zhao Yanshan arrived with the Lineage cultivators from the nine counties.
• True Person Qingshan set aside resources for Azure Light Gate and departed with the forces from Qingzhou Commandery.
• Shi Jian ordered Lord Rat to move all Demon Race members deep into Beast Pasturing Mountain, distribute resources, and help young demons reach Foundation Establishment.
• Shi Jian began cultivating in his cave abode, sensing that he might reach the Golden Core Middle Stage within twenty or thirty years.

After a year of secluded cultivation, Shi Jian emerged with his Nine-Pattern Lightning Core perfected and learned that the Supreme Purity Sect had founded the Clear Blue Kingdom. White Cloud Temple had been appointed the Ming Province Northern Protectorate, and Shi Jian headed to meet Yun Du about its expanded territory and duties.

• Shi Jian completed a year of cultivation, strengthened the lightning pool, and stabilized his Golden Core just short of the Middle Stage.
• Lord Rat told Shi Jian that the Supreme Purity Sect had separated from the Wei Kingdom and established the Clear Blue Kingdom from six provinces.
• Shi Jian learned that the Profound Purity Sect and Grand Purity Sect had recognized the new kingdom while secretly preparing for possible war.
• Lord Rat reported that White Cloud Temple had become the Ming Province Northern Protectorate, governing eighteen counties and sixty-two Foundation Establishment Lineages.
• Shi Jian learned that Yun Du had spent the year managing the territory and had asked to discuss matters with him.
• Shi Jian left Purple Firmament Peak and flew toward White Cloud Temple's main peak.

True Person Yun Du explained the new Northern Protectorate’s obligations and benefits to Shi Jian, then offered him the deputy protector position. Shi Jian accepted the appointment, strengthening White Cloud Temple’s standing in the realm.

• True Person Yun Du greeted Shi Jian at the main peak’s great hall and described the territory and clans under his administration.
• Yun Du explained that the protectorate had to submit spirit taxes, materials, and Foundation Establishment cultivators to the Ming Province government every ten years in exchange for support and greater freedom.
• Yun Du told Shi Jian that True Lord Fang Yi led the provincial government and had a favorable attitude toward White Cloud Temple.
• Yun Du gave Shi Jian the deputy protector token, explaining that True Lord Fang Yi had personally approved his appointment.
• Shi Jian accepted the deputy protector position, and Yun Du felt the Northern Protectorate’s foundations were secure with Shi Jian holding the fort.

Shi Jian watched White Cloud Temple reshape the Cloud Sword Mountain Range as Yun Du established new Spirit Veins and Blessed Lands, while Shi Jian strengthened Purple Firmament Peak and completed its Thunder Pool Blessed Land. The chapter left White Cloud Temple with four growing paths to Golden Core and Shi Jian’s Lightning Bear lineage with a source of Violet Firmament Golden Lightning Qi.

• Yun Du raised the southern mountains’ main Spirit Vein to third-tier, high-grade and expanded the network of spirit mountains.
• Yun Du established the White Peak Cloud Gorge, relocated the Fenghe Sect’s Fire Cloud Grotto, and planted a Water Dao spirit pearl to form three new Blessed Lands.
• Shi Jian observed Yun Du’s plans to give White Cloud Temple inheritance paths in Sword, Cloud, Fire, and Water Dao.
• Shi Jian combined two third-tier Spirit Veins beneath Purple Firmament Peak, enlarging the peak and raising its Spirit Vein to third-tier, middle-grade.
• Shi Jian’s Thunder Pool completed its transformation into a Blessed Land and began producing Violet Firmament Golden Lightning Qi about once every three hundred years.
• Purple Firmament told Shi Jian that improving the Spirit Vein or nurturing the pool with fourth-tier lightning treasures could accelerate its production.

Shi Jian reorganized the Northern Mountain Range, assigning its expanded spirit mountains and cultivation resources to Demon Beast tribes and the Sun and Zhao clans. He installed the Crimson Slurry Pool at Frenzied Battle Peak, giving Kuang Dou’s black dog tribe a fire-path blessed land and new prospects for growth.

• Shi Jian distributed the Northern Mountain Range’s eighteen second-tier spirit mountains among the Demon Beast tribes, the Sun Clan, and the Zhao Clan.
• Shi Jian arranged for the Sun and Zhao clans to manage spirit beasts and develop the range’s spirit herb gardens, fruit groves, and medicine fields.
• Shi Jian modified the White Cloud Temple’s beast-taming methods to protect spirit beasts and let them dissolve contracts, inherit cultivation, or join human cultivators in a combined attack.
• Shi Jian entrusted the Crimson Slurry Pool to Kuang Dou and had Lord Rat’s team install it in a lava cavern beneath Frenzied Battle Peak.
• The Crimson Slurry Pool transformed Frenzied Battle Peak into a fire-attribute habitat, delighting Kuang Dou with the chance to strengthen the black dog tribe and pursue Golden Core.

Shi Jian’s northern mountains gained an embryonic Earth Dao Blessed Land at Boulder Peak, while his demon clans and forces in the Great Maple Mountain Range continued to grow. He counted seven Blessed Lands across the south and north and planned to keep building his power until he could reach Nascent Soul.

• Shi Jian established an embryonic Earth Dao Blessed Land inside Boulder Peak using the pure Earth Dao Heaven and Earth Qi Yun Du had obtained from True Person Qingshan.
• Shi Jian counted seven Blessed Lands across Ming Province and said he would keep accumulating power until he could reach Nascent Soul and spark a human-demon calamity.
• Lord Rat’s lineage gained two Foundation Establishment demons, Kuang Dou advanced to Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, and the bear lineages saw new breakthroughs, including two new Boulder bears and two Lightning Bears named Lei Bao and Lei Kuang.
• Shi Jian’s northern mountains held fourteen Foundation Establishment great demons, ten of them bears, while Lei Nu, Lei Zhen, Lei Bao, and Lei Kuang became known as the Four Bears of Frenzied Lightning.
• Shi Jian sent Lei Huan to command the thirty-six peaks of Beast Pasturing Mountain, bringing the number of Foundation Establishment great demons he could mobilize to at least fifty.

Shi Jian sought Purple Firmament’s guidance on the Dao and entered secluded cultivation, drawing Spiritual Qi and summoning purple-gold lightning over Purple Firmament Peak. Across the Sun Clan, Lu Xun, Sun Mao, Sun Yao, and Sun Chengzu witnessed the spectacle and reflected on the patriarch’s influence as they continued their own paths.

• Shi Jian asked Purple Firmament to explain the Dao, then returned to his cave abode and began secluded cultivation as lightning and Spiritual Qi gathered over Purple Firmament Peak.
• Lu Xun watched the lightning while studying formations with Sun Lin, who urged him to serve the patriarch and said his Lightning Spirit Root might help him form a Golden Core.
• Sun Mao saw the lightning after arranging spiritual taxes and bowed toward Purple Firmament Peak, wishing the patriarch success.
• Sun Yao sensed the pressure of the lightning and resumed cultivation, determined to pursue a Golden Core even without Heaven and Earth Qi.
• Sun Chengzu saluted Purple Firmament Peak with his sword, then turned back toward the Return to Origin Sword Tomb to continue his cultivation.