Chapter Summaries

Yang Yuanzhao, Yang Yuanling, and Chen Huai'an subdued the Azure Flame Fire Spirit and rescued six cultivators from the Molten Fire Sect before leaving Broken Blade Valley. Yan Meng discovered that the Chen Clan had denied the Yan Family’s request, then found the sects destroyed and resolved to claim the valley; the three Yang Clan cultivators later reunited with Xiao Yize, who had reached the Spiritual Connection realm.

• Yang Yuanzhao took control of the Molten Fire Sect’s flames while Yang Yuanling and Chen Huai'an suppressed the Azure Flame Fire Spirit and sealed it inside Chen Huai'an.
• The three found six surviving cultivators, handled the aftermath, and left Broken Blade Valley for a Demon Extermination Squad rendezvous point.
• Yan Meng learned that the Chen Clan had refused the Yan Family’s request and went to investigate the three supposed Chen Clan cultivators.
• Yan Meng found the Seeking Dao Sect in ruins and the Molten Fire Sect burned out, then discovered its Fire Vein remained and decided the Yan Family should claim the valley.
• Yang Yuanling, Yang Yuanzhao, and Chen Huai'an reached a rendezvous inn and met Xiao Yize, who had advanced to the Spiritual Connection realm.

Xiao Yize reunited with Yang Yuanling, Yang Yuanzhao, and Chen Huai'an, advised them on cultivation, and explained why he had joined the Demon Extermination Squad. He revealed that a dispatch order had sent many Northwest experts to the worsening crisis in the Southwest.

• Yang Yuanling, Yang Yuanzhao, and Chen Huai'an gathered around Xiao Yize, who shared spirit fruits and helped them recognize the fruits' effects on their Qi Meridians, spirit apertures, minds, and souls.
• The three children told Xiao Yize about their demon-extermination missions, and he gave them guidance based on their accounts.
• Yang Yuanling asked why Xiao Yize had joined the Demon Extermination Squad, and he said a dispatch order had left too few powerful experts in the Northwest.
• Xiao Yize explained that forces in the Southwest were defecting to the Demonic Path and that the Central Region Dao Academy had sent a former peerless figure there to form a new demon-extermination force.
• Xiao Yize said that Brother Shenglai, Fellow Daoist Xue, Fellow Daoist Luo, Lin Qiao, and Yang Yuanxing were among those selected for the dispatch.

Xiao Yize explained why Chen Huai'an had been removed from the transfer list sending Northwest cultivators to the perilous Southwest. After eight years of development, the Yang Clan’s sacred ground had grown prosperous, with thriving settlements in the First Layer Heaven Domain and a stronger, livelier Yangyuan Peak in the Second Layer.

• Xiao Yize told Chen Huai'an and the other children that a True Intent cultivator had crossed half the names off the Southwest transfer order, including Chen Huai'an, because the Northwest needed to retain its defenses.
• Yang Yuanzhao lamented that he could not visit Lin Qiao and Yuanxing and hoped the cultivators in the Southwest would return safely.
• After resting for three days, the Yang Clan’s three children received word to board a ferry and return to the Barbarian Land sacred ground.
• He Shengyuan’s three cities, Fuyang, Linyang, and Taiyang, anchored a growing network of towns and villages in the First Layer Heaven Domain, where the population of children had surged.
• Zhao Qi reached the Essence Condensation Realm, while Xie Chuan, Han Wang, Dai Wei, and Yuan Cheng advanced in cultivation at Yangyuan Peak.
• Yangyuan Peak accumulated twenty-five resident Qi Gathering Cultivators, while four cultivators with Hundred Arts Aptitude were taken to Tiangong Peak for further study.

Liu Zihao’s rise in the Yang Clan led to the opening of Layered Peaks, and his reunion with his former master improved the old cultivator’s standing in Chongtian Palace. The chapter also described the cultivation and disciples of Tiangong Peak’s leaders, where Chen Huaien, Huo Xuanhao, and Yao Santu advanced in their respective paths.

• Liu Zihao became the peak master of the newly opened Layered Peaks and trained three apprentices in the Way of Formations.
• Liu Zihao reunited with his former master in Chongtian Palace and discussed the Way of Formations with him.
• Liu Zihao addressed his former master as Master when they parted, and three minor court officials later visited the old cultivator.
• Chen Huaien advanced to the Spiritual Connection Ninth Layer and became a powerful alchemist in the Demon Extermination Squad.
• Huo Xuanhao entered the Core Formation Realm and took responsibility for two Alchemy Dao disciples on Tiangong Peak.
• Yao Santu entered the Core Formation Realm and taught four disciples studying the Artifact Path.

The chapter followed the Yang Clan’s Hundred Arts practitioners and cultivators in Sanglu Valley as they advanced under the clan’s guidance. Chen Yang learned that the clan’s fortune needed time to accumulate before it could produce more prodigies, while Pine Mountain’s spirit plant garden continued to flourish.

• Yao Santu cultivated the Artifact Path with the support of the family’s sacred land and Chen Yang’s guidance, while Yang Yuanwen established himself as a talisman arts teacher on Tiangong Peak.
• Yang Yuanwen recognized his own talent by comparing his skills with those of his two disciples and let go of jealousy and resentment.
• Yang Yuancheng and Yang Yuanfei reached the Perfected Realm of Tenth Level Qi Gathering and helped Elder Yu manage Sanglu Valley and guide younger cultivators.
• Chen Yang and the gods concluded that the Yang Clan had used up its current measure of fortune by producing numerous prodigies and needed a period of stable development before more could emerge.
• The Yang Clan expanded Pine Mountain’s spirit plant garden to more than five times its former size, and Chen Yang’s small verdant spirit plant stood foremost among its plants.

Yang Guanfeng reflected on the handover between generations as the Yang Clan flourished under Yang Lingqing’s leadership. At Chengzuo Peak, visitors praised Yang Lingqing’s insight, while Wu Tong and Wei Xinqing’s cultivation and family roles showed how the next generation was developing.

• Yang Guanfeng recalled teaching San Ling that every generation and every clan member had a duty, and he accepted that he had fulfilled his own role by stepping back from Yang Clan affairs.
• Yang Lingqing’s cultivation reached the Essence Condensation Sixth Layer, though her limited potential made further advancement increasingly difficult.
• Northwest and Central Region forces visited the Yang Clan, admired Yang Lingqing’s knowledge and judgment, and recognized the clan’s potential for greater prosperity.
• Chen Yang determined that Wu Tong could still reach the Essence Condensation Realm, though she would need a long time to build her foundation.
• Wei Xinqing formed her Core Formation Realm and returned to the Wei Family with her two children, where the family enshrined her as an ancestor.

The chapter follows Lin Qiao and Yang Yuanxing as they travel to the Southwest to join the demon extermination effort, while recounting Yang Lingrui and Yun Xiwu’s growing closeness and Xue Qingluan’s rise as a powerful commander. It ends with the Yang Clan’s reluctance to send Xue Qingluan away from the Northwest, where her strength helps keep the region secure.

• Lin Qiao traveled to the Southwest after years of demon extermination missions had forged her courage and established her as a key Core Formation cultivator.
• Yang Yuanxing joined Lin Qiao, hoping to meet a suitable marriage prospect while keeping Yang Lingqing’s warning to prioritize his safety in mind.
• Yun Xiwu gathered more than eighty percent of Yang Lingrui’s scattered Primordial Spirit fragments, and the two grew closer through their daily conversations.
• Xue Qingluan became the Northwest Demon Extermination Commander after distinguishing herself in the demon campaign and reaching the Mid-Spiritual Connection Realm.
• The Yang Clan resisted sending Xue Qingluan to the Southwest because her presence had been vital to the Northwest’s stability.

Yang Yuanhong advanced his cultivation in seclusion while Chen Yang’s work freed the Song family from its bloodline curse and strengthened his own Dao Path. In the Canglan Divine Palace, the gods gathered as Chen Yang prepared to ascend with the True God Authority.

• The Lingxiao Dao Academy arranged to take Xue Qingluan to the Southwest and offered the Yang Clan secret treasures to compensate for the loss of her combat strength.
• Yang Yuanhong remained in seclusion on Longyin Peak, where his black dragon aura showed that his cultivation had reached at least the tenth layer of Spiritual Connection.
• The Divine Palace and its allies extracted Divine Lord Li Huo’s source of divine power from the Song bloodline, freeing the Song family from its curse.
• Chen Yang used the source of divine power as a resource for Dao Integration and neared the middle realm of Divine Dao cultivation.
• The gods assembled at the Canglan Divine Palace, knelt before Chen Yang as he appeared with the True God Authority, and welcomed his ascension.

Chen Yang began climbing the Long Stairway to Godhood, leaving the gods of the Canglan Divine Palace to watch and pray for his ascent. As he vanished into the starry depths, Blood Sun reflected on the unlikely miracle of his own revival and the hope Chen Yang had brought them.

• Chen Yang recalled how the Canglan Divine Palace and his cultivation had changed since his previous ascent, then began climbing the stairway.
• After Chen Yang disappeared into the depths of space, Blood Sun asked Liuli how often her father, Divine Lord Li Huo, had succeeded in climbing the stairs.
• Liuli said Divine Lord Li Huo had succeeded four times in five attempts, while Blood Sun recalled succeeding only once in three ascents.
• Blood Sun remembered how Chen Yang's arrival had revived him after ten thousand years of waiting, and Frost Flower Venerable God shared his gratitude.
• Liuli and the other gods joined Blood Sun in praying for Chen Yang as he climbed.

Chen Yang ascended the Long Stairway to Godhood and let Wu Chang observe his journey, giving him a valuable rehearsal for his own pursuit of the Dao. As Chen Yang witnessed the ancient Divine Path Sages confronting past calamities, the stairway disappeared and his stone body sank into a slow-moving black river.

• Chen Yang sent a thought to Wu Chang and continued climbing the Long Stairway to Godhood.
• Wu Chang thanked Chen Yang for the chance to observe the ascent and watched as its pressure tested his state of mind.
• Chen Yang climbed beyond the point where the Canglan Divine Palace and Divine Mausoleum area vanished into darkness, encountering a rain of meteors.
• Chen Yang witnessed visions of ancient Divine Path Sages sacrificing themselves to resist calamities that threatened to extinguish the Dao.
• Chen Yang came to himself after the stairway vanished and found his stone body sinking into a slowly flowing black river.

Chen Yang lay in the River of Time, where he refined the Time Erosion Divine Art until it advanced, though he could not yet use its new form. A young Time Divine Lord pulled him from the river and realized that Chen Yang came from a future in which he had already died.

• Chen Yang recognized the River of Time and used its currents to comprehend temporal power and refine the Time Erosion Divine Art.
• Chen Yang realized the Divine Art had advanced, but he did not know how to cast or use it.
• A young figure arrived at the riverbank and lifted Chen Yang out of the River of Time.
• The figure recognized Chen Yang as a stone from another era and identified himself as the Time Divine Lord on his first ascent to godhood.
• The Time Divine Lord sensed that Chen Yang carried none of his time and concluded that he had already died in Chen Yang's era.

The Time Divine Lord brought Chen Yang through the River of Time, dismissing several True God inheritances before using Chen Yang to break a barrier blocking his path. The barrier shattered, and the two continued onward.

• The Time Divine Lord told Chen Yang that all beings, even gods, were destined to die, and discussed challenging Ziyang's Path of Reincarnation.
• The Time Divine Lord led Chen Yang to a stone stele and recognized its contents as an inheritance of a True God, but rejected it as unworthy.
• Chen Yang realized that the similar stele he had found in Tiger Chasing Eastern Frontier might also contain a Divine Dao inheritance.
• The Time Divine Lord passed two more inheritance steles, then stopped before an invisible barrier.
• The Time Divine Lord hurled Chen Yang at the barrier, empowered him with a divine art, and shattered it with a tap.

Chen Yang learned the Lagging Light Divine Technique during his encounter with the Time Divine Lord, who revealed that their meeting crossed distant points in time and protected Chen Yang’s original stone body from a karmic attack. Chen Yang returned from the stairway to the Canglan Divine Palace, where he used Lagging Light to avert a devastating crash and reappear in the great hall.

• Chen Yang mastered the Lagging Light Divine Technique while the Time Divine Lord’s power froze time around him.
• The Time Divine Lord explained that Chen Yang was a future projection inhabiting his original, unintelligent stone body, then sent him back to his own time.
• A Karma Bone Spike attacked Chen Yang’s stone body, and the Time Divine Lord blocked it with his palm before leaving the body at the end of the River of Time.
• Chen Yang fell from the Long Stairway to Godhood toward the Canglan Divine Palace and reflected on the Great Dao and the mysteries surrounding the disaster that extinguished the Dao.
• As Chen Yang hurtled toward the Divine Palace, he activated Lagging Light, causing the moment to halt and returning himself and the gathered gods to the great hall.

After reaching the middle realm, Chen Yang revealed a time-and-space concealment technique that made him nearly impossible to sense or harm. He reflected on how the escalating conflict had bought him time to delay his promise to Nangong Jinghe, whose separated soul had unknowingly begun cultivating a path that united immortals and gods.

• Chen Yang used his combined spatial and Lagging Light Divine Technique to conceal himself from the gods in the Divine Palace.
• Liuli recognized Chen Yang’s method, while Blood Sun identified it as another divine light technique and led the gods in congratulating him on reaching the middle realm.
• Chen Yang withdrew the technique and considered its heavy divine-power cost, which the Nangong Clan’s faith helped offset.
• Chen Yang recalled delaying his agreement with Nangong Jinghe by citing the conflict between the Righteous and Demonic Paths after the Demon Child’s attack gave the excuse credibility.
• Nangong Jinghe told Chen Yang that the fabricated secret technique had helped his separated soul begin a path of Union of Immortals and Gods, though he had not realized it.

Chen Yang learned from Nangong Jinghe how the sensing art had helped him survive a Demon Child's assassination attempt and uncover the Demonic Dao's hidden power. Nangong Jinghe suspected an Outsider Expert was interfering in the Lower Realm, a violation that could provoke the Void Realm's cultivators to kill and plunder him.

• Nangong Jinghe thanked Chen Yang for teaching him the secret art, which he had mastered enough to sense Creation Origin and discover a hidden mad god for his Gold Ring.
• Nangong Jinghe explained that the art had exposed a Demon Child before its ambush, allowing him to prepare and defeat the attacker without using a crucial defensive measure.
• Nangong Jinghe described the Demon Child as powerful enough to threaten even the strongest righteous-path cultivators in the Lower Three Realms, including Xuanyuan Xinghe.
• Nangong Jinghe concluded that the Demon Child's use of Creation Origin pointed to an Outsider Expert interfering in Azure Waves, and he spoke of the Void Realm's prohibition against such interference.
• Chen Yang learned that Void Stepping Realm cultivators who broke that rule had previously been killed by their peers, who divided up their bodies, souls, and possessions.

After ascending to the Middle Tier of the Divine Dao, Chen Yang used the True God Authority and the gods’ combined power to investigate the dilapidated Divine Seal Stone Stele. He uncovered fragments of Ancient God Path inheritance, giving the Divine Palace’s gods a way to pursue advancement and a direction for finding more divine arts.

• Chen Yang told Nangong Jinghe he was postponing their appointment, then decided he was strong enough to consider traveling to the Nangong Clan.
• Chen Yang rewarded the gods in the Divine Palace and brought them to the stone stele, explaining that he had recovered memories of its mysteries.
• The gods, along with Wu Chang in the Divine Mausoleum area, contributed their divine arts and power to the True God Authority.
• Chen Yang used the authority to resonate with the stone stele and entered its interior, where he found scattered Ancient God Path inheritance methods, with the strongest reaching Middle Tier.
• Chen Yang cleared the stele’s obstructions and gathered its remaining inheritance fragments, opening a path for the Divine Palace’s gods to advance.

After obtaining twelve fragmentary Divine Arts, Chen Yang gave the Illusory Colors Divine Technique to Fu Yin and Demonic Martial to Wu Hua, then set plans in motion to influence the struggle between Azure Waves’ righteous and demonic paths. He sent an avatar toward the Central Region, where he intended to confront the danger tied to the spirit mine essence and begin supporting the righteous side.

• Chen Yang sorted twelve Divine Art legacies with Blood Sun and Liuli, identifying the Illusory Colors Divine Technique and Demonic Martial as the most complete.
• Chen Yang bestowed the Illusory Colors Divine Technique on Fu Yin and Demonic Martial on Wu Hua, and told them to study carefully.
• Chen Yang asked Liuli’s secret cultivators to restore the incomplete arts and tasked Blood Sun with guiding Fu Yin and Wu Hua.
• Chen Yang returned to Shenlin Peak and sent his available stone-body avatar toward the Central Region.
• Chen Yang resolved to address the spirit mine essence danger, preserve the Nangong Clan’s faith, and begin aiding the righteous side in the coming contest against Wu Chang.

The Northwest Demon Extermination Squad arrived in the Southwest, where Bai Chuan welcomed them and led them to the Liaoyuan Dao Platform. Yang Yuanxing detected signs of Divine Dao power in two local cultivators, while the group learned that Commander Luo Qianchou had already exposed and executed numerous demonic agents; the Southwest’s hidden corruption appeared extensive.

• Bai Chuan greeted Dong Ruoyin, Jia Huarai, and Duan Yun as their ships arrived, then accepted the Northwest squad’s roster and escorted them to the Liaoyuan Dao Platform.
• Yang Yuanxing identified two suspicious Southwest cultivators tainted by Divine Dao power and warned Xue Qingluan and Lin Qiao.
• Xue Qingluan cautioned Yang Yuanxing and Lin Qiao to stay careful and avoid acting impulsively in unfamiliar territory.
• The group saw the Liaoyuan Dao Platform’s pool of true fire, where confirmed demonic cultivators and collaborators were executed.
• Luo Qianchou had exposed more than a dozen long-standing demonic agents by presenting evidence of their crimes and using soul-searching to verify their memories.

Jia Huarai, Dong Ruoyin, and Duan Yun arrived at the Blazing Plains Fire Pool, where Commander-in-Chief Luo Qianchou exposed their hidden histories and judged their prospects. He then ordered Bai Chuan to use several people already present as firewood so the visitors could watch demons burn.

• Bai Chuan led Jia Huarai and two other True Intent Cultivators from the Northwest to meet Luo Qianchou at the fire pool.
• Luo Qianchou privately assessed Dong Ruoyin's talent and opportunity, Jia Huarai's sword and legacy, and Duan Yun's dangerous determination.
• Jia Huarai and the others realized Luo Qianchou had seen through secrets they had never revealed.
• Luo Qianchou told Bai Chuan that the fire pool's flames were weak and asked him to find firewood.
• Luo Qianchou pointed out that several people were already present and ordered Bai Chuan to fetch them.

Luo Qianchou tested Bai Chuan’s loyalty amid suspicions that the Southwest had been infiltrated by the Demonic Dao. After confirming the targets on a register, Bai Chuan seized hidden demonic cultivators from the crowd, leaving them unable to use spells.

• Luo Qianchou’s accusation made the True Intent Cultivators suspect Bai Chuan, who explained how the candidates had been selected and finalized.
• Luo Qianchou revealed he had only been testing Bai Chuan, and the Central Region cultivators withdrew their pressure and apologized.
• Bai Chuan acknowledged that the Southwest’s turmoil had left everyone suspect, and Luo Qianchou handed him a page from a register.
• Bai Chuan used spatial Daoist Magic to pull the listed demonic cultivators out of the crowd and seal their ability to cast spells.