Chapter Summaries

Qi Han traveled toward his next assignment while Baili Fusang and his squad waited in a marsh for a better chance to assassinate him. Elsewhere, the righteous path continued winning across its fronts, with Yang Lingrui, his wind-cultivator companion, and Long Yuan’s forces putting the Demonic Path under pressure.

• Qi Han stopped above a marsh after three days of flight, while Baili Fusang’s squad watched him from concealment and chose not to attack because he was on guard.
• Shen Yue reasoned that Qi Han would return along the marsh route to complete his assignments, and Baili Fusang’s squad resumed waiting while keeping track of Demonic Path troop movements.
• Yang Lingrui and his wind-cultivator companion devastated demon cultivators on the Southwest battlefield, earning a fearsome reputation among the Demonic Path.
• Chen Huaien and Tao Yuan held the westernmost front as Long Yuan’s young borderland elites used flanking maneuvers to defeat the Demonic Path’s counterattacks.

During the war between the righteous and demonic sides, Nie Wuchen confronted the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord in the Outrealm and warned him that the Divine Arrival True Person could restrain him as Zhuang Xuanji once had. Nie Wuchen departed after displaying a deeper grasp of spatial methods, leaving the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord questioning Bai Di’s prediction and the possibility of a chosen one of the Dao.

• Nie Wuchen watched Venerable Kuji fight the Poison-Extinguishing Demon Venerable as the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord arrived to speak with him.
• Nie Wuchen taunted the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord for failing to seize the chance to become the Demonic Path’s foremost venerable.
• The Myriad Corpses Demon Lord declared that the Returning Soul Dao would rule Canglan Continent by offering people a way to prolong their lives.
• Nie Wuchen warned that the Divine Arrival True Person could keep the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord under control as Zhuang Xuanji had for eight hundred years.
• Nie Wuchen departed by scattering the inverted river of stars, and the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord realized his opponent had grown stronger.
• The Myriad Corpses Demon Lord reconsidered Bai Di’s message and wondered whether a chosen one of the Dao truly existed.

Baili Fusang’s squad ambushed Qi Han after tracking his movements through the marsh and disabling his escape art. They destroyed two of his substitute lives, and Shen Yue prepared to use Invoke Saint as the attack continued.

• Baili Fusang decided the squad would strike when Qi Han next crossed the marsh alone.
• Qi Han felt an unexplained warning but dismissed it as he flew over the marsh without looking down.
• Baili Fusang and four allies sprang from the marsh, and three talents used Lifeline Talismans to seal Qi Han’s Body Dissolution Method.
• Shen Yue and Baili Fusang shattered Qi Han’s protective purple mist, and Baili Fusang destroyed his first body.
• Baili Fusang neutralized Qi Han’s poison, then used a Poetic-Word Flying Sword to destroy a second substitute life.
• Shen Yue invoked Saint while Baili Fusang continued fighting Qi Han.

Baili Fusang unleashed the Three Life-Severing Kills against Qi Han, but Qi Han broke free using Nether Poison Infusion and trapped them both in his poison art. Shen Yue led the others to retreat, following Baili Fusang’s plan, while the battle’s outcome remained unknown.

• Baili Fusang used the Heavenly Kill and Earthly Kill to bind Qi Han and attack him with the swamp’s rising dragons and serpents.
• Qi Han infused himself with Nether Poison, loosened the spatial confinement, and broke free from most of Baili Fusang’s attacks.
• Baili Fusang charged Qi Han, who knocked Shen Yue and the Earthly Kill cage aside and seized Baili Fusang’s sword tip.
• Qi Han cast Return of a Hundred Poisons, enveloping himself and Baili Fusang in a poisonous manifestation.
• Shen Yue gathered the three prodigies and began retreating, explaining that Baili Fusang had planned their escape and that demonic reinforcements would soon arrive.

A powerful disturbance from deep within the Vast Sea Demonic Land disrupted both sides’ forces and forced them to withdraw from battle. At the Central Region Demon Suppression Pass, Sea Bearing Venerable identified its likely source as the Demon Emperor’s Burial Mound, despite the righteous path’s past conclusion that the site was a Demonic Dao fabrication.

• A tremendous roar swept across the Central Region and Southwest battlefields, disrupting cultivators’ spiritual energy and forcing both sides to retreat.
• The righteous path strengthened defenses at the Central Region and Southwest Demon Suppression Passes while its leaders sought an explanation for the disturbance.
• Venerable Xuan You asked Sea Bearing Venerable whether he recognized the unprecedented commotion.
• Sea Bearing Venerable said the disturbance likely came from the Demon Emperor’s Burial Mound.
• Venerable Mingxiao recalled that Zhuang Xuanji and other righteous path venerables had inspected the mound and found it to be a sham created by the Demonic Dao to rally its forces.

At Demon Suppression Pass, Sea Bearing Venerable questioned why the Demonic Dao had launched such a massive war despite making little progress. He suspected the strange rumbling in the Demon Soil signaled a hidden move and warned that the Demonic Path Young Master might be the war’s true variable.

• The Profound Insight cultivators dismissed the Demon Emperor's Burial Mound as a human-made fake and doubted the Demonic Dao could threaten the Central Region.
• Sea Bearing Venerable felt uneasy about the rumbling from the Vast Sea Demonic Land while the strongest figures fought in the Otherworldly Realm.
• Venerable Resolve Karma invited Sea Bearing Venerable to explain his concerns.
• Sea Bearing Venerable showed records of past conflicts and argued that the Demonic Dao’s large-scale war had achieved little despite its claimed ambitions.
• The cultivators considered why the Demonic Dao had mobilized so many forces if it could not break through Demon Suppression Pass.
• Sea Bearing Venerable said the rumbling might signal a real move and suspected the Demonic Path Young Master was a key variable.

The Demonic Path launched an all-out assault far earlier than expected, deploying its five demon lairs, Mystic Insight Venerables, and nearly all its True Intent Cultivators. As Luo Qianchou prepared to face the attack on the Southwest battlefield, Nangong Jinghe suggested that the changes caused by the Demonic Path’s actions might be their true goal.

• The five demon lairs descended and merged with the Vast Sea Demonic Land as thirty-six Demonic Path Venerables and nearly four hundred True Intent Cultivators joined the war.
• The righteous venerables met the Demonic Path’s forces, while Resolve Karma ordered every combat-ready True Intent Cultivator in Demon Suppression Pass to the front lines.
• Five Mystic Insight Demonic Path Venerables and dozens of True Intent Cultivators attacked Southwestern Demon Suppression Pass, prompting Luo Qianchou to withdraw Path Seeking Realm forces into the Southwest hinterland.
• Luo Qianchou consulted Nangong Jinghe, who suggested that the changes caused by the enemy’s actions might reveal the Demonic Path’s true intent.

Bai Di helped the Azure Flame Demon Venerable begin his final tribulation, fulfilling the old demon’s wish to give his life for the Demonic Dao. As the Azure Flame Demonfire burned through the firmament, black smoke spread across the Demon Soil and both battlefields before stopping at a spatial barrier.

• The Azure Flame Demon Venerable told Bai Di he had always believed him to be the chosen Young Master of the Dao.
• Bai Di touched the Azure Flame Demon Venerable’s true body and confirmed it was time for him to summon the tribulation.
• The Azure Flame Demon Venerable began his tribulation, and heavenly lightning ignited his body in azure flames.
• Righteous Dao Venerables and Demonic Dao Demon Venerables recognized the Azure Flame Demon Venerable and wondered why he was ascending during the fighting.
• The Azure Flame Demonfire burned through the Apex of the Firmament, and black smoke spread across the Demon Soil, both battlefields, and Demon Suppression Pass before reaching the spatial barrier.

Gu Wuwei, the elderly master of the tiny Heaven-Measure Sect, reflected on how a visit from a Donglai Sect cultivator had connected his obscure lineage to the Yang Clan’s rule of the Northwest. The visit left him with a Cheng Yang Stone Tablet and a sense that even his name might be preserved in history.

• Chang Yishan and his junior brother sought Gu Wuwei’s permission to gather medicinal herbs, then paid respects to the Cheng Yang Stone Tablet before leaving.
• Gu Wuwei recalled how a Late Qi Gathering cultivator from the Donglai Sect had visited the Heaven-Measure Sect more than ten years earlier.
• The Donglai Sect cultivator told Gu Wuwei that the Yang Clan had stabilized the Northwest and recorded the names and lineage of the sect’s three members.
• The cultivator gave Gu Wuwei the Cheng Yang Stone Tablet and a talisman box, instructing him to pay respects to them diligently.
• Gu Wuwei remembered feeling warmed when his name and the Heaven-Measure Sect’s lineage were entered in the register.

Gu Wuwei learned that his disciples had found corpses falling from the sky and three severed heads feeding on the dead pig demon, whom he had fought for years. He cautiously investigated the mountain and found the pig demon drained of blood, but the heads were gone.

• Chang Yishan told Gu Wuwei that he and his junior brother had found scattered body parts and corpses in the mountains.
• Chang Yishan reported that the pig demon was dead and three severed heads had been feeding on its flesh and blood.
• Gu Wuwei suspected the heads were demonic cultivators left behind after the Demon Extermination Squad’s campaign and set out with his disciples to investigate.
• Gu Wuwei found the pig demon’s corpse drained of blood, saw bite marks across its body, and released his divine sense to examine it.

Gu Wuwei sent his disciples toward Donglai Sect while turning back to confront the demonic cultivator slaughtering a village. He arrived as the cultivator killed a villager and cornered a boy fleeing with his infant sister.

• Gu Wuwei spotted the demonic cultivator attacking another village and initially led his disciples away to report the threat to the great sects.
• After villagers cried out for the old immortal, Gu Wuwei sent Chang Yishan and his other disciple southwest with the cave’s stone stele and his possessions.
• Gu Wuwei reassured his disciples that he would survive, then ordered them to leave without him.
• Hearing a father urge his children to run, Gu Wuwei rushed into the village, where the demonic cultivator had killed most of the villagers.
• A boy fled with his infant sister as the cultivator killed their father and appeared before them.

Chang Yishan and his junior fellow disciple fled the Wild Forest to warn the Northwest’s righteous powers about the Demonic Calamity. Outside the forest, a cultivator from the Yang family recognized them and approached, leaving Chang Yishan overwhelmed with emotion.

• Chang Yishan and his junior fellow disciple realized that walking to Donglai Sect would take too long to stop the demonic cultivators from establishing a foothold in the Northwest.
• The two Heaven-Measure Sect disciples hurried out of the Wild Forest, determined to report the Demonic Calamity as quickly as possible.
• At dusk, Chang Yishan and his junior fellow disciple reached a stream, exhausted, while a concealed Late Qi Gathering cultivator identified them from a booklet.
• The cultivator pinned the pair with an earth spell when Chang Yishan mistook him for a pursuing demon and tried to jump into the stream.
• The cultivator showed his Yang family insignia and his Eliminate Demons and Defend the Dao emblems, and Chang Yishan let out a long breath before emotion overcame him.

Chang Yishan told the Demon Extermination Squad that demonic cultivators had fallen into the Wild Forest from a hole in the sky. When black-alert messages confirmed a threat to the entire Northwest, one cultivator raced to the garrison with Chang Yishan and his junior brother while another entered the forest to aid Fellow Daoist Zhang and intercept the demons.

• Chang Yishan described how corpses and demonic cultivators had fallen from the sky and how the demons slaughtered people in the Wild Forest.
• Two Demon Extermination Squad cultivators arrived, and one went into the forest to investigate while the other remained with Chang Yishan and his junior brother.
• The two cultivators received black-alert messages indicating a danger that threatened the entire Northwest.
• One cultivator sent his faster colleague to the southern garrison with Chang Yishan and his junior brother, then set out to help Fellow Daoist Zhang and attack the demonic cultivators.
• Two mutilated demonic cultivators, both formerly in the Core Formation Realm, attacked the first Demon Extermination Squad cultivator who entered the forest.

The Demon Extermination Squads mobilized in response to trouble in the Wild Forest while Wu Chang and Bai Di advanced the demonic path’s invasion of the Northwest. They expected to seize the region within three months unless Chen Yang intervened.

• Two Demon Extermination Squad captains learned of the disturbance in the Wild Forest, and one headed for the mountains while the other escorted Chang Yishan and gathered reinforcements.
• Black-light dispatches spread across the northern region, prompting Demon Extermination Squad garrisons to organize their forces and rush toward the disturbance.
• Wu Chang stabilized the spatial passage enough to transport Qi Gathering Cultivators reliably and give Core Formation Cultivators a chance to cross safely.
• Bai Di sent a second demonic sect vanguard through the passage to begin reconnaissance and form an initial fighting force in the Northwest.
• Bai Di and Wu Chang judged that the Yang Clan’s Hidden Peak ally was unlikely to act and predicted the demonic path would take the Northwest within three months.

Demonic cultivators emerging from a spatial channel were ambushed by the Northwest Demon Extermination Squad, but the battle ended in the squad’s destruction. The surviving demons reflected on the cultivators’ unusual resolve before the channel stirred again, signaling that more arrivals were coming.

• The demonic vanguard discovered twenty Core Formation righteous cultivators and over a hundred Qi Gathering cultivators waiting to ambush them.
• Four powerful demonic cultivators survived the opening assault and fought the extermination squad, killing all twenty cultivators while one demon died and the other three were injured.
• The Essence Condensation Perfection demonic cultivator wondered why the Northwest cultivators had fought to the death rather than flee.
• Two surviving demons returned with blood essence from the Qi Gathering cultivators, and the Perfection-stage cultivator told them to divide it and recover quickly.
• After the demons tended to their injuries, the spatial channel stirred again.

Dong Ruoyin and the Yang Clan relayed warnings of a possible Demonic Dao assault across the Northwest and nearby powers, prompting preparations to evacuate civilians and reinforce the Wild Forest. Ten days after the demonic cultivators descended, Dong Ruoyin and Huo Yuan reached Beast King Shrine, whose ancestor began sending support and moving people east.

• Dong Ruoyin sent elders and cultivators to reinforce the Demon Extermination Squad, dispatched clones to scout and warn nearby powers, and ordered cultivators and civilians to evacuate east.
• Chen Yang deduced that Wu Chang and Bai Di were targeting the orthodox lands and warned Yang Clan cultivators through their soul flames.
• Yang Lingqing contacted Yang Yuanliu, who informed Murong Zhenlin and Huo Yuan; Murong Zhenlin raised the Dynasty's alert and sent Huo Yuan's clones to warn neighboring powers.
• Dong Ruoyin and Huo Yuan arrived at Beast King Shrine, where they compared accounts with its True Intent ancestor.
• The Beast King Shrine ancestor sent Spiritual Connection cultivators to the Wild Forest and began evacuating Qi Gathering disciples and civilians eastward.

As the sect prepared to evacuate before the coming battle, Yang Lingshu urged Xiao Yize to leave, but Xiao stayed behind before secretly heading for the imperial capital. In the capital, Zou Zhongyi passed his historical research to Yang Yuanliu and chose to join the battle, leaving his student to carry on his work.

• Yang Lingshu reviewed the evacuation inventory and ordered the Myriad Transformation Sect to begin moving civilians to safety.
• Yang Lingshu tried to persuade Xiao Yize to leave, but Xiao refused, saying he could not bear to return to a changed home.
• After Yang Lingshu departed, Xiao Yize revealed that his master had intercepted his petition to join the battle and set out for the imperial capital anyway.
• Zou Zhongyi handed Yang Yuanliu his collected historical research and explained that he had chosen to fight to protect the land he had studied all his life.
• Yang Yuanliu accepted his teacher's papers and bade Zou Zhongyi farewell with gratitude.

Chen Huai'an warned the Dongfang Clan and Lingxiao Dao Academy that the Northwest had suffered a Demonic Dao surprise attack. The chapter ended as his stone-bodied avatar showed no visible response when he activated it before Venerable Xuansheng.

• Chen Huai'an told the Dongfang Clan that a Demonic Calamity had erupted in the Northwest.
• The Dongfang Clan sent Dongfang Ziheng with five True Intent Cultivators and twenty Spiritual Connection cultivators to support the Yang Clan, and it used the Demon Eradication Order to alert Lingxiao Dao Academy.
• Venerable Xuansheng received an urgent battle report that the spatial barrier had been sealed and wondered whether the Demonic Dao had set a trap for the righteous forces.
• The Dongfang Clan's elder relayed Chen Huai'an's warning to Venerable Xuansheng, who called for Chen Huai'an to confirm it.
• Chen Huai'an activated his immortal venerable's stone-bodied avatar, but it showed no visible change to anyone present.

Venerable Shuying decided to take Fuyao Sect cultivators to aid the besieged Northwest, despite Venerable Xuansheng's warning that the Central Region might also be threatened. In the Southwest, Yang Lingrui and Yun Xiwu prepared to lead their allies north, but Bai Di's plans created a new obstacle.

• Venerable Shuying told Venerable Xuansheng she would lead Fuyao Sect to the Northwest, arguing that its cultivators were risking their lives to protect mortals and that the Yang Clan would become her sect's in-laws.
• Venerable Xuansheng accepted that Shuying could not be dissuaded and estimated that she might reach the Northwest in about three months.
• Yang Lingrui and Yun Xiwu informed Long Yuan and the other cultivators that the Northwest had come under attack, and they prepared to leave the Southwest to help.
• Bai Di's earlier deployment of top Demonic Children created a new problem for the allies, while the spatial barrier did not obstruct Path Seeking Realm cultivators.

The righteous cultivators assigned six main attackers to pursue the Demon Children while other cultivators protected civilians and handled the destruction they left behind. The six split up to track their targets, with Yang Lingrui left to face danger without the Immortal Venerable’s avatar.

• The righteous cultivators chose Nangong Jinghe, Long Yuan, Yun Xiwu, Yang Lingrui, Ning Jiu, and Wo Qingchen as the six main attackers, then divided the remaining cultivators among support and disaster response.
• Nangong Jinghe identified the eldest Demon Child as an old enemy and led four True Persons after him.
• Long Yuan chose a Demon Child whose chaotic aura seemed connected to the dragon-descendant lineage.
• Yun Xiwu pursued the Demon Child who excelled at concealment, then discovered Yang Lingrui had secretly placed the Immortal Venerable’s stone-body avatar in her sleeve.
• Yun Xiwu resolved to find her target quickly, then rendezvous with Yang Lingrui and travel north before heading to the Northwest; Ning Jiu, Yang Lingrui, and Wo Qingchen took the remaining targets.