Chapter Summaries

Dongfang Yingcai emerged from more than twenty years of seclusion having mastered Spirit Communion and the art of spiritual puppets. After learning that the northwest was under attack, she joined the four Yang Family members preparing to go there and asked Chen Huai'an about Yang Yuanhong.

• Dongfang Yingcai emerged from Purple Cloud Grotto-Heaven, and the Dongfang Clan elders recognized her success in Spirit Forging.
• Dongfang Yingcai learned that the northwest was under attack and insisted on going there with the four Yang Family members.
• A Dongfang Clan ancestor agreed to send two True Intent cultivators to accompany Dongfang Yingcai.
• Dongfang Yingcai met Lin Qiao, Chen Huai'an, Yang Yuanling, and Yang Yuanzhao, recognizing the siblings from their childhood.
• Dongfang Yingcai praised Lin Qiao and Chen Huai'an, then asked Chen Huai'an about Yang Yuanhong's situation.

Northwest cultivators kept attacking demonic forces in the Wild Forest, delaying their advance despite heavy losses. After the fourth interception team was wiped out, a Donglai Sect elder ordered a retreat and prepared the fifth team, then learned the strategy was causing the demonic cultivators greater losses.

• A group of demonic cultivators found the villages and towns near the Wild Forest deserted and complained that they had gained no spoils.
• More than a dozen Northwest cultivators ambushed the group, and a fierce battle broke out.
• A Donglai Sect elder learned the fourth interception team had been wiped out and ordered the battle line pulled back twenty li before sending the fifth team.
• A messenger returned and told the elder that the interception strategy was inflicting greater losses on the demonic cultivators.

The Demonic Dao invasion overwhelmed the Northwest after reinforcements and mortal souls strengthened its forces, though the orthodox cultivators assembled a central army to resist. At the camp, Mo Xian discovered his eldest disciple Xiao Yize had joined the commanders and confronted him.

• A Donglai Sect elder detonated his body and scattered his Primordial Spirit, heavily injuring demonic cultivators and slowing their advance.
• The Demonic Dao forces reached Northwest mortals who had failed to evacuate and used their flesh and souls to recover quickly between battles.
• Wu Chang enabled True Intent cultivators to cross into the Northwest, and Bai Di and Wu Chang sent more than ten Spiritual Connection Demon Children and two True Intent cultivators into the conflict.
• The northern front collapsed, and demonic cultivators seized one-fourth of the Northwest within ten days.
• Northwest forces assembled a great army in the central region to intercept the invasion.
• Mo Xian found Xiao Yize on the commander roster and angrily confronted him, but Xiao Yize offered tea and asked why Mo Xian had come himself.

Wu Chang watched Bai Di send demonic cultivators through the spatial passage, confident their attack on the Northwest would succeed, when Chen Yang summoned him to the Divine Palace. Though wary that the summons could disrupt his plans with Bai Di, Wu Chang accepted and began climbing the Ascension Stairway to the Heavens.

• Wu Chang and Bai Di continued their plan, sacrificing demonic cultivators to strengthen the spatial passage and prepare to send more powerful forces to the Northwest.
• Wu Chang and Bai Di each regarded the other as a partner and tool in their separate ambitions to revive the Divine Dao and restore the Demon Sect.
• As demonic clouds entered the passage, a purple Ascension Stairway to the Heavens descended above the Divine Mausoleum's great hall.
• Wu Chang worried that Chen Yang's summons might interfere with the Demonic Dao's incursion, but decided Chen Yang could have stripped away his divine power without summoning him if that were his intent.
• Wu Chang stepped onto the stairway and recalled how witnessing Chen Yang's ascent had helped him attain the Dao three years earlier.

Chen Yang showed Wu Chang the Northwest’s evacuation efforts and the gathering of cultivators at a Central Region camp, challenging Wu Chang’s assumption that the region had already fallen. The chapter left Wu Chang watching Yang Lingqing and the Yang Clan prepare to send reinforcements to the front line.

• Chen Yang asked Wu Chang for his and Bai Di’s assessment of the Northwest, and Wu Chang said it was likely on the verge of falling.
• Chen Yang projected a scene of immortal boats transporting cultivators and mortals within the Northwest, surprising Wu Chang.
• Blood Sun Venerable God rebuked Wu Chang for mistaking the projection for a display of Chen Yang’s power.
• Chen Yang showed Wu Chang a camp where Northwest cultivators had gathered to face the stronger Demonic Sect forces.
• Chen Yang shifted the projection to Yang Lingqing’s perspective, showing her aboard a Yang Clan immortal boat bound for the camp with Yang Guanfeng and Yu Liyang.

Yang Lingshu arrived at the Northwest central camp and revealed that Yang Lingqing and the Yang Clan were coming to help fight the demonic threat. He delivered Yang Lingqing’s decree ordering the Yang Clan to the front lines, ending with her declaration that she and her clan were willing to die for the Northwest.

• Yang Lingshu arrived at the central camp and went to the command tent, surprising the senior cultivators there.
• Yang Lingshu told the commanders that Yang Lingqing had anticipated the Demon Child’s arrival and was traveling with Yang Clan cultivators to the Northwest.
• Lu Changfeng and the other elders urged Yang Lingshu to persuade Yang Lingqing to turn back because the front lines were too dangerous.
• Yang Lingshu presented Yang Lingqing’s decree ordering the Yang Clan to support the front lines and resist the demonic calamity.
• Yang Lingshu relayed Yang Lingqing’s message that the Northwest and the Yang Clan would endure or die together.

The Northwest cultivators struggled to hold back the Demonic Path army, even after their elite fighters checked its strongest warriors. Wu Chang watched through Yang Lingshu’s eyes and questioned Chen Yang’s decision to leave the Yang Clan to face the crisis alone.

• The Northwest cultivators used their numerical advantage to resist the Demonic Path army, but their weaker cultivation left them unable to inflict decisive losses.
• Huo Yuan, Duan Yun, and four other True Intent Cultivators joined the northern battlefield, while Xiao Yize and other elite fighters restrained the Spiritual Connection Demon Children.
• Wu Chang watched the battle through Yang Lingshu’s eyes and wondered why Chen Yang had not intervened to protect the Yang Clan.
• Wu Chang judged Yang Lingshu to be weak and poorly nurtured, and believed the Yang Clan could not stop the plans he and Bai Di had prepared.
• Wu Chang trusted that his karmic hold over Bai Di would let him control the Demonic Path Young Master after his rise to the Profound Cavern realm.

Chen Yang reflected on how his belief in the New Divine Path differed from Wu Chang’s, whose manipulation of fate risked repeating the Old Divine Path’s collapse. As Yang Lingshu faced the first Demon Child, Chen Yang told Wu Chang that he had done something crucial during the conflict, though he did not yet reveal what it was.

• Chen Yang considered how the Yang Clan’s trust and bonds contrasted with Wu Chang’s view of others as pieces to control.
• Chen Yang concluded that Wu Chang’s meddling with fate and karmic ties could lead the Divine Dao to the same ruin as the Old Divine Path.
• Chen Yang assessed the campaign, noting the Northwest’s resistance, its fallback options, and incoming reinforcements from the Central Region.
• Chen Yang sent Wu Chang a Thought Transmission, asking if he wondered why Chen Yang had remained unmoved in the Divine Palace.
• Chen Yang told Wu Chang that he had taken an important action after the struggle began, as Yang Lingshu encountered the first Demon Child.

Yang Lingshu rescued Lu Hefei’s elite squad and explained how he had used his unusual Origin Core to kill a Demon Child. He then rushed to reinforce the second squad, where Mo Xian and Xiao Yize faced a much stronger Demon Child.

• Yang Lingshu gave Lu Hefei and the four surviving squad members special healing pills, then persuaded them to return to the main battlefield instead of confronting another Demon Child.
• Yang Lingshu revealed that he had killed the first Demon Child by tricking him into trapping his extraordinary Origin Core in demonic energy before striking through the cloud and the Demon Child’s defenses.
• Yang Lingshu hurried to help the squad containing his master, Xuan Zhou, Mo Xian, and Xiao Yize.
• Yang Lingshu approached a Demon Child whose cultivation had reached the sixth level of Spiritual Connection and whose fighting strength was at least perfected.

Yang Lingshu rescued Feng Xiaotian and another wounded cultivator, then joined He Yonggu to kill the Demon Child who had trapped him. He learned that Mo Xian and Xiao Yize had moved northeast and reached their battlefield after an hour.

• Yang Lingshu recognized Feng Xiaotian among two cultivators fleeing Blood Corpses and used Rootless Water, Heaven-Tangling Wood to save them.
• Feng Xiaotian told Yang Lingshu that He Yonggu was still holding out against a Demon Child, so Yang Lingshu gave the wounded men pills and rushed to help.
• Yang Lingshu arrived while He Yonggu had trapped the Demon Child with the Bloodlife Root, and the two worked together to kill him with Yang Lingshu's Origin Core and wood art.
• He Yonggu told Yang Lingshu that Mo Xian and Xiao Yize had moved to a battlefield northeast of them after corpse ghosts disrupted their fight.
• Yang Lingshu reached the northeastern battlefield, helped repel demonic cultivators, and sensed Mo Xian and Xiao Yize deep in a mountain range.

Yang Lingshu used deception and layered Dao arts to trap the powerful Body Cultivator Demon Child in a water-and-wood prison. The Demon Child realized the prison was draining his strength, leaving him to face a slow battle of attrition.

• The Demon Child charged Yang Lingshu, confident that his strength and speed would overwhelm him.
• Yang Lingshu used a substitute-body escape art to make the Demon Child believe he had been killed by a punch.
• Yang Lingshu restrained the Demon Child with mind, illusion, and sealing arts, trapping him in a water-and-wood prison.
• The Demon Child discovered that the pool beneath him absorbed his physical strength and strengthened the ancient trees around him.

Yang Lingshu wounded the Demon Child in a struggle of spiritual power, then reunited with Mo Xian and Xiao Yize after the formation collapsed. He joined Xuan Zhou, who had only one final sword strike left as the battle continued.

• The Demon Child trapped Yang Lingshu in demonic clouds and broke through his talisman defenses, but Yang Lingshu sent his Origin Core into the Demon Child’s sea of consciousness.
• The formation beneath them burst apart, hurling both fighters away and flattening the surrounding mountains; Yang Lingshu recalled his Origin Core and reclaimed the eight heads from the Demon Child.
• The injured Demon Child fled into the demonic clouds while Yang Lingshu found Mo Xian and Xiao Yize alive near the formation’s center.
• Xiao Yize gave Yang Lingshu healing pills for Mo Xian and told him to help Chief Inspector Xuan.
• Yang Lingshu reached Xuan Zhou, who said his Hidden Edge Intent had enough strength for only one final sword strike.

The Northwest forces withdrew after suffering heavy losses, but they killed three Demon Children and gravely wounded two, far exceeding their expected achievements. Wu Chang and Bai Di reconsidered the Northwest's strength as the losses left the Demonic Path's plans uncertain.

• Yang Lingshu escorted Xuan Zhou and the others back to the righteous forces, then helped cover the retreat as the Northwest units withdrew from the combat zone.
• The casualty tally showed that the Northwest had lost nearly forty percent of its conventional troops, all twelve elite squads had suffered losses, and fifty-eight Spiritual Connection realm veterans had died.
• The Northwest confirmed that Yang Lingshu had killed two Demon Children, Mu Lei had killed a third at the cost of his life, and two more Demon Children had been gravely wounded.
• Wu Chang reviewed the first battle and realized that the Northwest's strength and resolve might prevent the Demonic Path from conquering it within three months.
• Bai Di examined four shattered Life Tablets in the Vast Sea Demonic Land and used his Spirit Eye to identify the arts that had killed their owners.

Wu Chang remained confident that the Demonic Path would eventually overwhelm the Northwest despite its surprising first victory. As the Northwest forces prepared for another assault, Venerable Shuying and the Fuyao Sect chose to reinforce them, while the Demonic Path concentrated its next attack on one section of the front.

• Wu Chang reassured himself that the Demonic Path's reserves and incoming True Intent Cultivators would overcome the Northwest's resistance.
• Wu Chang and Bai Di underestimated the chance that personal bonds would lead Central Region cultivators to reinforce the Northwest.
• The Yang Clan set out together for the battlefront, and Venerable Shuying defied Venerable Xuansheng to lead Fuyao Sect cultivators there.
• After their first battle, Lu Changfeng and the other Northwest veterans moved their camp farther east to guard against another attack.
• One day later, the Demonic Path launched a large-scale assault led by its four strongest Demon Children, concentrating its forces on a single stretch of the line.

Yang Lingshu discovered fresh Demonic Path reinforcements and tried to return to the main camp with the urgent intelligence, but a shadow spell exposed him to a planned ambush. He faced the two-headed Body Cultivator Demon Child seeking revenge, with a shadow Demon Child at his back.

• Yang Lingshu sensed that a Demonic cultivator outpost force consisted of new reinforcements from Demon Soil and sounded the early-warning signal to report the intelligence.
• Yang Lingshu noticed a living shadow beneath his feet and used the Water-Wood Heart Method to suppress and drag the shadow spell into the earth.
• Yang Lingshu set off to escape but was blocked by a two-headed Body Cultivator Demon Child and the shadow Demon Child who had tracked him.
• Yang Lingshu recognized the Body Cultivator Demon Child and taunted him about his familiar-looking head.
• The Body Cultivator Demon Child pursued Yang Lingshu under orders from Bai Di, choosing to kill him rather than give his own life for the Demon Child he had slain.

Yang Lingshu used his Origin Core to search for an escape from the Shadow Technique Demon Child’s Shadow Prison while fighting the Body Cultivator Demon Child. He had actually set his sights on the Shadow Technique Demon Child, and Root Technique Root Veins burst from the shadows to trap her.

• The Shadow Technique Demon Child sensed Yang Lingshu fighting the Body Cultivator Demon Child and planned to seize his Origin Core for Bai Di.
• Yang Lingshu brought out his Origin Core, prompting the Body Cultivator Demon Child to dodge its attacks.
• The Shadow Technique Demon Child realized Yang Lingshu was using the fight to probe the Shadow Prison’s barrier, but believed its shadows could absorb his strikes.
• After the battle quieted, the Shadow Technique Demon Child heard a strange creaking sound and sensed danger when she investigated the barrier.
• Yang Lingshu’s Rootless Water Technique sent Wood Technique Root Veins bursting from the shadows around the Shadow Technique Demon Child, revealing that she had been his target.

As the Demonic Path launched another assault on the Northwest Grand Camp, Lu Changfeng led the remaining reserves into battle and was nearly killed by the Demon Child. Consort Xi arrived with the Black Blade of Annihilation and stopped the Demon Child’s attack, leaving the two powerful cultivators facing off.

• A demonic force broke through the northeastern frontline, and Lu Changfeng led the camp’s last three reserve forces to intercept it.
• Lu Changfeng fought the demonic cultivators and held his own against three Spirit Communion great cultivators before reinforcements overwhelmed him.
• The Demon Child arrived and struck Lu Changfeng twice, leaving him unable to defend against a third blow.
• Consort Xi appeared with the Black Blade of Annihilation and knocked the Demon Child’s blade aside.
• Consort Xi attacked the Demon Child, who blocked her strike and was astonished by her strength.

Yang Lingqing assessed the anti-demon front with Lu Changfeng and Murong Zhenlin, then used their intelligence and divination to identify threats and issue orders to the joint-defense forces. She dispatched units to contain several Demon Children and a powerful Demon Spawn.

• Lu Changfeng explained the battlefield situation to Yang Lingqing and Murong Zhenlin using his battle map.
• Yang Lingqing marked five uncertain areas, and Murong Zhenlin's divination revealed immense forces of fortune in three of them.
• Yang Lingqing used a Cheng Yang Stone Tablet to send the joint-defense forces coordinates of key Demonic Dao figures and order them to support their assigned areas.
• Yang Lingqing ordered Yang Yuanwen and Yingxian Gate's elite cultivators west to contain a Demon Child in a basin.
• Yang Lingqing sent Zi He north to attack a recovering Demon Child, while ordering Hong Yao and Zishu to hold a powerful Demon Spawn in the central sector for a full day.

Qiu Ran, Feng Lan, and cultivators from across the Northwest joined the fronts as Yang Lingqing coordinated their forces with new tools and adaptive tactics. Her strategy turned the tide against the Demonic Path, whose superior strength became difficult to use as its attacks repeatedly missed and exposed weaknesses.

• Qiu Ran and Feng Lan chose to reinforce Xiao Yize's elite squad, while cultivators from Daoyuan Mountain, the Feng Family, and other Northwest forces joined the war.
• Zhao Che led Yang Clan cultivators and Tiger Chasing Dynasty fighters to the Eastern Region front, while Yang Yuancheng and Yang Yuanfei led a special operations squad to the central front.
• Liu Zihao, Yao Santu, and Huo Xuanhao supplied the front with formations, spirit treasures, pills, and talismans, and eighteen Cheng Yang Stone Tablets improved coordination.
• Yang Lingqing divided the Northwest forces into small squads and continually adjusted their movements, evading Demonic Path encirclements and large-scale sweeps.
• Northwest squads exploited gaps in the Demonic Path lines to destroy outposts, while fresh elites tied down the Demon Children across the fronts.
• Yang Lingqing's tactics reversed the tide, leaving the Demonic Path unable to land effective attacks and increasingly cautious.

Yang Lingshu, exhausted after holding off four Demon Children with his wooden armor, faced their coordinated killing moves. Just as he prepared to trade his life for theirs, scorching heat descended from above.

• Yang Lingshu used his Origin Core to sustain his energy and protect himself with hard wooden armor.
• The four Demon Children noticed Yang Lingshu weakening and decided to overwhelm him with a final assault.
• The Flying Needle Demon Child, along with two others, unleashed their killing moves while the Body Cultivator Demon Child kept Yang Lingshu pinned down.
• Yang Lingshu prepared to sacrifice himself and take several enemies with him, but a wave of scorching heat suddenly came from above.