Chapter Summaries

Chen Yang considered Yang Yuanhong’s reasons for courting Dongfang Yingcai and approved of his plan, seeing the girl as both a strong match and a potential link to the Dongfang Family. He left the Divine Weapon Convention reflecting on how much more the journey had yielded than the artifact-refining inheritance he had sought.

• Yang Yuanhong explained that an alliance with Dongfang Yingcai could give the Yang Family protection as it prepared to become independent from the Tiger Chasing Dynasty.
• Yang Yuanhong praised Dongfang Yingcai’s talent, character, and resolve, then admitted that he genuinely liked her.
• Chen Yang agreed that Dongfang Yingcai was an excellent match for Yang Yuanhong and permitted him to send her a letter.
• Chen Yang noted that Dongfang Yingcai did not know Yang Yuanhong’s true identity, keeping the Yang Family’s plans concealed.
• Chen Yang reflected that the Divine Weapon Convention had given him far more than the Spiritual Connection Realm artifact-refining inheritance he had originally sought.

Dongfang Yingcai suspected Chen Shitou and Yang Hu were the same person and possibly the disciple of a reclusive great cultivator. She concealed the package from her family, decided to keep his identity secret, and returned to diligent Artifact Path cultivation.

• Dongfang Yingcai reasoned that Chen Shitou and Yang Hu might be the same person and that his hidden identity suggested an extraordinary background.
• Dongfang Yingcai recalled the Sage of Chess Sect’s mysterious founder and the powerful reclusive cultivator who had protected him.
• Dongfang Yingcai wrote to her family about the mysterious cultivator and advised them to treat him as an honored guest, without mentioning the package.
• Dongfang Yingcai kept the remaining Sweet Cakes and resolved to protect the cultivator’s identity while looking forward to meeting him again.
• Dongfang Yingcai became lively and worked harder at Artifact Path cultivation, delighting Ma Yongsheng.

Yang Yuanhong traveled through the Northwest toward the Central Region, using tokens from the Divine Weapon Secret Realm to secure passage through local factions. After crossing into Barbarian territory, Chen Yang sensed that the Barbarians’ faith-based power might mean their lands were a blessed land fused with a Divine Path creature.

• Yang Yuanhong took a roundabout route through the Northwest and reached its eastern border more than four months ahead of schedule with help from several great sects.
• Luo Yuan gave Yang Yuanhong a spiritual treasure armguard from Chuyun Pavilion and warned him about the Barbarians and their powerful Great Priests.
• After Yang Yuanhong departed, Luo Yuan told his junior that Yang Yuanhong possessed both the heart and strength of a heavenly prodigy, and predicted his return would shake the Northwest.
• Ten days later, Yang Yuanhong crossed the forest into Barbarian territory and sent away the mutated Demon Beasts that had followed him.
• During his battles with the beasts, Chen Yang sensed their totem power resembled prayer power and suspected the Barbarian Lands were a blessed land fused with a Divine Path creature.

After Yang Yuanhong defeated the mutated Demon Beast leaders, Chen Yang used his divine power to make them submit, while he revealed the self-operating stone-body grotto-heaven he had completed over the past year. The grotto-heaven still needed time for its special weather to stabilize, so Chen Yang marked the Demon Beasts and planned to bring them to the Yang Family later.

• Yang Yuanhong defeated the mutated Demon Beast leaders without killing them, and Chen Yang's divine power made the beasts submit.
• Chen Yang explained that he had spent the past year studying the Artifact Path, talisman path, and Way of Formations to build his stone-body grotto-heaven.
• Chen Yang described how grand talismans, harmonization talismans, the Star Constellation Dragon Walking Art, and formations let the grotto-heaven operate as a small world.
• Chen Yang said the grotto-heaven's spiritual qi was only about twice the outside level and its weather phenomena needed at least three more years to stabilize.
• Chen Yang marked the mutated Demon Beasts with divine power and planned to gather them into his grotto-heaven and bring them back to the Yang Family on his next visit.

Yang Yuanhong entered the Barbarian Lands and watched winged divine envoys demand child sacrifices from a tribe. After the envoys crippled Amingu, the tribe discovered an outsider had appeared.

• Yang Yuanhong used a regional map to reach a small barbarian tribe and concealed himself when winged cultivators approached.
• Chen Yang used the Profound Truth Talisman Bead to translate the barbarians’ speech and relayed their dispute over sacrifices to Yang Yuanhong.
• A winged divine envoy demanded the tribe’s last three children as sacrifices, beat the leader, and killed several residents when the leader pleaded.
• Aminigu challenged the envoys’ increasing demands, and one of them tore into his chest and broke his soul bone.
• After the divine envoys flew away, the tribe treated Amingu, and its soldiers reported that an outsider had appeared.

Yang Yuanhong arrived at a struggling Barbarian tribe and offered to save the severely injured Amingu. The Tribal Leader let him enter, but when other cultivators protested, Yang Yuanhong used his pressure to silence them as Amingu's condition worsened.

• The Tribal Leader learned that an outsider had arrived just after the divine envoys departed and went to meet Yang Yuanhong at the tribe's gate.
• The Tribal Leader sensed Yang Yuanhong's great strength and recalled how the Barbarians' declining blessings had fueled hostility toward outsiders and border wars.
• Yang Yuanhong spoke fluent Barbarian and told the Tribal Leader that Amingu would lose his cultivation without immediate treatment.
• The Tribal Leader accepted Yang Yuanhong's offer and brought him into the tribe despite the soldiers' and cultivators' suspicions.
• Three tribal cultivators protested against trusting an outsider, so Yang Yuanhong released a crushing pressure to stop them from delaying Amingu's treatment.

Yang Yuanhong healed Amingu and convinced Nalran’s tribe that he was a savior sent by the gods, using his dragon form and Chen Yang’s illusion of divine light. He led the tribe to the Sacrificial Plaza, where he saw a motionless totem made of three wooden and stone carvings.

• Yang Yuanhong flew to Amingu and healed his severe injuries, restoring his soul bones without leaving a scar.
• Nalran and the three barbarian cultivators apologized for their earlier suspicion, and Yang Yuanhong forgave them and refused a reward.
• Yang Yuanhong claimed the gods had sent him to deliver the tribe from suffering, then revealed his divine mark and acquired Dragon-attributed variant body as Chen Yang created the illusion of divine light.
• Nalran led Yang Yuanhong toward the Sacrificial Plaza as the tribe’s residents knelt, and Yang Yuanhong healed their injuries along the way.
• A crowd gathered at the Sacrificial Plaza, where Yang Yuanhong saw three wooden and stone carvings standing together as a lifeless-looking totem.

Yang Yuanhong activated the tribe’s totem and restored its blessings, prompting the villagers and cultivators to celebrate as Nalran approached enlightenment. Chen Yang discovered that the totem’s original blessings carried hidden costs and concluded that three Divine Path creatures had created the Barbarian Lands, leaving him eager to investigate a possible inheritance of divine arts.

• Nalran told Yang Yuanhong that the tribe had received no divine blessings for five years and had been told the gods abandoned them for lacking devotion.
• Yang Yuanhong activated the sacrificial totem, bringing rain of blessings that restored water, plants, livestock, and crops throughout the tribe.
• The blessing helped three younger barbarian cultivators break through, while Nalran entered a state of divine revelation and neared a breakthrough.
• Chen Yang realized the totem used faith power to produce miracles, but its usual blessings forced growth and healing at the cost of the barbarians’ lifespans.
• Chen Yang sensed faith power flowing in three directions and concluded that three Divine Path creatures had jointly created the Barbarian Lands.
• Chen Yang suspected the land might contain an inheritance of divine arts and decided he needed to investigate it.

Nalran reached Beast Soul Tier 6 and gained a divine mark after Yang Yuanhong’s blessing ritual, while the tribe accepted Yang Yuanhong as the Venerable Lord. After replacing the decayed totem with a new stone tablet, Yang Yuanhong prepared to bring his faith to the other tribes, and Nalran vowed to help him save all those suffering.

• Nalran emerged from enlightenment at Beast Soul Tier 6 with a crimson divine mark that greatly increased his strength.
• The tribe knelt to thank Yang Yuanhong, who told Nalran that their decayed totem had given its final blessing.
• Yang Yuanhong gave Nalran a stone tablet inscribed with the ancient script for “Divine Lord,” and Nalran’s men replaced the old totem with it.
• After the divine envoys left the region, Yang Yuanhong studied a map of the twelve tribes and chose to approach the two strongest first.
• Yang Yuanhong told Nalran that he intended to save all people suffering hardship, and Nalran vowed to accompany him.

Nalran brought Yang Yuanhong to the Rock Hammer Tribe and claimed he was the Venerable Lord, the gods’ incarnation in the mortal world. After Nalran demonstrated his divine mark and power, Yang Yuanhong manifested his Black Dragon Variant Body, winning the tribe’s worship.

• Nalran and Yang Yuanhong arrived at the Rock Hammer Tribe, where Chieftain Wudan and the other cultivators questioned Nalran’s unexpected visit.
• Nalran introduced Yang Yuanhong as the Venerable Lord, prompting Wudan to attack the outsider.
• Nalran stopped Wudan’s punch and revealed his divine mark, then demonstrated his beast transformation and flame abilities.
• Yang Yuanhong displayed his Dragon Imprint and manifested the Black Dragon Variant Body before the tribe.
• Wudan and the Rock Hammer Tribe cultivators knelt and worshiped Yang Yuanhong.

Yang Yuanhong and Chen Yang brought the Rock Hammer Tribe and Lightning Horn Tribe under their faith, healing Wudan’s wife and replacing the tribes’ totems with Divine Lord Stone Tablets. In the White Wolf Royal Capital, priests sent accumulated evil power toward the Northwest borderlands to punish the twelve tribes, unaware that they had just pledged themselves to Chen Yang.

• Yang Yuanhong asked Wudan about his bedridden wife, and Chen Yang recognized that Mina was being consumed by accumulated resentment power.
• Chen Yang gently removed the resentment power from Mina and restored her strength, and Wudan and Mina wept with joy.
• Chen Yang blessed the Rock Hammer Tribe, replaced its totem with a Divine Lord Stone Tablet, and gave Wudan a divine mark that let him control soil.
• Wudan and Nalran accompanied Yang Yuanhong to the Lightning Horn Tribe, whose chieftain submitted after seeing their divine marks, and the tribe accepted the new faith.
• Yang Yuanhong returned to the Hunting Spear Tribe, where tribal leaders gathered and received stone tablets that changed the faith of all twelve borderland tribes.
• Priests at the Descent Divine Temple decided to release their gathered evil power in the Northwest borderlands to punish the tribes for resisting sacrifices.

Divine officials unleashed resentment, earthquakes, and a Beast Tide to destroy the twelve borderland tribes, but Chen Yang detected the attack and warned the Hunting Spear Tribe of the coming beasts. Nalran spread Venerable Lord’s prophecy to the other tribes as Amingu led an expedition into the mountains to investigate.

• Divine officials sent three calamities toward the twelve tribes, expecting plague, earthquakes, and barbarian beasts to wipe them out.
• Chen Yang absorbed the resentment from the sky and underground, realized the divine envoys’ superiors were trying to destroy the tribes, and foresaw a Beast Tide.
• Chen Yang alerted Yang Yuanhong, who summoned Nalran and Amingu and told them that a barbarian beast calamity was coming.
• Amingu took two Beast Soul Tier 2 cultivators into the deep mountains to investigate, while Nalran carried the prophecy stone tablet to warn the other tribes.
• The leaders of the remaining eleven tribes believed the prophecy after seeing the tablet and hearing that Venerable Lord had spoken it.

After warning the twelve tribes of an approaching savage beast invasion, the Venerable Lord helped them prepare for a battle far more dangerous than previous attacks. As a powerful flying savage beast descended on the Hunting Spear Tribe, the Venerable Lord appeared beside Nalran and the beast was suddenly torn in half.

• Chen Yang learned that savage beasts were creatures born from resentful power and that their invasions had become more frequent and powerful.
• After three days of preparation, the twelve tribes learned that the savage beasts had descended from the mountains.
• Nalran led the Hunting Spear Tribe's defense and intercepted powerful beasts, while the tribes were forced back by relentless waves of attackers.
• A flying savage beast with Blood Pattern Realm strength appeared above the Hunting Spear Tribe, but Amingu rallied the warriors by invoking the Venerable Lord.
• Nalran prepared to face the flying beast as the Venerable Lord appeared beside him, and the beast was ripped in half by an unseen force.

Chen Yang and Yang Yuanhong helped the twelve border tribes survive the Beast Tide, then sent them to rescue neighboring tribes and spread their faith. As the Descent Divine Temple dispatched Judgment Divine Envoys to investigate, the envoys unknowingly headed toward their deaths.

• Yang Yuanhong killed one Blood Pattern Realm savage beast, and the Faith Stone Tablets erased another while protecting the other eleven tribes.
• Chen Yang used divine power and the Faith Stone Tablets to aid the tribes until the Beast Tide receded at dawn.
• The twelve tribes received orders to support neighboring settlements and rescued eight tribes from savage beast attacks.
• The eight rescued tribes learned of the divine miracles, adopted the small stone tablets, and built new Faith Stone Tablets.
• The priests at the Descent Divine Temple suspected heresy and sent a Judgment Squad of Blood Pattern Realm envoys to investigate.
• The Judgment Divine Envoys left for the western border region, never to return.

Lorraine led four Judgment Divine Envoys on foot through frontier tribes to investigate their hardships and the reported blessing at a tribe that survived a calamity. As her companions began doubting the temple’s teachings, Lorraine concealed her own long-standing conclusions and approached the frontier hoping to uncover the truth behind divine blessings and the Descent Period.

• Lorraine persuaded her four teammates to travel on foot and investigate the tribes surrounding their destination.
• Lorraine and her companions found that heavy tributes and years without blessings had left lower-tier tribes impoverished and stagnating.
• The four teammates questioned the priests’ claim that the tribes lacked blessings because they were not devout enough, and Lorraine calmed them by suggesting the priests might have been misinformed.
• Lorraine privately recalled discovering that the Book of Gods had been compiled by temple archbishops to reinforce royal and temple authority.
• Lorraine reflected that she had joined the investigation to learn why priests caused the calamities and to verify reports that a distant tribe had survived one and received a divine blessing.

Lorraine and her fellow divine envoys investigated tribes recovering from the savage beast calamity and learned that one had replaced its sacrificial totem with a stone tablet bearing divine power. Lorraine persuaded her teammates that the gods had blessed the tribes without the temple’s intervention, then set out with them to meet the Venerable Lord at the Hunting Spear Tribe.

• Lorraine and the other divine envoys found eight border tribes rebuilding with healthy, hopeful people.
• A Tribal Leader admitted that his tribe had received help from a neighboring tribe and had replaced its sacrificial totem during the crisis.
• Lorraine examined the stone tablet and sensed residual divine power, confirming that the tribe had received the gods’ blessing.
• Lorraine reminded her teammates that the Book of Gods said God loved and protected all people, and questioned whether the temple’s doctrines represented the gods.
• Lorraine and her four teammates headed for the Hunting Spear Tribe to meet the Venerable Lord.

Chen Yang and Yang Yuanhong received Lorraine and four other Divine Envoys at the Hunting Spear Tribe, where Lorraine revealed that a temple agent was secretly monitoring them. Chen Yang ambushed the Incarnation Realm barbarian when he tried to escape, capturing his soul and forcing it back into his wounded body.

• Chen Yang sensed Lorraine and four other Blood Pattern Realm Divine Envoys approaching the Hunting Spear Tribe, along with a stronger Incarnation Realm barbarian following them.
• Chen Yang had Yang Yuanhong send Nalran a prophecy tablet showing five figures and a faint scratch, which Lorraine interpreted as a warning about the hidden pursuer.
• Lorraine met Yang Yuanhong and said the temple agent monitoring them could not be allowed to return, revealing her opposition to the temple.
• The hidden barbarian expert suspected Lorraine's motives but chose to report back to the priests instead of confronting the Hunting Spear Tribe.
• Chen Yang's spell light struck the barbarian expert repeatedly, leaving him helpless as a red-lit figure approached.
• The barbarian expert tried to use the Return Decree to send his soul back to the temple, but Chen Yang seized it and forced it back into his wounded body.

Lorraine brought the wounded Elder Mosato to Yang Yuanhong, whose miraculous healing shook Mosato and the young divine envoys’ faith in the temple’s teachings. Yang Yuanhong reassured them that the gods were real, then revealed that his summons had been a cry for help from the gods, not their guidance.

• Mosato’s soul remained trapped in his body after his secret technique failed, and Lorraine took him to the Hunting Spear Tribe.
• Mosato denounced Yang Yuanhong as a heretic, but Yang Yuanhong healed his life-threatening injuries and restored his fractured soul-bone.
• The young divine envoys and Mosato were shaken by Yang Yuanhong’s healing, and they sat down to hear his answers.
• Yang Yuanhong told them their faith was not wrong and the gods existed, but clarified that his summons had been the gods’ cry for help, not guidance.

Yang Yuanhong revealed his plan to overturn the temple and the Royal Nobles by awakening divine power among ordinary barbarians and recruiting the first God-chosen. Lorraine accepted a spark and transformed into a powerful divine envoy, pledging herself to the Venerable Lord.

• Yang Yuanhong explained that the Yang Family could make the Barbarian Lands its foothold by challenging the ruling system through a popular transformation rather than force.
• Yang Yuanhong accused the temple and the Royal Nobles of exploiting the people and causing the gods’ decline, then showed the gathered envoys a flame of divine power.
• Yang Yuanhong revealed that every resident of the Hunting Spear Tribe carried a spark of divine power and urged the envoys to help spread the blessings.
• Lorraine accepted a spark, rose from Blood Pattern Second Tier to the peak of Blood Pattern Fourth Tier, and gained golden wings and divine markings.
• Lorraine bowed to Yang Yuanhong and declared that she would serve as one of the God-chosen.

Mosato weighed whether to report Yang Yuanhong to the temple or join him, then returned to accept the Venerable Lord’s spark. With Mosato’s allegiance secured, Yang Yuanhong prepared to expand his influence among the tribes before the temple learned what had happened.

• Yang Yuanhong promised Mosato safe passage if he refused the spark, and Mosato flew toward the royal capital while considering whether to report the truth to the temple.
• Mosato stopped short of the White Wolf Royal Capital and decided to return to the Northwest to test whether Yang Yuanhong’s side could challenge the temple.
• Lorraine waited for Mosato at the borderlands and told him Yang Yuanhong had expected him to return.
• Mosato knelt before Yang Yuanhong, accepted the spark, and advanced to the second tier of the Incarnation Realm with a deep-violet divine mark.
• Yang Yuanhong sent the four young divine envoys to bless small tribes and assigned Lorraine and Mosato to negotiate with medium and large tribes.
• Yang Yuanhong gave Mosato a Calming Pill and said he could reclaim the archbishops’ blessings if they attacked him.