Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xuezhou and the others entered the Immortal Court’s contest after it had already begun, while Great Emperor Gouchen weighed the Immortal Court’s declining strength and its stance toward Western Kunlun. Sect Master Jieyin came to assess whether the Immortal Court would resist, but both factions waited for the other to take the lead.

• Xuannü learned that the other factions had started the contest earlier and hurried out of Gouchen Palace, frustrated by the delay.
• Great Emperor Gouchen reflected on the Immortal Court’s aging leadership, weak succession, and need to make concessions if the Heavenly Court proved strong.
• Sect Master Jieyin arrived at Gouchen Palace to ask about the Great Heavenly Venerable’s attitude toward the contest and the Heavenly Court.
• Great Emperor Gouchen and Sect Master Jieyin each tried to gauge whether the other faction would stand firm against Western Kunlun.
• Sect Master Jieyin departed with two Buddhist disciples to send them into the contest, while Great Emperor Gouchen ordered his attendant to bring out five-hundred-year-old Thunderbolt Liquid.

Zhang Xuezhou entered the High Heaven Hall’s formation to search for the Jade Emperor and its treasures, but the clouds and mist repeatedly confused his senses. After recognizing signs of an illusion formation, he used the Eye of the Ba Snake to clear his vision and remain free of the illusion longer.

• Li Jing explained the three-day search, the dangers in the High Heaven Hall, and the need to light an oil lamp before entering.
• Zhang Xuezhou lit his lamp and entered the formation, where he lost his bearings in dense clouds and mist.
• Zhang Xuezhou tried flying and then searched on foot, but found no treasures or dangers as time passed.
• Zhang Xuezhou used his mental power to disperse the mist briefly and saw a platter of fire jujubes, but it vanished when he reached for it.
• Zhang Xuezhou recognized the possibility of an illusion formation and used the Eye of the Ba Snake to restore his vision for longer.

Sect Master Jieyin explained how entrants could navigate the Great Heavenly Evolution Immeasurable Formation, then sent Brahma and Wu Chao into it. Xuannü worried that Zhang Xuezhou and Cai Ma would fare poorly and argued with Jieyin over the Jade Emperor’s fairness and the previous gathering’s conflicts; a rosy glow eventually rippled through the clouds.

• Sect Master Jieyin explained that entrants had to identify true moments in the formation and instructed Brahma and Wu Chao on how to proceed.
• Brahma and Wu Chao entered the Great Heavenly Evolution Immeasurable Formation with their oil lamps.
• Xuannü worried that Zhang Xuezhou and Cai Ma lacked the formation skills needed to advance, then asked whether the Jade Emperor could manipulate the rankings.
• Jieyin and Xuannü argued over the grand gatherings, including Shigong’s conduct at the Jade Pool Palace and the deaths at the previous gathering.
• After sitting in a sulk, Jieyin sprang to his feet when a rosy glow rippled through the clouds.

Zhang Xuezhou remained trapped in the Great Heavenly Evolution Immeasurable Formation, where he discovered that an apparent fire date was an illusion. After meeting Wu Chao, he used the Mirage Pearl to test the formation, and its effects seemed to intensify the illusions around them.

• Zhang Xuezhou used the Eye of the Ba Snake to find the fire dates but continued wandering in circles through the formation.
• Zhang Xuezhou encountered Wu Chao, who had used the Prajna Heart Sutra to resist the illusions and hoped to last three days.
• Wu Chao told Zhang Xuezhou that he saw him chewing on a stone, and Zhang Xuezhou realized the object he thought was a fire date was an illusion.
• Zhang Xuezhou took out the Mirage Pearl, sending multicolored light through the formation.
• Wu Chao began muttering in a daze as the Great Heavenly Evolution Immeasurable Formation's effects appeared to grow stronger.

Zhang Xuezhou discovered that the light Qi from the spirit spring let him partially resist the Mirage Pearl and exploit brief moments of truth in the great formation. He reached the Soaring Heavens Great Hall, but found the Jade Emperor’s throne empty.

• Zhang Xuezhou realized the spirit-spring light Qi weakened the Mirage Pearl’s influence, while Wu Chao remained trapped in an illusion.
• Zhang Xuezhou tested the formation and discovered that it paused for one breath in every fifty, allowing him to make real progress.
• Zhang Xuezhou passed Brahma, Ao Sheng, Pu'er Ladi, Ao Moang, Kong Ning, and Wang Shan as he continued forward through the formation.
• Zhang Xuezhou found Jin Ding near the entrance to the Soaring Heavens Great Hall and stepped past the threshold.
• Zhang Xuezhou entered the hall and saw that the Jade Emperor’s golden throne was empty.

While trapped in the Immortal Court formation, Zhang Xuezhou suspected that the Mirage Pearl was showing him hallucinations based on what he already knew. He explored Tushita Palace and collected its pills, still unable to tell whether anything was real.

• Zhang Xuezhou failed to find the Jade Emperor and decided to wait for the grand gathering to end, while testing whether the hall’s food and treasures were real.
• After avoiding the passages guarded by swords and thunder, Zhang Xuezhou found a route to Tushita Palace, where he moved two sleeping fox demons aside.
• Zhang Xuezhou searched Tushita Palace and stored over a hundred Life-Extending Golden Elixirs, twelve Life-Creating Fortune Pills, and unfamiliar golden beans.
• Zhang Xuezhou examined the Pill Furnace, removed its twenty-four white pills, and left Tushita Palace to continue exploring.

Immortals fled the out-of-control formation in the Soaring Heavens Secret Realm and gathered at the Heavenly Gates, where Xuannü challenged Laojun about his apparent weakness. As more powerful figures arrived, Celestial Venerable Yuanshi noticed that the Jade Emperor was missing.

• Immortals gathered at the Southern Heavenly Gate as mist and red light spread through the Soaring Heavens Secret Realm, and Laojun explained that the formation stripped away people’s senses without directly harming them.
• Xuannü tested Laojun’s defenses and mocked him for relying on numerous treasures, while Laojun defended his strength and his new equipment.
• Sect Master Jieyin urged the group to resolve the formation’s disorder or evacuate the Western Sect’s people, but Laojun said the trapped immortals were safe if they stayed out of the formation.
• Mo Lihai operated the transit device, and Great Emperor Gouchen arrived from the Western Heavenly Gate.
• Celestial Venerable Yuanshi, Immortal Old Man of the South Pole, the Barefoot Great Immortal, and others arrived from the Eastern and Northern Heavenly Gates.
• Celestial Venerable Yuanshi searched the gathered immortals and asked where the Jade Emperor was.

Celestial Venerable Yuanshi, Laojun, and Sect Master Jieyin discussed the Great Heavenly Evolution Immeasurable Formation after red light made it far more dangerous than before. Suspecting a Mirage Pearl had disrupted it, they chose to wait for the grand gathering to end rather than risk harming those trapped inside.

• Sect Master Jieyin asked Celestial Venerable Yuanshi about the formation, and Yuanshi said it was as dangerous as the Immortal-Slaying Formation and the Nine Bends Yellow River Formation.
• Yuanshi and Laojun observed that unexplained red light had added countless variables and powers to the formation.
• Yuanshi and Laojun ruled out the Jade Emperor using a jade ruyi to retrieve a treasure from the Purple Cloud Palace.
• Sect Master Jieyin and the others suspected a Mirage Pearl was distorting the formation and making the trapped cultivators dangerous hostages.
• Sect Master Jieyin suggested waiting until the grand gathering ended, and Xuannü concluded that they were doing nothing.

While the Immortal Court cultivators waited for the formation around High Heaven Hall to end, Zhang Xuezhou explored the hall and met a golden-robed man who claimed to be its master. The man offered him eight of the medicines he wanted in exchange for the Mirage Pearl.

• Laojun argued that the formation's end would likely resolve the Mirage Pearl complication, while Xuannü worried about the Kunlun Holy Son and Holy Maiden inside.
• Zhang Xuezhou wandered through High Heaven Hall, collected items he could take, and found little value in its treasures or the Jade Emperor's golden chair.
• A middle-aged man in golden robes approached Zhang Xuezhou and said he was the master of High Heaven Hall.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked for the ingredients for Nine Treasures Wine as a reward for guessing the man's identity, and the man corrected him that the fruit he had mistaken for a Drunken Peach was a Bodhi Fruit.
• The man offered Zhang Xuezhou eight of the requested medicines if Zhang handed over the Mirage Pearl.

Zhang Xuezhou negotiated with the middle-aged man in the High Heaven Hall over trading the Mirage Pearl, insisting on safeguards against deception. The man led him to the core of the Great Heavenly Evolution Immeasurable Formation to gain its recognition, and as the inscriptions branded Zhang Xuezhou’s robe, the illusions began to clear.

• Zhang Xuezhou said he would trade the Mirage Pearl but wanted assurance that the exchange would be fair and genuine.
• The middle-aged man offered to prove his identity by showing Zhang Xuezhou people and objects he could recognize, but Zhang Xuezhou’s answers revealed how thoroughly the Mirage Pearl distorted their perceptions.
• The middle-aged man explained how heavenly fruits and medicines could appear differently depending on what Zhang Xuezhou had seen or eaten, but Zhang Xuezhou remained wary of accepting them.
• The middle-aged man revealed stairs beneath the golden throne and led Zhang Xuezhou to the core of the Great Heavenly Evolution Immeasurable Formation.
• The middle-aged man guided inscriptions from the eighty-one cauldrons onto Zhang Xuezhou’s Seal-Bearing Divine Robe, causing the mist before his eyes to recede as the Mirage Pearl’s light intensified.

Zhang Xuezhou exchanged the Mirage Pearl for a trove of spiritual fruits and treasures, then learned he had won the High Heaven Secret Land gathering. He left the event with first place and a full Lesser Heaven and Earth Bag, while Jin Ding took second.

• The middle-aged man explained that the formation marked spiritual fruits with Law Power and invited Zhang Xuezhou to take what he needed from the treasury.
• Zhang Xuezhou gathered a measured amount of medicinal herbs and spiritual fruits, then returned the Mirage Pearl to the middle-aged man.
• The middle-aged man swallowed the Mirage Pearl and ended the gathering before disappearing in a streak of light.
• The Jade Emperor announced Zhang Xuezhou as the winner, with Jin Ding second and Wang Shan third.
• Jin Ding congratulated Zhang Xuezhou, who praised him and quietly checked that his Lesser Heaven and Earth Bag was still full.

After the Great Heavenly Evolution Immeasurable Formation ended, Zhang Xuezhou recovered with Xuannü and Cai Ma in the Soaring Heavens Great Hall while the immortals investigated the formation’s strange disruption. The chapter left the celestial officials discovering that treasures had vanished from their homes during the formation.

• Xuannü found Zhang Xuezhou and Cai Ma eating and drinking, and Zhang Xuezhou admitted that everyone still looked somewhat unreal to him.
• Zhang Xuezhou explained that a fruit had helped him reach the High Heaven Hall, prompting others to wonder whether a red light from Tushita Palace had altered the formation.
• Heavenly Venerable Taishang Laojun denied causing the disruption and said he had been dazed until the formation stopped.
• Li Jing received word of trouble at his home and left the hall, while Immortal Old Man of the South Pole hurried away after a white crane delivered a message.
• The celestial officials began discovering that valuables, including Heart-Penetrating Grass, had disappeared from their residences during the formation.

After widespread thefts shook the Immortal Court during the Centennial Grand Gathering, the Jade Emperor accepted Western Kunlun’s victory and announced he would enter seclusion for a hundred years. Zhang Xuezhou suspected the thefts and the Jade Emperor’s retreat were part of a broader struggle over control of the Immortal Court.

• Laojun and other immortals argued over the thefts, while Zhang Xuezhou and Cai Ma kept quiet about what they knew.
• The Jade Emperor and Sect Master Jieyin accepted Western Kunlun’s leadership in setting the order for the Three Realms.
• The Jade Emperor admitted the Immortal Court had lost, removed his ceremonial crown, and declared he would withdraw to Fragrant Robe Hall for a hundred years.
• The Jade Emperor warned the immortals to follow Kunlun’s rules whether they stayed in Soaring Heavens or left.
• Zhang Xuezhou wondered whether the Jade Emperor had arranged the thefts as part of a plan to weaken the Immortal Court and eventually return to power.

The Jade Emperor decided to abdicate to prevent the weakened Immortal Court from repeating the catastrophic wars of the past, while Zhang Xuezhou secured his help with a request tied to forgetting old techniques. As the Jade Emperor began granting the gathering’s rewards, an urgent call summoned Jieyin from outside the hall.

• The Jade Emperor rejected the immortals’ pleas and explained that stepping down would spare them a disastrous conflict and an Investiture of the Immortals.
• The Jade Emperor described the Immortal Court’s weaknesses, and Xuannü kept Western Kunlun’s own condition undisclosed.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked for help forgetting techniques so he could gain a useful Greater Divine Ability, and the Jade Emperor agreed to assist him.
• The Jade Emperor began addressing the other grand gathering participants’ requests while Jieyin watched from the hall.
• Jieyin heard an urgent cry from outside and hurried to respond, sensing that something serious had happened to the Western Sect.

As the Immortal Court’s officials misread Sect Master Jieyin’s sudden departure as a sign of war, Zhang Xuezhou reflected on the Jade Emperor’s plans and hurried toward Spirit Mountain, fearing his scheme with Vishnu might be exposed. Cai Ma was diverted by the Immortal Old Man of the South Pole, who offered to bring her to Celestial Venerable Yuanshi for instruction in the Fate Technique.

• Sect Master Jieyin rushed back to Spirit Mountain, prompting Xuannü and the Immortal Court’s immortals to suspect that Western Kunlun had attacked.
• Zhang Xuezhou dismissed the rumors, considered why the Jade Emperor had abandoned the Immortal Court’s old order, and wondered whether his plot with Vishnu had been uncovered.
• Zhang Xuezhou left for Spirit Mountain and entrusted Cai Ma to Chunhua and Qiulan, telling Cai Ma that she could fight Sect Master Jieyin.
• The Immortal Old Man of the South Pole stopped Cai Ma and warned that she could not defeat Sect Master Jieyin with the Fate Technique at her current level.
• The Immortal Old Man of the South Pole invited Cai Ma to the Jade Purity Palace, where Celestial Venerable Yuanshi would teach her for three days.

Zhang Xuezhou arrived at Spirit Mountain after the Eight Treasures Merit Pool was contaminated and the Seven Treasures Thousand-Petal Golden Lotus was damaged, then offered to help Sect Master Zhunti investigate. As they surveyed the mountain, Zhang Xuezhou learned more about the damage and shared news of the Immortal Court’s recent thefts, easing the sect masters’ anger.

• Sect Master Jieyin angrily berated Spirit Mountain’s guardians after discovering the pool and golden lotus had been damaged.
• Zhang Xuezhou entered Spirit Mountain and told Sect Master Zhunti he had feared Kunlun was attacking, then asked about claiming a reward for defeating Brahma.
• Sect Master Zhunti explained that Brahma denied being defeated and reminded Zhang Xuezhou that Kunlun owed Vishnu a gift.
• Zhang Xuezhou offered to help investigate the damage, and Sect Master Zhunti welcomed him despite the mountain being sealed.
• As they surveyed Spirit Mountain, Sect Master Zhunti said his patrols had revealed nothing unusual before the pool was contaminated and the lotus damaged.
• Zhang Xuezhou described recent thefts at the Immortal Court, and Sect Master Zhunti and Sect Master Jieyin became less upset.

Zhang Xuezhou investigated the polluted Eight Treasures Merit Pool and pointed out that its water must have been contaminated at its source. Sect Master Jieyin suspected Buddha Son Rulai, punished him, then ordered him to inspect the Wind Cave spring.

• Sect Master Jieyin asked Zhang Xuezhou to help investigate the strange thefts and possible disturbances at Spirit Mountain.
• Zhang Xuezhou questioned Daoist Randeng and learned that Buddha Son Shigong had recently used water from the Eight Treasures Merit Pool.
• Zhang Xuezhou argued that the pool's rootless water could not have turned turbid without a cause, leading Sect Master Jieyin to suspect the source had been contaminated.
• Sect Master Jieyin accused Buddha Son Rulai of entering the Wind Cave and used a mind-controlling technique to punish him.
• Sect Master Jieyin ordered Buddha Son Rulai to investigate the source of the spring in the Wind Cave.

Zhang Xuezhou learned that the spirit spring could dissolve and reconstruct a person’s body and memories, while he and the sect masters investigated signs of an intruder at its source. Buddha Son Rulai found evidence of sabotage, and the sect masters hurried away to address the damaged Seven Treasures Thousand-Petal Golden Lotus.

• Sect Master Zhunti explained that the spirit spring could dissolve a body and reconstruct it, potentially changing the person’s memories and identity.
• Zhang Xuezhou learned that Sect Master Jieyin had dissolved after forty-nine days in the spring and Buddha Son Rulai after thirty-six, while his own body had survived twelve days.
• The sect masters suspected that someone from Heaven Beyond Heaven might be responsible for strange events affecting Spirit Mountain and possibly Kunlun.
• Buddha Son Rulai crossed the Bifeng and reported that the spring had overflowed and left water marks on the ground.
• Sect Master Jieyin concluded that an intruder had sabotaged the spirit spring, while Sect Master Zhunti warned that the Seven Treasures Thousand-Petal Golden Lotus might not survive.
• The sect masters hurried away to investigate the lotus, while Buddha Son Rulai examined the spring and Zhang Xuezhou watched from beyond the Bifeng.

After discovering that the Seven Treasures Thousand-Petal Golden Lotus had been damaged, Zhang Xuezhou told Sect Masters Jieyin and Zhunti about an undying cultivator from Heaven Beyond Heaven buried beneath Fengxi Marsh. They persuaded him to guide them there, and Zhunti promised to refine Zhang Xuezhou’s Innate Spirit Root before the journey.

• Zhang Xuezhou left the Wind Cave and heard Sect Master Jieyin furiously lament that someone had stolen part of his golden lotus.
• At the lotus pool, Zhang Xuezhou estimated how much of the rhizome had been cut away, while Jieyin explained that its changing size made ordinary tracking difficult.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Jieyin and Zhunti about a powerful cultivator whose divine soul was undying and who had become the Yellow Springs beneath Fengxi Marsh.
• Jieyin and Zhunti urged Zhang Xuezhou to guide them to Fengxi Marsh, arguing that the journey would be brief and the information could help them investigate the cultivator.
• Zhang Xuezhou raised his difficulty using an Innate Spirit Root, and Zhunti promised to refine it for him within a day.

Zhang Xuezhou agreed to lead Sect Master Jieyin and Sect Master Zhunti to Fengxi Marsh in exchange for help forging his staff with leaves from the Seven Treasures Thousand-Petal Golden Lotus. The two sect masters prepared to confront Bai, hoping to learn how his undying divine soul might offer a path to longevity.

• Sect Master Zhunti examined Zhang Xuezhou's Innate Spirit Root staff and judged it could become a powerful Law Treasure if nurtured over time.
• Zhang Xuezhou, Sect Master Jieyin, and Sect Master Zhunti discussed the difficulty of extending life and the possibility of exploiting an undying divine soul to find a path to longevity.
• Sect Master Jieyin explained that Sect Master Zhunti would attach two Seven Treasures Thousand-Petal Golden Lotus leaves to Zhang Xuezhou's staff so he could wield it more naturally.
• Zhang Xuezhou agreed to lead the two sect masters to Fengxi Marsh to capture Bai, while keeping the Prajna Heart Sutra out of their discussion.
• Sect Master Zhunti decided not to return to Mount Meru, and both sect masters gathered their treasures before setting out on the Peacock Great Wisdom King.