Chapter Summaries

Hu Mang returned to Wangsong County after the beast tide and prepared a research site at the Zheng Family Garden, where he pursued his plans for ghostly cultivation and a Private Dragon. After traveling through the newly activated spirit path, he reached the Mysterious Peak Sect and met Wu Hun and Jiang Mingshan among the waiting Rogue Cultivators.

• Hu Mang returned to Wangsong County and learned that Ling Yan and Chu Yue had taken the other Rogue Cultivators to the Divine Sword Sect, while he had to wait for the spirit path to activate.
• Zhao Tiezhu brought Golden Core civil engineers to build a research building at the Zheng Family Garden, and Hu Mang powered its formation with Spirit Stones.
• Hu Mang obtained Liu Manqing's inherited Private Dragon method and Soul-Binding Willow seeds, then buried the thousand-year-old snake yao's corpse in the garden to nurture a Snake Vein.
• When the spirit path opened, Hu Mang crossed its rainbow passage from Wangsong County to the Heavenly Gate.
• Seven days later, Hu Mang waited outside the Mysterious Peak Sect with other Rogue Cultivators and reunited with Wu Hun, who had failed the Divine Sword Sect's first assessment round.
• Jiang Mingshan arrived exhausted after flying across the Liang Kingdom for three days and nights.

Hu Mang used his Peak-Subduing Token to join the Mysterious Peak Sect directly, while Jiang Mingshan and Wu Hun had to take the entrance assessment. Zhou Yimu brought Hu Mang and two other recruits to Entering River Peak and explained the sect’s Three Mountains and Five Peaks lineages.

• The Mysterious Peak Sect’s mountain gate appeared, and two Daoists began checking the Rogue Cultivators’ qualifications and special abilities.
• Jiang Mingshan’s One-Line Sword Physique was rejected because the sect lacked a sword inheritance, while Wu Hun’s self-created body-training method drew interest but his Spirit Roots disappointed the Daoist.
• Hu Mang presented his Peak-Subduing Token, which the disciples verified, allowing him to join without an assessment and enter the Three Mountains and Five Peaks Dharma Lineage.
• Zhou Yimu led Hu Mang, a little girl with earth or wood aptitude, and a farmwoman blessed by the Child-Giving Goddess toward Entering River Peak as Jiang Mingshan and Wu Hun watched Hu Mang leave ahead of them.
• Zhou Yimu explained the sect’s lineages, their overlapping areas of study, and how disciples could transfer between the Five Peaks and the Three Mountains.

Hu Mang and the others reached the Mysterious Peak Sect, where the Hundred Mountains Steps revealed their talents and tested their abilities. The elders arranged Xu Nuoning and Sui Gu’s discipleships, while Hu Mang was offered a choice among the sect’s lineages.

• Zhou Yimu led Hu Mang, Xu Nuoning, and Sui Gu across shifting mountain paths to Entering Rivers Mountain and the Hundred Mountains Steps.
• Xu Nuoning’s green light carried her over the steps, and the elders assigned her to a female True Person at Pure Water Cliff.
• Sui Gu’s divine gift proved unsuited to the test, so the elders also placed her at Pure Water Cliff to learn pill refinement and cultivate plants.
• Hu Mang climbed the steps as his earth and wood Qi evolved toward innate Qi, prompting elders from Li Flame Mountain, Great White Peak, and Yellow Court Mountain to argue over recruiting him.
• The white-haired elder invoked Hu Mang’s Mysterious Peak Token, which allowed him to choose a lineage, and later explained that his aptitude could earn him a place among the Five Peaks or even the Three Mountains.

Hu Mang joined Ge Wen’s Spring Thunder Ridge lineage and rebuilt his cultivation using the Mysterious Peak Sect’s method, removing the demonic Qi that could expose him. After completing the transition in a month, he prepared to visit the scripture repository and was stopped by someone on the ridge.

• Hu Mang chose Ge Wen as his master, and Ge Wen took him to Spring Thunder Ridge while the other elders questioned the choice.
• Ge Wen noticed Hu Mang’s Buddhist cultivation, but accepted three jars of wine and dropped his questions about Hu Mang’s past.
• Hu Mang dispersed his demonic cultivation and rebuilt his Essence and Qi Flowers with the Lesser Explanation of the Three Mountains and Five Peaks, while Wisdom King Aizen devoured his demonic power.
• Hu Mang completed the transition in a month, gaining Gen Peak Sinking Earth True Qi and Mysterious Rock Peak-Subduing True Qi.
• Hu Mang admired Spring Thunder Ridge’s spiritual rain and prepared to visit the scripture repository before someone called him to wait.

Hu Mang tested his newly restored cultivation against Chunwuzi and then entered the purple bamboo grove, where he unexpectedly comprehended Vajrayana. Ge Wen and a Buddhist nun watched him leave for the Scripture Pavilion, astonished by his strong Buddhist nature.

• Chunwuzi questioned whether Hu Mang had finished rebuilding his foundation and offered to test him in combat instead of cleansing his meridians.
• Hu Mang merged Mystic Peak True Qi with Spring Thunder Ridge and struck Chunwuzi’s Ziwu Seal with a powerful heaven-and-earth transformation.
• Chunwuzi praised Hu Mang’s display and recommended three essential sect arts, but Hu Mang hurried away to avoid his attentive senior brother.
• In the purple bamboo grove, Hu Mang entered a tranquil state, manifested his Buddhist form, and naturally comprehended the protective Divine Ability Vajrayana.
• A hidden woman directed Hu Mang toward the Scripture Pavilion, and Ge Wen and the Buddhist nun revealed that her hint had led him to comprehend Vajrayana.

Hu Mang explored Spring Thunder Ridge’s scripture repository, chose three cultivation methods suited to his earth and wood Spirit Roots, and learned that the Nascent Soul was a shortcut to ascension rather than a realm. The chapter ended with him questioning whether Nascent Soul cultivators ranked below Corpse Liberation Immortals.

• Hu Mang realized that his meditation in the purple bamboo grove had led him to comprehend an Emptiness Realm Buddhist technique, possibly through Abbess Hengyue’s guidance.
• Hu Mang found multiple annotated versions of the same cultivation methods in the scripture repository and discovered that Old Daoist Ge had written a commentary on one of them.
• Hu Mang chose Wang Tianyang’s version of the Five Sacred Mountains Bearing Gang Method and Abbess Hengyue’s version of the Divine Light of Condensing Peaks, along with the Immortal Scripture of Locking Rivers.
• Chunwuzi approved Hu Mang’s three choices, and Hu Mang surprised him by saying he wanted to learn alchemy.
• Hu Mang read that cultivators condensed their Primordial Spirit into a Nascent Soul to ascend early and evade mortal tribulations temporarily, but that the choice damaged their orthodox path and carried the tribulations forward.

Hu Mang investigated how the Azure Mysterious Realm and Heavenly Gate cultivation systems might have diverged, then was confined to cultivate the Three Flowers before he could study pill refinement. After taking his senior brother’s potent pills in seclusion, he nearly formed a Golden Core and had to force the process to stop.

• Hu Mang compared the Nascent Soul and Golden Core traditions of the two worlds and conjectured that Heavenly Gate’s cultivation framework descended from a modified system passed down by High Antiquity immortals.
• Hu Mang tried to visit Pure Water Cliff to watch Golden Core refinement, but Ge Wen and Chunwuzi stopped him and required him to cultivate the Three Flowers and complete his initiation assignment first.
• Hu Mang’s eldest senior brother gave him fifth-grade pills, while Chunwuzi confined him near Spring Thunder Ridge and forbade him from asking about pill refinement until he advanced.
• Hu Mang entered seclusion to cultivate the Three Flowers, and Ge Wen and Chunwuzi mistook the thunderous manifestations around the chamber for signs that his Law Power was advancing.
• Three days later, the pills’ potency nearly caused Hu Mang to form a high-grade Golden Core before he had reached the Three Flowers, so he forcibly halted the process and found a little golden sphere of Golden Nature in his palm.

Hu Mang formed a high-quality Golden Core and discovered he could spit it out and form it again, then returned to Earth Star to test core formation with an Artificial Lightning Tribulation Tower. Sun Jidao watched in shock as Hu Mang shattered his core and asked to try again, this time forming it outside his body.

• Hu Mang swallowed the nascent Golden Core, completed core formation, and found that his Golden Core could leave his body without harming his foundation.
• Hu Mang tested Buddha-Devil Transformation, found its efficiency had fallen, and decided to try forming a perfect core with an Artificial Lightning Tribulation Tower.
• Hu Mang teleported to the Zheng Family Garden, where Sun Jidao and his assistant prepared the tower for his experiment.
• Hu Mang spat his Golden Core into the artificial thunderclouds and began forming a new core, stunning Sun Jidao as the tower rumbled.
• Hu Mang asked Sun Jidao to run the experiment again so he could try forming the core outside his body, and Sun Jidao rushed upstairs to respond.

Hu Mang worked with Sun Jidao’s research team to study his external Golden Core and test whether repeatedly shattering and reforming it could strengthen his cultivation. After more than a dozen days of experiments, Hu Mang’s Divine Sense reached Golden Core Great Perfection, and he broke through to the Mid Golden Core.

• Hu Mang cooperated with Sun Jidao’s team as they tested the range and abilities of his external Golden Core, discovering that it became dangerous when separated from him by more than a hundred meters.
• Sun Jidao’s measurements showed that Hu Mang’s Law Power had risen from thirty times to thirty-three times a Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator’s level after he shattered and reforged his core.
• Hu Mang and the research team began repeated core-formation experiments, gathering materials, supplements, and electricity while recording each result.
• Dark clouds and lightning over the Zheng Family Garden fueled rumors that a miracle or a flood dragon’s tribulation was taking place there.
• Hu Mang’s repeated core formation advanced his Divine Sense to Golden Core Great Perfection and transformed his body as his Law Power increased.
• Hu Mang broke through from the Golden Core Early Stage to the Mid Golden Core inside the Artificial Lightning Tribulation Tower.

Hu Mang learned that his Golden Core experiments could lead to major research and business opportunities, and he organized a plan to commercialize the findings. Under the Martial Hall Master's discreet arrangements, outlaw cultivators began arriving at the Zheng Family Garden to serve as test subjects for Golden Core modifications.

• Sun Jidao and Wu Cai concluded that Hu Mang's breakthrough confirmed their research could transform Golden Core treatment and customization.
• Hu Mang learned that his magic power had increased eighty-threefold from Foundation Establishment, though his earlier level had fallen short of perfect core formation.
• After confirming the existence of an Innate Dao Opportunity, Hu Mang discussed how to profit from the research with Sun Jidao and Wu Cai.
• Hu Mang, Sun Jidao, and Wu Cai agreed that Wu Cai would handle data and patents while Sun Jidao arranged cultivator modifications using outlaw test subjects.
• Outlaws including Basong and Naimi entered the Zheng Family Garden basement, followed by familiar faces such as Fatty Liu, Zhou Shenzhi, and Xiao Wu.

Hu Mang recruited powerful fighters for Elder Min’s Core Formation experiments, then set out on his ghost ship to investigate the overseas Yin Dragon Vein at the Underworld Bureau’s request. He arrived at a militarized artificial island, where Major Lin ordered the Demon-Subduing Missile lock released so she could meet him.

• Hu Mang revealed a giant snake’s overwhelming presence to the gathered desperadoes, then negotiated their cooperation with Elder Min’s experiments in exchange for a chance at a Golden Core.
• After completing Core Formation and reaching Core Formation Middle Stage, Hu Mang accepted Major Lin’s request to inspect the Turbid Dragon’s Yin Vein and Eighth Master Hui’s paid task to examine the Ghost Dragon.
• Hu Mang decided to use the Heavenly Gate military’s resources to search for Old Man Min’s disciples while also gathering provisions for his ghost ship.
• Hu Mang inspected the improved ghost ship at a private Zheng Family Garden dock, then submerged it in dark seawater and set sail.
• At the militarized artificial island, Major Lin received a report of a foreign Golden Core cultivator, recognized Hu Mang’s arrival, and ordered the Demon-Subduing Missile lock released.

Hu Mang joined Lin Zhiying and Ao Tianhai to investigate the Turbid Dragon Vein, learning that the Heavenly Gate had extracted Turbid Oil beneath the seabed and developed facilities around it. The chapter ended with Ao Tianhai transforming into a half-dragon and tearing open space to create a passage.

• Hu Mang met Lin Zhiying and learned that the Heavenly Gate's seabed defenses and integrated combat system had become even more powerful.
• Lin Zhiying showed Hu Mang the pipelines extracting Turbid Qi and Turbid Oil, which the Heavenly Gate called Netherworld Oil and hoped to develop with spiritual enterprises.
• Lin Zhiying and Hu Mang visited an aquaculture zone, where they met Ao Tianhai among spirit fish, sea monsters, and a dark-red Dragon Blood coral.
• Hu Mang, Lin Zhiying, and Ao Tianhai traveled to a remote stretch of seabed to investigate the Turbid Dragon Vein.
• Ao Tianhai transformed into a half-dragon with Nascent Soul-level power and tore open space with his claw.

Hu Mang, Lin Zhiying, and Ao Tianhai entered the Turbid Dragon’s corpse with Cui Yu, an ancient Underworld Bureau inspector, to investigate the Dragon Vein. Cui Yu went ahead to inspect the depths, warning that a Night Parade of a Hundred Demons would emerge, and Hu Mang prepared to hold it off as the passage began filling with ghostly manifestations.

• Hu Mang opened the Yin-Yang Passage in the Turbid Dragon’s corpse and summoned Cui Yu, an Underworld Bureau inspector who revealed he was the elder brother of Hu Mang’s acquaintance.
• Cui Yu led Hu Mang, Lin Zhiying, and Ao Tianhai into the passage, where extreme shifts between Yin and Yang Qi weakened Ao Tianhai and pushed Lin Zhiying toward her limit.
• Cui Yu warned Hu Mang that he would go deeper and that a Night Parade of a Hundred Demons might emerge, then vanished ahead of them.
• Hu Mang explained that the phenomenon was guided by powerful ghost kings and planted his ghost-suppressing spear, telling Lin Zhiying and Ao Tianhai to buy him five minutes.
• The passage began to churn as a chorus of ghostly sounds swelled, while black liquid seeped from the walls and formed distorted faces in the air.

Ao Tianhai and Lin Zhiying fought the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons as the ghosts grew stronger and overwhelmed the passage. Hu Mang revealed the Buddhist Dharma of the Emptiness Realm, allowing them to pass through him and his golden light as the chapter ended.

• Footprints drained Lin Zhiying's Law Power, while Ao Tianhai's Dragon Qi drove him to Nascent Soul level and he charged into the ghost tide.
• Lin Zhiying injected herself to unleash her killing intent as increasingly powerful ghosts attacked her.
• Ao Tianhai destroyed a thousand-year ghost king, but three more began forming, and he warned that they had to escape before the Night Parade took shape again.
• Lin Zhiying chose to wait thirty more seconds, but Hu Mang opened his eyes and said he was ready.
• Hu Mang's golden Buddha light let the ghost king's claw and the surrounding ghosts and ghost Qi pass through him, while similar light appeared around Lin Zhiying.
• Hu Mang identified his technique as the Buddhist Dharma of the Emptiness Realm and claimed it came from the Saha Continent.

Hu Mang used his Vajrayana and Yellow Springs Water-Parting Saber to send Lin Zhiying and Ao Tianhai out of the Turbid Dragon’s corpse, then followed the Yin river deeper inside to search for Old Cui. He reached the island he recognized as Three Perfected Island, where its former splendor gave way to ruin and a skeletal Daoist addressed him.

• Hu Mang told Lin Zhiying and Ao Tianhai that his Vajrayana could protect them but could not move while active, and explained that his Emptiness Realm Buddhist art could continue indefinitely.
• After Ao Tianhai described how the liquefied Turbid Qi and Yin Qi had stopped his earlier exploration, Hu Mang decided to take the two out and continue alone to look for Old Cui.
• Hu Mang used the Yellow Springs Water-Parting Saber to summon a Yin river that carried Lin Zhiying and Ao Tianhai back to the seabed near the artificial immortal island.
• Hu Mang reversed the Yin river’s flow and rode upstream on a small boat formed from the ghost ship’s consciousness.
• Hu Mang arrived at an island whose vision shifted from a thriving immortal landscape to a decaying ruin, recognized it as Three Perfected Island, and saw a skeletal Daoist ask, “May I hear of nature and life?”

Hu Mang passed the spectral Daoists’ questions on Three Perfected Island and received a revised Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting before navigating the ghost islands upstream. He found Cui Yu at the Nether River, where Cui Yu revealed that eighteen corpse nails had suppressed the dead Sea Dragon Vein and helped it grow.

• Hu Mang answered the skeleton Daoists’ questions about cultivation and Ghost Immortals, then received the Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting from a vanished Daoist gathering.
• Hu Mang steered the ghost ship past several ghost islands, resisting its pull and continuing to search for Cui Yu.
• Hu Mang used the Yellow Springs Water-Parting Saber to open a path as the Yin River deepened into the Nether River, where he found Cui Yu waiting.
• Hu Mang asked Cui Yu whether anything was wrong with the dead Dragon Vein, and Cui Yu said eighteen corpse nails had suppressed the dead dragon.
• Cui Yu explained that the eighteen nails were the Eastern Sea’s eighteen inner islands and that Sea Dragon Veins faced shifting coastlines, currents, seabeds, and predators.

Hu Mang learned that the Dragon Vein had broken because the Yu Household removed its Dragon-Suppressing Nail, and that a Ten Yama King would oversee repairs to the Yin-Yang Passage. After Lin Zhiying heard Hu Mang’s story of revenge against the demonic path, she took him to the Demon-Locking Radar’s control center.

• Cui Yu explained that the Yu Household’s Dragon-Suppressing Nail had once helped overthrow the Old Heavenly Gate, and that its removal had broken the Sea Dragon Vein.
• Cui Yu showed Hu Mang a blood-lit abyss within the Dragon Vein, then told him that the Ten Yama Kings knew how to repair it.
• Eighth Master Hui told Hu Mang that a Yama King would be stationed on the East Sea immortal islands and explained that the Ten Lords inherited previous generations’ Void Refinement attainments.
• Lin Zhiying and Ao Tianhai reported to Lord Lin, who assigned Ao to the Void-Shattering Project and awarded Lin a third-class merit.
• Lin Zhiying told Hu Mang that Ao Tianhai had left for training, then agreed to help after hearing about Hu Mang’s origins and his desire to take revenge on the demonic path.
• Lin Zhiying led Hu Mang into the Demon-Locking Radar’s control center, where more than a hundred military formation masters operated its systems.

Hu Mang learned that the Heavenly Gate secretly tracked demonic cultivators through smuggled storage boxes, then returned to Spring Thunder Ridge to seek a breakthrough by studying the Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting. He moved his Golden Core into his upper Dantian, risking its destruction to cultivate the Dao of Sitting and Forgetting.

• Lin Zhiying showed Hu Mang the military’s storage-box surveillance network and identified coordinates of the Holy Son Cult remnants, including Old Man Min, who was presumed dead.
• Lin Zhiying explained that the Heavenly Gate avoided a large-scale attack on demonic groups to preserve a strategic buffer against a dangerous opponent, and refused to share classified information about the Immortal Dynasty.
• Hu Mang returned to the Zheng Family Garden and sent his underlings to deal with the Holy Son Cult remnants before going back to Spring Thunder Ridge to enter seclusion.
• Hu Mang studied the Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting and decided to use his Golden Core to accelerate his spiritual cultivation.
• Hu Mang raised his Golden Core from his Middle Dantian through his body and placed it in the ancestral aperture between his brows.

Hu Mang practiced the Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting and reached the Dao of Sitting and Forgetting, sensing the meridians of heaven and earth and forming the Flower of Spirit. His rapid progress completed the Three Flowers Gather at the Crown and triggered the Mysterious Peak Sect’s rules requiring him to take on an assignment.

• Hu Mang used his Golden Core to reverse-engineer the Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting and entered a state of unity with heaven and earth.
• After a day and a night, Hu Mang touched the Dao of Sitting and Forgetting and began sensing the meridians of heaven and earth across a vast distance.
• Ge Wen and the Daoists Xuanch en and Guigenzi noticed Hu Mang stirring the meridians of heaven and earth, and Ge Wen realized his disciple might form the Flower of Spirit.
• Hu Mang’s perception reached Wangsong County, where Brother Fox sensed him, before it rushed back and condensed insights into the Flower of Spirit in Hu Mang’s Upper Dantian.
• Ge Wen explained that Hu Mang’s Three Flowers Gather at the Crown meant he had to begin sect assignments, despite not yet mastering his chosen Law Techniques.

Hu Mang tested the Three Flowers’ ability to turn Spiritual Qi into Innate Qi, then rapidly mastered his sect techniques and went to Entering Rivers Mountain to inspect assignments. He found that even the most difficult assignment came with a mountain spirit’s promise of help, and considered the sect’s rewards unusually generous.

• Hu Mang studied Ge Wen’s notes and learned that the Three Flowers could strengthen defenses and techniques and convert acquired Qi into Innate Qi.
• Hu Mang tested the conversion in seclusion and produced Innate Qi, then wondered whether he could use it to perfect his Golden Core.
• Hu Mang spent half a month cultivating his three sect techniques, bringing them to minor accomplishment.
• Hu Mang climbed the steps into Entering Rivers Mountain using Divine Light of Condensing Peaks and encountered a powerful, bearded man in yellow robes.
• Hu Mang entered the great hall and reviewed sect assignments, including a half-year post guarding an ancient peak that offered a mountain spirit’s help in peril.