The sky over the North Sea continent of Beiju Luzhou tore open, and the Judicial True Lord Yang Jian transformed into a ruler of surveillance that stretched across the firmament. The ruler was ninety thousand miles long, its scale markings fashioned from the joined vertebrae of gods and buddhas, with every graduation flowing with the silver holy water of Yaochi. As the shadow cast by the ruler enveloped the Valley of Myriad Demons, black blood began to seep from the valley floor—the flesh and blood of the demons suppressed by the New Heavenly Law began to dissolve at a rate visible to the naked eye!
"Jade Emperor Zhang Bairen!" the demon king Bai Ze suddenly roared, pointing at the ruler. At the seventy-eight-thousandth mark of the ruler's body, the blood-colored seal script of the Jade Emperor's secular name appeared! The name seemed to carry a curse; the golden bodies in every City God temple across Xiniu Hezhou cracked simultaneously, their incense and devotion turning into blood mist that surged toward the ruler. Guanyin, currently repairing her jade vase on Mount Putuo, suddenly vomited golden blood, and the willow branch in her hand withered instantly—beneath her lotus throne lay a fragment of the Book of Life and Death, inscribed with half of the Jade Emperor’s true name!
The Little Monkey on Flower-Fruit Mountain suddenly clutched his forehead; the Mending Heaven Stone fragment in his consciousness issued a warning: "Throw away the Ruyi Jingu Bang!" But it was too late. On the fragment he held, a vision of Yu the Great’s final moments appeared: the saint of flood control had not died from the great deluge, but had been shattered in his primordial spirit by nine bolts of celestial lightning, each inscribed with the Jade Emperor’s name! In his remaining memories, Yu the Great had used his severed finger to carve a blood curse into the Sea-Pacifying Divine Needle: "A name is a shackle..."
On the foreheads of the demon kings of Xiniu Hezhou, red lotuses suddenly bloomed, but their petals transformed into black iron chains that pierced into their crowns. The Bull Demon King’s iron staff slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground; the Great Sage Equaling Heaven discovered in horror that his thousand years of cultivation were flowing into the void through the chains. "Is this what equality for all beings means?" he laughed, blood streaming from his seven orifices, before suddenly slamming his palm into his own demon core.
A wisp of green light erupted from the exploding demon core—it was the sealed Star Lord Kui Muling! The remnant soul of this one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions lamented, "Back then, because we refused to leave our names on the Investiture of the Gods, the Jade Emperor extracted our souls and refined them into Red Lotus chains..." Before he could finish, a golden palm emerged from the shadow cast by the ruler, crushing the remnant soul of Kui Muling into dust.
At this moment, on the peak of Flower-Fruit Mountain, the Ruyi Jingu Bang fragment in the Little Monkey's hand trembled violently. The blood curse of King Yu on the staff's body came to life, transforming into a red serpent that coiled around his wrist. The Mending Heaven Stone fragment screamed in his consciousness: "It’s a name-curse! Quickly chant Qitian..." The Little Monkey’s third eye suddenly burst with golden light, but what he blurted out was: "Jade Emperor Zhang Bairen!"
The ley lines across Beiju Luzhou heaved in response, forming a massive prison. The ruler transformed by Yang Jian suddenly bent, and the Jade Emperor's name on its body began to devour the vertebrae of the gods and buddhas on the markings. Far away in Guixu, Nezha suddenly stumbled to his knees; the Chaos Green Lotus mark on his chest seeped black blood—hidden deep within the lotus heart was half a jade tablet inscribed with the character "Zhang"!
The surveillance ruler suddenly shifted direction, its tip pointed at Flower-Fruit Mountain. The Mending Heaven Stone fragment on the Little Monkey’s forehead detached itself, condensing in mid-air into the phantom of Nuwa. "Foolish child, the way of the name lies in the immortality of the true spirit!" Nuwa’s remnant consciousness raised a hand, tracing ancient demon characters that slammed into the Jade Emperor's name on the ruler.
The moment the two powers collided, every living creature in Xiniu Hezhou heard the sound of their souls shattering. The red lotus chains on the demon kings' foreheads snapped, but what poured from the breaks was not blood, but golden insects formed from incense and devotion! These insects ravenously devoured the demon kings' primordial spirits, and several took flight toward Flower-Fruit Mountain, their wings engraved with the Judicial True Lord’s decree of "obeying orders but not summons."
The Little Monkey was suddenly struck by an epiphany; he bit his tongue and sprayed his essence blood onto the Ruyi Jingu Bang fragment. The blood droplets, infused with the spiritual energy of the Mending Heaven Stone, refined the blood curse of King Yu into the two characters "Qitian." The staff suddenly elongated and stabbed at the ruler. At the moment it touched the Jade Emperor's name, the Flat Peach Garden beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens exploded—embedded in the growth rings of every peach tree was a talisman paper inscribed with "Zhang Bairen"!
Yang Jian’s Sun and Moon Eyes suddenly wept blood, and a roar echoed from the direction of the Heavenly Law Stele in the North Sea. The four characters "Equality for All Beings" on the stele twisted into "The Name is the Prison." The entire East Sea began to flow backward. Nezha, at the entrance of Guixu, was slammed against the reefs by a giant wave; he saw countless golden names floating in the surf—each one corresponding to a practitioner whose power had been drained.
"Monkey brother, what exactly did you see back then..." Nezha wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and his Karmic Fire Red Lotus split into ten thousand sub-flames. Each lotus blossom encased a devoured name and shot toward the surveillance ruler. Meanwhile, on the peak of Flower-Fruit Mountain, the Ruyi Jingu Bang fragment in the Little Monkey's hand finally revealed its complete warning—what Yu the Great had carved with his final vitality was a map of the Chaos Green Lotus root system hidden beneath the Jade Emperor’s crown!