Chapter Summaries

After Cheng Xiaotian advised Zheng Yu to enter the Extreme Realm Heaven Stele without magical treasures, Zheng Yu reached Chu Xinghe’s phantom without the Haotian Sword Casket. Chu Xinghe still defeated him instantly with Haotian Battle Intent, leaving the spectators stunned by his close-combat strength.

• Cheng Xiaotian told Zheng Yu that leaving behind all his magical treasures would prevent the Heavenly Dao from letting Chu Xinghe’s phantom use the Haotian Sword Casket.
• Zheng Yu entered the Extreme Realm Heaven Stele without any magical treasures, and Chu Xinghe’s phantom appeared without the Haotian Sword Casket.
• Zheng Yu rushed close to the phantom with his seven-colored glazed body, but Chu Xinghe unleashed Haotian Battle Intent and struck him with Vast Heaven Extreme Dragon Break.
• The blow pierced Zheng Yu’s chest and shattered his seven-colored glazed body, defeating him in one move.
• After Zheng Yu returned from the illusion, the spectators fell silent as they recognized that Chu Xinghe’s Haotian Battle Intent had been improved through the Dark Moon Clan’s work.

After Chu Xinghe defeated Zheng Yu with one blow, Ma Liang opened Zheng Yu’s phantom to challenges from the Spirit Beast Continent’s young geniuses for a hefty fee. Zheng Yu’s phantom defeated every challenger, while Zheng Yu and Ma Liang secretly split the earnings that night.

• Chu Xinghe defeated Zheng Yu with a single blow, prompting Spirit Beast Continent geniuses to see Zheng Yu as a target for challenges.
• Zheng Yu refused to let Ma Liang release his phantom, but Ma Liang negotiated compensation from the eager challengers and opened the challenge anyway.
• Hua Xilin, Ming Chengfeng, and Cui Wuming each challenged Zheng Yu’s phantom and were defeated by its varied abilities.
• Zheng Yu’s phantom defeated every challenger that day as Zheng Yu publicly cursed Ma Liang and threatened to seek Main God Gu’s help.
• Ma Liang met Zheng Yu that night, gave him his share of the challenge fees, and coached him to make his public anger look more convincing.

Ma Liang, Zheng Yu, and Tantai Jing teamed up to profit from Zheng Yu’s phantom challenges, but Chu Xinghe shut the scheme down and had Gu Mingchao publicly explain the phantom’s sealing before rumors spread. Ma Liang and Zheng Yu realized Chu Xinghe had protected them from Tantai Jing’s plan to expose them, while Chu Xinghe lamented having to clean up their mess.

• Tantai Jing caught Ma Liang and Zheng Yu splitting their gains and joined their scheme by offering Demon Demon Credit loans to the Spirit Beast Continent’s challengers.
• Huang Ritian reported Ma Liang’s scheme to Chu Xinghe, who summoned Ma Liang and Zheng Yu, scolded them, and shut down the plan and Zheng Yu’s phantom challenges.
• Tantai Jing arranged for the Demonic Sect to spread rumors about the scheme, hoping to expose Ma Liang and Zheng Yu during the Holy Land Ascension Ceremony.
• Gu Mingchao announced that Ma Liang had released Zheng Yu’s phantom without authorization, permanently demoted Ma Liang, and apologized to Zheng Yu before the rumors gained traction.
• Ma Liang and Zheng Yu thanked Chu Xinghe after realizing his intervention had protected them from Tantai Jing, while Chu Xinghe reflected that he had anticipated the scheme’s risks and arranged Gu Mingchao’s statement in advance.

Chu Xinghe raised the reward for defeating his phantom to ten million Blood Spirit Stones, diverting attention from rumors about Ma Liang and Zheng Yu. He joined the Chu Xinghe Weakness Research Alliance and coached its members, but his recommended strategy failed when Ming Chengfeng was swiftly defeated, leaving Chu Xinghe to review the loss with him.

• Chu Xinghe announced a ten-million-Blood-Spirit-Stone reward, and the news eclipsed rumors about Ma Liang and Zheng Yu.
• As challengers continued to lose to his phantom, Chu Xinghe disguised himself and joined the Chu Xinghe Weakness Research Alliance.
• Chu Xinghe revealed himself to Zheng Yu and the alliance, then analyzed his own phantom's weaknesses and proposed ways to defeat it.
• The alliance sent Ming Chengfeng to exploit the phantom's supposed weakness in speed, while Chu Xinghe enthusiastically cheered him on.
• Ming Chengfeng charged the phantom, was trapped by Haotian Battle Intent, and was defeated by a punch.
• Chu Xinghe told Ming Chengfeng how he should have fought and began reviewing the battle with him.

At the Extreme Realm Heaven Stele, Chu Xinghe’s phantom repeatedly defeated challengers, turning attempts to beat him into contests over how many moves they could survive. Chu Xinghe realized a body cultivator might defeat his phantom without spiritual power, and the news that he was seeking one set the Three Continents abuzz.

• Chu Xinghe’s guidance gave Ming Chengfeng confidence, but the phantom killed him in one move as soon as he attacked.
• As more people challenged Chu Xinghe’s phantom, they began boasting about surviving multiple moves, and challengers found that the phantom grew stronger against higher-ranked opponents.
• A challenger’s thirty-six killing formations were turned against him when Chu Xinghe’s phantom demonstrated Innate Formation Mastery.
• After Zheng Yu explained that a challenger without spiritual power would face a phantom without spiritual power, Chu Xinghe decided to find a powerful body cultivator to challenge him.
• When word spread that Chu Xinghe wanted a body cultivator, body cultivators across the Three Continents believed he had finally recognized their path.

Chu Xinghe learned from Elder He and the Great Sage that body cultivators without spiritual power had little chance of advancing, then decided to recruit thousands of talentless body cultivators for the Vast Heaven Holy Land. After meeting the Great Martial Master Peng Zhan, he hoped Peng would defeat him in the illusion realm and win ten million Blood Spirit Stones.

• Chu Xinghe asked Elder He whether people with no cultivation talent could succeed through body cultivation, and Elder He explained its severe limits and costs.
• Chu Xinghe made Elder He swear to his claims and put them in writing, then confirmed with the Great Sage that they agreed.
• Chu Xinghe decided to recruit disciples in Haotian City and fill seven thousand places with people who lacked talent and spiritual power.
• Ma Liang brought Peng Zhan to Chu Xinghe, and Peng Zhan explained that his progress had stalled for ten years despite reaching Great Martial Master-level strength.
• Chu Xinghe sent Peng Zhan into the illusion realm, hoping he would defeat Chu Xinghe and claim ten million Blood Spirit Stones.

Chu Xinghe arranged for Peng Zhan to challenge his phantom, hoping to lose the ten million Blood Spirit Stones, but the Heavenly Dao’s fairness rules left the phantom unable to fight back without spiritual power. Peng Zhan eventually collapsed from exhaustion, and Chu Xinghe planned to take the stones to Haotian City after the Saint Ascension Ceremony.

• Chu Xinghe summoned Peng Zhan, assuring him that his physical arts could defeat a phantom unable to use spiritual power.
• Peng Zhan entered the illusion realm and struck Chu Xinghe’s phantom, which only dodged instead of retaliating.
• Zheng Yu realized that the Heavenly Dao could not make the phantom attack without violating its rules, and spectators understood that Chu Xinghe had uncovered a loophole.
• Peng Zhan’s attacks failed to injure the phantom, and he collapsed from exhaustion after chasing it for nearly half an hour.
• Chu Xinghe lamented that he still could not lose the ten million Blood Spirit Stones and vowed to go to Haotian City after the Saint Ascension Ceremony.

The Vast Heaven Sect prepared for its Holy Ascension Ceremony, while Gu Mingchao expected Chu Xinghe to become the new Holy Son. The elders instead found a way to avoid making Chu Xinghe keep vigil by appointing Chu Cheng in his place.

• Chu Xinghe relieved Huang Ritian and the Civil Engineering Department disciples from managing the Extreme Realm Heaven Stele, but the miners kept working overtime to gather nine-colored spirit stones.
• Elder He and the Great Sage took charge of the Holy Ascension Ceremony, which would honor the fallen forebears and receive the pilgrimage of the myriad sects.
• Gu Mingchao eagerly anticipated Chu Xinghe becoming the Holy Son, but Elder He explained that the Holy Son had to keep vigil for three years before taking the position.
• Gu Mingchao and the elders agreed to break with convention, then the elders used that decision to rule that Chu Xinghe would not become Holy Son.
• White Tiger Holy Venerable proposed that Chu Cheng become Holy Son and keep vigil in Chu Xinghe's place, and the elders approved the plan.

The Vast Heaven Sect made Chu Cheng its acting Holy Son so he could keep vigil for Chu Xinghe, and Gu Mingchao soon gave the newly appointed Holy Son a violent welcome. At the Vast Heaven Holy Land’s coronation, Gu Mingchao was crowned supreme and revealed that Chu Cheng—not Chu Xinghe—was its Holy Son, leaving the assembled guests stunned.

• The White Tiger Holy Venerable proposed Chu Cheng as acting Holy Son because of his close bond with Chu Xinghe and his suitability for keeping vigil.
• Chu Cheng received the Holy Son’s token and celebrated his appointment until Gu Mingchao smashed through his door and wall to confront him.
• The Vast Heaven Sect’s disciples honored their ancestors as Gu Mingchao announced the sect’s new status as the Vast Heaven Holy Land.
• Cheng Xiaotian presented the Three Continents’ congratulatory letter, and Empress Ji Ya and the Wolf King crowned Gu Mingchao with the Supreme Cloud Robe and Supreme Crown.
• Gu Mingchao announced Chu Cheng as the Vast Heaven Holy Land’s Holy Son, surprising the crowd, which had expected Chu Xinghe to take the position.

After making Chu Cheng the Holy Son so Chu Xinghe could avoid three years of vigil, Vast Heaven Holy Land announced that Chu Xinghe would lead its disciple recruitment in Haotian City. The recruitment expanded to ten thousand people, including seven thousand talentless body cultivators, leaving rival factions stunned and prospective recruits celebrating.

• Chu Xinghe agreed to let Chu Cheng become Holy Son because the role’s three-year vigil would keep him from acting in the sect and offered him no worthwhile reward.
• At the banquet after the inauguration ceremony, the Great Elder announced that Chu Xinghe would personally examine recruits in Haotian City.
• News of Chu Xinghe’s recruitment visit stirred Haotian City, where candidates hoped to become his direct followers and a young man claimed his civil engineering talent would secure his entry.
• Vast Heaven Holy Land announced it would recruit ten thousand disciples, prompting rival factions to fear it would take all the promising candidates.
• Vast Heaven Holy Land clarified that it would recruit the usual three thousand prodigies and an additional seven thousand body cultivators with no cultivation talent, exciting those groups and shocking the factions.

Chu Xinghe announced that the Vast Heaven Holy Land would recruit seven thousand people with Spiritless Physiques to pursue an ancient form of body cultivation, shocking the factions, prodigies, and elders. When the elders questioned his plan, he claimed the Mist-Wreathed Waves Holy Land had been destroyed because it was too powerful.

• Chu Xinghe chose to recruit seven thousand Spiritless Physique body cultivators alongside three thousand ordinary recruits, prompting widespread disbelief and anger in Haotian City.
• The factions discussed the disputed ancient method of body cultivation that supposedly let people without spiritual talent generate Spiritual Vortices and Body Spiritual Power.
• Gu Mingchao, the grand elder, and the palace elders gathered in Haotian Palace to ask Chu Xinghe why he wanted to recruit so many ordinary people.
• Chu Xinghe argued that recruiting outstanding disciples would not necessarily make the Vast Heaven Holy Land stronger and asked about the destroyed Mist-Wreathed Waves Holy Land.
• Chu Xinghe told the stunned elders that the Mist-Wreathed Waves Holy Land had been wiped out because it was too powerful.

Chu Xinghe persuaded the Vast Heaven Holy Land’s leaders that the Mist-Wreathed Waves Holy Land had fallen because it monopolized prodigies and provoked the world, so Vast Heaven must not repeat its mistake. He argued that recruiting seven thousand body cultivators would both spare other sects and let ordinary people pursue cultivation, leaving the leaders deeply impressed while he privately focused on making sure his plan succeeded.

• Chu Xinghe explained that the Mist-Wreathed Waves Holy Land had become so powerful by monopolizing prodigies that the other powers united against it and brought about its destruction.
• Gu Mingchao and Elder He recognized the lesson in Chu Xinghe’s account, and the Vast Heaven Holy Land’s leaders admitted that unchecked recruitment could make the world turn against them.
• The grand elder asked why Vast Heaven should recruit seven thousand ordinary people instead of competing for more talented disciples.
• Chu Xinghe argued that recruiting body cultivators would show the world that Vast Heaven would not monopolize prodigies and would give ordinary people a chance to become strong.
• The leaders were moved by Chu Xinghe’s reasoning, while he privately thought that his research and arguments should ensure he would not fail this time.

Chu Xinghe arrived in Haotian City to recruit seven thousand body cultivators, confident that his plan would succeed after consulting ancient texts. The regular assessment’s top contestants then deliberately performed so badly that the rankings collapsed, leaving Chu Xinghe baffled when he learned what had happened.

• Chu Xinghe convinced the Haotian Grand Hall to recruit seven thousand body cultivators, and body cultivators across the Three Continents rushed toward Haotian City.
• Chu Xinghe traveled to Haotian City with Ma Liang, despite privately resenting the grand elder’s insistence that they work together.
• A girl shouted that she wanted Ma Liang’s monkeys, and Chu Xinghe decided to help her enter the Vast Heaven Holy Land.
• Deacon Yang welcomed Chu Xinghe and Ma Liang to Haotian Courtyard and began the final round of the disciple assessment.
• The assessment’s top contestants made increasingly disastrous mistakes, causing the original top three to fall far down the rankings.
• Contestants originally ranked ninety-eighth, one hundred and thirty-fifth, and one hundred and sixtieth became the new top three, and Chu Xinghe was dumbfounded by the results.

Ma Liang took charge of recruiting disciples for the Vast Heaven Holy Land and rejected nearly all of Haotian City's top hundred prodigies for deliberately lowering their rankings in the final assessment. He explained that their retreat showed they lacked the courage and resolve required of the Holy Land, then returned to the Haotian Courtyard.

• Chu Xinghe entrusted Ma Liang with selecting all three thousand disciples while he considered recruiting body-cultivation disciples.
• Ma Liang told Deacon Yang to identify and discourage every candidate who had deliberately dropped their ranking in the final assessment.
• Deacon Yang posted an announcement rejecting nearly all of Haotian City's top hundred prodigies, provoking public outrage and drawing the rejected candidates to the Haotian Courtyard.
• Ma Liang faced the protesting prodigies and cited Zhao Zhongting, Liu Yutian, and Meng Fei as examples of candidates who had intentionally made mistakes to fall in the rankings.
• Ma Liang declared that the candidates lacked the courage to meet challenges and were unfit for the Vast Heaven Holy Land, then returned inside.

Ma Liang rejected the top hundred candidates and began a new assessment, while Chu Xinghe kept the body-cultivator recruitment standards secret. He announced that Vast Heaven Holy Land would recruit only people with Spiritless Physiques, leaving the world stunned as he prepared to gather seven thousand of them.

• Ma Liang explained why talent alone did not make someone a heaven's chosen and turned away the top hundred candidates, drawing praise from factions and Vast Heaven Holy Land's elders.
• Zheng Yu said he could see why the top hundred had been rejected, and Martial Emperor City also refused to recruit any of them.
• Ma Liang organized a new assessment, while people in Haotian City speculated that Chu Xinghe's body-cultivator recruitment might secretly favor talented candidates.
• Chu Xinghe posted the body-cultivation assessment notice, requiring applicants to have a Spiritless Physique, the condition once dismissed as having no talent.
• Chu Xinghe revealed that he had studied ancient texts and planned to recruit seven thousand Spiritless Physiques so they could not escape the Misfortune Compass's effects.

Chu Xinghe designed the Vast Heaven Holy Land’s body-cultivation examination to favor candidates with Spiritless Physiques, rejecting applicants whose spiritual talent was too strong. After Ma Liang brought him the remaining candidates, Chu Xinghe ordered him to eliminate those who had improved their physiques through body-tempering.

• Chu Xinghe studied ancient texts, chose the Spiritless Physique as his recruitment standard, and personally began testing body-cultivation candidates in Haotian City.
• Chu Xinghe rejected candidates with gold talent, then continued eliminating those with silver, white, or any spiritual talent that made the pillars react.
• Chu Xinghe caught candidates concealing their talent and permanently barred them from entering Haotian City.
• After three rounds, Ma Liang brought Chu Xinghe the list of candidates with extremely poor spiritual talent.
• Chu Xinghe told Ma Liang to identify and eliminate the remaining candidates who had used body-tempering techniques to make their physiques exceptional.

Ma Liang defended Chu Xinghe’s decision to eliminate applicants with prior body-cultivation experience, reasoning that their flawed methods would hinder them. Meanwhile, Chu Xinghe rejected the available body-cultivation techniques as too lethal and resolved to use his own safer method while raising the recruits with demonic beast meat.

• After Ma Liang carried out Chu Xinghe’s orders, the assessment eliminated applicants who had already practiced body cultivation, leaving them and other observers confused.
• Ma Liang asked the eliminated body cultivators whether their methods were correct and told them to keep cultivating on their own if they believed they were.
• Ma Liang recalled how disciples from major clans struggled to discard flawed teachings and concluded that Chu Xinghe wanted recruits who were blank slates.
• Chu Xinghe reviewed body-cultivation techniques gathered by Elder He and the Great Sage and rejected them because their breakthroughs had catastrophic failure rates.
• Chu Xinghe declared that he would use his own body-cultivation method, prioritize safety, and use demonic beast meat to raise the seven thousand recruits’ cultivation levels.

Chu Xinghe recruited seven thousand body cultivators, unaware that their dangerous cultivation path had become the center of controversy across the Three Continents. After he publicly claimed the Vast Heaven Holy Land had created a completely safe new method, the chapter left him privately dreading the possibility that his plan might succeed.

• Chu Xinghe selected seven thousand body cultivators, including four warriors without Qi seas, and planned to support their training with sect resources and demonic beast meat.
• Yuan Ying told Tantai Jing and Wu Xingyun that body cultivation required repeated life-or-death breakthroughs and had a death rate below one in a hundred.
• Tantai Jing publicized the danger under Qiu Tian's name, prompting Qiu Tian to deny the messages as factions across the Three Continents argued over whether Chu Xinghe was endangering his disciples.
• Cheng Xiaotian questioned Gu Mingchao about the controversy, but Gu Mingchao trusted Chu Xinghe and urged him to watch and wait.
• The Grand Elder asked Chu Xinghe about his plans, and Chu Xinghe assured him he had devised a safe new method before publicly announcing that the Vast Heaven Holy Land's approach was entirely safe.
• As body cultivators praised Chu Xinghe for leading the way, he privately admitted he feared succeeding more than anyone feared him succeeding.

Zhao Zhihui entered the Vast Heaven Holy Land through his civil engineering talent and discovered that the Civil Engineering Department’s lavish resources came with an eight-year work plan and punishing labor. Meanwhile, Chu Xinghe gathered seven thousand body cultivators on a separate peak and began their training by skipping the brutal Body Tempering step and handing out pills.

• Ma Liang admitted Zhao Zhihui to the Vast Heaven Holy Land because of his civil engineering talent, and Zhao Zhihui was assigned to the Civil Engineering Department.
• Huang Ritian took Zhao Zhihui into the Vast Heaven Divine Domain, gave him access to a ninth-floor cultivation technique, treasure vaults, and hundreds of cartloads of pills.
• Zhao Zhihui began the Civil Engineering Department’s exhausting practical cultivation, then saw Huang Ritian’s eight-year work plan and realized the work could keep him away from home for life.
• Chu Xinghe settled the seven thousand body cultivators on a separate mountain peak so he could personally keep watch over them.
• Chu Xinghe explained the brutal Body Tempering trial to the body cultivators, then announced that they would skip it and move straight to the next step with pills.

Chu Xinghe skipped the brutal introductory stage of body cultivation and had seven thousand disciples begin body nourishing with vast amounts of pills, Nine-Colored Spirit Stones, treasures, and medicinal baths, making the Misfortune Compass spin rapidly. When Elder He offered the Thunder War Dance as a body-refining method, Chu Xinghe refused and invented the Ninth Set of Body Refining Secret Techniques to protect his resource-consuming plan.

• Chu Xinghe handed pills and Nine-Colored Spirit Stones to the body cultivation disciples and told them to start the second step, body nourishing, without completing the first.
• News of Chu Xinghe’s unconventional method stunned Zheng Yu, the Grand Elder, and the other elders, but Gu Mingchao ordered them to wait and see.
• Chu Xinghe supplied the disciples with resources throughout the day, including pills instead of meals, heavenly treasures, and medicinal baths, while the Misfortune Compass spun faster.
• Elder He arrived with Thunder Palace disciples and offered to teach the Thunder War Dance to help refine the body cultivation disciples.
• Chu Xinghe rejected the Thunder War Dance and claimed his invented Ninth Set of Body Refining Secret Techniques would suffice, describing its eight sections of movements.