Chapter Summaries

Yang Xuan pressed the Heavenly Emperor to establish Zhao Yao as Crown Prince while Zhou Yi mourned old friends and watched the Celestial Court’s factions turn against the emperor. After the Hun Yuan Green Lotus produced a three-inch-tall child who called himself Green Lotus, he escaped to You Mountain, where Master Bai spotted him and planned to refine him into pills.

• Yang Xuan and Yu Chanzi urged the Heavenly Emperor to establish a Crown Prince, but the emperor postponed the matter after Yang Xuan warned him to step down.
• Yang Xuan told Yang Jin and Zhao Yao that the Heavenly Emperor had prolonged his life through a secret bloodline art, and Yang Jin learned that Patriarch Xuan Yu had died.
• Zhou Yi offered incense for Xuan Yu, then returned to Heaven Mountain and reflected on finding a reliable method of reincarnation for his friends.
• The Heavenly Emperor froze every creature in the Heavenly Pool and vowed to sell the world after Heaven ignored his complaints.
• Over the years, more True Gods backed Zhao Yao as Crown Prince, and the Heavenly Emperor was forced to approve Three Immortals Sect’s freedom from the immortal registry system.
• The Hun Yuan Green Lotus produced Green Lotus, who escaped through the void to You Mountain, where Master Bai found him and said he would make pills from him.

Bai Suixin captured Qinglian and spent a century refining him into a pill, but Qinglian escaped with the Heaven Severing Sect’s treasures and scriptures while Bai Suixin attended the Celestial Court’s vote to name Zhao Yao Crown Prince. Years later, Jizhen mistook Qinglian’s refusal to become Buddhist for consent and carried him off to Spirit Mountain, only to realize he had taken on another troublesome disciple.

• Bai Suixin captured Qinglian on You Mountain and imprisoned him in a pill furnace, where he refined Qinglian with spiritual treasures for a hundred years.
• Bai Suixin left his cave estate to vote at the Celestial Court, and Qinglian broke out, looted the cave estate and Scripture Pavilion, and fled.
• The gods voted to establish Zhao Yao as Crown Prince, and the Heavenly Emperor announced that she would succeed him after his death.
• Bai Suixin returned to find his cave estate empty, then resolved to seek compensation from the Mending Heaven Sect and take more from the Celestial Court treasury.
• Ten years later, Qinglian returned to You Mountain to reclaim his immortal blood, but Jizhen captured him and carried him toward Spirit Mountain.
• Jizhen realized that Qinglian was a hot potato and regretted taking him in as a disciple.

Jizhen converted Green Lotus into the Buddhist monk Zhaoguang, but Zhaoguang escaped and hid inside a blood cocoon at You Mountain. Centuries later, the cocoon emerged in a burst of divine light, killing Li Wei and revealing the signs of a Human Immortal heavenly tribulation.

• Jizhen used Spirit Mountain’s relics to convert Green Lotus, who advanced to Spirit Transformation while secretly strengthening his mana.
• After a century of conversion, Green Lotus pretended to embrace Buddhism, escaped while Jizhen supported a thousand-year rotation of the Heavenly Emperor, and returned to You Mountain to merge with the immortal blood origin.
• Jizhen discovered Green Lotus’s escape and went into seclusion at the Celestial Court, while the Heavenly Emperor agreed to pass the throne to Zhao Yao after a thousand years.
• Centuries later, miner Li Wei discovered the hidden blood cocoon at You Mountain and waited for it to emerge, hoping to claim its power.
• The cocoon cracked, its divine light killed Li Wei and swept across You Mountain, and the mountain god recognized the heavenly signs as a Human Immortal tribulation.

Azure Lotus survived his tribulation and attacked the Celestial Court to avenge the old grudges that had brought him to the brink of death. With help from Sun Changsheng and Yellow Ox, he forced Yuanding to abdicate in favor of Crown Prince Zhao Yao, leaving Yuanding under effective house arrest at the Heavenly Pool.

• Azure Lotus survived the final Lightning Tribulation, accepted ownerless spiritual treasures that weakened it, and vowed to repay those who had helped him.
• Azure Lotus attacked the Celestial Court, defeated Yang Xuan and the gods who tried to stop him, and demanded vengeance for the Celestial Court’s past actions.
• Yuanding expelled Bai Suixin and Jizhen from the Celestial Court, but Azure Lotus rejected the offer and demanded either the destruction of the Hall of Celestial Glory or Yuanding’s replacement.
• Azure Lotus drained the Deification Roll’s providence and battled Yuanding, who gained the upper hand with the protection of his incense treasure wheels.
• Sun Changsheng and Yellow Ox intervened, helping Azure Lotus smash Yuanding into the ground and forcing him to abdicate.
• Yuanding named Crown Prince Zhao Yao the new Heavenly Emperor and agreed to remain at the Heavenly Pool while Azure Lotus and his allies governed.

After Yuanding’s abdication, Zhou Yi helped the new Celestial Court manage his loyalists while suspecting that Yuanding might open a passage to the Divine Realm. Decades later, Yuanding opened the Gate of the Gods, but Sun Changsheng intervened and defeated him before he could offer the world to the Divine Realm.

• Zhou Yi ordered Yang Xuan to kill some of Yuanding’s imprisoned loyalists, arrest some, and release the rest, while he continued tending the Jianmu Tree.
• Yuanding persuaded a group of aging True Gods to help open the Gate of the Gods, promising them breakthroughs and rewards from the Divine Realm.
• Ten years after the new Heavenly Emperor’s ascension, Yuanding’s believers had been rounded up, and decades later the Cultivation World had largely stabilized under the new Celestial Court.
• Yuanding and the True Gods opened the Gate of the Gods, and a deity beyond it agreed to make Yuanding a subordinate god in exchange for the world.
• Sun Changsheng smashed the Gate of the Gods shut and fought Yuanding while the other True Gods withdrew; the Demon Suppression Tower then sealed Yuanding’s soul, and Sun Changsheng took away the altar and gate.

Zhou Yi obtained the Gate of the Gods and considered using reincarnation to explore other worlds, while he and Sun Changsheng planned to return to Nine Provinces and confront the Heavenly Corpse Old Devil. As the Jianmu Tree grew, Zhou Yi watched the Celestial Court withdraw from mortal affairs, leading to war and decline, until the Immortal Gate reopened.

• Sun Changsheng brought Zhou Yi the altar and Gate of the Gods, which Zhou Yi examined as a means of opening passages between worlds.
• Zhou Yi considered using the Reincarnation Sutra to send split souls into other worlds and asked Sun Changsheng to help him fight the Heavenly Corpse Old Devil in Nine Provinces.
• Zhou Yi hastened the Jianmu Tree's growth, while Innate Spiritual Objects appeared and the yellow ox collected them before the Celestial Court could arrive.
• After ruling for a thousand years, Zhou Yi abdicated in favor of Qinglian, who later withdrew the Dao Academies and the Celestial Court from mortal society as resources dwindled.
• War and population decline spread after the Celestial Court vanished, and Zhou Yi delayed its return until the Cultivation World's cultivators had largely died away.
• Five hundred years later, a god announced that the Immortal Gate had reopened and that anyone with spiritual roots could enter Dao Academies.

Over sixteen thousand years, Zhou Yi watched the mortal world and Celestial Court change while he cultivated and grew the Jianmu Tree on Heaven Mountain. After gathering ten Innate Spiritual Objects, he passed the Human Immortal tribulation and reached the Human Immortal realm.

• The Immortal Gate reopened, and the Celestial Court established Dao Academies that admitted only people with Dual Spirit Roots or better.
• Zhou Yi continued casting the Jade Dew Art to grow the Jianmu Tree while the yellow ox helped Zen Master Shengyun become Heavenly Emperor and later supported Ziyangzi's succession.
• The Spirit Ginseng Child mourned Que Yuan's death after he attempted the heavenly tribulation, then vowed to cultivate until she could bring him back from reincarnation.
• Ziyangzi became the sixth Heavenly Emperor and launched a severe crackdown on corrupt gods before abdicating after little more than a century.
• After consuming ten Innate Spiritual Objects, Zhou Yi used his Myriad Laws Divine Light to withstand the lightning tribulation and become a Human Immortal.

Zhou Yi celebrated his breakthrough to the Human Immortal Realm, tested his strength against Sun Changsheng, and held a grand feast before Sun Changsheng and Qinglian ascended. Ten years later, Zhou Yi matured the Jianmu Tree and used it to mend the heavens, leaving the world sealed against further ascension and his karmic burden erased.

• Zhou Yi announced a feast to celebrate his breakthrough, then discussed who would ascend with the yellow ox, Sun Changsheng, Yang Xuan, Qinglian, and the Spirit Ginseng Child.
• Zhou Yi and Sun Changsheng exchanged spells, and Sun Changsheng admitted defeat after their battle reached a stalemate in mana.
• One year later, Zhou Yi hosted a three-year Human Immortal Grand Ceremony at Heaven Mountain, where gods, cultivators, and mortals feasted together.
• Ten years later, Sun Changsheng and Qinglian tore through space and ascended to the Immortal Realm, leaving Zhou Yi sorrowful at their departure.
• Zhou Yi used Creation Jade Dew to mature the Jianmu Tree, whose purple qi sealed the leak in the heavens and restored the world's barrier.
• Zhou Yi found that he could no longer break the void or ascend, then received enough merit to erase his karmic burden.

Zhou Yi repaired the heavens, refined a compass to send a divided soul into another world through reincarnation, and set off for the Nine Provinces to seek revenge. A message from the compass arrived during his journey, revealing that his divided soul had suffered nine short lives and was on its tenth reincarnation.

• Heaven rewarded Zhou Yi with three branches of its origin, which he gave to the Spirit Ginseng Child, used to nurture a divided soul, and swallowed to refine a protective treasure.
• Zhou Yi spent over a thousand years creating a compass that could send the divided soul through the void to another world and open an ascension passage there.
• After launching the compass, Zhou Yi arranged for Yang Xuan to guard the Celestial Court and departed westward with the yellow ox and Spirit Ginseng Child.
• Zhou Yi reached the East Sea and traveled toward the Nine Provinces by boat, estimating the journey would take three or four hundred years.
• A hundred years later, Zhou Yi received a message reporting the divided soul’s first ten lives in the Vast Continent, including nine brief and tragic reincarnations.

After being sold into the palace as a eunuch, Zhou Yi endured a year of study and hunger in the Directorate of Palace Attendants. His teacher then introduced the Ephemeral Bloom Manual, the palace martial art that would determine where the eunuchs served.

• Zhou Yi awoke after his castration and learned he had been assigned to the Directorate of Palace Attendants.
• Little Xi took Zhou Yi to the eastern duty quarters, where he registered, ate porridge, and began learning characters.
• Zhou Yi struggled with his lessons and was punished with hunger, then spent the following months studying until he could read fluently.
• After teaching Zhou Yi and the other newcomers for a year, the old eunuch wrote the name Ephemeral Bloom Manual on the wall and explained its rapid cultivation and the roles strength would earn them.

Zhou Yi learned that the Ephemeral Bloom Manual consumed lifespan, watched Little Xi die after being forced to test a poisoned pill, and discovered that he was not aging like the other cultivators. He decided to hide his condition with disguise ointment, borrowing money from Little Zheng and Little Yuan as he continued cultivating for the sake of his parents.

• Zhou Yi suspected the teacher had concealed the Ephemeral Bloom Manual’s cost, then found Little Xi dying from a poisoned Longevity Golden Pill and watched him die.
• Little Zheng and Little Yuan revealed that Little Xi had been targeted after earning His Majesty’s praise, and Zhou Yi began doubting the warmth of palace relationships.
• Zhou Yi studied the manual but avoided cultivation until he chose to train hard so he could earn a posting and help his parents.
• After half a year of cultivating, Zhou Yi realized his classmates had aged while he had not, and feared the emperor might use him to refine pills.
• Zhou Yi asked Little Yuan about disguise techniques, and Little Zheng and Little Yuan agreed to lend him silver for ointment in exchange for future repayment and favors.

Zhou Yi secured a guard post at Jiangxue Pavilion and became Eunuch Xu’s godson, then began reporting what he heard about Emperor Hongwu. Little Zheng taught him the Breath Listening Technique, which Zhou Yi trained until he could hear across nearly the entire Imperial Garden, though his discoveries were mostly illicit meetings among palace attendants and maids.

• Zhou Yi bought disguise ointment, studied palace survival rules, and passed his training assessment, where Eunuch Xu assigned him to Jiangxue Pavilion and took him as a godson.
• Zhou Yi declined Little Kang’s hundred-tael bribe, then visited Eunuch Wen, who rebuked him and ordered him away.
• After Zhou Yi began guarding Jiangxue Pavilion, Emperor Hongwu visited, and Zhou Yi glimpsed his face and overheard fragments about the northern frontier and foreign tribes.
• Little Yun collected Zhou Yi’s report and a reward, while Little Zheng warned Zhou Yi to give Little Yun a share to avoid trouble.
• Little Zheng taught Zhou Yi the Breath Listening Technique, and Zhou Yi used it over the next two years to listen across the Imperial Garden, mostly hearing attendants and maids meeting in secret.

Zhou Yi used palace gossip to win Eunuch Xu’s favor, then let Little Yun take the South Sea Pearl Eunuch Xu had given him without paying. He returned to the dormitory with another grievance in his private ledger and began imagining that he might someday rise to Eunuch Chu’s lofty position.

• Zhou Yi overheard Little Lu report Yaohua Palace’s news about Consort Hua seeking the title of Prince Wei for the Fifth Prince, then passed the information to Eunuch Xu.
• Eunuch Xu rewarded Zhou Yi with a South Sea Pearl from Consort Yuan after hearing the report.
• Little Yun claimed the pearl was worth a great deal and took it from Zhou Yi without paying, so Zhou Yi recorded the debt in his ledger.
• Zhou Yi returned to the Bing Third Dorm and heard Little Zheng and Little Yuan discuss Eunuch Chu’s plan to leave his post and guard the imperial mausoleum.
• Zhou Yi recalled Eunuch Chu’s great status and privately imagined that he could one day take his place.

After Eunuch Chu fell in a failed coup tied to the Deposed Crown Prince, Zhou Yi watched the palace purge spread and reconsidered his reliance on patrons. He chose to pursue martial cultivation, but his ambition grew to include secretly controlling the emperor.

• Little Zheng and Little Yuan told Zhou Yi that rumors linked Eunuch Chu's downfall to the Deposed Crown Prince's attempted palace coup, and they planned to seek promotion amid the vacant positions.
• Zhou Yi offered to help Little Zheng and Little Yuan approach His Majesty, hoping their success might benefit him as well.
• Over the following weeks, the purge killed at least a thousand eunuchs and palace maids, and Zhou Yi feared that his ties to Eunuch Xu or the Second Prince could ruin him.
• Zhou Yi decided to cultivate the Ephemeral Bloom Manual without limit so he could become powerful through his own martial skill.
• Zhou Yi imagined manipulating the succession and secretly controlling His Majesty, then tried to suppress the thought as his greed continued to grow.

Zhou Yi observed Emperor Hongwu rebuff Consort Yuan after she called an old crabapple tree old, and concluded that the Second Prince’s prospects were weakening. After reporting the incident to Eunuch Xu, Zhou Yi encountered the Empress and returned to find Little Yuan packing to leave.

• Zhou Yi watched Emperor Hongwu leave Consort Yuan after she described the crabapple tree as too old to bloom.
• Zhou Yi reasoned that the Second Prince’s mother had angered the emperor and decided he needed a new patron.
• Zhou Yi reported the incident to Eunuch Xu, who ordered Little Yun to gather the others to discuss how to please Emperor Hongwu.
• Zhou Yi encountered the Empress on his way back to Barracks Bing Six and avoided attracting her attention.
• Zhou Yi found Little Yuan packing his luggage and addressed him as Eunuch Yuan.

After Eunuch Yuan left and the Second Prince lost favor, Zhou Yi worried about finding a powerful patron, but the prince soon regained imperial favor. Eunuch Xu offered Zhou Yi a post at the Hall of Mental Cultivation, and Zhou Yi cautiously declined, leaving his advancement uncertain.

• Eunuch Yuan warned Zhou Yi to take care of himself, then left for the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs, severing their connection.
• Zhou Yi reflected on the Second Prince’s loss of favor and resolved to seek a new patron before Eunuch Xu fell from power.
• As Emperor Hongwu’s seventieth birthday approached, Zhou Yi watched the preparations and learned that Prince Chu and Prince Qi were organizing the costly celebration.
• On the night of the birthday banquet, Zhou Yi stood alone at Jiangxue Pavilion and thought of his family back home.
• Several days later, the Second Prince began observing affairs at the Ministry of War, restoring his imperial favor and easing Zhou Yi’s worries.
• On New Year’s Day, Eunuch Xu offered Zhou Yi a post at the Hall of Mental Cultivation, but Zhou Yi declined, saying he was not yet ready.

Zhou Yi chose the Indestructible Vajra Divine Skill from the Scripture Pavilion, believing his abundant true qi would let him use its powerful defenses. After two years of tension with Little Gui, Zhou Yi revealed that he had mastered the skill and celebrated with him, easing their rift.

• Zhou Yi bribed the Scripture Pavilion attendant for guidance and selected the Indestructible Vajra Divine Skill, despite an old eunuch warning that it quickly exhausted most users' true qi.
• Zhou Yi studied the manual and began cultivating it while Little Gui grew favored by Eunuch Wen and received a prestigious watch post at the Hall of Mental Cultivation.
• Little Gui and his companions separated themselves from Zhou Yi, leaving him to eat and stand watch alone.
• After mastering the Indestructible Vajra Divine Skill, Zhou Yi showed Little Gui its golden-red power by leaving a handprint in the wall.
• Little Gui accepted Zhou Yi's invitation to share wine and food, and their past hostility faded.

After Great Qing won a major northern campaign, Emperor Hongwu rewarded Zhang Polu and favored Consort Hua, stirring palace factions to scheme against the Zhang Family. Zhou Yi expected the Second Prince to inherit the throne, but the prince abruptly rebelled and was captured, leaving Zhou Yi scrambling to respond.

• Zhou Yi and Little Gui reconciled over a drinking feast and became friendly dorm-mates again.
• Zhang Polu’s northern army defeated the tribes, captured the Wolf Tribe’s Crown Prince Xietu, and forced the tribes to sue for peace.
• Emperor Hongwu promoted Zhang Polu to Duke Who Pacifies the North and promised him a kingship if he captured the Wolf King’s Golden Tent.
• Emperor Hongwu visited Consort Hua, prompting palace factions to plot against her and the Zhang Family while rival officials praised the emperor.
• Zhou Yi privately concluded that the Second Prince would inherit the throne and imagined gaining power in the Eunuch Bureau.
• After Zhang Polu captured the Wolf King, the Second Prince led a rebellion that was crushed in under two hours; Zhou Yi woke, cursed the prince, gathered his banknotes, and hurried to Eunuch Zhu’s residence.

After the Second Prince’s failed rebellion, Zhou Yi bought his way into Eunuch Zhu’s favor, but was still transferred to the Cold Palace after Eunuch Xu and his associates were purged. He began his new post resentful and determined to escape, while Old Lu saw the Cold Palace as a peaceful place to spend his days.

• After the Second Prince was stripped of his title, Zhou Yi paid Eunuch Zhu 3,500 taels and became his godson.
• Several days later, Eunuch Xu was executed, Little Yun drowned, and other former associates were punished or killed.
• Eunuch Zhu told Zhou Yi he had arranged for him to serve at the Cold Palace, and Zhou Yi suspected Little Gui had helped engineer the transfer.
• At the Cold Palace, Old Lu showed Zhou Yi the empty rooms and explained that he must guard the confined people, though there were none at present.
• Zhou Yi cleaned his bedding, learned he had to remain on watch, and resolved to find a way out once his Ephemeral Bloom Manual reached great mastery.
• Old Lu told Zhou Yi that the Cold Palace was a peaceful place where one could live out one’s days without palace schemes or struggles.

Zhou Yi settled into an easy life in the Cold Palace, where Old Lu taught him to read, until Consort Yuan was banished there and died by swallowing gold. The palace returned to quiet, but Old Lu predicted that more people would soon arrive.

• Zhou Yi asked Old Lu about his past, and Old Lu revealed that he had secretly passed information to Emperor Hongwu before being sent to live out his days in the Cold Palace.
• Old Lu arranged for Zhou Yi to borrow books from Xiao Wenzi, then taught him Confucian classics as Zhou Yi grew accustomed to a leisurely routine.
• A red-robed eunuch delivered Emperor Hongwu’s decree sending Consort Yuan to the Cold Palace and ordering Zhou Yi to guard her.
• Consort Yuan swallowed gold and died three days after her arrival, and Emperor Hongwu ordered her buried with honors without punishing the other palace servants.
• Zhou Yi acknowledged that he understood the appeal of safety and stability, while Old Lu predicted that more people would soon be sent to the Cold Palace.