Chapter Summaries

Zhou Tong refined the twelve Immortal King primordial spirits to strengthen his cultivation, but their memories revealed no cure for the Dark Matter or answers about the Foreign Realm’s past. He questioned Cloud Mirror Immortal King about Above High Heaven and Huang, then shattered his primordial spirit to inspect its memories himself.

• Zhou Tong discovered flaws in his tenth transformation deduction and purified the Dark Matter that had accumulated in his body.
• Zhou Tong set aside his deductions and refined twelve Immortal King primordial spirits in the Hegemonic Bell, studying their memories and great Daos.
• Zhou Tong found no solution to the Dark Matter or clues about what had happened in the Foreign Realm five hundred thousand years earlier, though his cultivation improved enough that he needed to purify the Dark Matter less often.
• Zhou Tong questioned Cloud Mirror Immortal King about Above High Heaven and the Desolate Heaven Emperor, and Cloud Mirror Immortal King claimed Huang was blocked from returning.
• Zhou Tong shattered Cloud Mirror Immortal King’s primordial spirit and said he would search its memories himself.

Zhou Tong uncovered secrets in Cloud Mirror Immortal King's memories, but probing the deepest memories triggered a Soul River manifestation. He used the Reincarnation Mirror to resist its summons, then destroyed the Small World after the Soul River withdrew.

• Zhou Tong spent a thousand years refining Cloud Mirror Immortal King's primordial spirit and learned that the Immortal Kings had changed cultivation systems under orders and that more of them had come from elsewhere.
• Cloud Mirror Immortal King's primordial spirit self-destructed when Zhou Tong reached its core memories, revealing a hidden restriction.
• Crystalline energy formed a path and ripples that Zhou Tong recognized as an extension of the Soul River, identifying Cloud Mirror Immortal King as one of its members.
• The Soul River's power tried to mark and drag Zhou Tong into its waters, but he used the Reincarnation Mirror's Light of Reincarnation to evade it.
• After the Soul River's passage faded, Zhou Tong activated his formation and erased the entire Small World, returning it to chaos.

After destroying his Small World, Zhou Tong hid nearby to observe the Soul River’s response and purge the Dark Matter in his body. Seeking clues about the Desolate Heaven Emperor and his own true life, he entered the River of Time and began traveling through its epochs.

• Zhou Tong destroyed his Small World, erased his traces, and left, while an Immortal King arrived to investigate and wondered what contingency had been left behind.
• Zhou Tong revealed that he had stayed hidden nearby, concluded that the Soul River had sent an Immortal King vanguard, and decided not to attack for fear of triggering its safeguards.
• Zhou Tong expelled the Dark Matter from his body and recalled that the Desolate Heaven Emperor had overcome darkness, possibly by finding something he left behind.
• Zhou Tong manifested the true River of Time, marveled at its vastness, and leaped into it to seek traces of the Desolate Heaven Emperor’s past.
• Zhou Tong traveled through the River of Time by following his instincts and his connection to his true life, relying on karma and fate to guide what he encountered.

Shi Hao arrived at the Six Paths Immortal King's ruined cultivation ground and met Zhou Tong's Thunder Emperor true body, who had waited there for him. Zhou Tong gave Shi Hao Reincarnation Wine and explained that its purpose was to broaden his horizons as he forged a new cultivation path.

• Zhou Tong sensed Shi Hao's arrival and realized that his long wait was almost over.
• Shi Hao explored the ruined palaces, then followed Zhou Tong's voice to the stone table.
• Zhou Tong told Shi Hao that the place had been the Six Paths Immortal King's cultivation ground, which the Six Paths Immortal King and Immortal King Wuzhong had entrusted him to guard.
• Zhou Tong poured Shi Hao Reincarnation Wine, brewed by the Six Paths Immortal King, and Shi Hao drank it.
• Zhou Tong explained that Shi Hao should use the wine's insight to broaden his horizons and forge a new path rather than copy the Immortal Ancient Method.

Shi Hao drank the Immortal Ancient wine at the former dojo of the Six Paths Immortal King and endured Immortal King Wuzhong’s test, while Zhou Tong suspected the wine had catalyzed Shi Hao’s Self-Transformation Technique. Red King’s manifestation then descended the River of Time, seeking Shi Hao and confronting Zhou Tong.

• Shi Hao finished the cup of wine and found that its Great Dao insights vanished when he tried to recall them.
• Zhou Tong explained that the wine’s revelations would matter only when Shi Hao created a system beyond the Immortal Ancient Method.
• Shi Hao seized the wine pot, withstood Immortal King Wuzhong’s restriction, and drank from it as strange lightning shook the palace and heavens.
• Zhou Tong wondered whether the Immortal Ancient Method had planted the seeds of Shi Hao’s Self-Transformation Technique.
• Red King’s laughter startled Shi Hao, and Zhou Tong revealed that Red King’s true body sat in the ancient past while a dharma manifestation crossed downstream through the River of Time.
• Red King declared that he could reverse time at a price, while Zhou Tong criticized his arrogance and warned that he would face a future setback.

Zhou Tong used a lightning technique to stop Red King from attacking Shi Hao across time and space. Red King recognized Zhou Tong as the Thunder Emperor’s younger brother, a hidden Ten Fiends expert who had cultivated to the Immortal King level.

• Red King admitted that he had erased geniuses across history, while Zhou Tong argued that his interference with time would bring Heavenly Tribulation and could not eliminate those who truly threatened him.
• Red King prepared to attack Shi Hao, but a vast wave of Chaos Lightning descended and met his divine abilities.
• Shi Hao realized the lightning carried and countered the Myriad Daos, while Red King recognized that it was deliberately responding to his techniques rather than acting as natural tribulation.
• Red King sensed a familiar aura in Zhou Tong’s lightning and suspected he was the Thunder Emperor, then recalled the Thunder Emperor’s younger brother, who had followed the willow tree and vanished from history.
• Red King realized Zhou Tong was a living Immortal King who had remained in the River of Time for countless years and surpassed his elder brother.

Zhou Tong fought Red King from his seat in the River of Time, using his Lightning Tribulation Heaven to overwhelm the Immortal King's Dharma body. Red King was shattered and hurled away, while Shi Hao watched in shock at Zhou Tong's strength.

• Zhou Tong warned Red King that his Dharma body could not defeat him and ordered him to withdraw.
• Zhou Tong unleashed a torrent of lightning, and Red King countered before redirecting his attack toward Shi Hao.
• Zhou Tong used Lightning Tribulation Heaven, whose Three Thousand Worlds blocked Red King's attack and trapped him in a sea of lightning.
• Red King attacked with more than a thousand divine abilities, but Zhou Tong's lightning overwhelmed them and wounded him.
• Zhou Tong struck Red King twice, shattering his body and destroying the laws that would have let him reassemble.
• Shi Hao watched Red King's defeat and wondered at Zhou Tong's terrifying strength.

Zhou Tong explained that Red King’s earlier defeat had destroyed only a Dharma body, but Red King summoned Demonic Shadows through a Primordial Ancient Artifact to attack them across the River of Time. Zhou Tong stopped the attack at great cost, leaving the River of Time disrupted and gaining insight into the aura of a Quasi-Immortal Emperor.

• Zhou Tong told Shi Hao that Red King’s Dharma body had been destroyed and that Red King’s injuries would keep him from attacking again soon.
• Red King appeared upstream in the River of Time and summoned Demonic Shadows with the Foreign Realm’s Primordial Ancient Artifact.
• Zhou Tong rose to face the first Demonic Shadow and struck it with his strongest attack as another shadow emerged.
• The clash threw the River of Time into chaos, and Red King and the Demonic Shadows vanished.
• Zhou Tong, badly injured, assured Shi Hao he would recover and said the disrupted River of Time would prevent further assassinations from it.
• Zhou Tong reflected on the Demonic Shadow’s power and welcomed the insight he had gained into the aura of a Quasi-Immortal Emperor.

Shi Hao left the River of Time after Zhou Tong explained that he could not change the past, while Zhou Tong's true self arrived to claim the final cup of Reincarnation Wine. The wine triggered a collision among the Cultivation Systems Zhou Tong practiced, revealing insights that left him immersed in new understanding.

• Shi Hao urged Zhou Tong to return to the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, but Zhou Tong said his duty to guard the River of Time meant he no longer belonged to that era.
• Zhou Tong sent Shi Hao out through a whirlpool, and Shi Hao returned atop a massive altar, lamenting that the wine's scriptures had vanished from his perception.
• Zhou Tong's true self emerged in the River of Time, and the Thunder Emperor true body gave him the final cup of wine.
• Zhou Tong drank the wine and experienced Immortal Ancient Methods that collided with his other Cultivation Systems, bringing previously obscure insights into focus.

After completing his task, Zhou Tong reunited with the Thunder Emperor True Fate and learned how the Divine Path Method used faith and divine kingdoms. He realized that the Heavenly Court might represent the method’s supreme achievement, then contemplated his Ten Cave Heaven Divine Rings.

• Zhou Tong spent over a month studying the wine’s scriptures and gained a deeper understanding of several Cultivation Systems.
• Zhou Tong purified the Dark Matter in his body, and the Thunder Emperor True Fate returned to him, making the cleansing more thorough.
• Zhou Tong learned that the Thunder Emperor True Fate had cultivated the Divine Path Method, a system built on faith, sacrifice, and divine kingdoms.
• Zhou Tong connected the Divine Path Method to the origins of the Chaotic Ancient Method and the Ten Heavenly Caves, and reflected on the powers of aspiration he had gathered.
• Zhou Tong concluded that the Heavenly Court might be the supreme achievement of the Divine Path Method and looked at his Ten Cave Heaven Divine Rings.

After stabilizing the Ten Cave Heaven Divine Rings with the Lightning Tribulation Heaven, Zhou Tong traveled upstream through the River of Time and found a drop of the Desolate Heaven Emperor’s blood. He began comprehending the Self-Transformation Technique, whose insights vanished from his memory even as his five secret realms stirred toward the Sixth Secret Realm.

• Zhou Tong observed that merging the Lightning Tribulation Heaven had healed many cracks in the Ten Cave Heaven Divine Rings and unified its heavenly tribulation laws.
• Zhou Tong considered the Thunder Emperor True Fate’s potential and continued upstream through the River of Time.
• Zhou Tong discovered a radiant drop of blood whose pressure revealed it was Emperor Blood.
• Zhou Tong recognized the blood as belonging to the Desolate Heaven Emperor and identified the scripture within it as the Self-Transformation Technique.
• Zhou Tong comprehended the technique but immediately forgot its insights, while his five secret realms resonated and his immortal light reached toward the Sixth Secret Realm.

Zhou Tong comprehended the Desolate Heaven Emperor’s Emperor Blood for a hundred years, using its Dao to refine his own Sixth Secret Realm and suppress the Dark Matter inside him. He left the River of Time with the realm’s prototype nearly complete, but remained puzzled by Dark Matter’s ability to return and multiply.

• Zhou Tong felt his Sixth Secret Realm stirring as he examined the Desolate Heaven Emperor’s Emperor Blood, but held back from breaking through because the realm was not complete.
• The Emperor Blood revealed the Desolate Heaven Emperor’s Dao and insights, allowing Zhou Tong to use that path to refine his own Ten Cave Heaven Divine Rings and Ten Fiends True Lives.
• Zhou Tong meditated for a hundred years as the Great Dao nourished him and suppressed the Dark Matter in his body.
• Zhou Tong stopped comprehending the Emperor Blood, recognizing that the Desolate Heaven Emperor’s Sixth Secret Realm was not his own path, and left the bead behind.
• Zhou Tong traveled downstream along the River of Time and found that the Dark Matter had been almost entirely cleared, though he worried that it could still multiply and return.

After returning from the River of Time, Zhou Tong used insights from the Desolate Heaven Emperor’s methods to create an Immortal King breakthrough for Gu's True Self’s cultivation system. Gu's True Self survived the Immortal King Tribulation and became an Immortal King.

• Zhou Tong returned to the present after spending a hundred years traveling through the River of Time, where only an instant had passed in reality.
• Zhou Tong transmitted his newly deduced Immortal King advancement method to Gu's True Self, whose cultivation had stalled at the True Immortal Realm.
• Gu's True Self merged the essence of his Jade Blood Golden Elixir and the Gate of Potential into his soul nascent infant, forging a new path beyond the True Immortal Realm.
• Gu's True Self endured the Immortal King Tribulation as the fire of his primordial spirit burned the Great Dao runes and absorbed them as nourishment.
• After several days, Gu's True Self completed his breakthrough and became an Immortal King.

After advancing Gu's True Self to the Immortal King Realm, Zhou Tong continued to study his Sixth Secret Realm while suppressing the Darkness Erosion within him. After more than twenty thousand years, he opened the Sixth Secret Realm by transforming Gu's True Self into it.

• Zhou Tong sent Gu's True Self into the Ten Cave Heaven Divine Rings, where its Immortal King Realm cultivation let it take complete control of the world's space and origin divine power.
• Zhou Tong stayed away from the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands and focused on deducing a Sixth Secret Realm formed from his cultivated True Selves, while repeatedly suppressing the Darkness Erosion.
• Over more than twenty thousand years, Zhou Tong adapted to the Dark Matter, but found he could not eradicate it permanently.
• Zhou Tong opened the Sixth Secret Realm as immortal qi flowed through his five existing secret realms and into the Ten Cave Heaven Divine Rings.
• The light converged on Gu's True Self, which transformed into Zhou Tong's Sixth Secret Realm as its karma and history became Zhou Tong's.

After opening his Sixth Secret Realm, Zhou Tong purified the Dark Matter within him and discovered it came through a mysterious passage connected to an even more powerful source. He glimpsed an ancient sacrificial realm and Black Blood before an Immortal Emperor’s gaze erased his consciousness in the passage.

• Zhou Tong absorbed Gu's True Self into his Sixth Secret Realm, gaining its power and undergoing a profound transformation.
• Zhou Tong purified the Dark Matter within himself and discovered it was entering through a mysterious passage rather than growing inside him.
• Zhou Tong traced the passage to sacred, exceptionally dangerous Dark Matter that he believed was at least Quasi-Immortal Emperor-level.
• Zhou Tong reached an ancient realm beyond the heavens, where he saw a sacrificial altar and something resembling Black Blood.
• Two gazes awakened in the realm and wiped out Zhou Tong's consciousness in the passage, but the Reincarnation Mirror dispelled the pressure and concealed him.
• Zhou Tong suspected the gazes belonged to an Immortal Emperor, possibly the Chief Sacrificer of the Black Blood Era.

After exhausting the Dark Matter in his body, Zhou Tong’s Sixth Secret Realm sealed the Gate of Potential’s connection to darkness and gave him a faint trace of Quasi-Immortal Emperor light. He realized that the darkness had targeted the Sky Shrouding Method itself, but that its individualized Sixth Secret Realms could let cultivators escape corruption and forge new paths.

• Zhou Tong exhausted the Dark Matter in his body, and his Sixth Secret Realm sealed the passage linked to the Gate of Potential.
• Zhou Tong sensed a faint trace of Quasi-Immortal Emperor light and recognized it as a step toward challenging that realm.
• Zhou Tong concluded that the Dark Immortal Kings had used the Gate of Potential to contaminate the Sky Shrouding Method and cut off the Desolate Heaven Emperor’s legacy.
• Zhou Tong reasoned that the darkness had corrupted the five great secret realms, while the Sixth Secret Realm could free cultivators from that corruption.
• Zhou Tong concluded that each unique Sixth Secret Realm expanded the Sky Shrouding Method, making its cultivators Half-step Dao Ancestors and preserving hope against darkness.

Zhou Tong reforged the Hegemonic Bell with immortal metals and the weapons of slain Immortal Kings, further refining its seven Demon Stars, then returned to the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands. He warned Yan Ruyu that the darkness was more powerful than he had expected and called everyone to his Divine Domain to discuss what to do next.

• Zhou Tong chose the Thunder Emperor as the next True Self for his Sixth Secret Realm but first turned to refining the Hegemonic Bell and its seven Demon Stars.
• Zhou Tong spent more than a hundred years adding immortal metals to the Hegemonic Bell, then spent a thousand years refining the artifacts of slain Immortal Kings into it.
• A figure Above High Heaven sensed that a passage had closed and blamed the Cultivation System Huang left behind, ordering others to accelerate their plans to destroy it.
• Zhou Tong returned to the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands and met Yan Ruyu in his Divine Domain.
• Zhou Tong told Yan Ruyu the darkness was more powerful than he had expected and called everyone to gather for a discussion.

Zhou Tong gathered Ye Fan, Wu Shi the Great, Azure Emperor, Ruthless Great Emperor, and the others to explain the darkness’s movements and the contamination of cultivation systems. He revealed that he had escaped the contamination by opening an individual External Sixth Secret Realm, but warned that its method could not be taught and left the others to seek their own paths.

• Ye Fan, Wu Shi the Great, Azure Emperor, Ruthless Great Emperor, and the others went to the Divine Domain after hearing that Zhou Tong had returned with news about the darkness.
• Ye Fan praised the transformed Divine Domain, and Azure Emperor asked Zhou Tong when they could set out against the darkness.
• Zhou Tong described the darkness’s movements and explained how it could erode cultivation systems, leaving the gathered Great Emperors stunned.
• Azure Emperor asked whether Zhou Tong had been contaminated, and Zhou Tong confirmed it before revealing that he had broken free by opening the Sixth Secret Realm.
• Zhou Tong explained that the Sixth Secret Realm was an External Secret Realm unique to each person and warned that copying his path could prevent others from reaching the highest realm.

Zhou Tong explained that specially processed Dark Matter could erode an entire Cultivation System, while opening a personal Sixth Secret Realm made that erosion harder but did not prevent contamination from overwhelming external Dark Matter. He warned that the system’s erosion might become dangerous after a million years, then revealed two Cultivation Systems for the others to study.

• Zhou Tong told Wu Shi the Great, Ye Fan, and the others that each person needed to discover a unique Sixth Secret Realm to resist Darkness Erosion.
• Zhou Tong explained that he had been set up with specially processed Dark Matter and estimated that the Cultivation System might remain safe for a million years.
• Zhou Tong said Immortal Emperors were behind the system-wide erosion and that even he could not understand their power.
• Ruthless Great Emperor asked whether cultivating multiple systems could prevent erosion, and Zhou Tong said it had not protected him.
• Zhou Tong offered the Golden Core Nascent Soul System and the Dark Faction's bloodline system for study, cautioning them not to cultivate the latter.

Zhou Tong cultivated the Dao of life transmitted by the Sky Horn Ant True Fate while Ye Fan and the others studied the cultivation systems he had revealed. After ten thousand years, Ye Fan and Wu Shi had both broken through to become Mortal Immortals, while the others also made progress.

• Zhou Tong absorbed the Sky Horn Ant True Fate’s insights into the rules of creating life, and the resulting aura drew Ye Fan, Wu Shi, Azure Emperor, and the others into comprehending the Dao of life.
• Zhou Tong and the others cultivated on the floating island for a thousand years, and his Dao aura transformed the surrounding mist into Divine Spring water.
• After another ten thousand years, Zhou Tong opened his eyes and reflected on his progress in understanding the mysteries of life.
• Zhou Tong discovered that Ye Fan and Wu Shi had become Mortal Immortals, while Azure Emperor and Yan Ruyu had advanced and Taiyin Human Emperor and Sun Emperor had grown stronger after living new lives.