Recaps

Chen Tang’s delegation returned to the Divine Continent, where the former True King and his long-dead followers fulfilled their wish to reach their homeland and turned to dust. As Chen Shi’s group prepared to face the Heavenly Honored One, the monster Xunjiang’s vast flesh-and-blood form spread across the Western Ox Continent’s skies and attacked Empress Houtu.

• Chen Tang’s delegation waited aboard the ship until the Great Shun Emperor summoned them to the capital, and the True King and his followers walked ashore to return to their ancestral homeland.
• The True King embraced the soil, then he and his followers crumbled into dust after fulfilling their wish; Chen Tang thanked the major general and followed the envoy toward the capital.
• Chen Yindu told the passenger ship’s occupants that Chen Shi had sent Green Goat and the others to the Earthly Immortal Realm, and Chen Shi apologized to those who stayed behind before preparing for battle.
• Chen Shi cultivated at Ganyang Mountain while Chen Yindu and Created Being Xiao Wu refined the Qiankun Reconstruction Furnace, and cultivators across the land studied the Great Desolation Ming Dao Collection.
• Empress Houtu saw Xunjiang’s flesh-and-blood tentacles spread across the Underworld and stars, recognized it as a weapon being cultivated to face the Opening Tribulation, and questioned its identity.
• Xunjiang resisted Empress Houtu’s influence and attacked her with a meat-spike and flesh weapons, but the Purple Sky Vine blocked the assault as Houtu vowed to settle accounts with it.

As the Heavenly Lord spread evil transformation across the Western Ox Continent, Chen Yindu devised a technique that let cultivators petrify themselves and everyone within their domains. The continent fell silent beneath overlapping Ghost and God Domains, leaving the Heavenly Lord enraged and determined to bury the stone world in flesh and blood before confronting Empress Houtu.

• Flesh-and-blood flowers spread across the sky, and evil qi transformed corpses, animals, plants, and local goddesses into threats across the Western Ox Continent.
• Sha Qiutong and the others found Chen Yindu refining the Qiankun Reconstruction Furnace, and he gave them a petrification technique to counter the continent-wide Ghost and God Domain.
• Sha Qiutong delivered the technique to Xuan Shan, who petrified Ganyang Mountain and its inhabitants across a thousand-mile domain.
• Yulingzi, Saintess Xuan, Daoist and Buddhist experts, and Divine Capital cultivators joined the imperial court’s effort to cover all fifty provinces with petrified domains.
• Cultivators across the continent activated the Stone Louse Transformation Technique, and Empress Shi Ji’s domain spread until the entire Western Ox Continent became still and stone.
• The Heavenly Lord found no living people to torment, smashed stone figures in fury, then sent flesh and blood raining down to engulf them before setting out to confront Empress Houtu.

Empress Houtu and the defenders of the Underworld fought the Heavenly Lord and his Primeval Insect as demonic corruption devastated the realms. Skeleton Chen Shi defended Tianchi Kingdom, and the chapter ended with him entrusting Chu Feng to Wu Qi and asking Wu Qi to help him kill someone.

• Empress Houtu used the Purple Sky Vine to shield the Underworld, but the Heavenly Lord unleashed the Primeval Insect and accelerated the corruption of its people and Great Dao.
• Ghosts and deities offered incense to Empress Houtu, while Little King of Hell Nannan and the arriving Yang World deities fought to defend her; the Heavenly Lord's tentacles devastated the Immortal Capital and the hells.
• Skeleton Chen Shi used the Heavenly Net Blood-Transforming Divine Blade to drive the Primeval Insect away from Tianchi Kingdom and caught the Heavenly Lord's Yin Yang Qi Bottle with the Treasure Dropping Golden Coin.
• The Grand Libationer entrusted Chu Feng, the heir to Great Shang's inheritance, to Skeleton Chen Shi before transforming into a giant ghost deity and charging toward the Heavenly Lord.
• Skeleton Chen Shi explained Chu Feng's inheritance to the bewildered Wu Qi, then gave Wu Qi the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and asked him to help kill someone.

Skeleton Chen Shi sent Witch Covenant to fight the Heavenly Venerate while he stayed to protect Tianchi Kingdom, then rushed to recover the Yin Yang Qi Bottle after Witch Covenant fell. He escaped to the Yang World with the bottle, calling after Witch Covenant that he still owed him a favor.

• Witch Covenant agreed to fight the Heavenly Venerate and said Skeleton Chen Shi was the best Shang King after observing the people of Tianchi Kingdom.
• Skeleton Chen Shi gave Chu Feng the Heavenly Net Blood-Transforming Divine Blade and Blood Lake True Scripture, taught him the ninth tier of the Profound Yin Nine Heavens Art, and left him to guard Tianchi Kingdom.
• Witch Covenant and the Grand Libationer attacked the Heavenly Venerate with the Yin Yang Qi Bottle, but the Heavenly Venerate's primordial-insect tentacles overwhelmed them and killed them both.
• The Heavenly Venerate seized the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and threatened to use it against the defenders of Houde Palace.
• Skeleton Chen Shi used the Treasure Dropping Golden Coin to knock the bottle away, recovered it, and fled to the Yang World toward the New Xiang Imperial Capital.

Skeleton Chen Shi fought off the Heavenly Venerate’s primordial worms while Witch Covenant went to aid Empress Houtu, and Chen Yindu and Created Being Xiao Wu sought the Heavenly Venerate’s hidden place of joining with the Dao. Chen Yindu found the concealed Dao Realm on the moon and entered with Xiao Wu, who sent countless copies of himself to devour its manifestations as they prepared to break it.

• Skeleton Chen Shi used the Yin Yang Qi Bottle to capture thousands of Heavenly Venerate figures, then gave the bottle to Witch Covenant to reinforce Empress Houtu in the Underworld.
• Witch Covenant fought the Heavenly Venerate and died, but another Witch Covenant emerged from the Boundless Level-Balancing Heaven and nearly pulled the Heavenly Venerate into the bottle.
• Chen Yindu and Created Being Xiao Wu broke through the blood-cloud barrier and fought their way across the sea of flesh and blood, using the Qiankun Reconstruction Furnace to capture and refine blood dragons.
• Chen Yindu and Created Being Xiao Wu climbed a pillar of flesh and blood to the moon, where Chen Yindu used his calculations to locate the Heavenly Venerate’s hidden place of joining with the Dao.
• Created Being Xiao Wu struck the moon and revealed the Heavenly Venerate’s Taiji Mengyi Heaven Dao Realm, then entered it with Chen Yindu and sent countless copies of himself to devour its Dao manifestations.

Chen Yindu and Created Being Xiao Wu fought the Heavenly Honored One’s Dao body inside his Dao domain, while Skeleton Chen Shi rescued the six-winged heavenly moth from the Heavenly Honored One’s grasp. After escaping, Chen Shi turned back toward Liangtian Cliff to protect his main body and the Purple Sky Vine, leaving him facing the Heavenly Honored One’s attack.

• Chen Yindu and Created Being Xiao Wu defeated the thirty-two child attendants, refined them into cyan pills, and ate them to increase their cultivation.
• Chen Yindu and Created Being Xiao Wu entered the immortal palace and attacked the Heavenly Honored One’s Dao body, but it blocked the Qiankun Reconstruction Furnace and forced them to fight for their lives.
• The Heavenly Honored One tried to seize the silkworm pupa on the Fusang Tree, but a six-winged heavenly moth emerged and cut apart his giant hand with Five-Colored Divine Light.
• Skeleton Chen Shi used his Yin Yang Dao field to weaken the Heavenly Honored One’s flesh and blood, then helped the moth escape with him on its back.
• The Heavenly Honored One discovered the Purple Sky Vine at Liangtian Cliff and sent a giant hand to strike its temple, but the moth and Chen Shi stopped the attack.
• Skeleton Chen Shi turned back to rescue his main body as the Heavenly Honored One declared he would kill Chen Shi and claim the moth and Purple Sky Vine.

Chu Feng defended Tianchi Capital City from the Heavenly Venerate’s blood clouds until Zhong Wuwang helped him wound the Fog Moon Eye. The Heavenly Venerate was injured but killed Witch Covenant, who returned from death and charged at him again despite the Purple Sky Vine withering.

• Chu Feng used the three stored strikes in the Heavenly Net Blood-Transforming Divine Blade to repel the blood clouds, then drew on the Blood Lake True Scripture and fought as the attack resumed.
• The Fog Moon Eye revived dead specters and sent them against Chu Feng, who battled the specters and blood tentacles until Zhong Wuwang arrived and used the Yin Yang Dao Field to dispel the evil Qi.
• Zhong Wuwang carried Chu Feng to the Fog Moon Eye, where Chu Feng’s empowered strikes cut and wounded it, forcing the meta-worms to retreat.
• Zhong Wuwang revealed his name as Zhong Er Niu and left for Houde Palace, while the Heavenly Venerate cried out as blood ran from his injured brow.
• The Heavenly Venerate recovered and killed Witch Covenant, who returned from the Purple Sky Vine and charged at him again despite the vine’s dwindling power.

Witch Covenant mortally wounded the Heavenly Venerate by exploiting the injury to his third eye, allowing Zhong Wuwang to steal the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and Empress Houtu to strike at the Heavenly Venerate’s bodily flaws. The primordial worms then took control of the wounded Heavenly Venerate, while Chen Shi rose toward the outer heavens to integrate with the Dao using the True God from Beyond the Heavens.

• Witch Covenant used the Heavenly Venerate’s expectation of his familiar water-and-fire technique transition to land a fatal strike with two finger bones through the Heavenly Venerate’s injured brow.
• Zhong Wuwang seized the Yin Yang Qi Bottle as the dazed Heavenly Venerate missed with his counterattack, and Empress Houtu attacked the Heavenly Venerate at eight physical flaws.
• Primordial worm tentacles entered the Heavenly Venerate’s wounds, healed him, and took control of him; he then attacked Houde Palace and forced Empress Houtu and the surviving deities to defend it.
• Created Being Xiao Wu shielded Chen Yindu from the Heavenly Venerate’s Dao avatar, and the True God from Beyond the Heavens arrived and cut the avatar in half.
• Chen Shi announced that he would achieve Dao Integration by using the True God from Beyond the Heavens as his Primordial Spirit, prompting the flesh-and-blood Heavenly Venerates to flee toward the outer heavens.

Chen Shi fought through the flesh-and-blood Celestial Venerables and reached the True God from Beyond the Heavens, then began merging his Dao with the Heavenly Dao of the Western Ox Continent. His expanding Dao realm purified the corrupted moon, which shone over the continent for the first time in sixteen thousand years.

• Chen Shi used the purple vine and his saber intent to break through the Celestial Venerables’ attacks, while Can'er carried Skeleton Chen Shi toward the heavens.
• Chen Shi’s attacks, aided by the True God from Beyond the Heavens, burned the ten-thousand-zhang Celestial Venerable and cut apart the flesh-and-blood assault from the moon.
• Chen Shi reflected on the True God’s sacrifices and declared that he would change the world and make the True God his Innate Dao Embryo.
• Chen Shi began merging the Heavenly Dao of the Western Ox Continent with his own Dao, expanding his Dao realm across the continent.
• Chen Shi’s Dao realm purified the moon’s malevolent qi, melted the flesh covering it into water, and revealed the moon shining above the Western Ox Continent.

Chen Shi used the True God from Beyond the Heavens to expand his domain across both worlds, refining the primordial insect while the deities fought the Heavenly Lord. As Empress Houtu faced the Heavenly Lord, Chen Shi arrived and challenged him to a contest between their Great Desolation Ming Dao Collections.

• Chen Shi severed one of the primordial insect’s wings with the Zi Wu Zhan Xie Sword, struck it with the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Talisman, and refined it into ash with the Spirit Banner Ten Absolute Array.
• Chen Shi’s domain spread through the Underworld, refining the primordial insect’s flesh inside the Heavenly Lord and freeing him from its control as Empress Houtu and the remaining deities attacked him.
• Zhong Wuwang weakened the Heavenly Lord’s legs with the Yin Yang Qi Bottle, and Empress Houtu took up the Purple Sky Vine to fight him alone.
• Chen Shi arrived in the Underworld and offered the Heavenly Lord a chance to survive by defeating him in a fair battle.
• The Heavenly Lord revealed his own Taiji Mengyi Heaven domain and claimed Chen Shi’s borrowed Golden Immortal power would fail, but Chen Shi matched his aura with the Great Desolation Ming Dao Collection and challenged him to compare their strength.

Chen Shi used a rapid, brutal fighting style alongside the True God from Beyond the Heavens to keep the venerable master from unleashing his techniques. Just as the True God began to fail, Zhong Wang’s Innate Dao Embryo revived it, allowing Chen Shi and the True God to kill the venerable master.

• The venerable master summoned the Minor Heavenly Tribulation Array, but Chen Shi and the True God from Beyond the Heavens charged through it and shattered the stars with a sword strike.
• Chen Shi and the True God overwhelmed the venerable master with relentless close-range attacks, leaving him badly injured before Empress Houtu, Zhong Wang, and the others.
• The True God from Beyond the Heavens began to lose strength, and the venerable master believed his old nemesis was about to die.
• Zhong Wang’s Innate Dao Embryo flew into the True God from Beyond the Heavens and reignited its power.
• Chen Shi and the True God struck through the venerable master’s throat, then sent his head flying.

Chen Shi helped destroy the Heavenly Lord and watched the survivors begin rebuilding, while Zhong Wuwang and Chen Yindu departed for the Earthly Immortal Realm. As Chen Shi faced the True God from Beyond the Heavens’ dwindling power, he resolved to join forces with it to banish the meta-worms.

• Chen Yindu and Zhong Wuwang refined the Heavenly Lord’s remains, while Empress Houtu searched for his escaped divine soul and Can'er searched for Skeleton Brother.
• Chen Shi decided Tianchi Kingdom no longer needed a skeleton avatar, as Chu Feng awaited his return and Little King of Hell Nannan began rebuilding the netherworld.
• Chen Yindu devised a way to free the petrified people of the Western Ox Continent, while Chen Shi received Zhong Wuwang’s letter announcing his plan to ascend.
• Zhong Wuwang ascended from Heavenly Dao City with the Yin Yang Qi Bottle, while Chen Shi arrived too late to stop him and warned him about the bottle’s unknown origins.
• Chen Yindu left for the Earthly Immortal Realm to seek a way to resurrect Created Being Xiao Wu, and Chen Shi asked him to look for their family.
• As the True God from Beyond the Heavens opened the Nine Heavens, Chen Shi joined it and vowed to banish the meta-worms.

Chen Shi and the True God from Beyond the Heavens fought through the Primeval Bug’s flesh-and-blood network in outer space and cleansed the sun, restoring daylight to the Western Ox Continent. As Chen Shi returned toward the continent, he discovered that countless distant lights were the Primeval Bug’s eyes fixed on him.

• Chen Shi and the True God from Beyond the Heavens walked through outer space as giant eyes in the Primeval Bug’s network watched them.
• Chen Shi and the True God from Beyond the Heavens used their Taiji Dao Fields to dissolve the network and its giant eyes, then fled the pursuing divine rays toward the sun.
• Chen Shi and the True God from Beyond the Heavens cleansed the flesh covering the sun, melting the Primeval Bug’s imitations of the World-Honored One and restoring sunlight to the Western Ox Continent.
• Hu Feifei ordered the people not to stare directly at the newly revealed sun and had Confucian scholars arrested after they protested it.
• The remaining flesh on the sun transformed into a roc and fled with flesh from nearby stars, while Chen Shi noticed seven stars shining around the Western Ox Continent.
• As Chen Shi headed back to the continent, he realized the countless distant lights were the Primeval Bug’s eyes watching him.

Chen Shi mourned the True God from Beyond the Heavens, who disintegrated into the evening glow over the Western Ox Continent, and vowed to kill the Heavenly Honored One and the master of the origin worms. At Houde Palace, Empress Houtu offered a way to try to resurrect Witch Covenant, leading Chen Shi to join her in borrowing an alchemy furnace from an absent immortal maiden.

• Chen Shi realized the True God from Beyond the Heavens was disintegrating and rushed with him to the Western Ox Continent, but the True God dissolved into rosy clouds upon arrival.
• Chen Shi mourned the fallen elders and vowed that the Heavenly Honored One and the master of the origin worms would die.
• Empress Houtu gave Chen Shi a green whip from the Heavenly Honored One's Dao domain and showed him Witch Covenant's finger bones soaking in Purple Sky Vine dew.
• Empress Houtu explained that Witch Covenant would be difficult to resurrect, but Chen Shi insisted on trying because Witch Covenant had died for him more than forty times.
• Empress Houtu proposed taking Yuan Bixia's Crimson Origin Alchemy Furnace while she was away at a banquet, and prepared to lead Chen Shi into her Dao domain.

Chen Shi and Empress Houtu traveled to the Guangyuan Realm to steal Yuan Bixia’s Crimson Origin Alchemy Furnace, while Houtu explained the differences between divine and immortal cultivation. After they took the furnace, Chen Shi stayed behind to provoke Yuan Bixia and prepare a trap in her alchemy chamber.

• Empress Houtu explained that gods were bound by incense and the Great Dao, while immortals pursued the Dao independently and increasingly clashed with gods.
• Houtu told Chen Shi how Yuan Bixia betrayed and killed her senior brother to become Hua Xianjun’s concubine and gain a path to greater power.
• Chen Shi and Houtu reached Yuan Bixia’s dao realm in the Guangyuan Realm and found her honored as the central patriarch in her former sect’s hall.
• Chen Shi rushed into the Jade Court, suppressed the flames around the Crimson Origin Alchemy Furnace, and handed it to Houtu to carry away.
• Chen Shi stayed in the alchemy chamber, wrote a verse mocking Yuan Bixia’s past, and covered the walls with star imprints to prepare for her return.

Chen Shi and Empress Houtu stole the Crimson Origin Alchemy Furnace from Yuan Bixia’s Jade Court, and Hua Xianjun stopped Yuan Bixia from being killed by the trap Chen Shi had left behind. Back at Houde Palace, the pill dew began restoring the witch covenant, and Empress Houtu recruited Chen Shi to help collect her unsettled debts.

• Chen Shi escaped after leaving a Minor Heavenly Tribulation Array in the pill room, and the Jade Court disciples reported the theft to Fairy Yuan Bixia.
• Hua Xianjun saw the portraits of the thieves and identified the trap as a powerful Earthly Immortal Realm divine ability, warning Yuan Bixia to endure the loss for now.
• Fairy Yuan Bixia triggered the array while entering the pill room, but Hua Xianjun shattered it and saved her.
• Chen Shi and Empress Houtu returned to Houde Palace with the Crimson Origin Alchemy Furnace, collected its pill dew, and used it to revive the witch covenant’s Dao patterns.
• Chen Shi tasted the furnace’s immortal pills and asked Empress Houtu where they could find more immortal medicines.
• Empress Houtu offered to take Chen Shi with her to settle her bad debts, and Chen Shi agreed to go with her.

Chen Shi struggled to understand why his cultivation had changed after the True God from Beyond the Heavens died, while Empress Houtu took him to rob Daoist Ganyi’s minor world. The chapter ended with Chen Shi sensing that his ascension light was eager to guide him to the Earthly Immortal Realm.

• Chen Shi ordered the Western Ox Continent to abandon the New Dharma and resume cultivating the Old Dharma, then found that his spiritual herbs and the land flourished in the renewed spiritual abundance.
• Chen Shi discovered he could no longer sense his Void Realm or Dao integration, but he sensed the Earthly Immortal Realm and an ascension light guiding him toward it.
• Empress Houtu speculated that the True God’s death had disrupted Chen Shi’s Dao integration, and the two discussed his plan to integrate with the Dao again in the Earthly Immortal Realm.
• Empress Houtu and Chen Shi entered Daoist Ganyi’s minor world, announced themselves as the Twin Fiends, and drove off the cultivators guarding its fields.
• Empress Houtu beat Daoist Ganyi with her hoe and gathered his immortal herbs while Chen Shi kept watch.
• Chen Shi again felt his ascension light stirring as if it were about to carry him to the Earthly Immortal Realm.

Empress Houtu explained why the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll had marked Chen Shi for ascension, then helped him arrange the refinement of a Five Elements Disaster-Averting Pill. Chen Shi, Empress Houtu, and Heishuo entered Immortal Lord Wu’s Dao realm to steal the Yama Tree, whose removal exposed the opening tribulation fortune it had been suppressing.

• Empress Houtu told Chen Shi that the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll had likely mistaken his power for that of a hidden ancient monster and warned that he could be forced to ascend to the Earthly Immortal Realm.
• Empress Houtu gave Chen Shi the Five Elements Disaster-Averting Pill formula, and Chen Shi recruited Jueyangzi, Dao Chengzi, and other Daoists to refine it and plant the immortal herbs near Liangtian Cliff on Ganyang Mountain.
• Empress Houtu told Chen Shi that Immortal Lord Wu had gone to the Xuanhuang Sea, so Chen Shi brought Heishuo to help steal the Yama Tree from Wu’s Dao realm while she waited outside.
• Chen Shi and Heishuo entered Immortal Lord Wu’s Xuanming Gonghua Heaven and found the Yama Tree projecting a vast protective canopy over the realm.
• Chen Shi used the Purple Sky Vine to pull the Yama Tree from the scorched earth, while Heishuo concealed the theft from the disciples living in the tree’s projected palaces.
• The Yama Tree’s removal exposed the scorched earth as Immortal Lord Wu’s opening tribulation fortune, and waves of tribulation fortune surged through the Dao realm.

Chen Shi and Black Pot escaped Immortal Lord Wu’s Dao domain, and Chen Shi learned to use the Lin She Method to possess other beings. As they plundered treasures and refined pills for Empress Houtu, Ganyang Mountain became a sacred land, while Chen Shi remained troubled by his stagnant cultivation and a new Great Dao radiance appeared across the world.

• Chen Shi and Black Pot fled Immortal Lord Wu’s Dao domain, where Immortal Lord Wu possessed a celestial immortal and then Black Pot before Empress Houtu broke his possession.
• Empress Houtu explained the Method of Self-Transformation and Freedom, and Chen Shi began adapting the Lin She Method to imitate it.
• Chen Shi successfully possessed Daoist Liu, a duck, Great Serpent Xuan Shan, Empress Shi Ji, and Black Pot while testing the method.
• Chen Shi and Black Pot stole Daoist Kan Zhi’s earthly treasure and spiritual root without alerting anyone, then continued plundering treasures for Empress Houtu.
• Over two years, Ganyang Mountain filled with stolen treasures and herbs, and Black Pot grew rapidly stronger while Chen Shi’s cultivation showed no improvement.
• Hu Feifei and Yuzhu investigated Great Dao radiance appearing across the fifty provinces and the Underworld, and Yuzhu reported that they had also discovered other Great Dao anomalies.

Chen Yindu and his companions reached the Earthly Immortal Realm and discovered that Chen Shi and Black Pot had become notorious thieves wanted across multiple immortal domains. Chen Shi and Black Pot continued their raids while collecting pill dew, and the chapter left them nearing the end of their debts to Empress Houtu and preparing to restore the Witch Covenant.

• Hu Feifei declined to report the strange Great Desolation Dao patterns to Chen Shi and discussed ways to fund the Western Ox Continent's schools.
• Chen Yindu, Du Yiran, Granny Sha, and Hu Xiaoliang reached the Earthly Immortal Realm and found Black Pot and the faceless Chen Shi listed among the most wanted in several immortal domains.
• An immortal official told Sha Qiutong that Black Pot and Chen Shi had raided hundreds of Dao realms, stolen the Jade Origin Flower, and evaded divination by powerful immortals and Buddhas.
• Immortal Lord Wu and other victims sought help from the King Buddha and the Heavenly Court, but neither could divine Chen Shi and Black Pot's origins.
• Chen Shi and Black Pot finished another raid, then returned to Houde Palace, where Chen Shi collected pill dew and saw that the Witch Covenant's bones had nearly recovered.
• Empress Houtu gave Chen Shi the final volume of account books to settle, while he wondered how the Witch Covenant would repay its debt.

Chen Shi accepted Empress Houtu’s ledger and promised to kill Yin Fenglou after ascending, then discussed rules to prevent power from concentrating and corrupting the mortal world. As the ascension force grew harder to resist, he prepared to leave for the Earthly Immortal Realm, promising Hu Feifei he would return.

• Empress Houtu gave Chen Shi a ledger detailing how Yin Fenglou had stolen disaster-relief silver, abandoned the Fengyu Kingdom during a flood, and later ascended; Chen Shi agreed to kill him.
• Empress Houtu praised Chen Shi’s chivalrous spirit, and Chen Shi said she, he, and Gouzi all possessed it.
• Chen Shi worried that corruption would return after his ascension, then proposed blending the Way of Heaven and the Human Dao and hurried to discuss rules with Lord Hu.
• Empress Houtu watched Gouzi train and checked on the Witch Covenant, whose body was slowly regrowing in the pill furnace.
• Chen Shi returned to the New Xiang Imperial Capital, reviewed Hu Feifei’s plans for a broader imperial examination, and worked with her late into the night on rules and procedures.
• Chen Shi told Hu Feifei he was leaving to ascend to the Earthly Immortal Realm and promised he would return.

After touring the fifty provinces, Chen Shi said farewell to his village and ascended with Black Pot to the Earthly Immortal Realm. There, they learned that newly ascended immortals were expected to serve ten years as Heavenly Soldiers, and Chen Shi decided the post could help him search for Grandpa and Chen Tang.

• Chen Shi returned to Huangpo Village, said goodbye to Old Lady Wuzhu, and reunited with Black Pot before leaving for Liangtian Cliff.
• Chen Shi and Black Pot followed the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll’s ascension glow through strange worlds and arrived at the Earthly Immortal Realm alongside other ascenders.
• Chen Shi met Xiao Dulu and Bai Fangfang, who explained that their worlds shared the heritage of Zuzhou, while Black Pot bit Xiao Dulu’s finger.
• An Immortal Official brought the ascenders to Yao Guang Pool to wash away mortal dust, but Chen Shi and Black Pot found the immortal bath had no effect on them.
• The Immortal Official told the ascenders they had to serve ten years as Heavenly Soldiers, and Chen Shi abandoned thoughts of escape after witnessing a divine being capture a fleeing immortal.
• An ascender claiming descent from Immortal Lord Ba was allowed to leave with the official, while Chen Shi and the others went to collect their equipment and heard that Heavenly Soldiers faced deadly battles.

Chen Shi joined the Heavenly Court as a heavenly soldier, learned that his new camp had nearly been wiped out in Nightmare Valley, and began cultivating the Primordial Chaos Dao Scripture. Meanwhile, a Heavenly Mechanism Scholar discovered that a powerful Golden Immortal had arrived among the new ascendants and feared the newcomer was dangerous.

• Chen Shi received mass-produced immortal armor, a sword box, and the Primordial Chaos Dao Scripture, which he judged to be a steady but demanding cultivation method with a formidable matching sword art.
• Chen Shi, Bai Fangfang, and Xiao Dulu were assigned to the Fire Character Camp, where a veteran told them the camp had nearly been destroyed investigating Nightmare Valley and that Zhong Wuwang was probably dead.
• Chen Shi returned to his Heavenly Dao Residence, worried about Zhong Wuwang and his family, then studied the Primordial Chaos Dao Scripture and found it could combine with his Yin Yang Qi to reveal Yin Yang Primordial Chaos.
• At Yu Heng Gate, a Heavenly Mechanism Scholar told the immortal official that a powerful Golden Immortal was concealed among the latest ascendants and had repeatedly defied imperial summons.

Chen Shi comprehended the Primordial Chaos Dao Scripture and Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture, then challenged Commander Yin Fenglou after claiming his insights surpassed Yin’s. As they prepared to fight in the Western Heaven Sweep, Chen Shi harmonized with the surrounding Great Dao and his aura surged.

• Zhong Lin told an Immortal Official that a hidden Golden Immortal among the ascenders had reached the Taiji Mengyi Heaven and might be Chen Shi, who had ascended with a dog immortal.
• Hu Feifei investigated Yin Yang Primordial Chaos phenomena appearing across several provinces and learned that their profound principles had injured cultivators who tried to study them.
• Chen Shi comprehended the Yin Yang Primordial Chaos, greatly accelerated his cultivation of the Primordial Chaos Dao Scripture, and mastered the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture.
• Chen Shi visited the Western Heaven Sweep, where Bai Fangfang and Xiao Dulu introduced him to their garrison commander, Yin Fenglou.
• Chen Shi claimed his understanding surpassed Yin Fenglou’s and accepted Yin’s challenge, with the winner taking the position of garrison commander.
• As the duel began, Chen Shi opened ten thousand li of empty space with his Primordial Spirit and merged the surrounding Great Dao into himself.

Chen Shi merged with the Dao in the Western Heaven Sweep while the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll drew his consciousness away and imprinted Heavenly Dao patterns upon it. His unattended body defeated Yin Fenglou with thirty-six strands of sword Qi, but Chen Shi awoke in the Heavenly Prison, facing execution.

• Zhong Lin realized Chen Shi was part of the Heavenly Dao and watched as Chen Shi merged with the Dao in the Western Heaven Sweep.
• The Heavenly Mechanism Scroll seized Chen Shi's consciousness and flooded it with Heavenly Dao patterns while his body remained behind.
• Yin Fenglou challenged Chen Shi, and Chen Shi's single remaining thought guided his body through their sword fight.
• Chen Shi's body overwhelmed Yin Fenglou with thirty-six strands of sword Qi and crossed Yin Fenglou's name off the ledger.
• Empress Houtu Huangdiqi learned that Chen Shi had arrived in the Earthly Immortal Realm and called him her Kirin Son.
• Chen Shi regained consciousness in the Heavenly Prison, where other inmates told him he was bound for the Execution Stage.