Recaps

Chen Shi discovered that Jin Weiran carried Yu Heng Gate’s imprint and suspected that the other Heavenly Dao Magic Treasures had left imprints in hidden controllers before their destruction. He was then ordered to the Niraya Great World without Black Pot, where he saw Jin Weiran and recognized a female immortal as the carrier of Yao Guang Pool’s imprint.

• Chen Shi learned that Feng Huixue had defected from the Xuanhuang Sea to earn the resources needed to advance, then dismissed the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals.
• Chen Shi stopped Jin Weiran and discovered that Yu Heng Gate had imprinted itself in Jin Weiran’s Sea of Consciousness before its destruction.
• Chen Shi and Black Pot reasoned that the Heavenly Dao Magic Treasures had planted imprints in hidden immortals and that the Immortal Court was waiting to trap its opponents.
• Chen Shi warned Jin Weiran to keep his identity as a Heavenly Dao Controller secret, and Jin Weiran left.
• Chen Shi received orders to go alone to the Niraya Great World and boarded a star-raft with Jin Weiran and a female immortal.
• Chen Shi recognized the female immortal as the carrier of Yao Guang Pool’s imprint.

Chen Shi and the other Heavenly Dao Controllers were gathered and sent to the Niraya Great World, where Chen Shi warned them that the Heavenly Court might be forcing them to kill one another. At Siyuan Mountain Pass, Jin Weiran and several others were killed almost immediately, then revived as divine gods by Heavenly King Li, who revealed the Heavenly Court’s plan to take the Heavenly Dao magic treasures into its grasp.

• Chen Shi, Jin Weiran, and Niu Jingjing discovered that each bore a Heavenly Dao imprint and discussed how the Heavenly Court might be using them.
• Chen Shi met Xia Houfeng, Long Yuanling, and the other controllers as the star-skiffs gathered all thirty-three immortals for the journey to the Niraya Great World.
• Aboard the ship, Chen Shi suggested the Heavenly Court had gathered the controllers to make them kill and devour one another, causing them to distrust each other.
• The group reached Siyuan Mountain Pass during a battle, and an arrow killed Jin Weiran as soon as the ship landed.
• Heavenly King Li used a Soul Summoning Banner and incense to restore Jin Weiran and successive fallen controllers as divine gods, declaring that the Heavenly Dao magic treasures were now in the Heavenly Court’s grasp.

Chen Shi led the surviving Heavenly Dao Controllers into the doomed Siyuan Mountain Pass, using his Limitless Dao Field to turn the devil race’s outer dao into immortal dao. After destroying a sky vine that strengthened the enemy and confronting a powerful devil skeleton, he helped force the attackers to retreat and arrived at the pass as its relief force.

• Heavenly King Li said Chen Shi had no choice but to side with the Heavenly Court and that the plan to master the Heavenly Dao had been devised by fifty greater powers, including Houtu Huangdiqi.
• Chen Shi’s Limitless Dao Field converted the outer dao of devil race soldiers into immortal dao, allowing Niu Jingjing and the others to defeat them, though only fourteen of the thirty-three Controllers survived.
• Chen Shi and the remaining Controllers saw that Siyuan Mountain Pass was nearly overrun, then came under attack as they charged toward it; six survivors gathered inside Chen Shi’s dao field while the others died.
• Chen Shi diverted toward the sky vine after it swallowed a Heavenly Court squad, and he and his companions fought their way toward it.
• Chen Shi used the eighth form of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade to sever the vine, weakening the nearby devil race soldiers, but a giant eight-armed devil skeleton struck him back toward the pass.
• The devil race forces withdrew from Siyuan Mountain Pass, and Chen Shi told commander Hua Wanliang that he and six companions had arrived to relieve the garrison.

Chen Shi and the five others completed the Star Unification Platform at Siyuan Mountain Pass as the Devil Race closed in. Chen Shi used it to summon avatars of the Heavenly Court’s principal deities, including the Jade Emperor, leaving Heavenly King Li furious when he learned the Great Heavenly Venerate was fighting outside the pass.

• Hua Wanliang refused to leave his troops behind and departed, while his soldiers killed Ning Daoshan when he tried to flee with them.
• Chen Shi and the five remaining immortals began building the Star Unification Platform, knowing they could not return to their Dao realms without spreading the Outer Dao to their homelands.
• Long Yuanling and Xia Houfeng were infected by the Outer Dao as vines surrounded Siyuan Mountain Pass, and Chen Shi admitted he did not know how Chu Xiangxiu had learned to resist it.
• As the Devil Race charged, Chen Shi activated the completed platform and summoned avatars of twenty-seven Heavenly Court deities, followed by a wisp of the Jade Emperor’s avatar.
• Heavenly King Li sent scouts to investigate the divine power at Siyuan Mountain Pass and raged when he learned that the Great Heavenly Venerate’s avatar had been summoned.

Heavenly King Li watched Chen Shi defend Siyuan Mountain Pass with a formation that repeatedly summoned the avatars of heavenly deities, while devil skeletons destroyed them. After Chen Shi summoned a new Jade Emperor avatar, the awakened deities began investigating the repeated deaths, and the Jade Emperor blamed Heavenly King Li for the mess.

• Heavenly King Li ordered the relieved soldiers to return to the heavenly court and sent five armies to attack the devil forces’ rear.
• Chen Shi combined the Minor Heavenly Tribulation Array with the Pu Tian Grand Ceremony, using the Star Unification Platform to summon deity avatars and hold Siyuan Pass.
• Vine-controlled devil skeletons attacked the pass and killed numerous deity avatars, but Chen Shi repeatedly summoned replacements.
• A devil skeleton slew the Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate’s avatar, and Chen Shi summoned a fresh one while Heavenly King Li feared the consequences.
• The Great Emperor of the Southern Pole of Longevity, the Gouchen Heavenly Emperor, and the Ziwei Emperor noticed their avatars repeatedly dying and decided to investigate.
• The Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate opened his eyes in the Hall of Lingxiao and blamed Heavenly King Li for the mess.

Chen Shi and his companions defended Siyuan Pass until the Heavenly Court deities broke free of his control and led a counterattack against the devil race. Heavenly King Li and Chu Xiangxiu revealed that the devil race were puppets of a single hidden entity, and Li attacked after the Heavenly Great Venerates forced it to emerge.

• Chen Shi replenished his power with Jade Purity Dao Spring water while the devil race soldiers attacked the Star Unification Platform, and his three desire-bound selves helped defend it.
• A vine-wrapped great devil skeleton killed Peng Ju and threatened Chen Shi, but Empress Houtu used samsara light to weaken it and the Xuan and Huang Swords destroyed it.
• Doumu Yuanjun, the Great Emperor of the Southern Pole of Longevity, and other Heavenly Court deities ignored Chen Shi's control spells and led their forces out of Siyuan Pass to destroy the vines and devils.
• Heavenly King Li and Chu Xiangxiu joined Chen Shi and said the devil race had no true souls and were puppets controlled by one powerful entity in the Niraya Great World.
• Heavenly King Li said the Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate and the others had forced the hidden entity to reveal itself, then enlarged the Exquisite Golden Pagoda and attacked it.

Heavenly King Li and the Heavenly Court’s forces confronted an outer-Dao devil god in the Niraya Great World, only to discover that the world’s inhabitants and battles were illusions shaped by the dead devil god’s lingering consciousness. The group found a powerful Earthly Treasure Spiritual Root and ordered Heavenly King Li to take it back to the Heavenly Court, while Empress Houtu and Ziwei Great Emperor turned Chen Shi’s suspicions about Heavenly King Li into a call to investigate him.

• Heavenly King Li’s Exquisite Pagoda struck the outer-Dao glow, and the emperors revealed that the true opponent was an eight-armed devil god beneath a divine tree rooted through the sky.
• Heavenly King Li fought the devil god with the pagoda’s thirty-three simulated Dao realms and defeated him, then discovered that the devil god was already dead.
• Chen Shi learned from Heavenly King Li and Empress Houtu that the Niraya Great World’s creatures and events were manifestations of the dead devil god’s consciousness, unsettling Chu Xiangxiu about his decades spent there.
• Empress Houtu and the emperors recognized the divine tree as a powerful Earthly Treasure Spiritual Root, and the Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate ordered Heavenly King Li to secure it for the Heavenly Court.
• Heavenly King Li suggested eliminating the six outsiders before they became Heavenly Dao divine persons, but Empress Houtu and Ziwei Great Emperor instead accused him of possible Western ties and urged the Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate to investigate him.

After the Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate ordered Celestial King Li to watch over the Niraya Divine Tree and Chen Shi, Li sought Chen Shi’s help transporting the tree out of the Dark Sea. Chen Shi discovered that Niu Jingjing and the others had been captured and killed, and he resolved to create a third path beyond the heavenly court and the Immortal Court.

• The Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate ordered Celestial King Li to examine his ties to the Western Heaven, rewarded his service, and placed Chen Shi and his companions under his supervision.
• After the heavenly giants departed, Celestial King Li asked Chen Shi to send the Niraya Divine Tree into the Dao Ruins, but Chen Shi could not summon that dao realm from deep within the Dark Sea.
• Celestial King Li mobilized one hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals to bind the tree’s roots, while Chen Shi urged Niu Jingjing, Long Yuanling, Xia Houfeng, and the others to escape.
• Chen Shi and Celestial King Li boarded a ship, where Chen Shi saw that Niu Jingjing and the others had been killed and were receiving incense as Heavenly Dao divine persons.
• Chen Shi asked Chu Xiangxiu whether he would help him when the time came, and Chu Xiangxiu pledged his life to him.

Chen Shi and Heavenly King Li carried the Niraya Divine Tree out of the Dark Sea while Heavenly Dao Divine Persons obscured the heavenly secrets, and Chen Shi stored the tree in his Dao Ruins. Though Chen Shi expected Heavenly King Li to attack him there, the Heavenly King instead let him go and urged him to leave the Heavenly Court.

• Heavenly King Li explained that Daluo Golden Immortals faced near-certain death in the open-calamity and described how some shifted its burden onto countless disciples and entire worlds.
• Heavenly King Li urged Chen Shi to become a Heavenly Dao Divine Person, but Chen Shi ignored his appeals.
• After several months, Niu Jingjing, Xia Houfeng, and the other Heavenly Dao Divine Persons obscured the heavenly secrets as the ship reached the Xuanhuang Sea.
• Chen Shi opened the Dao Ruins Daoist arena, and Heavenly King Li carried the Niraya Divine Tree inside while Daluo Golden Immortals searched the area in vain.
• Chen Shi prepared to kill Heavenly King Li, but Heavenly King Li let him leave the Heavenly Court and warned him to investigate the ruined worlds of Sanyuan and Tailai.

Chen Shi warned the Dao Ruins’ inhabitants that the Niraya Divine Tree was bait, then left for the Dark Sea ferry point. Heavenly King Li fought off a succession of Daluo Golden Immortals and their treasures while carrying the tree, until Gongsun Xuanyuan arrived and drove them back.

• Chen Shi confirmed that the Niraya Divine Tree was the Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate’s bait and asked Emperor Changchun to warn the Dao Ruins’ inhabitants not to attack Heavenly King Li.
• Emperor Changchun transmitted Chen Shi’s warning across the Dao Ruins, and Chen Shi left for a Dark Sea ferry point toward the Western White Tiger Constellations.
• Heavenly King Li crossed the Dao Pollution Marsh Zone with the Niraya Divine Tree, but an immortal gourd and other Zenith Heaven treasures attacked and tried to seize it.
• Heavenly King Li fused himself with the Niraya Divine Tree and fought off the jade bottle, immortal gourd, Exquisite Golden Pagoda, a nine-headed lion, and a horsetail whisk as he ran toward the Heavenly Court.
• Daluo Golden Immortals reached for Heavenly King Li and the tree, but Gongsun Xuanyuan arrived, severed their attacks, damaged their treasures, and forced them to retreat.

Heavenly King Li returned toward the Heavenly Court under Gongsun Xuanyuan’s protection while Chen Shi traveled to the Western Heavenly Palace to ask about worlds scarred by an immortal calamity. At the Lesser Jade Pond ferry, Chen Shi reunited with Zhong Wuwang and met his master, Yun Cheng, who revealed that Chen Shi’s repair of the Yin Yang Qi Bottle had helped him advance his cultivation.

• Gongsun Xuanyuan warned Heavenly King Li that others might still pursue him for the Niraya Divine Tree and promised that the Great Heavenly Venerate would protect him from the Great God of the Three Altars.
• Chen Shi visited Star Lord Kui Mulang, who explained that Sanyuan and Tailai had been destroyed by a Daluo Golden Immortal shifting his tribulation fortune and gave Chen Shi directions to other blighted worlds.
• Chen Shi paid for passage to the Wu Fang World from the Lesser Jade Pond ferry and waited as monks boarded and bargained over the fare.
• Chen Shi recognized Zhong Wuwang, who tried to convince his master to take Chen Shi as a disciple instead.
• Yun Cheng introduced himself as the former owner of the Yin Yang Qi Bottle and thanked Chen Shi for repairing its flaws, saying the help had enabled him to pursue a breakthrough to Zenith Heaven.

Chen Shi reunited with Zhong Wuwang and learned how he had become a Buddhist monk after ascending to the Heavenly Court. The three entered the dangerous Wu Fang World to test Zhong Wuwang’s Buddhist dharma, but found a seemingly ordinary town whose residents appeared alive, and met monks who denied that the world was perilous.

• Zhong Wuwang told Chen Shi how he had been forced into Buddhist discipleship, gained a Dao realm on Mount Ling, and advanced his cultivation.
• Chen Shi said Heavenly King Li had sent him to investigate the Wu Fang World, and Zhong Wuwang warned that the assignment might be a scheme to get him killed.
• The group traveled to the Wu Fang World, where Zhong Wuwang blessed Chen Shi and the old monk with Buddhist light before they entered.
• Chen Shi, Zhong Wuwang, and the old monk found a lively town whose residents remained unaffected by Buddhist light, despite the world’s surrounding resentment and calamity.
• Zhong Wuwang met Zheng Nian and Tian Yan Arhat, who said they had spent thirteen years in the world and were preparing to spread Buddhism in the Wo Tuo Kingdom.

Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang watched the Wo Tuo Kingdom’s Buddhist conversion and suspected the apparently miraculous Water-Land Dharma Assembly was hiding something. On its seventh day, the kingdom’s people revealed themselves as ghosts, the monks’ reincarnation paths collapsed, and Monk Zhengnian and Tian Yan Arhat were exposed as dead men who had been trapped in the Wu Fang World for thirteen years.

• Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang followed Monk Zhengnian and Tian Yan Arhat to the Wo Tuo Kingdom, where the ruler fulfilled his promise to establish a Buddhist kingdom.
• The ruler ordered other temples destroyed and believers oppressed while the kingdom prepared a grand Water-Land Dharma Assembly that brought monks spiritual power and rising cultivation.
• The old monk joined the assembly despite Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang’s warnings, and his cultivation began to improve.
• On the seventh day, the people ate the food intended for ghosts, revealed their monstrous forms, and charged into the monks’ Six Paths of Reincarnation.
• The ghosts’ numbers overwhelmed and destroyed the monks’ reincarnation paths, then dragged down and devoured the monks.
• Monk Zhengnian realized that he and Tian Yan Arhat had died shortly after entering the Wu Fang World, before he and his master began eating like ghosts.

Chen Shi, Zhong Wuwang, and Yun Cheng were caught in the revived calamity-transferring divine ability of a Mingwang and reborn as birds in the Wo Tuo Kingdom. After losing their cultivation, Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang rebuilt it from Foundation Establishment while Chen Shi secretly taught Yun Cheng to cultivate, and more than a decade passed with the three becoming known as the Three Fiends of the Black Nest.

• Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang concluded that the Wu Fang World had become dangerous because the released Mingwang’s calamity-transferring divine ability had revived and trapped monks who entered it.
• Yun Cheng transformed into a Golden-Winged Great Peng Condor and tried to escape the divine ability, but he, Chen Shi, and Zhong Wuwang were swept into another world and reborn as birds.
• Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang discovered they had lost their cultivation and began rebuilding it by consuming the meat of a strange beast, eventually forging Golden Cores.
• Chen Shi began teaching Yun Cheng cultivation principles in bird calls, and Yun Cheng raised the two as fledglings while they grew stronger.
• More than a decade passed, and Chen Shi, Zhong Wuwang, and Yun Cheng became notorious as the Three Fiends of the Black Nest, defeating monks who came to subdue them.

Chen Shi tried to detect and escape Mingwang’s divine ability, but discovered that the technique itself was the cultivation method of passing through a myriad calamities to eternally witness freedom. He failed to escape the next reincarnation, though the crude technique he comprehended preserved his memories and cultivation, leaving him determined to find the flaw in another cycle.

• Chen Shi, Zhong Wuwang, and the old monk joined their Dao fields to watch for changes in Mingwang’s divine ability, while the old monk remained trapped in the mistaken belief that he was their mother.
• Chen Shi warned Zhong Wuwang that another reincarnation would erase their awareness, then killed Tian Yan Arhat and Monk Zhening with Zhong Wuwang and the old monk, but their deaths did not prevent the Water-Land Salvation Grand Assembly.
• At the assembly, Chen Shi showed Zhong Wuwang that many people already bore Mingwang’s face, and the two waited for the divine ability to erupt as the kingdom’s people turned into vicious ghosts.
• When the Six Paths of Reincarnation began to collapse, Chen Shi spread the First Dao Rule across the kingdom and used its contact with Mingwang’s formless power to comprehend a crude framework of the cultivation technique.
• The old monk flew Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang toward the outer heavens, but the divine ability swallowed the Wu Fang World; Zhong Wuwang sent Chen Shi onward before he too was trapped in reincarnation.
• Chen Shi awakened in the bird’s nest with his memories and cultivation intact, while Zhong Wuwang had lost his awareness, and Chen Shi began studying Mingwang’s technique again.

Chen Shi spent thirteen years comprehending the Scripture of Eternal Freedom Through a Thousand Tribulations and escaped its power when the Wu Fang World’s reincarnation collapsed. He joined Yun Cheng and Zhong Wuwang in finding a way to free the trapped souls, then arrived at Mount Ling as the Bright King of Eternal Freedom in Tribulation was being installed as the Great Ming King.

• Chen Shi used the First Dao Rule to study the scripture while living beneath an ancient tree with Yun Cheng and Zhong Wuwang.
• When the scripture’s power swept through the Wu Fang World, Chen Shi remained outside it and discovered that its inhabitants shared the Bright King’s face.
• Chen Shi brought Zhong Wuwang and Yun Cheng out of the Wu Fang World, and their memories returned; he then taught them the scripture so they could seek its flaws together.
• Chen Shi, Yun Cheng, and Zhong Wuwang found forty-one flaws, inscribed the First Dao Rule onto Yun Cheng’s feathers, and used them to tear the scripture apart and collapse its ability.
• Zhong Wuwang brought Chen Shi and Yun Cheng to Mount Ling on the day the Bright King became the Great Ming King, and Chen Shi announced that he had come to present the scripture’s ancient scroll.

Chen Shi presented the Bright King of Eternal Freedom with a scroll rigged to trigger the Scripture of Eternal Freedom through a Thousand Tribulations, while using the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll to conceal his plan from the Great World Honored One. The Bright King was badly wounded when the trap activated, and Chen Shi forced the World Honored One to choose between saving Mount Lushan and saving the Bright King.

• Zhong Wuwang realized Chen Shi had hidden a way to break the Bright King's divine power in the scripture and feared Chen Shi meant to kill a Daluo Golden Immortal.
• Chen Shi reached Vulture Peak with the scroll, and the Great World Honored One questioned him while the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll concealed his origins from the Buddha's scrutiny.
• The Great World Honored One gave the scroll to the Bright King, who studied it and hurried to Red Lotus Peak to cultivate its method.
• The scroll's trap erupted during the Bright King's cultivation, tearing his body, Primordial Spirit, and Dao boundary with forty-one wounds as Mount Lushan was drawn into the divine power.
• Chen Shi activated the scripture's second safeguard, and the wounded Bright King recognized him as the culprit while Chen Shi asked the World Honored One to choose between Mount Lushan and the Bright King.

Chen Shi’s scheme caused the Bright King of Eternal Freedom’s divine ability to engulf Mount Lingshan, killing many monks before the Great World Honored One forced the ability back into its caster and the Bright King exploded. Chen Shi was held under house arrest, and after more than ten days Venerable Ananda told him that the World Honored One wanted to see him.

• The Bright King of Eternal Freedom’s injuries from Chen Shi’s scripture triggered his divine ability, bringing tribulation fate and karmic fire down on Mount Lingshan.
• The Peacock Ming King, the Great Peng Golden-Winged Condor, and other Lingshan experts attacked the Bright King, who stirred their karmic fires and fled.
• The Great World Honored One Tathagata drew the divine ability back into the Bright King, who exploded as the forty-one outer Dao fissures tore him apart.
• The Peacock Ming King warned the others away from the fissures, while the Lingshan survivors mourned the many monks killed in the upheaval.
• Venerable Ananda escorted Chen Shi to the East Mountain Courtyard, where he kept him under house arrest for more than ten days.
• Venerable Ananda told Chen Shi that the World Honored One had requested his presence.

Chen Shi learned from the Great World Honored One that the Bright King of Eternal Freedom died because of outer Dao cracks he had forged himself, and that Lingshan feared the approaching Primordial Calamity. The Great World Honored One agreed to release Chen Shi if he wrote down the Bright King's scripture, but destroyed the manual and resolved for Lingshan to face the calamity together.

• The Great World Honored One showed Chen Shi the outer Dao cracks and explained that the Bright King of Eternal Freedom had died when his own divine ability turned against him.
• The Great World Honored One questioned Chen Shi about the Wu Fang World, recognized that he had concealed things, and explained that the Western Heaven depended on its Buddhas to shelter it from calamities.
• The Great World Honored One revealed that the two great Buddhas had left to seek the Dark Sea Green Palace and that Lingshan was preparing for the coming Primordial Calamity.
• The Great World Honored One told Chen Shi to remain in Lingshan, but agreed to release him if he wrote down the Scripture of Enduring a Thousand Kalpas to Eternally Realize Freedom.
• Chen Shi transcribed the scripture and sent it to the Great World Honored One, who let the manual turn to ash and declared that Lingshan would face the Primordial Calamity together.

Ananda, Zhong Wuwang, and Yun Cheng each reconsidered cultivating the Scripture of Perpetual Freedom through a Thousand Calamities after Chen Shi warned them of its dangers. Chen Shi returned to the Heavenly Court, where Heavenly King Li was still trying to summon his primordial spirit, and arrived holding incense while calling for help.

• Ananda urged Tathagata to protect Lingshan, then set out to find Chen Shi when Tathagata refused to act.
• Zhong Wuwang copied the scripture, but Chen Shi confronted him; Zhong burned his copy and erased his memories of it.
• Chen Shi warned that the scripture might have been tampered with and that its creator could harvest its cultivators, causing Ananda and Yun Cheng to abandon their plans to use it.
• Chen Shi and Zhong Wuwang parted at the Heavenly River Ferry after discussing why many immortals could never return home.
• Chen Shi returned to the Heavenly Court, where Heavenly King Li repeatedly asked whether Chen Shi's primordial spirit had been summoned.
• Heavenly King Li saw Chen Shi walking across the Western Heaven Sweep with incense and heard him say that his Crown Prince was being bullied.

Chen Shi returned from the Wu Fang World, exposed Heavenly King Li’s attempt to have him killed, and gathered allies who helped punish Li until he apologized. After reconciling with Li, Chen Shi announced that his ten-year Heavenly Court contract had ended and invited fellow soldiers to leave with him, while Li went to see who would accept.

• Chen Shi told Heavenly King Li that Zijing had caused the destruction of four worlds and that Chen Shi had killed him at Spirit Vulture Mountain, then warned that he had invoked Li’s name before Tathagata.
• Houtu Huangdiqi sent the Great God of the Three Altars to confront Heavenly King Li, while Chen Shi appealed to the East King Duke and other allies for support.
• The Great God of the Three Altars beat Li before the Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate stopped him, and masked attackers continued assaulting Li for several days.
• Heavenly King Li apologized to Chen Shi and reminded him that his ten-year contract had expired.
• Chen Shi invited the Heavenly Court’s soldiers to gather at the Western Heaven Sweep and leave with him, and Li set out to see who would join.

Chen Shi led twenty thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals out of the Heavenly Court after their contracts expired, while the injured Heavenly King Li watched his command abandon him. The Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate allowed them to leave, and their star skiffs approached Western Penglai.

• Heavenly King Li saw tens of thousands of Heavenly Soldiers and Generals gathered at the Western Heaven Sweep and learned that they intended to follow Chen Shi.
• Chen Shi rallied the soldiers by promising to lead them to a new hometown where they could pursue their ambitions, and they cheered and followed him.
• Heavenly King Li warned Chen Shi that the Great Heavenly Venerate would stop them, but Chen Shi led the soldiers toward the Western Heaven Gate as the stretcher-bearing Heavenly General joined them.
• The Jade Emperor Great Heavenly Venerate ordered the gate garrison to let the twenty thousand soldiers leave because their contracts had expired, and they departed aboard more than two hundred star skiffs.
• After Heavenly King Li awoke five days later, he learned the star skiffs had not returned and did not know where Chen Shi had gone.
• Chen Shi worried the Heavenly Court might intercept the fleet, but the boatman announced that Western Penglai was near.

Chen Shi negotiated with Gongsun Xuanyuan to bring two hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals to Western Penglai while keeping them available to the Great Heavenly Venerate. He arrived at Golden Ao Island with twenty thousand soldiers, leaving Crippled Jiao startled by their presence and their mastery of the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture.

• Gongsun Xuanyuan told Chen Shi that the Great Heavenly Venerate needed the two hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals to remain under his command, even if they moved to Western Penglai.
• Chen Shi agreed to the arrangement and refused Gongsun Xuanyuan’s suggestion that Heavenly King Li become his deputy.
• Chen Shi led the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals into Western Penglai, while Crippled Jiao worried that Golden Ao Island had too few defenders to protect the Jade Purity Dao Spring.
• Chen Shi arrived at Golden Ao Island with twenty thousand Heavenly Soldiers, who demonstrated the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture.
• Chen Shi told Crippled Jiao that the soldiers had joined Golden Ao Island after their contracts expired and that the Great Heavenly Venerate would continue paying their stipends.

Chen Shi’s new disciples transformed the territory around Golden Ao Island, while Crippled Jiao and Jing Mei raced to keep their dangerous exploits from killing them. Chen Shi arranged for Doumu Yuanjun and Tongtian’s disciples to descend and teach the newcomers, bringing the scattered Jie Sect disciples together to preserve their heritage.

• Chen Shi’s twenty thousand immortals swept the lands around Golden Ao Island, capturing demons and opening mines, caves, and blessed lands, while Crippled Jiao repeatedly rescued them from dangers.
• Jing Mei returned to Golden Ao Island and joined Crippled Jiao and Jiang Guo in preventing disasters among the new disciples.
• Bai Jingming returned with Bian Liu’er, and Crippled Jiao assigned Bian Liu’er to lead the newcomers in mining.
• Chen Shi summoned Doumu Yuanjun, who agreed to descend this once, and told Crippled Jiao to prepare for her and Tongtian’s disciples to teach the outer sect newcomers.

Chen Shi invited the Jie Sect’s fallen deities to Golden Ao Island, where they began teaching its disciples and exploring dangerous ruins. Doumu Yuanjun explained that the so-called external Dao was not inherently separate from the Dao of the ancestral court, while Chen Shi learned that this dispute had helped divide the sects before the War of Slaying Zhou.

• Chen Shi prepared ten palace altars and invited the Jie Sect’s predecessors to Golden Ao Island, where numerous divine avatars descended and Crippled Jiao celebrated the sect’s revival.
• The deities chose disciples and led them into dangerous ruins to train, prompting Crippled Jiao, Jing Mei, Jiang Guo, and Wen Ting to rescue those in peril.
• Crippled Jiao confronted Wen Ting about his work as a groom for the Lingxiao Immortal Lord, then urged him to join the Heavenly Soldier Camp and draw its salary.
• Doumu Yuanjun offered to teach Chen Shi, but he declined and recommended Yang Bi as her successor; she sent an avatar to seek him in the Huayan Realm.
• Doumu Yuanjun told Chen Shi that the ancestral court had once stood within the Dark Sea, and that the Jie Sect’s study of other worlds’ Great Daos had fueled disputes with the Three Pure Ones before the War of Slaying Zhou.