Chapter Summaries

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.

Chen Shi discovered that he could leave his cell in the Heavenly Prison, though its shifting passages kept him from escaping, and he used the quiet to cultivate. After a major demon attacked the Heavenly Court and destroyed the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll, Chen Shi suspected the scroll had transferred its patterns into him; the chapter ended with an imperial decree declaring him innocent and ordering his release.

• A Bi'an jailer judged Chen Shi guilty but sensed sacred incense on him, while Chen Shi’s shackles unexpectedly unlocked and let him pass through the prison’s seals.
• Chen Shi wandered out of his cell but found the Heavenly Prison’s spatial passages impossible to navigate, so he returned and continued cultivating as the Bi'an pretended not to notice his excursions.
• The Heavenly Prison shook during a violent attack outside, and Divine Constable Pu later reported that a major demon had killed many immortals and destroyed the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll.
• Chen Shi suspected the scroll had anticipated its destruction and transferred its Heavenly Dao Patterns into his consciousness.
• An imperial decree arrived declaring Chen Shi innocent and ordering his release.

After Chen Shi was released from the Heavenly Prison, he and his fellow heavenly soldiers celebrated while he suspected the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll’s destruction was part of a plot within the Heavenly Court. The chapter ends as his camp left the Heavenly Court to search Huanxian Valley for the great demon.

• Empress Houtu sent Feng Huixue to retrieve Chen Shi, but the prison heavenly king told her Chen Shi had already been cleared and released by people from the palace.
• Feng Huixue reported the news and the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll’s destruction to Empress Houtu, who decided to wait and see why someone in the palace had intervened for Chen Shi.
• Chen Shi celebrated with Bai Fangfang, Xiao Dulu, Dai Qingxi, and others, then suspected immortals had used a great demon to destroy the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll and realized he carried its Heavenly Dao patterns.
• Heavenly Mechanism Scholars visited Zhong Lin and ordered him to submit his comprehended Heavenly Dao patterns as the Heavenly Court prepared to reforge the scroll.
• The Geng Character Guard ordered its camps to search for the great demon, and Zhang Xian led the Fire Character Camp toward Huanxian Valley.

Chen Shi and the Fire Character Camp investigated a mysterious crater in Huanxian Valley and uncovered chains that resembled those he had seen in the Dark Sea. Zhong Lin identified the crater as the Demon Refining Well and suspected a heavenly commander had released its captive demon; Wu Guanyun arrived to inspect the site as Chen Shi prepared to act.

• Zhang Xian led Chen Shi and the others to Huanxian Valley after hearing reports of a strange crater near Iron Creek Town.
• At the crater, Zhang Xian took the even-numbered squads below while Chen Shi and the others stayed behind and found chains and buried buildings around the surrounding mountains.
• Black Pot tore chains and ancient structures from the ground, and Chen Shi recognized them as resembling what he had seen beneath the Dark Sea.
• Chen Shi cut a chain with Wind Marquis Unevenness, and Zhong Lin concluded the crater was the Demon Refining Well where someone had freed a great demon and destroyed the Heavenly Mechanism Scroll.
• Wu Guanyun arrived to inspect the site, and Chen Shi told the alarmed heavenly soldiers to stay calm before calling on Black Pot.

Chen Shi, Wu Guanyun, and the immortals descended into the Demon Refining Well, where Wu Guanyun probed Chen Shi about the severed chains and the bandits on the Immortal Slaying List. At the bottom, Wu Guanyun abruptly asked how they had known he was the one who released the great fiends.

• Chen Shi told Wu Guanyun that an immortal had severed the well’s chains with the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture to release the great fiends.
• Wu Guanyun ordered the immortals to follow him into the Demon Refining Well, despite Chen Shi’s offer to remain outside.
• As they descended, Wu Guanyun compared Chen Shi and Black Pot to Bandit Two and Bandit One on the Immortal Slaying List, then suggested the chain-cutter might be a commander or marshal in Heavenly King Li’s forces.
• At the bottom of the well, Chen Shi saw hundreds of three-legged cauldrons, including many still chained, while Zhang Xian and the others inspected them.
• Wu Guanyun turned to Chen Shi and asked how they had known that he was the one who released the great fiends.

Chen Shi, Black Pot, and Zhong Lin turned against Wu Guanyun’s rebellion and fought their way toward the Demon Refining Cauldron. Chen Shi released the great demon to create a chance to escape, then met Wu Guanyun’s attack above the cauldron.

• Black Pot formed a Primordial Chaos Sword Array with the Fire Character Camp, while Zhang Xian admitted that Wu Guanyun had released the great demon and urged the immortals to join the rebellion.
• Wu Guanyun excluded Chen Shi and Zhong Lin from the rebels, accusing Chen Shi of being a Heavenly Court spy and revealing Zhong Lin was a Heavenly Mechanism Scholar investigating Chen Shi.
• Chen Shi, Black Pot, and Zhong Lin attacked Zhang Xian and broke through the disorganized sword array; Zhong Lin crippled Zhang Xian while Black Pot battered the Heavenly Soldiers aside.
• Chen Shi severed a chain restraining the great demon, then used Scattering Green Flames to counter Wu Guanyun’s Earthly Qi’s Greeting.
• Wu Guanyun’s sword qi pierced Chen Shi, but Chen Shi landed atop the cauldron after striking Wu Guanyun with multiple sword attacks.