Chapter Summaries

Yan Lingji used the Houtu inheritance to block Eastern Emperor Taiyi’s Chaos Bell attack and stabilize Cheng Xi, though both the Bell brand and the Deep Space Mark remained. Cheng Xi received a space rune and set out for Xianyang while Yan Lingji returned to seclusion to complete her inheritance.

• Eastern Emperor Taiyi sent a devastating Chaos Bell strike through space to kill Cheng Xi in the Southern Border marshes.
• Yan Lingji used the power of the Houtu inheritance to collide with and suppress the Chaos Bell’s destructive force, while the Civilization Fire Seed buffered the damage to Cheng Xi’s soul.
• Cheng Xi recorded fragments of both supreme powers as Eastern Emperor Taiyi suffered backlash, damaged the Chaos Bell fragment, and could not immediately attack again.
• Deep Space updated its rule models and judged Cheng Xi to be a valuable catalyst for high-energy rule interactions.
• Yan Lingji’s phantom stabilized Cheng Xi’s injuries, gave him a space rune to conceal his aura and travel through the forests, and urged him to return to Xianyang.
• Yan Lingji’s phantom faded as she returned to seclusion, and Cheng Xi forced himself to leave the Southern Border.

Cheng Xi escaped the Southern Border and reached Qin territory, while Ying Zheng mobilized Qin’s forces to protect him and purge Lu Buwei’s remaining faction. As Cheng Xi entered Xianyang, hidden watchers took note, and the Deep Space Mark began monitoring the city’s power structures.

• Cheng Xi used Yan Lingji’s Space Witch Script to evade pursuit through the Southern Border, where Tong Lingzi’s projection warned him that Eastern Emperor Taiyi was hunting him and Xianyang was unstable.
• Ying Zheng ordered Wang Jian to strengthen the Qin-Chu border patrols, Li Si to purge Lu Buwei’s remnants, and Black Ice Platform agents to disrupt the Yin Yang School’s search.
• Cheng Xi crossed into Qin territory and was secretly received by Black Ice Platform elites, who transported his badly injured and exhausted body toward Xianyang.
• A peddler and an unknown residence’s Message Jade Talisman signaled that Cheng Xi’s arrival had been noticed, while Ying Zheng sensed his approach.
• Cheng Xi’s carriage entered Xianyang, and the Deep Space Mark adjusted its monitoring to study the city’s power structures and relationships.

Cheng Xi was brought to Xianyang Palace and kept alive, but Ying Zheng’s attempt to suppress the Chaos Bell Imprint provoked it. Hidden conspirators then exploited the imprint and Cheng Xi’s soul injuries, leaving him to awaken in a violent relapse as Eastern Emperor Taiyi sensed the disturbance from afar.

• Cheng Xi was treated in a guarded palace chamber, stabilizing his physical injuries while his soul wounds and imprints remained beyond the healers’ reach.
• Ying Zheng’s Ziwei Dragon Qi triggered the Chaos Bell Imprint, which struck back and deepened his wariness of Eastern Emperor Taiyi.
• Conspirators in Xianyang plotted to worsen Cheng Xi’s soul injuries by combining Soul Burning Grass with Yin Sha Qi leaking through a sabotaged palace formation node.
• Cheng Xi’s Civilization Fire Seed bound the imprint with chains of civilization symbols, while his Entropy Pupils began to restart and absorb scattered rule fragments.
• A eunuch brought Cheng Xi medicine, and the guided Yin Sha Qi caused the Chaos Bell Imprint to erupt; Cheng Xi spat black blood as Ying Zheng rushed to suppress him.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi sensed the eruption in Yunmeng Marsh and mused that he might not need to act personally.

Ying Zheng suppressed the Chaos Bell imprint in Cheng Xi with Ziwei Dragon Qi and uncovered a conspiracy within the palace, while Cheng Xi's Entropy Pupils began analyzing the imprint. Eastern Emperor Taiyi saw the suppressed imprint as a possible means to control Cheng Xi, as Ying Zheng's purge began.

• Ying Zheng used Ziwei Dragon Qi to confine the Chaos Bell imprint in Cheng Xi's soul and ordered an investigation into the poisoned medicine.
• Black Ice Platform traced the palace tampering to an Imperial Pharmacy chief eunuch and an Imperial Astronomical Bureau deputy envoy, with clues pointing toward Lu Buwei's remnants and dissatisfied nobles.
• Cheng Xi regained consciousness and used his partially restored Entropy Pupils to identify unstable rule fragments and weaknesses in the Chaos Bell imprint.
• Deep Space recorded Ying Zheng's suppression of the imprint and increased its monitoring of Cheng Xi's analysis.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi decided the surviving imprint could become an anchor for influencing or taking over Cheng Xi, while a purge began in Xianyang Palace.

Cheng Xi analyzed the Chaos Bell imprint and discovered that carefully perturbing its resentment node could briefly weaken it. Meanwhile, Ying Zheng faced resistance to his purge of Lu Buwei’s remnants, and Eastern Emperor Taiyi noticed a fleeting disturbance in the imprint.

• Cheng Xi used the Entropy Pupils to identify the imprint’s unstable resentment node and deduced that he might weaken the structure by exploiting its internal conflicts.
• The Black Ice Platform raided Lu Buwei’s remaining strongholds as old officials defended implicated royal descendants and rumors targeted Cheng Xi.
• Ying Zheng dismissed the officials’ remonstrances and warned them not to discuss Lord Chang'an’s merits and faults recklessly.
• Cheng Xi used the Civilization Fire Seed to confuse the resentment node briefly, slightly reducing the imprint’s stability and proving his approach could work.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi sensed a momentary lag in the imprint but dismissed it as possible interference and resumed refining the fragment.

Cheng Xi began steadily weakening the Chaos Bell imprint through painstaking entropy-reduction operations, while Ying Zheng crushed a court conspiracy and shielded him. Eastern Emperor Taiyi sensed the imprint changing and accelerated his refinement, leaving Cheng Xi racing to heal his injuries and considering the Witch Clan Inheritance Ground.

• Cheng Xi used the Entropy Pupils and Civilization Fire Seed to gradually reduce the Chaos Bell imprint’s activity, though the operations worsened his exhaustion and soul injury.
• Ying Zheng exposed evidence of court officials and royal clan members conspiring against him, stripped Ying Zhuo and two others of their titles, and ordered a ruthless purge.
• Deep Space monitored Cheng Xi’s progress and predicted that the imprint would take years to reach a controllable threat level without continued external suppression.
• Eastern Emperor Taiyi sensed dissipation within the imprint, grew uneasy, and accelerated his risky refinement of the Fragment of the Chaos Bell to regain control.
• Cheng Xi detected a distant force tugging at the imprint and suspected Eastern Emperor Taiyi was reconnecting with it; he then considered seeking help at the Witch Clan Inheritance Ground.

Ying Zheng used dragon qi to stabilize Cheng Xi’s soul injuries, and Cheng Xi discovered that a similar high-order rule could provoke conflict within the Chaos Bell imprint. After Yan Lingji offered a dangerous chance to heal at the Witch Blood Source Pool, Cheng Xi decided to leave Xianyang, unaware that the Deep Space Mark was monitoring his plans.

• Ying Zheng channeled dragon qi into Cheng Xi’s soul, easing his injuries at the cost of his own vitality.
• Cheng Xi resumed analyzing the Chaos Bell imprint and found that simulated dragon qi briefly intensified the conflict between its rules.
• A Black Ice Platform guard delivered Yan Lingji’s message that the Witch Blood Source Pool could heal Cheng Xi but lay beyond dangerous regions.
• Cheng Xi decided to travel to the Witch Clan Inheritance Ground and began preparing to leave Xianyang.
• The Deep Space Mark recorded the message and coordinates and predicted that Cheng Xi would move toward the Witch Clan Inheritance Ground.

Cheng Xi secretly left Xianyang to seek the Witch Clan source pool, with Ying Zheng granting him twenty days and a hundred Black Ice Platform Elite Guards. After surviving an ambush and locating the hidden entrance to the Witch Clan Inheritance Ground, Cheng Xi and his escort were attacked by Nether Shadow Scorpions in its passage.

• Cheng Xi told Ying Zheng that the Witch Clan source pool was his best chance to heal his injuries, and Ying Zheng gave him a twenty-day deadline and a writ to command a hundred Black Ice Platform Elite Guards.
• Cheng Xi left Xianyang in secret with Mo Ya and the guards, then used a disguise as they traveled toward the southern border.
• Cheng Xi detected Yin Yang School watchers near Luohun Stream, and Mo Ya's guards killed three pursuers who carried Shadow Talismans.
• Cheng Xi used the Entropy Pupils and the Civilization Fire Seed to locate the illusion concealing the Valley of the Coiled Ancient Serpent entrance.
• Cheng Xi and the guards descended into the ancient passage, where a trap wounded two scouts and revealed that Nether Shadow Scorpions were rising from a pit.

Cheng Xi and Mo Ya’s guards fought through a swarm of Nether Shadow Scorpions and reached the Witch Blood Source Pool after Cheng Xi’s Chaos Bell brand triggered the ancient stone door. Xiang Jun and Yin Yang School attackers then ambushed them, leaving Cheng Xi gravely wounded as the door began to close.

• Nether Shadow Scorpions poured from the pit, and Mo Ya’s elite guards suffered casualties as they defended against the swarm.
• Cheng Xi used Civilization Fire Seed runes to suppress the scorpions, then identified how to ignite methane beneath the pit and seal their route temporarily.
• Mo Ya led the guards in covering Cheng Xi’s retreat, while Jia Three and Jia Four escorted him to an ancient stone door.
• Cheng Xi’s attempt to activate the door failed until his Chaos Bell brand shook and its power triggered the ancient formation, revealing the Witch Blood Source Pool beyond.
• Hidden attackers fired arrows at Cheng Xi as the group approached the pool, and one pierced his shoulder despite his attempt to dodge.
• Xiang Jun and other Yin Yang School members emerged, while the injured Cheng Xi lay beside the Source Pool and the stone door began to close.

Cheng Xi plunged into the Witch Blood Source Pool, where its primal energy healed and strengthened him even as the forces inside his soul threatened to overwhelm him. When Xiang Jun and the Yin Yang School experts broke into the cave, Cheng Xi turned the pool’s power against them and prepared to fight back.

• Cheng Xi escaped Xiang Jun’s attack by plunging into the Witch Blood Source Pool, which began repairing his body and soul while expelling the star arrow.
• The pool’s Ancestral Witch Blood Qi stirred the Chaos Bell imprint and Deep Space Mark, but the Civilization Fire Seed reinforced Ying Zheng’s dragon qi seal and protected Cheng Xi’s consciousness.
• Cheng Xi used his Entropy Pupils to observe and redirect the conflicting energies within himself, bringing them into a dangerous but more orderly balance.
• Xiang Jun and four Yin Yang School experts shattered the stone door and entered the cave, intending to stop Cheng Xi and seize the source pool’s power.
• Cheng Xi attacked with blood pythons and hurled the star arrow back at an expert, killing him before rising from the pool and confronting Xiang Jun.

Cheng Xi used the Witch Blood Source Pool’s power and his Entropy Pupils to defeat Xiang Jun and the Yin Yang School Disciples. As he tried to recover, the Deep Space Mark warned that an extremely powerful figure was approaching, accompanied by a faint trace of Yan Lingji’s presence.

• Cheng Xi attacked Xiang Jun and his four remaining subordinates with blood pythons, killing two Disciples and leaving Xiang Jun as the only attacker still able to fight.
• Cheng Xi analyzed and dismantled Xiang Jun’s Starfall Mountain Collapse, then closed in and suppressed him with a series of close-range strikes.
• Cheng Xi sent the Civilization Fire Seed into Xiang Jun’s sea of consciousness, interrupted his secret art, and knocked him unconscious with a blow to his dantian qi sea.
• Cheng Xi confirmed that the other Yin Yang School Disciples were dead and sat down to regulate his breathing and absorb the source pool’s remaining power.
• The Deep Space Mark warned Cheng Xi that an extremely powerful individual was approaching, and Cheng Xi sensed the aura along with a faint familiar fluctuation from Yan Lingji.

Cheng Xi endured Zhu Jiuyin’s time-and-space baptism, which healed most of his injuries and restored and evolved his Entropy Pupils. After passing the trial, he gained permission to borrow Witch Clan power and escaped the sealing inheritance ground, while Zhu Jiuyin’s residual will acknowledged Yan Lingji’s choice.

• Zhu Jiuyin’s remaining will examined Cheng Xi and began a baptism of time and space to test him and purify his newly absorbed Ancestral Witch Blood Qi.
• The Civilization Fire Seed shielded Cheng Xi’s consciousness as his Entropy Pupils absorbed the laws, fully recovered, and evolved to perceive timelines and spatial folds.
• Endless Deep Space recorded the intense space-time disturbance, while Eastern Emperor Taiyi lost his ability to sense or influence his imprint on Cheng Xi.
• Cheng Xi passed the baptism, recovered more than eighty percent of his injuries, and received a witch-script mark that let him temporarily draw on Witch Clan power.
• Cheng Xi restrained the unconscious Xiang Jun, absorbed a final strand of blood qi, and fled as the inheritance ground began to seal; afterward, a phantom resembling Yan Lingji appeared by the Source Pool.

Cheng Xi secured Ying Zheng’s permission to leave Xianyang and seek the Yunmeng Immortal Ganoderma, while hiding his true purpose. As his convoy headed southwest, Jia Xu’s plot brought assassins against him, and Cheng Xi detected a Heavenly Court observer, leaving the journey under threat of further attacks and surveillance.

• Cheng Xi asked Ying Zheng to let him leave Qin to seek medicine, and Ying Zheng agreed to cover his departure by claiming he was recuperating at Yong City.
• Cheng Xi secretly prepared to leave, but an eavesdropper reported his plans to Jia Xu, who ordered Shadow Kill Tower assassins to attack and spread word of Cheng Xi’s supposed treasure to the Heavenly Court.
• Three days later, Cheng Xi’s convoy left Xianyang and entered a forest, where his system detected six concealed Shadow Kill Tower assassins.
• Cheng Xi warned the Black Ice Platform guards, who repelled the ambush and killed all six assassins while he stayed in his carriage.
• Cheng Xi detected a distant Heavenly Court observer, recorded its energy pattern as Observer Alpha, and continued southwest with the convoy.

Cheng Xi reunited with Yan Lingji, whose Zhurong bloodline sensed Fire Cloud Cave somewhere southwest, possibly near the border of Yunmeng Marsh and Ancient Shu Land. After Yan Lingji destroyed a Heavenly Court Inspector’s attempt to eavesdrop, Cheng Xi changed the convoy’s route to head southwest.

• Yan Lingji arrived at the abandoned post station and told Cheng Xi that she had stabilized the Witch Clan inheritance.
• Yan Lingji used her Ancestor Witch Essence Blood to sense Fire Cloud Cave’s direction and narrowed its possible location to the Yunmeng Marsh–Ancient Shu border.
• The Heavenly Court Inspector remotely observed Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji, recorded Yan Lingji’s bloodline aura, and sent a stone fragment to eavesdrop.
• Cheng Xi’s Entropy Pupils detected the approaching fragment, and Yan Lingji burned it and the Inspector’s attached divine sense with Witchfire.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji agreed to change the convoy’s route and hurry southwest in search of Fire Cloud Cave.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji encountered the Moon Goddess’s illusion in Thousand Peaks Mist, where Cheng Xi used his Entropy Pupils and mathematical logic to locate and break her formation. The Moon Goddess escaped in an incarnation, and Cheng Xi’s group continued southwest with heightened caution.

• Cheng Xi detected a spiritual illusion ambush in Thousand Peaks Mist and ordered the Black Ice Platform Elite Guards into a defensive formation.
• The Moon Goddess’s Mortal World Heart Questioning Illusion trapped the guards in visions of their desires and fears, while Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji resisted its effects.
• Cheng Xi analyzed the illusion’s energy network and directed the guards to block one another’s attacks while he disrupted the formation with mathematical symbols.
• Cheng Xi found the illusion’s control point, and Yan Lingji struck it with a crimson flame Void-Breaking Shuttle, shattering the Moon Goddess’s moonlight barrier.
• The Moon Goddess revealed herself as an incarnation, acknowledged Cheng Xi’s skill, and dispersed after warning that the Eastern Emperor’s orders could not be disobeyed.
• Cheng Xi ordered the group to continue their journey, while the Deep Space Mark recorded the illusion and updated its assessment of his resistance to information-based attacks.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji uncovered memories of an ancient human-witch altar that might lead to Fire Cloud Cave, pinpointing Black Stone Mountain as their likely destination. After Lu Buwei’s deathsworn ambushed the camp and a Heavenly Court inspector spied on them, Yan Lingji drove off the inspector and Cheng Xi subdued the attackers; they resolved to reach Black Stone Mountain quickly.

• Cheng Xi investigated Yan Lingji’s activated bloodline memories and discovered that Zhurong’s memories depicted an ancient altar used by humans and witches, possibly linked to Fire Cloud Cave.
• Cheng Xi’s system matched the altar’s terrain to Black Stone Mountain near the northwestern edge of Yunmeng Marsh in Chu territory.
• Lu Buwei’s deathsworn ambushed the resting Black Ice Platform Elite Guards with poisoned arrows and attacked the camp.
• Cheng Xi spotted a Heavenly Court inspector recording the battle and Yan Lingji’s bloodline with a bronze mirror, so Yan Lingji struck him with True Fire of the Ancestor Witches and damaged the mirror.
• Cheng Xi used the deathsworn’s hesitation to disable them, then declared that the party had to reach Black Stone Mountain as soon as possible.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji used sound-wave resonance, Yan Lingji’s blood qi, and the damaged altar’s ancient ritual imprints to activate its spatial function and reveal a connection to Fire Cloud Cave. As the connection appeared, Lu Buwei’s lingering ghosts and another force attacked, threatening to destroy the altar.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji found an ancient, badly damaged Nether Black Stone altar whose remaining energy connected to Yan Lingji’s ancestry and Fire Cloud Cave.
• Cheng Xi used the system to devise a way to activate the altar by resonating sound waves with its structure, ritual history, and Yan Lingji’s bloodline.
• Cheng Xi produced the deduced sound sequences while Yan Lingji infused them with Ancestor Witch Essence Blood, causing the altar to glow and form an energy circuit.
• The altar opened a flickering spatial connection to Fire Cloud Cave.
• Lu Buwei’s lingering ghosts and another force attacked Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji, making the fragile connection unstable.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji escaped an ambush by entering an unstable passage, then struggled through deadly space-time turbulence toward Fire Cloud Cave. They reached its barrier barely alive, with Cheng Xi unconscious and both badly injured, leaving them vulnerable in the unknown realm.

• Lu Buwei's remaining deathsworn and Yin Yang School cultivators attacked Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji while they maintained the soundwave ritual.
• Cheng Xi detonated his defensive formation, and he and Yan Lingji rushed into the collapsing passage after Yan Lingji destroyed a pursuing hand seal with her witchfire.
• Cheng Xi used his Entropy Pupils to guide them through the space-time turbulence while Yan Lingji shielded them from its energy impacts.
• Cheng Xi shoved Yan Lingji clear of a space-time fissure and struck it, but she pulled him through the Fire Cloud Cave barrier with her witchfire whip.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji landed inside the unknown realm; Cheng Xi was unconscious and severely injured, while Yan Lingji struggled to sit up and watched their surroundings warily.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji recovered in the outer secret realm of Fire Cloud Cave, where the Kindling Fire Imprint and Entropy Pupils allowed him to draw on its human-path energy. Once he regained enough strength, a path and three mysterious Stone Tablets appeared, presenting the pair with the start of their trials.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji arrived badly injured in a vast, ancient plain that they identified as the outer secret realm of Fire Cloud Cave.
• Yan Lingji tried to heal Cheng Xi with her witchfire, but the Civilization Fire Seed and the realm's Vast Righteousness rejected her power.
• Cheng Xi's Kindling Fire Imprint awakened, and his Entropy Pupils automatically guided the realm's energy into him, slowly healing his injuries.
• Yan Lingji guarded Cheng Xi as he recovered, and he eventually regained enough strength to move.
• A winding path appeared across the plain, leading to three Stone Tablets bearing images of a seedling, a flame, and a stone axe.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji saw the patterns on the Stone Tablets begin to glow as they faced the unknown trials ahead.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji chose the sapling path in Youchaoshi’s trial and survived a storm by building a shelter together. They gained the Nest Building Enlightenment, recovered from their injuries, and set out toward the approaching second trial.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji chose the sapling tablet, entering a storm-lashed swamp where their powers were suppressed and they had to survive as mortals.
• Cheng Xi studied the terrain and directed Yan Lingji as they gathered materials and built a sturdy shelter against the wind and rain.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji completed the nest, passed the trial, and received the Nest Building Enlightenment.
• The azure power healed Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji, strengthened their abilities, and left a sapling mark on Cheng Xi’s hand.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji followed the trail toward the heat of the second trial.