Chapter Summaries

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji passed Suirenshi’s Civilization Fire trial by using mineral powder to kindle a flame and choosing to make it a source of warmth, hope, and inheritance. They received the Insight of the Inherited Flame and continued toward the approaching third trial.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji entered a scorched desert where the rules suppressed supernatural powers and an ancient will challenged them to make fire and name its purpose.
• Cheng Xi used his Entropy Pupils to identify sulfur and saltpeter, and Yan Lingji crushed the stones into powder for his mixture.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji ignited the tinder, and Cheng Xi declared the flame would carry warmth, hope, and civilization onward.
• The ancient will granted Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji the Insight of the Inherited Flame, strengthening their spiritual realms and refining their understanding of fire.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji left the vanished desert and headed toward the third trial as metallic sounds and crushing pressure emerged ahead.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji passed the Black Robe Clan’s trial by protecting each other through an extreme cold, earning the Understanding of the Black Robe. A welcoming elder called them toward a thatched cottage, but Cheng Xi sensed a faint warning from the mist.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji faced a frozen wasteland where the ancient will tested their ability to make clothing and their understanding of its purpose.
• Cheng Xi used the limited materials to protect Yan Lingji’s vital areas and gave her the warm jade, choosing to endure the cold himself.
• Cheng Xi declared that clothing’s deeper purpose was to protect life and that a warm heart mattered more than fine garments, awakening the Civilization’s Hearth Fire mark.
• Yan Lingji used her remaining witchfire to shield them both, and they endured the final cold before the wasteland vanished.
• The ancient will granted Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji the Understanding of the Black Robe, and a third earthy-yellow mark appeared on each of their hands.
• An elder invited them into the thatched cottage, but Cheng Xi paused when the Civilization Fire Seed and Kindling Fire Imprint warned him of a faint, deathly presence in the mist.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji met the Three Sovereigns in Fire Cloud Cave and learned that the Heavenly Dao had imprisoned them with shackles. Fuxi revealed that Cheng Xi’s Kindling Fire Imprint and gathered Human Dao Destiny might open a brief breach, but the Heavenly Dao reacted before he could explain how.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji entered the thatched cottage and met Fuxi, Shennong, and Emperor Xuanyuan.
• Cheng Xi described his plans to oppose the Heavenly Dao, and Yan Lingji offered the Witch Clan’s alliance with the Human Race.
• Emperor Xuanyuan challenged Cheng Xi’s resolve, while Shennong praised his intentions and warned that the Heavenly Dao’s power was immense.
• Fuxi showed Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji the Heavenly Dao Shackles imprisoning Fire Cloud Cave and explained that they suppressed the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
• Fuxi said Cheng Xi could use his Kindling Fire Imprint and Human Dao Destiny to burn a temporary opening in the shackles, and Cheng Xi agreed to proceed.
• The Heavenly Dao Shackles flared and the Heavenly Dao’s Will locked onto the cottage before Fuxi could explain the method.

As Heavenly Dao attacked the Fire Cloud Cave, Cheng Xi awakened the Kindling Fire Imprint by drawing on the Qin Dynasty’s destiny, briefly piercing a Heavenly Dao shackle and strengthening the Three Sovereigns. Heavenly Dao then unleashed its Annihilation Divine Light, and Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji escaped through a passage as the Three Sovereigns stayed behind to confront it.

• Heavenly Dao suppressed the thatched hut and tried to erase Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji, while Emperor Xuanyuan, Shennong, and Fuxi resisted and bought Cheng Xi ten breaths.
• Yan Lingji spent her heart’s blood to raise a ring of witchfire that held back Heavenly Dao’s power as Cheng Xi reached for the Kindling Fire Imprint.
• Cheng Xi drew on the Qin Dynasty’s Human Dao Destiny and ignited the Kindling Fire, burning a tiny hole in a Heavenly Dao shackle and allowing ancient origin power to strengthen the Three Sovereigns’ phantoms.
• Heavenly Dao grew enraged and prepared its Annihilation Divine Light, so Shennong shielded Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji while Xuanyuan opened a passage out of the secret realm.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji fled through the passage as the Three Sovereigns transformed into the Bagua diagram, the Shennong Ding, and the Xuanyuan Sword to meet the descending divine light.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji escaped the collapsing Spatial Tunnel but landed badly injured on a dying star, far from the Primordial World. As the System Core faltered and Cheng Xi's Entropy Pupils nearly overwhelmed him, the Kindling Fire Imprint stabilized them and revealed ancient Witch Clan traces beneath the star—just as an unknown hostile presence raced toward them.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji endured the Spatial Tunnel's collapse and crashed onto a barren minor star, temporarily escaping Heavenly Dao's tracking.
• They assessed their severe injuries and found that their connection to the Primordial World was nearly severed, leaving them with little spiritual energy to recover.
• Cheng Xi discovered that the System Core was damaged and on the verge of dormancy after the journey through space.
• Cheng Xi's Entropy Pupils ran out of control and flooded his mind with information, but the Kindling Fire Imprint calmed the turbulence and stabilized the System Core.
• Cheng Xi sensed ancient Witch Clan Sacrifice runes and a deep Spatial Fluctuation beneath the star that seemed connected to Yan Lingji.
• The System sent a fragmented warning about an approaching high-energy presence, and Cheng Xi spotted ominous purple light hurtling toward their star.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji fled underground to an Ancient Star Sacrifice Altar, where Yan Lingji’s bloodline subdued its Spirit Guards. An Interstellar Predator attacked the altar, and Cheng Xi detected a dangerous, ancient Spatial Fluctuation beneath its baleful aura pool.

• Cheng Xi led Yan Lingji underground to escape the approaching violet threat, and they uncovered ancient Witch Clan murals and a vast cavern.
• Yan Lingji recognized the Ancient Star Sacrifice Altar, whose twelve Heavenly Immortal-level Spirit Guards attacked the intruders.
• Yan Lingji used her Zhurong Essence Blood and Witch Clan true words to make the Spirit Guards recognize and bow to her.
• Cheng Xi discovered that a violet-energy starship had breached the star and was drilling toward the altar after tracking the Spatial Fluctuation they had exposed.
• The altar’s Spirit Guards activated its runes and sent a dark red beam against the starship’s violet beam, but the altar began to falter.
• Cheng Xi sensed a second, more concealed and dangerous Spatial Fluctuation beneath the baleful aura pool.

With the altar collapsing under the bone starship’s attack, Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji escaped through a chaotic spatial tunnel and landed in a desolate shattered plane. Cheng Xi discovered that the System Core had begun absorbing a strange Chaos Qi, while a trace of dark purple energy slipped through the closing rift behind them.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji chose to leap into the unstable tunnel beneath the altar as the bone starship’s beam destroyed the altar and its Spirit Guards.
• Cheng Xi used his remaining powers to shield Yan Lingji as they plunged into the tunnel and endured its violent space-time turbulence.
• The System Core detected the Chaos Energy, began trying to absorb it, and drew further energy and the attention of a Chaos Shadow.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji were hurled out of the tunnel and crashed onto a desolate shattered plane near the edge of the Primordial World.
• Cheng Xi found foreign Chaos Qi winding around and being assimilated by the System Core, while a trace of dark purple energy seeped through the closing rift.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji sought shelter in the Chaos Wasteland while injured, but Chaos Creatures and the pursuing Interstellar Predator threatened them. Cheng Xi discovered the damaged System Core could filter external Chaos Energy, and the pair prepared to fight the predator as it began attacking.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji headed for a vast crystal wreckage to find calmer energy, but Chaos Creatures ambushed them, and their attacks revealed that Cheng Xi's emberfire could destroy the creatures.
• Cheng Xi spotted the Interstellar Predator hiding nearby and warned Yan Lingji that it had followed them into the wasteland.
• Cheng Xi guided the Chaos Qi already inside his sea of consciousness toward the System Core, which absorbed it and began developing a preliminary Chaos-filtering model.
• Cheng Xi used the System Core to filter external Chaos Energy and slowly restore his strength while Yan Lingji stood guard.
• The Interstellar Predator launched a dark-purple spike at Cheng Xi, but Yan Lingji blocked it with witchfire and located its hiding place.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji prepared to confront the wounded predator as it began probing attacks.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji defeated a shadow-hiding predator by exploiting its weakness to order and using the System Core to devour part of its power. The System Core began repairing itself and developing a Devour Law, but the predator sent their location to a dangerous being called “Mother.”

• Cheng Xi analyzed the predator’s attacks and discovered that powers of order, life, and civilization could weaken it.
• Yan Lingji used her witchfire to expose the predator, and Cheng Xi struck it with Civilization’s Hearth Fire.
• As Yan Lingji and Cheng Xi attacked, the predator opened its devouring core and began pulling in their power.
• Cheng Xi authorized the System Core to devour the predator’s core, allowing Yan Lingji and Cheng Xi to kill it.
• The System Core repaired itself and analyzed part of a Devour Law, while a Dark Purple Crystal sent a location signal to “Mother.”

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji fled through a dangerous Crystal Forest as the awakened Mother tracked them. Cheng Xi detonated the Dark Purple Crystal to disrupt the Mother's projection, letting them escape through a Spatial Rift into the Primordial World.

• Cheng Xi took the Dark Purple Crystal and led Yan Lingji into a chaotic Crystal Forest to evade the Mother's tracking signal.
• The Mother awakened, swept its will across the wasteland, and followed their energy traces.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji endured the forest's Energy Storms while the crystal resonated and the System Core absorbed Chaos Energy to recover.
• Cheng Xi spotted a Spatial Rift leading toward the Primordial World, but the Mother's tentacle descended and locked down space.
• Cheng Xi detonated the Dark Purple Crystal with his Chaos Inner Force and kindling power, disrupting the tentacle long enough for him and Yan Lingji to flee through the rift.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji returned from the Chaos Wasteland to the Primordial Main World and began recovering in a remote mountain forest. While Cheng Xi’s system entered a dangerous evolution, Yan Lingji sensed an ancient fire-aspected Witch Clan altar and chose to investigate it only after they regained their strength.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji survived the spatial rift and emerged in a remote mountain forest in the Primordial Main World.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji hid in a cave and began healing with the world’s spiritual qi.
• Cheng Xi discovered that the System Core was undergoing a critical evolution and warned himself not to interrupt it.
• Yan Lingji’s Zhurong bloodline resonated with an ancient fire-aspected altar ruin to the southwest, which Cheng Xi detected beneath the earth.
• Yan Lingji decided that she and Cheng Xi would recover before investigating the ruin, while Cheng Xi sensed it might be a tomb carrying sorrow and unwillingness.

While recovering, Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji discovered that the System Core and Yan Lingji’s Zhurong bloodline were interfering with their healing, so they followed her bloodline’s call to a ruined ancient altar. Yan Lingji began receiving the fallen fire witch’s inheritance, but the System Core started devouring its energy and destabilizing the process.

• Cheng Xi’s evolving System Core disrupted his healing, while Yan Lingji’s growing resonance with a distant altar stirred an ancient battle song within her.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji followed the bloodline call through scorched mountains and opened a sealed passage with Yan Lingji’s Zhurong Bloodline.
• They found a shattered nine-level altar and blood crystals bearing the remnant will of a fallen fire witch who had died fighting an ancient enemy.
• Yan Lingji approached the blood crystals, and they enveloped her in a pillar of light that began transmitting the fallen witch’s inheritance.
• Cheng Xi’s System Core seized surrounding fire fiend energy and part of Yan Lingji’s inheritance, began fusing it with Ethereal Purple Lightning, and made the inheritance pillar unstable.

Cheng Xi redirected the System Core’s devouring from Yan Lingji’s inheritance to the ruins’ Dark Corrosive Energy, completing the system’s evolution and uncovering fragments of an ancient Witch Clan war against Chaos creatures. Yan Lingji completed her inheritance, but an unstable gate opened onto a ruined battlefield as the distant mother body continued tracking Cheng Xi.

• Cheng Xi used his Entropy Pupils to redirect the System Core’s suction toward the Dark Corrosive Energy, easing its interference with Yan Lingji’s inheritance.
• As the system devoured the dark energy, Cheng Xi saw memories of the Witch Clan fighting Chaos creatures and a flaming giant destroying a Chaos Mother Beast projection at the cost of his life.
• The System Core completed its evolution into a reconstructed Chaos Core with new devouring and Dark Fire energy functions, though its new energy remained unstable.
• Yan Lingji completed her inheritance, broke through her bottleneck, and emerged bearing the burden of ancient memories and emotions.
• The released will of the Ancestor Witch opened an unstable gate to a shattered battlefield, while Cheng Xi sensed the mother body watching and tracking him again.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji entered the sealed battlefield and learned that the Mother Beast could track them through their karmic connection. When the Mother Beast's Eye trapped them there with a swarm of predators, Cheng Xi discovered a possible way to unleash the battlefield's remaining flame marrow.

• Yan Lingji and Cheng Xi chose to enter the unstable light gate rather than flee the ruins.
• They crossed the battlefield, where Yan Lingji's bloodline absorbed its lingering battle intent and Cheng Xi detected a rune-covered Witch Clan obelisk.
• Yan Lingji activated the obelisk and learned that Great Witch Li Rong had sacrificed himself to seal a Mother Beast projection, while a warning revealed that the Mother Beast's Eye tracked karma.
• The Mother Beast's Eye appeared in the sky, summoned hundreds of predators, and caused the light gate to collapse, trapping Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji.
• Great Witch Li Rong's battle memory revealed that the altar core could ignite the remaining Earth Core Flame Marrow, and Cheng Xi looked toward its location beneath them.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji combined their powers to tear open Mother Beast's Eye's blockade and escape the Ancient Battlefield through a rift. As they lost consciousness in the spatial turbulence, a fragment of Mother Beast's Eye marked the System Core.

• Cheng Xi rejected mutual destruction and ordered the system to find a way to channel the Earth Core Flame Marrow without detonating it.
• Yan Lingji agreed to share Great Witch Li Rong's Flame Law inheritance while Cheng Xi linked the system and Entropy Pupils to the flame marrow.
• Cheng Xi fired the Sky-Rending Arrow at a calculated weak point, and it pierced Mother Beast's Eye's blockade despite the Eye's counterattack.
• Cheng Xi seized the nearly unconscious Yan Lingji and carried her through the unstable rift as Mother Beast's predators pursued them.
• A Dark Purple Mark slipped through the closing rift and imprinted itself on the System Core before Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji blacked out.

After escaping the Ancient Battlefield, Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji struggled to recover on a deserted island while Cheng Xi suppressed the Dark Purple Mark left by the Mother Beast's Eye. They sailed toward Yingzhou Island in hopes of finding a way back to Qin, but the mark sent a mysterious data stream that appeared to awaken an ancient presence on the island.

• Cheng Xi woke on a deserted island beside the unconscious Yan Lingji and discovered that the Dark Purple Mark was draining his power and transmitting their location.
• Cheng Xi found that Dark Fire Energy could weaken the mark slightly, but its backlash forced him to isolate it with layers of Chaos Inner Force and Fire of Inheritance power.
• Yan Lingji awakened after several days, and she and Cheng Xi decided to seek a route back to Qin.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji boarded a merchant ship bound for Yingzhou Island after learning they were far beyond the Eastern Sea and tens of thousands of li from Qin.
• As the ship neared Yingzhou Island, the Dark Purple Mark pierced Cheng Xi's barriers and transmitted a complex data stream into the void.
• Cheng Xi sensed an ancient dark aura on a mountain on Yingzhou Island briefly awaken in response to the transmission.

Cheng Xi discovered that Xu Fu was using Yingzhou Island to cultivate with the Mother Beast’s power and fled with Yan Lingji after being exposed. As alchemists and puppet guards hunted them, Yan Lingji sensed a ruined stone hall that might conceal them from the evil aura.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji arrived on Yingzhou Island and learned that Xu Fu led its alchemists, while his chief disciple Yun Yaozi offered them lodging and delayed their request for help returning to the Central Plains.
• Cheng Xi investigated the island and found that a formation was funneling spiritual energy, life essence, and faith into the island lord’s residence, while Yan Lingji sensed an ancient connection between the island and the Witch Clan.
• Cheng Xi infiltrated an underground cavern and discovered Xu Fu cultivating inside an Evil Cauldron with power linked to the Mother Beast.
• Xu Fu sensed Cheng Xi and attacked, so Cheng Xi fled as Yan Lingji struck the pursuing evil-energy hand and bought him time to escape.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji fled into the mountains while Xu Fu’s forces searched the island, and Yan Lingji pointed out a ruined stone hall with a Witch Clan Sacrifice aura that might hide them.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji escaped Xu Fu’s pursuers by jumping into an ancient well beneath a Gonggong shrine, which led to a vast underwater space. There, a wounded giant’s remnant soul revealed that Xu Fu was trying to unseal an ancient evil source threatening the East Sea Spiritual Pivot.

• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji entered an ancient Gonggong side hall, where its Earth Killing Intent Energy and witchcraft concealed them from Xu Fu’s search.
• Yan Lingji found a rune-covered well beneath a damaged Gonggong statue, and Cheng Xi sensed that it connected to a hidden underwater space.
• As Xu Fu’s forces attacked the hall’s failing barrier, Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji jumped into the well, while Yun Yaozi ordered his men to guard its opening.
• The well’s runes protected Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji as they descended into a vast air-filled space beneath an inverted ocean and approached a Gonggong temple.
• Inside the temple, Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji found a giant remnant soul resisting ancient evil qi from a black whirlpool, and it warned them that Xu Fu sought to unseal the Sea-Eroding Evil Source and contaminate the East Sea Spiritual Pivot.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji reinforced the seal on the Sea Corroding Evil Eye, provoking Xu Fu to attack them. Cheng Xi absorbed part of Xu Fu’s evil energy, and the Dark Purple Mark helped stabilize it as the system gained a new command capability.

• The Great Witch Gonggong’s remnant soul revealed that Xu Fu was weakening the seal to harness the Sea Corroding Evil Eye and that its release could threaten the East Sea and the Primordial World.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji chose to reinforce the seal and confront Xu Fu rather than leave the grotto-heaven.
• Yan Lingji infused Gonggong’s Reverse Scale with her Ancestral Witch Blood Qi, while Cheng Xi used Dark Fire Energy to repair the Xuanwu Sea-Suppressing Armor.
• Xu Fu tore through the grotto-heaven’s restrictions with an evil-energy hand as evil cultivators also attacked from above, and Yan Lingji intercepted the hand at great cost.
• Cheng Xi overloaded the Chaos Devouring Engine to absorb part of the weakened hand, and the Dark Purple Mark helped stabilize the energy as the system gained access to part of a low-level command set.

Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji sealed the evil eye, escaped Yun Yaozi’s attack through a hidden teleportation array, and returned to the Central Plains. The System warned that Cheng Xi’s false permission mark had triggered an alarm and sent one final report to an unknown recipient.

• Cheng Xi used the System Core’s temporary permissions to disrupt Xu Fu’s energy, giving himself and Yan Lingji the chance to power the sealing artifacts and suppress the evil eye.
• Gonggong’s remnant soul used its last strength to complete the seal, then dispersed and left its Water Law comprehension to Yan Lingji.
• Yun Yaozi and the other evil cultivators entered the hall and attacked the badly wounded Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji to seize the sealing artifacts.
• The Xuanwu Sea-Suppressing Armor activated a hidden teleportation array, and Cheng Xi interfered with the pursuers’ energy so he and Yan Lingji could escape.
• Cheng Xi and Yan Lingji arrived in a mountain ravine in the Central Plains, where the System warned that the Mother Beast Network had marked his permission as abnormal and sent a final coordinate report to an unknown recipient.