Chapter Summaries

The fleeing women sought refuge with Marquis Black Gold, who was battling for the petrifying Beauty’s Head on the fourth floor. When other core members united to attack him, he revealed a terrifying form supported by over a thousand black-gold serpents.

• The scalp-torn woman and her companions ran to the fourth floor, hoping Marquis Black Gold would protect them from Chu Qing.
• The fighters on the fourth floor avoided both the petrifying Beauty’s Head and Marquis Black Gold’s invisible beast as they battled over the treasure.
• Second Generation Bi Luo and Second Generation Moon God conserved their strength with sneak attacks while Marquis Black Gold dismissed them as weak and lucky.
• Zhao Qingyun retreated, and several core members joined forces to attack Marquis Black Gold, using countermeasures to turn his visualization constructs against him.
• As the attackers closed in, Marquis Black Gold warned them that provoking him would cost their lives and revealed black-gold serpents bursting from his back, leaving only his head supported by more than a thousand tails.

Chu Qing fought his way through Marquis Black Gold’s black-metal serpents to reach the fourth floor, where Second Generation Moon God and Second Generation Bi Luo were trapped in a warehouse. The battle continued as Bi Luo rode an ancestor into the fray.

• Marquis Black Gold’s black-gold serpents overwhelmed the core disciples, blocked the stairway, and hunted down the experts trying to escape.
• Chu Qing learned Bi Luo was hiding in a storeroom, then refused to save a trapped core member who had begged Marquis Black Gold for mercy and pushed him back into the metal.
• Marquis Black Gold called Chu Qing a friend and demanded that he leave, but Chu Qing poked his eye and struck the barrier with Scarlet. Eight Divine. Mountains and Rivers Hand.
• Chu Qing’s attacks cracked and burned through the black metal as serpent heads repeatedly tried to close the opening.
• Second Generation Moon God and Second Generation Bi Luo fought dozens of serpents in a warehouse, but the serpents kept reassembling and steadily cornered them.
• After a serpent bit off Bi Luo’s legs, she mounted a female ancestor and urged her to charge through the serpents.

Chu Qing battled Marquis Black Gold by dragging the black-gold serpent through the ship’s tiers and onto the deck. He reached the deck with forty minutes left in the assessment, while the five examinees mistook the serpent for the treasure and planned to claim it.

• Chu Qing smashed Marquis Black Gold’s serpents, seized one, and dragged it toward the upper tiers despite Marquis Black Gold’s attacks.
• Marquis Black Gold used a spine-shaped serpent to destroy Bi Luo’s summoned ancestors, while Second Generation Moon God and Second Generation Bi Luo noticed his control weakening.
• Chu Qing kept hauling the serpent upward, rejected Marquis Black Gold’s offer of payment, and said he was acting on behalf of his employer.
• Chu Qing burned his Spirit and Energy to force the serpent through the exit and step onto the deck with forty minutes remaining.
• The five examinees saw the serpent and decided it must be the treasure, planning to end the assessment and take it once Chu Qing got off the ship.

Chu Qing fought his way onto the fourth deck and confronted Marquis Black Gold, whose Dragon Tendon Method and noble rank failed to give him the upper hand. The chapter ended with Chu Qing's great sinews resisting Marquis Black Gold's crushing attack, leaving him baffled by their strength.

• Chu Qing broke through Marquis Black Gold's giant snake and entered the fourth deck, where Second Generation Bi Luo and Moon God were fighting his followers and Nian Nu Jiao's people.
• Chu Qing burned away Marquis Black Gold's smaller snakes, then agreed to kill the marquis while Bi Luo led the others against his followers.
• Marquis Black Gold tried to cow Chu Qing with his heavenly rank, but Chu Qing revealed that he held the rank of Emperor Liuli.
• Marquis Black Gold transformed with the Black Dragon and attacked Chu Qing, tearing his body with claws, scales, and venom while boasting of his Dragon Tendon Method.
• Chu Qing thrust his hand into Marquis Black Gold's mouth, seized his serpentine body, and said the Dragon Tendon Method was not practiced that way.
• Marquis Black Gold crushed Chu Qing's flesh and bones, but Chu Qing's scaled great sinews forced the snake body open and left the marquis bewildered.

Chu Qing defeated Marquis Black Gold by turning Beauty's Head's petrifying power against him, then used it to petrify the surviving martial artists, though activating it left him drained. As Chu Qing and the others prepared to leave the ship, First Illumination Person offered him a way to revive Beauty's Head and asked him to bring her to Stone Ridge Mountain.

• Chu Qing battered Marquis Black Gold, who revealed that eating thirteen dragon tendons had made him an undying black dragon and secretly planned to use Beauty's Head to petrify Chu Qing.
• Chu Qing swung Marquis Black Gold into Beauty's Head; Marquis Black Gold was petrified, while Chu Qing was unharmed because Beauty's Head belonged to him.
• Chu Qing used Beauty's Head to petrify the remaining martial artists, then collapsed and replenished his Spirit and Energy with secret medicine.
• Second Generation Bi Luo and Moon God prepared to leave with Chu Qing, who kept Marquis Black Gold's body to study his path; First Illumination Person gave Bi Luo an exotic treasure for her assessment.
• First Illumination Person asked Chu Qing to leave Marquis Black Gold's body behind and offered him a method to revive Beauty's Head, telling him to take her to Stone Ridge Mountain in the future.
• Chu Qing asked First Illumination Person whether the revived Beauty's Head would kill him and what her identity was.

Chu Qing rejected First Illumination Person’s offer to revive the creature beneath Stone Ridge Mountain, but learned her true name and received a ritual from her. After the assessment ended, he left with Second Generation Bi Luo and Second Generation Moon God, while Marquis Black Gold’s transformed ship sailed away under First Illumination Person’s power.

• First Illumination Person tempted Chu Qing with the rewards of reviving the creature beneath Stone Ridge Mountain and gave him a ritual, but Chu Qing refused.
• First Illumination Person promised to repay a favor and revealed that Chu Qing could summon her by reciting her true name, then vanished.
• Chu Qing returned Marquis Black Gold’s corpse to the deck, and the examiners accepted the damaged shuttle as completion of the assessment mission.
• Chu Qing warned Second Generation Bi Luo and Second Generation Moon God not to provoke First Illumination Person, then planned to explore the continent with them.
• Marquis Black Gold’s ship rose into the air, powered by black-gold serpents, and sailed away after First Illumination Person greatly increased his strength.

Chu Qing, Second Generation Bi Luo, and Second Generation Moon God discussed the coming conflict between lineages and how each would respond. Second Generation Bi Luo remained committed to the Former Days Path despite its weak prospects, and Chu Qing warned that she could be left behind if another lineage won.

• Second Generation Bi Luo arranged cultivation resources for herself and Second Generation Moon God, but explained that Innate God and Demon Essence Blood could only be requested from headquarters.
• Chu Qing asked about famous mountains and rivers, and Second Generation Bi Luo explained that the Incense Path had placed many under the jurisdiction of wild Gods and Devils to hinder Mountain Water Path cultivators.
• Moon God described how sects and organizations planted spies in one another, including a former suitor who was killed after mixing up his identities and passing along the wrong information.
• The next morning, Moon God and Bi Luo said their sects were making moves related to Great Unification, and Chu Qing predicted that conflicts between lineages would come first.
• Moon God said she would keep cultivating her powerful lineage but enter the restricted zones if it lost, while Bi Luo chose to stay with the Former Days Path to keep her ancestors from being forgotten.
• Chu Qing warned Bi Luo that her path would likely lose and that a victorious lineage could develop a new realm, leaving Former Days Path cultivators behind; Moon God and Bi Luo asked what he would choose.

Chu Qing resolved to follow the Way of Mountains and Rivers rather than be drawn into the struggle between paths, then returned to Stone Ridge Mountain after debating martial arts with the Moon God and Bi Luo. He planned to seek Liuli to cultivate the path’s fourth realm and found Mingyue training Three-legged Golden Toads when he arrived home.

• Chu Qing rejected the other paths and vowed to destroy anyone who tried to change his way, while Bi Luo chose to keep walking her own path and seek Luo Tian if necessary.
• Chu Qing, the Moon God, and Bi Luo debated martial arts, and their exchange gave Chu Qing insight into the realm beyond the Emperor Seat and the Way of Mountains and Rivers’ fourth realm.
• Chu Qing decided he needed to visit Calamity and meet Liuli to cultivate that fourth realm, then arranged to contact the Moon God and Bi Luo through the Square Inch Land.
• Chu Qing returned to Stone Ridge Mountain, kept the Great Killing Weapon the Princess Consort had prepared, and examined the unresponsive Beauty's Head.
• Chu Qing found Mingyue commanding more than three thousand Three-legged Golden Toads, feeding them golden light from a golden core, and collecting the coins they spat out.

Mingyue encouraged Chu Qing to use the abundant Copper Coins to strengthen himself, and he consumed the entire warehouse’s supply, gaining nearly five million jin of strength. He left to find the Princess Consort while Mingyue headed to Golden Toad Valley to use her Golden Core.

• Mingyue comforted Chu Qing about the power of the great sects and the Heavenly Court, reminding him how much he had achieved in only five years of cultivation.
• Mingyue took Chu Qing to the warehouse and urged him to eat its mountain of Copper Coins, explaining how she and Hongxiu had gained strength from them.
• Chu Qing ate more than three million Copper Coins, filling his ordinary great tendons and then his Dragon Tendons with strength.
• Chu Qing finished every Copper Coin in the warehouse and found that his strength had increased by nearly five million jin.
• Mingyue went with the maidservants to Golden Toad Valley to use her Golden Core, while Chu Qing carried the Beauty's Head to find the Princess Consort.

After eating Copper Coins and gaining immense strength, Chu Qing showed the Princess Consort the Beauty's Head, which petrified her until he freed her. The Princess Consort confirmed the treasure could be resurrected but warned Chu Qing to keep it hidden, then abandoned plans to pursue the dangerous nest; Chu Qing returned to Mingyue and prepared to visit Zhao Hongxiu before beginning the Mythological Path.

• Chu Qing met the Princess Consort and told her about helping Second Generation Bi Luo and Mingyue comforting him.
• Chu Qing gave the Beauty's Head to the Princess Consort, and it petrified her until he undid Madam Shi's petrification.
• The Princess Consort studied the Beauty's Head and its ritual, confirmed it could be resurrected, and warned Chu Qing to conceal it.
• Chu Qing told the Princess Consort about the First Illumination Person and her diary, but persuaded her that the nest was too dangerous to raid.
• Chu Qing returned to the warehouse, ate Copper Coins from Mingyue, and sorted the Golden Toad Money while planning to visit Zhao Hongxiu before embarking on the Mythological Path.

Chu Qing left Stone Ridge Mountain for the Great Zhou Imperial Capital and learned that the Bi Shui Sect was threatening the empire over its rapid growth. As Bi Shui Sect members invaded the palace, Chu Qing rushed out to confront them.

• Chu Qing refused to keep eating Copper Coins, left Stone Ridge Mountain, and traveled to the Great Zhou Imperial Capital to meet Zhao Hongxiu.
• Zhao Hongxiu and the Great Zhou Empress mistook Chu Qing’s arrival for an attack, but welcomed him when they recognized him and declared that Great Zhou had submitted to him.
• The Great Zhou Empress explained that the Bi Shui Sect was demanding a supposed growth-boosting treasure and had threatened to slaughter the Imperial Capital if Great Zhou refused.
• Zhao Hongxiu admitted she had withheld the threat because she believed there was still time, and Chu Qing told her to report such dangers to him promptly.
• A maid reported that Bi Shui Sect members had injured female officials and forced their way into the Imperial Palace, so Chu Qing tore through the air and rushed to confront them.

Chu Qing killed the Bi Shui Sect envoys who invaded the Imperial Palace and announced that he was going to the sect to walk the Mythological Path. He left Zhao Hongxiu and the Empress of Great Zhou behind, promising to return after obtaining the Mythological title.

• The maidservants outside the palace discussed how the Empress had knelt to worship Chu Qing, while some sensed that a veil obscured their memories of him.
• The Bi Shui Sect group arrived, and the Hunchbacked Old Man attacked a maidservant while demanding that the Empress receive their decree.
• Chu Qing appeared and killed the Hunchbacked Old Man, then questioned the group about entering his territory and ordered them to accompany their leader in death.
• The Bi Shui Sect disciples fled, but Chu Qing caught and killed them before Zhao Hongxiu and the Empress of Great Zhou arrived.
• Chu Qing told Zhao Hongxiu to take the Empress to Stone Ridge Mountain if Great Zhou became unsafe, then set off for the Bi Shui Sect to achieve Myth.

Chu Qing stormed Bi Shui Sect to punish it for seizing Great Zhou’s territory and threatening the Empress. He slaughtered his way to the summit, where the sect’s fleeing experts planned to summon its old sect master and foundations.

• At Bi Shui Sect’s mountain gate, a gatekeeper mocked a woman seeking to join and demanded that she cut off her feet; Chu Qing arrived and killed him with her axe.
• Chu Qing identified himself and cut down the sect members who tried to stop him as he advanced up the mountain.
• After hearing Chu Qing’s name, Bi Shui Sect’s master rang the great bell and summoned the experts in seclusion.
• Some experts recognized Chu Qing and fled toward the back mountain, while others decided to summon the old sect master and the sect’s foundations.
• At the summit, Chu Qing accused the sect of seizing Great Zhou’s territory and plotting to enslave the Empress, then continued hacking through its members.

Chu Qing crushed the Bi Shui Sect’s awakened foundations and forced the surviving sect members to assist his cultivation. He then proclaimed that he had begun the Mythological Path, calling on the Four Directions to witness his rise as Mythological Chu Qing.

• Chu Qing slaughtered the Bi Shui Sect members until the Old Sect Master awakened the Ninth Generation Bi Shui Fairy and other sealed foundations by feeding people to them as secret medicine.
• The Ninth Generation Bi Shui Fairy revived and used Bi Shui Sect powerhouses as secret medicine to awaken dozens more foundations.
• Chu Qing defeated the awakened foundations with a single strike each, leaving them injured and unable to heal.
• The Old Sect Master surrendered to Chu Qing, who ordered him to bring the fallen foundations to the altar to assist his cultivation.
• Chu Qing burned incense at the altar and proclaimed to the Four Directions that he had set foot upon the Mythological Path as Mythological Chu Qing.

Chu Qing completed the worship ritual and discovered that suppressing powerful sects could advance his Mythological Path, while also strengthening his abilities. After wiping out Bi Shui Sect and plundering its resources and records, he left the sect’s mountain and gave everything remaining there to the revenge-seeking woman.

• The Old Sect Master worshipped Chu Qing as instructed, and Chu Qing realized that suppressing the continent’s strongest experts would advance his Mythological Path and boost his strength.
• Ninth Generation Bi Shui Fairy and the other elders begged Chu Qing for mercy, but he killed them all for targeting his Imperial Capital and troubling his woman.
• Chu Qing looted Bi Shui Sect’s treasury and Library Pavilion, collecting secret medicines, feeding divine weapons to the Great Completion Emperor Seat, and registering the sect’s secret transmissions.
• Chu Qing read Bi Shui Sect’s histories and learned that its founder had been an Outer Disciple of Bai Yu Jing and that its secret transmissions were linked to Bi Luo Sect.
• Chu Qing searched the mountain for hidden resources, swallowed its Exotic Flowers and Herbs, and descended to find the revenge-seeking woman still kneeling at the gate.
• Chu Qing told the woman that everything on the mountain belonged to her, then dismissed the idea that she would ever need to repay him.

After Chu Qing destroyed Bi Shui Sect to protect Great Zhou's Empress, sects across the surrounding empires grew wary of provoking her. White Jade Capital staff uncovered the truth but chose not to retaliate against Chu Qing, while an official reported his activities to higher authorities.

• News of Bi Shui Sect's destruction spread, and experts who broke through a veil concealing their memories identified Chu Qing as its lone killer.
• Investigators learned that Bi Shui Sect had tried to annex Great Zhou and that its Empress had submitted to Chu Qing, leading other sects to avoid provoking her.
• White Jade Capital staff dismissed Bi Shui Sect's destruction as one of many losses among its subordinate sects, but a young staff member sought support to investigate and avenge it.
• After reviewing reports that Chu Qing had destroyed Bi Shui Sect and attacked numerous other sects and organizations, the young staff member abandoned the plan and sealed the records.
• The official kept reviewing Chu Qing's reports and, troubled by his actions, sent the information upward.

The Armored Soldier Sect learned that Chu Qing was approaching and killed its members who had once supported the harassment of Madam Shi Yu Ji. After Chu Qing defeated the sect’s three strongest experts with one finger, the sect submitted and celebrated his departure.

• The Armored Soldier Sect’s leaders split over how to answer for Yu Ji’s past harassment, and their conflict killed more than a third of the upper ranks, including the people responsible.
• After receiving Chu Qing’s challenge notice, the sect welcomed him with singing and dancing and presented its three strongest experts to fight.
• The three experts launched their strongest attacks, but Chu Qing defeated them with one finger and left them gravely wounded.
• The Armored Soldier Sect submitted to Chu Qing, who felt little satisfaction and wondered whether the sect was weak or he had grown stronger.
• After Chu Qing left, the sect celebrated its survival and ordered the bones of the remaining traitors ground to dust.

Chu Qing challenged more than a hundred sects and organizations to strengthen himself, then learned that walking the Mythological Path could involve teleportation, guards, or a more demanding ancient method. After Luo Tian warned him that the ancient path required challenging ten thousand forces and brought nine Great Terrors, Chu Qing chose it anyway.

• Chu Qing defeated the Divine Martial Sect and continued challenging sects and organizations until he had overcome more than a hundred, doubling his combat power before its growth stopped.
• Chu Qing told the Square Inch Gathering that he had started the Mythological Path, and Myth and the others explained the potential benefits of Otherkind teleporters and guards.
• Chu Qing asked the Princess Consort to teleport him, and she agreed in exchange for rare flowers or exotic herbs to nourish her clones.
• Luo Tian privately warned Chu Qing that the ancient Mythological Path required challenging at least ten thousand forces and could double his foundation, but would take much longer.
• Luo Tian told Chu Qing she had encountered nine Great Terrors on the ancient path, including abnormal creatures and deadly battles whose dangers grew with her strength.
• Chu Qing chose to walk the ancient Mythological Path despite Luo Tian's warning.

Chu Qing set out alone on the Mythological Path, suppressing one force after another until a tribulation summoned him to Liuli’s era. He asked Liuli to help him devise a powerful trump card, but she misunderstood his plan to visualize her hand.

• Chu Qing told Princess Consort and the women of the Square Inch Gathering that he would walk the Mythological Path alone despite their warnings.
• Chu Qing continued suppressing forces on his journey and sought a trump card strong enough to harm Otherfolk and Innate Gods and Demons.
• A tribulation transported Chu Qing to Liuli’s era, where he watched a young girl practice Mantis Fist before meeting Liuli.
• Chu Qing explained the Mythological Path to Liuli, then asked her to help open a New Realm and design a trump card.
• Chu Qing proposed visualizing Liuli’s hand, and Liuli teased him about eventually visualizing her entire body.

Liuli created Chu Qing’s fourth realm, Quan Wang: Hand of God, by combining the powers of his first three realms with a visualization of her hand. After Chu Qing returned to the real world and tried it, the killing move erased an entire mountain, leaving him stunned.

• Liuli refined Chu Qing’s fourth realm into Quan Wang, a killing move that coordinated the Great River Method, Peak of Mountains, and Emperor Seat and could lay the foundation for future realms.
• Liuli taught Chu Qing to visualize her hand using the mountains as bones and tendons, rivers as blood, and Emperor Seat as flesh, then let him study and touch her hand before his time with her ended.
• Back in the real world, Chu Qing completed the visualization, and his Profession Slot recorded Quan Wang: Hand of God as uninitiated with conditions for promotion.
• Chu Qing tested the move by having the hand poke a rock, but it erased the rock and the mountain beneath it, damaging his three realms and alarming people near the Liuli River and the mountains.
• Chu Qing stared at the vanished mountain, unable to understand how a move meant to test a rock had destroyed a mountain over three thousand meters tall.