Chapter Summaries

Chu Qing learned from Luo Tian that Liu Ruyan might have taken the Third Limit Martial Ancestor’s honored position, which could let Heaven seize the titles of past Martial Ancestors. After managing the twisted-path descendants at Stone Ridge Mountain, he returned to Miracle Palace and opened his throbbing Profession Slot.

• Chu Qing told Heavenly Court that the Heavenly God would have to come to Stone Ridge Mountain to meet him.
• Luo Tian asked Chu Qing whom he had traveled to the past with, and Chu Qing explained his journey with Tian Buyu and his encounter with Liu Ruyan.
• Luo Tian warned that if Liu Ruyan had obtained the Third Limit Martial Ancestor’s honored position, Heaven might be able to strip honored positions from Martial Ancestors throughout history.
• Luo Tian warned Chu Qing that present-day Heaven might use spacetime to pursue him, then promised to search for traces of the Third Limit Martial Ancestor.
• Chu Qing ordered Mingyue to confine the twisted-path warriors and their descendants to a designated area, with death as the penalty for leaving.
• After surveying Stone Ridge Mountain, Chu Qing returned to Miracle Palace, told the maidservants not to disturb him, and opened his throbbing Profession Slot.

Chu Qing gained the Time Demon title and discovered that its Inch of Time could let him travel through time, resist temporal restrictions, and change the past. As someone in the future summoned him, he witnessed the ruined Miracle Palace and historians searching for records of him one hundred eras later.

• Chu Qing gained the Time Demon title, which made traveling through time easier and granted him one Inch of Time each year.
• Chu Qing learned that an Inch of Time could extend his stay in another era, enable travel to a chosen time, and even rewind recent deaths.
• Chu Qing considered using Tian Buyu’s essence blood and ten Inches of Time to return to the moment Tian Buyu died or disappeared and change his fate.
• As Chu Qing prepared to enter seclusion, someone in the future summoned him, and he saw the Miracle Palace decay into ruins over the passing years.
• One hundred eras later, historians and tomb raiders searched for Chu Qing and the Heavenly Court, finding records that referred to him as Taboo or XX.

Phoenix Emperor compared the Miracle Palace described in the records with the one she saw in dreams of a distant era, realizing that the records matched much of what she had witnessed. As the experts reconstructed the palace, the reciter began to reveal that its mysteries had been recorded elsewhere.

• Phoenix Emperor recalled dreams in which she inhabited a woman near an unnamed man and saw the Miracle Palace, Old Gods building it, and ancient creatures gathered there.
• Phoenix Emperor examined the records and recognized familiar details, concluding that they described the same Miracle Palace she had seen in her dreams.
• The experts used exotic treasures to reconstruct the Miracle Palace, beginning with its side palace and matching much of Phoenix Emperor's recollection.
• The onlookers marveled at the palace's extravagance while Phoenix Emperor remembered that Old Gods had built it under the command of twin women.
• The reciter announced that the records described the palace's beauty but not its mysteries, then began naming the objects that recorded those mysteries.

Phoenix Emperor investigated accounts of three mysterious paintings before returning to the Endless Sea to ask her Old Ancestor about the taboo figure connected to them. The Old Ancestor confirmed that the figure had truly existed but knew little about him, so she offered to consult her own Old Ancestor.

• A historian read accounts of the First Miracle, the Myriad Demon Chart, and a painting said to contain the powers and secrets of countless beings.
• Phoenix Emperor believed the extraordinary claims were credible because her dreams had shown her the ancient beings and events associated with the taboo figure.
• While others began verifying the historical records, Phoenix Emperor left for her island home and descended into the deep sea to visit the Old Ancestor.
• Phoenix Emperor told the Old Ancestor about Chu Qing, the erased name, and the figure’s surviving deeds.
• The Old Ancestor insisted the figure had truly existed, admitted she did not know who he was, and offered to ask her own Old Ancestor.

Phoenix Emperor followed eight nested Old Ancestors to meet Di Xiu, the Kunpeng clan’s famed second-generation demon, hoping to learn about the man she sought. In Di Xiu’s study, Phoenix Emperor recognized that man in a painting and revealed that she could see his face, shocking the Old Ancestors.

• The old woman transformed into a Great White Whale, carried Phoenix Emperor through a black ocean, and led her to an ancestor who turned out to be a young girl named Di Ping'er.
• Di Ping'er had no knowledge of the man Phoenix Emperor sought, so she swallowed the group and brought them to her own Old Ancestor; after several more generations, they reached the ninth Old Ancestor, Di Xiu.
• Di Xiu did not awaken, so the Old Ancestors searched her enormous study for records while Phoenix Emperor wandered through the palace.
• Phoenix Emperor saw a painting of the man from her dreams and recognized him as the person she had summoned as an Ancient Person.
• An Old Ancestor explained that almost no one could see the figure in the painting clearly, but Phoenix Emperor cried that she could, leaving the Old Ancestors stunned and demanding to know what it showed.

Phoenix Emperor learned that Chu Qing resembled the Kunpeng Clan’s Great Figure and chose to keep learning about him through her dreams rather than seek Ancestor Xiu’er. Ancestor Xiu’er revealed that Chu Qing had once warned her not to share his history, then lamented how lonely she had become.

• Phoenix Emperor described the Great Figure’s appearance to the eight Old Ancestors, who recognized him as the figure Ancestor Xiu'er had described.
• The Old Ancestors explained that Ancestor Xiu'er alone knew the Great Figure’s history and that she had ordered the Kunpeng Clan’s records about him burned.
• Phoenix Emperor decided not to seek Ancestor Xiu'er, choosing instead to use Chu Qing’s essence blood to watch scenes in her dreams and learn his story.
• After Phoenix Emperor and the Old Ancestors left, Ancestor Xiu'er recalled Chu Qing telling her not to give Phoenix Emperor his history or kill her.
• Ancestor Xiu'er lay beneath Chu Qing’s portrait and mourned that fewer people knew her, asking whether Chu Qing felt lonely too.

Chu Qing descended into Tian Buyu’s era and killed the martial artists pursuing him with the power of his name. He warned Tian Buyu that Liu Ruyan would betray him in the future and urged him to kill Heaven, leaving Tian Buyu with a new purpose and a painful reminder.

• Chu Qing arrived beside Tian Buyu, then killed the surrounding pursuers when they heard his name and could not withstand his power.
• Chu Qing told Tian Buyu that they had been friends and explained that reciting his true name could summon him.
• Chu Qing asked about Liu Ruyan, and Tian Buyu said she had been killed by a terrifying creature and that he had fled without her corpse.
• Chu Qing warned Tian Buyu that Liu Ruyan would eventually scheme against him and replace him as the Martial Ancestor.
• Chu Qing slapped Tian Buyu, told him to beware of Liu Ruyan and kill Heaven if he survived, and Tian Buyu agreed.

Chu Qing returned from the past after warning Tian Buyu and became troubled by a vision of Stone Ridge Mountain’s destruction and his own future injury. Cui Moyang proposed saturating every continent’s earth veins so Chu Qing could destroy the world if anyone tried to kill him, but Nangong questioned whether the plan could work before they grew old or died.

• Chu Qing taught Tian Buyu about the New Realm, gave him Essence Blood Gemstones, and urged him to leave information and call for Chu Qing if danger threatened.
• After Chu Qing vanished, Tian Buyu’s pursuers were gravely injured or killed merely by hearing Chu Qing’s name, and Tian Buyu decided to use the name as a weapon.
• Back in the present, Chu Qing worried that his vision of Stone Ridge Mountain’s ruin and his wounded future self might foretell a real threat.
• Madam Shi argued that the future was uncertain and urged Chu Qing to confront any enemies rather than fear the vision, while Nangong advised him to stop studying the future.
• Cui Moyang suggested saturating every continent’s earth veins so Chu Qing could detonate them all if someone tried to kill him, and Chu Qing approved of the idea.
• Nangong questioned whether the earth-vein project would take too long and whether they would survive long enough to use it.

Chu Qing gathered his allies to help him refine the framework of a New Realm, and they entered seclusion in the Sword Dao Space. While they worked, the outside world changed: Yellow Heaven Dao branded the New Heavenly Court as rebels, and frustrated Twisted Mechanical Realm geniuses began searching for a way to create a race.

• Chu Qing decided to pursue a New Realm and gathered Nangong, Madam Shi, Mingyue, the Princess Consort, Madam Jin, Red Robe, and others to help him derive its framework.
• Red Robe offered her wisdom in Cui Moyang's Sword Dao Space, where it joined Chu Qing's wisdom and aided his cultivation.
• During the years of seclusion, Stone Ridge Mountain prospered, while Yellow Heaven Dao occupied Misty Rain Pavilion's former continent and its new Dao Master ordered the New Heavenly Court hunted as rebels.
• Twisted Path martial artists left their families and tried to create new lineages with other beings, while Twisted Mechanical Realm martial artists were rejected as breeding partners.
• A Great Genius of the Mechanical Path announced that he had an idea for creating a race.

The Yellow Heaven Dao secretly survived Heaven’s Millennial Calamity through the Ancient and Modern Empress’s Demon Prison Law Net, while Second Generation Yin Tianzi’s experiment produced powerful descendants who could not match Chu Qing. As Chu Qing’s decade-long seclusion continued, the great powers feared his eventual return, though one genius hoped he had forgotten their past grudges.

• The Yellow Heaven Dao ordered its territories to worship Yellow Heaven instead of Heaven, and the Demon Prison Law Net intercepted Heaven’s Millennial Calamity without outsiders learning of it.
• Second Generation Yin Tianzi’s descendants repeated Chu Qing’s path through hardship and slaughter, and many survived to become formidable martial artists, though none opened a new realm or matched Chu Qing.
• Second Generation Yin Tianzi, Myth, Luo Tian, Heavenly Court, Second Generation Moonfall, and Second Generation Bi Luo discussed how the suppression of rising Mythological figures and Overlords could prevent new ones from emerging.
• The great powers continued to fear Chu Qing during his seclusion, as the Human World remained quieter and they expected him to settle accounts when he returned.
• In the tenth year of Chu Qing’s seclusion, a Great Genius worried that Chu Qing would rule the world upon emerging, while another hoped he had forgotten their old grudges.

After emerging from ten years of seclusion, Chu Qing reviewed his plans for the New Realm and learned that Liu Ruyan had been the Third Limit Martial Ancestor, leaving him puzzled about Tian Buyu’s fate. The maids returned with the chest Tian Buyu had left behind, and Chu Qing prepared to open it.

• Da Congming suggested attacking Chu Qing while he was secluded, but the other powerhouses rejected the idea and decided they would flee if he came after them.
• Chu Qing emerged from ten years of seclusion, and Hongyi led Madam Jin and the others to secure their distant base.
• Chu Qing reviewed his New Realm frameworks and realized he needed to master more paths before settling on a direction.
• Chu Qing read the history of the Third Limit Martial Ancestor and discovered that Liu Ruyan had held that title, raising questions about how Tian Buyu had lost his Martial Ancestor status.
• The maids returned with Tian Buyu’s marked chest after a decade of searching, and Chu Qing granted their blood relatives and descendants the right to inherit their authority.
• The maids said they could not open the chest, so Chu Qing prepared to see what Tian Buyu had left inside.

Chu Qing discovered Tian Buyu’s corpse in the ritual coffin and suspected Heaven had manipulated his death and Liu Ruyan’s memories. He traveled from Stone Ridge Mountain into the expanding human empire to walk among its people, then spotted twisted Mechanical Path experts building a strange machine.

• Chu Qing opened Tian Buyu’s coffin, found his corpse and a letter apparently written by Liu Ruyan, and concluded that Heaven had arranged the message.
• Chu Qing had Tian Buyu’s coffin sealed and guarded in the cave where a female Goddess had abandoned her body of Gods and Devils.
• Chu Qing decided he would need to return to the past to uncover the truth about Tian Buyu’s death and Heaven’s plans for the Third Limit Martial Ancestor.
• Chu Qing rode a carriage pulled by Demon Race members from Stone Ridge Mountain into Zhao Hongxiu and the others’ expanding empire, observing humanity’s efforts to reclaim land from the forbidden zones.
• Chu Qing saw twisted Mechanical Path experts constructing a gigantic, bizarre machine and ordered the carriage to stop.

Chu Qing observed twisted Mechanical Path Experts build a giant mechanical humanoid and helped them create a brain that let it understand commands. As the experts demonstrated their paths, their influence transformed nearby maidservants, and Chu Qing drove the corruption back with his Golden Core.

• Chu Qing watched the Mechanical Path Experts animate a thousand-meter mechanical humanoid with a ritual fireseed, but it could not move because it lacked a brain.
• Chu Qing pointed out the missing brain, and the experts studied one, built a mechanical brain, and got the humanoid moving.
• When the humanoid struggled with complex commands, Chu Qing used a thousand nested totem eyeballs to observe a brain and guide the experts in making a more refined one.
• The experts demonstrated their twisted Mechanical Paths and proposed teaching the living mechanical humanoid to cultivate.
• The maidservants began transforming into mechanical parts under the experts' influence, so Chu Qing used his Golden Core to suppress the changes and sent them a thousand meters away.
• Chu Qing wondered whether the mechanical humanoid could cultivate a path.

Chu Qing discovered that the Mechanical Emperor could help him cultivate, then secretly imprinted it with loyalty to him as it set out to build a Mechanical Empire. After returning to Stone Ridge Mountain, he planned with Mingyue to create a Gods and Devils network against the Millennial Tribulation, but the Heavenly Court warned him that the Heavenly God was looking for him.

• The Mechanical Path Experts fused themselves into their artificial robot and named the resulting thousand-meter giant the Mechanical Emperor.
• Chu Qing examined the Mechanical Emperor’s calculating brain and realized it could help him fuse and optimize paths for his New Realm cultivation.
• Chu Qing implanted a thought imprint that would make the Mechanical Emperor and the experts fused into it loyal to him.
• The Mechanical Emperor set off to recruit mechanical experts and establish a Mechanical Empire, while Chu Qing continued traveling through empires and saw the Millennial Tribulation striking many of them.
• Back at Stone Ridge Mountain, Chu Qing agreed with Mingyue to create a Gods and Devils network to resist the Millennial Tribulation.
• The Heavenly Court warned Chu Qing that the Heavenly God had gone looking for him.

Chu Qing ordered the empires to prepare for the Millennial Calamity through large-scale waterworks and other disaster responses, using threats of force to overcome opposition. He then contacted the alliance of otherworlders for help, but the person who answered did not recognize him.

• Chu Qing asked Cui Moyang about Goddess King Bai Lu and learned she had left to find the seasonal Goddess Kings; Cui Moyang suggested asking the Ancient and Modern Empress to help build a law net.
• Chu Qing rejected the idea of seeking the Ancient and Modern Empress's help and resolved to resist the Millennial Calamity with human effort.
• Chu Qing ordered Tang Wuming to collect records of Millennial Calamities, then learned they included droughts, snow disasters, floods, wind disasters, fires, and plagues.
• Chu Qing ordered the empires to dig canals, qanats, and other waterworks to redistribute water, and directed his maidservants to inspect conditions and adapt plans.
• When empires, aristocratic families, and martial artists resisted, Chu Qing instructed his maidservants to kill opponents and replace disobedient rulers.
• Chu Qing contacted the alliance of otherworlders for help, but the person who answered asked who he was, so Chu Qing demanded to speak to someone stronger.

Chu Qing persuaded the Otherworlder Alliance to forge exotic treasures capable of controlling disasters and resisting Heaven’s millennial calamity. The alliance began debating his motives and benefits as its members remembered why his name was taboo.

• Chu Qing introduced himself by name to a second otherworlder, who suffered catastrophic injuries and promised to find someone stronger.
• A young otherworlder recognized Chu Qing and, after dealing with those harmed by hearing his name, asked what he wanted.
• Chu Qing asked the otherworlders to forge treasures for the continent’s people, then specified devices that could control weather and counter present and historical calamities.
• The young otherworlder agreed to coordinate the work in exchange for Chu Qing supplying materials, and Chu Qing told him to contact him if problems arose.
• The Otherworlder Alliance debated Chu Qing’s motives and what benefits it might receive, while members recalled his terrifying history and understood why his name was taboo.

The Deviant Alliance designed twelve powerful Strange Artifact categories for Chu Qing, who demanded greater designs and arranged for the New Heavenly Court to provide materials. The New Heavenly Court’s leaders raged over the extortion but split over whether to comply or risk fighting Chu Qing.

• After learning what Chu Qing had done, the deviants agreed to forge Strange Artifacts for him, and the Alliance began designing them.
• Chu Qing rejected the first designs as too conservative and told the deviants to prioritize power over cost or resource consumption.
• After a month, the deviants presented twelve elaborate Strange Artifact categories capable of influencing natural phenomena, but admitted they lacked the materials to forge them.
• Chu Qing asked the Heavenly Court to tell the New Heavenly Court to prepare materials, arguing that his reputation would make them comply.
• The New Heavenly Court’s leaders read Chu Qing’s demand and its enormous materials list, grew furious, and nearly killed a guard who mocked them.
• A top-ranking bigshot proposed using a million Emissaries of Heaven and War Platforms to attack Chu Qing, but the others warned that fighting him could leave them vulnerable to rival organizations.

The New Heavenly Court gathered resources for Chu Qing, while the Otherkin Alliance spent three years forging twelve Atmospheric Exotic Treasures. After cultivating paths and directing efforts to counter the Millennial Calamities, Chu Qing arrived to claim the treasures and began imbuing them with his Spirit and Energy.

• The New Heavenly Court's top-tier bigshots worshipped Heaven for resources and secretly sent them to the Otherkin Alliance to forge treasures for Chu Qing.
• The Otherkin Alliance forged twelve Atmospheric Exotic Treasures over three years as Chu Qing cultivated one path per day.
• Chu Qing ordered work across the empires to build infrastructure and feed ordinary people in exchange for labor and curses against Heaven.
• The Otherkin Alliance told Chu Qing that the twelve treasures were ready, and Madam Shi teleported him to collect them.
• Chu Qing released vast quantities of Spirit and Energy to imbue a gourd-shaped treasure more than three hundred li in size, then turned to the next one.

Chu Qing tempered twelve Atmospheric Exotic Treasures and demonstrated the Water-Swallowing Gourd’s power by removing floodwaters from one empire. He shared control of the treasures with Madam Jin and the others, who began redirecting the stored water into a drought-stricken empire’s dry river.

• Chu Qing marked all twelve Atmospheric Exotic Treasures with his blood and qi, sent them into the Ninth Heaven to grow stronger, and gave Madam Jin complete control authority while sharing secondary authority with the others.
• Chu Qing and the others traveled to an empire ravaged by floods, where he used the Water-Swallowing Gourd to remove vast amounts of water from the land.
• Chu Qing revealed that the gourd could split into smaller gourds and release its stored water elsewhere, then gave gourds to Mingyue, Madam Shi, and the others.
• Madam Shi teleported everyone to an empire suffering a three-year drought, and Chu Qing directed them to pour the water into a dry river rather than flood the inhabitants.
• Mingyue and the others opened their gourds near the river’s source, releasing torrents that began flowing down its dry riverbed.

After the flood returned, Chu Qing claimed credit for saving the starving people and chose the name Azure Sky for himself. The Paranormal Alliance and empires spread word that he would end the Millennial Tribulation, leaving powerful clans and organizations wondering who he was and fearing their plans would be ruined.

• Chu Qing told the women to put away their gourds and explained that he had saved the starving people, who mistakenly thanked Heaven.
• Chu Qing chose the name Azure Sky, saying he could control the continent’s climate, while the Princess Consort feared he might challenge Heaven.
• The Paranormal Alliance sent news of Chu Qing’s order to the empires, and its leaders prepared to flee any continent he had visited.
• The emperors announced that Great Lord Azure Sky would clear away the Millennial Tribulation and save humanity.
• Ordinary people and martial artists celebrated, while those who understood the calamity questioned who Azure Sky was and powerful clans and sects resented the threat to their ambitions.