Chapter Summaries

Li Qi communed with a Fire Official and learned that gods were primal natural phenomena who needed neither a Dao nor a purpose. After fifteen years of rebuilding his body and inner world with Chaos Qi, he discovered that Inner Gods could arise naturally and touched the threshold of the fifth rank.

• Li Qi shared thoughts and memories with the Fire Official, learning that gods were born with fixed natures and that the Divine Path had no guiding Dao or purpose.
• The Fire Official told Li Qi that gods were the beginning, while mortals ultimately pursued zero, prompting Li Qi to reconsider the origins of Inner Gods and the Shaman Path.
• Li Qi ended his chaotic form and spent nearly fifteen years contemplating the Divine Path and reshaping his body and inner heaven and earth.
• Li Qi gradually destroyed his Inner Gods and inner world, replacing them with Chaos Qi that naturally differentiated according to his Dao.
• Li Qi's body spontaneously formed new Inner Gods, and he touched the thin membrane of the fifth rank.

Li Qi returned from the Great Fire with new insight into his cultivation and learned that the Divine Path would stay neutral in the coming conflict. Back in Lingchou Realm, he read reports on the suppression of the Human Path movement and recognized Zhang You as the granddaughter of his old acquaintance Zhang Lan and a friend of Li Shiwei.

• Li Qi sacrificed to the Chaos Qi, was expelled from the Great Fire, and realized it was a nursery for unborn gods where he had received a true god's exposition of the Dao.
• Li Qi concluded that the Divine Path would remain neutral, then left to gather the world clusters in Heart Mansion.
• Li Qi returned to Lingchou Realm after four years and read reports showing Fu Cao Yi Realm had suppressed the Human Path movement with the merchant association's cooperation and the Lord of Lingchou Realm's approval.
• Li Qi asked the report-bearing young woman her name and recognized Zhang You as the granddaughter of Zhang Lan, whom he had known in Guangyang.
• Li Qi told Zhang You that his second connection to her was Li Shiwei, and Zhang You realized Li Shiwei might be his daughter.

Zhang You resigned from Li Qi’s merchant association rather than accept help tied to her grandfather, while Li Qi prepared nearby world clusters for the coming war and summoned Shen Shuibi. Shen Shuibi joined him beyond the realms as three fifth-rank defenders debated how to resist the Wushen Mountain cultivator.

• Li Qi explained that he had learned Zhang You’s origins and offered to make up for what her grandfather owed her, but Zhang You asked to resign and left after Li Qi approved.
• Li Qi began organizing nearby world clusters into a great formation and sent for Shen Shuibi to help prepare the battlefield.
• A Fu Cao Yi Realm cultivator reported that the worlds were ready, and Shen Shuibi arrived to assist Li Qi in overcoming several resistant world clusters.
• Li Qi and Shen Shuibi traveled beyond the realms in the Ghost Chariot, where Shen Shuibi sensed the progress in Li Qi’s inner heaven and earth.
• Bin Kuang, Shadow Moon Cold Teeth, and Wang Wu discussed their resistance to Li Qi, and Bin Kuang argued that the three of them could defeat him together.

Li Qi and Shen Shuibi arrived at the fortified world cluster and used their shared Chaos Qi to let Li Qi relay precise information about the formation and its defenders to Shen Shuibi. After Shen Shuibi entered the formation with him, she killed two Fifth-Rank beings in one move, while Shadow Moon Cold Teeth fled and was caught far away.

• Wang Wu, Bin Kuang, and Shadow Moon Cold Teeth decided to hold their formation until Tang Kingdom reinforcements arrived, hoping to earn a place in the Human Path.
• Li Qi and Shen Shuibi reached the world cluster, where three Fifth-Rank beings had fortified themselves with a massive formation.
• Li Qi and Shen Shuibi joined their Chaos Qi, allowing him to share the information he perceived and help her analyze the formation.
• Wang Wu and Bin Kuang flew out to confront Li Qi and Shen Shuibi while Shadow Moon Cold Teeth stayed behind to control the formation.
• Shadow Moon Cold Teeth abruptly abandoned the formation and fled at extreme speed after Shen Shuibi killed Wang Wu and Bin Kuang with one move.
• Shadow Moon Cold Teeth stopped in a distant, empty region and found Shen Shuibi waiting nearby.

Li Qi and Shen Shuibi defeated Shadow Moon Cold Teeth and learned that his group had tried to help the Human Path without any promise or approval. They spent more than four hundred years preparing for the coming war, which began when the myriad heavens and worlds trembled.

• Shen Shuibi defeated two fifth-rank cultivators and pursued Shadow Moon Cold Teeth with Li Qi’s help.
• After Li Qi recovered, Shadow Moon Cold Teeth surrendered and revealed that Wang Wu had planned to help the Human Path gain favor.
• Li Qi explained that the Human Path would not accept their covert assistance, then left with Shen Shuibi.
• Li Qi and Shen Shuibi settled down to study and prepare for war, while their daughter Li Shiwei returned as a seventh-rank cultivator and trained with them.
• Over the following centuries, Li Qi and Shen Shuibi continued their preparations, and Zhu Fengdan never returned.
• More than four hundred years later, Li Qi and Shen Shuibi sprang to their feet as the myriad heavens and worlds trembled and majestic pitch-pipe tones sounded.

Li Qi witnessed Human Path reshape the universe into a fortified war front and learned that he would serve as a staff officer while defending Heart Mansion. As Shen Shuibi headed for the front line and Li Qi prepared to repel the invasion, he activated their formation and made the entire world cluster revolve around him.

• Li Qi saw Human Path destroy countless worlds, alter the universe’s physical laws, and establish a vast defensive boundary between the two sides.
• Li Qi connected to Zhu Fengdan’s Staff Department and received intelligence showing Gansong and other Human Path cities becoming enormous war fortresses.
• Shen Shuibi told Li Qi to send Li Shiwei to the Western Heaven Buddhist Kingdom for safety, then left to prepare at the front line.
• Li Qi activated the formation he and Shen Shuibi had built across the world cluster, redirecting its orbit from Great Fire to himself.

Li Qi used the World Cluster Formation to hinder the Human Path’s War Fortress, then coordinated a vast Shaman army as the two sides prepared to clash. His superior, Zhu Fengdan, informed him that Shen Shuibi would lead their vanguard into a first battle whose outcome would carry strategic significance.

• Li Qi advanced the World Cluster Formation, slowing the Human Path’s War Fortress and forcing the ribbon of light to shift.
• A fourth-rank Shaman helped Li Qi withstand the Human Path’s attack, while a higher-level battle severed the ribbon of light into over a thousand sections.
• Li Qi halted the formation and organized the worlds and armies gathering to face the approaching Human Path fleet.
• For seven days, Li Qi coordinated supplies, positions, and countless reports until nearly half the army had reached the battle line, including Shen Shuibi.
• Zhu Fengdan summoned Li Qi and told him Shen Shuibi would be the first to engage the enemy, with victory in the vanguard battle resting on Li Qi’s side.

Li Qi learned that the vanguard battle would be a fifth-rank contest against Liu Junyi, whose cultivation was advancing at an extraordinary speed. He traveled to the Human Path’s territory to meet Liu Junyi, who had anticipated his arrival and greeted him outside the War Fortress.

• Li Qi learned that the vanguard battle would be limited to fifth-rank fighters, with no reinforcements, and that he was responsible for winning it.
• Zhu Fengdan revealed that Li Qi’s opponent was Liu Junyi, whose cultivation could soon advance to fifth rank and make the battle far more difficult.
• Li Qi decided to visit Liu Junyi to exchange intelligence and assess his opponent before the battle.
• Li Qi sent his golden body through Liesu to the Human Path’s territory and stabilized it after the changed Dao laws began dispersing it.
• Liu Junyi arrived through the Golden Platform and explained that he had anticipated Li Qi’s visit, so they could meet without exposing the War Fortress.

Li Qi met Liu Junyi outside the Human Path’s War Fortress, where they shared a meal and discussed Liu Shenzhi, the war, and their opposing Daos. Liu Junyi learned that Li Qi saw the conflict as a necessary defense of the Polaris Golden Core Method, while the Human Path sought it to complete the Yellow Path and advance Man replacing Heaven.

• Liu Junyi met Li Qi in the void so he could avoid letting Li Qi inspect the War Fortress without rejecting his visit outright.
• Liu Junyi invited Li Qi to share wine and food, and Li Qi asked how Liu Shenzhi had been doing.
• Liu Junyi explained that Liu Shenzhi had refused the Mohist School and become Director of the Armaments Workshop.
• Li Qi said he had helped start the war and had joined the vanguard against Liu Junyi.
• Liu Junyi questioned whether Li Qi regretted the war’s sacrifices, and Li Qi answered that he fought to protect the Polaris Golden Core Method from the Human Path’s encroachment.
• Liu Junyi recognized that the Human Path sought the method to forge the Yellow Path and make a breakthrough toward Man replacing Heaven.

Li Qi and Liu Junyi discussed the Human Path’s coming war with Wushen Mountain and parted as friends destined to become enemies. Li Qi returned to his true body and headed to the vanguard battlefield, where Shen Shuibi was waiting as the armies approached the ribbon of light.

• Liu Junyi explained that the Human Path would not limit the war to duels, though he had preserved world maps and selected individuals to seed the worlds again afterward.
• Li Qi learned that Liu Junyi’s unshakable Dao heart was both his foundation and his only weakness, but saw no way to exploit it.
• Li Qi and Liu Junyi reminisced about their days in Chang’an, then saluted and acknowledged that their next meeting would be as enemies.
• Li Qi returned to his true body and decided to command from the front lines, where he could test the Human Path’s army alongside Shen Shuibi.
• Li Qi reached the Jiayang Three Realms and Jiayin Three Realms, where Shen Shuibi waited on the moon as the armies approached the ribbon of light.

Shen Shuibi watched the shattered Tianshi Wall as Li Qi came to the vanguard front to command and stay near her. They prepared for Human Path’s forces while the Child of Destiny of the Jiayin Three Realms and Jiayang Three Realms braced to join the vast battle.

• Shen Shuibi reflected on how the mighty cultivators’ clashes and Li Qi’s decisions would shape the vanguard worlds’ fate.
• Li Qi arrived at the lunar front, and Shen Shuibi warned him not to risk the whole formation out of concern for her.
• Li Qi explained that his presence could strengthen morale and speed up command, then embraced Shen Shuibi before they returned to planning.
• Shen Shuibi and Li Qi simulated a battle against Human Path’s regular army while awaiting the unknown forces from Wushen Mountain.
• The Balancer adjusted the positions of the Jiayin Three Realms and Jiayang Three Realms and contemplated the coming vanguard battle.

The Balancer convinced the leaders of the Jiayin Three Realms and Jiayang Three Realms that they had to fight the Human Path to protect their worlds and seize a chance to advance. As he prepared them for the vanguard battle, a Human Way army launched a surprise attack.

• The leaders of the Jiayin Three Realms and Jiayang Three Realms asked the Balancer whether they should join the war or withdraw to safety.
• The Balancer warned that if the Shaman Path lost, the Human Path would threaten their worlds, and argued that victory could let them advance to a Fifth-Rank World.
• The leaders began to understand that the Human-Shaman War could reshape the laws and conditions of the universe, not merely shift political power.
• The Balancer spotted an enemy attack, ordered the leaders to return and prepare for battle, and left the point of balance.
• Several grotto-heavens were crushed by two Fifth-Ranks as a Human Way army emerged in the outer domain, having evaded Li Qi's observation.

Li Qi and Shen Shuibi faced a surprise attack by the Tang Kingdom’s elite Human Path army, whose Human Emperor’s declaration of war was intercepted by a Shaman God. Shen Shuibi trapped the invisible enemy inside a vast Yin-Yang formation, but after seven chen a soldier’s wavering caused a flaw that threatened to unravel it.

• The Tang Kingdom army annihilated more than a hundred thousand sentries before Li Qi and Shen Shuibi could intervene.
• A Fifth Rank General unfurled the Human Emperor’s declaration of war, but a Shaman God appeared, accepted it, and urged Li Qi to win.
• The Human Path general concealed his army with a yin command banner, while Shen Shuibi ordered the Jiayang Three Realms and Jiayin Three Realms into a Yin-Yang Revolving Grand Formation.
• Li Qi’s forces held the formation and waited for reinforcements, keeping the hidden Human Path army enclosed within it.
• After seven chen, a soldier in the Jiayang Three Realms lost his composure, creating a flaw that scattered divine Qi through the formation.

Li Qi, Shen Shuibi, and the Balancer faced a Tang Kingdom infiltration force whose concealment let it slaughter their formation before Li Qi used True Knowledge Dao Charm to help the Balancer strike back. After three days of stalemate, reinforcements failed to detect the enemy, and the Tang troops withdrew as Li Qi learned they had launched attacks elsewhere.

• The Tang Kingdom’s ten thousand soldiers exploited a brief flaw in the Golden Core formation, killing more than a hundred thousand cultivators before the Balancer drove them off with a solar-storm attack.
• Li Qi used True Knowledge Dao Charm to identify the enemy’s fleeting traces, allowing the Balancer to kill more than a hundred Tang soldiers.
• Shen Shuibi maintained the Golden Core formation while the Balancer guarded it, and both sides remained locked in a three-day battle of endurance.
• A fifth-rank World Lord arrived with reinforcements and used his heavenly eye and dharma manifestation, but he could not find the concealed Tang forces.
• Li Qi ordered Shen Shuibi to dissolve the formation, then learned that the Tang troops had withdrawn and attacked other worlds to divert his attention.

Li Qi struggled to command the Shaman Path’s worlds as the Human Path launched a devastating invasion. While Shen Shuibi advanced toward her assigned zone, Jiayin Three Realms scouts discovered that Human Path survivors behind enemy lines were seeking an alliance.

• Li Qi discovered that the Human Path army had infiltrated the World Cluster Formation and warned the worlds under his command as the war began.
• The Human Path’s disciplined forces overwhelmed Shaman Path battle lines, while Li Qi ordered his armies to hold formation and sent them to encircle the enemy.
• Shen Shuibi ordered Fu Tian Yan Jie Zhu to send someone back to the central army, then continued toward the Bing Chen Shuo Zone.
• A scouting team from the Jiayin Three Realms witnessed the Human Path’s immense fortress consuming matter and spreading across the void.
• The scouts were bound while escaping, but found a message from surviving worlds in Human Path territory asking to cooperate with the Shaman Path.

Li Qi recruited the Unreturning Disciples, survivors of worlds destroyed by the Human Path, to form a guerrilla force for the Shaman Path. As Xun Dongxing’s reconnaissance squad joined them behind enemy lines, Li Qi summoned Shen Shuibi for a task he said could lay the foundation for victory.

• Li Qi used the Alliance to offer homeless survivors a chance to fight the Human Path and join his merchant association under a young master’s protection.
• Nearly sixty percent of the lone strongest members chose to join the Unreturning Disciples, while others protected their remaining clansmen or settled them before joining.
• Li Qi revealed the location of a reconnaissance squad, and Xun Dongxing led the Jiayin Three Realms, Jizhong Westward Third Squad to meet the Unreturning Disciples in a world dead zone.
• Xun Dongxing trusted the gray-blue Fifth Rank Unreturning Disciple and followed the group into enemy territory, helping establish a guerrilla force behind the Human Path’s lines.
• Li Qi messaged Shen Shuibi that he had a task only she could do, and she left the front lines and returned to him several days later, suspecting the task was dangerous.

Shen Shuibi accepted Li Qi’s dangerous mission to lead the Unreturning Disciples against Gansong City, whose Nexus of All Realms base station sustained the Tang Kingdom’s war effort. After seeing a supposedly doomed world win through the courage of its underground civilians and garrison, Li Qi reconsidered what gave soldiers the strength to fight.

• Shen Shuibi withdrew from the front lines and felt glad that Li Qi had entrusted her with an important and dangerous task.
• Li Qi planned to use the Unreturning Disciples to attack Gansong City, disrupt the Nexus of All Realms, and force the Human Path to defend its vital base.
• Li Qi recalled how the Human Path’s discipline and mobility had repeatedly thwarted his larger forces, leaving him eager to find a way to break the deadlock.
• Li Qi investigated a Seventh Rank World that had defeated the Human Path with equal forces and discovered that its underground civilization had been left behind during evacuation.
• The world’s civilians supplied and sheltered the garrison, giving the soldiers a cause to fight for, and Li Qi recognized their courage.

After witnessing how a Seventh Rank World’s soldiers found courage, Li Qi realized that he had mistaken self-imposed rules for following the Dao and resolved to act from his heart and bear responsibility for his choices. He summoned Shen Shuibi and entrusted her with leading a guerrilla operation against the Human Path’s Nexus of All Realms.

• Li Qi reflected on the Seventh Rank World’s victory and realized its soldiers had found courage without calculating their choices.
• Li Qi recognized that he had treated the Dao as a set of rules, shackling himself instead of following his heart.
• Li Qi decided to bear responsibility for joining the radicals and to contribute fully to the war rather than leave others to face the consequences.
• Li Qi summoned Shen Shuibi and explained that the Unreturning Disciples could force the Human Path to defend its Nexus of All Realms.
• Li Qi asked Shen Shuibi to oversee the resistance fighters’ guerrilla operation, giving her full responsibility despite having no supplies or updates from her side.

Li Qi and Shen Shuibi agreed that she would lead the Unreturning Disciples in a guerrilla campaign behind Human Path's lines, forcing its strongest forces to return and defend. After spending a few days with Li Qi, Shen Shuibi set out and reached the Unreturning Disciples' stronghold.

• Li Qi explained the logistical dangers and risk of betrayal involved in sending the Unreturning Disciples into Human Path territory, and concluded that only Shen Shuibi could lead them.
• Shen Shuibi agreed to the mission, while Li Qi worried that the Shaman Path's promised reinforcements had not arrived and might have been intercepted.
• Shen Shuibi and Li Qi discussed the stakes of the war and Shiwei's journey to the Buddhist Kingdom, then spent two more days together.
• Shen Shuibi departed for Human Path territory to negotiate with the Unreturning Disciples and organize attacks behind enemy lines.
• Shen Shuibi adjusted to the altered Great Dao, calculated that the universe would take about fifteen years to recover, and reached the Unreturning Disciples' stronghold.

Shen Shuibi arrived to negotiate with the divided Unreturning Disciples, whose leaders distrusted the Shaman Path for different reasons. When Cha Xike challenged her, she defeated his first attacks, but his assembled beast pearls let him transform into an impure qilin that her techniques could not approach.

• Gou Lou and Cha Xike argued over whether the Unreturning Disciples should trust the Shaman Path or rely on themselves.
• Shen Shuibi arrived before millions of Unreturning Disciples, and Gou Lou and Cha Xike doubted the Shaman Path's sincerity when they saw she was a Daoist.
• Shen Shuibi asked to test the leaders' strength, and Cha Xike attacked her with armor powered by a Flood Dragon's Dragon Pearl.
• Shen Shuibi suppressed Cha Xike's Flood Dragon blood with a Dragon-Suppressing Talisman, then used the Thunder Emperor's Dharma body to defeat his lightning-powered attack.
• Cha Xike fitted eight more beast pearls into his belt and transformed into an impure qilin whose auspicious qi repelled Shen Shuibi's methods.