Chapter Summaries

Li Qi completed a Heaven-worship ritual and contacted Immortal Heaven’s awakened Heavenly Path, confirming that the world cultivated its inhabitants as food and that Dao integration fed its growth. He then accused the Heavenly Path of using its alliance with the Shaman Path to learn how to strengthen itself and of causing Yao Ji’s disappearance.

• Li Qi left Ling Xiao with her portrait, then departed after observing the banquet, where most participants died and the survivors later resumed fighting.
• Li Qi spent centuries studying Immortal Heaven and its people, searching for clues about its highest ranks and the fate of those who integrated with the Dao.
• Li Qi devised a Heaven-worship ritual, performed it after ten years of preparation, and established communication with Immortal Heaven’s uppermost existence.
• Li Qi explained that Immortal Heaven had no beings above the fourth rank and that its Heavenly Path was the world’s sole first-rank existence.
• Li Qi concluded that Immortal Heaven raised cultivators as food, with Dao integration serving the Heavenly Path’s consumption, and asked whether it had caused Yao Ji’s disappearance.

Li Qi was forcibly pulled into Immortal Heaven’s Dao-integration process after his sacrifice failed, and he discovered that its perfect laws left no chance of survival. As he searched for a flaw by comparing Immortal Heaven with Haotian, he sensed Yao Ji’s aura.

• Li Qi’s answer caused Immortal Heaven to interrupt his sacrifice, whose backlash flattened the surrounding land and drew the attention of Heaven-Piercing Realm cultivators.
• Immortal Heaven dragged Li Qi through a heavenly gate and began absorbing his cultivation, Dao Lineage, and memories.
• Li Qi protected himself with his inner world’s World Barrier and used True Knowledge Dao Charm to examine Immortal Heaven’s laws.
• Li Qi realized Immortal Heaven’s laws were perfectly self-consistent because its Heavenly Dao had left no thread of survival, unlike the Divine Path’s nurturing gods.
• As Immortal Heaven’s erosion overcame his defenses, Li Qi decided to seek its flaw by comparing it with Haotian, but recognized that he knew too little about Haotian.
• Li Qi sensed Yao Ji’s aura.

Li Qi watched Yao Ji repeatedly battle Immortal Heaven, only for her to be defeated and time to reset. After enduring countless repetitions and trying every possibility he could imagine, Li Qi’s sanity began to fray, and he wondered whether this was what First Rank beings experienced.

• Yao Ji descended beside Li Qi and forced Immortal Heaven’s Dao laws to retreat, but she also prevented him from helping her.
• Immortal Heaven defeated Yao Ji and assimilated her, then retraced time so she could fight again.
• Li Qi watched Yao Ji lose through more than a hundred million resets, searching for a weakness in Immortal Heaven.
• Li Qi tried many ways to change the outcome, including intervening in the battle, fleeing, aiding Yao Ji, and attacking her, but every attempt failed.
• After countless further repetitions, Li Qi’s memory and sanity began to deteriorate, and he regretted refusing Zhu Fengdan’s offer to erase some memories.
• In a muddled moment of insight, Li Qi wondered whether the endless cycle resembled what First Rank beings faced.

Li Qi chose to merge with Immortal Heaven to understand its nature and compare it with Haotian, risking being absorbed forever. As his consciousness faded, the Third Rank Legalist Zhu Fengdan revived within Li Qi, and Yao Ji discovered that Li Qi had been carrying a Third Rank inside him.

• Li Qi felt close to breaking under more than a billion cycles of backtracking, then decided that merging with Immortal Heaven might help him understand its perfection.
• Li Qi discarded his defenses and merged with Immortal Heaven, but his consciousness and ability to think began to fade.
• As Li Qi lost himself in the Heavenly Path, he recalled that Dao Pursuers had abandoned merging with the Dao as a path to understanding.
• Li Qi's dormant Third Rank Legalist Dao principles stirred and absorbed power from Immortal Heaven, allowing Zhu Fengdan to reconstruct his Dao principles and revive.
• Yao Ji turned in astonishment when a majestic Dharma form descended from Li Qi and realized he had been carrying a Third Rank.

Xing Guanqing used his law-bound Dharma treasure to invoke the Human Emperor’s gaze, forcing Immortal Heaven to change and exposing its flaw. Li Qi seized the opening to study both Immortal Heaven and Yao Ji’s Vast Heaven Dao Charm, but Immortal Heaven noticed them, and Xing Guanqing prepared to kill the two Wushen Mountain disciples before it could destroy them.

• Xing Guanqing invoked the Human Emperor’s authority through his bamboo-slip Dharma treasure, making the area Tang soil and forcing Immortal Heaven to change its nature.
• Li Qi awakened, recognized that Immortal Heaven’s change exposed a flaw, and pushed his True Knowledge Dao Charm to perceive it.
• Yao Ji expanded her Vast Heaven Dao Charm to help Li Qi understand Vast Heaven’s constancy and its role in nurturing civilizations.
• Li Qi sensed the contrast between Immortal Heaven’s changing nature and Vast Heaven’s unchanged order, and considered how the Heavenly Paths influenced the world.
• Immortal Heaven shattered the Tang soil and focused its attention on Li Qi and Xing Guanqing, who prepared to kill the two Wushen Mountain disciples before they were caught.

Li Qi and Yao Ji were killed by the Third-Rank Perfected One, but Chen's Qi restored them as Zhu Fengdan arrived. Immortal Heaven attacked Zhu Fengdan and began devouring the group until Witch Xian intervened, leaving Li Qi behind as Immortal Heaven chose him to fight the Perfected One.

• The Third-Rank Perfected One was reborn through Immortal Heaven and, facing the erosion of his Dao, killed Li Qi and Yao Ji with two divine abilities.
• Li Qi's true spirit began to vanish, but Chen's Qi erased the attack's reality and restored him and Yao Ji.
• Zhu Fengdan appeared beside Li Qi, only for Immortal Heaven to devastate his protections, Dao Lineage, and inner heaven with a direct strike.
• Immortal Heaven devoured the Third-Rank Perfected One and began stripping Zhu Fengdan, Yao Ji, and Li Qi of their Daos and cultivation.
• Witch Xian descended, took Zhu Fengdan and Yao Ji away, and questioned Immortal Heaven about its appetite for civilizations.
• Immortal Heaven left Li Qi behind and declared that it wanted him to fight the Third-Rank Perfected One.

Li Qi learned that Dao Integration with Immortal Heaven had temporarily raised him to fourth rank, giving him a chance to face the fallen Perfected One on equal terms. Zhu Fengdan revealed that he had prepared a way for Li Qi to use Zhang Zong’s will, leaving Li Qi to master his borrowed power before the match.

• Zhu Fengdan secured time to speak with Li Qi inside Immortal Heaven and reassured him that he had not arranged the challenge without giving him a chance.
• Li Qi discovered that Dao Integration had temporarily made him fourth rank, matching the fallen Perfected One’s current rank.
• Li Qi reviewed the ranks of cultivation and realized that Immortal Heaven’s power had suppressed the conflicts among his Dao Lineages through the Way of Evolution.
• Zhu Fengdan placed lightning bearing Zhang Zong’s will in Li Qi’s hand and explained that their karmic connection could help Li Qi match Immortal Heaven’s power.
• Zhu Fengdan told Li Qi to give the match everything he had, warning that he would die if he lost.

Zhu Fengdan removed Li Qi’s hidden dangers and linked him to Zhang Zong, whose power was forcibly drawn into Li Qi through Dao Integration. As Li Qi and Zhang Zong prepared to face a fallen-rank Legalist Perfected One inside Immortal Heaven, the battle began.

• Zhu Fengdan removed Li Qi’s hidden dangers, lent him power through their karmic connection, and returned to Witch Xian.
• Zhang Zong realized that pretending to be Li Qi had linked their existences, and Li Qi’s Dao Integration forcibly raised Zhang Zong’s power.
• Li Qi advanced to fourth rank and gained Zhang Zong’s immense lightning abilities, while the Perfected One recognized that Li Qi’s former weaknesses had been greatly reinforced.
• Li Qi and Zhang Zong agreed to fight together, hoping to prove the Shaman Path’s strength and win Immortal Heaven as an ally.
• Vast restraints filled the air around Li Qi as the battle against the fallen-rank Perfected One began.

Li Qi and the Little Heavenly Master joined forces against the Supreme Man, with Zhang Zong’s aggressive thunder arts initially driving the enemy back. The Supreme Man then changed the rules to weaken the thunder, but Zhang Zong met his close-range attack with skilled boxing and held his ground.

• Xiantian watched the battle and concluded that he would have to choose a side based on which side prevailed.
• Li Qi and the Little Heavenly Master agreed to share control, with Li Qi providing analysis and Zhang Zong fighting.
• Zhang Zong unleashed thunder arts and charged repeatedly, disrupting the Supreme Man’s spells while Li Qi identified weaknesses and defended against a hidden attack.
• The Supreme Man imposed new rules that weakened the thunder arts, and Li Qi recognized the Legalist principle behind the change.
• The Supreme Man rushed Zhang Zong at close range, but Zhang Zong deflected his attacks with boxing and countered without giving up an advantage.

Li Qi and Zhang Zong struggled against the Legalist School's Perfected Man, then used Li Qi's knowledge of Immortal Heaven to bypass the rules suppressing Zhang Zong's thunder methods. Their battle turned around as they grew more skilled, but the Little Heavenly Master's physical body suddenly collapsed.

• Zhang Zong fought the Perfected Man at close range while Li Qi defended against spells, and the two held out until Zhang Zong's mental strength began to fail.
• Li Qi and Zhang Zong switched roles, and Li Qi used his inner heaven and earth to overwhelm the Perfected Man with information from Immortal Heaven.
• Li Qi drew on Immortal Heaven's power to suppress the Perfected Man's ability to alter the rules, allowing Zhang Zong's thunder methods to regain their full strength.
• The Little Heavenly Master and Li Qi fought the Perfected Man in a fierce battle, rapidly improving until they could match him.
• The Little Heavenly Master's physical body suddenly collapsed.

Witch Xian and Zhu Fengdan watched Li Qi and the Little Heavenly Master battle a third-rank Perfected One, whose traps had caused their bodies to collapse. Li Qi’s Di Sacrifice unexpectedly received Vast Heaven’s authorization, and he used his appeal to accuse the Human Path of tyranny and ask Vast Heaven to address it.

• Witch Xian reassured Zhu Fengdan that Li Qi and Zhang Zong were formidable, while Zhu Fengdan reflected on the schemes and sacrifices that had brought the battle to this point.
• Li Qi and the Little Heavenly Master exchanged battlefield information and agreed that the Little Heavenly Master would abandon defense for fifteen seconds so Li Qi could perform a Di Sacrifice.
• The Perfected One recognized that Li Qi was using the sacrifice to investigate their bodily collapses, but allowed it to proceed, confident that Vast Heaven would not respond.
• Vast Heaven answered the sacrifice with the word “Granted,” startling the Perfected One and prompting Witch Xian to praise Zhu Fengdan’s plan.
• Li Qi concluded that the bodily collapses likely came from within their own bodies and revealed that his sacrifice had secretly appealed to Vast Heaven about the Human Path’s abuses.

Li Qi used Vast Heaven’s granted authority to empower Little Heavenly Master’s thunder arts, then relied on his own understanding of the difference between Vast Heaven and Immortal Heaven to withstand the Ultimate Person’s third-rank attacks. The battle ended with Li Qi reaching the fourth rank and defeating an opponent who was also part of Immortal Heaven.

• Li Qi completed a sacrificial ritual that asked Vast Heaven to recognize Little Heavenly Master’s thunder arts as Heavenly Punishment, and Vast Heaven answered, “Granted.”
• Vast Heaven’s approval let Little Heavenly Master draw on the power of heaven and earth without spending his own mana, so Li Qi shifted more of their shared power to defense.
• The Ultimate Person decided to use five third-rank moves to settle the fight, identified his opponents as Zhang Zong and Li Qi, and unleashed his attack.
• Witch Xian left Zhu Fengdan to handle negotiations with Immortal Heaven, while Zhu Fengdan watched the battle and learned that the Ultimate Person had been defeated.
• Li Qi endured all five attacks by using Vast Heaven’s permission and his understanding of Vast Heaven and Immortal Heaven to complete his own fourth-rank Dao, turning the conflict into infighting between two beings united with Immortal Heaven.

Li Qi and Zhang Zong survived a third-rank Ultimate Person’s attack by turning his Dao laws against him, letting the Little Heavenly Master’s Heavenly Punishment strike while the Immortal Heavens erased their enemy. After the Immortal Heavens cast Li Qi out, he reflected on the fourth rank’s Dao and waited in the void until Zhu Fengdan returned.

• Li Qi drew the Ultimate Person into his chaotic inner heaven and earth, where his own Dao laws stalled the attack and left the enemy vulnerable to the Little Heavenly Master’s Heavenly Punishment.
• The Immortal Heavens erased the Ultimate Person before he could retaliate, and Li Qi collapsed as his union with the Dao ended.
• The Little Heavenly Master’s mark vanished, and Li Qi returned the Vast Heaven Dao Charm to Yao Ji after Zhu Fengdan gestured toward her.
• Li Qi waited in the void for Zhu Fengdan while reasoning that fourth-rank Dao could create a self-governed realm beyond the real universe’s limits.
• Ten years later, Zhu Fengdan emerged from the Immortal Heavens and looked toward Li Qi.

Li Qi chose to enter distorted spacetime and begin building a personal Dao, confident that his understanding was sufficient to pursue the fourth rank without further guidance. He began confronting the incompatible beliefs behind the Dao lineages he had learned, leaving him to decide what he believed was primary in the world.

• Li Qi refused to erase the memories of his many regressions and declined to keep cultivating in isolation, saying he needed the real world’s influence to advance.
• Zhu Fengdan relayed the Shaman God’s view that Li Qi might benefit from distorted spacetime, but insisted Li Qi make the choice for himself.
• Li Qi decided his understanding was sufficient to pursue the fourth rank, and Zhu Fengdan sealed him inside special cosmic light that dilated time.
• Li Qi began constructing a personal Dao and a formula capable of describing the world, aiming to break free of other Great Daos’ limits.
• Li Qi recognized that his Dao lineages held conflicting beliefs about what was primary and faced the need to choose what the world was made of.

Li Qi spent fifty-three thousand years in distorted time constructing a self-consistent Dao and reached the fourth rank. Zhu Fengdan awakened him and warned him that his personal world was only the first step, and Li Qi returned his attention to the real world, amazed by its beauty.

• Li Qi used his solitude and freedom from outside concerns to test ideas and develop a Dao that could explain the world through his own principles.
• He spent another five thousand years establishing physical constants and laws, striving to make his theory logically self-consistent without relying on reality to support it.
• After fifty-two thousand years, Zhu Fengdan worried that Li Qi might have failed and endured the strain of maintaining the distorted flow of time.
• When another thousand years passed, Zhu Fengdan ended the time distortion and discovered that Li Qi had formed a parallel world governed by his Dao and had reached the fourth rank.
• Zhu Fengdan kicked Li Qi awake and warned him that breaking free of reality and building his own world was only the first step, not proof that his Dao surpassed reality.
• Li Qi thanked Zhu Fengdan, turned his attention back to the real world, and found it far more beautiful than the world he had created.

After breaking through to the fourth rank, Li Qi emerged from distorted spacetime with a renewed appreciation for the real world. Zhu Fengdan returned him to his flying boat, where Li Qi reunited with Zhang Zong and learned that he had to return to the war while Zhang Zong continued working toward his own breakthrough.

• Li Qi recognized the precision and beauty of the real world after comparing it with the world he had created, and he thanked Zhu Fengdan for helping him awaken.
• Zhu Fengdan brought Li Qi back to the flying boat, where the Little Heavenly Master, Zhang Zong, was struggling to understand the fourth-rank power he had witnessed.
• Li Qi revealed his identity to Qin Lan, and Zhu Fengdan sent her away after explaining that he had arranged the situation.
• Zhang Zong teased Li Qi about advancing so quickly, then demanded tea as the first of two promised tasks; after tasting it, he poured it out.
• Zhang Zong ordered Li Qi to stay away until he reached the fourth rank, and Zhu Fengdan told Li Qi to return to the war-zone command and reunite with his wife.

After several centuries building a secret yin-aligned defensive line, Shen Shuibi reminisced with her friend Jiao about Li Qi and awaited the journey home. Li Qi arrived in person, revealing that he had already advanced to the fourth rank and leaving Jiao astonished.

• Shen Shuibi attended a farewell gathering after her Executioner Squad completed its secret mission to build a colossal defensive line.
• Jiao sat with Shen Shuibi, and Shen Shuibi described how Li Qi had comforted her after Mount Luofu's destruction and become her husband.
• Shen Shuibi told Jiao that Li Qi had reached the fifth rank after only about a thousand years of cultivation.
• The Alliance announced that a fourth-rank would take the squad home, and Shen Shuibi looked forward to seeing Li Qi and her daughter again.
• Li Qi arrived by tearing open reality, and Shen Shuibi recognized him by his familiar presence.
• Jiao realized that Li Qi was already fourth-rank and was stunned by how quickly he had advanced.

Li Qi brought Shen Shuibi and Li Shiwei to Guanghan to meet Lady Luofu after reaching the fourth rank. While the family gathered before the banquet, Li Shiwei reunited with Yang Ning and began recounting how she met the Demon Prince in the Buddhist Kingdom.

• Li Qi arrived in Guanghan with Shen Shuibi and Li Shiwei after Lady Luofu summoned him.
• Li Shiwei happily reunited with Yang Ning and told her about her travels, including meeting the Demon Prince.
• Li Shiwei described the Demon Prince as short, feminine, and shy, contrary to his fearsome reputation.
• Li Qi secretly listened to Li Shiwei's conversation using True Knowledge Dao Charm.
• Li Shiwei recounted how the Demon Prince challenged Shariputra to a scripture debate before their martial contest, wagering that losing any round would count as his defeat.

Li Qi explained how he defeated the Demon Prince and discussed the paths to cultivation with Yang Ning, demonstrating his Rank Four ability to reduce the dimensions of space. The demonstration left the wine cup irreversibly disintegrated even after he restored space.

• Yang Ning called Li Qi over and asked how he had defeated the Demon Prince; Li Qi said he broke through during their fight and paid a heavy price for the victory.
• Golden Crow sent Li Shiwei away so Li Qi and Yang Ning could speak privately.
• Yang Ning admitted she envied Li Qi's clarity about his own path and did not know which route to Rank Four to take.
• Li Qi told Yang Ning to follow her own Dao and demonstrated how his Rank Four power could change reality by reducing space to two dimensions.
• Yang Ning changed the subject, and Li Qi restored space, but the wine cup remained disintegrated because its lost information could not be recovered.

Li Qi worried that his long pursuit of cultivation and world-building had alienated him from his family and the real world, so he sought guidance from Lady Luofu and Changxi. Changxi offered him wine brewed from his experiences, and after drinking it, Li Qi began to feel his past emotions again.

• After reflecting on his fifty thousand years in twisted spacetime, Li Qi realized he had become more absorbed in constructing worlds than in spending time with his family.
• Li Qi asked Lady Luofu and Changxi whether his growing detachment from reality was a side effect of twisted spacetime.
• Changxi explained that Li Qi had become too immersed in pursuing the Dao and asked what purpose he meant his power to serve.
• Lady Luofu reminded Li Qi to consider the matter after the family banquet, and he set aside his thoughts to join the gathering.
• Changxi poured Li Qi a cup of wine brewed from his experiences, and he drank it.
• Li Qi felt his past emotions return, beginning with the feelings he had once described to Changxi about the rabbit.