Chapter Summaries

Li Qingyun dreamed that an ancient figure claiming to be Shen Nong offered to explain the Human Race’s past, but the Human Dao Lamp and Li Qingyun’s own suspicions kept him from trusting the figure. Shen Nong ended the dream without revealing more, leaving Li Qingyun wary of the mysterious encounter.

• Li Qingyun was overjoyed to meet the figure who claimed to be Shen Nong, but he bowed without approaching.
• The Human Dao Lamp manifested, prompting Li Qingyun to halt and question whether the figure was truly trustworthy.
• Li Qingyun rejected his impulse to rely on either Shen Nong or the Yellow Emperor and resolved to trust only himself.
• Li Qingyun asked how Shen Nong had survived the Human Dao’s calamity, and Shen Nong said he had sealed himself in the Yin Ruins after the Yellow Emperor fell and Empress Wa vanished.
• Li Qingyun refused to open his mind or reveal his location and asked why Shen Nong could not see his face clearly.
• Shen Nong declined to answer, said the time had not yet come, and let the dream dissolve.

After awakening from a dream in which a figure claimed to be Ancient Saint Shen Nong, Li Qingyun distrusted the encounter and resolved to endure his Obscurity Eruption without seeking the saint’s secrets. Meanwhile, the Abyss Clan’s main line convened its elders to vote on imprisoning him, and the vote began to favor suppression.

• Li Qingyun woke from the dream, noticed reasons to doubt the ancient figure, and decided not to reveal his identity or pursue the promised guidance.
• Li Qingyun entered seclusion for more than two months as debate over his refusal to join the main line spread through the Abyss Clan.
• Clan Chief Yuan Guyuan convened nearly two hundred Hua Xuan elders to vote on whether Li Qingyun should be suppressed in the Heavenly Prison.
• Yuan Changkong and other main-line elders voted to imprison Li Qingyun, and nearly a hundred votes of agreement gathered.
• Yuan Wangchen told Yuan Jiao that imprisoning Li Qingyun on fabricated charges would be cruel, and refused to cast a vote.

The Yuan clan council approved imprisoning Li Qingyun in the Heavenly Prison, despite opposition from Yuan Guhong, Yuan Wangchen, and collateral-branch elders. After suppressing his Obscurity Eruption, Li Qingyun sensed the main lineage’s plan and prepared to retaliate.

• Third Young Master Yuan and Yuan Wangchen refused to support the council’s vote, while Yuan Guhong said his household would not participate.
• More than thirty collateral-branch elders opposed the plan, but Yuan Guyuan threatened the wavering elders until the vote passed by more than two-thirds.
• Yuan Guyuan ordered Yuan Gumo to seize Li Qingyun under new accusations, and Yuan Gumo agreed, intending to avenge his earlier humiliation.
• Li Qingyun suppressed his Obscurity Eruption and discovered that the main lineage planned to imprison him in the Heavenly Prison.
• Li Qingyun sensed the clan’s malice and realized the main lineage had intended to attack while he was incapacitated.

Li Qingyun prepared to confront the Abyss Clan Main Line after cursing the clan and sending Li Yiyi into the Human Dao Lamp. As he tried to leave Lingping Heaven, he found it sealed by the Main Line, whose elders moved to imprison him in the Heavenly Prison; he answered their decree by striking at the barrier.

• Li Qingyun cursed the Abyss Clan, sent Li Yiyi into the Human Dao Lamp, and chose not to take Yuan Li Ye and the others with him.
• Li Qingyun tried to leave Lingping Heaven but discovered that the Main Line had sealed it and the surrounding Void Abyss during his seclusion.
• Yuan Gumo and the Main Line's Huaxuan elders appeared, accused Li Qingyun of colluding with Li Xuankun, and declared that he would be imprisoned for five thousand years.
• Yuan Li Ye, Li Bing, Mu Qi, and others in Lingping Heaven panicked as the clan's accusation and punishment were announced.
• Li Qingyun rejected Yuan Gumo's demand to submit and tapped his finger toward the sealing array.

Li Qingyun shattered the Abyss Clan’s restraints and overwhelmed Yuan Gumo, then faced nearly a hundred Hua Xuan elders alone. After the Dark Tome weakened their attacks, he killed two elders and continued his assault on the main branch.

• Li Qingyun shattered the sealing formation around Lingping Heaven with one finger and forced Yuan Gumo back.
• Li Qingyun destroyed Yuan Gumo’s Profound Domain, prompting Yuan Gumo to call on the other Hua Xuan elders to attack.
• Nearly a hundred Abyss Clan Hua Xuan elders attacked Li Qingyun, while he unleashed the Dark Tome to weaken their power.
• Li Qingyun manifested his Nine Trillion Zhang Mysterious Body and endured the elders’ weakened attacks.
• Li Qingyun killed two main branch Hua Xuan elders with a finger strike.

Li Qingyun slaughtered the Abyss Clan’s main branch elders after their attack failed, then pursued Yuan Gumo until the Quasi-Saint Great Master intervened. The Great Master ordered Li Qingyun to kneel, but Li Qingyun defied him and cursed him.

• Li Qingyun killed Yuan Chang Tian, Yuan Chang Zang, and three Hua Xuan elders, then knocked Yuan Gumo back when he tried to stop him.
• Li Qingyun killed twelve main branch Hua Xuan elders, driving the remaining elders to flee and beg the Quasi-Saints, Saints, and Great Master for help.
• The Second Master refused to intervene, blaming Great Master Yuan and privately expecting Li Qingyun to merge with his Saint Bone.
• Li Qingyun pursued Yuan Gumo through the river of stars, shattered his defenses, and gravely wounded him, destroying nearly one hundred embryonic Great Thousand Worlds in the process.
• The Mysterious Profound Stone Hall’s Quasi-Saint Great Master appeared as a Dao Will illusory shadow, stopped Li Qingyun’s next attack, and ordered him to kneel.
• Li Qingyun resisted the Quasi-Saint pressure, released an aura that began to spread, and cursed the Great Master.

Li Qingyun defied Great Master Yuan, who attacked him with gray intent and then with Cosmos-level power. Li Qingyun's Dark Tome dispelled the gray intent, and he repelled the grand master's weaker follow-up assault.

• Li Qingyun cursed Great Master Yuan for his past attempts to suppress him, and the grand master declared that he deserved death.
• Great Master Yuan swept his whisk and sent gray intent at Li Qingyun, expecting it to corrode him.
• Li Qingyun's grass-snake ash-thread aura clashed with the gray intent and erased it, revealing the Dark Tome's power to be at the Quasi-Saint level.
• Great Master Yuan searched for the mysterious protector but could not find him, and gray gloom also disrupted his attempt to contact his true body beyond the abyss.
• Great Master Yuan attacked with a storm of Cosmos-level power, but Li Qingyun pushed it back with his azure profound radiance.

Li Qingyun fought Great Master Yuan’s fading Dao Will shadow and used the Nine Sons Ring to unleash the combined power of his three identities. As Great Master Yuan’s shadow neared collapse, he called on Second Master Yuan, who refused to intervene and blamed him for the clan’s losses.

• Li Qingyun exchanged repeated blows with Great Master Yuan, damaging the shadow while suffering serious injuries himself.
• Great Master Yuan offered to spare Li Qingyun if he entered the Heavenly Prison for two thousand years, but Li Qingyun rejected the offer and activated the Nine Sons Ring.
• Li Qingyun combined the power of his three identities and struck Great Master Yuan, shattering parts of the deep abyss and nearby Abyss Clan fiefs.
• As his Dao Will shadow nearly vanished, Great Master Yuan asked Second Master Yuan to help, but Second Master Yuan refused and blamed him for causing the destruction.
• Great Master Yuan grew angry and told Second Master Yuan he would remember the day’s events.

Li Qingyun destroyed the quasi-saint elder’s Dao Will, then confronted the Abyss Clan patriarch Yuan Guyuan and forced him to kneel. He declared that he would guard the Land of the First Cosmos without needing the patriarch’s approval, while Yuan Guyuan secretly vowed revenge.

• Li Qingyun destroyed the quasi-saint elder’s Dao Will, leaving Yuan Gumo defeated and the Abyss Clan in uproar.
• Li Qingyun spared Yuan Gumo, considering the danger of provoking the Outer Void Saints by killing a Saint Descendant.
• Yuan Guyuan panicked after the main lineage’s efforts failed and prepared to hide in the Abyss Pagoda.
• Li Qingyun appeared in the patriarch’s hall and forced Yuan Guyuan to kneel, crushing his bones and making him beg for mercy.
• Li Qingyun declared that he would guard the Land of the First Cosmos without Yuan Guyuan’s seal or approval, and Yuan Guyuan privately vowed revenge.

Li Qingyun went to the Abyss Clan’s Heavenly Prison after defeating Yuan Guyuan and entered despite the guards’ warnings. He found a frozen, desolate starry sky filled with bound skeletons.

• Li Qingyun reached the Heavenly Prison at the end of the Abyss Clan’s river of stars and saw embryonic worlds disappear into the abyss beyond it.
• The Heavenly Prison guards recognized Li Qingyun from the recent upheaval and failed to stop him from entering the stone hall.
• Li Qingyun demanded the entry token from Yuan Jingfei, whose cultivation he suppressed until the elder surrendered it.
• Li Qingyun opened the prison rift with the Abyss Token and stepped inside, overcoming the cold with his saintly essence.
• Li Qingyun found ancient gray lands beneath a dark starry sky, where rusted chains bound countless skeletons to bronze pillars.

Li Qingyun explored the Land of Absolute Death, freeing the remains of unjustly imprisoned Abyss Clan disciples and letting the Dark Tome absorb their concentrated resentment. At the tenth prison, he found a still-living Western Heaven Clan powerhouse named Poluoyan, who revealed that he had once been a Quasi-Saint seedling.

• Li Qingyun found Shen Mujing’s skeleton and read his accusation that the main lineage and Yuan Sandao had caused his unjust death.
• Daoist Kun drew resentment from Shen Mujing’s remains into the Dark Tome, and Li Qingyun stored the skeleton in the Human Dao Lamp.
• Li Qingyun freed Wang Shangli’s skeleton, absorbed its resentment into the Dark Tome, and resolved to collect the other unjustly slain disciples.
• Li Qingyun passed through nine prisons and freed their occupants, eight of whom had been collateral-branch prodigies and one of whom belonged to the main lineage.
• At the tenth prison, Li Qingyun encountered a half-dead Western Heaven Clan powerhouse who identified himself as Poluoyan and said he had once been a Quasi-Saint seedling.

Li Qingyun confronted Third Master Yuan in the Abyss Clan's Heavenly Prison and negotiated permission to collect the remains of its prisoners, while leaving Poluoyan imprisoned. He gathered hundreds of remains to strengthen the Dark Tome and departed as Third Master Yuan watched him with greed.

• Poluoyan offered to serve Li Qingyun if he freed him, but Third Master Yuan warned Li Qingyun not to interfere with the Western Heaven Clan prisoner.
• Li Qingyun recognized Third Master Yuan's cultivation as a path of Finality, drawing power from the death and resentment of tortured geniuses.
• Third Master Yuan agreed not to stop Li Qingyun from collecting the remains, and Li Qingyun told Poluoyan he could not save him.
• Li Qingyun gathered hundreds of remains from prodigies of various races, including the Sacred Hall Clan and Pan Clan, strengthening the Dark Tome.
• Li Qingyun sensed the concealment of the Abyss Clan land weakening and left the Heavenly Prison while Third Master Yuan watched him with greed.

Li Qingyun escaped the Heavenly Prison and returned the remains of Shen Mujing, Wang Shangli, and other imprisoned branch-family prodigies to their families, exposing the main lineage’s cruelty. As the Dark Tome gathered their resentment, Li Qingyun reached the Abyss Gate and asked Second Master to let him leave for Mayfly Land No. 1.

• Third Master watched Li Qingyun leave the Heavenly Prison and chose not to stop him, fearing the power behind him.
• Li Qingyun returned Shen Mujing’s remains to the Shen household, where Shen Mujing’s descendant realized their ancestor had died in the prison and cried out in grief.
• Li Qingyun returned Wang Shangli’s remains to the Wang household and carried the remains of dozens of other branch-family prodigies back to their families.
• The Dark Tome gathered resentment from across Abyss Void as Li Qingyun reflected on using it to redress grievances and gain the provisions needed to make it a Saint’s artifact.
• Li Qingyun reached the Abyss Gate and asked Second Master for passage, claiming he intended to merge the Saint bone into his mystic body outside the clan territory.

Li Qingyun escaped the Abyss Clan land and raced through Zang Abyss with the Abyss Great Master’s will pursuing him. He reached the Land of the First Cosmos passage, leaving the furious Great Master unable to follow because of its restrictions.

• Second Uncle withdrew the seals on the Abyss Gate, and Li Qingyun left the Abyss Clan land before its protective haze vanished.
• Li Qingyun entered Zang Abyss and used the Human Dao Lamp to locate Yuan Mian, who had hidden after receiving the Great Master’s order to detain him.
• Li Qingyun took a coffin vessel toward the Land of the First Cosmos passage, while the Great Master’s will pursued him through the Great Burial Pit.
• Li Qingyun taunted the Great Master and escaped through the passage before the pursuer could catch him.
• The Great Master failed to enter the Land of Mayfly because the Primordial Pact and other restrictions would repel and suppress his will.

Li Qingyun arrived at the Land of the First Cosmos and declared that he would oversee the region, summoning the Abyss Clan’s Vacuum and Hua Xuan cultivators. After Yuan Han failed to attend, Li Qingyun ordered him to return to the clan grounds once his Obscurity Eruption ended.

• Li Qingyun returned to the Land of the First Cosmos, sensing a blood-bound connection between the land and the True Blood Heavenly River in his Void Heaven.
• Li Qingyun ordered Yuan Nineteen to announce that he would oversee the region and that all major affairs required his approval.
• Yuan Nineteen warned Yuan Han that Li Qingyun had arrived with fierce momentum, but Yuan Han said he would meet him after suppressing his Obscurity in half a month.
• The Abyss Clan’s local cultivators and the other Superior Clans’ garrisons reacted with alarm to Li Qingyun’s arrival and rise to the Hua Xuan Realm.
• Li Qingyun met with the Abyss Clan’s Vacuum cultivators, learned Yuan Han was absent, and ordered Yuan Han to return to the clan grounds after his Obscurity Eruption ended.

After taking command at Three Saints Mountain, Li Qingyun claimed control over Treasure Tree opportunities and cleared rival clans' cocoon palaces from the surrounding deep void. He left the remaining Hua Xuan bigwigs terrified after killing a Western Clan expert who challenged him.

• Li Qingyun ordered Abyss Clan Vacuum Realm experts to submit all Treasure Tree Sapling opportunities for his inspection, announced plans to build a cocoon palace, and told them to handle their own problems.
• Li Qingyun entered the deep void above Three Saints Mountain and used his power to push Yuan Han's cocoon palace away and shatter the nearby palaces of the Western Clan, River Mother Clan, and Divine Eye Clan.
• Li Qingyun declared that no other cocoon palace could remain within sight of his own, explaining to himself that he needed protection from schemes during Obscurity eruptions.
• A Western Clan Hua Xuan mocked Li Qingyun's rule, so Li Qingyun struck him down with a single attack and drove the other Hua Xuan bigwigs to flee.

Li Qingyun established his authority in the Land of the First Cosmos by killing a Western Heaven Clan cultivator and constructing the Cloud Cocoon Heavenly Palace. The Three Western Heavens Clans plotted to attack him during an Obscurity Eruption, while Li Qingyun prepared to draw Origin Substance from the Outer Ruin to advance his cultivation.

• Li Qingyun killed a Western Heaven Clan Hua Xuan cultivator after the cultivator provoked him, then ordered the White Origin Substance to gather.
• Li Qingyun began constructing his Hua Xuan Cocoon Palace as Yuan Han retreated from the area.
• Abi Tian and other leaders of the Three Western Heavens Clans discussed Li Qingyun’s strength and planned to invade his Great Thousand Void Sky during an Obscurity Eruption.
• Three days later, Li Qingyun completed most of the Cloud Cocoon Heavenly Palace and meditated inside it as Half Obscurity qi filled the palace.
• Li Qingyun concluded that he needed to connect the Land of the First Cosmos to the Outer Ruin and draw in its Origin Substance to reach the Great Perfection of Hua Xuan.

Li Qingyun received Jia Yuxu at his Cloud Cocoon Heavenly Palace and listened as she urged him to join her in pursuing the Saint Seat through her Seed God Dao. As Jia Yuxu explained the Quasi-Saint realm and its power of gray intent, her words sparked a faint insight in Li Qingyun.

• Li Qingyun reflected on his lack of access to the Abyss Clan’s guidance and planned to test whether the Divine Farmer from his dreams would appear during the next Obscurity Eruption.
• Jia Yuxu found Li Qingyun’s true body and visited his Cloud Cocoon Heavenly Palace, where he welcomed her in.
• Jia Yuxu used a secret ocular technique to confirm Li Qingyun had not entered the Hua Xuan Realm using mysterious pearls, then renewed her proposal to him.
• Li Qingyun said he would consider her proposal and drew her into explaining the Seed God Dao and its connection to a Saint Seat.
• Jia Yuxu described the Quasi-Saint realm and its power of gray intent, prompting a faint spark of insight in Li Qingyun.

Jia Yuxu revealed the brutal final step of her Seed God Dao and warned Li Qingyun that enemies would target him during his next Obscurity Eruption. As Li Qingyun entered seclusion, rival factions gathered to seize his body, unaware that he could suppress Obscurity for a day and planned to use the eruption to sweep the Land of the First Cosmos.

• Li Qingyun questioned Jia Yuxu about the karma in her Seed God Dao, and she said its final step required personally eliminating all her bloodline descendants.
• Li Qingyun refused Jia Yuxu's path, and she warned that many people would target him during the next Obscurity Eruption before leaving.
• Li Qingyun resolved to sweep Hua Xuan Realm cultivators from the First Mayfly Land and kept secret his ability to suppress Obscurity for one day during an eruption.
• Two months later, Li Qingyun entered seclusion in the Cloud Cocoon Heavenly Palace as its Obscurity aura drew the attention of rival cultivators.
• Abi Tian assembled thirty-two Hua Xuan cultivators from the Three Western Heavens Clans and urged them to cooperate in claiming Li Qingyun's body.
• Yuan Han, Yuan Changkong, and four young Abyss Clan main-lineage disciples prepared to take advantage of Li Qingyun's eruption.

Yuan Shiliu and other Abyss Clan youths gathered to take revenge on Li Qingyun, while Hua Xuan Heaven Masters attacked the Cloud Cocoon Heavenly Palace during what they believed was his Obscurity Eruption. The palace broke, and the factions fought over Li Qingyun’s body until Yuan Changkong confronted Abi Tian on behalf of the Abyss Clan.

• Yuan Han urged the Abyss Clan youths to let others test Li Qingyun first, but Yuan Lang and Yuan Shiliu voiced their eagerness for revenge.
• Seven Hua Xuan Heaven Masters attacked the Cloud Cocoon Heavenly Palace, believing Li Qingyun was trapped in Obscurity, while Li Qingyun maintained the appearance of being disoriented inside.
• Abi Tian arrived with more than thirty Hua Xuan Heaven Masters from the Western Heaven, Vajra, and Jade Cicada Clans and helped crack the palace open.
• The factions clashed over Li Qingyun’s body, and Abi Tian drove back the first attackers while insisting that the Three Western Heavens Clans would claim it.
• Yuan Changkong and Yuan Han arrived with Yuan Twelve and other Abyss Clan disciples, and Yuan Changkong challenged Abi Tian for besieging an Abyss Clan Seed of a Saint.