Chapter Summaries

As Taiping City came under assault, Qin Pingping sacrificed himself to repair the city formation, while Lu Nianfeng and the students fought the Barbarian Army with a forest conjured from their combined Righteous Qi. With Zhang Ruoyu’s Saintly Dao nearing collapse, Wu Tianjia awakened the heroic souls preserved in the Hall of Confucian Bones and sent them into battle.

• Qin Pingping stabbed himself with a Taiping Dagger and sacrificed his life to stabilize the city formation, and Jin An'an took over his position.
• Lu Nianfeng and dozens of students used Open Taiping to create the Confucian Dao Forest, but a barbarian woman unleashed Blood Melting, Beast Transformation and sent blood-red beasts against them.
• Wu Yihang discovered that a seal trapped him outside Taiping City and flew toward the city after failing to break through it or send a message.
• Zhang Ruoyu sealed Tagu's Blood Dripping Rebirth with his Long Bridge of Seeking, sacrificing the bridge and putting his Saintly Dao at risk.
• Wu Tianjia summoned the heroic souls held in the Hall of Confucian Bones, and they charged from the city to join the battle.

Taiping City’s Scholars and heroic souls fought to the death as Tagu shattered the Barbarian Emperor’s Great Banner and restored the Barbarian Army. Zhang Ruoyu sacrificed himself to summon the Taiping Elephant, while Chen Luo completed Romance of the Three Kingdoms and caused a shrine to appear above Dongcang City.

• Azure heroic souls entered the battlefield, and a Great Scholar sacrificed himself to kill one Barbarian King and mortally wound another.
• Wang Xuance kept the freshmen guarding the city’s formation, then led them in groups to strike powerful Barbarians and support the Taiping Scholars.
• Tagu shattered the Barbarian Emperor’s Great Banner, sending blood qi into the Barbarian Army and healing its warriors.
• The Great Scholars and wounded Taiping Scholars sacrificed themselves to invoke the Saints, while Lu Nianfeng became a seven-colored giant deer and held back the Barbarian Army so Wang Xuance and the other surviving freshmen could escape.
• Zhang Ruoyu sacrificed himself, and his Saint’s Will summoned Zhang Zai, whose final words called down the enormous Taiping Elephant to crush the Barbarians.
• Chen Luo finished Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and a phantom resembling the Three Kingdoms Shrine appeared above Dongcang City.

Tagu trapped the Origin Giant Elephant in the Double God Track ritual to ascend as a powerful Barbarian god, while Chen Luo established the School of Military Path and became Great Xuan’s Imperial Preceptor. Dongcang’s volunteers arrived at Taiping City, where Chen Luo learned Wang Xuance was the only surviving Taiping Academy member and ordered the attack.

• Tagu revealed that he had arranged the Taiping War to fulfill the Double God Track’s conditions and used its ritual array to trap and weaken the Origin Giant Elephant.
• Chen Luo summoned heroes from the River of Romance, established the School of Military Path as a National Art of Pacification, and was named Imperial Preceptor by Ye Huan.
• Chen Luo opened the Military Martial branch in Dongcang, where Ya Zi summoned volunteers to battle and carried them to Taiping City.
• Wang Xuance prepared to seek revenge as reinforcements arrived and charged the Barbarian Army; Ya Zi attacked the blood mist while a mysterious woman trapped the Painted-faced Old Woman.
• Chen Luo and Wu Litiao arrived at Taiping City, learned from Wang Xuance that the rest of Taiping Academy had died, and Chen Luo ordered the attack.

Chen Luo used his destiny to break the Double Sky Track, freeing the Origin Giant Elephant and interrupting Tagu’s ascension. The elephant defeated Tagu, but Tagu escaped through the Painted-faced Old Woman, and Chen Luo ordered the Dongcang forces to hunt down the remaining Barbarians.

• Wang Xuance rallied the Dongcang reinforcements as they charged the weakened Barbarian Army, while Chen Luo sensed danger in the blood mist.
• Chen Luo learned that the blood mist was the Double Sky Track, and he used his destiny to sever its blood lines and free the Origin Giant Elephant.
• The recovered giant elephant seized Chen Luo and drained the blood mist, revealing Tagu as a False God whose ascension had been interrupted.
• Tagu attacked the elephant, but Taiping Auspiciousness let the elephant smash him 7,636 times before its green light erased him.
• The Painted-faced Old Woman helped Tagu escape as a drop of his blood, then exploded after the blood entered the eye on her back.
• The giant elephant vanished, and Chen Luo ordered the Dongcang forces to leave no Barbarians alive.

After Taiping City survived the battle, Mordan learned that Yilisahan Tribe’s great banner had fallen and ordered his tribe to return for its fortune. The survivors honored their dead and prepared for what came next, while Wang Xuance left for Barbarian Heaven and Sima Lie resolved to record the aftermath.

• Mordan learned that Tagu had failed to restore Yilisahan Tribe’s great banner, then ordered Moredan Tribe to return and claim the spoils.
• Taiping City’s residents searched the battlefield for the remains of Taiping Academy’s dead, and Wang Xuance found Lu Nianfeng’s bloodstained antler and carried it to the Hall of Confucian Bones.
• Wu Yihang mourned his teacher Wu Tianjia, broke his qin, and settled into meditation to guard the Hall of Confucian Bones.
• Wang Xuance placed Lu Nianfeng’s antler in the hall’s cauldron, promised that Taiping City would endure, and departed for Barbarian Heaven.
• Dongcang Warriors celebrated their battlefield gains, while Jin Guagua received thank-you gifts from the fighters he had helped.
• Sima Lie heard accounts of the battle and decided to add what happened afterward to his record, describing it as something he had personally witnessed.

Chen Luo explained Ya Zi’s limits and revealed that his new military school could strengthen Human armies through its four branches. He and Han Qingzhu agreed to establish the Dongcang Military Academy, while Lang Feixian suggested telling Chen Luo about his apparent touch on the Heavenly Gate.

• Chen Luo brought Ya Zi before Han Qingzhu and the Hundred Battles Great Scholars, who asked how it had transported them to Taiping City.
• Chen Luo explained that Ya Zi’s power only worked beneath Heaven within Human territory and could not reach beyond it.
• Chen Luo described the military school’s four branches and said its arts could help armies turn defeats into victories and withstand a second strike from a barbarian god.
• Chen Luo and Han Qingzhu agreed that the Ministry of War would fund the Dongcang Military Academy while the academy retained independent recruitment, and Sima Lie recorded their high-five as the Taiping Oath.
• Lang Feixian told Yun Siyao that Chen Luo seemed to have touched the Heavenly Gate and suggested they tell him more, while Yun Siyao said the choice was his.

As Chen Luo returned to Dongcang, Yun Siyao and Lang Feixian explained that many new cultivation paths had appeared throughout history, but some were destroyed while others merged into the three established Great Daos. Chen Luo learned that opening the Heavenly Gate would require choosing how Martial Dao joined the broader order, but the chapter ended before he heard the second option.

• Chen Luo led Dongcang's army toward the city as its soldiers sang the Martial Academy song, and Yun Siyao sensed that guests had arrived there.
• Mr. Unwearied and Dao Lord Shang Shan reached Dongcang City and told Qin Dangguo they had come to find Chen Luo.
• Yun Siyao joined Chen Luo on Ao Lingling, and they flew ahead while she explained that Chen Luo was not the only person in history to open a new cultivation path.
• Lang Feixian and Yun Siyao told Chen Luo that some paths had been destroyed while others had been integrated into Confucianism, Daoism, or Buddhism.
• Yun Siyao explained that Chen Luo could push open the Heavenly Gate by borrowing a Ten Thousand Li Great Dao, then described choosing Confucianism or Daoism as the first option.

Yun Siyao explained Chen Luo’s choices for opening the Heavenly Gate, and Chen Luo chose to establish his Dao through a written work rather than fuse with Confucianism or Daoism. He returned toward Dongcang City, where two people awaited him, ready to decide what writing would carry his Dao.

• Yun Siyao described the benefits and costs of merging Chen Luo’s martial path with the Confucian or Daoist Great Dao, while the green lotus warned that opening the gate alone could leave him stuck or dead.
• Chen Luo rejected merging with another tradition and insisted he would open the Heavenly Gate himself, despite Yun Siyao recounting the grim history of earlier path founders.
• Lang Feixian suggested seizing destiny from other traditions’ favored disciples, but Yun Siyao explained that Chen Luo could instead open the gate through a written work expressing his Dao.
• The green lotus warned that a written work would bring a year of disasters, while stealing destiny could ruin other cultivators’ foundations.
• Chen Luo refused to harm people who had not provoked him and chose to open the Heavenly Gate through a written work.
• Yun Siyao said two people awaited Chen Luo in Dongcang City, and Chen Luo declared that he had already decided what sort of writing to create.

Chen Luo rejected the Sage Hall and Dao Palace’s offers to merge Martial Dao into their paths and chose to open the Heavenly Gate alone. As the Heaven-Connecting Gate appeared above Dongcang City, martial cultivators across Great Xuan felt its arrival.

• Mr. Unwearied told Dao Lord Shang Shan that he hoped Chen Luo would open the Heavenly Gate alone, believing Martial Dao could help all humanity grow strong.
• Yun Siyao explained the powers governing the mortal cultivation paths and the significance of reaching Six Thousand Li and opening the Heavenly Gate.
• Sima Lie used Historian’s Great Gate to reach Dongcang City again, despite the lifespan it cost him.
• Dao Lord Shang Shan and Mr. Unwearied offered Chen Luo powerful support from the Dao Palace and Sage Hall if he joined their respective paths.
• Chen Luo thanked them but declared he would open the Heavenly Gate alone and create a path to Sainthood for humanity.
• Chen Luo called for the Heavenly Gate, and a colossal Heaven-Connecting Gate appeared above Dongcang City as martial cultivators across Great Xuan looked to the sky.

Chen Luo used Origin Dragon Qi from Yun Siyao to withstand the Three Thousand Li Heavenly Gate and challenged it with writings that shook the Demon, Buddhist, and Daoist domains. He shattered the gate, advancing the Martial Dao to Six Thousand Li, but the explosion injured his spirit soul.

• Yun Siyao gave Chen Luo Origin Dragon Qi, easing the Heavenly Gate's pressure so he could attempt to break through.
• Chen Luo wrote passages for the Book of Demons and Ghosts, Book of Buddhas and Demons, and Book of Gods and Immortals, causing the Heavenly Gate to crack and stirring the Demon, Buddhist, and Daoist domains.
• Chen Luo declared that the Martial Dao did not end at Three Thousand Li and struck the cracked Heavenly Gate with his fist.
• The Heavenly Gate shattered, and the warriors felt its pressure lift as the Martial Dao reached Six Thousand Li.
• Chen Luo returned to consciousness and spat blood, explaining that the gate's explosion had injured his spirit soul.

Chen Luo opened Six Thousand Li Martial Dao by shattering the Heavenly Gate, but Dao Lord Shang Shan discovered that a year of terrible misfortune clung to him. As Chen Luo struggled to accept the danger, an Old Ox and its shepherd boy watched from the void and urged patience over forcing the Dao.

• Sima Li recorded Chen Luo’s feat of opening Martial Dao by shattering the Heavenly Gate, while Yun Siyao explained that Chen Luo had been able to enter it when it trembled.
• Lang Feixian revealed that destroying the Heavenly Gate would make it easier for Martial Dao practitioners to advance from Three Thousand Li to Six Thousand Li, and Chen Luo declared that he would clear the path for others.
• After Chen Luo choked on his saliva and was injured when Yun Siyao tried to help him, Dao Lord Shang Shan examined him and found that misfortune would cling to him for about a year.
• Chen Luo suffered more accidents from a collapsing chair and a poisonous Barbarian Blood Beast tooth, then returned to his room and tried to accept the cost of his breakthrough.
• An Old Ox and its shepherd boy appeared in the void, spoke of the Book of Gods and Immortals, and advised letting the Dao arise naturally rather than forcing it.

Chen Luo entered the Martial Dao’s Six Thousand Li road, learned its cultivation principles, and established the Martial Immortal Realm. The new realm’s completion resonated across the world, while Chen Luo resolved to investigate the ancient Great Scholar whose scholarly heart had helped create the Martial Dao.

• Chen Luo crossed onto the Six Thousand Li road and received the ancient sage’s teaching that the Martial Dao cultivated essence, qi, and spirit in succession.
• Chen Luo realized the sage had devised the Martial Dao without reaching its later stages and vowed to uncover the scholarly heart’s origins and its connection to the Gu Sect.
• Chen Luo defined Martial Dao True Intent and established the Four Thousand Li Misty Moon stage and the Five Thousand Li Brilliant Sun stage.
• Chen Luo established the Six Thousand Li Kindling Intent stage, where multiple True Intents formed a Martial Dao True Body that could take a fatal blow, and named the realm Martial Immortal.
• The Holy Hall and Dao Palace acknowledged the completed Martial Immortal road as its radiance appeared across the sky and a voice announced its establishment.

After Chen Luo opened six thousand li of the Martial Dao, the human scholars celebrated while the Buddhist lands and barbarian rulers began responding to him as a threat. Back in Dongcang City, he discovered he could not enter the newly unlocked flower forest until he condensed his Martial Dao True Intent, and he began choosing which martial art to use.

• Yan Baichuan, Kong Tianfang, Leng Hanbing, and other scholars praised Chen Luo’s Kindling Intent and the Martial Dao, with Yan Baichuan wishing for a million human Martial Immortals.
• Fang Zigu met a white-robed Bodhisattva, who proposed converting Chen Luo or killing him and said the Vajra Courtyard could be mobilized.
• The barbarian rulers entered Chen Luo into the Golden Tent Blood Ranking at tenth place, declaring him a major threat.
• Chen Luo returned from the Martial Dao after a Buddhist attack’s lingering aura made him cough, then learned the six-thousand-li flower forest required him to reach the corresponding cultivation level.
• The Spirit of the Secret Realm told Chen Luo that books in the new forest required both Heavenly Dao Destiny and Primordial Chaos Qi, which it sensed around him.
• Chen Luo realized he still needed to condense his Martial Dao True Intent and considered which of his perfected martial arts to choose.

Chen Luo accidentally condensed Seven Injuries Fist as his first Martial Dao True Intent and learned that his bad luck could not be resolved, only endured by leaving the capital and relying on Human Race Destiny. He decided to travel to Spirit Province and meet his teacher in the Bamboo Grove as spring arrived.

• Lang Feixian interrupted Chen Luo as he tried to choose Tai Chi Fist, and Chen Luo accidentally formed Seven Injuries Fist True Intent, entering Martial Dao Four Thousand Li while suffering its harmful effects.
• Dao Lord Shang Shan told Chen Luo that the Azure Heaven Dao’s year-long trial could not be stopped and that staying in one place risked turning his bad luck into a Calamity of Killing.
• Dao Lord Shang Shan advised Chen Luo to keep moving and draw on Human Race Destiny to help dissolve the tribulation.
• Yun Siyao agreed the journey was dangerous but supported Chen Luo’s plan to visit the Human Race’s great cities and foundations.
• Chen Luo decided to leave for Spirit Province, enter the Bamboo Grove, and keep his appointment to meet his teacher.

After spring arrived in Dongcang, Chen Luo visited Dao Lord Shang Shan to thank him and say farewell before leaving the city, receiving three powerful Bean Soldier Marshals as a gift. Mr. Unwearied then warned Chen Luo that he had become the tenth target on the barbarians’ Blood Ranking and explained the danger of their assassins and human collaborators.

• Chen Luo walked through rainy Dongcang with Ao Lingling and visited Dao Lord Shang Shan to thank him and announce his imminent departure.
• Dao Lord Shang Shan gave Chen Luo three Immortal Soldier Bean Seeds, which transformed into the Dao Lord-level Red Bean Bean, Green Bean Bean, and Yellow Bean Bean.
• Chen Luo and Ao Lingling visited Mr. Unwearied, who revealed that Chen Luo ranked tenth on the barbarians’ Blood Ranking.
• Mr. Unwearied explained the barbarian hierarchy and warned that the Blood Ranking offered rewards for assassinations and could be acted on by human collaborators and infiltrators.
• Chen Luo asked about the top-ranked targets and promised Mr. Unwearied that he would be careful around beautiful women.

Chen Luo prepared to leave Dongcang on a journey to places where humanity’s fortunes flourished, while Ji Zhong accompanied him around the city before they parted with a promise to meet again. Yun Siyao confirmed that Master Qin would manage Dongcang and that Jin Guagua would join Chen Luo on the journey, leaving the group ready to depart.

• Chen Luo told Ji Zhong that the journey was too special to take him along, but Ji Zhong followed him through Dongcang anyway, and they parted after Chen Luo thanked him for guarding the city.
• Chen Luo encountered Chen Qingzhi, who had enrolled in the military academy, and sent him and the tardy students Qin Shubao and Cheng Yaojin on to class.
• Chen Luo visited Bi Xi, then toured Dongcang with Ji Zhong before urging him to cultivate until he could reach the Martial Immortal Realm.
• Yun Siyao told Chen Luo that Master Qin would oversee Dongcang while Wu Litiao stayed behind to protect the city and establish a Mist Steed branch there.
• Yun Siyao announced that Jin Guagua would accompany Chen Luo, and Jin Guagua eagerly insisted on joining after Chen Luo suggested leaving it behind.

As Chen Luo sailed from Dongcang toward Le Ya City, Yun Siyao explained that Primordial Chaos Qi was needed to write his next three books and could be extracted from treasures of principle. His first attempts to extract it failed under the effects of his bad luck, but Jin Guagua’s whistle helped him succeed, and he entered the Dream Flower Forest to begin writing.

• Master Qin and the Dongcang officials watched Chen Luo’s ship depart, then returned to work on the city’s affairs.
• On the ship, Yun Siyao told Chen Luo that Literary Treasures and other treasures of principle contained Primordial Chaos Qi, which he needed for his three new books.
• Yun Siyao gave Chen Luo three ruined Literary Treasures and taught him how to extract their Primordial Chaos Qi.
• Chen Luo’s first two extraction attempts failed when his bad luck and the Seven Injuries Fist’s true intent disrupted him.
• Chen Luo had Jin Guagua play a whistle to keep him alert, successfully extracted one strand of Primordial Chaos Qi, and entered the Dream Flower Forest.

Chen Luo selected a Six Thousand Li book and wrote “Washing the Purple River Carriage,” which formed the Treasure of Rules called the Book of Life and Death. After learning of its power, he told Lang Feixian to publish the story immediately.

• Chen Luo asked the Spirit of the Secret Realm how to choose a Six Thousand Li book, then fed Primordial Chaos Qi and destiny into the flower forest and selected a butterfly’s book.
• In Central Capital City, Lu Tong reassured Teacher Guo that Chen Luo had prepared backup stories for the Great Xuan Civil Gazette.
• Chen Luo wrote “Washing the Purple River Carriage,” a tale about Ding Kai, his deceased wife, and Ox-Head repaying his kindness.
• The manuscript transformed under a heavenly power, and Chen Luo realized it had formed the Book of Demons and Ghosts, whose cover read “Book of Life and Death.”
• Yun Siyao, Lang Feixian, and Ao Lingling checked on Chen Luo, and he told Lang Feixian to publish the story at once.

Chen Luo’s new Six Thousand Li story restored Zhao Youqiao’s missing spirit and allowed him to speak again. The story also led Dao Lord Tian Ling to discover that the human spirit contained Seven Souls, while Chen Luo learned that the embryonic Book of Life and Death had recorded Zhao Youqiao’s name but gained no other function.

• Liang Qingyu read Chen Luo’s new story, Washing the Purple River Carriage, to Zhao Youqiao, and his spirit emerged from his body with a missing right eye.
• The story’s characters entered Zhao Youqiao’s spirit, restored his right eye, and returned him to his body; Zhao Youqiao woke and called Liang Qingyu “Mother.”
• Chen Luo saw Zhao Youqiao’s name appear in the Book of Life and Death and realized the book could not yet do anything beyond recording a name.
• Dao Lord Tian Ling studied Washing the Purple River Carriage alongside Daoist scriptures and concluded that the human spirit consisted of three souls and Seven Souls.
• Dao Lord Tian Ling decided to report that the Six Thousand Li book could awaken the Seven Souls, while a notice renamed the martial arts realm Joyful Body to Kindling Intent.

Chen Luo arrived in Le Ya City and learned that the beggar child he had helped might have been separated from his family in the northern war. Meanwhile, Yu Jia accepted a mission to kill Chen Luo, and the child reappeared briefly before vanishing as Chen Luo reached his new residence.

• Yang Qianli welcomed Chen Luo to Le Ya City, where Chen Luo explained how the Seven Souls could advance Martial Dao cultivation.
• A jolt threw Chen Luo onto Yun Siyao, and he accidentally brushed her earlobe before she helped him recover.
• Chen Luo gave pastries to a starving beggar child and told Yang Qianli not to give him money.
• Lamia summoned Yu Jia to the Moon Forest and asked her to kill Chen Luo before the Curse Hall could act.
• Lamia sealed the moon eye on Yu Jia's back so she could pass as a human woman, and Yu Jia learned that her target was Chen Luo.
• After Chen Luo arrived at his residence, he saw the beggar child holding the pastries, but the child vanished when he looked again.