Chapter Summaries

After Red-Crowned Crane challenged Bai Yuan to weigh his Dao path against his Mortal Ties, Bai Yuan chose to return to the Kunpeng Demon Realm despite the danger. Owl warned him that leaving meant giving up his chance to stay, then revealed that Bai Yuan and his demon realm were not even important enough to be considered prey.

• Red-Crowned Crane told Bai Yuan that returning to save his family and clansmen would only delay their deaths when the next Time Flood arrived.
• After thinking through the choice overnight, Bai Yuan decided to go back to the Kunpeng Demon Realm.
• Owl’s team evaluated its subordinates, rewarded those who improved, and expelled three animals after their third last-place finish.
• Bai Yuan told Owl that he wanted to return to the demon realm, and Owl asked whether he understood what he was giving up.
• Bai Yuan admitted that he expected to be helpless against the demon realm’s enemies, but Owl said that he and his realm did not even qualify to become fish on the chopping block.

Bai Yuan returned to the Kunpeng Demon Realm with Qin Yuan to save his clan from the Three Great Demon Realms. As Bai Yuan fought their three Demon Realm Masters, Qin Yuan emerged from the void and froze the battlefield.

• Bai Yuan decided to abandon his pursuit of the Great Dao and return to face the calamity, and Qin Yuan chose to accompany him.
• Bai Yuan and Qin Yuan traveled to the Kunpeng Demon Realm, where Qin Yuan sensed the battlefield and Bai Yuan rushed to help his clansmen.
• The Three Great Demon Realms besieged the White Emperor Demon Palace, and their nine wounded Bai Family Emperors prepared to resist a deadly attack.
• Bai Yuan arrived and destroyed the black Law Seals, then battled the three Demon Realm Masters.
• Qin Yuan yawned, froze the battlefield, and stepped out of the void.

Qin Yuan destroyed the Three Great Demon Realms and gave Bai Yuan half a day to decide what to do next. Back in the White Emperor Demon Palace, Bai Yuan prepared to leave after arranging the Bai Family’s future, then answered their questions about the Saint Medicine Garden with a softened version of the truth.

• Qin Yuan annihilated the rulers and armies of the Three Great Demon Realms with a single sword strike and gave Bai Yuan until sunset to make his final decision.
• The Bai Family welcomed Bai Yuan back, and he ordered the Nine Emperors to annex the defeated realms and absorb their people and resources.
• Bai Yuan told the Nine Emperors that future Clan Head candidates would have to pass a trial at the Bai Family’s Ancestral Land before taking the position.
• Bai Yuan confirmed that he planned to leave, gave Bai An a letter to open only if the Bai Family faced destruction, and turned to go.
• Bai Yuan acknowledged that he had found the Saint Medicine Garden but described it as a dreamlike place instead of revealing that it was his master's medicinal herb garden.

Bai Yuan returned to the River of Time after Qin Yuan saved the Kunpeng Demon Realm and gave him another chance to stay. He resolved to keep working with the fifth group, while Old Willow encouraged him to remain loyal and trust Oldest and their master.

• Bai Yuan’s nine outstanding clansmen heard his warning that those who found the Saint Medicine Garden had to overcome the shock of being treated as livestock to earn a chance to stay.
• Qin Yuan told Bai Yuan to repay his kindness by working harder and bringing honor to their fifth group, and Bai Yuan asked why he had been given another opportunity.
• Qin Yuan carried Bai Yuan back to the River of Time, where they resumed their owl and white rabbit forms and found the prize queue unchanged.
• Bai Yuan told Old Willow he was no longer leaving and asked what kind of person Oldest was.
• Old Willow said Oldest and their master were worth following, then urged Bai Yuan to claim his prize and work hard next month.

After completing his third cycle dream, Su Mu discovered a hidden forest town while following warm water through a narrow passage. He met a girl named Wu Guo, but the path vanished behind him and he found himself unable to sense his cultivation or Divine Sense.

• Su Mu completed a third cycle dream as a mute herbal apprentice, and the stone bridge in his mind grew more solid.
• While patrolling a quiet stretch of river, Su Mu followed a warm current through a tree-lined tunnel into a fantastical forest town.
• Su Mu met a little girl named Wu Guo and explained that he had wandered into her territory by accident.
• Wu Guo questioned how Su Mu had entered, and he discovered the passage had disappeared.
• Su Mu found that he could no longer sense his Divine Sense, spiritual power, or cultivation, though he retained his memories.

Su Mu followed Wu Guo and her sister through the forest to meet their grandmother, who told him to cleanse himself in a hot spring. As he entered the spring, he sensed something that made his pupils contract.

• Wu Guo's sister confronted Su Mu, then agreed to lead him farther into the forest after Wu Guo vouched for him.
• Wu Guo's sister brought Su Mu to a vine staircase that descended from the canopy at their grandmother's call.
• Su Mu climbed to a hidden room and discovered that the mist from Crescent Moon Pond forced grime from his body.
• The White-Robed Woman appeared, told Su Mu the spring had been prepared for him, and vanished.
• Su Mu entered the hot spring and suddenly sensed something that made his pupils contract.

Su Mu absorbed the water in Crescent Spring, greatly strengthening his body despite losing his cultivation. The White-Robed Woman then had him transfer all the water in her world into a cloud lake before sending him back through the waterway.

• Su Mu discovered that his Water Control Mystical Power remained and that the spring water was remaking his body as he slept.
• Su Mu awoke in the dried-up Crescent Spring with a much stronger body, and the White-Robed Woman appeared to ask for his help.
• The White-Robed Woman took Su Mu to a cloud lake and explained that it was the source of rainfall and the world’s existence.
• Su Mu used his Water Control Mystical Power to move all the water on the ground into the cloud lake, leaving the land dry.
• The White-Robed Woman said she had finally waited for the right person, then sent Su Mu through a waterway as a system announcement sounded.

Su Mu returned from a mysterious river world with his cultivation raised to the Dao Severing Seventh Realm and continued his reincarnation dream. After discovering that nearly all the pollution sources he had placed in his tributaries had vanished, he confronted the Red-Haired Old Man, who revealed a White Fish Bone.

• Su Mu emerged from the hidden river world, gained six cultivation realms, and raised his River Affinity to eighty-five percent.
• Su Mu completed his fourth reincarnation dream, then found the river unusually clean and calm during his patrol.
• Su Mu discovered that all twenty of his pollution sources except the Big Black Coffin had disappeared, so he went to question the Red-Haired Old Man.
• The Red-Haired Old Man sealed the Small Wooden House with a formation and told Su Mu he planned to move away because someone had come to see him.
• The Red-Haired Old Man showed Su Mu a White Fish Bone, and Su Mu reacted with shock.

Su Mu traced the aura on Big Black Carp’s fish bone to an enemy who had challenged him, while the Red-Haired Old Man abandoned his home on the River of Time and drifted away in a Black Coffin. Su Mu entered the enemy’s formation, where a man appeared to greet him and praise his courage.

• The Red-Haired Old Man told Su Mu that an unknown powerful being had invaded his territory, defeated him, and left Big Black Carp’s fish bone as a message.
• Su Mu recognized the aura on the fish bone as belonging to his enemies, tracked it to a location on the Long River, and allowed the Red-Haired Old Man to leave if he wished.
• The Red-Haired Old Man packed his belongings, lay in his Black Coffin, and let the Time Torrent carry him away from his island home.
• Su Mu reached an oval lake dotted with three hundred and thirty-three Floating Islands, recognized it as a formation aimed at him, and walked inside.
• The Floating Islands blocked the lake’s entrance, and a man appeared on an island at its center, applauding Su Mu for daring to accept the challenge.

Su Mu confronted the Black and White Daoist Robe Man in a lake made from shattered worlds, where the River of Time and its Laws could not be used. The man unleashed his God-Devil Phantoms, but Su Mu destroyed their first assault with his body alone before the man formed a giant-axe dharma form and attacked again.

• The Black and White Daoist Robe Man appeared with Su Mu's former employees imprisoned in an iron cage and explained that he had set up the lake to prevent Su Mu from using the River of Time.
• The Daoist Robe Man killed the imprisoned water beasts to provoke Su Mu, but Su Mu remained calm.
• The Daoist Robe Man summoned the Black and White Divine Tree and revealed his God-Devil Phantoms, displaying power that Su Mu judged to be at least the eighth or ninth realm of Dao Severance.
• The God-Devil Phantoms charged Su Mu, but shattered against his body without harming him.
• The Daoist Robe Man drew power from the divine tree and fused his Phantoms into a giant-axe dharma form, which swung down at Su Mu as he raised his right hand.

Su Mu overwhelmed the Black and White Daoist Robe Man's attacks, revealing the gulf between their strength. The man fused with the Black and White Divine Tree and descended upon Su Mu as a bright moon, which Su Mu met with a strike from his Jet-Black Axe.

• Su Mu crushed the God-Devil Phantom and endured the Daoist Robe Man's Morning Bell attacks, breaking his golden runes with his aura.
• The Daoist Robe Man formed a giant golden palm from thousands of runes, but Su Mu shattered it with one raised hand and made him spit blood.
• The Daoist Robe Man admitted Su Mu was stronger but chose to continue fighting so he could make the Great Personages look down at those on the ground.
• The Black and White Divine Tree fused with the Daoist Robe Man and transformed into a Black and White Bright Moon descending to suppress Su Mu.
• Su Mu summoned a Jet-Black Axe and cleaved at the descending moon as time and the world seemed to freeze.

A young lad accompanied an Old Man up Black White Mountain to visit its Divine Temple, questioning whether the Old Man was truly an immortal and whether cultivation could give someone control over their fate. At the temple, the young lad knelt before the divine statue, while the Old Man silently stared at it.

• The young lad told the Old Man that he wanted to choose his own life and asked whether becoming a powerful immortal could control his fate.
• The Old Man delayed answering until they reached the summit of Black White Mountain.
• The young lad and the Old Man reached the summit in summer, where snow began falling, and the Old Man said someone was changing their fate.
• The Old Man opened the long-sealed Taoist Temple and lit three white candles before the divine statue.
• The young lad felt compelled to kneel and worship the statue, then asked why the Old Man would not kneel; the Old Man kept staring at it without replying.

The young man and the Old Man attempted to worship a statue, but the incense and Incense Paper would not burn. After the statue shattered and the snow stopped, the Old Man told the young man that immortals could not control their fates and that he should follow his own heart; the Old Man then prepared to take him down the mountain and leave.

• The young man repeatedly tried to light incense and Incense Paper before the statue, but they went out whenever he placed them in the burner.
• The Old Man told the young man to wait for someone to decide victory and defeat as the storm grew stronger and extinguished the candles.
• The statue lit up, then cracked and split in two, and the snow stopped while the Old Man stood frozen.
• The young man saw golden light around the Old Man, who later emerged from the temple and told him that neither immortals nor ordinary mortals could control their fate.
• The Old Man advised the young man to follow his heart, then said he would take him down the mountain and leave; the young man asked where he was going.

The Old Man left A'Ming an inheritance and set out to seek justice for a disciple, then confronted a Shadow of Chaos over the fate of a child whose Great Dao had been erased. The Chaos Figures feared the growing anomaly’s power over the River of Time and planned to eliminate him.

• A'Ming called the Old Man his master, and the Old Man gave him an inheritance before leaving to seek justice for an unworthy disciple.
• The Old Man sent A'Ming unconscious and departed, deciding to let him choose his own path rather than bind him to a tragic fate.
• Three Chaos Figures discussed their failed attempt against the anomaly and worried that his control over the River of Time was growing.
• The third Chaos Figure dismissed the other two and stayed behind when the Old Man arrived in the Chaos Space.
• The Old Man accused the Shadow of Chaos of erasing a child’s Great Dao for the sake of an illusory end, and demanded to know whether his Martial Uncle felt any compassion.

The Old Man confronted the Shadow of Chaos over his disciple’s death and refused to become a pawn in the Shadow’s plan. After escaping annihilation as a Black and White Streamer, he reached Su Mu, who sensed an ancient Origin Power in it and touched it.

• The Old Man accused the Shadow of Chaos of using his disciple as a chess piece, then attacked him and was gravely injured by a single counter.
• The Shadow of Chaos admitted he wanted the Old Man to test and weaken the River Warden, and said the River Warden’s existence was an anomaly on a road too narrow for many.
• The Old Man declared that he believed the River Warden would reach the end, provoking the Shadow of Chaos to try to annihilate him.
• The Shadow of Chaos halted at the last moment, allowing the Old Man to transform into a Black and White Streamer and flee.
• Su Mu shattered the Black and White Bright Moon, and the failed formation stopped suppressing him.
• Su Mu sensed lofty Origin Power within the Black and White Streamer and touched it with his fingertip.

Su Mu absorbed the Black and White Streamer, transforming his dantian and reaching the complete Dao Severing Realm as his spiritual power gained Origin Power. In the chaotic void, the Chaos Figure realized the Innate Yin Yang had fallen into Su Mu’s hands and reflected on the ancient Origins behind it.

• The Black and White Streamer entered Su Mu’s body, where a black-and-white sprout appeared in his dantian and his cultivation rose to the complete Dao Severing Realm.
• Su Mu sensed his spiritual power changing and gaining a thread of Origin Power, while he concluded the Daoist Robe Man had probably escaped.
• The Chaos Figure lamented that Su Mu had absorbed the Innate Yin Yang and blamed his martial nephew for disrupting the attempt to reclaim it.
• The Chaos Figure recalled that the Daoist Robe Man was Dao Yan God Sovereign, one of five strands of Innate Yin Yang Qi and an ancient Origin.
• The Chaos Figure noted that three strands of Innate Yin Yang Qi remained hidden across the Myriad Realms, beyond karmic deduction.

After refining Innate Yin Yang Power, Su Mu encountered a frail Old Man who shared the Daoist Robe Man’s origins. The Old Man gave himself to Su Mu, transforming his spiritual power and leaving Su Mu to ponder the recent events.

• Shadow of Chaos explained that Origin Qi could escape refinement and be reborn in another form, so Wan Qing World Honored One could not truly be killed.
• Su Mu refined Innate Yin Yang Power into a sprout in his Dantian, resolving the calamity but losing his old employees and a source of Favor Points.
• A black mist approached Su Mu in the Main River Channel, revealing a dilapidated boat and a frail Old Man aboard.
• The Old Man said he had come to ask one question, then told Su Mu, “Compared to him, I hope you make it to the end.”
• The Old Man became a black-and-white streamer and fused with the sprout in Su Mu’s Dantian, transforming his spiritual power and Spirit Fire.
• Su Mu looked at the empty boat and pondered the recent events.

Su Mu wondered why powerful enemies targeted him and took Nannan by Black Boat to Reincarnation City, where he arrived as Southern Ghost Emperor Du Ziren sensed an unexpected presence and hurried outside. Meanwhile, a Chaos Figure was enraged that Dao Yan God Sovereign had willingly let Su Mu refine him.

• The Chaos Figure sensed that Dao Yan God Sovereign had willingly allowed Su Mu to refine him and grew furious that Su Mu had obtained two Innate Yin Yang origins from his side.
• Su Mu patrolled the river for another week, rebuilt seven or eight Pollution Strongholds, and earned fewer Favor Points than before.
• Su Mu took Nannan aboard Houtu Goddess's Black Boat, which carried them through a narrow channel and into Reincarnation City.
• Huang Hall Master and other powerful visitors waited outside Du Ziren's residence, hoping to discuss a crisis threatening the Seven Great Realms.
• Du Ziren prepared to meet the waiting visitors, sensed an unexpected aura, and abruptly headed outside.

Su Mu brought Nannan to explore Reincarnation City, where they met a candy seller who offered them treats for free. Du Ziren arrived and greeted Su Mu as a respected older brother, leaving the crowd and the seller astonished.

• Du Ziren hurried through Reincarnation City to find Su Mu, while a crowd followed at a distance.
• Su Mu and Nannan walked through the ancient city and stopped at a stall selling Paper Soul Candy Figures.
• The stall owner gave Nannan three candy figures for free, explaining that newcomers could receive gifts.
• Du Ziren arrived and addressed Su Mu as Brother Su, shocking the onlookers and the stall owner.
• Du Ziren introduced himself to Nannan, who said she would call him Uncle Du.

Su Mu visited Du Ziren with Nannan and arranged for him to look after Jiang Yun, whose paper candy figurines had impressed him. Jiang Yun was then taken to the Sin Tower, where the rules of atonement in Ancient Reincarnation City were explained.

• Su Mu accepted Du Ziren’s invitation to visit his residence and praised Jiang Yun’s paper candy figurine so Du Ziren would take an interest in her.
• Du Ziren understood Su Mu’s intention and memorized Jiang Yun’s name and appearance.
• After Su Mu and Du Ziren left, a man wearing a Ghost Face Mask came to Jiang Yun and summoned her.
• Jiang Yun stored her cart in her sleeve and followed the masked man to the eighteen-story Sin Tower.
• The chapter explained that Ancient Reincarnation City held souls who had disrupted reincarnation, where they repaid their debts in lifespan before returning to the cycle.