Chapter Summaries

Chu Mu waived Lie Yan’s imprisonment after realizing Chu Yan had intervened to protect him, then focused on preparing for his own cultivation. After gathering resources and arranging his affairs, Chu Mu left the Longevity Sect in a concealed flying boat to travel to Hanhai and cultivate in seclusion.

• Chu Yan apologized to Chu Mu and revealed her concern for Lie Yan, prompting Chu Mu to waive Lie Yan’s imprisonment.
• Chu Mu reflected on his growing ties to the Longevity Sect and prioritized advancing toward the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Chu Mu traveled across the Northern Border for several months, gathering cultivation resources before returning to the Longevity Sect.
• Chu Mu spent his accumulated merit points on more resources and departed Longevity Immortal Mountain in the damaged Sky-Piercing Flying Boat.
• Chu Mu repaired the flying boat enough for the journey, sealed his communication tokens, and reviewed his preparations before settling down to balance his Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

Lie Yan advanced to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment in his ninth-ranked cave estate on Azure Cloud Peak. Yan Qiuling brought him gifts from the True Inheritance, but the encounter left Lie Yan troubled by the gulf between himself and the lofty figure connected to their settled feelings.

• Lie Yan broke through to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment and anticipated reaching the Golden Core realm within a century.
• Yan Qiuling arrived at Lie Yan's cave estate and said she had come on the True Inheritance's orders.
• Yan Qiuling presented Lie Yan with several streaks of spiritual light as gifts from the True Inheritance, then departed.
• Lie Yan put the gifts away without inspecting them and returned to his room, his confidence shaken by the gulf between himself and the unreachable existence.

After years of preparation and travel, Chu Mu reached the sea where he had hidden the Azure Ice Flame and detached it from the strange world that sustained it. He left the mature flame ready to refine, while the Ice and Frost World collapsed around him.

• Lie Yan rose through the Azure Cloud Peak ranks, passed the Peeking Truth Vein examination, and became its newest direct disciple.
• Chu Mu spent years refining supplies and arranging a secluded cultivation site as he traveled away from the Longevity Sect.
• Chu Mu’s flying boat entered the Outer Sea, and he reached the marked location of the Azure Ice Flame.
• Chu Mu found that his formations remained intact and confirmed the Azure Ice Flame had matured.
• Chu Mu severed the flame’s connection to the Ice and Frost World, causing the world to collapse and leaving the Azure Ice Flame amid the seabed remains.

Chu Mu traveled to Verdant Forest Island to check on the Xu Family and its aging patriarch, Xu Yuan. He entered Verdant Forest Palace unseen and watched Xu Yuan awaken, alert but unable to detect him.

• Chu Mu boarded a sea vessel bound for Verdant Forest Island, intending to make a brief detour before seeking seclusion.
• Chu Mu passed the island’s inspection and studied the powerful Eight Trigrams defenses protecting the Xu Family’s territory.
• Chu Mu reflected on how centuries had widened the distance between him and Xu Yuan, who had once refused to settle on Red Cloud Island.
• Chu Mu bypassed Verdant Forest Palace’s formations and patrols without being noticed.
• Xu Yuan sensed someone watching him, released his Foundation Establishment Perfection aura, and scanned the area, but detected nothing.

Chu Mu reunited with Xu Yuan in the Vast Ocean, treated his hidden injury, and learned about the family Xu Yuan had built. After leaving him a Storage Talisman, Chu Mu set course for the southwest, seeking a safer place to enter seclusion while avoiding enemies in the Vast Ocean.

• Chu Mu revealed himself to Xu Yuan, subdued him briefly, and used his power to heal the wound in Xu Yuan's chest.
• Xu Yuan told Chu Mu about his family estate and asked about rumors that Chu Mu had disappeared and been gravely injured; Chu Mu said he had recovered.
• Chu Mu and Xu Yuan shared wine and spoke about their different lives, with Xu Yuan describing the family foundation he had established.
• Chu Mu departed the Verdant Forest Islands, leaving a Storage Talisman floating before the drunken Xu Yuan.
• Chu Mu changed his destination to a route through Great Chu toward the southwest, hoping to avoid the hostile Vast Ocean and find a safer place to enter seclusion.

Chu Mu entered the Endless Desert Sea, a deathly forbidden region shaped by the ancient Sand Tail Scorpion Cataclysm, seeking to conceal the spiritual fluctuations connected to Heavenly Evolution. After traveling ten thousand miles, his Sky-Piercing Flying Boat was corroded and destroyed, leaving him hovering alone amid the wild sands, protected by flames.

• Chu Mu reached the border between Xichang Kingdom’s lush lands and the black sands of the Endless Desert Sea.
• Chu Mu piloted his gray-white flying boat into the desert, where corrosive sand and turbulent spiritual energy battered it.
• Chu Mu recalled his experiences with the Sand Tail Scorpion Queen and the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast as he considered Heavenly Evolution’s reappearance in Hanhai.
• Chu Mu strengthened the flying boat with spiritual energy and traveled deeper into the dark desert, hearing beast roars but encountering no Monster Beasts.
• After the boat had traveled ten thousand miles, the sand sea corroded it until it shattered, and Chu Mu remained hovering with flames around him.

Chu Mu built a concealed Cave Abode in the Endless Desert Sea and set up the Wind Thunder Two Elements Formation to protect his secluded cultivation and future Nascent Soul tribulation. The formation was complete, leaving him ready to begin decades of cultivation beneath the desert.

• Chu Mu chose a location in the Endless Desert Sea where its dangers would not disrupt his secluded cultivation.
• Chu Mu petrified the desert surface and carved mysterious patterns into the stone to prepare the formation site.
• Over several dozen days, Chu Mu arranged the formation-setting artifacts until the grand formation sealed off the surrounding desert forces.
• Chu Mu entered a Cave Abode beneath the petrified desert, equipped with an alchemy workshop, an Artifact Room, and a meditation room.
• Chu Mu prepared the Wind Thunder Two Elements Formation to conceal his Nascent Soul formation and help him survive the heavenly tribulation.

Chu Mu prepared his resources for forming his Nascent Soul in a sealed cultivation room and explained the treasure grades used in the cultivation world. He sat on an ancient Superior Grade Spiritual Treasure meditation cushion whose effects purified spiritual qi and guarded his mind as he began secluded cultivation.

• Chu Mu laid out his Alchemical Pills, cultivation implements, Azure Ice Flame, and other resources for forming his Nascent Soul.
• Chu Mu described the cultivation world's treasure grades and explained why fifth-tier treasures were called ancient treasures.
• Chu Mu identified the meditation cushion as an ancient Superior Grade Spiritual Treasure passed down from the Wang Family Old Ancestor.
• Chu Mu sat on the cushion and felt it shroud his body, spiritual power, and divine soul with its protective effects.
• Chu Mu sensed pure spiritual qi flowing from the cushion, in stark contrast to the violent spiritual qi of the Desert Sea.

After years of secluded cultivation and refining the Azure Ice Flame, Chu Mu reached Golden Core Completion and began breaking his Immortal Fetus Golden Core. He left the chapter on the brink of forming a Nascent Soul, with his mind focused on stabilizing his cultivation.

• Chu Mu’s Great Sun True Fire absorbed the Azure Ice Flame’s power, developing a pale-blue outer flame and reaching the limit of Golden Core cultivation.
• Chu Mu sensed that refining the Azure Ice Flame and years of cultivation had raised him to Golden Core Completion.
• Chu Mu discovered that his Immortal Fetus Golden Core had begun breaking, and the process had progressed smoothly in only a few days.
• Chu Mu recognized that emerging from the broken core required care, since an imperfect Nascent Soul formation could leave a fatal flaw in his cultivation.
• Chu Mu kept his Spirit Radiance Blessing active, took a Nourishing Spirit Pill, and focused on stabilizing his cultivation at the Fourth Order threshold.

After Xu Yuan formed his Golden Core, the Vast Sea Alliance conscripted him to the Outer Sea, where he led a squadron of Subduing Flood Dragon warships on patrol. An urgent alliance order ended the years of quiet, sending forces searching south of the encampment for an unknown threat.

• Xu Yuan joined the Human Race Alliance encampment in the Outer Sea and fulfilled his duties after the alliance's latest exploration of the Sky Palace Relic ended.
• After more than a year of fighting, Xu Yuan was assigned to lead a squadron of Subduing Flood Dragon Suppressing Sea and Dividing Water warships on patrol south of the encampment.
• The alliance issued an urgent order at midnight, overturning the patrol system and mobilizing its forces.
• Alliance forces spread out south of the encampment in a fan-shaped search formation as the war fortresses readied for action.

Xu Yuan saw the Alliance unite to protect three intelligent third-tier Dark Serpents and feared their mobilization would trigger a war. Fighting erupted across the deep sea as the Alliance army and a vast Demon Beast Tide advanced toward each other, leaving their collision imminent.

• Xu Yuan studied the Alliance's orders to protect three intelligent Dark Serpents and wondered why they had united their command for them.
• Xu Yuan feared that the Dark Serpent Clan's response to the Alliance's mobilization could ignite a great war.
• On the third day, spiritual energy detectors aboard the Flying Boats registered battles breaking out across the deep sea.
• The Alliance army and countless Demon Beasts converged, with Nascent Soul Great Experts fighting amid the growing conflict.
• The Alliance's formations met the charging Demon Beast Tide, and blood stained the sea and sky as the armies collided.

After half a year of devastating battle, the Vast Sea Alliance and the demons entered a fragile truce while both sides replenished their losses. Xu Yuan received an order to provide eight hundred more cultivators and confine the survivors, while the Nascent Soul Great Experts examined recordings inside the Longevity Immortal Hall.

• The battle’s aftermath left the sea choked with blood and corpses as the humans and demons retreated nearly a thousand li from the devastated region.
• Xu Yuan received an alliance order requiring the Verdant Forest Xu Family to send eight hundred cultivators within thirty days or face clan extermination.
• Xu Yuan reflected that only a little over forty of the three hundred family disciples who had accompanied him had survived, and all three Foundation Establishment disciples had died.
• Xu Yuan worried that the Dark Serpent Clan would resume the war because two of its Monster Beasts were now held by the alliance.
• Xu Yuan told the surviving disciples to rest and not leave without authorization, then vanished from the sea region.
• Inside the Longevity Immortal Hall, the Nascent Soul Great Experts watched images displayed by Heavenly Mark Crystal Stones in a tense silence.

While preparing to form a Nascent Soul in the Desert Sea, Chu Mu examined his memories and discovered that his attachment to his brother from his previous life had appeared only after his strange Heart Demon Tribulation. He realized the emotion—and possibly the brother at its root—might have appeared out of thin air, leaving him questioning what was real.

• Cultivators from across the Southern Sky gathered in the Outer Sea as factions united for a looming conflict, while Chu Mu remained isolated in the Desert Sea.
• Chu Mu ended his seclusion after stabilizing his Golden Core Completion cultivation and reviewed the trials involved in forming a Nascent Soul.
• Chu Mu reflected on his past and noticed that, when he first crossed into this world, he had shown no attachment to his brother from his previous life.
• Chu Mu recognized that his longing for his brother had appeared after his strange Heart Demon Tribulation and wondered whether the brother himself was also a rootless creation.
• Chu Mu recalled the Sky Palace Relic’s reincarnation illusion and realized he had not sought out his supposed attachment there.

Chu Mu traced the nonexistent person and his strange concern to the Blood Pearl, Thread-drawing Gu, and possible influence from the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast. He concluded that widespread corruption was unlikely and wondered whether his Spirit Radiance Blessing had kept the beast from influencing his mind.

• Chu Mu connected the Blood Pearl and his Heart Demon Illusion to the Wang Family Old Ancestor, the Longevity Sect, and the Heaven's Secrets Lineage.
• Chu Mu traced the chain of events back to the Sky Palace Relic and the evolving Thread-drawing Gu, while judging that a precise scheme against him was unlikely.
• Chu Mu recalled that the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast had revealed his previous life during the illusory tribulation and considered whether it could influence the world from within the Sky Palace Relic.
• Chu Mu suspected the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast had corrupted the Dark Serpent Clan and allied demon clans, but rejected the idea that it had corrupted every major force.
• Chu Mu wondered whether his constant Spirit Radiance Blessing had prevented the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast from interfering with his mind.

Chu Mu returned to his Cave Abode and prepared to break through to Nascent Soul Formation while continuing to suspect the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast was influencing him. After nearly three months of careful preparation, he attacked the boundary to shatter his core and form his Nascent Soul.

• Chu Mu concluded that Spirit Radiance Blessing had helped him notice the false emotion implanted during the Heart Demon Tribulation, but he saw no way to resist the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast if his suspicions were true.
• Chu Mu took Nourishing Spirit Pills and restored his body, spiritual power, soul, and mind to peak condition as his Nascent Soul Formation threshold became clearer.
• Chu Mu returned to his Cave Abode, activated the Wind Thunder Grand Formation, and added a simple restriction to warn him of anything approaching from within.
• Chu Mu used Spirit Radiance Blessing to inspect the restriction and settle his thoughts, then spent nearly three months analyzing the boundary to Nascent Soul Formation.
• Chu Mu gathered himself and charged at the boundary, beginning the process of shattering his core and forming his Nascent Soul.

A vast spiritual phenomenon spread across the Endless Desert Sea as an unknown cultivator began forming a Nascent Soul within the stone tablet. The Heavenly Tribulation gathered above the newly manifested giant, leaving the gathered cultivators waiting for the lightning to fall.

• A multicolored spiritual qi vortex scattered the Endless Desert Sea’s sandstorms and drew spiritual qi toward the stone tablet.
• The White-Haired Man and a wounded middle-aged cultivator recognized the phenomenon as Nascent Soul formation and decided to wait rather than interfere.
• Cultivators gathered near the desert sea as spiritual qi poured into the stone tablet and its pressure briefly forced nearby observers to bow.
• A hundred-zhang humanoid giant appeared above the stone tablet, and its pressure spread across ten thousand miles before fading.
• Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning gathered in the spiritual qi clouds, revealing the arrival of the Heavenly Tribulation.

Chu Mu endured three waves of Heavenly Tribulation and completed his Nascent Soul formation, receiving the blessing of Heaven and Earth Power. As Zhu Kun and another Nascent Soul Great Expert arrived to congratulate him, a second Heavenly Tribulation began to gather over the Stone Tablet.

• Chu Mu's Dharma Body endured the first two waves of tribulation lightning, then refined the final wave's Heavenly Thunder Fire with his Great Sun True Fire.
• Chu Mu passed the final tribulation bolt as the clouds dispersed, leaving his Dharma Body fully formed and surrounded by five-colored rosy light.
• Zhu Kun of the Heaven Bamboo Alliance congratulated Chu Mu and asked to meet him, while another Nascent Soul Great Expert waited nearby.
• Chu Mu returned his Dharma Body to the Stone Tablet Cave Abode, where his Nascent Soul appeared as a miniature version of himself.
• Chu Mu, Zhu Kun, and the other Nascent Soul Great Expert sensed another Heavenly Tribulation as a spiritual qi vortex formed again above the Stone Tablet.

After Chu Mu successfully formed his Nascent Soul, a second Heavenly Tribulation descended to transform his physique. He concealed himself within the Wind Thunder Grand Formation as the tribulation began to batter him, leaving the watching cultivators unable to see what would happen next.

• The White-Haired Man and the middle-aged man questioned why a second Nascent Soul formation phenomenon had appeared after Chu Mu had already passed a Heavenly Tribulation.
• Chu Mu realized that the new phenomenon was strengthening his physique, and vast spiritual energy raised his cultivation to match his mana cultivation.
• Chu Mu activated the Wind Thunder Grand Formation, breaking apart the Stone Tablet and concealing himself from the watching cultivators.
• Deep-purple lightning struck Chu Mu, followed by black lightning and crimson Heavenly Thunder Fire that battered his bloodied figure.

Chu Mu formed a Nascent Soul in secret after two successive tribulations and used the Nebula spirit treasure to disguise his cultivation. He left the Desert Sea posing as a low-level Gu Cultivator, but examining a Gu insect and focusing on the Thread-Pulling Gu suddenly darkened his mood.

• After his body healed, Chu Mu spoke with Zhu Kun and another Nascent Soul Great Expert, who mistook the two successive tribulations as the formation of two Nascent Souls.
• Chu Mu realized the Wind Thunder Grand Formation and Desert Sea would attract attention, then used the Nebula spirit treasure to conceal his Nascent Soul cultivation as Golden Core cultivation.
• Chu Mu expanded the Wind Thunder Grand Formation, disguised himself as a Qi Refining Gu Cultivator, and slipped away among the retreating crowd.
• As he left the Desert Sea, Chu Mu reflected on his new strength and freedom from his former worries about lifespan and vulnerability.
• Chu Mu examined a Gu insect in the southwestern mountains, then turned his Divine Sense toward the Thread-Pulling Gu and was suddenly overcome by a heavy gloom.

Chu Mu learned that the Dark Serpent Clan had helped trigger a catastrophic war over the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast, confirming his suspicions that the beast had reached into the wider cultivation world. Unsure whom he could trust, he avoided a group of would-be robbers, then secluded himself in the Thousand Bamboo Kingdom until his Nascent Soul cultivation stabilized.

• Chu Mu entered a marketplace and learned that the Dark Serpent Clan had allied with the Sand Tail Scorpion Queen to free the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast, sparking a devastating war between the Human and Demon alliances.
• Chu Mu concluded that the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast had extended its influence into the cultivation world and worried that people linked to the Longevity Sect, the Langya Wang Family, and the Human Alliance might also be compromised.
• Five Qi Refining Realm Gu Cultivators ambushed Chu Mu to steal his top-grade magical artifact, but he effortlessly dispersed their attacks and left them unharmed.
• Chu Mu traveled into the Thousand Bamboo Kingdom and opened a temporary cave abode in a mountain forest.
• Chu Mu cultivated in seclusion for several years until his Nascent Soul Realm cultivation stabilized, then left the cave.