Chapter Summaries

Li Xiuchang used a flame from Immortal Burning Grass to kill the Snowy Plains Realm’s leader, while Zhang Wanzhi’s apparent mastery impressed the gathered experts. The Zen Heart Realm was secured, and Zhang Wanzhi introduced himself to a local monk as Shi Di.

• Zhang Wanzhi told Li Xiuchang to attack the sable-clad burly man so the Ascension Rule would force him to leave the Zen Heart Realm.
• Li Xiuchang fired a stone bullet containing Immortal Burning Grass flame, and the flame burned through the burly man’s body and soul despite his attempts to extinguish it.
• The Ascension Rule carried the burly man skyward, but he fell back down and died before ascending; Li Xiuchang avoided the Rule’s lock with an Immortal Concealment Talisman brick.
• The Snowy Plains Realm’s experts fled, and the Four Great Immortal Sects pursued them, while other intruders scattered or ascended away.
• After the Zen Heart Realm’s Buddhist Cultivators thanked Zhang Wanzhi and Li Xiuchang, Zhang Wanzhi gave his Buddhist name as Shi Di.

Li Xiuchang and Senior Brother Zhang Wanzhi left the Zen Heart Realm after Senior Brother Zhang defended its Buddhist Cultivators, then ascended toward the Myriad Mountains Realm after learning that “Pang Yuanfu” had appeared there. Someone distorted the Ascension Rule and separated them, leaving Li Xiuchang stranded above the sea to face Ancestor Tianxiang, whose clone he sent to the Pure Land Realm before she revealed another body.

• Senior Brother Zhang Wanzhi won the Zen Heart Realm's Buddhist Cultivators respect and secured the Four Great Immortal Sects' promise to protect them before leaving with Li Xiuchang.
• Li Xiuchang and Senior Brother Zhang Wanzhi waited in the Zen Heart Realm until Senior Brother Chen Changsheng reported that “Pang Yuanfu” had appeared in the Myriad Mountains Realm.
• As they ascended, Senior Brother Zhang Wanzhi noticed that the Ascension Rule had been distorted and tried to warn Li Xiuchang, but both entered the portal and arrived separately.
• Li Xiuchang found himself alone above a vast sea, suspected that he had been diverted to the Sea Boat Realm, and fled when Ancestor Tianxiang revealed herself.
• Li Xiuchang used Send Enemy a Thousand Miles to teleport Ancestor Tianxiang away, but she revealed that he had sent only her clone to the Pure Land Realm.

Li Xiuchang tried to escape Ancestor Tianxiang, but a century-old immortal artifact thrown by Chen Changsheng struck her and left her incapacitated. Chen Changsheng and Zhang Wanzhi retrieved Li Xiuchang and Ancestor Tianxiang, then ascended with them—only to emerge directly at the Sword Seeking Sect’s front gate.

• Li Xiuchang used Immortal Burning Grass flames to force Ancestor Tianxiang to trigger the Ascension Rule, but she arranged for a devoted middle-aged man to ascend in her place and caught up with him.
• As Ancestor Tianxiang prepared to take Li Xiuchang away, the Basaltic Rock fell from the sky and smashed her into a pool of flesh, leaving her alive but unconscious.
• Chen Changsheng contacted Li Xiuchang and told him to keep the Basaltic Rock and bring Ancestor Tianxiang back, so Li Xiuchang hid her in a Beast Taming Bag.
• Chen Changsheng’s clone helped Zhang Wanzhi find Li Xiuchang, and the two senior brothers retrieved him and Ancestor Tianxiang from the island.
• Zhang Wanzhi ascended with Li Xiuchang and Ancestor Tianxiang to the Immortal Shade Realm, where they appeared before the Sword Seeking Sect and attracted a crowd of experts.

Li Xiuchang and Zhang Wanzhi brought the badly injured Ancestor Tianxiang to the Sword Seeking Sect, where Zhang secured a Divine Sword Heart-Questioning opportunity by letting its disciples test themselves against her charm. After returning to the Immortal Dust Sect, they learned that Gui Wuyan had foretold Tianxiang’s capture, and Chen Changsheng ordered her kept alive while he consulted Ye Yuqiu’s side about her connection to Chu Ya.

• Zhang Wanzhi disguised himself and Li Xiuchang as monks, then convinced the Sword Seeking Sect that they were allies pursuing demons.
• Zhang let the Sword Seeking Sect’s cultivators try to kill Ancestor Tianxiang, but her perfected charm stopped every sword; he agreed to let them keep trying for several days in exchange for a Divine Sword Heart-Questioning opportunity.
• Zhang told Li that he hoped to use the opportunity to approach the Heart-Questioning Sword, which could earn him the Sword Seeking Sect’s allegiance if he drew it out.
• Li Xiuchang and Zhang Wanzhi left with Tianxiang and returned safely to the Immortal Dust Sect, where Chen Changsheng revealed that the falling Basaltic Rock was his immortal artifact, thrown into the Immortal Severing Cliff more than a century earlier.
• Zhang revealed that Gui Wuyan had predicted Tianxiang would fall into their hands, astonishing the gathered senior brothers and sisters.
• Chen Changsheng assigned Cultivation Brother to interrogate Tianxiang and ordered everyone to keep her alive while he consulted Ye Yuqiu’s side about her connection to Chu Ya.

Li Xiuchang and Chen Changsheng interrogated Ancestor Tianxiang and learned that the many worlds might once have been one great world, with the Immortal Shade and Sky-Piercing Immortal Tree at its center. After Ancestor Tianxiang was imprisoned, Li Xiuchang prepared to cultivate toward the peak of the Void Refinement Stage and eventually root his Equalizer Dao in the Origin World.

• Li Xiuchang tortured Ancestor Tianxiang until she formed the words "I surrender" from her own rotten flesh, then Chen Changsheng questioned her.
• Ancestor Tianxiang revealed she came from the Chaotic Star Realm and was a disciple of Joyful Fairy, founder of the Joyful Demonic Sect and Charm Great Dao.
• Ancestor Tianxiang said the many-layered worlds might once have been a single great world, and that the Immortal Shade may have formed when it shattered.
• Ancestor Tianxiang revealed that ancient texts described the Sky-Piercing Immortal Tree as growing at the center of the world, leading Li Xiuchang and Chen Changsheng to suspect it reached the Seventh Layer World.
• Ancestor Tianxiang agreed to remove the seed of love from Chu Ya when he returned, and Chen Changsheng sealed her in a cage.
• Li Xiuchang planned to cultivate to the peak of the Void Refinement Stage by perfecting his Equalizer Dao before rooting it in the Origin World.

Li Xiuchang drew on his senior brothers’ insights to develop the Equalizer Dao, repeatedly turning their experiences into unconventional revelations that worried them. After months of secluded cultivation, he completed and surpassed the Dao’s threshold, reaching the peak of the Void Refining realm and preparing to break through to the Dao Integration Stage.

• Li Xiuchang studied other great Daos and discussed cultivation with Chen Changsheng, then concluded that he should stand above all beings as the sole inequality within equality.
• After discussing the Dao with Mo Tu, Li Xiuchang declared that he could suppress any evil person and that evil powers could not restrain him; Mo Tu summoned Zhang Wanzhi, who criticized the idea as an excessively unequal “Black Dao.”
• Li Xiuchang continued discussions with Zhang Wanzhi and other senior brothers and sisters, including Gui Wuyan, and gathered insights about destiny and the many great Daos.
• Li Xiuchang secluded himself for several months and used the Great Dream True Scripture and Dream Entering Pills to digest the insights in his dreams.
• Li Xiuchang’s Equalizer Dao reached completion and surpassed it, raising him to the peak of the Void Refining realm and leaving him ready to attempt the Dao Integration Stage.

Li Xiuchang entered the Origin World to break through to the Dao Integration Stage, where a mysterious little monk tried to recruit him by offering a place for the Equalizer Dao within the Buddhist Dao. Li Xiuchang declined and resumed his breakthrough, only to find that the Origin World rejected his Great Dao and left him wondering whether he would have to imitate the Confucian Sage.

• Li Xiuchang released his Heart of Myriad Daos in the Origin World and prepared to establish the Equalizer Dao there.
• The little monk who had given Li Xiuchang the Great Dream True Scripture appeared and asked him to merge his Great Dao into the Buddhist Dao Origin, offering to take him as a direct disciple.
• Li Xiuchang considered the benefits and risks of joining the Buddhist sect, then politely refused the little monk's offer.
• The little monk departed, and Li Xiuchang resumed trying to connect the Equalizer Dao to the Origin World.
• The Origin World repeatedly repelled Li Xiuchang's comprehension of the Equalizer Dao, leaving him unable to advance and wondering if he had to imitate the Confucian Sage.

Li Xiuchang found that the Origin World rejected his Equalizer Dao, so he rooted its origin in his second Dantian space instead. This let him break through to the Dao Integration Stage, and he discovered that enhancing the Dao’s origin increased the power he could draw from it.

• Li Xiuchang considered merging the Equalizer Dao into the Buddhist Path, seeking help from his senior brothers, or having his body bear it, then realized his second Dantian space might work.
• Li Xiuchang expanded his second Dantian space with 4,700 inches of length, making it large enough to bear the Equalizer Dao.
• Li Xiuchang rooted his Equalizer Dao in the second Dantian space, where his Heart of Myriad Daos became the Dao’s origin and appeared as a star.
• Li Xiuchang drew on the Equalizer Dao’s origin and broke through from the Void Refinement Stage to the Dao Integration Stage.
• Li Xiuchang enhanced the Dao’s origin by one inch and found that it increased the amount of origin power he could draw, making him slightly stronger.

After advancing to the Dao Integration Stage, Li Xiuchang upgraded the Soul Slicing Saber and learned that Chu Ya had returned from his travels with genuine feelings for Ye Yuqiu. Chu Ya refused to have his love seed removed, hoping to overcome its influence himself and prove his love for Ye Yuqiu.

• Li Xiuchang began upgrading his Spirit Treasures, and his Second Nascent Soul Clone and Blood Diamond Clone entered cultivation retreats.
• The Second Nascent Soul Clone advanced to the Dao Integration Realm, and Li Xiuchang upgraded the Soul Slicing Saber into a High-grade Spirit Treasure.
• Li Xiuchang learned that Chu Ya had refused Ancestor Tianxiang's offer to remove his love seed and went to visit him.
• At Chu Ya's residence, Li Xiuchang and Song Yu found Ye Yuqiu visiting Chu Ya, who revealed that their travels together had made him fall in love with her.
• Chu Ya admitted that he feared confessing because the love silks might break, but he wanted to overcome the love seed himself and prove his feelings for Ye Yuqiu were sincere.

Li Xiuchang agreed to take in an abandoned child prodigy after learning the boy had extraordinary talent but could not learn to read or cultivate. Later, his fellow disciples celebrated his breakthrough to the Dao Integration Stage, leaving him wondering whether surviving the heavenly tribulation would force him to ascend to the Upper Realm.

• Chu Ya worried that his Emotionless Dao would eventually force him to choose between cultivation and his feelings for Ye Yuqiu, and Li Xiuchang and Song Yu could offer him no solution.
• Song Yu asked Li Xiuchang to find work for a six-year-old orphan prodigy whose exceptional aptitude and Innate Sacred Body were useless because he could not learn characters or remember cultivation techniques.
• Li Xiuchang agreed to let the boy do odd jobs at Danxiang Tower, where Little Zhu could look after him.
• Li Xiuchang joined Lu Yang, Mo Tu, Chen Changsheng, Xia Siyun, and Zhang Wanzhi for a feast of roasted meat and wine, and told them about Chu Ya and the prodigy.
• Lu Yang realized that Li Xiuchang had reached the Dao Integration Stage when he drank three cups of Female Immortal Red without losing consciousness.
• Li Xiuchang confirmed his breakthrough, and his fellow disciples praised his rapid progress as he wondered whether he would have to ascend after surviving the heavenly tribulation.

Li Xiuchang learned that he could complete his immortal ascension without entering the dangerous Upper Realm by ascending in Pure Land Realm, and his Senior Brothers revealed that they had first helped him because of a divination. He then focused on reaching the Grand Preaching Ranking’s top six hundred to gain a steady supply of Anointing opportunities and advance his Dao.

• Lu Yang and Chen Changsheng explained that Li Xiuchang had to complete the ascension process to form an immortal body and soul, even if he avoided the Upper Realm.
• Zhang Wanzhi proposed ascending in Pure Land Realm, while Chen Changsheng offered a route through Dark Heaven Realm and Chaotic Star Realm; the group chose Pure Land Realm as the simpler plan.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that Old Gui’s divination had led the Senior Brothers to help Li Xiuchang, and promised to explain the rest after Li Xiuchang became an immortal.
• Li Xiuchang decided to use the secret preaching technique and his accumulated knowledge to compete for the Grand Preaching Ranking’s top six hundred and its ongoing rewards.

Li Xiuchang published detailed instructional posts on artifact refinement and spirit plant cultivation, drawing attention to his grandmaster skills while keeping readers guessing about his identity. Meanwhile, he sought Golden Horn with Chen Changsheng’s help, but Steady and Golden Horn were implicated in a disturbance that pointed toward a powerful Seal Heaven Sect cultivator.

• Li Xiuchang released two instructional series on the Preaching Ranking, revealing Seventh-Tier mastery in artifact refinement and spirit plant cultivation and prompting disciples to speculate that he was a hidden senior expert.
• Li Xiuchang’s Blood Diamond Clone completed Gang Refinement and gained Dao Integration Stage strength, leaving his main body and both clones at that level.
• Li Xiuchang went to the Dark Heaven Realm to retrieve Golden Horn, discovered it was elsewhere, and asked Chen Changsheng to locate it through Steady.
• Steady refused to help Chen Changsheng, who began searching across worlds for Steady and Golden Horn.
• A mysterious powerhouse unleashed Mahayana Stage strength in the Moonshadow Realm without triggering the Ascension Rule, fought Zhan Yue Immortal Dynasty experts, and escaped without causing civilian casualties.
• After learning the powerhouse had used a Great Seal and Seal Heaven Sect techniques, Li Xiuchang and the others decided to investigate his identity.

Li Xiuchang investigated the mysterious expert’s possible ties to the Seal Heaven Sect, but the clues did not identify him. The group decided to pursue divination and an inquiry within the sect, while Li Xiuchang enlarged a Longevity Pill to support Gui Wuyan’s divination.

• Li Xiuchang used the Ascension Pavilion and the Four Immortals Merchant Association to investigate missing Seal Heaven Sect experts, finding that many vanished while exploring the Immortal Shade.
• Li Xiuchang shared his findings with Lu Yang, Chen Changsheng, Mo Tu, Zhang Wanzhi, and Xia Siyun, and they considered capturing the mysterious expert, asking Gui Wuyan to divine, or investigating the Seal Heaven Sect.
• Zhang Wanzhi volunteered to negotiate with Gui Wuyan, while Chen Changsheng arranged for Ye Yuqiu to investigate the Seal Heaven Sect.
• Li Xiuchang used his Blood Diamond Clone to flatten and enlarge his Longevity Pill, then carved a piece into a pill for Gui Wuyan.
• Li Xiuchang wondered whether he should taste the Longevity Pill himself.

Li Xiuchang ate Longevity Pills to test how much lifespan his body could hold and learned from Senior Brother Lu Yang how immortals gained lifespan through Immortal Tribulations. After reaching his apparent lifespan limit, he discovered that excess vitality strengthened his body and soul, giving him a new way to improve his strength.

• Li Xiuchang swallowed Longevity Pill scraps and then large chunks, deciding that his abundant supply made learning Divination Arts less risky.
• Li Xiuchang asked Senior Brother Lu Yang about immortal lifespans, and Lu Yang explained the recurring Immortal Tribulations and why Senior Brother Gui Wuyan was running out of lifespan.
• Li Xiuchang reasoned that a body could only withstand a limited amount of lifespan, then ate nearly twenty jin of Longevity Pills and estimated his lifespan had reached about one hundred thousand years.
• Li Xiuchang kept eating after his lifespan seemed full and discovered that excess vitality transformed into energy that strengthened his body and soul.
• Li Xiuchang realized that consuming more Longevity Pills could raise his physical limits and found a new shortcut to increasing his strength.

Li Xiuchang consumed over thirty thousand Longevity Pills, strengthening his body and soul enough to break through to Seventh-Tier body cultivation. After checking his Preaching Ranking and publishing new body-cultivation lessons, he learned that efforts to investigate a mysterious person and contact the Seal Heaven Sect were underway, while Golden Horn and Steady remained at large.

• Li Xiuchang ate over thirty thousand Longevity Pills, greatly extending his lifespan and strengthening his body and soul until he developed an aversion to the pills.
• Li Xiuchang entered the Origin World and tempered his Vajra body with the Great Dao, reaching Seventh-Tier body cultivation as his body merged with the Dao.
• Li Xiuchang found that his Spirit Plant Cultivation Arts lessons had become especially popular on the Preaching Ranking and published a new body-cultivation series titled "The Body Is the Capital of Immortality."
• Li Xiuchang asked Senior Brother Chen Changsheng about the investigation, and Senior Brother Chen said the mysterious person remained unfound while Old Gui and Ye Yuqiu pursued other plans.
• Senior Brother Chen Changsheng said Golden Horn and Steady had evaded him, so Li Xiuchang decided to learn Divination Arts.

Li Xiuchang performed the Heaven Questioning Ritual to learn whether he could study Divination Arts. After all three Dao Ancestors intervened on his behalf, he gained the highest affinity and hurried back to await Senior Brother Gui so he could begin learning.

• Li Xiuchang learned that Divination Arts required passing the Heaven Questioning Ritual and decided to test his affinity before asking Senior Brother Gui to teach him.
• Li Xiuchang set up the ritual in the Dark Heaven Realm with lavish offerings to the Three Great Dao Ancestors and the Heavenly Dao.
• The Heavenly Dao initially rejected Li Xiuchang, but Compassionate Masses Dao Ancestor intervened and raised his affinity to one stick.
• Heart Questioning Dao Ancestor and Heaven Observing Dao Ancestor also intervened, causing Li Xiuchang’s affinity to rise to the maximum and his incense to burn out instantly.
• Li Xiuchang packed away the offerings and returned to the Eastern Geng District, eager to show Senior Brother Gui his talent and attempt his first divination.

Li Xiuchang dedicated an office at Danxiang Tower to the Three Great Dao Ancestors, then learned that Ye Yuqiu had traced the mysterious powerhouse to the missing Seal Heaven Sect elder Lou Yu. As his senior brothers prepared to capture Lou Yu, Gui Wuyan returned and restored his lifespan with Li Xiuchang’s Longevity Pill.

• Li Xiuchang enshrined the Three Great Dao Ancestors at Danxiang Tower and instructed Little Zhu to keep their offerings and incense supplied.
• Ye Yuqiu showed the Seal Heaven Sect a portrait of the mysterious powerhouse, and its elders recognized his resemblance to Elder Lou and identified missing former elder Lou Yu as a likely match.
• Li Xiuchang and his senior brothers discussed capturing Lou Yu, while Zhang Wanzhi and Lu Yang grew impatient for Gui Wuyan to return and divine his whereabouts.
• Gui Wuyan returned, revealed that he needed his lifespan replenished, and accepted the Longevity Pill Li Xiuchang offered him.
• Gui Wuyan swallowed the pill, regained black hair and more than a hundred years of lifespan, and appeared to recover his former confidence.

Gui Wuyan divined that Lou Yu was in the Seventh Layer World, where Shi Di had taken him, and then risked his life to uncover clues about Lou Yu. Li Xiuchang saved Gui Wuyan with a Longevity Pill, leaving the senior brothers and sisters wondering how he still had one.

• Gui Wuyan used tortoiseshell divination and, through the senior brothers’ guesses, revealed that the mysterious powerhouse was in the Seventh Layer World.
• Zhang Wanzhi contacted Shi Tian, who said Shi Di had taken Lou Yu and that he would ask around but needed their master’s permission.
• Li Xiuchang told the others about the little monk, and they suspected he was Shi Tian and Shi Di’s master and a powerful figure in the Seventh Layer World.
• Gui Wuyan began deducing Lou Yu’s experiences, used Chen Changsheng’s Basaltic Rock after his first attempt failed, and collapsed when his hair turned white.
• Li Xiuchang fed Gui Wuyan a Longevity Pill, restoring his hair and vitality, and the senior brothers and sisters asked how Li Xiuchang still had Longevity Pills.

Li Xiuchang saved Gui Wuyan from Heavenly Punishment by feeding him an enormous supply of Longevity Pills after Gui revealed a long essay of secrets. The group then studied Gui’s divination about Lou Yu, learning that Lou Yu came from the Immortal Shade Realm, entered another world, and escaped from it.

• Li Xiuchang claimed the Four Immortals Merchant Association had acquired a Longevity Pill, while Gui Wuyan calculated that revealing secrets about Lou Yu would cost thousands of years of lifespan.
• Zhang Wanzhi and Mo Tu tempted Gui Wuyan to exploit Heaven’s will again, and Gui agreed to reveal his secrets after using most of his remaining lifespan.
• Gui Wuyan released a long essay of divined secrets, died from Heavenly Punishment, and swallowed a Hundred Longevity Pill without waking.
• Li Xiuchang fed Gui Wuyan handfuls of Longevity Pills, including brick-sized ones, restoring his life and giving him more than a thousand black hairs.
• Li Xiuchang and the others studied Gui Wuyan’s essay, which confirmed that Lou Yu came from the Immortal Shade Realm, entered another world, and escaped.

Senior Brother Gui’s divination revealed that the Sky-Piercing Immortal Tree stood in the Shadow World and that the Immortal Shade could pull people into it. As Li Xiuchang and the Senior Brothers debated the worlds’ connection, Chen Changsheng disclosed that they had once known a person who returned from the Immortal Shade profoundly changed.

• Senior Brother Gui’s calculations showed Lou Yu’s connection to a dark world he named the Shadow World, where the Sky-Piercing Immortal Tree had appeared.
• Senior Brother Gui explained that people could be pulled into the Shadow World through the Immortal Shade, while demon beasts and Wandering Corpses were also connected to it.
• Li Xiuchang learned that the Preaching Ranking and Ascension Pavilion were treasures forged by the Confucian Sage, and that the Heart-Questioning Sword had belonged to the Heart Questioning Dao Ancestor.
• Mo Tu, Lu Yang, Zhang Wanzhi, Chen Changsheng, and the others discussed whether the Immortal Shade’s expansion meant the two worlds were merging.
• Li Xiuchang asked why the Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters cared about the Immortal Shade when they could evacuate to the Dark Heaven Realm.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that they had encountered people who escaped the Shadow World, including a close friend whose personality changed after returning.