Chapter Summaries

Chu Ya returned to the Immortal Dust Sect after breaking through to the Nascent Soul Stage and learned that the Last Demonic Lord had helped repel the attackers. Near the Immortal Severing Cliff, Gui Wuyan revealed that the silver-haired diviner carried Tianxiang’s consciousness, and Chu Ya killed her before Mo Tu left to assist the battle at sea.

• Chu Ya reached the Immortal Dust Sect and learned that the Last Demonic Lord had killed four fiends, while the attackers had retreated after being bewitched by a demoness.
• Gui Wuyan intercepted Ye Yuqiu and led her toward the Immortal Severing Cliff, where they caught the injured silver-haired diviner trying to escape to the lower realm.
• Gui Wuyan explained that Tianxiang’s memories and consciousness had replaced those of the silver-haired diviner, and Ye Yuqiu decided that she had to die.
• Li Xiuchang and Mo Tu watched from above as Tianxiang explained the silver-haired diviner’s sacrifice, while Ye Yuqiu condemned her for tormenting Chu Ya.
• Chu Ya arrived, took Ye Yuqiu’s immortal sword, and destroyed Tianxiang’s body and soul; Mo Tu then set off to help Old Zhang and the others at sea.

Li Xiuchang helped the Immortal Dust Sect demand compensation from the Love Slaves who had attacked it, using the backing of Ye Yuqiu, Gui Wuyan, and Mo Tu to collect Spirit Stones and rare treasures. He acquired a Bone Hammer containing Earth Dao insights, then returned to the Eastern Geng District, where his senior brothers offered him treasures taken from Tianxiang, the Silver-Haired Diviner, and demons.

• Ye Yuqiu and Chu Ya stopped the Love Slaves from leaving Immortal Severing Cliff and required those who had not already apologized and paid to provide compensation.
• Li Xiuchang arrived and demanded compensation for the sect’s damaged formation, buildings, and shops, while Gui Wuyan and Mo Tu deterred the crowd from resisting.
• The Love Slaves paid with Spirit Stones and treasures, and Li Xiuchang obtained an Immortal Flame and a Bone Hammer containing insights into the Earth Dao.
• Chu Ya offered the collected compensation to Li Xiuchang, while Mo Tu and Gui Wuyan selected several treasures before leaving.
• After the Immortal Dust Sect’s Grand Elders arrived, Li Xiuchang returned to the Eastern Geng District, where his senior brothers showed him treasures taken from Tianxiang, the Silver-Haired Diviner, and demons.

Li Xiuchang received a Soul-carrying Doll containing the souls of immortal-level charm cultivators and learned that Senior Brother Gui Wuyan wanted him to study the Charm Great Dao. With Pelican still missing, Gui Wuyan prepared to divine the next move of the mysterious group Zhang Wanzhi and the others were pursuing.

• Senior Brother Gui chose a Soul-carrying Doll and outfits woven from Soul Silk for Li Xiuchang, and Mo Tu demonstrated how the doll could summon the souls bound into its clothes.
• Mo Tu explained that the souls were former female cultivators of the Charm Great Dao, and Senior Brother Gui clarified that Li Xiuchang should learn from them to broaden his understanding of the Great Daos.
• Li Xiuchang accepted the doll and its succubus souls as teachers after the group discussed the unresolved search for Pelican and the mysterious people fleeing with their families.
• Chen Changsheng reported that Zhang Wanzhi and the others had followed false and real clues but remained a step behind the cautious group.
• Senior Brother Gui said he would use what he had learned from the Xuanwu Turtle Shell Imprint to divine the group's movements.

Gui Wuyan divined that the mysterious group planned to come ashore soon and flee into the Immortal Shade, so the senior brothers prepared to intercept them while Li Xiuchang supplied pills and talismans. Staying behind, Li Xiuchang found his Preaching Ranking had risen to around fifteen hundred and published four series of posts about the Metal, Wood, Water, and Fire Daos before entering seclusion.

• Gui Wuyan returned the Xuanwu Turtle Shell Imprint to Li Xiuchang and gave him a Jade Slip containing his insights into it.
• Gui Wuyan used his newly advanced divination to discover that the mysterious group planned to land separately in the coming days and seek refuge in the Immortal Shade.
• Mo Tu, Gui Wuyan, and Chen Changsheng set out to help Zhang Wanzhi's group intercept the newcomers, while Chen Changsheng planned to send more clones to the coast.
• Li Xiuchang gave Gui Wuyan more than a hundred jin of Longevity Pills and gave Mo Tu several hundred Immortal Concealment Talismans for the operation.
• Li Xiuchang saw that his Preaching Ranking had risen to around fifteen hundred and published four series of posts sharing his insights into the Metal, Wood, Water, and Fire Daos before entering seclusion.

Li Xiuchang traveled to Magic Dust Sect and smoothly broke through from the Dao Integration Stage to the Tribulation Crossing Stage. He decided not to face the Heavenly Tribulations until he had balanced the Equalizer Dao, which was dominated by Confucian Path comprehension.

• Li Xiuchang's four Preaching Post series on the metal, wood, water, and fire Daos drew attention, and Immortal Dust Sect disciples speculated that the mysterious "The Longest Man" might be a Grand Elder.
• After more than a year of seclusion and progress in comprehending the Equalizer Dao, Li Xiuchang reached the peak of the Dao Integration Stage and prepared to break through.
• Li Xiuchang traveled to the Dark Heaven Realm, where Magic Dust Sect disciples welcomed him as their Sect Master and received pills from him.
• Li Xiuchang entered seclusion in his cave dwelling and used Heaven and Earth's acknowledgment and the Equalizer Dao origin to break through to the Tribulation Crossing Stage.
• Li Xiuchang recognized that Confucian Path comprehension made up about sixty percent of the Equalizer Dao and decided to rebalance it before undergoing any Heavenly Tribulations.
• Li Xiuchang considered adding the Five Elements Dao and further Earth Dao comprehension to the Equalizer Dao to dilute the Confucian Path's influence.

After reaching the Tribulation Crossing Stage, Li Xiuchang integrated the Wood Dao into his Equalizer Dao and planned to develop his Second Dantian space into a small world. While his main body and clones began training, Mo Tu reported that their investigation of the mysterious group had led to a female Nascent Soul cultivator who might be one of them.

• Li Xiuchang stabilized his breakthrough and found that his expanding Second Dantian space was still mostly empty, so he planned to copy other Great Daos into it.
• Li Xiuchang integrated his comprehension of the Wood Dao into the Equalizer Dao, strengthening it and reducing the Confucian Path's proportion to slightly more than half.
• Li Xiuchang tested the copied Wood Dao on spirit plants and discovered that plants from the outside world carried its marks while also adapting to the Second Dantian space.
• Li Xiuchang set a cultivation plan for his main body and two clones, then stayed in the Magic Dust Sect while his main body refined its body in the Origin World.
• Mo Tu told Li Xiuchang that their investigation had traced the cautious sea-borne Rogue Cultivators to a female Nascent Soul cultivator they suspected belonged to the mysterious group, and asked Li Xiuchang to interrogate her.

Li Xiuchang traveled to the edge of the world to help Mo Tu capture Aping, a Nascent Soul cultivator who ran a talisman shop and cared for her young son. After learning the world’s boundary had been repaired and seeing Aping’s situation, Li Xiuchang arranged for a Succubus Puppet to impersonate her while Mo Tu took her unconscious body.

• Li Xiuchang sent his Second Nascent Soul Clone to meet Chen Changsheng’s clone and accompany him to the edge of the world.
• Chen Changsheng showed Li Xiuchang the repaired barrier at the world’s fracture and explained that the remote coast contained Rogue Cultivator markets.
• Li Xiuchang and Mo Tu observed Aping in her talisman shop and saw her care for her young son.
• Li Xiuchang supplied a Succubus Puppet disguised as Aping to keep the shop and child from being left alone.
• Mo Tu silently knocked Aping unconscious while the child failed to notice the exchange.

Li Xiuchang used Aping to draw out her husband and the mysterious group connected to the Shadow World, while Mo Tu fought their hidden allies. After the Succubus Puppet’s Charm Great Dao incapacitated most of the pursuers, Li Xiuchang’s Second Nascent Soul Clone confronted the two women who resisted, seizing them in both arms and smashing their heads together.

• Li Xiuchang interrogated Aping, but she insisted she had only helped strangers transport several people to the mainland and knew nothing more.
• Aping’s husband arrived at her shop, and Li Xiuchang revealed Aping to him while keeping himself invisible nearby.
• A hidden attacker tried to seize Aping and her sleeping child, but Mo Tu struck the attacker and exposed a red-haired elder, while another expert joined the fight.
• Li Xiuchang had the Succubus Puppet flee with Aping as Mo Tu fought the two experts; the husband pursued, followed by Li Xiuchang in hiding.
• The husband released six helpers from his Beast Taming Bag, but the Succubus Puppet’s Charm Great Dao dazed most of them, leaving two female Mahayana cultivators able to attack.
• Li Xiuchang’s Second Nascent Soul Clone appeared, endured the women’s attacks with diamond magic-power armor, grabbed one with each hand, and slammed their heads together.

Li Xiuchang captured seven of the opposing cultivators and returned to find Mo Tu besieged by five enemies. While he watched for reinforcements, the Succubus Puppets explained the Immortal stages and the Upper Realm’s factions; then reinforcements arrived, turning the battle into five against five.

• Li Xiuchang subdued two female cultivators with Corpse Suppressing Talismans, captured them and three other opponents, and used enhanced talisman bricks to capture the two Human Immortals.
• Li Xiuchang concealed himself and flew back to find Mo Tu fighting five opponents alone.
• Li Xiuchang questioned the Succubus Puppets about the captured Immortals and learned the stages above Human Immortal, their estimate that Mo Tu was at least a Golden Immortal, and how the Upper Realm distinguished righteous and evil factions.
• A streak of escaping light entered the battle, and Li Xiuchang saw the fight shift from five against one to five against five.

Li Xiuchang and the others stopped fighting the Shadow World survivors and questioned them about their past. Daoist Tian Qing and Hermit Lingze confirmed that they had escaped a strange world called the Shadow World, and revealed that they had lost many memories after returning to the Immortal Shade Realm.

• Daoist Tian Qing arrived with reinforcements, stopping the battle between Mo Tu’s group and the Shadow World survivors.
• Zhang Wanzhi negotiated a hostage exchange, returning three captives in return for the pelican.
• Hermit Lingze confirmed that his group had once vanished inside the Immortal Shade and entered another world.
• Daoist Tian Qing described the Shadow World as a realm of darkness with a sunlit region called the Immortal Sun, where a giant tree cast no shade.
• Hermit Lingze explained that the survivors returned to the Immortal Shade through the Immortal Sun, then discovered they had lost many memories.

Li Xiuchang questioned Aping's husband after Mo Tu and the others decided Daoist Tian Qing and Hermit Lingze might be concealing important facts about the Shadow World. He learned that Aping's husband was a descendant of people who had returned from that world, and that their bloodline could not have children with Spiritual Apertures with outsiders.

• Daoist Tian Qing and Hermit Lingze explained how Shadow World returnees lost memories and could no longer ascend, while admitting they knew little about Wang Jingxing.
• Li Xiuchang told Mo Tu that he had captured seven people, and Mo Tu ordered him to interrogate them rather than release them.
• Li Xiuchang questioned Aping and her husband, threatening their family until her husband revealed that he had grown up at sea and had never visited the Immortal Shade Realm.
• Aping's husband revealed that returnees and their descendants were forbidden from forming unions with outsiders, and that children born from such unions had no Spiritual Aperture.
• Li Xiuchang sealed Aping's husband again and arranged for a Yin Soul to examine his body for unusual traits.

Li Xiuchang interrogated the captured descendants of the Shadow World and learned that their unusual traits passed through generations, while the first-generation descendants withheld information. He and his senior brothers kept the prisoners, then prepared to question the two Human Immortals and investigate Daoist Tian Qing and Hermit Lingze’s identities.

• Li Xiuchang questioned Aping's husband and two female cultivators, learning that their descendants inherited special traits, avoided heavenly tribulations, and could not ascend.
• Li Xiuchang interrogated the two first-generation Human Immortals, but they repeated the same account as Hermit Lingze and Daoist Tian Qing and resisted revealing more.
• Senior Brother Mo Tu ordered Li Xiuchang not to release anyone, so Li Xiuchang carried the prisoners to meet his senior brothers.
• Daoist Tian Qing and Hermit Lingze's group used the chaos to move the rest of their people toward Xianyin, while Zhang Wanzhi and the others regrouped with Li Xiuchang.
• The group returned to the Immortal Dust Sect and transferred the prisoners to the Dark Heaven Realm; Mo Tu found restrictions that would destroy the Human Immortals' souls if searched.
• Zhang Wanzhi discovered that Daoist Tian Qing had truly lived hundreds of thousands of years ago as Grand Elder of the Seal Heaven Sect, and set out to investigate further along with Hermit Lingze's records.

Li Xiuchang and the others interrogated two supposed Immortal Shade Realm immortals and forced them to reveal that they were actually counterparts from the Shadow World. The pair explained that every person in the Immortal Shade Realm had a corresponding shadow whose life and cultivation depended on the original, leaving Li Xiuchang and the others confronting the nature of the two worlds.

• Zhang Wanzhi found Daoist Tian Qing's records but no information about Hermit Lingze, so he planned to visit the Ascension Pavilion.
• Xia Siyun, Lu Yang, Chen Changsheng, and Gui Wuyan visited the Magic Dust Sect and learned that two human immortals resisted questions about abnormalities in their bodies.
• Li Xiuchang pressed the captives to verify their claims with a Dao oath, but they refused, so Mo Tu and Xia Siyun helped him intensify the interrogation until they agreed to talk.
• The two captives revealed that they were born in the Shadow World and had impersonated Immortal Shade Realm figures with identical names and appearances.
• The captives explained that everyone in the Immortal Shade Realm had an identical counterpart in the Shadow World, and that a shadow died when its original died but otherwise shared the original's cultivation and lifespan.
• Li Xiuchang reasoned that the two worlds were like parallel worlds whose differences accumulated through divergent experiences.

Li Xiuchang and the others learned how shadows exchanged places with their counterparts and what happened to those trapped in the Shadow World. They discovered Wang Jingxing was alive, but bringing him back would require finding his shadow and arranging a difficult exchange.

• A Human Immortal explained that children in the Shadow World appeared according to their counterparts, while shadows who had children in the Immortal Shade Realm could not produce corresponding shadows.
• The two Human Immortals revealed that shadows could switch places with their counterparts only when both were inside the Immortal Shade and the Immortal Sun at the same time.
• Li Xiuchang and the others learned that Wang Jingxing's shadow had impersonated him as Grand Elder of the Immortal Dust Sect before faking his death and disappearing.
• The Human Immortals explained that Wang Jingxing remained alive in the Shadow World, where most counterparts were imprisoned outside the Immortal Sun.
• Li Xiuchang concluded that they needed to find Wang Jingxing's shadow and get the shadow into the Immortal Shade while Wang Jingxing entered the Immortal Sun.
• Xia Siyun gave the Human Immortals antidotes, but Li Xiuchang restrained them in his Beast Taming Bag and declared them enemies for trying to replace people from the Immortal Shade Realm.

Li Xiuchang and his companions discovered that saving Wang Jingxing required finding his shadow, and Gui Wuyan traced the shadow’s movements to a disciple in the Myriad Mountains Realm. Zhang Wanzhi also uncovered evidence that Five Lakes Hermit was a shadow, leaving the group determined to expose the infiltrators within the Four Great Immortal Sects.

• Zhang Wanzhi returned to the Immortal Dust Sect, and Chen Changsheng explained that Wang Jingxing’s true body and shadow had to appear in the Immortal Shade and Immortal Sun at the same time to save him.
• Gui Wuyan divined that Wang Jingxing’s shadow had traveled through several lower realms with help from a disciple he had trained to the True Immortal Realm.
• Gui Wuyan located the disciple in the Myriad Mountains Realm, and Chen Changsheng sent Mo Tu to capture him while Zhang Wanzhi was tasked with questioning Shi Tian.
• Zhang Wanzhi reported that records identified Five Lakes Hermit as the only survivor of an Immortal Shade expedition, suggesting he had lied about witnessing Daoist Tian Qing and Hermit Lingze die.
• Zhang Wanzhi revealed that Five Lakes Hermit was still alive as the Seal Heaven Sect’s Grand Elder, and Li Xiuchang urged the group to find a way to expose the shadows within the Four Great Immortal Sects.

Li Xiuchang and his senior brothers and sisters planned to expose the shadows hiding among the Four Great Immortal Sects, while Li Xiuchang raised his strength and advanced his Equalizer Dao. The Hermit Wuhu emerged from seclusion and met with Daoist Tian Qing and Hermit Lingze, giving the group a possible chance to act against him.

• Li Xiuchang and his senior brothers and sisters decided to expose the shadows by targeting their inability to ascend, with the Hermit Wuhu as a potential target, and divided up their investigative and capture missions.
• Li Xiuchang broke through to Eighth-Tier body cultivation, and his Blood Diamond Clone reached Tribulation Crossing Stage strength.
• Li Xiuchang integrated the Metal Dao into his Equalizer Dao and advanced to the mid-Tribulation Crossing Stage without undergoing a Heavenly Tribulation.
• Li Xiuchang learned that the Heavenly Dao had combined his next three Heavenly Tribulations into one as punishment for avoiding a tribulation.
• Li Xiuchang continued cultivating, integrating the Water Dao and Fire Dao, while his clones and allies handled the group's plans.
• Lu Yang learned that the Hermit Wuhu had met with Daoist Tian Qing and Hermit Lingze, and the group waited for the Hermit Wuhu to leave the Seal Heaven Sect.

Zhang Wanzhi reported that Shi Tian had refused to help stop the Immortal Shade’s expansion, while Chen Changsheng arranged a search for Wang Jingxing’s shadow across four realms. When Hermit Wuhu and two allies headed for the Myriad Mountains Realm, the group rushed to support Mo Tu and planned to expose the shadows, ending with Li Xiuchang’s idea to draw out an enemy by spreading a rumor about the Preaching Ranking Key.

• Zhang Wanzhi recounted how Shi Tian offered to help rescue Wang Jingxing but demanded that they abandon the Immortal Shade Realm and keep the Shadow World secret.
• Chen Changsheng said local powers in four realms were searching for Wang Jingxing’s shadow, with his clones watching the passages to the lower realms.
• Gui Wuyan warned that Mo Tu was in danger, and Xia Siyun reported that Hermit Wuhu, Daoist Tian Qing, and Hermit Lingze had gone to the Myriad Mountains Realm.
• Chen Changsheng led the group toward the Myriad Mountains Realm, bringing Li Xiuchang’s Second Nascent Soul Clone to support Mo Tu and Lu Yang.
• Li Xiuchang proposed having Ye Yuqiu bring Seal Heaven Sect elders to witness Hermit Wuhu’s actions, but Gui Wuyan predicted that a shadow would distract the sect with a lost treasure.
• Li Xiuchang proposed spreading a rumor that someone had emerged from the Immortal Shade carrying the Preaching Ranking Key.

Li Xiuchang’s warning brought Immortal Dust Sect elders and assassins to Yingxia Mountain, where they attacked a shadow carrying a Seal Heaven Sect treasure; the shadow killed himself, leaving behind the Golden Light Seal but no Preaching Ranking Key. Li Xiuchang then reached the Myriad Mountains Realm with his senior brothers and sisters, where they found a bandit stronghold and learned that Mo Tu and Lu Yang might already be in danger.

• Li Xiuchang spread news of the shadow and continued traveling toward the Myriad Mountains Realm with his Second Nascent Soul Clone and senior brothers and sisters.
• Immortal Dust Sect elders and assassins ambushed the shadow as he stepped out of the Immortal Shade Realm, and he killed himself rather than be captured.
• The gathered figures searched the shadow’s Storage Bag, found no Preaching Ranking Key, and identified his immortal weapon seal as Venerable Golden Light’s Golden Light Seal.
• A Grand Elder agreed to send the Golden Light Seal to the Immortal Dust Sect sect master so it could be returned to the Seal Heaven Sect.
• Li Xiuchang and his companions arrived at a bandit den in the Myriad Mountains Realm and used the Rainbow Soul Banner to eliminate the bandits.
• Xia Siyun said Mo Tu and Lu Yang had not replied and might already be fighting, so she told Old Gui to locate them.

Li Xiuchang’s senior brothers and sisters joined Mo Tu and Lu Yang in a battle against the shadows, and their hidden weapons and abilities let them dominate despite being outnumbered. After Mo Tu unexpectedly swallowed one shadow’s soul, Li Xiuchang urged him to repeat the attack.

• Gui Wuyan used Chen the Turtle’s clone to locate Mo Tu and Lu Yang, then carried Li Xiuchang, Zhang Wanzhi, and Xia Siyun toward the battle on his Mind Horse.
• Zhang Wanzhi, Xia Siyun, and Gui Wuyan joined Mo Tu and Lu Yang, turning the fight into five against five and forcing the shadows to retreat.
• Four shadow reinforcements arrived, shifting the numbers to five against nine, and Zhang Wanzhi and the others brought out their trump cards.
• Gui Wuyan summoned a stronger Golden Fur Ape, while Zhang Wanzhi’s puppet and the others’ attacks overwhelmed the shadows despite their numerical advantage.
• Mo Tu’s soul-toad pulled one fleeing shadow’s soul from his body and swallowed it, and Li Xiuchang secretly told Mo Tu to do it again.

Li Xiuchang helped Mo Tu kill a female shadow, but reinforcements forced their allies to prepare to retreat. Ye Yuqiu arrived with Seal Heaven Sect Grand Elders, and Zhang Wanzhi exposed Hermit Wuhu and his companions as impostors; the chapter ended with True Person Ping Tian ordering the shadows stopped.

• Li Xiuchang lengthened Mo Tu’s soul-body tongue so Mo Tu could swallow a female cultivator’s soul, then Mo Tu refused to hunt another target while recovering.
• A dozen unfamiliar reinforcements arrived for the shadows, prompting Mo Tu to tell Li Xiuchang to prepare to retreat.
• Ye Yuqiu arrived with Seal Heaven Sect Grand Elders, who recognized Hermit Wuhu and questioned why he was fighting alongside unfamiliar experts.
• Zhang Wanzhi claimed Hermit Wuhu, Daoist Tian Qing, and Hermit Lingze were impostors, and True Person Ping Tian recognized the latter two from the sect’s past.
• The shadows began withdrawing, and Mo Tu showed the Seal Heaven Sect that they were unaffected by the Ascension Rule while Zhang Wanzhi’s group was enveloped in ascension light.
• True Person Ping Tian ordered the Seal Heaven Sect experts to stop the shadows before they escaped.