Chapter Summaries

A Jiali used her time-manipulation ability to survive Leviathan’s Whale Swallow challenge and became the third person to enter the Feather Transformation Advancement Zone. There, Luo Jun questioned her about her Heavenly Venerate father, making her wary.

• Leviathan’s Whale Swallow drained the arena’s seawater, leaving A Jiali at risk of failing the challenge’s immersion rules.
• A Jiali preserved a sphere of seawater by slowing its time, then passed the remaining Whale Swallows and cleared the challenge.
• A Jiali joined Luo Jun and Magnus in the Feather Transformation Advancement Zone and proudly provoked them.
• Luo Jun praised A Jiali’s Time Manipulation and asked whether her Heavenly Venerate father had the same ability.
• A Jiali became wary and asked Luo Jun how he knew Heavenly Venerate was her father.

Luo Jun questioned A Jiali about her family and learned that worldline merger was classified, prompting him to wonder whether one worldline would replace another. Meanwhile, contestants continued challenging the arena, and the Advancement Zones filled with successful Peak contestants while few Feather Transformations advanced.

• Luo Jun used persuasion to convince A Jiali that she resembled her father, Ling Yang, and guessed that her mother was Heather.
• A Jiali said Heather had died when she was young and hoped that the Heather in Luo Jun’s world was doing well; Luo Jun concealed what he knew about Heather.
• Luo Jun pressed A Jiali about visiting the God Forsaken Land, and she accidentally revealed that worldline merger was classified before refusing to explain further.
• Luo Jun considered whether worldline merger meant one world would erase the other and concluded that his own worldline change was probably different from Ling Yang’s crossing.
• Contestants continued entering the arena, and hundreds of Peaks passed the first round while fewer than ten Feather Transformations, including Luo Jun, Magnus, and A Jiali, advanced.

As the Heavenly Ascension Ceremony drew more contestants, Luo Jun grew suspicious of Dias's hidden purpose and watched the opposing world and [Metropolis]. Yuan Shouzhen entered the challenge and chose Behemoth, leaving his performance against the dangerous monster about to begin.

• Luo Jun sensed Life Energy dissipating whenever contestants died and suspected the ceremony served a purpose Dias had concealed.
• Dias broadcast news of successful advances to hesitant experts, drawing more contestants into the venue.
• Luo Jun watched Ling Yang and the cautious experts from the opposing world, whose Ascension contestants had all passed so far.
• Yuan Shouzhen arrived from [Metropolis] and volunteered to challenge a monster.
• Yuan Shouzhen chose Behemoth despite Dias warning that it was exceptionally dangerous, and Dias began to explain the challenge rules.

Yuan Shouzhen faced Behemoth in an arm-wrestling challenge where each had to push an indestructible partition toward the other’s red line. He stopped Behemoth’s opening blow with one hand and no sound, leaving Luo Jun stunned by the strange display of his master’s power.

• Gold Emperor explained that Behemoth’s overwhelming physical strength made the challenge especially difficult for challengers.
• The spectators discussed Yuan Shouzhen’s Ascension Realm ability and wondered how his complete form would perform.
• Dias sent Yuan Shouzhen and Behemoth into the arena and began the match as the red lines moved toward the partition.
• Behemoth struck the partition and sent it rushing toward Yuan Shouzhen.
• Yuan Shouzhen halted the partition with one hand, making no sound and leaving Luo Jun baffled.

Yuan Shouzhen used his evolved Purple Mansion Return of the Edge ability to absorb Behemoth’s relentless attacks and return their accumulated force in a single counterattack. He defeated Behemoth so decisively that the spectators were left wondering how anyone could overcome him.

• Behemoth repeatedly slammed into the barrier while Yuan Shouzhen calmly absorbed the impact through it.
• The Gold Emperor explained to Luo Jun that Yuan Shouzhen’s Purple Mansion Return of the Edge absorbed attacks and abilities, then released them intact.
• After Behemoth attacked for a full minute, Yuan Shouzhen pushed the barrier forward and unleashed the stored force.
• The barrier struck Behemoth as it charged, crushing it against the room’s wall and winning the challenge.
• The spectators considered Yuan Shouzhen’s seemingly bottomless ability and how difficult he would be to defeat.

After passing the challenge, Yuan Shouzhen reunited with the Gold Emperor and hinted that his betrayal of the Main World came from deep regret and a desperate desire to recover from his old injuries. Luo Jun recognized his Master’s different path in this worldline and wondered whether the Heavenly Ascension Ceremony had prompted it.

• Dias declared Luo Jun’s challenge passed, and Yuan Shouzhen joined the other advancing experts.
• The Gold Emperor asked Yuan Shouzhen whether he still feared Wan Guiyuan’s ability to erase his own, and Yuan Shouzhen said he had to gamble despite the uncertainty.
• Luo Jun used his die while questioning Yuan Shouzhen about his betrayal, but Yuan Shouzhen instead praised his talent and spoke of the sacrifices regret could drive someone to make.
• Yuan Shouzhen walked away, and Luo Jun realized his Master had likely betrayed the Main World to heal his injuries and restore his cultivation.
• Luo Jun concluded that his talent had given Yuan Shouzhen hope in the previous worldline and wondered whether the Heavenly Ascension Ceremony had caused his Master to act now.

Dias raised the Heavenly Ascension Ceremony finals limit to fifty-two contestants, leaving nine spots for the remaining challengers. He summoned Heavenly Venerate Ling Yang for a trial, and Ling Yang chose to face the flying, regenerative Phoenix as the challenge rules appeared.

• Dias counted forty-three qualifiers and set the finals limit at fifty-two, leaving nine places to be claimed.
• Dias issued another edict to summon late arrivals, then selected Heavenly Venerate Ling Yang to enter the field.
• Ling Yang appeared on the competition field and chose the golden Phoenix as his opponent.
• Scarlett explained Phoenix's flight and rebirth abilities, while Gold Emperor questioned whether Dias had chosen the challenge conditions at random.

Ling Yang began the Perfect Slaughter challenge against an infinitely resurrecting Phoenix, while Gold Emperor explained Ling Yang’s ability to copy nearly any ability he witnessed. As Phoenix fled across the arena, Gold Emperor wondered whether Ling Yang retained the abilities he had copied in his previous life.

• The spectators learned that the challenge required Ling Yang to kill Phoenix or leave it dead when the one-hour limit ended, and Gold Emperor explained the tiny window during Nirvana when Phoenix could count as dead.
• Ling Yang and Phoenix vanished as the challenge began, and a holographic projection showed Phoenix flying away through the air.
• Gold Emperor told Luo Jun that Ling Yang could copy abilities he had witnessed, except for Mystic Faction abilities, which depended almost entirely on innate talent.
• Gold Emperor explained that Ling Yang had once served as the world's foremost examiner of Mystic Faction abilities by testing whether he could copy them.
• Gold Emperor questioned whether Ling Yang could still use abilities he had copied in his previous life, and Ling Yang finally moved in the arena.

Ling Yang used Earth-Shrinking Step to repeatedly catch up with Phoenix, then revealed an invisible slash powerful enough to cleave the Emperor-level beast in two. The onlookers feared what he could do in the finals, though Phoenix's death did not establish whether he had passed the challenge.

• Ling Yang used Earth-Shrinking Step to intercept Phoenix whenever it fled, shocking the observers.
• Ling Ao explained that Ling Yang had learned the distance-manipulating ability from Kikujiro, a former apostle of [Wilderness] and powerful Polluter.
• Phoenix attacked Ling Yang with a torrent of flames, but Ling Yang split the flames with an invisible slash.
• Ling Yang's slash cleaved Phoenix from its beak through its entire body, leaving the onlookers stunned by his strength.
• The spectators hoped Ling Yang would fail the challenge, but as Phoenix's corpse fell, they began to sense that something was wrong.

Ling Yang passed the challenge by killing Phoenix before it could be reborn, and Dias announced that his world had sent every member to the Advancement Zone. Ling Xin then chose to face the Ascension-level Mosayus, and the chapter ended as she evaded its enormous blade in the desert.

• Phoenix failed to revive within five seconds, and Dias declared Ling Yang's challenge passed.
• The opposing world's contestants praised Heavenly Venerate, while the other qualifiers watched Ling Yang warily.
• Dias called on Ling Xin, who chose Mosayus and argued that the rules allowed Peak Level contestants to attempt Ascension-level challenges.
• Ling Xin accepted the risk of death and drew the Break the Defense challenge, which required her to pierce Mosayus's shell.
• Dias transported Ling Xin and Mosayus to a desert, where Mosayus's massive blade smashed into the ground and Ling Xin appeared with golden wings.

Ling Xin used her wings, a sound-reading bell, and a Shadow Clone Talisman to locate Mosayus’s weak shell and attack it with Demon-Breaking Golden Edge. After Mosayus struck her apparent position, another Ling Xin appeared with a second golden drill, leaving the outcome of her challenge unresolved.

• Luo Jun recognized that Ling Xin’s golden wings resembled Ling Yao’s Golden Edge Armor and watched her evade Mosayus’s attacks.
• Ling Xin used a bell to map Mosayus’s internal structure and identified a thin fold in its shell as a weak point.
• Ling Xin activated a Shadow Clone Talisman, filling the arena with illusory copies to distract Mosayus.
• Ling Xin formed a golden drill from Demon-Breaking Golden Edge and began boring into the shell’s weak point.
• Mosayus struck Ling Xin’s drilling position with a Bone Blade, but when it lifted the weapon, she was gone and another Ling Xin appeared with a golden drill.

Ling Xin used her Legendary-grade Shadow Clone Talisman and Golden Edge Drill to defeat Mosayus and pass the Ascension-level challenge. Afterward, Luo Jun questioned her plan to use Wishing Grass to pursue Godhood, and Ling Yao appeared in the Main World stands.

• Ling Xin used her shadow clones to make Mosayus stab and widen a crack in its shell while she drilled into the wound.
• Mosayus finally guarded the damaged shell, but Ling Xin sent intangible clones through its Bone Blades and switched places with one to reach the wound.
• Ling Xin broke through the last of Mosayus's shell, and Dias announced that she had passed the challenge.
• Ling Ao and other experts congratulated Ling Xin, while Luo Jun smiled at her success.
• Luo Jun told Ling Xin he knew she had risked a leaf of Wishing Grass and questioned whether she could withstand Godhood at the Peak Realm.
• Luo Jun asked where Ling Yao was, and a tall young figure emerged from the Main World stands.

Ling Yao arrived at the Heavenly Edict challenge and was given a place in the Arena, prompting objections that he had skipped the fair selection process. Hercules challenged Dias’s decision and agreed to duel Ling Yao, leaving the dispute to be settled in a fight.

• Ling Yao arrived, and Main World experts welcomed him as the youngest Ascended Expert after his breakthrough and victory over an invading Polluter.
• Dias invited Ling Yao to join the next challenge and placed him in the Arena, where he was told to choose an opponent.
• Contestants objected that Ling Yao had taken a challenge slot without competing for it, and Dias silenced the crowd.
• Hercules argued that the advancement rules should guarantee fairness, while Zeus explained Hercules’s personal history with Dias and his sense of justice.
• Dias offered Hercules a duel with Ling Yao, with the winner keeping the qualification, and Hercules accepted.

Hercules agreed to fight Ling Yao in a deathmatch for a disputed advancement spot, and appeared to defeat him with one punch. Ling Yao revealed he had been waiting for Hercules to lower his guard, then rose in golden armor to start the second round.

• Hercules agreed to Dias's challenge, and Dias sent him and Ling Yao to a wilderness arena with a one-hour deathmatch rule.
• Hercules explained that Ling Yao had become an Ascended Expert less than a year earlier, while Ling Yao said that experience did not guarantee victory.
• Ling Yao charged with his Demon-Breaking Golden Edge, but Hercules struck him down with a single punch.
• Dias declared the match unfinished because Ling Yao was still alive, and Hercules hesitated to attack his helpless opponent.
• Ling Yao sprang up and struck Hercules while his guard was down, then formed golden armor, took up a spear, and challenged him to continue.

Ling Yao pressed Hercules with his Golden Edge spear, but Hercules stopped the supposedly unstoppable attack with his nearly transparent Gang Qi. Luo Jun suspected Hercules’s defense relied on an advanced technique, and Ling Yao attacked again as the chapter ended.

• Ling Yao fought Hercules with his Golden Edge Armor activated, while Hercules calmly evaded his attacks using thin white Gang Qi.
• Ling Yao struck at Hercules’s throat with a precisely timed, extended Golden Edge thrust, but Hercules took the attack head-on and stopped it inches from his throat.
• The spectators were stunned that Hercules had withstood Ling Yao’s attack without visibly increasing his defense, and Zeus insisted that Ling Yao could not defeat him.
• Luo Jun observed that Hercules’s apparently unremarkable Gang Qi concealed an advanced technique and noted that Ling Yao had noticed something was wrong.
• Ling Yao attacked Hercules again with his Golden Edge spear.

Ling Yao initially pierced Hercules's Gang Qi by slowing his Golden Edge Spear, but Hercules adapted by exploiting the delay and attacking from unexpected angles. Ling Yao found ways to defend with his shifting Golden Edge, yet the chapter ended with the two locked in a contest of strength.

• Hercules's Gang Qi stopped Ling Yao's spear, but Ling Yao slowed the thrust and pierced through its non-Newtonian defense.
• Luo Jun explained that Hercules's Gang Qi resisted fast attacks but could be cut by slow ones, while Ling Ao said Ling Yao's Demon-Breaking Golden Edge remained deadly even at low speed.
• Ling Yao pressed his advantage until Hercules expanded his Gang Qi around himself, dodged Ling Yao's slowed strike, and punched him into a collapsing mountain.
• Ling Yao emerged and attacked again, but Hercules dodged and counterattacked from the side; Ling Yao used his wings and Golden Edge Armor to defend from multiple directions.
• Hercules charged into Ling Yao, extended his Gang Qi at high speed, and forced Ling Yao into an arm-wrestling-like struggle with his spear.

Ling Yao adapted his Golden Edge armor and spear to pierce Hercules’s powerful Gang Qi, but Hercules countered by locking the weapons in place with sideways force and tearing the armor apart. Ling Yao was left exposed as Hercules dismantled his defenses.

• Hercules overwhelmed Ling Yao with a relentless assault, forcing him to defend against his superior speed, strength, and Gang Qi.
• Ling Yao expanded his Golden Edge into Powered Armor and enlarged his spear, whose retracting mechanism reduced impact speed and let it pierce Hercules’s Gang Qi.
• Ling Yao used the armor’s retracting limbs to land attacks, prompting observers to recognize it as an effective counter to Hercules’s Gang Qi.
• Hercules charged into Ling Yao’s spear and then swung sideways, trapping it in his Gang Qi and using his other fist to pin Ling Yao’s armor.
• Hercules pulled apart the armor with lateral force, exposing Ling Yao before dismantling the remaining Golden Edge components.

Ling Yao used the Demon-Breaking Golden Edge to analyze and cut through Hercules's Gang Qi, turning a seemingly hopeless fight into a dangerous standoff. As both fighters prepared to continue, they were suddenly transported to the center of the Arena.

• Luo Jun explained that Hercules's Gang Qi could be broken only if an opponent's speed, strength, and reactions were sufficient, while Ling Yao struggled to withstand Hercules's attacks with his Golden Edge Armor.
• Ling Yao suddenly struck through Hercules's Gang Qi, leaving Hercules's right hand bleeding and trembling.
• Gold Emperor and Luo Jun recognized that Ling Yao had broken through the defense, while Zeus doubted he could defeat Hercules.
• Ling Xin revealed that the Demon-Breaking Golden Edge could analyze an opponent's ability and eventually cut through its defenses.
• Ling Yao said he had analyzed Hercules's Gang Qi and threatened to kill him with his next strike, and Hercules eagerly accepted the challenge.
• As their auras rose before they could clash, Ling Yao and Hercules were transported to the center of the Arena.

Dias ended Ling Yao and Hercules's duel by advancing both of them, and the preliminary round continued until all fifty-two spots were filled. As Luo Jun wondered why Wan Guiyuan and Wu Yingjie had not appeared, he began considering how his absence had changed Yuan Shouzhen's choices and Ling Xin's life.

• Dias praised Ling Yao and Hercules, then advanced both contestants despite their unfinished duel.
• Ling Yao and Hercules shook hands respectfully, while Ling Xin worried that their advancement would draw criticism.
• The selection continued until all fifty-two advancement spots were filled, including the late arrival Mahaduo.
• Luo Jun wondered why Wan Guiyuan and Wu Yingjie had not appeared and reflected on how his absence had altered the timeline.
• Luo Jun considered whether Ling Xin's life was another major divergence and looked at her, making her shiver.

Luo Jun and the other Advancement Zone contestants learned that thirteen Godhood inheritors would be chosen through trials tied to different worlds. Dias explained that losers would be reduced to Life Essence and absorbed by each winner, leaving the contestants to study the rules before choosing a trial.

• The arena transformed after the preliminary selection, and text announced that thirteen inheritors would be chosen from the fifty-two Advancement Zone contestants.
• Dias explained that contestants had to choose among thirteen world-based trials, each with four slots, and that each trial’s winner could attempt to inherit Godhood.
• Dias revealed that the three people eliminated from each trial would be condensed into Life Essence and absorbed by the victor.
• When contestants considered withdrawing, Dias warned that retreat would turn them directly into Life Essence, while advancing still offered a chance to survive.
• The contestants examined the thirteen trial rules, and Dias clarified that every trial’s duration would correspond to only one hour outside.