Chapter Summaries

After the demon calamity was defeated, Shen Lin and the Venerables planned to hunt down the remaining demons and open the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm. Shen Lin offered to search for the Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystal himself, arguing that he could enter because he had no Dao Fruit.

• The Immortal Venerable credited Shen Lin and the others with victory after the Demon Emperor withdrew his Fortune Power, leaving the demons to turn to ashes.
• Shen Lin noted that the battle had earned him more than twenty trillion years of Demon Lifespan and warned that demons scattered across the Chaos Sea remained a threat.
• The Immortal Venerable ordered the races to return to their territories and prepare to respond to further demon sightings using Shen Lin's Demon Slaying Art.
• The Immortal Venerable proposed opening the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm, though the Venerables warned it might close in four or five years and leave too little time to find a Dao Crystal.
• Shen Lin offered to enter the secret realm himself, saying he had no Dao Fruit, and the Immortal Venerable realized that might let him enter despite his Dao Integration Realm cultivation.

Shen Lin revealed that, despite reaching Dao Integration, he had no Dao Fruit because he had followed a different cultivation path, making him eligible to enter the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm. The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island arrived, acknowledged that he had arranged for Daoist Qianyan to aid Shen Lin, and opened the way to the secret realm after the Immortal Venerable confirmed they wanted to seek a glimmer of hope for the Chaos Sea.

• Shen Lin explained that he had mastered the branches of the Great Dao of Saber Techniques in the Saint Realm and had never condensed a Dao Fruit.
• The Immortal Venerable realized Shen Lin could enter the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm, and the Wealth Venerable urged him to contact Heavenly Mystery Island.
• The Island Master transported Heavenly Mystery Island to the center of the Nine Heavens and invited Shen Lin and the others to wait while he prepared the secret realm.
• The Island Master admitted that he had sent Daoist Qianyan to help Shen Lin and promised to explain the arrangements behind Shen Lin's inheritances later.
• The Immortal Venerable confirmed that they wanted to use the Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystal to seek hope for the Chaos Sea, and the Island Master opened a massive Bronze Giant Gate.

The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island revealed that the island was an artificial intelligence left by the Empire to revive humanity after the Epochal End, and that the Chaos Sea was part of an ancient genetic testing ground. He explained that Shen Lin might be the variable who could give humanity hope, then froze when Shen Lin asked if the island had brought him from another world.

• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island explained that the Empire had scattered a trillion vessels carrying human genetic kindling before the Epochal End, and that he and the island’s other intelligences were meant to guide humanity’s revival.
• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island revealed that his vessel had survived the Epochal End and brought humanity to the Chaos Sea, where ancient experiments had produced the Immortal and Devil Races.
• The Demon Venerable asked why Heavenly Mystery Island had not guided humanity more directly, and the Island Master said intervention offered no path back to the Empire’s heights.
• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island identified Shen Lin as a possible variable who might offer humanity a sliver of hope.
• Shen Lin asked whether Heavenly Mystery Island had brought him from his original world, and the Island Master froze and asked what he meant.

Shen Lin learned that the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm came from the Empire’s failed attempt to preserve humanity as digital life in the Imaginary Space. The Bronze Gate fully materialized, opening the way into the Secret Realm.

• Old Daoist Thousand Evolutions explained that Heavenly Mystery Island had identified Shen Lin as a destiny-changing variable but did not know his origins.
• Shen Lin asked whether other human genetic-tinder ships survived and whether the Empire had attempted projects besides the flying ships.
• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island revealed that the Empire had tried to convert its citizens into data and shelter them in the Imaginary Space.
• The Island Master explained that disembodied consciousness lost its connection to destiny, becoming disordered data, and Shen Lin realized the Secret Realm Spirit Bodies were remnants of those experiments.
• The Island Master said the Secret Realm could connect with the present world and materialize objects from its stored memories, and the Bronze Gate finished solidifying.

Shen Lin entered the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm to seek the Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystal, while the Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island implied that the Demon Race descended from the Empire's Human Race. At the edge of the Chaos Sea, the Heavenly Demon reclaimed Fortune Power from his demons, then witnessed a tentacle-like phantom and blood-red eye appear in the spatial turbulence.

• Shen Lin entered the Bronze Gate of the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm as the sole representative of the races.
• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island told the Immortal Venerable and Demon Venerable that the Empire's definition of the Human Race included beings with human blood and heritage, prompting them to suspect the Demon Race was also a branch of humanity.
• The Heavenly Demon regretted failing to stop Shen Lin, then burned countless demons to ashes and absorbed their Fortune Power.
• The Heavenly Demon's aura surged, but he remained dissatisfied and searched for more Fortune Power.
• A tentacle-like phantom appeared amid the spatial turbulence at the edge of the Chaos Sea, followed by a blood-red eye that slowly blinked.

The Collector forced passages into the Chaos Sea and sent in puppets, but Heavenly Demon took control of some and transformed them into the Demon Race. At the newly opened Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm, the Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island revealed that an Outer Void Realm existence had targeted their world.

• The Collector opened five passages into the Chaos Sea and sent Saint Realm puppets through them to stabilize the paths.
• The Collector lost contact with puppets that entered two passages and wondered what had happened to them.
• Heavenly Demon took control of the intruding puppets, transformed them into the Demon Race, and grew excited at the prospect of using the passages.
• Demon Venerable and Immortal Venerable questioned the strange creatures gathered outside the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm.
• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island identified the creatures as beings sent from outside and warned that an Outer Void Realm existence had targeted the Chaos Sea.

Shen Lin explored a desolate battlefield in the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm, where he found wreckage from the Empire and fought a swarm of energy insectoids. After sensing a hidden presence controlling them, he flew toward it to discover what the creatures were.

• Shen Lin entered the secret realm and found that Luoya had stopped responding.
• Shen Lin uncovered an Empire helmet and powered armor buried among wrecked flying boats, and realized he was on an old battlefield.
• Shen Lin discovered that the armor bore massive damage, including small holes at the backs of many helmets.
• A swarm of energy insectoids attacked Shen Lin, and he cut down all but one, which exploded after receiving a signal.
• Shen Lin sensed a strange aura controlling the insectoids, noticed he received no Demon Lifespan for defeating them, and flew toward the aura.

Shen Lin reached a flesh-covered insectoid Mother Nest in the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm and cut through its Saint Realm swarm and defenses. He confronted the Insect Mother, which mistook him for an Empire Human before transforming into a Venerable Realm creature.

• Shen Lin flew above a planet and found a mountain wrapped in living flesh, where a swarm of Saint Realm bee-like insectoids attacked him.
• Shen Lin killed the swarm with one saber strike and carved his way into the mountain, slaughtering the insectoids that tried to stop him.
• Shen Lin entered a vast chamber filled with hatching Insectoid Eggs and saw a flesh-and-blood structure bearing a human face.
• The Insect Mother accused Shen Lin of crossing a boundary, then realized he was not an Empire Human because he lacked the stench of imperial gene potions.
• The Insect Mother absorbed the energy of the Insectoid Eggs and emerged from beneath the chamber as a gigantic spider-like insectoid, reaching the Venerable Realm.

Shen Lin killed the Insect Mother and learned that the secret realm’s world was formed from memories of Empire personnel who participated in an Imaginary Space experiment. He obtained a Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystal, and his system offered to convert it into one hundred million years of Demon Lifespan.

• Shen Lin severed the Insect Mother’s legs and killed it despite its offer to reveal the insectoid vanguard base.
• A spirit body emerged from the ashes, circled Shen Lin, and dissipated, leaving him with memories of an Imperial soldier who had fought the insectoids and volunteered for an Imaginary Space experiment.
• Shen Lin realized that the secret realm’s world and its inhabitants were materialized memories of Empire personnel.
• A Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystal appeared before Shen Lin, and he grabbed it.
• The system asked Shen Lin whether he wanted to convert the low-quality Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystal into one hundred million years of Demon Lifespan.

Shen Lin searched the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm for Dao Crystals, discovering he could convert them into Demon Lifespan and gathering nearly a thousand while clearing memory worlds. In the final memory, he entered an Empire laboratory and met an old man who said he had been waiting for him.

• Shen Lin learned that Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystals could be converted into Demon Lifespan, but chose to search for more before using the one he had found.
• Shen Lin explored memory worlds, fought their inhabitants, and gained insight into the Empire and the humanoid races of the Chaos Sea.
• Over nearly a month, Shen Lin cleared almost a thousand memory spaces and obtained nearly a thousand low-grade Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystals, keeping ten and converting the rest into Demon Lifespan.
• Shen Lin entered the last nearby memory space and found an Empire laboratory where the researchers did not react to him.
• An old man in an office told Shen Lin that the researchers were only images from his memories, then called him over and said he had been waiting for him.

Shen Lin met a recorded memory of Qian Shanwu, who revealed that Shen Lin’s system was a gift from another realm and had left him a cache of Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystals. As the secret realm expelled Shen Lin, he glimpsed a vast starry sky and a colossal white sphere before returning to the Chaos Sea, where the Demon Venerable was fighting a monster.

• Shen Lin met Qian Shanwu, the former director of the Empire Science and Technology Institute, who explained that he was only a recording preserved in the memory space.
• Qian Shanwu said that a figure appeared in nearly every future possibility for saving the Empire and that he had created the memory space to provide Shen Lin with Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystals.
• Qian Shanwu told Shen Lin that his system was a gift from another realm, then vanished with the memory world, leaving an iron box of crystals behind.
• Shen Lin kept one high-quality and ten low-quality crystals, converted the rest into Demon Lifespan, and saw that his total had risen to fifty-eight trillion years.
• As the Heavenly Inquiry Secret Realm expelled Shen Lin, its darkness shattered to reveal a vast starry sky and an immense white sphere, and then he returned to the Chaos Sea.
• Shen Lin regained his senses beside the Demon Venerable, who had just blown apart a three-armed, five-legged, two-headed monster with one punch.

Shen Lin returned to find The Collector invading the Chaos Sea through a teleportation gate and swiftly killed most of the arriving puppets. After asking the other cultivators to leave the remaining monsters to him so he could grow stronger, Shen Lin approached the gate as The Collector emerged.

• Shen Lin returned to the Chaos Sea and learned from the Demon Venerable that he had been gone a little over a month.
• Shen Lin used the Taowu Saber to kill nearly ninety percent of The Collector's Puppets, then rescued Immortal Venerable and defeated more puppets alongside him.
• Shen Lin killed the puppets attacking Immortal Venerable, Sword Venerable, and Wealth Venerable, leaving only those near the teleportation gate.
• Shen Lin asked the Dao Integration Realm experts to let him kill the remaining monsters to grow stronger, and Immortal Venerable agreed.
• Shen Lin approached the teleportation gate, which contracted as a pale, black-cloaked figure emerged from it.

Shen Lin confronted Kai Ying, a self-aware general serving The Collector, who tried to recruit him before attacking with instant Great Dao Power. Shen Lin struck back with the Great Dao of Saber Techniques, but Kai Ying regenerated from countless droplets of blood, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Kai Ying introduced himself as one of The Collector's great generals and urged Shen Lin to join his lord in pursuit of a supreme realm.
• Shen Lin rejected Kai Ying's offer and mocked him, prompting Kai Ying to attack with a blood-red beam that cracked the Taowu Saber and forced Shen Lin back.
• Shen Lin told the Immortal Venerable and the others not to interfere, then gathered Great Dao Power and prepared to counterattack.
• Shen Lin summoned the Great Dao of Saber Techniques and slashed Kai Ying into countless beads of blood.
• Kai Ying reassembled himself and claimed saber techniques could not destroy an opponent able to split into countless molecules.

Kai Ying sealed the Immortal Venerable and the others off from their Great Daos, then revealed that The Collector had given him multiple Great Dao Powers. Shen Lin dismissed those powers as inferior to ones cultivated independently and began a deduction.

• Kai Ying countered Shen Lin's attack, prompting the Immortal Venerable to offer to fight him instead.
• Kai Ying spread a blood-red sky that isolated the region, severing the Immortal Venerable and the others from their Great Daos and reducing their strength.
• Shen Lin explained how Kai Ying's power had sealed the area, and Kai Ying tried once more to recruit him to The Collector's cause.
• Kai Ying manifested powers of the Great Dao of Sword, Earth, and Wind, revealing that he wielded four Great Dao Powers in total.
• Shen Lin argued that powers gained through devouring were less solid than those cultivated independently, then silently ordered his System to begin deduction.

Shen Lin spent more than fifty trillion years of Demon Lifespan mastering over twenty Great Daos through the system’s deduction. He revealed his powers to Kai Ying and began attacking him with the Great Dao of Saber Techniques and the Great Dao of Flame.

• Shen Lin used the World Core to comprehend and master more than twenty kinds of Great Dao Power, ending the deduction after fifty-eight trillion years.
• Shen Lin realized that mastering all the Great Daos in the World Core would take far longer than the Demon Lifespan he had available.
• Kai Ying mocked Shen Lin, then recoiled when more than twenty kinds of Great Dao Power emerged from Shen Lin’s body.
• Kai Ying assumed Shen Lin served an Outer Void Realm master, but Shen Lin declared that he had accomplished great things through his own efforts.
• Shen Lin struck Kai Ying with the Great Dao of Saber Techniques, then surrounded his blood-shadow form with the Great Dao of Flame.

Shen Lin fought Kai Ying, who used several kinds of Great Dao Power and tried to outmaneuver him. Shen Lin proved stronger with the same powers and killed Kai Ying after he begged for mercy.

• Kai Ying used earth, wind, and sword powers to ambush Shen Lin, but Shen Lin transformed into a blood shadow to avoid the fatal strike.
• Shen Lin said he could learn from Kai Ying and imitated his techniques, prompting the two to vanish as they fought with the Great Dao of Wind.
• Kai Ying was blasted out of the clash, vomiting blood, while Shen Lin emerged unharmed.
• Shen Lin broke Kai Ying’s sword and earth armor, then battered him with successive Great Dao attacks despite his pleas to surrender.
• A system notification confirmed that Shen Lin had killed Kai Ying and absorbed his lifespan.

After defeating Kai Ying, Shen Lin learned more about the Great Dao and offered to help Immortal Venerable and the others change their cultivation paths. The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island revealed that The Collector would spare the Chaos Sea if it gave him Shen Lin as a sacrifice.

• Four balls of Great Dao Power left Kai Ying's remains and merged into Shen Lin, while Luo Ya explained that matching Great Daos from different worlds could combine into stronger power.
• Demon Venerable and the others arrived, and Shen Lin offered to help Immortal Venerable, Sword Venerable, Wealth Venerable, and the others change paths.
• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island explained that merging with a world's Dao and comprehending the Dao each had advantages, and described how worlds could grow or invade others for nourishment.
• The Island Master revealed that Heavenly Mystery Island had failed to persuade The Collector, an Outer Void Realm expert, to abandon his invasion of the Chaos Sea.
• The Island Master said The Collector had offered to leave if the Chaos Sea provided a sacrifice, then revealed that he had demanded Shen Lin.

Shen Lin learned that The Collector wanted him as a sacrifice, but he kept the enemy's teleportation portal open because its subordinates could strengthen him. After handing the Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island a rare high-quality Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystal, Shen Lin was invited to help deduce how to resolve The End.

• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island warned Shen Lin that The Collector wanted him, and Shen Lin suspected it was after the system within him.
• Shen Lin stopped the Island Master from destroying the teleportation portal, explaining that enemies sent through it could help him grow stronger.
• The Island Master revealed that four more portals might be connected to the Chaos Sea, and Shen Lin considered searching for them.
• Shen Lin gave the Island Master a box of Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystals, including a rare high-quality crystal he had received from an old man in the secret realm.
• The Island Master said the crystal could improve their predictions and invited Shen Lin to help deduce a way to resolve The End.

Shen Lin and the Venerables used Heavenly Mystery Island’s Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystal to glimpse a possible future in which Shen Lin fought The End at the Outer Void Realm’s level. The vision showed that even his full strength could not stop the Chaos Sea’s collapse, leaving them without a solution.

• Shen Lin and the others saw the captured Evil Venerable in a pool, and the Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island led them inside the island.
• The Wealth Venerable confirmed that Sells Everything was one of his many avatars, distributed through the Dao of Wealth and Goods.
• The Island Master placed a Heavenly Inquiry Dao Crystal into a taiji diagram to project a possible future of the Chaos Sea.
• The vision showed Shen Lin unleashing thousands of Great Dao Powers and briefly halting the collapse of the world before The End overwhelmed him.
• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island concluded that future Shen Lin had reached the Outer Void Realm, yet still could not resist The End.

The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island and the others examined possible futures, learning that The End would arrive in one hundred thousand years and that the Collector could destroy the Chaos Sea even sooner. After several bleak visions, the eighth showed a Sphere World emerging from a golden river, offering a glimmer of hope.

• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island explained that Shen Lin’s vision showed only one possible future and that The End would arrive in one hundred thousand years.
• The Immortal Venerable and the Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island concluded that another vision showed the Collector extracting all the Great Dao Power and killing the Chaos Sea.
• The Immortal Venerable speculated that Shen Lin’s breakthrough had delayed the Collector in the first future, while Shen Lin silently suspected his counterpart had slaughtered the Chaos Sea’s inhabitants to reach the Outer Void Realm.
• The Island Master of Heavenly Mystery Island showed several more futures in which crises destroyed the Chaos Sea, including one where the Heavenly Demon turned everyone into the Demon Race and led them away.
• The eighth future showed a Sphere World rising from a golden river.