Chapter Summaries

Western Religion prepared its disciples for the Heart-Questioning Tower, while Jieyin and Zhunti agreed to let the Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird cultivate on Mount Sumeru. Zi Wei interrupted Zhenwu and Six-Eared Macaque’s trial to send them back for the event, as cultivators across the Primordial Wilderness began traveling to the Taichu Realm.

• Zhunti warned Western Religion’s disciples to protect their reputation at the Heart-Questioning Tower, and Jieyin urged them to enter without fear of the results.
• Zhunti asked Jieyin whether they should accept Yuanfeng’s proposal to send the Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird to Western Religion, and Jieyin agreed that the arrangement would benefit both sides.
• Jieyin explained that Buddhist Light could suppress the Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird’s urge to prey on the Dragon Clan while he borrowed Western Religion’s Great Dao of Annihilation.
• Zi Wei ended Zhenwu and Six-Eared Macaque’s star-beast trial and urged them to take the upcoming Heart-Questioning Tower contest seriously.
• Living beings from across the Primordial Wilderness set off for the Taichu Realm to attend the trial in a thousand years.

A thousand years after the entry assessment, one hundred thousand beings gathered beneath the Heart-Questioning Tower as the Primordial Wilderness’s major powers arrived. The tower began to open, while Fuxi waited in hope of meeting Xuanxiao.

• Tongtian reunited with Laozi and Yuanshi, and Tongtian and Yuanshi argued over which sect’s disciples would perform better in the tower.
• Zhenyuanzi arrived with the Spirit Religion, and Nuwa and Fuxi arrived with Lingzhu Zi, whose presence stirred an inexplicable master-disciple connection with True Man Taiyi.
• Yuanshi asked Nuwa to let Lingzhu Zi join the Chan Sect, but Nuwa refused and said they could discuss it another time.
• Fuxi watched the tower, hoping to meet Xuanxiao, as Jieyin, Zhunti, and the other major powers arrived.
• All one hundred thousand beings who passed the assessment gathered beneath the tower, and a creaking sound came from within it.

After the Heart-Questioning Tower opened and the tested beings entered, Tongtian challenged Yuanshi to wager on whose disciples would rank higher on the Heavenly Pride List. The Sages joined in with treasures and pills as stakes, then waited for the lists to reveal their names.

• Brilliant Chaos Spirit Light burst forth, the Heart-Questioning Tower opened, and the tested beings rushed inside while the Sages remained outside.
• Tongtian challenged Yuanshi to wager on whether the Interception Sect or Chan Sect would rank higher on the Heavenly Pride List, and Yuanshi accepted.
• Tongtian and Yuanshi staked the Myriad Phenomena Boundary Pearl and the Thousand Illusions Mirage Mirror, while Laozi added a Nine-Revolutions Origin Returning Pill.
• Houtu, Zhenyuanzi, Nuwa, and Jieyin joined the wager with the Nine Nether Yellow Springs Tree, ten Ginseng Fruits, the Myriad Spirits Creation Stone, and the Nine-Grade Merit Golden Lotus.
• The Sages finalized the wager and sat together to wait for names to appear on the three lists.

Lingzhu Zi passed the Heart-Questioning Tower’s first two trials and entered the third, the Path of Great Luo, where he spent thousands of years. Outside the tower, a cultivator who questioned the Primordial List was punished by the laws of the Primordial Wilderness, while the remaining beings turned their attention to the trial rankings.

• Lingzhu Zi resisted Chaos remnants and suppressed his obsessions, passing the Trial of True Heart.
• Lingzhu Zi rejected Nuwa’s phantom’s offer to retreat, overcame the trial’s restraints, and passed the Trial of Choice.
• Lingzhu Zi entered the Path of Great Luo, and several thousand years passed as other cultivators were eliminated from the tower.
• A Grand Unity Golden Immortal speculated that the Primordial List ranked the Sages, then exploded as the Primordial Wilderness’s laws punished him and crippled his counterpart in a hidden valley.
• The beings outside the tower stopped discussing the Primordial List and looked toward the densely filled Wind and Cloud List.

The Heart-Questioning Tower revealed the leading names on the Wind and Cloud List, then began eliminating disciples, exposing how few remained from most Sage teachings. Ten thousand years later, Tongtian’s Interception Sect had the most disciples still inside, while Nuwa’s Lingzhu Zi had reached near the top of the Heavenly Pride List.

• Fuxi ranked first on the Wind and Cloud List, West Queen Mother ranked second, and Kunpeng ranked third, prompting discussion among the beings below the tower.
• The tower expelled several Interception Sect disciples, and Yuanshi mocked Tongtian over their fragile Dao hearts.
• Jieyin and Zhunti recognized the rift between Yuanshi and Tongtian as a possible opening for the Western Religion to spread its teachings eastward, but postponed discussing their plans.
• Another ten thousand years passed, and the Sages saw that the tower had eliminated far more disciples than expected, leaving only a few from the Human Teachings, Chan Sect, and Western Religion.
• Tongtian’s Interception Sect still had eight disciples inside, while Nuwa’s Lingzhu Zi remained in the tower and ranked near the top of the Heavenly Pride List.

The Sages watched the Heavenly Pride List as the Heart-Questioning Tower’s trial eliminated most of the remaining prodigies, including several disciples from the Interception Sect and Chan Sect. With only three new-generation prodigies left inside, the contest and the Sages’ wager remained undecided.

• Zhenwu ranked first on the Heavenly Pride List, followed by Xuandu and Lingzhu Zi, while Thunder Marsh placed among the top ten as Gou Chen’s third disciple.
• The Sages discussed Thunder Marsh’s extraordinary origins and debated whether the remaining prodigies could catch up, while Tongtian worried about the Interception Sect’s rankings.
• Within a hundred years, twenty prodigies were eliminated, including Yunxiao and Guiling, whom Tongtian comforted as they recovered from their Dao injuries.
• Yuanshi taunted Tongtian about the Interception Sect’s failures, but Guang Chengzi was eliminated next, prompting Tongtian to laugh at Yuanshi.
• Four more living beings were thrown out of the tower at once, leaving only three new-generation prodigies inside.

Zhenwu, Xuandu, and Lingzhu Zi resisted temptations in the Heart-Questioning Tower and advanced their Dao hearts, then emerged ranked first, second, and third. As Zhenwu remained inside the tower, other contestants began to be eliminated.

• Zhenwu rejected the phantom of Gou Chen’s offer to abandon his duty to protect living beings and shattered the illusion with his sword.
• Xuandu refused the phantom of Laozi’s offer of an immediate Sage realm and strengthened his resolve to save and guide living beings.
• Lingzhu Zi rejected Nuwa’s offer of the Primordial Spirit Pearl and affirmed that he would prove the Great Dao through his own origin.
• After another thousand years, Lingzhu Zi emerged in third place and asked Nuwa why Xuandu’s Dao heart was so resilient; Laozi explained that Xuandu was the reincarnation of the third human created by Nuwa.
• Xuandu emerged in second place, lamented that he still fell short of Zhenwu, and greeted Lingzhu Zi while Zhenwu remained inside the tower.
• As the onlookers waited for Zhenwu, names on the Wind and Cloud List dimmed and battered contestants were eliminated from the tower.

Maitreya’s trial in the Heart-Questioning Tower exposed the doubts and desires beneath his pursuit of annihilation, leaving his Dao Heart shattered. Jieyin and Zhunti helped him understand his mistake, while the tower’s remaining contestants dwindled to Fuxi, West Queen Mother, and Kunpeng.

• Zhenwu left the Taichu Realm after being eliminated, and the Heavenly Pride List rankings settled.
• Maitreya’s suppressed thoughts overwhelmed him, shattered his Dao Heart, and caused the Heart-Questioning Tower to teleport him outside.
• Jieyin and Zhunti saw Maitreya’s condition and left the Taichu Realm with him and the other Western Religion disciples.
• Jieyin and Zhunti soothed Maitreya with the Twelve-Grade Merit Golden Lotus and explained that true letting go meant forming no attachments, not pursuing annihilation as a goal.
• More contestants were eliminated until only Fuxi, West Queen Mother, and Kunpeng remained inside the tower.

Fuxi sought Xuanxiao’s guidance in the Heart-Questioning Tower and learned that he had to reincarnate as a human to perfect the Dao of the Eight Trigrams. After Fuxi left the tower, Laozi and the other Sages entered and appeared on its eighth level.

• Jieyin and Zhunti returned after Maitreya recovered, while Yuanshi and Tongtian mocked their handling of their disciple.
• West Queen Mother and Kunpeng were eliminated, leaving Fuxi as the last living being inside the Heart-Questioning Tower.
• Fuxi told Xuanxiao he was afraid to give up his Innate Divine Being body and reincarnate into the Human Race.
• Xuanxiao showed Fuxi possible futures and explained that embracing the Human Race was necessary for Fuxi to perfect the Dao of the Eight Trigrams.
• Fuxi resolved to reincarnate as a human, thanked Xuanxiao, and emerged from the tower to meet Nuwa.
• Laozi entered the Heart-Questioning Tower, and his name appeared on the eighth level; the other Sages followed and appeared there as well.

The Primordial List revealed the eight highest-ranking Sages, while beings beneath the Heart-Questioning Tower discussed the absent Dao Venerables and their supposed campaign in another world. On the ninth floor, Laozi faced the trial he had failed twice before and watched Pangu and Xuanxiao battle the Chaos Demon Gods, leaving him humbled by their overwhelming might.

• The Primordial List ranked Laozi first, Houtu second, Nuwa third, followed by Jieyin, Yuanshi, Zhenyuanzi, Tongtian, and Zhunti.
• Beings beneath the tower speculated about the Dao Venerables’ disappearance, and one claimed they had spent three Eons fighting in a newly discovered world.
• Kunpeng concluded that the various powers were preparing to take control of that world and noted that Ancestral Dragon, Yuanfeng, and Shi Qilin had also vanished.
• Laozi entered the ninth floor’s Chaos battlefield, where Pangu and Xuanxiao faced a vast host of Chaos Demon Gods.
• Pangu and Xuanxiao fought through the Demon Gods with devastating strength, while Laozi struggled to evade the battlefield’s shock waves and felt insignificant before them.

Zhunti and the other Sages emerged from the Heart-Questioning Tower injured, and Laozi failed to endure the final nine hundred years of the trial. Before leaving, Laozi promised Xuanxiao to protect the Primordial Wilderness and preserve the unity of the Three Pure Ones; the top ten then received Dao-Inheriting Tokens as the tower closed.

• Zhunti stumbled out of the tower with severe injuries, and the other Sages later emerged in similarly weakened states.
• After nine thousand years, Laozi remained the only Sage inside the tower while Tongtian and Yuanshi wondered whether he could last the full ten thousand years.
• Xuanxiao protected Laozi from a destruction beam and told him that the World Creation battle had lasted three hundred and sixty eons.
• Laozi promised Xuanxiao that he would not harm the Primordial Wilderness and that the Three Pure Ones would never turn against one another, then left the tower without clearing it.
• The top ten on the Heavenly Pride List received Dao-Inheriting Tokens that would let them absorb the Sapota World's fortune and destiny.
• The Heart-Questioning Tower closed, and a gentle force teleported everyone beneath it out of the Taichu Realm.

Yaochi rewarded Chang Geng and waited for Haotian’s dormant divine sense to awaken. The fragment awoke and began reclaiming control of the Immortal Court, leaving the conflict with the Five Emperors escalating as a bell rang from Zixiao Palace.

• Yaochi gave Chang Geng a Primordial Great Dao Fruit for his service, and he left to cultivate in seclusion.
• Yaochi spoke with Yaoji beside Haotian’s Chaos Rough Stone and warned her to avoid giving the Five Emperors an opportunity against them.
• Haotian’s dormant divine sense awakened, and Yaochi realized it remembered neither his main body’s journey nor that it was a fragment.
• Haotian rejected Yaochi’s attempt to dissuade him and challenged the remaining Five Emperors, suppressing them with his superior cultivation while the Sages stayed neutral.
• Haotian grew confident that he had regained control of the Immortal Court, just as a bell rang from Zixiao Palace.

In Zixiao Palace, Hongjun decreed that the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors would lead the Human Race and ordered its Three Ancestors to retire. Wu secured limits on the Sages' involvement, while the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin tribes joined their destinies with the Human Race as its totems.

• Hongjun announced the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and ordered Youchaoshi, Ziyishi, and Suirenshi to withdraw from Human Race affairs once the Heavenly Emperor ascended.
• Wu told the Three Ancestors to accept the decree so the Human Race could gather its destiny through new leaders, and they agreed to retire.
• Wu warned the Sages against slaughtering Human Race people or personally interfering, and limited each sect's involvement to one Primordial Origin Golden Immortal.
• Hongjun asked the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin representatives to become Human Race totems, and they accepted on behalf of their tribes.
• The three tribes swore oaths linking their destinies to the Human Race, and their fortunes became bound together.

Wu explained the relative merits and difficulties of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, then helped the Sages settle their teachers. Hongjun ended the gathering after the remaining seats were assigned.

• Wu explained that the Heavenly Emperor and Human Emperor faced the greatest difficulties, while the Earthly Emperor's work best met humanity's urgent needs.
• Nuwa and the other Sages agreed that Wu would arrange the Teacher of the Heavenly Emperor, while Jieyin and Zhunti reluctantly accepted the decision.
• Laozi, Zhenyuanzi, and Jieyin disputed the Teacher of the Earthly Emperor until Hongjun reprimanded them and Wu narrowed the choice to Laozi or Zhenyuanzi.
• Laozi persuaded Zhenyuanzi to yield the Earthly Emperor's seat to the Human Teachings, and Houtu claimed the Human Emperor's seat for the Witch Clan.
• Zhenyuanzi secured the Final Emperor's seat, and the Sages quickly assigned the remaining four Emperor seats.
• Hongjun declared the matter concluded, and the Sages and clan representatives withdrew from Zixiao Palace.

Fuxi entered the Humanity Path of the Six Paths Samsara Disk to reincarnate and pursue his Dao, while Nuwa returned to Wa Huang Tian. Afterward, Houtu expanded the Netherworld Underworld’s workforce, bringing in new races and figures to restore order.

• Houtu, Nuwa, and Fuxi traveled into the Netherworld Underworld, where Fuxi suggested recruiting more help to address the shortage of workers.
• Houtu warned Fuxi that reincarnation could cost him his memories and innate foundation, but Fuxi proceeded into the Humanity Path of the Six Paths Samsara Disk.
• Nuwa thanked Houtu and returned to Wa Huang Tian after discussing the Dao with her.
• Houtu recruited the Yaksha Clan, then brought the Minotaur and Horse-Face clans into the Netherworld Underworld.
• Houtu also recruited Xie Bi'an and Fan Wujiu, along with souls who became the Ghost Clan, easing the Underworld’s labor shortage.

Zhenwu and the others entered the Sapota World as the Primordial Wilderness’s invasion neared victory, and Zhurong sent them to explore its rules while the final battle continued. Meanwhile, Wu met with the Starry Sky Clan’s leaders in Great Luo Heaven for over ten thousand years before quietly departing.

• Zhenwu, Xuandu, Dizang, Lingzhu Zi, and the others used their Dao-Bearing Tokens to enter the Sapota World, where Zhurong welcomed them at its Mount Sumeru.
• Zhurong praised Zhenwu’s cultivation and told Lei Ze that his master Gou Chen was fighting Shiva above the Nine Heavens.
• Zhurong brought the group to the battlefield, where they saw the Sapota World’s will resurrecting its defeated defenders as the world neared destruction.
• Zhurong assigned Zhenwu and the others a trial to explore the Sapota World, and they flew off in different directions.
• Zhurong returned to the fighting, while Wu later spent more than ten thousand years meeting with the Starry Sky Clan’s leaders in Great Luo Heaven before leaving.

The Six-Eared Macaque arrived near the Fenggun Tribe to await Fuxi’s reincarnation and decided to visit Xuanxiao at Thunder Marsh. Yunting and Zidian brought him into the Primordial Realm, where he was astonished by its vastness and treasures as they approached the Primordial Hall.

• The Six-Eared Macaque confirmed that Fuxi and Huaxu Clan had not yet been born and headed to Thunder Marsh to ask Xuanxiao for guidance.
• Xuanxiao heard the Six-Eared Macaque request an audience and sent Yunting and Zidian to bring him inside.
• The Six-Eared Macaque greeted Yunting and Zidian, while Zidian tried to learn what Gou Chen had said about her.
• Yunting and Zidian led the Six-Eared Macaque through Thunder Marsh into the Primordial Realm.
• The Six-Eared Macaque marveled at the realm’s ancient races, Fierce Beasts, and abundant spiritual treasures as the group reached the Primordial Hall.

Six-Eared Macaque presented his plan to guide Fuxi’s reincarnation to Xuanxiao, who approved it and gave him a spirit treasure. Six-Eared Macaque then traveled to the Fenggun Tribe and identified Fenghua City as the place where Fuxi’s human mother would be born.

• Six-Eared Macaque explained how he would guide Fuxi while avoiding excessive interference and obstruction from Sage forces.
• Xuanxiao approved Six-Eared Macaque’s plan, offered further advice, and promised help if difficulties arose.
• Xuanxiao bestowed the Sound-Listening Illusion-Heart Bell on Six-Eared Macaque to aid his mission.
• Xuanxiao told Six-Eared Macaque that Huaxu Clan would be born in a hundred years, and Six-Eared Macaque left for the Fenggun Tribe.
• Six-Eared Macaque surveyed the prosperous Fenggun Tribe and found that Fuxi’s human mother would be born in Fenghua City.

Six-Eared Macaque stayed in Fenggun City until Huaxu Clan was born, then went to Fenghua City to observe Fuxi’s future mother. He found her ordinary in talent but kind and beloved, while the people around Thunder Marsh continued to honor the God of Thunder Marsh with an annual festival and a day of peace.

• Six-Eared Macaque met Qingfeng of the Fenggun Tribe, entered Fenggun City, and stayed there for a hundred years.
• When Huaxu Clan was born on Huaxu Mountain, Six-Eared Macaque left for Fenghua City and secretly watched her.
• Six-Eared Macaque found that Huaxu Clan had ordinary talent, though she was kind, clever, and loved by her tribespeople.
• Huaxu Clan grew up hearing legends of the God of Thunder Marsh and the sacred, dangerous Thunder Marsh.
• The surrounding tribes observed the Thunder Marsh Festival each year and stopped fighting for a day to show their respect.

Huaxu Clan left Fenghua City to follow an unseen calling toward Thunder Marsh, escaping the life her clan planned for her. After centuries of dangerous travel, Six-Eared Macaque brought her to Thunder Marsh, where its lightning opened a path to a majestic hall and she collapsed unconscious.

• During the Thunder Marsh Festival, Huaxu Clan rejected her clan’s plans for her future and left Fenghua City to seek the calling she sensed in Thunder Marsh.
• Six-Eared Macaque sensed her departure and secretly followed her through the void.
• After several days, Huaxu Clan’s mother discovered she was missing, and the clanspeople soon forgot her.
• Huaxu Clan spent hundreds of years crossing the Primordial Wilderness, surviving deadly beasts and hostile cultivators while advancing to the Heavenly Immortal realm.
• Six-Eared Macaque judged that Huaxu Clan had passed his test and used an invisible force to transport her into Thunder Marsh.
• Thunder Marsh’s divine lightning opened a path for Huaxu Clan to its deepest reaches, where a majestic hall appeared and a gentle Dao aura rendered her unconscious.