Chapter Summaries

Zhang Yu and the other nine Bookholders spent a century in an Immortal Emperor illusion that tested how they would govern the world. After the illusion ended, a ranking began calculating their performances, but Zhang Yu did not yet know what it measured.

• Zhang Yu accepted the Immortal Ancestor's trial and found himself an Immortal Emperor, while his inner voices argued over whether to rule through domination or restraint.
• Bu Yuangui and Dugu Ming concluded that the ten Bookholders were trapped in separate illusion worlds, and Fa Liuyuan learned that Zhang Yu's simulated power was weaker because he lacked Ascension Realm cultivation.
• Bai Gusheng, Qian Airen, Tian Feibao, and other Bookholders imposed exploitative systems on their worlds, while Zhang Yu built schools and taught people for free.
• Observers criticized Zhang Yu's approach as his predicted ranking fell to last place, and Gao Chongguang worried that Zhang Yu's choices clashed with the Ten Immortal Emperors' ideals.
• After thirty days in reality and a century in the illusion, the Bookholders awoke and the Light Screens merged into a ranking whose numbers began changing year by year.
• Zhang Yu suspected the ranking was tallying each Bookholder's performance across the illusion, but he did not know what the numbers represented.

The Rankings tracked each Bookholder’s world development while excluding the Bookholders’ own share of production, and Zhang Yu and Wang Guiren rose above the others by continuing to invest in their worlds. At year 100, Wang Guiren yielded the Four Books to Zhang Yu, who finished in first place as the other three Books gathered before him.

• Hyperfrequency Heavenly Lord and Redundant Lord of Heaven explained that the Rankings measured each world’s immortal dao gross product, as Yuan Sheng, Tian Feibao, Wan Yaosheng, Qian Airen, and Bai Gusheng each surged into first place through different development methods.
• Bai Gusheng’s and other Bookholders’ growth slowed as they began appropriating their worlds’ output, and Hyperfrequency Heavenly Lord concluded that the Rankings excluded the Bookholders’ personal holdings.
• Cultivators praised Zhang Yu for continuing to invest in his world and lend out his Books, while he recognized similarities between Wang Guiren’s methods and Senior Ying Xintian’s approach in lost history.
• At year 99, Zhang Yu suspected Wang Guiren was Senior Ying Xintian, while Wang Guiren decided to leave the Four Books with Zhang Yu and cover him afterward.
• At year 100, Zhang Yu took first place, and the Book of Transformation, the Flight Book, and the Ascension Book joined the Feather Scroll before him.

Zhang Yu won the Bookholder Conference and received the Immortal Ancestor’s inheritance, uncovering lost histories that suggested rollbacks had transformed several Immortal Emperors. Meanwhile, the Wanfa Immortal Emperor discovered Zhang Yu’s preserved questions to figures in lost history and vowed to bring that history under his rule.

• The Hyperfrequency Heavenly Lord announced Zhang Yu as the conference’s winner, and the Book of Transformation, Flight Book, and Ascension Book merged into him.
• Cultivators across the Spirit Realm reacted to Zhang Yu’s victory, while Bai Gusheng, Tian Feibao, and Qian Airen watched him take possession of their former Books.
• Zhang Yu and Zhan Xian suspected Wang Guiren was a clone of Ying Xintian, who may have yielded first place to Zhang Yu and sought the inheritance to prevent an apocalypse.
• The Feather Scroll absorbed the three Books and opened new chapters, including the Dao Inheritance Chapter, which revealed lost histories of the Heavenly Demon, Blissful Union, and White Bone Immortal Emperors.
• Zhan Xian explained that the Ten Immortal Emperors had defeated a former master of rollbacks and seized the Supreme Immortal Artifact and its authority.
• The Wanfa Immortal Emperor examined Zhang Yu’s preserved questions to figures in lost history, recognized that Zhang Yu had sought their help, and declared that lost history would fall under his rule.