Chapter Summaries

Ding Ling perfected Finger Demonization and brought forth ten intelligent people from his fingers, whose existence depended on absorbing World Qi in the Inner World. While they began absorbing it, he secured Ouyang Siwen and the Research Institute personnel, and the chapter ended with Yang Ling wondering whether she might still have a chance with Ding Ling despite his many wives.

• Ding Ling manifested ten people through Finger Demonization, and they greeted him as their Eldest Brother.
• Ding Xiaoyu used her Soul-Seizing Divine Ability on Yang Ling, while Ding Yifeng revealed that she could read thoughts and transmit them.
• Ding Shuixiang explained that the ten were Children of the World created with World Power and would become mindless if they did not absorb enough World Qi.
• Ding Ling left the ten outside to absorb World Qi and sealed Ouyang Siwen and the other Research Institute personnel with a powerful array and a guardian monster.
• Ding Xiaoyu teased Yang Ling about her feelings for Ding Ling, then learned that he had wives and excitedly asked to meet them, leaving Yang Ling uncertain but hopeful.

Yang Ling confessed to Ding Ling and believed they had become husband and wife, while Ding Ling and his companions investigated a hidden gate at the Research Institute. They entered a mysterious passageway and decided to remain in the Inner World to absorb more World Power before leaving.

• After Ding Xiaoyu teased Yang Ling, Yang Ling gathered her courage and asked Ding Ling to marry her, and his nod led her to believe he had agreed.
• Ding Ling accepted Yang Ling as his wife, and she kissed him as Ding Xiaoyu, Ding Shuixiang, and Nezha celebrated.
• Before leaving the Inner World, Ding Ling learned from Granny Ding about a gate concealing an ancient region and went to examine it with Yang Ling and Nezha.
• Ding Ling’s first attempt to push the illusory gate injured Ding Xiaoyu, so Ding Shuixiang used her innate divine ability to make the gate real.
• Ding Ling agreed to stay longer so Ding Shuixiang could absorb more World Power, and the group passed through the gate into a narrow passage above a seemingly bottomless Abyss.
• Granny Ding could not see clearly to the passageway’s distant end, leaving Ding Ling and the others facing an unknown destination.

Ding Ling and his companions entered the Serpent Path after Old Ding calculated that their journey would be favorable, then faced its trials of Heavenly Fire and Rootless Water. At the entrance to the Ruins of Return Souls, Ding Ling stopped as the spirits threatened to overwhelm them, and Ding Mengmeng prepared to use her Great Detachment Art.

• Ding Xiaoyu revealed that she and the others possessed multiple secret arts and could gain more as they grew stronger.
• Old Ding calculated the dangers along the Serpent Path, warned the group about its traps, and concluded that the journey was overall favorable.
• Ding Ling led the group onto the Serpent Path, where he drew in and refined the Heavenly Fire while his Nine Palaces Ball shielded them from Rootless Water.
• At the third trial, Ding Ling halted before the Ruins of Return Souls because their thoughts could overwhelm his defenses and tamper with memories.
• Granny Ding woke Ding Mengmeng and reminded her that her Great Detachment Art might remove the Ruins of Return Souls blocking Ding Ling's way.
• Ding Mengmeng woke fully when she learned the spirits were blocking Eldest Brother and said she would help him.

Ding Mengmeng used the Great Detachment Art to free the Ruins of Return Souls, and Ding Ling grew stronger by absorbing their Soul Qi. At the fourth checkpoint, Ding Xiaoyu and Ding Yifeng subdued a Three-Headed Ashen Spirit Dragon and bound it to Ding Xiaoyu as a bracelet, which she began showing off.

• Ding Mengmeng used the Great Detachment Art to free the Ruins of Return Souls, then fell asleep from exhaustion.
• Ding Ling entered the third checkpoint, absorbed its superior Soul Qi, and strengthened his Sea of Consciousness.
• Ding Shuixiang and Ding Xiaoyu explained the Ashen Spirit Dragon's origins and warned Ding Ling that his Dragon Slaying Art would not work on it.
• Ding Yifeng and Ding Xiaoyu attacked the Three-Headed Dragon together until it submitted.
• Ding Ling extracted the dragon's heart blood, allowing Ding Xiaoyu to form a Blood Pact and turn it into a bracelet.
• Ding Xiaoyu claimed she could make the Three-Headed Dragon change however she wanted and excitedly made it perform.

Ding Ling and his companions used the Three-Headed Dragon to cross the labyrinthine fifth trial, then relied on Ding Yingqiao’s Star Refining Art to escape the sixth trial, a three-dimensional space built from a Two-Dimensional Painting. They emerged from the false starry sky, leaving the Ancient Starry Sky Road behind.

• Ding Xiaoyu explained that controlling the Three-Headed Dragon made the fifth trial’s labyrinth easier, and the dragon guided Ding Ling, Nezha, Yang Ling, and the others safely through its deadly mechanisms.
• The group reached the sixth trial, a vast Starry Sky Ancient Road, but the Three-Headed Dragon admitted it knew nothing about it.
• Ding Yingqiao used her Star Refining Art to form the North Dipper Seven Stars Sword and determined that the starry sky was a sealed three-dimensional space built upon a Two-Dimensional Painting.
• Ding Ling followed the sword’s shifting directions across invisible ground instead of taking the Ancient Starry Sky Road.
• Ding Ling was blasted away by a Storm Curse, landed safely, and found that the starry sky and Ancient Starry Sky Road had vanished.

Ding Yingqiao broke the Ancient Starry Sky Road’s dimensional pillar and gave Ding Ling its two-dimensional map, which he refined over forty-nine days. The group continued to the seventh trial, a vast swamp of sage corpses, where its monstrous inhabitants began to awaken and watch them.

• Ding Yingqiao revealed that she and her sisters had broken the dimensional pillar and collected the Ancient Starry Sky Road as a two-dimensional painting.
• Ding Yingqiao explained that the painting’s frame was the real path and its apparent road was a trap, while the repaired map could become a vast Three-Dimensional Painting Realm capable of trapping enemies.
• Ding Ling refined the Ancient Starry Sky Map over forty-nine days and discovered it was at least as large as ten Sword and Fairy Worlds.
• Ding Ling and the others reached the seventh trial, where Ding Xiaoyu learned from the Three-Headed Dragon that the swamp held at least one hundred thousand corpses of sages who had transcended the Heavenly Dao.
• The swamp’s monsters began awakening from the sludge and fixed their gazes on Ding Ling and the others.

Ding Ling used the Ancient Starry Sky Map to absorb the seventh checkpoint’s powerful divine monsters and crossed the marshland without entering it. He then headed toward the eighth checkpoint, while mysterious voices in the marshland recognized an aura on him as belonging to a friend.

• Ding Ling and his companions waited more than ten days for the Ancient Starry Sky Map to be repaired and for everyone to recover, while the marshland’s monsters threatened them from beyond an invisible barrier.
• Ding Ling sent the Ancient Starry Sky Map into the seventh checkpoint, where it expanded and captured the Zhuyans and the other divine monsters.
• Ding Ling brought Nezha and Yang Ling into the checkpoint behind the map, which absorbed the strange Baleful Qi and swallowed monsters such as Qiongqi, the Phoenix, bone dragons, and Qilin.
• Ding Ling and his companions crossed the seventh checkpoint along the path opened by the Ancient Starry Sky Map, leaving the marshland behind as the captured monsters failed to escape or damage the map.
• Nezha, Yang Ling, and Granny Ding discussed the dangers of the marshland, and Ding Ling continued toward the eighth checkpoint.
• After Ding Ling left, voices in the marshland said that he carried an aura belonging to their friend.

Ding Ling faced the eighth pass of the Serpent Path, where he had to answer questions inscribed on an enormous stone stele, and continued through to the thousandth pass. He mastered and improved Profound Heaven Martial Dao but could not advance beyond the thousandth pass.

• In the swamp realm, Old Pei opposed Ouyang Feng’s suggestion to capture and study Ding Ling, and Ouyang Feng agreed not to attack him alone.
• Ding Ling entered the eighth pass and discovered that he had to fly up the stele, answering its questions to leave writing and proceed.
• Ding Ling answered hundreds of questions flawlessly, impressing Yang Ling, Nezha, and his finger-formed companions as he advanced through the passes.
• At the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-ninth pass, Ding Ling mastered Profound Heaven Martial Dao and Great Water-Fire Evasion Art, then spent a year smelting Profound Heaven Martial Dao into his Martial Dao True Understanding.
• Ding Ling inscribed his improved Profound Heaven Martial Dao on the stele and passed the trial, but stopped at the thousandth pass because he could not break through the thousand-and-first.

Ding Ling passed the eighth pass and reached a plaza lined with villas, where he discovered a Chinese chessboard containing a battlefield-like world. The opposing commanders, Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi, each urged him to enter the game and help them win.

• Ding Ling found his name at the bottom of the mysterious stele after completing the thousandth checkpoint, and he resolved to return and challenge the passes again someday.
• Ouyang Feng watched Ding Ling pass the eighth pass, while Old Pei and others warned Ouyang Feng not to target him.
• Ding Ling and his companions reached the ninth pass, a vast plaza lined with villas, and Granny Ding and Ding Yifeng sensed many lives inside them.
• Granny Ding saw a chessboard beyond a villa door, and Ding Ling picked its ordinary lock and opened the door.
• Yang Ling witnessed the chessboard's battle as a small world's bloody war, while Ding Ling realized its generals might fight indefinitely without a victor.
• Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi argued over who represented humanity and asked Ding Ling to enter the game and help defeat the other side.

Ding Ling learned how Wan Jianyi and Tian Buyi became trapped as opposing chess pieces after the Immortal Palace appeared in their world and drew Qingyun Sect cultivators into a demonic trap. Unable to tell which man was the demon, he sent a clone onto the chessboard and found Tian Buyi beneath a commander's tent on the Chu-Han battlefield.

• Wan Jianyi and Tian Buyi each accused the other of being the demon and explained that they had been trapped in a long struggle on the chessboard.
• Wan Jianyi recounted how an Immortal Palace appeared above their world, how powerful people returned from it, and how Gao Yulan attacked the Qingyun Sect.
• Wan Jianyi said the Immortal Palace was a demonic trap filled with Blood Demons, while Tian Buyi claimed Wan Jianyi had turned demonic and killed Shui Yue and the others after they crossed the Sky Ladder.
• Ding Ling could not identify the demon, and Ding Yifeng said her Mind-Reading Technique could not penetrate the power surrounding the chessboard.
• After Old Ding calculated that entering would be safe, Ding Ling sent a clone onto the board and saw Tian Buyi standing beneath a commander's tent amid the battlefield corpses.

Ding Ling used Ding Yanrong’s Great Exorcism Art to clear the demonic qi from Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi, revealing that neither was a demon. With their minds clearer, the two reconsidered their past accusations and began searching for the truth about the Qingyun Sect’s deaths, but the Chessboard World still trapped them until one side was killed.

• Ding Yifeng found that Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi both sincerely believed the other was a demon and wanted Ding Ling’s help.
• Ding Yanrong cast the Great Exorcism Art on Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi, dispersing the black qi and determining that neither had truly become a demon.
• Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi explained that they had fought as generals on the Asura Battlefield for what they believed might have been millions of years, while each blamed the other for killing their Qingyun Sect companions.
• After their minds cleared, Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi questioned whether either had killed Shuiyue, Lin Jingyu, or the others, but their accounts of the past still conflicted.
• Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi told Ding Ling that the chessboard’s rules trapped them until one side was completely killed.

Ding Ling discovered that Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi had been manipulated by the Chessboard World for millions of years, while Ding Shu awakened Silk Reeling and freed them from its control. The two revealed that they were artificial bodies disconnected from their true selves in the Immortal Palace, leaving their fate outside the Chessboard World uncertain.

• Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi realized their demonic nature had driven them into a long cycle of fighting, and Ding Ling learned that the Chessboard World was an isolated island above an endless Dark World.
• Wan Jianyi and Tian Buyi admitted they had no memories of how they entered the Chessboard World, and Ding Ling tore open the sky to show that he could leave whenever he wished.
• Ding Shu awakened Silk Reeling and pulled 9,999 silver threads from each man's skull, freeing Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi from the world's control.
• Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi recovered forgotten memories and revealed that their current bodies were artificial creations, while their true bodies remained in the Immortal Palace and their connection to them had been severed.
• Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi wondered whether they would turn to dust if they left the Chessboard World after spending millions of years there.

Ding Ling rescued Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi from the Chessboard World, but the power of time sustaining them vanished after they left. Their bodies turned to ashes, and Ding Ling and Ding Shu preserved and strengthened their souls, leaving the group to investigate the villa and the Immortal Palace’s purpose.

• Ding Xiaoyu promised to protect Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi’s souls if they died, and Ding Ling led them out of the Chessboard World inside the Nine Palaces Ball.
• Ding Ling tore open the Heavenly Dao with a Finger Sword and brought Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi to the villa, where Nezha and Yang Ling greeted them.
• Yang Ling saw silver-white light fading from Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi, and Old Ding identified it as the power of time that was keeping them alive.
• Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi’s bodies crumbled into ashes, but Ding Ling protected their souls and Ding Shu made them more solid so they could move around safely.
• Ding Ling found signs that someone had once lived in the villa, while Tian Buyi and Wan Jianyi said they had never seen anyone else in the Chessboard World and wondered why the Immortal Palace had sent them there.

Ding Ling entered a second Chessboard World and found Chen Zhen and Huo Yuanjia trapped in a cycle of hatred. After removing the Silver Threads controlling them, he heard Chen Zhen begin recounting how the Immortal Palace had transformed their world; the story remained unfinished.

• Ding Ling opened the second villa and found another Chessboard World filled with a fierce battle between two armies.
• Ding Ling entered the world and met Chen Zhen and Huo Yuanjia, who accused each other of slaughtering their allies and falling into demonic possession.
• Ding Yanrong used the Great Exorcism Art to drive black Qi from Chen Zhen and Huo Yuanjia, while Ding Shu removed nearly twenty thousand Silver Threads from them.
• Chen Zhen and Huo Yuanjia regained their clarity and thanked Ding Ling for freeing them from the Immortal Palace's control.
• Chen Zhen began describing how Immortal Palace pavilions appeared along the coast of his world, and how people who entered later returned with great power, reigniting the war with Neon.

Huo Yuanjia and Chen Zhen recounted how the Immortal Palace had sent them through countless worlds before they were corrupted and trapped in the Chessboard World. Ding Ling freed them, restored them to life, and took them to explore another villa, where they found a new Chessboard World.

• Huo Yuanjia and Chen Zhen explained that the Immortal Palace had forced them to travel between small worlds for ages, then cast them into the Asura Blood Sea and Thorny Heavenly Ladder, where they were corrupted by demonic energy.
• Ding Ling had Old Ding divine about the Immortal Palace's intentions, and Old Ding concluded that the outcome would be auspicious despite some twists and turns.
• Ding Ling asked Huo Yuanjia and Chen Zhen to leave the Chessboard World with him, then used the Profound Heaven Martial Dao to carry them beyond it.
• Ding Shuixiang restored Huo Yuanjia and Chen Zhen after they turned to ashes, and the two became deeply grateful and loyal to Ding Ling.
• Ding Ling inspected Huo Yuanjia and Chen Zhen's villa, then opened the next villa and revealed a chessboard that appeared to contain an immense world.

Ding Ling entered a battlefield Chessboard World and discovered Huo Yuanjia and Thirteen Aunt Liu Shaojun locked in a bitter conflict. After cleansing them of Demonic Qi and restoring their memories, he heard how the Immortal Palace had forced Huo Yuanjia through missions before placing the pair in opposing armies.

• Ding Ling arrived at a battlefield where Huo Yuanjia and Liu Shaojun commanded opposing forces, and both accused the other of demonic crimes.
• Ding Yanrong exorcised the Demonic Qi from Huo Yuanjia and Liu Shaojun, and Ding Shu used Silk Reeling to restore their consciousness and memories.
• Huo Yuanjia and Liu Shaojun bowed to Ding Ling, who asked them to explain how they had ended up in the Chessboard World.
• Huo Yuanjia recounted that a red-robed Divine Envoy had coerced him into dangerous Greater Chiliocosm missions, threatening the people of Baozhilin and Thirteen Aunt.
• After Huo Yuanjia earned a chance for one hundred million people to live, he saw Liu Shaojun apparently attack those people, then lost consciousness and awoke as a commander facing her in the Chessboard World.

Huang Feihong and Thirteen Aunt compared their memories of the Immortal Palace trials and learned from Ding Xiaoyu that they would survive. Ding Ling then entered the fourth villa’s Chessboard World, where he began freeing Xingzai and Fanger from demonic possession and the world’s bindings.

• Huang Feihong and Thirteen Aunt compared their experiences and questioned whether the scenes of them attacking each other had been illusions or demons.
• Ding Xiaoyu told Huang Feihong and Thirteen Aunt that they would not die, and they grew more reverent toward Ding Ling after witnessing his power.
• Ding Ling decided to cultivate loyal subordinates, then entered the fourth villa and crossed into the Chessboard World.
• The General and Commander, who called themselves Xingzai and Fanger, asked Ding Ling to help them defeat the demon possessing the other.
• Ding Yanrong cast the Great Exorcism Art on Xingzai and Fanger, restoring their sanity, while Ding Shu used Silk Reeling to pull out nearly twenty thousand Silver Threads.

Ding Ling restored Xingzai and Fanger’s memories, and they explained how the Immortal Palace transformed the Kung Fu World, created superpowered people, and later became corporeal. The story left off with the palace crushing much of its territory and killing hundreds of millions, while survivors remained in the blank spaces between its buildings.

• Ding Ling awakened Xingzai and Fanger from demonic madness, and they respectfully told him what had happened to them.
• Xingzai and Fanger explained that the Immortal Palace descended over Pig Cage Alley, giving people superpowers and reshaping global power until Shenzhou dominated the world.
• They recounted how Landlord and Landlady protected Pig Cage Alley while wealthy families and powerful individuals controlled access to the Immortal Palace Territory.
• Xingzai described how illegal immigration spread as ordinary people risked everything for a chance to awaken superpowers.
• At the end of the ninth year of the Shenzhou Calendar, the Immortal Palace became corporeal, crushing buildings and killing hundreds of millions, while some people survived in the blank spaces.

Xingzai recounted how the Immortal Palace’s materialization led to conflict, an influx of espers, and the arrival of Players who hunted them and stole their abilities. By the fourteenth year of the Shenzhou Calendar, the Players’ strength had grown so much that the Natives were nearing collapse, with no way to escape.

• Xingzai and Fanger led their friends to build in a blank area, where they survived the Immortal Palace’s descent and later rescued survivors with the Landlady and others.
• Brother Chen and Fire Cloud Cthulhu took control of the Hall of Universal Brightness, while Xingzai, the Landlady, Fanger, and their allies held the other half of the Immortal Palace.
• The Immortal Palace became a trap in the eleventh year, and the Players began hunting espers, stripping away their supernatural abilities, and reviving after death.
• Brother Chen allied with Xingzai against the Players, and the united Natives improved their defenses and reduced the death toll.
• In the thirteenth year, Player experts began matching the Natives’ strongest fighters and logging off to evade capture, while Fire Cloud Cthulhu’s feud with Xingzai left regions exposed.
• By the fourteenth year, the Players had grown stronger and the Natives were close to total collapse, but Xingzai and the others could not leave the Immortal Palace.

Xingzai and the Native defenders recounted how the players had overwhelmed them, killed their guardians, and seized nearly all the Immortal Palace. After Xingzai rejected Xin’s offer to surrender, the players breached the Second Base and forced the survivors to retreat into their final fortress.

• Xingzai described the Natives’ mounting losses, including Coolie Strong’s death and Xin’s capture of his Blink ability, as the players took the Hall of Universal Brightness and killed Brother Chen and many prodigies.
• The players seized most of the Immortal Palace, and Xingzai, the Landlady, and their allies retreated to a ten-li territory before the players surrounded their Second Base.
• Xin offered to spare Xingzai, his allies, and the Second Base’s residents if they surrendered, but Xingzai refused despite Fire Cloud Cthulhu urging him to accept.
• Seven days later, Xin returned and warned Xingzai that refusing would doom them; after Xingzai again refused, Xin left an army to attack the Second Base continuously.
• After half a month of defense, the players opened a breach, and Xingzai led the survivors into the final fortress, leaving ordinary people outside while Fire Cloud Cthulhu lamented their decision.