Chapter Summaries

Chen Yi and Dai Yuanshan followed the tattoo’s mysterious guidance to Heavenly Paradise, where a voice summoned them to Room 888. After Ye An Cai was sent into a pool of rootless water to purge his calamity poison, Chen Yi requested an audience with the presence in the floating palace.

• Dai Yuanshan heard a familiar voice summon him and Chen Yi to Room 888, and Chen Yi followed him inside.
• Room 888 opened onto a forest path leading to a lake and a white jade palace, while an invisible barrier prevented Chen Yi from entering until Dai Yuanshan crossed the threshold.
• An ethereal voice halted idle visitors, and the ground opened beneath Ye An Cai, dropping him into a pool of rootless water.
• Chen Yi let the pool purify Ye An Cai’s calamity poison, recognizing that it could prevent him from losing control and becoming a true Eryi Mother Body.
• Chen Yi faced the floating palace and requested an audience as an independent cultivator from the M78 Nebula.

Chen Yi met a fragment of the Heavenly Dao, who revealed that the Calamity Realm had once been the Divine Realm and that a mysterious visitor had left a stone stele for him. Chen Yi broke into the stele’s hidden space and confronted the motionless figure waiting there.

• Chen Yi, Dai Yuanshan, and Liu Bi entered the palace, where the Heavenly Dao fragment reassured the two brothers.
• The Heavenly Dao fragment revealed that she was one of nine Divine Realm Heavenly Dao Keys and said she had no memory of the upheaval that transformed the Divine Realm into the Calamity Realm.
• The Heavenly Dao fragment said a powerful visitor had stabilized spacetime, restarted the cycle, and left a stone stele meant for Chen Yi.
• Chen Yi used twenty-six Chaos Colorful Beads to strengthen his clone, exposed a crack in the stele, and sent his divine sense inside.
• Chen Yi followed a celestial stairway to an immortal platform, where a figure greeted him without turning around, and Chen Yi demanded that it face him.

Chen Yi met Cui Changsheng’s surviving divine consciousness and questioned him about the immortal realms, Immortal Emperors, and Ling Xiao’s downfall. As they played chess, Cui Changsheng explained that an Immortal Emperor was invincible within the Dao but could be brought down by forces that made it stray beyond its proper path.

• Chen Yi recognized Cui Changsheng, the legendary first Senior Disciple Brother of the Grand Void Sect, and excitedly asked him a barrage of questions.
• Cui Changsheng gathered starlight into a chessboard and invited Chen Yi to play while they talked.
• Cui Changsheng explained the immortal cultivation realms, from Spirit Immortal through Dao Ancestor, and said an Immortal Emperor was a status rather than a realm.
• Chen Yi questioned how Ling Xiao could have been overthrown if Immortal Emperors were invincible.
• Cui Changsheng compared an Immortal Emperor to a rook that dominated its lines but could be derailed when opposing pieces took root and formed a nail.

Cui Changsheng revealed that Chen Yi had been intended as a pawn in a plan to obtain resources for Ziwei Continent, but his unpredictable growth repeatedly disrupted their efforts to hide the continent from the Immortal Realm. He warned Chen Yi that Wuji would move against him once he became a serious threat, and Chen Yi apologized for the trouble he had caused.

• Chen Yi and Cui Changsheng discussed Wuji's fear of accidents, and Cui Changsheng warned that Wuji would act when Chen Yi became strong enough to face tribulation.
• Cui Changsheng explained that Ziwei natives had long been treated as outsiders in the Immortal Realm and that he had failed to protect Ao Yuyuan, Qingqiu Jiouming, Sun Zhantian, and Chen Lingxiu.
• Cui Changsheng said the Ziwei elders planned to return home and acquire resources from Ling Xiao's Epoch Treasure Vault, while avoiding the calamities that could destroy a rising world.
• Cui Changsheng revealed that Chen Yi was meant to infiltrate Ling Xiao's restoration plan, but his unobservable and unpredictable growth forced the elders to repeatedly change their plans.
• Cui Changsheng explained that the elders had concealed Ziwei Continent's influence and diverted attention from its extraordinary abilities, and Chen Yi apologized for causing them trouble.

Chen Yi discussed the God Realm’s possible alliance against the Immortal Realm with Cui Changsheng and questioned him about Qingyun Continent’s faction. Cui Changsheng ended their game and hinted that Chen Yi would soon witness the truth in the River of Time.

• Cui Changsheng explained that he had waited for Chen Yi, hoping he would seek the God Realm’s heritage and help revive its Heavenly Dao against the Immortal Realm.
• Chen Yi agreed that Ziwei’s rise depended on finding allies, then reflected on his debt to Qingyun Continent and asked about its people in the Immortal Realm.
• Cui Changsheng confirmed that Qingyun had once had a faction there, but said its leading members had died in an upheaval.
• Chen Yi revealed that someone on Qingyun Continent was still stealing Epoch Treasury resources, and Cui Changsheng advised him to investigate for himself.
• When Cui Changsheng was about to win their Go game, Chen Yi swept the stones off the board and declared himself defeated.
• Cui Changsheng ended his divine-sense projection and asked whether Chen Yi had long wanted to enter the River of Time.

Cui Changsheng explained the River of Time and sent Chen Yi into it to investigate the past, warning him to avoid the Immortal Realm’s main current. Before following the Heavenly Robe Stone Tablet into the time vortex, Chen Yi left Ye An Cai protected by a necklace of nine Chaos Colorful Beads.

• Chen Yi questioned how he could reverse time and space but fail to sense the River of Time, and Cui Changsheng explained that even Immortal Emperors could not reverse its current.
• Chen Yi attributed his impossible ability to being an Evil Cultivator, and Cui Changsheng decided not to impose normal cultivation principles on him.
• Cui Changsheng opened the River of Time’s entrance and warned Chen Yi not to cross from the God Realm tributary into the Immortal Realm’s main current.
• Chen Yi’s four-star Chaos clone put the nine Chaos Colorful Beads around Ye An Cai’s neck to protect him in the Rootless Water.
• The Heavenly Robe Stone Tablet entered the time vortex, and Chen Yi followed it inside.

Chen Yi entered the River of Time with Cui Changsheng and explored its currents, learning to inspect the histories of the God Realm. After realizing how difficult it would be to find the remaining Heavenly Dao Keys of the Divine Realm, he decided to call for help, but a shadow suddenly attacked his knee.

• Chen Yi stepped onto the River of Time’s bank, and Cui Changsheng warned him not to disturb the bank, enter scenes, retaliate against attacks, cross tributaries, or reveal himself to Temporal Investigators.
• Chen Yi explored the river and watched a scene from three years earlier in which Dai Yuanshan received a tattoo from Xiangxiang, who sensed something and blurred the image.
• Chen Yi viewed a whirlpool showing Cui Changsheng finding the Heavenly Dao Key of the Divine Realm and restoring a shattered continent.
• Chen Yi estimated that the God Realm had broken into at least ten thousand fragments and realized that finding the remaining nine Heavenly Dao Keys would be difficult.
• Chen Yi decided to call over the lucky emperor, but a shadow leaped from the River of Time and struck his knee.

Chen Yi traveled upstream along the River of Time and secretly witnessed the scene before the battle between Ling Xiao and Wuji during the Great Upheaval. After seeing their immense power and the history that followed the battle vanish from view, he left wary of confronting them.

• Chen Yi ignored a merman's attacks and taunts, following Cui Changsheng's warning not to retaliate against unknown threats in the River of Time.
• Chen Yi reached the era of the Great Upheaval and secretly observed the forces of Ling Xiao and Wuji gathering before their battle.
• Wuji confronted Ling Xiao with a Chaos Giant Cauldron and over a hundred of Ling Xiao's origin Dao marks, while Ling Xiao's army remained short of fifteen generals.
• The battle's outcome disappeared from the River of Time, leaving Chen Yi shocked by the two emperors' power.
• Chen Yi reflected on Wuji's theft of Ling Xiao's origin Dao marks and said he would seek instruction from Wuji if he ever bypassed the summit of the immortal path.

Chen Yi traveled farther upstream along the Divine Realm River of Time, hoping to witness the God Realm’s glorious past, but his avatar was running short of strength and his way back had vanished. As he considered taking water from the river, Zhang Bairen arrived under an umbrella, and Chen Yi asked whether he had come for him and abandoned his post to do so.

• Chen Yi ignored Senior Cui Changsheng’s advice and advanced upstream, watching scenes from the past as he crossed the curtain-wall of time.
• Chen Yi realized his footprints back toward the present were fading and that his avatar could not travel far enough to reach the God Realm’s collapse.
• Chen Yi considered scooping water from the River of Time to replenish himself, despite the danger of provoking its karmic backlash.
• A man carrying an umbrella walked toward Chen Yi from farther upstream, and the umbrella parted the curtain-wall of time.
• Chen Yi recognized the newcomer as Zhang Bairen and greeted him respectfully.
• Chen Yi asked Zhang Bairen whether he had come specifically for him and whether leaving his post as a Temporal Investigator would cause trouble.

Chen Yi asked Zhang Bairen about the sacrifices made to bring forth the Ziwei Immortal Realm, then persuaded him to help sneak into a heavily guarded stretch of the God Realm River of Time. Zhang Bairen concealed Chen Yi beneath his Umbrella of Time and Space and passed a checkpoint, leaving them on their way toward the severed temporal branch.

• Zhang Bairen told Chen Yi that only Zhang Kuang's father and great-grandfather remained alive from his lineage, and said their sacrifices were worthwhile if they could restore a homeland for wandering souls.
• Chen Yi praised Zhang Bairen's resolve, and Zhang Bairen warned him not to cause a disturbance in the closely monitored River of Time.
• Zhang Bairen offered to take Chen Yi to the history before the God Realm's collapse if Chen Yi concealed himself so completely that even Zhang Bairen could not sense him.
• Chen Yi activated the Cloak of Concealment, and Zhang Bairen let him slip beneath the Umbrella of Time and Space.
• Zhang Bairen presented an Imperial Search Warrant at a guarded temporal node, and the Time-Space Immortal General opened a path for him across the severed River of Time.

Chen Yi explored the God Realm at its height through the River of Time, learning why changing its history was perilous and studying its advanced society. He ended up at a primary school, where a young tech student berated an older cultivation student over an unpaid debt.

• Zhang Bairen brought Chen Yi to a five-thousand-year stretch of the River of Time and warned that interfering with the past could cause devastating consequences.
• Chen Yi reasoned that Ling Xiao had hidden by becoming part of history while escaping cause and effect, though Chen Yi dared not attempt the same feat.
• Chen Yi observed the God Realm’s advanced infrastructure, long-lived population, and technological development, comparing its social structure with the Immortal Realm and Ziwei Continent.
• Chen Yi recorded the God Realm’s laws and knowledge before visiting First People's Primary School of Yunding Prefecture.
• A first-year tech student confronted a third-year cultivation student for failing to repay him for a Spirit-Energy Battery, and she stormed off after he mocked her repeated failure to condense a Golden Elixir.

Chen Yi observed how technology and cultivation had become intertwined at Cloud Top Academy, where students used advanced inventions to aid their alchemy. He questioned whether the academy was ignoring a hidden danger, then recognized a young Holy Son of the East Sea Merman Clan as the figure who would challenge him two hundred million years later.

• Chen Yi left First People's Primary School after marveling at the advanced abilities expected of its technology students.
• Chen Yi visited Cloud Top Academy and watched cultivation students combine technology with alchemy during a lecture.
• Chen Yi noted that the students' reliance on technology could leave their cultivation foundations hollow and wondered why their teachers allowed it.
• A ninth-grade student entered the classroom to promote East Sea Merman Enlightenment Water, claiming it improved learning with no side effects.
• Chen Yi recognized the young Holy Son of the East Sea Merman Clan as the fellow who would attack his knee two hundred million years later.

Chen Yi used his understanding of time and space to enter the River of Time, hoping to find the Tribulation Transcendence in the past. He returned almost immediately, drenched in Chaos Divine Lightning and laughing after another encounter with it.

• Chen Yi recognized Xie Buro, a future Grand Unity Realm cultivator, as a possible clue to a fragment of the Heavenly Dao Key of the Divine Realm.
• Chen Yi realized his unorthodox cultivation path had kept him from entering the River of Time and formed a vortex to find a way inside.
• Ziwei Heavenly Dao questioned Chen Yi about his attempt to manipulate time, and he clarified that he was entering the River of Time to find the Tribulation Transcendence.
• Chen Yi reassured Ziwei Heavenly Dao that he could return immediately, then entered the vortex.
• Chen Yi tore open a new vortex and crawled back out a second later, laughing and crackling with Chaos Divine Lightning.

Chen Yi entered the Sea of Infinite Possibilities in the future and found no trace of himself among its many visions. He then traveled into his past and discovered that history concealed him as well, leaving him to wonder whether he could undergo tribulations without disrupting the world.

• Chen Yi entered the downstream wall of time and cautiously peered into the Sea of Infinite Possibilities, where he saw countless contradictory futures but none featuring himself.
• Chen Yi recalled Cui Changsheng's claim that he had vanished from both past and future after evading the Tribulation Transcendence.
• Chen Yi traveled to the time of his eighty-second challenge to the Tribulation Transcendence, but the recorded history showed only a blank where he should have been.
• Chen Yi moved forward one day and found Phantom Star Grotto-Heaven empty, with only lingering clues and others' reactions revealing what he had done there.
• Chen Yi concluded that his absence from both past and future might let him undergo the tribulation without disturbing history.

Chen Yi returned through the River of Time to see his grandfather, Chen Dalei, again, but learned that saving him could disrupt established history. The chapter ended with Chen Dalei dying in Chen Yi’s arms, as he had in the past.

• Chen Yi remembered how Chen Dalei had rescued him as an infant, raised him, and died on the day Chen Yi reached Foundation Establishment.
• Chen Yi arrived at the thatched cottage on Phantom Star Mountain and reunited with the dying Chen Dalei.
• Chen Yi used a trace of life essence to revive Chen Dalei briefly, then stopped when he realized saving him could destabilize the River of Time.
• Chen Dalei recognized that Chen Yi had returned from the future and told him not to mourn or interfere with his death.
• Chen Dalei asked Chen Yi to cremate him and scatter his ashes before his hand fell limp.

Chen Yi preserved Chen Dalei’s spirit after his death, then traveled through time to face the Immortal Ascension Tribulation again and absorb its Chaos Divine Lightning. The tribulation clouds struggled to keep pace as Chen Yi taunted them for growing weak.

• Chen Yi captured Chen Dalei’s Primordial Spirit, refined it into a Divine Bead, and stored it in his sea of consciousness.
• Chen Yi traveled to the eighty-second Immortal Ascension Tribulation in year 823 to begin what was actually his eighty-third tribulation.
• Chen Yi removed the Heaven-Concealing Robe in the Void Domain and summoned the Immortal Ascension Tribulation.
• Chen Yi swallowed the first bolt of Chaos Divine Lightning, then absorbed three more bolts at once.
• Chen Yi mocked the tribulation clouds as they struggled to form more lightning, then strode toward them to inspect their progress.

Chen Yi devoured the Chaos Thunder Dragon and stole a large amount of essence from the Tribulation Transcendence’s Chaos Lightning Pool during his eighty-second tribulation. After the Ziwei Heavenly Dao blocked the Tribulation Transcendence from attacking directly, Chen Yi stole another sip and lured it away with a five-star Chaos clone before withdrawing from history.

• Chen Yi ate the Chaos Thunder Dragon and rushed into the tribulation clouds to swallow nearly half the Chaos Lightning Pool’s origin essence.
• The Tribulation Transcendence pursued Chen Yi to Ziwei Continent and demanded that the Ziwei Heavenly Dao hand him over.
• The Ziwei Heavenly Dao presented the figures of past heroes, causing the Tribulation Transcendence to hesitate to use force.
• Chen Yi sneaked into the relocated Chaos Lightning Pool, stole another sip of essence, and taunted the Tribulation Transcendence.
• Chen Yi sent out a five-star Chaos clone to lead the pursuing Tribulation Transcendence away, then withdrew his True Body from history.

Chen Yi returned from the River of Time after rescuing Chen Dalei’s soul and altering history, then brought the soul to the old man’s preserved body in Phantom Star Grotto-Heaven. He placed the sleeping soul back into its body, leaving Chen Dalei poised to awaken.

• Chen Yi left the River of Time and returned to the present, satisfied with his gains and prepared to make more clones.
• The Ziwei Heavenly Dao noticed its memories of Chen Dalei had changed, and Chen Yi confirmed he had taken the old man’s soul.
• Chen Yi entered a hidden courtyard in Phantom Star Grotto-Heaven and uncovered Chen Dalei’s youthful body, preserved in a Longevity Wood coffin.
• Chen Yi melted Chen Dalei’s Divine Pearl, released the sleeping soul, and placed it back into the old man’s body.

Chen Yi revived Chen Dalei after eight hundred years and explained how dramatically the Ziwei Continent had changed. He then proposed that Chen Dalei become the key Chosen One in the Immortal Court’s Heavenly Mandate Disaster Mitigation Project.

• Chen Dalei awakened in his restored body and realized Chen Yi had returned his scattered primordial spirit.
• Chen Yi told Chen Dalei that eight hundred years had passed and described the rise of Tribulation Transcendence cultivators, pseudo-immortals, and true immortals.
• Chen Dalei learned that Chen Yi remained at the Tribulation Transcendence stage despite traveling through time and fighting real immortals.
• Chen Yi introduced Ziwei Heavenly Dao and asked about the Immortal Court’s Chosen One Project.
• Ziwei Heavenly Dao explained that the Heavenly Mandate Disaster Mitigation Team had four Chosen Ones and still lacked its most important member.
• Chen Yi proposed that Chen Dalei shoulder the main burden of the project and bear the world’s karma.

Chen Dalei was welcomed into the Ziwei Immortal Court and took charge of the Heavenly Mandate Disaster Mitigation Team. Chen Yi prepared Ye Wuchen to search the God Realm for nine Keys of Heavenly Dao, equipping him with an eighty-one-bead Chaos Colorful Bead Necklace before sending him off with a warning to be cautious.

• Xuanyu Zi, Fang Zheng, and other officials welcomed Chen Dalei and invited him to review the Heavenly Mandate Disaster Mitigation Team's proposal.
• Chen Dalei resolved to build up his abilities so he would not become a weakness for A'Yi.
• Chen Yi assigned Ye Wuchen to lead a team through more than ten thousand shattered worlds and find nine Keys of Heavenly Dao.
• Ye Wuchen put on the eighty-one-bead Chaos Colorful Bead Necklace and realized Chen Yi had fully suppressed its weight with precise control.
• Chen Yi warned Ye Wuchen to stay cautious and restrained, and Ye Wuchen promised not to act recklessly.