Chapter Summaries

Zhang Zhi recognized that Cloud Mist University’s third assessment used a False World built with the Cloud Mist Law to test Mental Power and prepare humanity for its war against the Mind Flayers. After entering the assessment, he hid his unusual perception, avoided the participant carrying Fairy Xia, and followed him in hopes of finding the Teleportation Array.

• Zhang Zhi realized the Black Cards at the auction signaled plans to spread the Cloud Mist Path, then hosted a feast for the Seven Dragons Academy participants.
• The Exchange Meeting began its third assessment, which ranked participants by how quickly they found a Teleportation Gate and escaped the assessment area.
• Zhang Zhi entered the Cloud Mist Law’s False World and used the Small Broken Bell to see its multicolored construction before restoring his normal perception.
• Zhang Zhi concluded that the False World could train resistance to Mental Power attacks and help humanity fight the Mind Flayers.
• Zhang Zhi spotted the participant carrying Fairy Xia, avoided him, then followed him toward the Teleportation Array, unaware that Fairy Xia was heading into a fatal trap.

Zhang Zhi left the assessment early but concealed his extraordinary Mental Power Value, while the scapegoat exposed Fairy Xia’s possession in the Assessment Hall. Cloud Mist University blamed the resulting incident on an alien curse, and the scapegoat woke to a chance at a good school.

• Zhang Zhi returned from the assessment grounds after four days, declined to have his Mental Power Value measured, and said he would pursue Fengjing University later through his own abilities.
• Zhang Zhi discovered he had placed among the top twenty and kept his distance from the scapegoat while waiting for more students to emerge.
• The scapegoat told an assessment lecturer that an unknown entity possessed him, then collapsed as Fairy Xia’s rage caused nearby people to fall unconscious.
• A White Light restored many students, and a powerful voice rebuked Fairy Xia before lecturers treated those who had fainted.
• Cloud Mist University announced that an alien curse had caused the incident, and Zhang Zhi realized the scapegoat’s confession had helped demonstrate his potential.

Zhang Zhi collected his third assessment rewards, including the mysterious Eight-Nine Mystic Cultivation Remnant, then inspected his Small World and focused on Fang Yun’s nearly perfected Qi Refinement Technique. The Qi Refinement Path showed the greatest energy intensity yet, while Zhang Zhi prepared to promote it and expanded Qi Gathering Arrays to support its spiritual qi.

• Li Feihe received first place in the third assessment and chose an extensive set of rewards, while Zhang Zhi selected the Eight-Nine Mystic Cultivation Remnant and cards from several Paths.
• After the assessment, Li Feihe told Zhang Zhi that several universities had contacted him, but he would wait until the final assessment before discussing offers.
• Zhang Zhi entered his Consciousness Space, saw that the Small Broken Bell’s protected area had shrunk, and cleared the day’s pollution before entering his Small World.
• Zhang Zhi inspected the Small World’s growing Extraordinary Technology Path, including the Gan Giant Type-A mecha assembly line, then turned his attention to Xia Kingdom’s Qi Refinement Path.
• Fang Yun’s spiritual qi proved at least twenty percent stronger than true qi and other known energies, giving the Qi Refinement Path a major combat advantage.
• Zhang Zhi planned to promote the Qi Refinement Path with the black card once Fang Yun finished refining its technique, and he continued establishing Qi Gathering Arrays across the Small World and the Ten Thousand Races Region.

Fang Yun explained the Qi Refiner Path’s demanding cultivation process, exceptional combat power, realm progression, and limits to Zhang Zhi. He concluded that he could not lower its threshold in the short term, though research into replenishing Qi Refiners’ energy remained underway.

• Fang Yun told Zhang Zhi that becoming a Qi Refiner required sensing, controlling, and absorbing spiritual qi before transforming it with blood qi and Mental Power.
• Fang Yun estimated that at most one or two people in ten thousand could become Qi Refiners, but said they could defeat peers from other paths and sometimes trade blows with stronger opponents.
• Fang Yun explained that Qi Refiners advanced directly from the Ordinary Realm to the Mortal Transformation Realm and that he had deduced techniques up to the Legendary Realm.
• Fang Yun told Zhang Zhi that Qi Refiners struggled to replenish their qi and that researchers were investigating whether spiritual qi could be converted into qi stones.
• Fang Yun said creating the Qi Refinement Technique had reached the limit of his current ability and that lowering the path’s threshold was beyond him for now.

Zhang Zhi ordered Mount Buzhou to open the Qi Refinement Path to cultivators across the Small World, then reviewed the early screening results and learned that many candidates could succeed. Fang Yun reflected on how he developed the path, and Zhang Zhi reassured him by comparing his rapid progress with Cloud Mist University’s long effort to establish its own path.

• Zhang Zhi told Fang Yun to begin selecting suitable cultivators throughout the Small World for the Qi Refinement Path.
• Zhang Zhi attended an internal Trade Fair, declined Li Feihe’s invitation to tour Cloud Mist University, and entered the Small World to inspect the screening results.
• Fang Yun reported that 6,757 people could sense spiritual qi, with 5,896 able to begin cultivation, and estimated that 40 to 50 percent of them could become Qi Refiners.
• Fang Yun explained that he had underestimated the success rate because the Qi Refinement stages allowed cultivators to learn from failures, and he described how a young woman’s suggestion inspired him to consider helping more people sense spiritual qi.
• Zhang Zhi encouraged Fang Yun and described Cloud Mist University’s prolonged effort to develop the Cloud Mist Path, but Fang Yun argued that his Qi Refinement Path could not be put on the same level because it only reached the Legendary Realm.

Zhang Zhi prepared for the Exchange Meeting’s Fourth Assessment, then entered a randomly assigned world to fight foreign races. He suspected the world might be connected to the Cloud Mist World or the Mind Devourer, but Zixia found no Cloud Mist Law, and Zhang Zhi sent Fang Min and the others to explore.

• Zhang Zhi and Fang Yun concluded that increasing spiritual energy was key to expanding the Qi Refiner Path, while the Research Institute tested three Extraordinary Mechas that no one could yet control.
• Zhang Zhi learned that the Fourth Assessment required participants to survive in a distant world and kill foreign races, with jade pendants available to teleport them back from mortal danger.
• Zhang Zhi inferred from a new page in his Multiverse Region Record that the group had reached a region beyond the Realm Lord’s Main World, possibly near the Mind Devourer or Cloud Mist World.
• Liu Wanwan warned Zhang Zhi about the assessment’s danger and gave him a Sound Transmission Jade Talisman before they entered the same Teleportation Array.
• Zhang Zhi arrived alone in a vast desert, learned from Zixia that it was an ordinary Large Small World with unusually complete laws related to its spirit, and summoned Fang Yun and the others to explore.

Zhang Zhi investigated a foreign-race mining area and discovered that darkness brought powerful, unfamiliar laws and lethal creatures. Zixia identified some of those laws as related to the Death God Law, which manifested a Death God to reap beings who should not remain among the living.

• Zhang Zhi watched a mining area populated by several foreign races and waited until a convoy arrived to transport ore.
• Zixia warned Zhang Zhi that the laws changed after nightfall, and darkness engulfed the world as he approached the mining area.
• Zixia told Zhang Zhi that moving through the darkness could trigger mental attacks and random teleportation, so he used Fire Light Talismans to illuminate his way.
• Zhang Zhi discovered that several of his Retainers had perished in the darkness, leaving only Fang Yun and Fang Min connected to him.
• A Black Shadow was destroyed by the talismans' light, and Zixia identified its remains as similar to a Mental Power Crystal.
• Zixia recognized the strange laws as related to the Death God Law and explained that it manifested a Death God to reap living beings who should not exist in the mortal world.

Zhang Zhi and Zixia investigated the strange Black Shadows and learned that the Red Mountain World’s abnormal night began after an ancient Evil Existence was released during a war against the Mind Devourers. The locals had defeated the invaders eleven years earlier, but the dangerous night remained.

• Zixia explained that the Death God Law had once threatened all living beings, and she suspected it had mutated in this world or been corrupted by another law.
• A Black Shadow attacked Zhang Zhi and Zixia, destroying two Fire Light Talismans before turning to ashes; Zhang Zhi hurried toward the illuminated houses to avoid attracting more shadows.
• Zhang Zhi and Zixia met three Extraordinary Realm locals, and Zixia gave Zhang Zhi the ability to understand their language.
• Zhang Zhi told the locals he came from the Realm Lord's Main World, and they identified their home as the Red Mountain World.
• The locals explained that the Mind Devourers invaded more than sixty years earlier and enslaved many beings, including Deity Realm beings.
• The locals said the night grew strange after an Evil Existence escaped during the war more than thirty years ago, and the Mind Devourers withdrew before the last stronghold was eliminated eleven years ago.

Zhang Zhi agreed to help the Mountain Village gather Shadow Ash by killing Black Shadows, hoping to investigate their ability to weaken Mind Devourer Mental Enslavement. The villagers offered iron essence, but Zixia asked whether they had kept spoils from the invaders, and the three cultivators said they had obtained many but did not have them with them.

• The Extraordinary Realm cultivators explained that burning Shadow Ash repelled Black Shadows, but collecting it had cost the Mountain Village many lives and driven away residents.
• They described how Black Shadows hid in living beings, drained Mental Power, controlled victims, and could devour souls; they also said the darkness had weakened the Mind Devourers' enslaving spells and driven the invaders away.
• Zhang Zhi agreed in principle to summon Retainers to kill Black Shadows and gather Shadow Ash, then asked what payment the Mountain Village could offer.
• The cultivators offered iron essence, while Zhang Zhi considered studying the Black Shadows with Six Paths of Reincarnation cultivators to learn how they countered Mind Devourer spells.
• Zixia asked whether the villagers had obtained spoils of war from the invaders, and the cultivators said they had acquired many but did not have them with them.

Zhang Zhi investigated the Black Shadows and concluded that the Grim Reaper was harvesting souls and using Mental Power to gestate incarnations, explaining the Mind Devourers’ decline in this world. He realized his Six Paths of Reincarnation Path might counter the Mind Devourers, but had not yet tested the idea.

• Zhang Zhi learned of an abandoned invader stronghold and sent four Six Paths of Reincarnation cultivators to place torches and lure Black Shadows.
• After nearly two hours, the cultivators restrained a Black Shadow with a Soul Fixing Charm and reported that it could be controlled like a soul despite feeling unlike one.
• A cultivator described the Black Shadow as having a shell made of Mental Power and a special substance, with something hidden inside it.
• Zhang Zhi and Zixia reasoned that the Black Shadows might be gestating Grim Reaper incarnations as the Death God Law recovered.
• Zixia explained that the Grim Reaper could harvest souls, and Zhang Zhi connected that power to the Mind Devourers’ weakening and expulsion from the world.
• Zhang Zhi wondered whether his Six Paths of Reincarnation Path could counter the Mind Devourers.

Zhang Zhi concluded that the Black Shadows might be avatars of the Death God and tested their limits, provoking a Shadow God that killed his four Retainers. He argued that the Death God Law had become an obstacle to the Multiverse, then sent three powerful Six Paths of Reincarnation cultivators into the darkness, leaving Zixia surprised by one of their Law fluctuations.

• Zhang Zhi told his four Retainers to keep killing Black Shadows and collecting their ashes, while Zixia admitted she did not know whether light Laws countered the Death God Law.
• After the four Retainers killed more than five hundred Black Shadows, a Shadow God appeared, extinguished the surrounding lights, and killed them; three local aliens burned Shadow Ash to drive it away.
• Zhang Zhi learned that the Shadow God had mastered the Darkness Law, declined the aliens’ invitation to rest, and told Zixia he planned to summon Retainers to explore the darkness.
• Zhang Zhi offered Zixia the Six Paths of Reincarnation Law as a reward for helping him attack the Shadow God, then argued that the Death God Law had become a hindrance to the Multiverse.
• Zhang Zhi summoned Fang Sanzang and two other Extraordinary Realm cultivators, gave them Light Illumination Talismans, and sent them into the darkness to search for the Shadow God.
• Zixia sensed Six Paths of Reincarnation Law fluctuations from one of the three and asked Zhang Zhi what was happening with them.

Zhang Zhi learned that restoring the Six Paths of Reincarnation could bring the Multiverse’s hatred, but he remained committed after weighing Zixia’s warning. When Fang Sanzang used the Rebirth Mantra to purify a Shadow God and Zhang Zhi received a huge amount of merit, Zhang Zhi sent cultivators out to test whether the mantra could earn merit by converting other creatures.

• Zixia warned Zhang Zhi that worlds repairing the Six Paths of Reincarnation Path faced heavenly retribution and the Multiverse’s rejection, but Zhang Zhi concealed that the Multiverse Will had instructed him to restore it.
• Zixia said Zhang Zhi had the strongest fortune she had seen among humans, and Zhang Zhi privately considered how difficult it would be to persuade her to become Meng Po.
• Zhang Zhi sensed that Fang Sanzang had used the Rebirth Mantra to purge a Shadow God’s corruption, and he decided Fang Sanzang and the others should move away from the settlement.
• Zhang Zhi reflected on the Rebirth Mantra’s power after fifteen fragments had fused into the complete green-tier mantra, and considered planting the Bodhi Tree in the Underworld.
• The Small Broken Bell trembled as a large amount of merit arrived, which Zhang Zhi believed came from Fang Sanzang purifying the Shadow God.
• Zhang Zhi summoned more than a dozen cultivators who had comprehended the Rebirth Mantra and sent them out with Light Illumination Talismans to test whether converting other creatures could earn merit.

Zhang Zhi explored the Mind Devourers' underground stronghold and learned that its inhabitants had been searching for laws related to Mental Power. The chapter ended with him ordering a deeper search of the caves while he investigated what had drawn the Mind Devourers to this world.

• After learning that the world's night was spreading and that few powerful beings remained, Zhang Zhi flew with Ao Guang to the Mind Devourers' stronghold.
• Zhang Zhi summoned Retainers to explore the underground nest, where they encountered Black Shadows in areas without light.
• Zixia discovered that the laws underground matched the strange laws of night, and Fang Sanzang cleared the Black Shadows without earning Zhang Zhi any merit.
• Zhang Zhi found the stronghold's Soul Stones drained of Mental Power and read notebooks showing that the Mind Devourers had been recording their work on paper to protect it from the darkness.
• After Zixia showed Zhang Zhi a notebook written by the team's leader, he learned the Mind Devourers had come to find Mental Power-related laws so their Main World could break through its limits.

Zhang Zhi and Zixia investigated the Mind Devourers’ records and pieced together how the mutated Death God Law had affected the world. As night fell, a creature emerged from the darkness and approached their shelter, but the Small Broken Bell warned Zhang Zhi not to invite it in.

• Zhang Zhi concluded that the Mind Devourers had invaded to obtain the Death God Law, which had mutated and begun absorbing souls and creating Black Shadows.
• Zhang Zhi found a log describing a monster that had taken control of Udawada and warning that creatures emerging from the darkness had terrifying replacement souls.
• Zhang Zhi and Zixia decided to remain near the base overnight and explore its underground space again after nightfall, since the Retainers had found no hidden rooms or gates.
• As night fell, Zhang Zhi sensed he was being watched while the Retainers explored underground, but Zixia reassured him that she would protect him.
• A figure walked out of the darkness and asked to enter; the Small Broken Bell spent merit to stop Zhang Zhi from answering, and the creature stepped inside, causing the entrance bonfire’s light to contract.

Zhang Zhi and Zixia exposed a disguised Death God and discovered it resembled the monsters that had attacked Zhang Zhi’s world. After exchanging secrets under oath, Zixia learned that his Small World had faced attacks tied to its Six Paths of Reincarnation Law and asked how he had survived them.

• Zixia explained that the apparent visitor could alter perception, and she identified it as a Death God by confronting it.
• The Death God’s humanlike disguise peeled away, revealing a Mutated Death God resembling monsters Zhang Zhi had encountered before.
• The Mutated Death God attacked, but Zixia used her Cloud Mist Law to make it stop and sit in a corner.
• Zixia asked where Zhang Zhi had seen such creatures, and they agreed to exchange secrets under an oath witnessed by the Multiverse Consciousness.
• Zhang Zhi revealed that creatures resembling the Death God had attacked worlds where the Six Paths of Reincarnation Law had developed, and Zixia asked how he had evaded them.

Zhang Zhi tested whether the creatures attacking the Six Paths of Reincarnation Path were Mutated Death Gods and discovered that their behavior and lack of merit differed from Shadow Gods. Zixia remained unconvinced that a powerful being controlled the Death Gods, leaving their corruption and origin unresolved.

• Zhang Zhi offered to let Zixia enter his Small World during the next attack, and she learned the monsters attacked him once each year there, far more often than the historical record suggested.
• Zhang Zhi summoned Fang Sanzang to use the Rebirth Mantra on a Mutated Death God, which briefly purged its corruption before it mutated again and attacked him.
• Zixia subdued the Mutated Death God and explained that a special law within it could awaken under certain conditions, while she suspected the Death Gods had been contaminated rather than controlled.
• Zhang Zhi fired his Spiritual Energy Annihilation Cannon until the Mutated Death God was destroyed, then confirmed it was the same kind of creature that had attacked his Small World.
• Zhang Zhi explained that Fang Sanzang had converted a Shadow God for merit, but neither the Mutated Death God nor the earlier attackers yielded merit, prompting Zixia to suggest their laws had been corrupted.

Zhang Zhi and Zixia theorized that polluted Death Gods were trapped in the darkness and sent to attack worlds restoring the Six Paths of Reincarnation Path. After farming merit by having Fang Sanzang transcend Shadow Gods, Zhang Zhi returned to his Small World to test soul-protection talismans and plan a limited opening of the Trading Market’s third floor.

• Zhang Zhi proposed that creatures lost in the darkness were transported to a prison, and that polluted Death Gods escaped it to attack worlds restoring the Six Paths of Reincarnation Path.
• Zixia said the histories of the Six Paths of Reincarnation Path and the Death God Law were ancient and intertwined, but she did not know how either had been destroyed.
• Zhang Zhi sent Fang Sanzang out to transcend Shadow Gods overnight, then saw that his merit had nearly doubled and traveled with Zixia to a crowded human city to find more.
• After night fell, Fang Sanzang transcended Black Shadows outside the city while Zhang Zhi entered his Small World and added Six Paths soul-protection and pollution-clearing talismans to the Trial Tower market.
• Zhang Zhi decided to open only one region of the Trading Market’s third floor for now, offering resources such as Extraordinary Mecha and Six Paths talismans.

Zhang Zhi reviewed the Ten Thousand Races Region map, inspected Fengdu and the Underworld, and considered how the Six Paths of Reincarnation Law might expand. He then visited Fang Yun at Mount Buzhou and found that only a little over thirty people had become Qi Refiners despite more than twenty thousand having the aptitude.

• Zhang Zhi updated the Ten Thousand Races Region map and wondered why a huge area near the Small World had no recorded worlds.
• Zhang Zhi considered waiting for more Legendary Realm cultivators before entering the arena again and planned to have Zixia identify the monsters that attacked when the Ghost Gate Pass opened.
• Zhang Zhi inspected Fengdu, whose population had surpassed six hundred thousand, and then visited the Underworld, where he saw five Blade Mountains, a stone mill, and a pool of Water of the River of Forgetfulness.
• Zhang Zhi surveyed the overcrowded City of Wrongful Death and considered asking Zixia to help train Meng Pos.
• Zhang Zhi visited Fang Yun at Mount Buzhou and learned that only a little over thirty people had become Qi Refiners after more than a year, despite over twenty-two thousand having the aptitude.

Zhang Zhi examined the Qi Refiner Path, spread its cultivation method, and traveled with Zixia while Fang Sanzang converted Shadow Gods for merit. After gaining a Merit Auspicious Cloud, Zhang Zhi noticed Zixia suddenly turn solemn on the eleventh day.

• Zhang Zhi watched Qi Refiners battle cultivators of other paths and saw their exceptional strength.
• Zhang Zhi and Fang Yun placed the Qi Refining Art on the Trading Market for worlds with Qi Gathering Arrays.
• Zhang Zhi inspected the Small World, then returned to find Zixia following Fang Sanzang as he converted Black Shadows and Shadow Gods.
• Over several days, Fang Sanzang converted Shadow Gods in indigenous cities, and Zixia told Zhang Zhi that a Merit Auspicious Cloud had appeared above him.
• Zixia explained that cultivators could see the cloud and that harming its owner risked misfortune, so Zhang Zhi relaxed and continued traveling with her.
• On the eleventh day, Zhang Zhi noticed his merit change, and Zixia abruptly stood up and stared into the distance with a solemn expression.

Zhang Zhi escaped a powerful Shadow God after his purification of Shadow Gods led to a settlement’s destruction, then questioned the morality of earning merit. He returned to the Main World, where a guardian was astonished by the amount of merit he had gained.

• A powerful Shadow God swallowed the native settlement, and Zixia carried Zhang Zhi to safety as the darkness pursued them.
• Zhang Zhi blamed himself for the deaths and learned from Zixia that powerful beings commonly earned merit by exploiting disasters and weaker races.
• Zhang Zhi wondered whether the Multiverse Consciousness wanted him to develop the path of the bald-headed people, but decided to wait before planting the Bodhi Tree.
• Zixia explained how faith, incense, and undead paths exploited living beings, and Zhang Zhi compared those practices with humanity’s arrangements in the Main World.
• Zhang Zhi used his Teleportation Talisman to return to the Main World, where a Teleportation Hall guardian asked how he had obtained so much merit.