Chapter Summaries

Wang Hongdao tried to identify which Qi Yan had exposed his plans, then decided to eliminate everyone in Guangyang Sect and search for the New World’s coordinates. After the slaughter, Qi Yan appeared and demanded that Wang Hongdao hand over his life.

• Wang Hongdao summoned the sect’s cultivators to the Council Platform and released corpse worms across the Floating Island.
• Ye Yingmei reported her discoveries to the Rakshasa Sect, which granted her an elders’ seat and ordered her to kill Qi Yan.
• Wang Hongdao used his technique to control and kill every cultivator in Guangyang Sect, but failed to find Qi Yan’s accomplice.
• Wang Hongdao prepared to summon Ye Yingmei, but Qi Yan appeared and told him that his two disciples had betrayed him.
• Qi Yan offered to let Wang Hongdao cooperate by handing over his life.

Qi Yan confronted Wang Hongdao on Floating Island, then revealed that his young master had arranged for the Spiritual Power Isolation Array to be destroyed, leaving the island surrounded by World Demons. As the war drums summoned defenders who were no longer alive, Qi Yan challenged Wang Hongdao to fight without using Spiritual Power.

• Wang Hongdao demanded the New World coordinates and threatened Qi Yan, but Qi Yan’s sword strike killed a hidden monster insect.
• Wang Hongdao prepared to attack Qi Yan, but the island’s war drums sounded when the Spiritual Power Isolation Array was destroyed.
• World Demons surrounded Floating Island and watched for Spiritual Power, preventing Wang Hongdao and the other cultivators from using their abilities or escape tools.
• Qi Yan explained that his young master had arranged the trap to stop Wang Hongdao from using his cultivation, while Wang Hongdao realized he had killed nearly all the sect’s defenders.
• Qi Yan pointed his sword at Wang Hongdao and declared they would settle matters by fighting, as Mountain Girl of the Yellow Springs Realm introduced herself and asked to be taught.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Gu Qingshan, Qing Rou, and Wan Er are at the base of the Floating Island, surrounded by the Guangyang Sect's defensive formations.
• Gu Qingshan plans to destroy the large-scale Spiritual Power Isolation Array to prevent the World Devils from sensing cultivators' Spiritual Power for half an hour, during which Wang Hongdao cannot use Spiritual Power.
• Gu Qingshan successfully destroys the array, and the Sect's Warning War Drums are activated.
• Wang Hongdao faces the Mountain Girl, with Zhao Wuchui, a Great Void Realm Martial Arts cultivator, by his side.
• Wang Hongdao reveals he had foreseen this situation and prepared Zhao Wuchui to deal with it.

Character Developments

• Gu Qingshan demonstrates his formation skills and strategic thinking by planning to disable the Spiritual Power Isolation Array.
• Wang Hongdao shows his calculating nature and reveals his past, explaining how he became proficient in foreseeing threats and preparing countermeasures.
• The Mountain Girl remains calm and collected, stalling for time until Gu Qingshan arrives.

Significant Themes

• Calculation and forethought: Wang Hongdao's character is defined by his ability to calculate and prepare for various situations, even those that seem unlikely.
• Strategic planning: Gu Qingshan's actions highlight the importance of strategic planning and adaptability in the face of unexpected challenges.
• Power dynamics: The shift in power dynamics is evident as the Mountain Girl goes from having the upper hand to being outnumbered and needing to stall for time.

Character Interactions

• Gu Qingshan, Qing Rou, and Wan Er work together to protect the formation cluster and buy time for Gu Qingshan's plan.
• Wang Hongdao and the Mountain Girl face off, with Wang Hongdao stalling for time and the Mountain Girl trying to provoke him into making a mistake.
• Wang Hongdao orders Zhao Wuchui to fight the Mountain Girl, demonstrating their master-servant relationship and Wang Hongdao's confidence in Zhao Wuchui's abilities.

Gu Qingshan arrived as Mountain Girl was losing to Zhao Wuchui, and the two joined forces to kill him. With the Isolation Array nearly repaired and the war drums still sounding, Gu Qingshan and Mountain Girl turned their swords on Wang Hongdao.

• Mountain Girl fought Zhao Wuchui without Spiritual Power and was badly injured before Gu Qingshan arrived.
• Gu Qingshan recognized that the apparent Qi Yan was Mountain Girl in disguise, and Wang Hongdao grew suspicious as the pair prepared to fight together.
• Gu Qingshan and Mountain Girl attacked Zhao Wuchui in coordination, drawing him off balance so Gu Qingshan could kill him with the Earth Sword.
• Gu Qingshan noted that the Isolation Array was nearly repaired and raised his sword toward Wang Hongdao, while Mountain Girl joined him and taunted Wang about facing two opponents.

Gu Qingshan and Mountain Girl defeated Wang Hongdao by exploiting the moment the Isolation Array returned and the struggle between Wang Hongdao and Qian Shan Ye. After Wang Hongdao was decapitated and his body destroyed, Qian Shan Ye pleaded with Gu Qingshan to find him a new body, and Gu Qingshan revealed he knew about the soul fragment.

• Wang Hongdao drew the Corpse Emperor Blade and tried to survive until the Isolation Array was repaired, while Gu Qingshan and Mountain Girl attacked him with their swords.
• Gu Qingshan let Wang Hongdao stab him, then used Shape Shifting to bring Mountain Girl into contact with Wang Hongdao and activate Qian Shan Ye's jade slip.
• Qian Shan Ye possessed Wang Hongdao, but the two agreed to set aside their struggle for control so they could both survive.
• Mountain Girl used Severance to disperse Wang Hongdao's Spiritual Power, and Gu Qingshan appeared in her place and decapitated him with the Earth Sword.
• Mountain Girl took Wang Hongdao's Storage Bag and cut his body apart with Secret Sword: Torrent, while Gu Qingshan caught his still-living head.
• Qian Shan Ye offered Gu Qingshan his skills in exchange for a new body, and Gu Qingshan asked about the fragment of his soul.

Gu Qingshan confirmed that Qian Shan Ye possessed both a main soul and a split soul, then used Mountain Girl to search the dying Wang Hongdao’s memories. After Wang Hongdao and Qian Shan Ye died, Gu Qingshan treated his wound and spent his newly gained Soul Power learning advanced formation arts.

• Gu Qingshan explained how his experience with Lan Xiu had led him to suspect Qian Shan Ye had split and main souls.
• Mountain Girl searched Wang Hongdao’s head for memories of the events a thousand years earlier, while Wang Hongdao failed to bargain and died.
• Qing Rou and Wan Er arrived, recognized Gu Qingshan, and helped remove the Corpse Emperor Blade from his chest.
• Gu Qingshan explained that Wang Hongdao had failed to predict his reckless charge because Wang had never fought without prioritizing his own survival.
• Gu Qingshan received Soul Power for killing Zhao Wuchui, Wang Hongdao, and Qian Shan Ye, then used it to comprehend advanced formation arts.

Mountain Girl revealed the Suspended World's history: after Qian Shan Ye betrayed and killed a mysterious woman, her curse brought the World Devil and doomed the world. The cultivators' attempts to flee through the void also failed, leaving Rakshasa Peak as the last great sect while Gu Qingshan continued deciphering arrays to escape.

• Gu Qingshan questioned Mountain Girl about Wang Hongdao's claim that everyone in the world would die, and she confirmed it.
• Mountain Girl recounted how, a thousand years earlier, Qian Shan Ye and the cultivators betrayed a powerful woman who had tried to protect enslaved people, and she cursed them before taking her own life.
• The World Devil appeared after the woman's death, devoured the sun, moon, stars, and attacking cultivators, and continued driving the world toward destruction.
• The cultivators killed Qian Shan Ye in hopes of ending the curse, but the World Devil remained.
• The cultivators developed a spell to flee through the void, but the spell's array master died mysteriously and those who escaped never returned.
• After a thousand years of dwindling resources and deaths, Rakshasa Peak remained the world's only great sect, and Gu Qingshan kept studying arrays to find a way out.

Gu Qingshan mastered the world’s array arts, decoded the Divine Martial World’s unusual coordinates, and prepared to leave the dangerous world. Before he could depart, the White Fox appeared and revealed it had watched him defeat Wang Hongdao and Qian Shan Ye.

• Gu Qingshan suspected the World Demon was driving cultivators to escape into a trap beyond the world, so he hurried to master the Dao of Arrays.
• Gu Qingshan reached the peak of the world’s array arts, activated Qi Yan’s array disc, and discovered that the Divine Martial World’s coordinates lay far outside the range of the other known worlds.
• Mountain Girl gave Gu Qingshan Wang Hongdao’s Storage Bag, and he collected its treasures and completed Wang Hongdao’s nearly finished array disc with coordinates for the Divine Martial World and the Suspended World.
• Gu Qingshan sensed the protective arrays reacting and prepared for danger as the White Fox appeared nearby with power beyond the Profound Spirit realm.
• The White Fox told Gu Qingshan it had observed him since he entered the Secret Chamber and admitted it had watched him kill Wang Hongdao and Qian Shan Ye.

Gu Qingshan faced the White Fox, who offered him a chance to learn the truth behind the disasters afflicting countless worlds. He chose to stay behind and hear the White Fox out, while Qing Rou and Wan Er returned to the Divine Martial World.

• The White Fox explained that it had watched Gu Qingshan and came to give him a choice about his future.
• The White Fox said that powerful beings across countless worlds were searching for the truth behind the apocalypse and offered to share a secret privately.
• Gu Qingshan handed Qing Rou the traversal disc and let her and Wan Er begin their return while he considered whether to go with them.
• Gu Qingshan weighed returning to his friends against pursuing answers about the worlds and the War God Operating Interface.
• Gu Qingshan stepped out of the array's light, told Qing Rou and Wan Er not to bully the Cultivation World's cultivators, and watched them depart for the Divine Martial World.

Gu Qingshan learned that he must survive longer than another Rakshasa Candidate in a collapsing world to earn promotion. White Fox explained the vast hierarchy of world layers and revealed that the worlds Gu Qingshan had visited were fragile Ephemeral Worlds outside the Surface World.

• White Fox contacted a dignified voice and secured approval to add Gu Qingshan to the Observation Queue, but learned that only one of two candidates could become a Rakshasa.
• The dignified voice set the trial: Gu Qingshan and the other candidate would face their world’s collapse, and the one who survived longer would be promoted.
• White Fox explained that Rakshasas could learn secrets of the Outer Layer and acquire special powers, then described the Outer, Inter, and Inner Layers of the Surface World.
• Gu Qingshan realized the worlds he had visited were Ephemeral Worlds outside the Surface World, vulnerable to destruction at any moment.
• White Fox revealed that the Surface World had nine hundred million layers and told Gu Qingshan that he had seized a rare chance to reach the Interlayer.

Key Plot Points and Events

• The White Fox reveals that the world is about to be destroyed by the World Devil in 36 minutes.
• Gu Qingshan prepares for the impending battle with Ye Yingmei, refining Array Discs and making other arrangements.
• Ye Yingmei, believing Wang Hongdao to be weak, plans to kill him and take his position. However, she is unaware that Wang Hongdao has been manipulating events all along.
• Wang Hongdao sends Ye Yingmei to Rakshasa Peak with a box, giving her the perfect opportunity to confront Gu Qingshan.

Character Developments

• Gu Qingshan remains calm and strategic, preparing for the battle and even attempting to sway the White Fox to his side.
• Ye Yingmei, driven by ambition and lust for power, underestimates Wang Hongdao and becomes a pawn in his schemes.
• Wang Hongdao, revealed to be more cunning and manipulative than previously thought, uses Ye Yingmei to further his goals.

Significant Themes

• The theme of deception and manipulation is prominent, with Wang Hongdao orchestrating events from the shadows.
• The impending destruction of the world serves as a ticking clock, heightening the tension and urgency of the characters' actions.

Character Interactions

• Gu Qingshan and the White Fox have a brief interaction where Gu Qingshan attempts to gain an advantage by sharing a cultivation method.
• Ye Yingmei and Wang Hongdao's interaction reveals Wang Hongdao's true power and manipulation, while Ye Yingmei's ambition leads her to underestimate him.
• The dynamic between Ye Yingmei and Gu Qingshan is set up, with Ye Yingmei believing she has the upper hand due to her cultivation realm and the World Devil's slumber.

Ye Yingmei left after plotting to poison and capture Wang Hongdao, while Gu Qingshan and Mountain Girl witnessed the Suspended World’s collapse begin. Facing a fate-predicting card that showed his death, Gu Qingshan chose to fight without relying on it and began preparing Floating Island for the coming disaster.

• Ye Yingmei flew toward Rakshasa Peak after deciding the sect would later use poison to capture Wang Hongdao and turn him into a combat puppet.
• Gu Qingshan and Mountain Girl watched Void Turbulence break into the Suspended World as Floating Islands began escaping through the void and the Realm Demon stirred.
• Gu Qingshan asked the War God Operating Interface about the world’s collapse, but it said it had traveled through time with him and had not witnessed the end.
• Gu Qingshan used the Fate Prediction Card and saw a Black Skeleton with a scythe, which appeared to foretell his death.
• Gu Qingshan refused to rely on the card, saying he would fight fate and accept death only after giving his all, then went with Mountain Girl to prepare the island.

Gu Qingshan trapped Rakshasa Woman and several powerful cultivators in a Small Space-Breaking Array, though Rakshasa Woman escaped into the void. As the world’s destruction approached, he gathered samples from many species to prepare for the changes ahead.

• Ye Yingmei reported that Qi Yan was dead and that Wang Hongdao wanted to join Rakshasa Woman’s sect, bringing a gift.
• A cultivator opened Wang Hongdao’s chest and discovered a Small Space-Breaking Array that transported Rakshasa Woman, Ye Yingmei, and four Profound Spirit Realm cultivators away.
• Rakshasa Woman used a self-activating Small Teleportation Array to escape the formation, but she was sent toward a distant place in the void.
• Gu Qingshan told Mountain Girl that Rakshasa Woman’s All Things Synchronization Mystery could help her survive the world’s destruction, then gathered samples from many creatures on the Floating Island.
• Gu Qingshan tested Fire Tail Spirit Monkey fur and learned that transforming into different beings required varying amounts of Soul Power.
• Gu Qingshan explained that he had gathered the samples to adapt to the world’s changing conditions, telling Mountain Girl that the species best adapted to change would survive.

As the World Devil’s trees destroyed the Floating Islands and its Human Skin entities devoured cultivators, Gu Qingshan faced the spreading catastrophe while Guangyang Sect’s island collapsed. A shapeshifting creature escaped the destruction by changing forms and reached a lake, where it became a carp.

• The World Devil’s trees erupted across the sky, destroying Floating Islands and releasing Human Skin entities that hunted and devoured cultivators.
• Gu Qingshan sent Mountain Girl into his Sea of Consciousness and watched as the surviving islands sank while space contracted.
• A World Devil Tree pierced Guangyang Sect’s Floating Island, but the Human Skins left without finding any cultivators; the island then broke apart.
• A Fire Tail Spirit Monkey climbed to a mountaintop and leaped between islands, but its new island was also destroyed.
• A butterfly crossed the sky unnoticed by the Human Skins, landed on an island, and transformed into a Six-Eared Wind Flower Deer.
• The Six-Eared Wind Flower Deer escaped a collision between two islands, reached a nearby lake, and transformed into a carp.

The Rakshasa Woman returned to the collapsing world and hid by transforming into inanimate objects, while the carp concealed itself nearby. The Rakshasa Woman was ultimately killed when an eagle seized her disguised leaf form, leaving the trial’s winner decided.

• The Rakshasa Woman emerged from a spatial fissure and evaded the human-skin strips by turning into a boulder.
• The Rakshasa Woman landed in the lake, then repeatedly changed forms to avoid animals and the collapsing island.
• The World Devil Tree destroyed the final Floating Island, and the Rakshasa Woman transformed into a leaf and rode the wind upward.
• The Rakshasa Woman was caught and torn apart by an eagle, deciding the contest.

Gu Qingshan and White Fox encountered the Transformation Demon God, Woman's Face, as she devoured the souls stored by the World Devil. After she killed White Fox, she spared Gu Qingshan and revealed a view of a massacre at the other end of the gate, leaving him facing a new threat.

• White Fox explained that the colossal Woman's Face was a Transformation Demon God feeding on the souls the World Devil had collected.
• Woman's Face recognized Gu Qingshan as the one who killed Qian Shan Ye, captured Qian Shan Ye's soul, and swallowed him after rejecting his pleas for mercy.
• Woman's Face let Gu Qingshan leave, but swallowed White Fox as they prepared to pass through the gate.
• Woman's Face told Gu Qingshan she had helped him because his hatred of the world and concern for slaves reminded her of herself, then showed him soldiers beheading captives beside the gate.
• An officer ordered his squad to surround the passage and wait for any surviving Rakshasa to emerge.

After the Woman's Face defeated the forces that had destroyed her world, she sent Gu Qingshan on a journey to deliver a flower to Crippled Barry. As he raced through the Void Turbulence toward the truth of the world, he passed the Black-Clothed Girl, who reminded him that he still owed her a world.

• Gu Qingshan watched armed personnel execute the Rakshasa forces and learned that the Woman's Face had swallowed White Fox.
• The Woman's Face told Gu Qingshan she would destroy countless worlds, then gave him scrolls and a crystalline flower to deliver to Crippled Barry.
• The Woman's Face sent Gu Qingshan hurtling through the Void Turbulence and took the World Devil to find another world to eat.
• Gu Qingshan glimpsed strange beings and civilizations as he sped through the void.
• Gu Qingshan passed the Black-Clothed Girl, who shouted that he still owed her a world, and he promised to repay her someday.

Gu Qingshan traveled through layers of the world with the aid of magical scrolls and pink wings, using the journey to record coordinates for the Ten Directions World. After reaching an immense expanse of water, he activated a pink swimming ring, which announced that it was ready to begin its thousand-year-long revenge and told him to take it off.

• The War God Operating Interface told Gu Qingshan that he had left the World's Tomb and Ephemeral World and that time now flowed uniformly across spaces.
• When Gu Qingshan reached an impassable void, scrolls provided a compass and pink wings that carried him onward.
• Gu Qingshan used the Void Positioning Array Disc to record ten coordinates as the wings carried him across vast distances.
• The pink wings brought Gu Qingshan into a boundless expanse of water, where another scroll provided a pink swimming ring.
• Gu Qingshan loudly recited the swimming ring's activation spell, awakening it; it declared that its thousand-year wait for revenge was over and told him to take it off.

Gu Qingshan traveled with the Pink Swimming Ring toward a Super-Dimensional World, learning that it wanted to return to the fashion scene. They arrived at a temporary transit world and stood near their destination, which the ring described as a gathering place for countless worlds.

• The Pink Swimming Ring turned into a bikini and told Gu Qingshan it wanted to compete in the Super-Dimensional World's fashion scene.
• The Pink Bikini explained that special Super-Dimensional Worlds could connect to any of the nine hundred million Surface Worlds.
• After learning Gu Qingshan was a man, the Pink Bikini cried, then agreed to take him onward if he helped it find a woman to wear it.
• The Pink Swimming Ring carried Gu Qingshan through a one-time transit world and said the world would be destroyed after passengers left.
• Gu Qingshan arrived on an endless sea and heard the Pink Swimming Ring announce that they were near the Super-Dimensional World.

Gu Qingshan reached the High Tower, a gateway connecting the Super-Dimensional Worlds, and gained permission to enter with his credential. As the Guardian Lord checked him for dangerous items, a metal seal emerged and drew the flame’s attention.

• The Pink Swimming Ring guided Gu Qingshan through the world’s true nature and revealed the distant High Tower.
• The Pink Swimming Ring concealed Gu Qingshan’s strength and carried him past the spatial restriction to the High Tower’s gate.
• Gu Qingshan presented a credential bearing thirty-nine study-tour recommendations, and the Guardian Lord admitted him to the High Tower.
• The Guardian Lord began checking Gu Qingshan for dangerous items, and a metal seal appeared before the flame and shone in its light.