Chapter Summaries

Gu Hui spent two hundred years studying the Sword Dao and wandering the world, eventually discovering a path toward Creation. He returned his attention to Chang'an, where Li Ci, Li Wei, and Li Nian had continued their lives, and learned that Li Xin had emerged as a talented imperial cultivator.

• Gu Hui left the Return Ruins and, after studying the imperial family's ancient sword-scar rubbing, realized that the Sword Dao's ultimate principle was existence.
• Gu Hui left Chang'an and wandered the continent, experiencing mortal life and glimpsing a vast sword-shaped Dao Mark in the stars.
• Gu Hui's sword intent developed into a miniature world, and he made a blade of grass grow from nothing with a gesture.
• After two hundred years, Gu Hui reflected on how Li Ci, Li Wei, and Li Nian had remained in Chang'an under different identities.
• Gu Hui learned that Li Xin, born into the imperial family, had reached the Sixth Realm before turning thirty.

Gu Hui visited Fuzi at the Academy's Back Mountain and discussed the Academy's disciples and Great Tang's war with Xiling. He chose to let Great Tang defend itself, then astonished Zhang Junbao and Guo Xiang by using his powers to prepare a meal.

• Gu Hui appeared at the Academy's Back Mountain, where Fuzi introduced him to Zhang Junbao and Guo Xiang and praised their cultivation.
• Gu Hui and Fuzi teased each other about Fuzi teaching his disciples Gu Hui's cultivation method and discussed the Academy's progress.
• Fuzi asked whether Gu Hui would intervene as Xiling's coalition armies besieged Great Tang, but Gu Hui said Great Tang's people had to rely on themselves.
• After dawn, Gu Hui used his powers to gather ingredients and cook, leaving Guo Xiang and Fuzi astonished by his unconventional use of cultivation.

Gu Hui returned to Chang’an and spoke with Li Xin, who was teaching at the Academy, about the Imperial Family’s struggles and the hardships facing its descendants. He sensed that a blind young prince was Xiao Chong reincarnated, and told Li Xin to teach him normally.

• Gu Hui watched Li Xin discipline unruly Academy students and praised her cultivation after they dispersed.
• Li Xin told Gu Hui that Imperial Family members often died young, and that a blind young prince showed the qualities of a wise ruler.
• Gu Hui sensed the Imperial Palace and recognized the boy’s soul as Xiao Chong’s, though the child had no memories of his previous life.
• Gu Hui learned the boy was an Academy student who had taken leave, and told Li Xin to treat him like any other student.

Gu Hui returned to Li Ci after years of traveling, told her about his many lives and children, and admitted that the blind youth in the imperial palace was his second child from a previous world. Li Nian arrived as they reconciled, while her reflections revealed the strength of her spiritual realm and her standing among the Haotian World's most powerful.

• Gu Hui returned to Lane 47 and helped Li Ci make pancakes as they caught up on Wei'er's service at the border and Nian'er's work in the Imperial Extremity Realm.
• Gu Hui explained how immortals could lose themselves after watching loved ones die, and Li Ci said their family's cultivation of the heart had kept them grounded.
• Gu Hui confessed the details of his experiences across worlds and the many children he had fathered, prompting Li Ci to scold him before forgiving him.
• Gu Hui revealed that the blind youth in the imperial palace was his second child from the world before the last, and Li Ci recalled her own past life as Chu He.
• Li Nian arrived and teased Gu Hui and Li Ci; she reflected on the deaths she had endured in another lifetime and on how her strong spiritual realm made her one of the Haotian World's strongest fighters.

Gu Hui and Li Ci settled into a carefree life in Chang'an while the blind prince grew into a learned and capable ruler. As Emperor Chonghe, he expanded Great Tang, reformed the military, and established academies, keeping officials and aristocratic clans in check.

• Li Nian paid her respects to Gu Hui and Li Ci, then left as Gu Hui stayed with Li Ci.
• Gu Hui stopped wandering and helped Li Ci run the flatbread shop in Lane 47, worrying their descendants with his shameless behavior.
• The blind prince grew into a learned cultivator who reached Knowing Destiny and won Gu Hui and Fuzi's approval to ascend the throne.
• Emperor Chonghe deposed the corrupt Empress and governed with the help of a respected assistant who read and recorded memorials for him.
• Emperor Chonghe expanded Great Tang, organized its military under the Military Department, and established academies despite aristocratic opposition.

Li Xin established Imperial Academy, and Gu Hui and his companions spent centuries teaching and developing their skills while keeping their power concealed from the force watching over the world. More than four hundred years after arriving in Haotian World, Gu Hui continued grading papers as Fuzi visited him and discussed the threat of Eternal Night.

• Gu Hui ordered Li Xin to become Master of the Mansion, and she entered the imperial court and won the appointment.
• Li Xin divided Imperial Academy into Literary and Martial Institutes, while Emperor Chonghe extended Imperial Academy instructors’ salaries to Academy instructors.
• Over the following centuries, Gu Hui and his companions taught at academies, and Li Xin repeatedly returned to her post under new identities.
• Fuzi visited Gu Hui at the Forging Institute, teased him about studying many disciplines, and asked whether his family could attempt Tribulation Transcendence.
• Gu Hui said they would avoid risky breakthroughs under the Divine Kingdom’s watch and might wait until Eternal Night to force one; Fuzi left with cookbooks and books on brewing wine.
• Gu Hui reflected that more than four hundred years had passed, Emperor Chonghe had reached the seventh realm, and Fuzi’s formation still concealed Chang'an City from the threat above.

Gu Hui witnessed a mysterious injured man vanish from Lane 47 as Imperial Feather Guards tried to capture him. Later, men backed by Chang'an Prefecture tried to force Gu Hui and Li Ci to surrender their flatbread shop, but their leader tripped on the way out.

• Gu Hui saw Imperial Feather Guards surround a severely wounded man in Lane 47, but the man vanished before they could take him away.
• Gu Hui watched a carriage leave toward the city gates and recognized that enemy intelligence networks were involved.
• Sturdy men entered Gu Hui and Li Ci's flatbread shop and offered them one hundred taels to surrender their lease.
• Gu Hui pleaded for more money or permission to stay, but the leader threatened him with a three-day deadline.
• The leader released Gu Hui and stumbled over the shop's threshold as he left.

After Tang Kingdom’s reserve commanders were devastated by a coordinated assassination, Emperor Chonghe went to Xiling to demand its treasures. He overwhelmed the Divine Palace’s forces and confronted its Headmaster, who refused to bow.

• A spy’s information enabled cultivators from many nations to assassinate more than twenty of Tang Kingdom’s reserve commanders, prompting the Tang Emperor to investigate officials and retaliate against foreign cultivators.
• Emperor Chonghe entered the Xiling Divine Palace’s Peach Blossom Grove, where his arrival drew the attention of the Divine Palace and Zhishou Abbey.
• Emperor Chonghe’s roar sent the Divine Palace’s experts and thousands of palace-guarding knights tumbling down the mountain.
• The Xiling Divine Palace Headmaster arrived in a carriage and demanded that Emperor Chonghe surrender, claiming to represent Haotian.
• Emperor Chonghe called the Headmaster a dog and demanded Xiling’s treasures, threatening to spare his life only if he complied.

Emperor Chonghe killed the Xiling Hierarch, forced the Abbey Master to accept his demands, and then undermined Zhishou Abbey by blaming him for the deaths. The Abbey Master’s reputation and foundation collapsed, and he died in meditation; Fuzi and the others later discussed Emperor Chonghe’s ruthless tactics.

• Emperor Chonghe defeated the Xiling Hierarch and killed him with a palm strike.
• Emperor Chonghe demanded Xiling’s wealth, the deaths of those involved in the plot, and access to the seven volumes of the Heavenly Book; the Abbey Master refused all but the first demand.
• Emperor Chonghe overwhelmed the Abbey Master, then entered Zhishou Abbey to read the remaining six volumes of the Heavenly Book.
• Emperor Chonghe took Xiling’s assets and the corpses of those involved, then claimed the Abbey Master had killed the conspirators, damaging his prestige and Zhishou Abbey’s reputation.
• The Abbey Master’s state of mind and cultivation foundation weakened, and he later died in meditation.
• Fuzi, Zhang Junbao, and Guo Xiang discussed Emperor Chonghe’s approach on the Academy’s Back Mountain.

Emperor Chonghe returned to the Imperial Academy after Li Xin resigned as Master of the Mansion and left him the position. Meanwhile, Gu Hui’s Drunken Fragrance Workshop prospered across the Great Tang, and old friends gathered there for a lavish meal.

• Li Xin gave Chonghe the token of the Master of the Mansion, announced she was retiring, and vanished to travel the world.
• Chonghe reflected on how Li Wei and Li Nian had also gone traveling while Gu Hui and his wife remained together.
• Gu Hui’s wine shop expanded into the Drunken Fragrance Workshop, opening branches and partnering with the imperial family in exchange for thirty percent of its profits.
• Fuzi visited Gu Hui’s workshop with stolen wine and asked to share a meal because he was bored at the Academy.
• Gu Hui prepared a lavish dinner, and Fuzi, Guo Xiang, Zhang Junbao, Gu Hui, Li Ci, Li Wei, Li Nian, Li Xin, and Emperor Chonghe gathered to eat.

Gu Hui endured the Dao Mirror’s lightning trial in an unfamiliar world and returned to Drunken Fragrance Workshop having leapt from the Fifth to the Eighth Heavenly Layer. His sudden breakthrough alarmed Fuzi and other experts in Chang’an, while Emperor Chonghe remained burdened with work because the imperial family’s younger members had not advanced.

• Gu Hui touched the Dao Mirror, was sent to an unfamiliar world, and survived eighty-one bolts of divine lightning.
• The lightning trial gave way to a heaven-and-earth reward that flooded Gu Hui with pure energy and greatly increased his strength.
• Gu Hui returned to Drunken Fragrance Workshop and discovered he had advanced from the Fifth to the Eighth Heavenly Layer.
• Fuzi sensed Gu Hui’s hidden breakthrough and concluded he might struggle to defeat him without borrowing the human world’s power.
• Several great experts in Chang’an sensed Gu Hui’s breakthrough, congratulated him, and became more diligent about entering seclusion.
• Emperor Chonghe complained that the imperial family’s younger members had not advanced, leaving him with too many responsibilities to enter seclusion.

A golden Divine Dragon from beyond the heavens crossed the Haotian World and attacked Haotian’s protection at Peach Mountain, terrifying Xiling’s High Priest and divine officials. As dawn came, an old man on Peach Mountain looked toward Great Tang with renewed confidence, while Zhang Junbao also watched the unprecedented event.

• Gu Hui watched the skies change and saw a golden Divine Dragon burst from the clouds over the Hot Sea in the Far North and fly toward Peach Mountain.
• An old man in the peach grove on Peach Mountain warned that Eternal Night would freeze the earth and plunge the world into darkness.
• Xiling’s High Priest and the gathered divine officials preached and worshipped Haotian as a suffocating darkness fell over Peach Mountain.
• A vast ancient hand reached from a rift in the sky and seized at the Divine Dragon, while the High Priest and divine officials knelt and proclaimed their devotion to Haotian.
• The Divine Dragon was gradually engulfed by darkness, and as dawn broke the old man looked north toward Great Tang and said he had seen it.
• Zhang Junbao watched the events from the Academy’s Back Mountain and remarked that they were interesting.

More than two hundred years passed as Gu Hui lived quietly before Fuzi introduced him to Ke Haoran and discussed gathering gifted cultivators from different disciplines. Fuzi began taking in new disciples, while Li Wei arrived in Xing'an City and ordered a pot of lamb.

• Gu Hui spent the years after his businesses declined living quietly and brewing wine for himself.
• Fuzi visited Gu Hui with Ke Haoran, who became Gu Hui's junior brother, and proposed gathering talented cultivators from different paths.
• Fuzi took in Li Manman and Jun Mo as disciples, while Ke Haoran reflected on the Academy's growing school.
• An old monk at Xuankong Temple sensed Fuzi's plans and wondered about the future of the human world.
• Li Wei walked through Xing'an City, heard about the Tang Kingdom's dance troupe attending Lanke's Ullambana Festival, and ordered whole-pot lamb from a street vendor.

Li Wei arrived at Mount Wa for the Ullambana Festival gathering, where the Red Sleeve House troupe performed at Lanke Temple. A Demon Sect attacker disrupted the ceremony, and a young man in Tang clothing confronted him.

• Li Wei reached the Tang Kingdom dance troupe's encampment and met Ke Haoran and a woman in pale green silk.
• The Red Sleeve House dance troupe performed a dance offering at Lanke Temple, with Jian Xiaoxiao drawing the crowd's attention.
• A black-robed Demon Sect cultivator unleashed the Heaven Demon Nether Chant, injuring people in the hall and threatening Jian Xiaoxiao.
• A young man in a dark scholar's robe stopped the chant and faced the attacker, who asked whether he was from the Tang Kingdom.

Li Wei battled Liansheng Thirty-Two from Lanke Temple to the East Sea, matching his powerful techniques and forcing him to spend much of his mind power. As Li Wei’s Light Divine Art broke through Liansheng Thirty-Two’s Gray-Eyed Technique, Liansheng began gathering heaven and earth Yuan Qi to ascend beyond Knowing Destiny.

• Li Wei attacked Liansheng Thirty-Two with golden arrow feathers and a Mountain-Splitting Axe, then summoned a divine White Tiger that clashed with Liansheng’s lightning.
• Li Wei pursued Liansheng Thirty-Two from Mount Wa to the East Sea Shore, where their battle destroyed mountains, stones, and ancient trees.
• Fuzi said Liansheng had gone astray, while Chen Mou wondered whether Li Wei was one of the Academy’s legendary gentlemen.
• At the East Sea, Li Wei’s golden branches overwhelmed Liansheng Thirty-Two’s Gray-Eyed Technique and shattered its black vortex.
• Liansheng Thirty-Two declared that Knowing Destiny could not kill Li Wei and began drawing immense Yuan Qi of heaven and earth toward himself.

Li Wei fought Liansheng Thirty-Two, who revealed his Heaven Demon Realm and unleashed Buddhist, Daoist, and demonic arts. After Li Wei shattered his cage and broke his Taotie Great Art, Liansheng Thirty-Two fell back to Knowing Destiny and turned to a lotus-based attack.

• Liansheng Thirty-Two entered the Heaven Demon Realm and clashed with Li Wei above the East Sea.
• Li Wei struck Liansheng Thirty-Two with the World Creek Divine Finger, then exposed that he had recognized the demon's identity.
• Liansheng Thirty-Two revealed his true form and attacked with Haotian Divine Radiance, a Taotie, and a Cage Formation.
• Li Wei destroyed the cage with his Third Eye and broke the Taotie, forcing Liansheng Thirty-Two back to the Fifth Realm.
• Liansheng Thirty-Two caused Li Wei to feel drowsy as a water droplet fell on his forehead and a thirty-two-petaled lotus bloomed.

Li Wei killed Liansheng Thirty-Two and returned to Mount Wa, where Ke Haoran and Jian Xiaoxiao prepared to leave for Tang Kingdom Academy. He then went to Lanke Temple and met Master Qishan, who had been waiting for him.

• Li Wei pierced Liansheng Thirty-Two with the Third Eye, and the dying elder realized he had been trapped in a cage before he died.
• News spread that a mysterious Tang Kingdom master had killed Liansheng, while Li Wei returned to Mount Wa and persuaded Ke Haoran to postpone confronting the Demon Sect.
• Ke Haoran and Jian Xiaoxiao left Mount Wa for Tang Kingdom Academy, and Li Wei stayed behind to explore the temple grounds.
• Li Wei examined the stone Buddha's gathering power of faith before Guanhai led him to meet Master Qishan.
• Li Wei greeted the frail Master Qishan with respect despite his dislike of the Buddhist Sect.

Li Wei visited Master Qishan and used a Go game to challenge the Buddhist Sect’s treatment of ordinary people. He told Qishan a prophecy about corrupt monks and true disciples entering the world, then claimed he had seen the story upon reaching Initial Awareness.

• Li Wei entered Qishan’s hut, recognized its Returning Yang Formation, and asked to play Go.
• Li Wei criticized Xuankong Temple for forcing serfs to support its monks and denying believers access to scriptures.
• Qishan compared the Buddhist Sect’s failings to standing too close to a Buddha statue to see the Buddha itself.
• Li Wei recounted the story of Poxun’s warning that demons would corrupt Buddhism and Buddha’s reply that true disciples would enter the world.
• Qishan asked whether the story was a legend or Li Wei’s own invention, and Li Wei said it was true and that he had seen it upon reaching Initial Awareness.

Li Wei left Mount Wa and rode the Divine Beast White Tiger to Chang'an, where his arrival caused a commotion and drew Tang Emperor Li Li to welcome him. After giving the name Gu Wei and declining a banquet, Li Wei tried to leave, but Yan Se stopped him with a complaint about nearly being trampled.

• Li Wei admitted defeat to Master Qishan at Go, then left Mount Wa on the Divine Beast White Tiger.
• Half a month later, Master Qishan and Guanhai remained at Lanke Temple while the other monks entered the secular kingdoms to cultivate.
• Li Wei rode White Tiger into Chang'an and startled Yan Se, who had just left Red Sleeve House.
• Yan Se identified White Tiger as an auspicious beast, and the citizens celebrated its arrival as a blessing for Tang Kingdom.
• Tang Emperor Li Li welcomed Li Wei, who introduced himself to the emperor's two sons as Gu Wei and declined a welcoming banquet.
• As Li Wei prepared to leave, Yan Se grabbed his arm and claimed White Tiger had nearly trampled him.

After leaving Chang'an, Li Wei returned to the Academy's Back Mountain, where Fuzi and the others gathered for a feast and discussed his battle with Liansheng. The group learned Li Wei's name and planned to visit the person who had alerted Fuzi the next morning.

• Li Wei struck a deal with Yan Se, then slipped away from the Tang Emperor Li Li as the White Tiger vanished.
• Li Wei considered using his White Tiger as a reference for a formation and left Chang'an for the Academy's Back Mountain.
• Jian Xiaoxiao stopped Fuzi and Ke Haoran from fighting over Daughter Red and scolded them for misbehaving.
• Ke Haoran asked Fuzi who had fought Liansheng at Mount Wa, and Fuzi identified him as Li Wei, who also called himself Gu Wei.
• Gu Wei appeared at the gathering, and Ke Haoran and Jian Xiaoxiao thanked him for intervening.
• Fuzi and Ke Haoran praised Li Manman's Snowfall Black Goat after tasting it at the hot pot feast.