Chapter Summaries

Lin Chen fought Li Mingzhen, the Dao Child of Taiyi Xuanmen, after his devastating attack was undone by a power resembling Particle Return. Their battle revealed that Li Mingzhen could wield abilities and sword arts associated with other Dao Children, and Lin Chen concluded that Li Mingzhen and the world around them were trapped in an illusion.

• Lin Chen turned his Yin Yang Five Elements Dissolution Spiritual Light into blood-red lotuses that annihilated everything across dozens of li, but the destruction gradually reversed and the land and Li Mingze reappeared.
• Lin Chen recognized his opponent as Li Mingzhen and challenged him over using a method associated with Zhang Tianwen; Li Mingzhen threatened to learn Lin Chen's secrets by killing him.
• Li Mingzhen transformed into Gu Wushuang and attacked with sword arts that Lin Chen countered using his Soundless Sword Light and other techniques.
• Lin Chen identified the sword cultivation as Gu Wushuang's and questioned how Li Mingzhen could also use Zhang Tianwen's abilities.
• Lin Chen revealed that he had not fallen into an illusion; Li Mingzhen and the surrounding Heaven and Earth were the ones being deceived.

Lin Chen survived Li Mingzhen’s attacks and deduced that his illusion arts let him borrow the powers of other cultivators by deceiving Heaven and Earth. Li Mingzhen dismissed that explanation and challenged Lin Chen’s assumption that the world itself was real.

• Li Mingzhen transformed into Gu Wushuang and used One Sword Silences All Laws to destroy Lin Chen’s body.
• Li Mingzhen changed into a demonic form and struck at Lin Chen’s true spirit with the Asura Blood Transformation Demonic Blade.
• Li Mingzhen tried to copy Lin Chen but could not find traces of his Dao comprehension, while Lin Chen appeared behind him unharmed.
• Lin Chen identified Li Mingzhen’s method as an illusion that deceived himself and Heaven and Earth, letting him borrow the recorded paths of other cultivators.
• Li Mingzhen called Lin Chen’s explanation completely wrong and asked why he believed the world was real.

Li Mingzhen explained his Idealistic Illusion Dao, which treated all living beings as incarnations of one person whose thoughts created the universe, and invited Lin Chen to join him in uniting them. Lin Chen understood the Dao’s terrifying potential but refused, declaring that his materialist beliefs put them on incompatible paths.

• Li Mingzhen argued that the world might exist only through consciousness, then proposed that all living beings were different personalities of one person.
• Lin Chen recognized that Li Mingzhen had combined the One Person Universe and idealism into a Dao that could make the universe an imagined creation.
• Li Mingzhen invited Lin Chen to unite all living beings and become a Creator-like being capable of bringing worlds into existence through thought.
• Lin Chen refused Li Mingzhen’s proposal, saying he was a materialist and that people with different paths could not cooperate.

Lin Chen rejected Li Mingzhen’s Idealistic Illusion Dao because it contradicted his materialist pursuit of objective truth, and he concluded that their paths made them enemies. Li Mingzhen revealed his intent to consume Lin Chen, and as reality turned illusory, Lin Chen prepared to fight back.

• Lin Chen considered how Li Mingzhen’s Idealistic Illusion Dao could make the universe’s underlying logic chaotic and concluded that it opposed his own Dao.
• Lin Chen challenged Li Mingzhen’s identity, arguing that a Golden Core cultivator could not have created such a powerful path.
• Li Mingzhen invited Lin Chen to merge with him, but Lin Chen attacked and declared that their differing Daos meant they could not walk together.
• Li Mingzhen said he would consume Lin Chen, and the surroundings began to blur and turn unreal.
• Lin Chen recognized the Idealistic Illusion Dao and prepared to demonstrate the power of the materialist path.

Lin Chen unleashed a sword that destroyed Li Mingzhen’s body and soul, but Li Mingzhen survived by revealing a vast power that overwhelmed Lin Chen. As countless identical Li Mingzhens erased the world around him, Lin Chen vanished, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Lin Chen struck Li Mingzhen with a sword that severed thoughts and attacked his true spirit, but a darkness within Li Mingzhen nullified the attack and restored his body.
• Lin Chen realized Li Mingzhen possessed a power far beyond a Golden Core cultivator, while Li Mingzhen resolved to kill Lin Chen before he could become a future enemy.
• Li Mingzhen advanced as countless identical figures appeared behind him, combining their power into an overwhelming force that transformed the sea market into a cosmic star brain.
• Li Mingzhen claimed the countless living beings were his afterimages across time and space, then closed his eyes and caused the world to dissolve into nothingness.
• Lin Chen’s body and consciousness began to disappear, but an unexpected change occurred just as he sank into silence.

Lin Chen disrupted Li Mingzhen’s idealistic illusion by unleashing a spiritual energy leap, then killed his unstable manifestation with a breakthrough sword strike. The hidden power behind Li Mingzhen escaped, and Lin Chen left resolved to investigate spiritual energy and strengthen his cultivation before their next encounter.

• Li Mingzhen trapped Lin Chen beneath the combined power of countless same-origin Golden Core clones, but Lin Chen invoked Kunpeng's Bloodline Trial and triggered an Energy Level Leap.
• Lin Chen exposed spiritual energy as the material foundation of the world, and the resulting upheaval destroyed the clones and destabilized the remaining Li Mingzhen.
• Lin Chen used Sword Emerges Without Self to destroy Li Mingzhen’s manifestation, but an unknown darkness blocked his sword from reaching the hidden true body.
• Lin Chen suspected the hidden enemy was either the Drought Demon or the Heavenly Demon and reconsidered how powerful the world’s Heavenly Lords could be.
• Lin Chen decided to advance to Nascent Soul, establish a faction, and begin spiritual energy experiments before walking toward the Bloodline Altar.

Lin Chen began the Primordial Spirit Experiment by using Zhang Hao’s Kunpeng bloodline and a Three Corpses Demon vessel to pursue Spirit Transformation and study higher realms. As the Kunpeng phantom lifted the shattered Sea Market toward the heavens, an ancient Kunpeng accepted Lin Chen’s connection to the Ancient Cultivators and withdrew.

• Zhang Hao survived the Kunpeng bloodline reincarnation, reached the Nascent Soul Realm, and manifested a Kunpeng Cub with the help of his Immortal Abode’s Creation of Heaven and Earth.
• Sun Boy and the others arrived to conduct the Primordial Spirit Experiment, and Lin Chen revealed a Three Corpses Demon and the body of Three Corpses Old Devil as their vessels.
• Lin Chen erased the demon’s mind, and Sun Boy and the others formed a body resembling Lin Chen’s main body to withstand an Energy Level Leap.
• Lin Chen touched the Kunpeng Embryo within Zhang Hao and prepared to complete its Bloodline Trial by attaining Spirit Transformation in its place.
• The altar shook as the Kunpeng phantom expanded to thousands of li and lifted the shattered Sea Market through the rising seawater toward the heavens.
• An ancient Kunpeng sensed Lin Chen’s aura, decided he would follow the Ancient Cultivators’ path, and withdrew as the phantom soared into the night sky.

The Drought Demon’s Corpse Poison transformed Lingnan into a demonic land, but a rising Kunpeng drew the world’s attention. Meanwhile, Lin Chen struggled to control Sea Market’s ritual as it tore through the astral winds and caught fire.

• The Drought Demon revealed that his Corpse Poison had turned the former Mysterious Yin Gate site into a zombie civilization that could corrupt living beings, spiritual energy, and the land.
• The Drought Demon prepared to test the poison on a Nascent Soul cultivator at the Azure Cloud Sect, but sensed a light rising over the East Sea and recognized it as the Soaring Kunpeng.
• Lin Chen and his allies struggled to contain Sea Market’s explosions and preserve enough spiritual energy to advance the ritual to Spirit Transmutation.
• Lin Chen refused to abandon Sea Market and threatened to use the Protagonist of Destiny to force heaven and earth to help complete the ritual.
• Sea Market’s four guardian immortal towers shattered as the city entered the astral-wind layer, where friction ignited a vast sea of fire around it.

As the Sea Market rose into the Nine Heavens and neared collapse, Su Liyue risked her life-saving treasure and used Moon Soil and her own divine ability to protect its survivors. Lin Chen welcomed her intervention and drew her star formation into his ritual, setting the stage for a game of chess across the heavens.

• The Sea Market was battered by Gang Qi storms as it climbed into the Nine Heavens, and Su Liyue warned that it would collapse and kill the survivors if no one intervened.
• Fang Wangming dismissed the mortals and cultivators as ants, then left for the Death River when Su Liyue refused to abandon them despite the danger.
• Su Liyue used Moon Soil to form a Star Great Formation that blocked the Nine Heavens' forces and stabilized the Sea Market.
• Su Liyue unleashed her self-created Heaven and Earth Have Snow, refined the shattered Sea Market, and formed a stellar chessboard from its mountains and the surrounding heavens.
• Lin Chen recognized Su Liyue's move, lifted his obstruction, and drew her stellar chess game into the ritual, inviting her to play across the Nine Heavens.

Cultivators across the Nine Heavens witnessed a battle between Su Liyue and an unidentified Golden Core formation master, whose contest drew on the stars and brought deadly Nether Cold down upon nearby observers. True Lord Xingmu and True Lord Lie Kong arrived to contain the disaster, but the battle escalated when Taiyin Ice Soul Frozen Ancient Netherworld Cold appeared.

• A Tianhe Sect elder and disciples saw two figures duel amid the snow and starlight above Sea Market, but their attempt to watch caused Nether Cold to freeze the spirit ship and its crew.
• True Lord Xingmu and True Lord Lie Kong arrived, and Xingmu used her spirit umbrella and the purple star-rain to melt the cold and save the cultivators.
• Lie Kong recognized Su Liyue as one duelist and suspected the other used the forgetting method of the Heavenly Demon Sect’s foremost Demon Venerable, but Xingmu said it was only a similar technique.
• Xingmu and Lie Kong expected Celestial Venerable Yue Ling and other powerful cultivators to arrive and identify the unknown combatant, while Lie Kong praised the duel as a contest of exceptional talent.
• As the battle passed more than a hundred moves, the stars dimmed and a vast moon appeared, revealing Taiyin Ice Soul Frozen Ancient Netherworld Cold and shocking the watching Nascent Soul cultivators.

Su Liyue and Lin Chen’s battle over the Sea Market’s formation escalated into a dangerous Absolute Cold Array that threatened to trigger an Ice Age Natural Disaster as the Sea Market rose toward the stars. True Lord Gu Yue arrived and used her Destiny Divine Ability to reach Su Liyue, bringing True Lord Xingmu and True Lord Lie Kong into the snowbound formation.

• Su Liyue froze the Sea Market while Lin Chen used the Dream Realm and his Way Of Deduction to contest her control of the formation.
• Their clash stirred primordial cold and transformed the formation into an unstable Absolute Cold Array that threatened to unleash an Ice Age Natural Disaster.
• True Lord Lie Kong and True Lord Xingmu realized the Sea Market’s ascent toward the stars could trigger a catastrophe, but they feared interrupting the battle would make the formation run wild.
• True Lord Gu Yue appeared and used her Destiny Divine Ability to reveal Su Liyue’s location beneath an ancient moon.
• True Lord Gu Yue led True Lord Xingmu and True Lord Lie Kong through the moonlight into the Primordial Cold World surrounding Su Liyue.

Gu Yue, Xingmu, and Lie Kong reached Su Liyue as she battled Lin Chen for control of the formation threatening the Sea Market. Su Liyue turned the formation into a dead end and unleashed Primordial Cold Light, but Lin Chen revealed that provoking her into choosing mutual destruction had completed his plan, then collapsed the celestial chessboard and began bringing down the Sea Market.

• Gu Yue transported herself, Xingmu, and Lie Kong into the Sea Market, where Xingmu used her umbrella to temporarily slow the formation and let Su Liyue break away from her contest with Lin Chen.
• Su Liyue told them Lin Chen had seized part of the formation's control, making it too dangerous to withdraw the array while the Sea Market rose toward the Nine Heavens.
• Unable to persuade Lin Chen to stop resisting, Su Liyue chose to turn the killing formation into a dead formation and draw down Primordial Cold Light, accepting that everyone in the Sea Market might be frozen or killed.
• Su Liyue's move froze the Sea Market's ruins, spirit veins, and spiritual qi as the formation's changes became sealed.
• Lin Chen revealed that he had deliberately used the threat to the Sea Market's survivors to push Su Liyue toward mutual destruction, completing his plan.
• Lin Chen struck the celestial chessboard with his sword, collapsed the dead game into fading light, and caused the Sea Market to begin collapsing.

Su Liyue believed she had won the formation contest and frozen the Sea Market to save its people, but realized the enemy had used her plan to stabilize their energy-level leap. As the Sea Market shattered, the enemy summoned an ancient Kunpeng, which took flight with a mysterious figure standing on its back.

• Su Liyue explained that she had used the Taiyin Ice Soul to freeze the Sea Market and planned to enter eternal slumber until Master could unseal it.
• Cracks spread through the frozen Sea Market, and the glacier, star formations, and entire Flying Boat Sea Market broke apart amid surging gang winds.
• Su Liyue realized Celestial Venerable Canghai's side had deliberately provoked the Absolute Cold Array so Primordial Extreme Cold could stabilize the spiritual objects and enable another Energy Level Leap.
• The frozen spiritual objects transformed into Nascent Soul-level energy and rare treasures, which gathered with Primordial Cold Light to form the Northern Darkness.
• A colossal Kunpeng emerged from the Northern Darkness, gathered the spiritual objects and Nine Heavens Moon Soil into its body and wings, and soared upward with a mysterious figure on its back.

Lin Chen crossed the Seventh Heaven and entered the Eighth Heaven, using its Great Sun True Flame to refine the spiritual objects sustaining the Primordial Spirit experiment and advance the Kunpeng Cub’s transformation. He discovered that the sun was a gateway to Chaos beyond the world, reflected on his unanswered questions about the moon and his homeland, and rode the Kunpeng toward the exit.

• Lin Chen entered the Seventh Heaven and explained that Celestial Venerable Canghai had allowed the Kunpeng Trial to proceed because he believed he controlled its outcome.
• Lin Chen surveyed Western Vast Heaven’s countless world-star reflections and the corpses of powerful beings sealed among the stars, then considered the dangers hidden beneath the Heaven-Covering Heaven and Earth Great Formation.
• Lin Chen rode the Kunpeng into the Eighth Heaven, where Great Sun True Flame merged with his Dao domain and refined the frozen spiritual objects into energy for the ritual.
• Lin Chen observed that the Kunpeng Cub’s bloodline was growing purer and its body more like a Spiritual Energy Creature as the Nine Heavens’ dimensions rose.
• Lin Chen recognized that the illusory sun was an entrance for Chaos Qi rather than a star, and wondered where the moon and his homeland were.
• Lin Chen rode the Kunpeng toward the sun, the orthodox passage out of the world.

Grandmaster Taixuan watched Lin Chen’s rise and ordered Li Mingzhen to let the Sea Market matter end, while Lin Chen crossed into the Chaos Void and saw the world’s true structure. Lin Chen discovered that his arrival was stirring the sealed dangers of the Return to Ruins, then turned toward the boundary where the Spiritualization Tribulation would begin.

• Grandmaster Taixuan used See Through Walls to witness Lin Chen’s experiences and told Li Mingzhen to let the matter end; Li Mingzhen flew toward the East Sea.
• Lin Chen endured the Great Sun Sea of Fire, cremated the Kunpeng phantom, and crossed into the Chaos Void at the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
• Lin Chen saw This World as a bubble within chaos, with the Central Lands, Endless Abyss, and other sealed realms arranged around it.
• Lin Chen and his companions noticed gray mist rising through the Return to Ruins, and True Lord Xuanhuang linked the disturbance to Lin Chen’s arrival.
• Lin Chen turned his attention to the boundary between This World and chaos, where crossing it would trigger the Spiritualization Tribulation.

Lin Chen crossed the world barrier into the Chaos Sea, triggering the Spiritualization Tribulation and the ordeal of ascension while still a Nascent Soul cultivator. On the Moon, Celestial Maiden Yue Ling sensed someone ascending and turned her attention to the disturbance.

• Lin Chen reflected on the dangers of Spirit Transformation and concluded that he needed to experience the process himself.
• Lin Chen stepped through the Heaven and Earth Fetal Membrane into chaos, triggering the Spiritualization Tribulation and ascension ordeal.
• Celestial Maiden Yue Ling watched a distant world’s light disappear and pondered whether all worlds and civilizations eventually vanished.
• Celestial Maiden Yue Ling sensed someone ascending and reacted with surprise.

Lin Chen survived the Spiritualization and Ascension Tribulations by advancing to Spirit Transformation and creating Dream Spiritual Energy from Chaos Power. He opened a gate linking his transformed self in chaos to his true body in the Kingdom of Night, but his true body still needed to cross it to complete his breakthrough and fulfill his plans.

• Lin Chen’s body dispersed into spiritual energy as the Spiritualization and Ascension Tribulations began erasing his energy, laws, and Dao Domain.
• The Nether Cold from the Fifth Order Moon Soil and the Kunpeng phantom slowed the tribulations, giving Lin Chen time to begin his fifth-order advancement.
• During the advancement, Lin Chen glimpsed the information within spiritual energy and realized that Spirit Transformation required using his own system of understanding to create new spiritual energy.
• Lin Chen transformed Chaos Power into a new world and took shape as a Spiritual Energy Creature, awakening Dream Spiritual Energy and combining it with his Order Dao Domain.
• Lin Chen opened a gate through chaos to his true body in the Kingdom of Night, leaving his full breakthrough dependent on his true body crossing from illusion into reality.

Lin Chen’s Primordial Spirit experiment let him temporarily reach Spirit Transformation and reveal how his Dream Spiritual Energy interacted with chaos. After returning to heaven and earth, he claimed the Kunpeng Cub, subdued Zhang Hao, and invaded his Immortal Abode, where he began destroying it as he considered whether such spaces could be mass-produced.

• Lin Chen studied the Chaos Power and concluded that Spirit Transformation involved creating a personal spiritual energy, while he remained uncertain about the nature of Void Refinement and Dao Integration.
• Sun Boy urged Lin Chen to advance, but Lin Chen refused because crossing into Nascent Soul or Spirit Transformation in chaos would expose him to dangerous tribulations and jeopardize his plans.
• Lin Chen saw that Zhang Hao had advanced to Nascent Soul and that the Kunpeng had been born as an Ancient Variant, then returned to heaven and earth and took the Kunpeng Cub into the Dream Realm.
• Zhang Hao attacked Lin Chen with his Eight Gates Sword Array, but Lin Chen’s Great Innate One Qi Grasp dispersed the attack and immobilized him.
• Lin Chen used the power he had left in Zhang Hao’s Immortal Abode to bypass its defenses and enter the space.
• Lin Chen considered the potential of mass-producing Immortal Abodes for his faction, then unleashed disasters that began collapsing Zhang Hao’s Immortal Mansion Space.

Lin Chen destroyed the Immortal Mansion Space’s illusions and discovered its true core, then realized the Heaven-Covering Heaven and Earth Great Formation was an ancient device for elevating civilization into an immortal realm. He left the restored Immortal Abode without taking its core, resolved to investigate the troubled Lingnan Cultivation World after reaching Nascent Soul, and returned to his more urgent affairs.

• Lin Chen unleashed natural calamities that shattered the Immortal Mansion Space’s illusory landscape and exposed the void beneath it.
• Lin Chen examined the microscopic particles in the void and identified a sphere of fixed particles as the Immortal Abode’s true core.
• Lin Chen concluded that the Heaven-Covering Heaven and Earth Great Formation could transform a world into a game-like realm and elevate its cultivators toward immortality.
• Lin Chen wondered why the Ancient Cultivators had disappeared despite pursuing the ascension of civilization, then let the Immortal Mansion Space restore itself without taking its core.
• Lin Chen healed Tree Elder, suspected the Lingnan Cultivation World had a serious problem, and left the Immortal Abode to attend to more important matters.

After helping Zhang Hao remove the immediate demonic contamination, Lin Chen sent him toward Lingnan to resolve its source and planned to use him to distract attention from his own activities. Lin Chen then revealed his plan to send the Heavenly Demon's hidden hand in the Moon Soil to the moon, where he would seek answers despite the danger posed by Celestial Maiden Yue Ling.

• Lin Chen removed two major demonic qi contaminations from Zhang Hao, while Tree Elder warned that the source in the Land of Fallen Spirit Transmutation remained and needed to be dealt with in Lingnan.
• Zhang Hao thanked Lin Chen for helping him reach Nascent Soul, then left for the East Sea; Lin Chen said Zhang Hao could draw attention away from his plans.
• Lin Chen revealed the Moon Soil and explained that he intended to send the Heavenly Demon's hidden hand to the moon, where Celestial Maiden Yue Ling would likely retrieve it.
• Lin Chen explained that the Ghost Ship and his companions could help him escape if he encountered Yue Ling, and that he needed to reach the moon before the coming calamity and the formation's opening.
• Lin Chen recalled Taiyi's message that an answer he sought had been placed on the moon, and he resolved to go there despite the danger.