Chapter Summaries

Lin Chen awakened inside the dream of Dream Tianlan, a Dao Son of the Nanhua Dream Sect, and learned that the sect had ventured into the deep dream realm to investigate a future in which the world sank into ruin. As he questioned whether that future meant he had failed to win the coming Great Tribulation, the mountain entered the forbidden Lost Layer.

• Lin Chen recovered his memories and realized he had entered the dream as Dream Tianlan, heir to the Nanhua Dream Sect.
• Lin Chen learned that the entire sect had entered the deep dream realm under Dream Immortal Ancestor and Grandmaster Taixuan’s guidance to find The Future Dream of This Realm.
• Lin Chen connected the foretold ruin to the Great Tribulation and wondered whether he had lost it or destroyed himself alongside another victor.
• An alarm rang across Nanhua Dream Mountain, and the handsome cultivator warned Lin Chen that they had entered the Lost Layer.
• The Sea of Consciousness vanished, replaced by grotesque, contradictory scenery surging toward the pair.

Lin Chen and Meng Tianyun were caught in Nanhua Dream Mountain’s sudden plunge into the Dream Realm Lost Layer, where an invading nightmare trapped them among displaced sect disciples. As a corpse-covered tree and funeral music threatened them, Lin Chen questioned whether the danger was only an image or a true dream.

• Lin Chen connected the Dream Depth Plunge to the deaths of Celestial Venerable Taiyin and Yimu Celestial Venerable and suspected Grandmaster Taixuan might be behind the world’s chain of calamities.
• A nightmare from another domain invaded Nanhua Dream Mountain, and Lin Chen explained to Meng Tianyun that retreating could not escape the Lost Layer’s warped space.
• More than a dozen Nanhua Dream Sect disciples joined Lin Chen and Meng Tianyun, while Lin Chen said they had to hold out or destroy the nightmare until the Dream Immortal Dao Master found a way to halt the plunge.
• Lin Chen spotted a corpse-covered tree that lured several disciples into walking toward it, where their bodies withered and one disciple merged into the trunk.
• Funeral music approached from behind, and Lin Chen wondered whether Nanhua’s One Dream was a mere image or a true dream from which he might not return.

Lin Chen and the Nanhua Dream Sect disciples faced a deadly wedding procession in a Spiritless World where their Spiritual Power Techniques failed. Lin Chen led them to the Ghost Tree to set the eerie beings against each other, while the chapter ended with Nanhua Dream Mountain falling toward the River of Time.

• Lin Chen explained that the dream’s laws made their Spiritual Power Techniques useless as a ghostly wedding procession appeared in the fog.
• A contaminated cultivator became an anchor for the procession, and two Nanhua Dream Sect cultivators were turned into rotting corpses.
• Lin Chen ordered the remaining disciples to flee toward the Ghost Tree and use it against the wedding procession.
• The disciples climbed into the Ghost Tree, and Lin Chen escaped into his own dream as the Ghost Tree and procession fought.
• Lin Chen watched the eerie beings destroy one another and realized their survival depended on whether Nanhua Dream Mountain could stop the descent.
• Outside the nightmare, Nanhua Dream Mountain plunged toward the River of Time.

Lin Chen saw the Otherworldly Nightmare unravel as a dreamlike reflection of the Nanhua Dream Sect’s past, then walked through the sect’s ruined headquarters to meet the waiting Dream Immortal. The figure confirmed that the sect had foreseen its destruction and hidden its final dream in the Twelve Golden Figures.

• Lin Chen watched the Otherworldly Nightmare shift through scenes resembling a devastated Cultivation World and concluded he should wait for the Nanhua Dream Sect’s plan to unfold.
• Time reversed across the valley, restoring the dead and returning the scene to normal as the River of Space-time appeared before Lin Chen and the others.
• Lin Chen realized that the Nanhua Dream Sect and its invasion of the Deep Dream Realm had been a past dream reflected in the River of Space-time, while the mountain’s true present was a ruin filled with Demonic Beasts.
• Lin Chen crossed the ruined headquarters and entered a great hall, where the Dream Immortal awaited him and called him a transmigrator.
• The Dream Immortal confirmed that the sect had expected to perish on its journey and had left its last words and final dream inside the Twelve Golden Figures.

Lin Chen questioned Dream Immortal about dreams and learned that the Nanhua Dream Sect had pursued a vision of the world’s future into the Deep Dream Realm. As Dream Immortal revealed the sect’s nightmare-filled fate, Lin Chen recognized the Unknown Land of Dream Snow from his own past.

• Lin Chen asked Dream Immortal about the essence of dreams, and Dream Immortal said dreams and reality were both formed from information and could not be clearly distinguished.
• Dream Immortal revealed that Ancient Cultivators and other powerful beings had gathered at the Hall of Immortals above the sea of stars before vanishing from the universe.
• Lin Chen asked why the Nanhua Dream Sect had entered the Deep Dream Realm, and Dream Immortal promised to explain through the sect’s Final Dream.
• The Illusory Sea around Nanhua Dream Mountain became a Dead Sea teeming with Nightmare Creatures and visions of the sect’s past.
• Lin Chen recognized the Boundless Snowfield within the Future Dream as the Unknown Land of Dream Snow he had obtained upon reaching the Golden Core Realm.

Lin Chen followed Dream Immortal through a vision of the future and learned how the Nanhua Dream Sect was corrupted while investigating Celestial Venerable Taiyin’s demonic descent and the Death River. Dream Immortal recounted the failed Abyssal Dive Plan and revealed that more than the single Spirit Transformation cultivator sent into the Death River had returned.

• Lin Chen resisted the Death River’s corrupting aura and followed Dream Immortal through visions of a decayed future, where the Nanhua Dream Sect had become monstrous and Dream Immortal was trapped in a purple pupa.
• Dream Immortal explained that the Nanhua Dream Sect and Heavenly Mystery Gate investigated Taiyin’s demonic descent, tracing his meeting with the Heavenly Demon and his repeated searches within the Death River.
• Dream Immortal said the Immortal Alliance launched the Abyssal Dive Plan with a Spirit Transformation cultivator and an ancient Cosmic Starship, but lost contact with them after they entered the Death River.
• After the cultivator’s Soul Lamp went out and decades of investigation failed, the alliance abandoned the plan and erased the personnel’s memories.
• Dream Immortal revealed that, decades later, more than the one Spirit Transformation cultivator they had sent into the Death River returned.

Three thousand years ago, Dream Immortal confronted Taixuan about the erased history surrounding his rise and Taiyin’s fall to demonhood. Taixuan proposed that time might be a chaotic sea shaped into a river by consciousness, hinted at the fate of the Ancient Cultivators, and left Dream Immortal with a warning as he departed for the Death River.

• Dream Immortal congratulated Taixuan on becoming Lord of the Immortal Alliance, then questioned how Taixuan’s rise and origins had vanished from history and asked whether he was connected to Taiyin’s fall to demonhood.
• Taixuan explained that time might be a boundless, disordered sea rather than a river, with consciousness arranging it into an order that living beings could survive.
• Taixuan used a spirit talisman and a person in a secret room to discuss how observation might leave someone both alive and dead, then asked what awaited beyond the universe and time.
• Taixuan said the Ancient Cultivators would not have followed the immortals away if they had understood these questions, startling Dream Immortal with his knowledge of their disappearance.
• A message summoned Dream Immortal back to the Nanhua Dream Sect because of a change in the Death River, and he left after declaring he would pursue the truth despite the danger.
• Taixuan warned Dream Immortal that he would die if he learned the truth, then suggested the person in the room might have died long before anyone believed him alive.

Dream Immortal told Lin Chen how identical Cosmic Starships and Death River Spirit Transformation cultivators emerged from the Death River, causing time distortions and people to vanish or be replaced within the Death River Cult. After the Cult was sealed, midnight brought them not tomorrow but yesterday.

• Dream Immortal arrived at the Death River Cult and found a returned Spirit Transformation cultivator aboard a black vessel on the Death River.
• Lin Chen learned that a second identical Cosmic Starship and cultivator appeared, followed by more ships surfacing every hour.
• Two cultivators and their ships vanished, while the alliance’s memories changed, revealing that the arrivals moved through different and scrambled timelines.
• Dream Immortal recounted how disappearances, madness, and unfamiliar people replacing others spread through the Death River Cult until Grandmaster Taixuan alerted them to the danger.
• The Heavenly Lords sealed the Death River Cult, but after one day and twelve hours, midnight brought them back to yesterday.

Dream Immortal told Lin Chen how a temporal disorder at the Death River Cult erased an entire day and revealed a future in which the world suffered a Third Great Tribulation. In that future, a Foreign Realm Guest saved the world but was also blamed for its destruction, prompting someone to travel back through the Death River to kill him.

• Dream Immortal explained that time reversed after the Death River anomaly, trapping people in the past and bringing strange figures and events into the Death River Cult.
• The temporal disorder severed contact with the outside world and caused people to vanish, age rapidly, or lose their memories.
• Dream Immortal said the crisis ended without anyone understanding how, and time jumped from yesterday to tomorrow as the intervening day disappeared from history.
• Dream Immortal revealed that one surviving Death River Spirit Transmutation carried memories of a different timeline, where the Immortal Alliance fell into a Third Great Tribulation.
• In that timeline, a Foreign Realm Guest defeated the Ancient Myriad Races and sealed the Old Day Evil Gods, but was later seen as the World Destroyer.
• Dream Immortal said the Foreign Realm Guest entered the Death River to return to the past and kill the transmigrator he believed would destroy the world.

Lin Chen learned that across many parallel space-times, the Great Tribulation always ended with him saving and destroying the world, though he remained unsure what would force him to make that choice. Dream Immortal entrusted him with the Nanhua Dream Sect’s final dream so he could prevent the catastrophe, then vanished as the sect’s legacy came to an end.

• Lin Chen connected the Death River’s cultivators to parallel space-times and wondered whether the universe and its energy were truly real.
• Dream Immortal explained that Death River Spirit Transformation cultivators from other space-times appeared over a hundred years and then vanished, while their histories all converged on the moon falling and Lin Chen becoming both savior and World Destroyer.
• Lin Chen questioned why his future self would ruin the world, and Dream Immortal described how the Great Tribulation killed or corrupted nearly all living beings and destroyed civilization.
• Dream Immortal revealed that the Heavenly Demon had pursued the Nanhua Dream Sect into the Final Dream, where all 721 members perished to prevent its contamination from spreading.
• Lin Chen agreed to bear the sect’s dream and prevent or save the future catastrophe, and Dream Immortal vanished as the dream shattered and the Nanhua Dream Sect ended.

Grandmaster Taixuan and Heavenly Demon discussed their plan to pollute spiritual energy and bring about a spiritual energy famine, while Lin Chen recovered the Nanhua Dream Sect’s inheritance and traced the Final Dream through the River of Time. Lin Chen learned that Heavenly Demon wanted the Final Dream to return to reality and was left wondering how to stop him.

• Grandmaster Taixuan visited a temple where Dream Immortal’s statue shattered, then spoke with Heavenly Demon about their scheme to pollute spiritual energy and destroy the world’s spiritual energy foundations.
• Heavenly Demon revealed that the transmigrator had appeared and said he intended to harvest the newcomer’s path, while Taixuan mentioned his interest in events on Penglai Island.
• Lin Chen woke in his dream and absorbed the Nanhua Dream Sect’s inheritance, gaining extensive knowledge and authority to enter its important sites.
• Lin Chen used the Dream Butterfly to reach the River of Time and saw the Final Dream bound by Death Chains beneath a vast black shadow.
• Lin Chen crushed the Dream Butterfly to break the shadow’s gaze, then realized Heavenly Demon wanted the Final Dream to return to reality and considered how to stop him.

Lin Chen decided to make the Penglai Island crisis enormous enough to distract the Heavenly Demon Cult while he stopped the Final Dream from returning to reality. In a secret meeting, Old Woman Han Yue and the other Spirit Transmutation Old Monsters brought in an Outer Realm god, prompting her to ask Lin Chen how the Year Wardens could control such terrifying Great Daos.

• Lin Chen realized the Heavenly Demon Cult had ignored him because it was focused on drawing the Final Dream into the Deep Dream Realm, and he planned to create a greater upheaval at Penglai Island to keep it occupied.
• Lin Chen resolved to stop the Final Dream because its Spiritual Energy Radiation could mutate the world's spiritual energy and threaten his path to the Dao.
• Old Woman Han Yue, Withered Wood Old Monster, and the other Spirit Transmutation Old Monsters discussed cooperating with the Demonic Path while secretly arranging for a blood sacrifice and a clash that could weaken the Immortal Alliance.
• Old Monster Yuan Hai summoned Fellow Daoist Nuopu, whose arrival transformed the secret room into a decayed Si Sui Spirit Realm.
• Old Woman Han Yue identified Nuopu as one of the Twelve Si Sui Year Wardens and learned from the Heavenly Evolution Instrument about their domains and symbols.
• Old Woman Han Yue secretly asked Lin Chen how the Outer Realm Evil Gods could control such powerful Great Daos.

Lin Chen and Old Woman Han Yue uncovered that the Twelve Si Sui were primordial Old Gods whose influence was leaking through their seal, and that the Immortal Alliance planned to use a sacrifice to mature them and steal their Great Daos. As the Withered Wood Old Monster and the others demanded a direct sign of cooperation, Lin Chen considered whether he could claim the Year Wardens’ powers himself.

• Old Woman Han Yue questioned how the Year Wardens could possess authority over the Great Daos, and Lin Chen explained that they were the primordial Ancient Gods of Destiny sealed in the Return to Ruins.
• Lin Chen revealed that the Twelve Si Sui had not escaped bodily but were contaminating and assimilating Outer Domain deities through their seal, suggesting the Heaven-Covering Heaven and Earth Great Formation might eventually fail.
• Old Woman Han Yue realized the Immortal Alliance’s leaders intended to use Penglai Island’s blood sacrifice to nourish the Old Gods, then plunder their Great Dao powers through the Twelve Golden Figures Plan.
• Lin Chen concluded that he could also try to seize the Year Wardens’ Great Daos and regarded the bishop as a potential source of power.
• The Ouroboros Bishop offered the gathered figures eternal life and glory as subordinate deities, but they dismissed him and demanded that the Year Warden itself demonstrate its sincerity.

Withered Wood Old Monster negotiated with Ouroboros, an Old Day Spirit who descended through the bishop, and secured the Year Wardens’ cooperation in a plan to descend upon Penglai Island. After both sides signed a contract binding them under heaven and earth, Withered Wood Old Monster prepared to contact the Demon Side, leaving Lin Chen and the others on the verge of the next stage of their scheme.

• Ouroboros descended through the bishop, and the gathered cultivators realized its incarnation possessed power beyond Spirit Transformation.
• Withered Wood Old Monster argued that the Year Wardens needed to reclaim Great Daos from High Order Cultivators to adapt to the current era, then pressured Ouroboros into sharing Spirit Authority.
• Withered Wood Old Monster produced the Twelve Golden Figures, and Ouroboros agreed to cooperate with the cultivators.
• Both sides sealed a contract with their Divine Emblems and powers, binding themselves under the witness of heaven and earth.
• After Ouroboros departed, the bishop decayed and died, and Withered Wood Old Monster told Meng Die to contact the Demon Side.

Lin Chen weighed the factions gathered on Penglai Island and decided that relying on them to weaken one another was too uncertain, so he created a dark, unstable world from the Nine Nether Scenery and the Final Dream to pursue the Heavenly Lord position. As he waited for the war to begin, the Demonic Path contacted him to propose cooperation.

• Lin Chen assessed the Immortal Alliance, the old monsters, the Demon and Monster Paths, and the twelve Year Wardens, concluding that a battle between them could leave a winner too powerful to challenge.
• Lin Chen used the Bronze Mirror to examine the Decay Tribulation Demonic Qi in the Sleeping Dragon Spirit Vein and brought the Nine Nether Scenery and the Final Dream together.
• Lin Chen formed an unstable Illusionary World in which light and darkness devoured one another, intending to attain the position of Heavenly Lord before darkness consumed the world.
• Lin Chen sent a Vengeful Soul into the new world and watched the boundary between light and darkness begin to erode.
• Lin Chen dispersed the Illusionary World when he sensed a message and discovered that the Demonic Path had approached him to seek cooperation.

Lin Chen met with the Spirit Medium Bride and the Demonic Path’s assembled powers, where he fought off Great Sui Demonic Dao and learned they wanted him to kill the guardian of Wolong Spirit Pass and break the seal on the Yinji Sea. He rejected their offer until they presented a Candle Dragon Scale, which he judged insufficient, and Forget Demon Venerable prepared to add another reward.

• The Spirit Medium Bride led Lin Chen into the Ancient Mansion, where he found several powerful figures gathered, including Great Sui Demonic Dao and a Calamity Shaman.
• Great Sui Demonic Dao attacked Lin Chen, but Lin Chen wounded it before Forget Demon Venerable restored the scene and stopped the clash.
• Forget Demon Venerable asked Lin Chen to kill Wolong Spirit Pass’s guardian and break the seal on the Yinji Sea, but Lin Chen refused because of the dangers involved.
• Forget Demon Venerable said the East Sea Dragon Palace would help restrain Wolong Pass’s formation and relayed the Devil Master’s message about the Death River, but Lin Chen still demanded a worthwhile payment.
• Spider Web Spirit Queen offered Lin Chen a Candle Dragon Scale sealed in Primordial Heavy Water, but Lin Chen explained that it would be difficult to use and said it was not enough.
• Forget Demon Venerable asked whether adding another item would satisfy Lin Chen.

Lin Chen negotiated with Forget Demon Venerable and agreed to help plunge the East Sea into chaos so the demons could attack Penglai Island while the Immortal Alliance was distracted. After signing a contract, Lin Chen departed with the Candle Dragon Scale and True Phoenix Feather, while Forget Demon Venerable prepared for the decisive battle.

• Forget Demon Venerable offered Lin Chen a Candle Dragon Scale and a True Phoenix Feather, and Lin Chen realized both treasures required rare Dao insights to use.
• Forget Demon Venerable explained that the Immortal Alliance was prepared for an attack and asked Lin Chen to help create chaos across the East Sea.
• Lin Chen recognized that the Spirit Puppet Method's Spirit Stone scheme could fuel resentment among lower-level cultivators and agreed to give the turmoil another push.
• Lin Chen accepted the terms after learning the Heavenly Demon and Dragon Emperor were watching the conflict, then signed a contract with Forget Demon Venerable.
• Lin Chen took the two treasures and left, while the East Sea Rogue Immortal questioned whether he could succeed and Forget Demon Venerable declared that the decisive battle would happen regardless.

In a hidden Penglai Island cave mansion, Lin Chen used the Myriad Laws Array and a Phoenix Feather to create and activate an artificial Golden Finger called the Order Chip. With this safeguard prepared for his planned rebirth into a new world, he prepared to begin the great East Sea calamity.

• Lin Chen used the Myriad Laws Array to restore the fossilized Phoenix Feather with a Life-and-Death Creation Spirit pill.
• Lin Chen refined the Phoenix Feather with Tai Sui spirit ganoderma and a Soul Returning Fruit, infusing the process with his understanding of the Life and Death Great Dao.
• Lin Chen completed the Order Chip, swallowed it, and activated its analysis and storage functions alongside a monthly death-returning Nirvana trait.
• Lin Chen reflected that reaching the Creator Realm required merging with a newly born world and gradually claiming its authority.
• Lin Chen concluded that the Order Chip would preserve a foundation for his cultivation after rebirth and prepared to set the East Sea calamity in motion.

Long Aotian broke through to Foundation Establishment but learned that he had to repay his debts without a safe, profitable position. When the Immortal Alliance announced that the Spirit Puppet Method could lead to Nascent Soul, a frenzy of investment swept the East Sea, and Long Aotian wagered everything; Zhang Hao nearly joined in until Tree Elder warned that Senior Brother Lin was behind the method and could bring disaster upon the region.

• Long Aotian reached Foundation Establishment after profiting from loans and War Bonds, then discovered he owed a large debt and faced only dangerous work options.
• A cultivator told Long Aotian that the Immortal Alliance had announced a breakthrough in the Spirit Puppet Method that could enable Nascent Soul advancement and longevity.
• At Penglai Island, Alliance leaders and wealthy sects and families urged cultivators to invest, and the crowd poured in Spirit Stones and valuables.
• Long Aotian staked all his possessions, including his War Bond profits and Cave Mansion, on the Spirit Puppet Method.
• Zhang Hao considered investing to obtain rare resources, but Tree Elder warned him that Senior Brother Lin had created the method and might be scheming against the entire East Sea.

Cultivators who had invested their fortunes in the Spirit Puppet Method discovered that the Immortal Alliance would not let them exchange their Merit Points for resources, and they found its vault empty. Panic turned into violence across Penglai Island as the financial bubble burst, while Lin Chen watched the crisis begin.

• Long Aotian and other cultivators were denied exchanges at the Penglai Island station, where a Tianhe Sect Inner Disciple claimed the resources had been committed to developing the Spirit Puppet Method.
• A Golden Core Rogue Cultivator confronted the Inner Disciple about the missing Spirit Stones, and the crowd realized the Alliance might have taken their investments.
• The cultivators broke into the Alliance vault and found it completely empty, confirming their suspicions.
• Desperate investors turned on one another, and Mushroom Clouds rose across Penglai Island as the violence spread.
• Lin Chen watched from his Cave Mansion and said that the bubble had burst and the East Sea's financial crisis had begun.