Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin risked correcting destiny, endured an ash ray strike, and successfully crossed the node. He then used the Black and White Chess Piece to clear the Chessboard trial, causing its light to flow into the piece.

• Chen Lin followed the line of destiny toward a node and used his Reverse Scale to evade an ash ray backlash.
• Chen Lin pierced the barrier above the node with his Blade of Destiny, turned his Reverse Scale toward a second ash ray, and leaped through to a new line of destiny.
• Chen Lin withdrew his destiny force, placed ten Golden Nightmare Coins on the Black and White Chess Piece, and used the pale eyeball to slow the Chessboard’s shifting games.
• Chen Lin recognized a familiar endgame, turned the Black and White Chess Piece white-side up, and placed it on the winning point.
• The Chessboard shook, its lights converged, and they flowed into Chen Lin’s Black and White Chess Piece.

After completing the second trial, Chen Lin investigated a destiny-rich golden lake, where he was trapped by golden threads that only his Blade of Destiny could cut. The Black and White Chess Piece then resonated with the threads and formed a gigantic chessboard, beginning the lake's third trial.

• Chen Lin discovered that the evolved chess piece responded faintly to destiny force, then passed through the second trial's barrier and reached the golden lake.
• Chen Lin found that lake water greatly enhanced his talent but lost its power outside the lake, and the Immortal Refining Gourd failed to draw anything from it.
• Grass explored the lake and reported finding no creatures, treasures, or stones, but Chen Lin entered the water himself to investigate.
• Chen Lin saw golden ripples beneath the surface and was trapped in a net of destiny threads that his ordinary abilities could not affect.
• Chen Lin used his Blade of Destiny to cut the net's threads, then brought out the Black and White Chess Piece, which resonated with them and formed a gigantic chessboard.

Chen Lin entered the Destiny Chessboard trial and learned that he and an unseen opponent had to race to its center, where only one could survive. After reaching a dangerous fork, he discovered that the board mirrored his destiny river and suspected the contest might be a trap to harvest a Destiny Practitioner's origin essence.

• Chen Lin became a fish on the Destiny Chessboard and learned that each player could use one chess piece to make a node safe or deadly while racing for the colored orb.
• Chen Lin practiced leaping to survey the board, chose a route, and passed the first node without incident.
• An overhead view revealed that a large fish was advancing much faster than the small fish Chen Lin had become.
• At a fork where every onward path seemed dangerous, Chen Lin manifested his destiny river and found that it reproduced the chessboard and its colored orb.
• Chen Lin suspected that the trial bound the destinies of two practitioners so the winner could devour the loser's origin essence, but he set aside his guesses about who had arranged it and studied the dangerous fork.

Chen Lin struggled across the Destiny Lines toward the Colored Light Orb while the other player advanced faster. The opponent, Guangzhenzi, introduced himself as a Daoist Sect heir and proposed that they cooperate, but Chen Lin distrusted his instructions.

• Chen Lin avoided a dangerous node by leaping over it and continued across the Destiny Lines, saving his Death Gaze and chess piece for later.
• Chen Lin spotted the other player near the Colored Light Orb and saw that his opponent was far ahead, though both players later slowed from exhaustion.
• Chen Lin found no opening in his opponent’s defenses and chose not to use his chess piece.
• The other player taught Chen Lin a technique for transmitting his voice, then identified himself as Guangzhenzi, a Daoist Sect heir trapped in the Lake of Destiny for over ten thousand years.
• Guangzhenzi proposed that they reach the final node together and follow his instructions inside the Colored Light Orb, warning Chen Lin not to use his chess piece.
• Chen Lin withheld whether he still had his chess piece and remained wary of Guangzhenzi’s offer.

Chen Lin and the Old Taoist reached the final nodes of the destiny chess game, where the Old Taoist tried to trick Chen Lin into dying so he could claim the Destiny Chessboard. Chen Lin survived the final node and entered the Colored Light Orb, while the resulting energy storm annihilated the Old Taoist.

• Chen Lin followed the Old Taoist's instructions to reach the final node, while concealing his Reverse Scale and keeping his chess piece.
• The Old Taoist revealed that the Destiny Chessboard lay inside the Light Orb and urged Chen Lin to cross the final node at the same time as him.
• The Old Taoist used his chess piece to suppress his node, but Chen Lin's node immobilized him and struck him with a Golden Ray.
• Chen Lin weakened the Golden Ray with Death Gaze and survived by positioning his Reverse Scale in its path, while the Old Taoist realized his scheme had failed.
• Chen Lin entered the Colored Light Orb with his chess piece, which absorbed its energy and triggered a storm that annihilated the Old Taoist.

Chen Lin defeated Guangzhenzi in a battle of destiny, claimed the treasures hidden beneath the lake, and learned from Guangzhenzi’s memories about his long rise and imprisonment in the Chessboard Scenario. Back in his fiefdom, Chen Lin examined the altered chess piece and Guangzhenzi’s relics, but remained uncertain who had created the matching Treasure Maps.

• Chen Lin absorbed the colored energy, returned to human form, and found a stone coffin buried deep beneath the lakebed.
• Chen Lin opened the coffin, confirmed Guangzhenzi had died when his Destiny Fish was destroyed, collected his belongings, and burned his body.
• Chen Lin learned from Guangzhenzi’s memories that they had belonged to the Five Directions Temple and that Guangzhenzi had been a martial nephew of Daoist Tianji.
• Chen Lin examined the chess piece and found it could form a golden chessboard-shaped net in his destiny river, though its power remained unclear.
• Chen Lin reviewed Guangzhenzi’s memories and discovered his rise to rank nine of the Void Realm, his failed attempt to reach the true realm, and his search for treasure in the Nightmare Realm.
• Chen Lin compared his Treasure Map with Guangzhenzi’s identical map, wondered who had made them, and examined Guangzhenzi’s sealed Bagua Mirror, a True Treasure from the Ancient Daoist Sect.

Chen Lin learned how Guangzhenzi had tried to use him to obtain a chess piece and enter the Colored Light Orb, then claimed Guangzhenzi’s treasures, including talismans that could help him weather tribulations. He returned to the Six Mysteries Sect, where Heng Hanshan greeted him and offered to take him to see the recovering Liu Rumian.

• Chen Lin learned that Guangzhenzi had been trapped in the Third Trial for ten thousand years and had schemed to use Chen Lin’s chess piece to enter the Colored Light Orb.
• Chen Lin examined Guangzhenzi’s treasures and selected a golden Heaven-Covering Talisman and two silver ones to help him face future tribulations.
• Chen Lin stored the treasures and Guangzhenzi’s Peerage Token, then returned to reality in the Six Mysteries Sect.
• Heng Hanshan greeted Chen Lin and invited him to call him Eldest Senior Brother.
• Heng Hanshan told Chen Lin that Liu Rumian was recovering in the Origin Pool and had asked him to bring Chen Lin to see her.

After spending nearly a year at the Six Mysteries Sect, Chen Lin learned that the route to the Wangyue Realm lay in the Five Elements Realm and reflected on how his choices shaped his fate. Liu Rumian recovered and confirmed that she intended to join the Vanguard Team to cross the Cage Array despite the risks.

• Chen Lin studied the Six Mysteries Sect’s texts, received Yue Tongtian’s guidance, and obtained a ray of space law light from the Bai Family Patriarch.
• The Seven Mysteries Heavenly Woman told Chen Lin that a teleportation formation on the Five Elements Platform led to the Wangyue Realm, and Chen Lin’s reflection on missed choices deepened his understanding of destiny.
• Liu Rumian recovered from her year in the Origin Pool and joked with Chen Lin and Fairy Yaochi about the rumors that he had visited every brothel flower in one night.
• Fairy Yaochi asked whether Liu Rumian planned to join the Vanguard Team, and Liu Rumian said she would risk the Cage Array because this cycle was predicted to be unusually weak and dangers were emerging in the Inner World.

Chen Lin learned that True Lord Jiuhuan had been a vanguard and continued concealing his identity while weighing which team to join. Back in Myriad Forms City, he tested the Chess Piece of Destiny and discovered it could reveal a person's changing destiny, then watched it move onto a chosen node.

• Liu Rumian said she planned to seek reality force in the Outer Realms, while Fairy Yaochi invited her to join her.
• Chen Lin discussed Prison-Suppressing Envoys and possible vanguards with Liu Rumian and Fairy Yaochi, learning that True Lord Jiuhuan had once been a vanguard.
• Chen Lin suspected Xiao Qingmo had recognized him at the auction, but decided to keep using Lin Xi's identity and consider joining True Lord Jiuhuan's team after meeting Marquis Jinguān.
• Chen Lin left the Six Mysteries Sect with Fairy Yaochi, returned to Myriad Forms City, and began testing the Chess Piece of Destiny on an elderly cultivator.
• Chen Lin found that the chess piece revealed shifting bright and dark nodes in the elderly cultivator's destiny river, then made it land on a chosen node.

Chen Lin tested the Chess Piece of Destiny and learned how it could guide or alter living beings’ fates, along with its risks and limits. He then used it against Master Yuan, placing its white side on a bright node and leaving the outcome unresolved.

• Chen Lin used the piece on a dangerous node in Zhao Qishan’s destiny river, watched it resolve the calamity, and later recovered the piece after Zhao Qishan passed through the node.
• Chen Lin learned that Zhao Qishan survived a yin soul storm at the Three Immortals Cavern Ruins after his old injury flared and he left his companions early.
• Chen Lin tested the piece on cultivators of different levels and determined that it could eliminate or stabilize opportunities and calamities, but its use consumed energy and risked backlash or detection.
• Chen Lin confirmed that the piece could be used without harming his own destiny river, then chose Master Yuan as his next target.
• Chen Lin observed Master Yuan’s destiny nodes at a Spirit Wine House and placed the piece, white side up, on a bright node before leaving.

After three years of preparation, Chen Lin’s chess piece guided Master Yuan into a fatal destiny node, and Chen Lin learned that Master Yuan had died refining an extraordinary pill. Chen Lin turned his attention to gathering the remaining Seven-Star Shining Sun chapters and preparing to visit White Cloud Pasture.

• Chen Lin reviewed his cultivation progress, his growing prayer grass, and his plans to strengthen himself before the Cage Array’s transition.
• Chen Lin watched Master Yuan’s destiny fish enter the dangerous node, where it struggled and vanished, causing Master Yuan’s destiny river to collapse and returning the chess piece to Chen Lin.
• Chen Lin learned that Anna had not returned and Nanmen Lingyue had not visited the Ocean Floor Ruins, then resolved to pursue the missing cultivation chapters and visit White Cloud Pasture.
• Chen Lin learned that Master Yuan had found a yin-yang twin birth flower and secretly refined an Attracting Heavens Pill to seek advancement to the True Realm.
• A Golden Ray descended when Master Yuan completed the pill and reduced him to flying ash.

Chen Lin learned that the White Jade Terrace had obtained the Monster Refining Chapter from the Myriad Demon Pagoda and asked Xu Wuye to help him acquire it. Xu Wuye agreed to seek her master's approval for an exchange, while Chen Lin prepared to enter White Cloud Pasture.

• Chen Lin asked Fairy Yaochi about Daoist Tianji, the node divination, and the Western Buddhist Sect, then learned that True-Realm Experts planned to take the passage if the divination succeeded.
• Chen Lin contacted Xu Wuye and asked whether the Myriad Demon Pagoda contained a Treasure Chest like his.
• Xu Wuye recognized the chest's Seven-Star Shining Sun dharmic formula and explained that the White Jade Terrace's core disciples alone could practice its Monster Refining Chapter.
• Chen Lin offered to exchange the God-Refining Chapter and promised not to share the Monster Refining Chapter with anyone else.
• Xu Wuye agreed to ask her master for permission and told Chen Lin to wait for her reply.

Chen Lin exchanged the God-Refining Chapter with Lou Dengjie for the original Soul Refining Chapter, memorized it, and learned that three other chapters had surfaced. After Xu Wuye left, Chen Lin decided to begin a trip he had been postponing.

• Xu Wuye told Chen Lin that Lou Dengjie refused to share the Monster Refining Chapter but offered to trade a copy of the Soul Refining Chapter for Chen Lin's God-Refining Chapter, and Chen Lin agreed.
• Xu Wuye warned Chen Lin to keep his cultivation of the Seven-Star Shining Sun Technique secret and told him that the Immortal Refining Chapter had also surfaced in imperfect copies.
• Chen Lin visited Fairytale Town, where Chen Tao showed him over a hundred Golden Nightmare Coins earned from five white-robed customers connected to Yiming, who had sought out Anna's cottage.
• Xu Wuye returned with the original page of the Soul Refining Chapter, which Chen Lin memorized before giving it back and reclaiming his God-Refining pages.
• Xu Wuye said the Monster Refining, Soul Refining, and Immortal Refining Chapters had surfaced, while the other three remained missing; after she left, Chen Lin reviewed the Soul Refining Chapter and summoned Grass to begin his trip.

Chen Lin returned to White Cloud Pasture and found it abandoned, then used Guangzhenzi's stone coffin to discover a way to change his physical body's location through his fiefdom. He forced open a route from the Minor Spirit Realm to the Lower Primal Domain and reached his old Ancient Cultivator Cave Abode, where his powers were heavily suppressed except for his Soul Force and the Cloak of Xikeli.

• Chen Lin found White Cloud Pasture deserted and, wary of the weakened node to the Minor Spirit Realm, returned to his fiefdom to prepare.
• Chen Lin had Long Han carry his physical body in Guangzhenzi's stone coffin and discovered that the coffin let him change his body's location in reality through the fiefdom.
• Chen Lin used a Pseudo-True Treasure-grade Realm-Breaking Talisman to open a route from the Minor Spirit Realm to an abandoned cave abode in the Tianluo Plane, then entered the Lower Primal Domain.
• Chen Lin recognized the cave abode as his former home and found that the Lower Primal Domain suppressed most of his powers, while his Soul Force and the Cloak of Xikeli remained unaffected.

Chen Lin explored the sealed halls around the Ancient Cultivator Cave Abode and tested which Nightmare Realm scenarios he could reach from the Lower Primal Domain. After breaking through several nested chambers, he entered another hall, where the guillotine mark on his wrist suddenly glowed and urged him to act.

• Chen Lin found that he could sense Lower Primal Domain scenarios but was blocked from Upper Primal Domain scenarios, and concluded that a Lower Primal Domain Peerage Retainer could help him move his physical body between domains.
• Chen Lin had Scholar open the final stone door, revealing a stone hall packed with statues and sealed without an exit.
• Chen Lin and Grass pierced the walls and discovered successive nested halls, finding that the stone essence weakened his connection to the Nightmare Realm.
• Grass could not damage the golden hall, so Chen Lin used the Mermaid Sword to bore through its wall and enter the next chamber with Grass and Scholar.
• Chen Lin's guillotine mark flared as soon as he stepped into the chamber, and he raised his broken saber defensively.

Chen Lin met Princess Gege Yun, learned the truth about mirror images, transcendence, and Betrayers, and fused with a Nian Kong Clone. After Gege Yun warned him about the Nightmare Law Controller and their future enmity, Chen Lin prepared to use a Realm-Breaking Talisman to enter the Lower Primal Domain.

• Princess Gege Yun appeared before Chen Lin, explained that the Monk was a Nian Kong Clone, and described mirror-image fusion and transcendence.
• Gege Yun explained how the Nightmare Realm Projection had changed and warned Chen Lin that Betrayers were powerful beings who had escaped the nightmare rules.
• Gege Yun gave Chen Lin the Nian Kong Clone, and Nian Kong agreed to the fusion while asking Chen Lin to spread Buddhist Dharma Seeds if he ever transcended the world.
• After the fusion, Gege Yun erased Fat Tiger’s mark and warned Chen Lin to conceal his Adjudicator Emblem and beware the Nightmare Law Controller.
• Chen Lin considered the danger his emblem posed to Hua Ruyu and the Blind Girl, then sent Grass into the Thunder God Sword and activated a Realm-Breaking Talisman to seek the Lower Primal Domain.

Chen Lin used a Realm-Breaking Talisman to return to the Tiancang Realm, where he learned that the Yucai Sect had changed greatly and that an unknown Supreme Elder had seized control. He revealed himself as the sect’s founder and went to confront the Supreme Elder, leaving with Feng Yuqing leading him inside.

• Chen Lin rejected a dangerous passage, used another Pseudo-True Treasure-grade Realm-Breaking Talisman, and arrived safely in the Tiancang Realm.
• Chen Lin learned that more than a thousand years had passed and that the Yucai Sect was now controlled by a mysterious Supreme Elder called the Xiaoyao Ancestor.
• Chen Lin decided to seek the Nightmare Realm Demon-Suppressing Temple to find Nian Kong’s clones and the Treasure Chest, and considered earning merit from the Nightmare Law Controller.
• Chen Lin heard that the Yucai Sect had been seized and hurried to its mountain gate, where Feng Yuqing and two disciples tried to stop him.
• Feng Yuqing recognized Chen Lin as the sect’s founder and welcomed him back, and Chen Lin flew up the mountain to confront the Supreme Elder.

Chen Lin returned to the Tiancang Realm and found Li Fuyao waiting for him at the Yucai Sect, where she had arranged for Xue Honglan to undergo secluded cultivation. Li Fuyao asked him to retrieve an item, and she revealed that she had predicted his return by tracing his mirror image in the realm before producing a monk as a sign of sincerity.

• Feng Yuqing told Chen Lin that his master had been summoned by the Supreme Elder and had been missing in a Minor Spirit Realm for two hundred years.
• Chen Lin challenged the sect’s mysterious occupant, and Li Fuyao emerged from the palace and greeted him as her lord.
• Li Fuyao explained that she had sent Xue Honglan into her Minor Spirit Realm for secluded cultivation to give her a chance to reach Void Refinement.
• Li Fuyao asked Chen Lin to retrieve an item and explained that she knew he would return because his mirror image existed in the Tiancang Realm.
• Li Fuyao activated an Isolation Array and produced a monk from a ball of white light.

Chen Lin refused Li Fuyao’s request to retrieve an item from another region of the Nightmare Realm, then accepted the Nian Kong Clone and learned how the Yucai Sect’s survivors had fared. He restored Chen Yueyao’s vitality and began merging with Nian Kong, who warned him to beware of Li Fuyao.

• Li Fuyao brought Chen Lin a captured Nian Kong Clone and asked him to retrieve an item from another Nightmare Realm region, but Chen Lin refused and accepted the clone instead.
• Chen Lin learned that Dong Yunqiu had disappeared, Yue Tianyi had been injured by Li Fuyao, and most of the people he knew were dead or gone.
• Chen Lin gave Feng Yuqing pills and treasures, then met Chen Yueyao, a descendant of the Chen Family whose acquired spiritual root had left her near death.
• Chen Lin used his power to restore Chen Yueyao’s youth and vitality, then went to a secluded mountain cave to merge with Nian Kong’s clone.
• Nian Kong agreed to cooperate, asked Chen Lin to spread Buddhist Dharma Seeds in other Main Worlds, and warned him that Li Fuyao could not be trusted.
• Chen Lin agreed to Nian Kong’s request and began the merger.

After fusing with the Nian Kong Clone, Chen Lin suspected Li Fuyao had captured Chen Ling'er and the others, so he prepared to take Li alive. When Li returned with Xue Honglan, Chen Lin attacked, but her powerful counterattack left him poisoned and fighting for his life.

• Chen Lin learned from the Nian Kong Clone's memories that Li Fuyao had visited the Immortal Realm and might know what happened to Chen Ling'er and the others.
• Chen Lin raised Chen Yueyao to Foundation Establishment, made her his Peerage Retainer, and brought his body back to the Tiancang Realm inside the Stone Coffin.
• After half a year, Li Fuyao returned to the Yucai Sect with Xue Honglan, who had reached the Void Refinement Realm.
• Chen Lin ambushed Li Fuyao with Death Gaze, but she resisted and launched a Tri-Color Arrow that destroyed the Flaming Giant Tiger, damaged the Immortal Refining Gourd, and broke his Golden Battle Armor.
• Grass controlled the Thunder God Sword to stop the arrow, but the sword shattered and Grass's fate became uncertain as Chen Lin was wounded.
• Li Fuyao triggered a Round Bead, and Xue Honglan spat a black object into Chen Lin that began corroding his body and soul; Chen Lin burned his inner star, released the Star Ring, and sent out a scroll and Scholar.