Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin rewarded Zhao Yingnan and attended a high-level trading convention at the Connecting Heaven Treasure Pavilion to seek materials for his advancement. He traded Clear Skies Pastry at the convention and wondered about the fates of Xue Wa, Yun Xiumian, and Niuniu.

• Chen Lin gave Zhao Yingnan a breakthrough pill and the Good Fortune Spirit-Solidifying Art, instructing her to keep his existence secret and stay in the city.
• After months of cultivation, Chen Lin received an invitation to a trading convention and went to the Connecting Heaven Treasure Pavilion under the alias Lin Feiyu.
• Chen Lin observed nearly a hundred Void Refinement cultivators gather as Elder Yan opened the convention by offering Dao Rhyme Pills and a Treasure-Refining Token.
• Chen Lin offered a portion of Clear Skies Pastry for trade, and Elder Yan praised its taste after appraising it.
• While Elder Yan tasted the pastry, Chen Lin thought about Xue Wa, Yun Xiumian, and Niuniu and their uncertain fates amid the Great Heavens Projection.

Chen Lin obtained the Treasure-Refining Token and joined the trading session, where a purple-robed elder offered great rewards for information about Bai Ruxue's Round Token. Chen Lin traded for a lead on furnace purgatory stone and left his other requests unanswered, while a young man’s interest in two of them aroused his suspicion.

• Chen Lin gave the pavilion another serving of Clear Skies and received the Treasure-Refining Token, which he hoped to use later to repair his broken black saber.
• A purple-robed elder offered Cultivation Advancement Pills, a Dao-Inquiring Stone, or a spirit-condensing grade spirit treasure for information about or possession of Bai Ruxue's Round Token, describing it as a Pass Token that could exist in multiple copies.
• Chen Lin offered pills and Mortal Dust Spirit Dew in exchange for several rare materials or reliable information about them.
• A woman told Chen Lin that the Zhen Family of Leaving Fire City possessed furnace purgatory stone, and he rewarded her with a bottle of pills.
• A young man asked why Chen Lin wanted time sand and high-grade Soul Leaving Beasts, but Chen Lin refused to explain unless the man could provide those items; no one else offered a trade.

Chen Lin considered how to obtain the Furnace Purgatory Stone from the Zhen Family and sent Zhao Yingnan to search other cities for alternatives. He then successfully infused a particle of Xiao Luo's Origin Essence into the Thunder God Sword, awakening a faint trace of innate power.

• Chen Lin decided he would seek the Furnace Purgatory Stone from the Zhen Family, potentially offering pills or a Thousand-Lifespan Pill rather than parting with his prized treasures.
• Chen Lin found that the Blind Girl had regained a faint trace of vitality, but Blue Charm's body showed no hope of revival, leaving her Natal Spirit Pearl as the only chance to fulfill his promise to Kannie.
• Zhao Yingnan told Chen Lin that the two people who had investigated the Light Gate had disappeared after leaving Three Pillars City, and assured him that she had erased memories connecting them to him.
• Chen Lin gave Zhao Yingnan a mask and spirit crystals and sent her to search other cities for the Heaven-Covering Fruit and Three-Colored Qianji Flower.
• Huangfu Qingrou transferred a particle of Xiao Luo's Origin Essence into the Thunder God Sword, which responded with a faint trace of innate power that Chen Lin could sense but not yet control.

After refining Xiao Luo’s origin light particles, Chen Lin restored and strengthened the Thunder God Sword but discovered he could not use it without risking his life. He learned that Yang Qianxing, a powerful expert who wielded stellar power, had emerged in the city and headed to the Connecting Heaven Treasure Pavilion to investigate.

• Chen Lin and Huangfu Qingrou ended three months of refining Xiao Luo’s origin light particles because the Thunder God Sword had absorbed enough, and Chen Lin sensed that the sword had advanced.
• Chen Lin could not sense Grass inside the restored sword and resolved to find a way to bring her back.
• Chen Lin tried to activate the Thunder God Sword, but it drained his essence, energy, and spirit so quickly that he spat blood and the sword fell dormant.
• Chen Lin asked Hu Tiansheng about events in the city and learned that Yang Qianxing had emerged as a Dao Hearing expert and joined the city’s major powers through the Connecting Heaven Treasure Pavilion.
• Chen Lin connected Yang Qianxing’s name and stellar power to an ancestor in Yang Zishi’s genealogy, then set out for the Connecting Heaven Treasure Pavilion to learn more.

Chen Lin learned that strange celestial anomalies had alarmed the realm’s strongest experts and met Yang Qianxing’s daughter, Yang Zihua, hoping to build a connection with her father. Yang Zihua’s striking resemblance to Yang Zishi surprised him, and he impressed her and Xu Zifeng with Mortal Dust Spirit Dew.

• Manager Xu told Chen Lin that the First Pillar Heaven had summoned her employer, a Dao Hearing expert, to investigate unusual celestial phenomena sensed by the Three Saints and other masters.
• Chen Lin learned that Yang Qianxing’s daughter, Yang Zihua, was sixteen and had only recently reached late-stage Qi Condensation, then agreed to meet her.
• Manager Xu escorted Chen Lin to Yang Zihua’s residence on Divine Pillar Mountain, where he was startled by her close resemblance to Yang Zishi.
• Yang Zihua eagerly asked Chen Lin to share his delicacies, and he served her and Xu Zifeng Mortal Dust Spirit Dew.
• Yang Zihua praised the drink while Xu Zifeng considered its commercial value for the Connecting Heaven Treasure Pavilion.

Chen Lin visited Yang Zihua, exchanged gifts with her, and strengthened their connection through his Soul Steamed Buns. After leaving Three Pillars City with Huangfu Qingrou, he headed for Leaving Fire City to seek furnace purgatory stone.

• Yang Zihua gave Chen Lin nebula powder, explaining that it could improve the success rate and quality of treasure refining and other crafts.
• Chen Lin gave Yang Zihua a basket of Soul Steamed Buns, and she was so delighted by their flavor that she cried while eating one.
• Yang Zihua thanked Chen Lin and promised to help him in the future, and Chen Lin gave her a reusable Communication Jade Talisman.
• Xu Zifeng asked Chen Lin to work with the Connecting Heaven Treasure Pavilion, but he declined for the time being.
• Chen Lin decided to visit Leaving Fire City to trade for furnace purgatory stone and left Three Pillars City with Huangfu Qingrou, whom he kept close to protect his secrets.

Chen Lin and Huangfu Qingrou arrived in Leaving Fire City seeking furnace purgatory stone, but failed to find it or gain an audience with Leaving Fire Dao Monarch. After learning why the Dao Monarch could not be approached, Chen Lin secured a lead on another possible source.

• Chen Lin and Huangfu Qingrou entered Leaving Fire City and learned from a guide that the Zhen Family controlled the city and that furnace purgatory stone was held by Leaving Fire Dao Monarch.
• Chen Lin visited the major shops, found no furnace purgatory stone, and went to the City Lord Manor, where he was told the Dao Monarch was in seclusion.
• Chen Lin spent a month seeking an introduction but found no one willing to arrange one, then learned from a Zhen direct descendant that an outside cultivator had attempted to assassinate the Dao Monarch and the intermediary's entire branch had been wiped out.
• Chen Lin offered the Zhen direct descendant Drunken God Brew in exchange for information about obtaining furnace purgatory stone.
• The Zhen direct descendant told Chen Lin to seek Madam Colorful Butterfly at Little Glow Mountain in the South City.

Chen Lin visited Madam Colorful Butterfly on Little Glow Mountain to ask for help obtaining furnace purgatory stone, but she demanded he kill Zhen Zizai or help her escape Leaving Fire City. Chen Lin refused to risk angering the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch and left, only for Madam Colorful Butterfly to warn that he was already on the Dao Monarch’s kill list.

• Chen Lin and Huangfu Qingrou arrived at Little Glow Mountain, where Yan'er denied that Madam Colorful Butterfly lived there until a voice from the mountain invited Chen Lin in alone.
• Chen Lin met Madam Colorful Butterfly and learned that she was a ninth-layer Dao Rhyme expert on the verge of Dao Integration.
• Chen Lin explained that Zhen Linyu had directed him to seek her help trading for furnace purgatory stone, and Madam Colorful Butterfly offered to return everything he had given Zhen Linyu if he left the city.
• Madam Colorful Butterfly said Chen Lin could obtain the stone by killing Zhen Zizai or help her escape Leaving Fire City, revealing that she was under house arrest.
• Chen Lin declined her conditions and left, but Madam Colorful Butterfly used Soul Transmission to warn him that entering her courtyard had already placed him on Zhen Zizai's kill list.

Chen Lin refused to join Madam Colorful Butterfly’s plan to kill the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch, but she trapped him with her spatial dao art and warned he would be killed if he left. He proposed advancing to Dao Integration and returning to rescue her, and she agreed to trust him on the condition that he return within sixty years.

• Madam Colorful Butterfly revealed that the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch’s men were watching her courtyard and tried to recruit Chen Lin into an attack on him.
• Chen Lin refused, but Madam Colorful Butterfly used her spatial dao art to block his escape; he resisted with the Snow-White Single Horn and attacked with the Burning Heavens Spear, which her butterflies devoured.
• Madam Colorful Butterfly warned Chen Lin that the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch might kill him for meeting her, while Chen Lin declined to attack her or surrender the horn.
• Chen Lin proposed that Madam Colorful Butterfly help him leave with furnace purgatory stone so he could use a secret method to reach Dao Integration and return to save her.
• Madam Colorful Butterfly examined Chen Lin’s Jade Slip, accepted his proposal, and demanded a contract requiring him to return within sixty years.

Chen Lin signed a River of Styx Pact with Madam Colorful Butterfly in exchange for a furnace purgatory stone, then followed her out of the fog. After she killed those blocking their way, she told him to fight his way back to Three Pillars City, but Leaving Fire Dao Monarch appeared before they could leave.

• Madam Colorful Butterfly produced a River of Styx Pact, and she and Chen Lin negotiated its terms before leaving their soul imprints on it.
• Chen Lin asked when she would deliver the furnace purgatory stone, then followed her out of the fog and reunited with Huangfu Qingrou.
• Madam Colorful Butterfly ignored the young cultivator and led Chen Lin away, but a middle-aged man and a black-robed old man blocked their path.
• Madam Colorful Butterfly trapped the two Void Refinement cultivators with butterflies, then used a swarm to devour several more figures watching nearby.
• Madam Colorful Butterfly told Chen Lin to force his way back to Three Pillars City while she held off Leaving Fire Dao Monarch.
• Leaving Fire Dao Monarch appeared and accused Madam Colorful Butterfly of revealing his secrets.

Chen Lin escaped the Emaciated Old Man Zhen Zizai with help from Madam Colorful Butterfly, then fought through cultivators blocking his route to the eastern city gate. The chapter ended as Chen Lin’s Dark Red Spearhead pierced the Gold-Armored Man’s barrier and struck toward the space between his brows.

• Madam Colorful Butterfly engaged Zhen Zizai and ordered Chen Lin to flee toward the eastern city gate.
• Chen Lin broke Zhen Zizai’s spatial restraint and used the Blade of Destiny to delay him, allowing Madam Colorful Butterfly’s needle to wound him.
• Zhen Zizai summoned a Jade Talisman and transformed into a dark red bird as he confronted Madam Colorful Butterfly, while Chen Lin sped away.
• A group of cultivators led by a Gold-Armored Man blocked Chen Lin, and he charged through their attacks using the Snow-White Single Horn and Cyan Vine Shield.
• Chen Lin slowed the Gold-Armored Man with the Snow-White Single Horn and drove the Dark Red Spearhead through his runic barrier toward his brow.

Chen Lin escaped Leaving Fire City after killing Jin Wudi and piercing the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch’s palm with the Dark Red Spearhead, but he suffered grave injuries. He recovered in Three Pillars City with Huangfu Qingrou’s help and later thanked Yang Zihua, whose intervention had ended the search for him.

• Chen Lin killed the Gold-Armored Man with the Dark Red Spearhead, seized his belongings, and fought his way toward the eastern gate while the remaining experts hesitated to pursue him.
• The woman in white secretly told Chen Lin where to find the furnace purgatory stone, then helped him break through the gate; the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch struck Chen Lin with a giant palm, but Chen Lin pierced it and escaped.
• Chen Lin collapsed on a white mountain, where Huangfu Qingrou retrieved a Storage Bag; he used a talisman to flee with her and reached Three Pillars City more than ten days later in disguise.
• Chen Lin recovered in a rented cave dwelling and learned that Yang Qianxing had prevented the Three Great Factions from assisting the search for him.
• Chen Lin told Yang Zihua he would give her a Gourmet Invitation Letter after exploring the Nightmare Realm.

Chen Lin met Yang Qianxing and revealed that his companion Yang Zishi was one of Yang Qianxing’s descendants who had cultivated far beyond the limits affecting Yang Zihua. Yang Qianxing explained that a curse on his bloodline restricted descendants with his inherited talent, then Chen Lin asked whether talents passed down through reproduction could also be reclaimed by the celestial-deity experts who created them.

• Chen Lin met Yang Zihua and learned that her unusual constitution kept her cultivation at the late qi condensation stage despite Yang Qianxing’s efforts.
• Yang Zihua brought Chen Lin to meet Yang Qianxing, who warned that the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch’s approaching breakthrough could eventually exceed his ability to restrain him.
• Chen Lin told Yang Qianxing that Yang Zishi was his descendant, had gained an acquired spiritual root, and had reached the nascent soul realm.
• Yang Qianxing questioned Chen Lin about the Floating Realm and his passage through the Nightmare Realm, then recognized that Chen Lin wanted help finding Yang Zishi.
• Yang Qianxing revealed that an outer-realm expert had cursed his descendants, preventing those who inherited his talent from reaching foundation establishment.
• Chen Lin asked whether talent abilities inherited through reproduction would also be reclaimed by the celestial-deity experts who left them behind.

Chen Lin asked Yang Qianxing to investigate the Nightmare Realm and gave him a Gourmet Invitation Letter and Nightmare Coins, then learned Yang Zihua hoped Yang Zishi could help her advance her cultivation. Back in his immortal cave, Chen Lin examined his spoils from Leaving Fire City and discovered a furnace purgatory stone.

• Yang Qianxing explained that some people were born able to wield rules and assured Chen Lin he would not seize Yang Zishi's talent origin.
• Chen Lin described his true-body route into the Nightmare Realm, gave Yang Qianxing a Gourmet Invitation Letter and a thousand Nightmare Coins, and asked him to investigate Gourmet Island.
• Yang Zihua learned Chen Lin was connected to her family, agreed to call him Elder Brother, and asked about Yang Zishi and his other companions.
• Chen Lin reassured Yang Zihua that Yang Qianxing's investigation might help her break the Yang Family's cultivation curse, then left Divine Pillar Mountain.
• Chen Lin inspected treasures taken from Leaving Fire City, including a gold-attribute weapon set and fire-attribute treasures, while keeping them hidden.
• Chen Lin found a dark red furnace purgatory stone containing a pulsing flame and a faint aura of rules.

Chen Lin cultivated while preparing for the threat of the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch and the coming tribulation, then learned that the Jade Coffin was beginning to open. He settled Huangfu Qingrou’s place at his side and told her about the illusory world and the need to escape it.

• Chen Lin reviewed his cultivation risks, the death-qi prophecy, and his looming threats before entering seclusion to refine pills and cultivate.
• More than a decade later, Huangfu Qingrou told Chen Lin that her grandaunt had reported a growing heartbeat and a gap in the Jade Coffin, alongside increasingly strange changes in the stars.
• Chen Lin advised Huangfu Qingrou’s grandaunt to give up the Jade Coffin and warned that keeping it endangered her clan, but Huangfu Qingrou said her grandaunt would not relinquish it.
• Chen Lin asked Huangfu Qingrou whether she intended to remain with him, and she chose to stay; he explained that he already had formal companions and might someday find them.
• Chen Lin told Huangfu Qingrou about the Primal Domain, the coming great tribulation, and the illusory nature of their world, warning that he could take only her if he found a way out.

Chen Lin met Yang Qianxing to discuss exploring the Nightmare Realm and learned more about the Lower and Upper Primal Domains, celestial demons, and the Soulless Patriarch. He provided Nightmare Realm items and resources to fund further expeditions, asking Yang Qianxing’s explorers to investigate several scenarios and search for Yun Xiumian.

• Yang Zihua told Chen Lin that Yang Qianxing wanted to explore Nightmare Realm scenarios through projection and use what they learned to investigate Gourmet Island.
• Chen Lin and Huangfu Qingrou visited Yang Qianxing, who explained the relationship between the Lower and Upper Primal Domains and said the Soulless Patriarch might be a Great Vehicle Practitioner hiding from the Luo Monsters.
• Chen Lin told Yang Qianxing about the Tianxuan Realm’s current situation and the people who had fallen there, including Wei Duxing.
• Chen Lin presented several Nightmare Realm items and described their scenarios, including the Myriad Realms Alliance, Zhiwu County, and the Blood Handkerchief scenario where Yun Xiumian was trapped.
• Chen Lin gave Yang Qianxing ten thousand Nightmare Coins, two Road Guides, pills, and spirit crystals to support the expeditions and reward the explorers.

Chen Lin accepted Yang Zihua’s Heaven-Defying Pill and began refining it to raise his cultivation before the River of Styx Pact deadline. Five years later, inner demons emerged during the process, but he suppressed them with Soul Steamed Buns while Huangfu Qingrou kept watch outside.

• Yang Zihua gave Chen Lin a Heaven-Defying Pill that she and her mother had secretly taken from Yang Qianxing, warning him about its inner-demon side effects.
• Chen Lin accepted the pill and told Yang Zihua to seek endless water, which could let him make Wish Noodles to help remove her curse.
• Chen Lin returned to his cave residence and decided to use the pill to hasten his progress toward false Dao Integration.
• Huangfu Qingrou urged Chen Lin to reconsider, but he reassured her that his Soul Steamed Buns could help counter the pill’s inner demons.
• After a month of preparation, Chen Lin entered the Cultivation Chamber and began refining the Heaven-Defying Pill.
• Five years later, Chen Lin’s inner demons manifested as black qi and dark figures in his eyes; he ate a steamer of buns to suppress them, then told Huangfu Qingrou he was all right.

After emerging from ten years of seclusion with his cultivation at Void Refinement perfection, Chen Lin sought Yang Qianxing’s help preparing to advance, but learned he would have to find another way to undergo his tribulation. Yang Qianxing proposed delaying the breakthrough to improve his talent and help his daughter, while Chen Lin insisted he had to advance before the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch reached Dao Hearing.

• Chen Lin emerged from seclusion after refining the Heaven-Defying Pill and reached Void Refinement perfection, then reunited with Huangfu Qingrou.
• Chen Lin asked Yang Qianxing to guard him during his breakthrough, but Yang Qianxing explained that the Divine Pillar formation’s Divine Punishment Light prevented him from leaving the city to help.
• Yang Qianxing told Chen Lin that explorations had found progress in the Bun Scenario and the Handkerchief Scenario, then questioned how Chen Lin had suppressed the Heaven-Defying Pill’s effects.
• Chen Lin revealed that his Soul Steamed Buns relied on his qi luck talent, and told Yang Qianxing that he had repelled a mysterious existence that tried to seize his talent origin.
• Yang Qianxing urged Chen Lin to postpone advancing and use qi luck objects and talent-enhancing treasures to help his daughter reach Foundation Establishment, and Chen Lin agreed while warning that he had to advance before the Leaving Fire Dao Monarch reached Dao Hearing.

Chen Lin and Yang Qianxing discussed changes to the Nightmare Realm scenarios, including the transformation of Zhiwu County into Carefree City under Li Fuyao. Chen Lin then prepared for his Dao Integration tribulation, but the shield he commissioned proved weaker than expected, and he asked Xu Chenxuan about refining an Otherworld scale into a single-use defense.

• Yang Qianxing told Chen Lin that explorers had found the Handkerchief Scenario's survivor transformed into a woman, who died after naming the Xuanyin Underworld Emperor.
• Yang Qianxing explained that Zhiwu County had become Carefree City, ruled by Li Fuyao, and that its departure mission now required delivering a landscape scroll for appraisal.
• Chen Lin received a copy of the new scenario's landscape scroll and agreed with Yang Qianxing to continue exploring it.
• Chen Lin decided to seek qi luck objects for his ascension, while preparing to undergo his tribulation in the Dark Sea if Yang Qianxing could not find enough within a year.
• Xu Chenxuan gave Chen Lin a silver shield that achieved only seventy percent of its expected performance, then examined the Otherworld Green Scale Chen Lin offered for a single-use tribulation item.

Chen Lin learned that Xu Chenxuan had entered Guardian Hut Village and sought the Medium Object that led there, hoping it would help him reconnect with Niuniu. After discovering Baili Qing had traded it away for a friend who had already left Third Pillar Heaven, he also noticed a replica of the Exterminating Sword displayed at the Hundred Swords Sect.

• Xu Chenxuan told Chen Lin that he had entered Guardian Hut Village about two hundred years earlier, where a fish-shaped boy had made him process fish and left his divinity origin essence damaged.
• Chen Lin suspected the village was where Niuniu lived and asked Xu Chenxuan for its Medium Object, but learned that Baili Qing had recently bought it.
• Xu Chenxuan examined Chen Lin's Green Scale and agreed to attempt a simple refinement, though he warned it could not become a spirit treasure.
• Chen Lin went to the Hundred Swords Sect, saw a sword resembling the Exterminating Sword on its display rack, and met Baili Qing.
• Chen Lin asked Baili Qing to sell him the Salted Fish Medium Object, but she said she had traded it for a friend who had already left Third Pillar Heaven.