Chapter Summaries

Li Bufan followed One through the forest to a stone stele at the heart of Upside-Down Mountain and discovered the characters “Profound Dao” within it. One revealed that the mountain was no prison but a rare opportunity, and that its true trial had only just begun.

• Li Bufan and One fought a Black Soul Body together, and Li Bufan noticed it focused its attacks on him.
• One led Li Bufan deeper into the forest to a clearing containing a stone stele.
• Li Bufan activated his seven divine wills and read “Profound Dao” on the stele before its power forced him out.
• One explained that Upside-Down Mountain was the true core of the place, not a prison, and that the trial was to survive and find the answer.

One entered the stone stele and was thrown back severely wounded, revealing himself to be possessed by an ancient Black Soul Body that tried to take over Li Bufan. The Heaven Rewards Diligence fate mark destroyed the intruder, but its reaction to the Primordial Sacred Embryo Great Art caused Li Bufan to vanish into an unfamiliar space.

• One revealed that he had spent a hundred and forty years cultivating the five elements divine intent and entered the stone stele.
• The stele hurled One back, and an ancient Black Soul Body emerged from him and immobilized Li Bufan.
• The Black Soul Body entered Li Bufan’s Spirit Sea and tried to seize his soul, but the Heaven Rewards Diligence fate mark erased it.
• Li Bufan received fragments of the soul body’s memories and learned the name Primordial Sacred Embryo Great Art.
• A figure in Primordial Heaven opened his eyes as the fate mark shone, and Li Bufan vanished from before the stele into an unfamiliar space.

Li Bufan endured the Upside-Down Mountain’s destructive forces and perfected all seven of his divine intents. The trial then triggered a transformation in his shattered golden core, leaving him facing the Profound Dao Mountain’s true inheritance.

• Li Bufan used the Mountain Character Art and Azure Dragon Nine Transformations to withstand the wind, thunder, earthfire, and other destructive forces.
• As the calamities repeatedly struck his defenses, Li Bufan’s body-tempering techniques improved and his seven great divine intents reached perfection.
• The calamities vanished, and an ancient voice revealed that heavenly tempering and heavenly jealousy lay at the heart of the trial.
• Li Bufan’s shattered golden core emerged from his body and began to blaze with golden light.
• Li Bufan recognized the golden core’s transformation as a boon within its calamity and recalled the Sun-Moon Martial Canon’s method for reforging a core.

Li Bufan reforged his Golden Core with heavenly lightning, earthly fire, and baleful wind, reaching the early Cave-Heaven stage before the collapsing space carried him to a golden canopy bearing the words “Heavenly Dao.” Those words merged with his heaven rewards diligence fate attribute, granting him profound comprehension as he began rapidly mastering his martial arts and cultivation methods.

• Li Bufan used heavenly lightning, earthly fire, and baleful wind to repair and temper his Golden Core, imprinting it with his martial insights.
• Li Bufan swallowed the restored Golden Core, recovered his cultivation, and advanced from the early Golden Core stage to the early Cave-Heaven stage.
• The space collapsed around Li Bufan and void turbulence carried him to an immense golden canopy that contracted into the characters “Heavenly Dao.”
• The characters “Heavenly Dao” entered Li Bufan and merged with his heaven rewards diligence fate attribute, revealing its power to grant profound comprehension.
• Li Bufan tested his new comprehension on the Azure Dragon Nine Transformations and the Mountain Character Art, rapidly increasing his understanding and proficiency.

Li Bufan discovered that his breakthrough had given his Golden Core the foundation of a true Cave Heaven, though its combat power still needed to grow. Searching for a way out, he followed a hidden spatial rift through the forest and found it widening behind a stone stele where several numbered people had gathered.

• Li Bufan examined his breakthrough and used Heaven Rewards Diligence to realize that the Cave-Heaven Realm was an extension of the Golden Core Realm, while his own core had begun with a more complete foundation.
• Li Bufan concluded that his unusual Golden Core gave him greater potential than ordinary martial artists, then decided to search for a way out.
• Li Bufan detected a nearly imperceptible spatial rift running from the platform into the forest and followed it.
• The Soul Bodies ignored Li Bufan because his divine intents had reached perfection, and he raced through the forest using Wind-Thunder Nine Heavens Step.
• Li Bufan concealed himself near a clearing and saw Two, Three, Four, Five, and Nine gathered before a stone stele, where the rift widened and continued underground.

Five martial artists used the stone stele and had their souls drawn away, after which Li Bufan followed them into a mysterious space. Protected from the giant Dao character’s pull by his Heaven Rewards Diligence fate aspect, he comprehended the thirteen characters and discovered that Mystery lay beyond Divine Will, but he remained unable to find a way out.

• Five martial artists poured their Divine Wills into the stele, vanished, and returned as soulless shells murmuring the thirteen-character sentence.
• Li Bufan examined the stele and poured his refined Divine Will into it, causing the characters to transport him into a void.
• The enormous Dao character nearly drew Li Bufan’s consciousness in, but his Heaven Rewards Diligence fate aspect severed its pull.
• Li Bufan studied the thirteen characters and compared their laws with the martial texts he had cultivated.
• Li Bufan realized that Mystery was the realm beyond Divine Will, but his cultivation was too weak to grasp it, and he could not find a way out.

Li Bufan comprehended the Heaven-Mending Art in Upside-Down Mountain and tore open a way out of the Spirit Coffin Cave Heaven. Back at Heavenly Foothill Academy, he reunited with Gu Moxie and Meng Xinghe, learned they had both reached the Cave-Heaven Realm, and accepted their challenge to fight.

• Li Bufan understood that Upside-Down Mountain’s layers followed the thirteen characters of the Dao and received the beginner-level Heaven-Mending Art.
• Li Bufan used the Seven Killings Blade’s Fourth Form, Sun and Moon Without Light, to split a spatial fissure and escape the Spirit Coffin Cave Heaven.
• Li Bufan returned to Heavenly Foothill Academy and flew to Pine Crane Peak, where the Spirit Coffin Cave Heaven’s entrance vanished behind him.
• Li Bufan found Gu Moxie and Meng Xinghe cultivating and realized both had broken through to the Cave-Heaven Realm.
• Li Bufan told Meng Xinghe that he had fully recovered and grown stronger, then revealed his own Cave-Heaven Realm cultivation.
• Gu Moxie and Meng Xinghe challenged Li Bufan, and all three moved to fight.

Li Bufan reunited with Gu Moxie, Meng Xinghe, and Wen Qinglian, sparred with the two men, and learned that a year and a half had passed while he was in the Spirit Coffin Cave Heaven. With only a few months until the Heavenly Path opened, the four began focused cultivation together.

• Li Bufan fought Gu Moxie and Meng Xinghe in the courtyard and defeated their combined attacks with the fifth form of the Seven Killings Blade.
• Li Bufan thanked Gu Moxie and Meng Xinghe for the sparring, then sat with them to drink.
• Wen Qinglian arrived, and Li Bufan thanked her for helping him recover his cultivation and promised to return to their sect after fighting through the Heavenly Path.
• Li Bufan shared his experiences in the Spirit Coffin Cave Heaven as the four drank and exchanged stories.
• Meng Xinghe told Li Bufan that he had spent a year and a half in the Spirit Coffin Cave Heaven and that the Heavenly Path would open in a few months.
• Li Bufan, Gu Moxie, Meng Xinghe, and Wen Qinglian devoted the next two months to cultivation, with Wen Qinglian sharing guidance from her studies at the Academy.

After two months of martial arts exchanges, Li Bufan, Gu Moxie, and Meng Xinghe gathered at the Heavenly Foothill Academy as the Heavenly Path Selection approached. Evergreen True Person welcomed the sects and directed their leaders and disciples to their compounds, while the competitors remained in the plaza awaiting the selection.

• Li Bufan shared his insights into divine wills with Gu Moxie and Meng Xinghe, helping them refine their swordsmanship as all three made progress over two months.
• Gu Moxie told Li Bufan that the Heavenly Path Selection would begin in seven days, and their tokens summoned them to the Academy's center.
• Li Bufan joined roughly two thousand competitors from across the Five Domains at the plaza around the golden palace.
• Li Bufan sensed familiar auras aboard Songhe Gate's ship and received a reassuring message from his master, Li Tianying.
• Evergreen True Person appeared, welcomed the gathered cultivators, and ordered sect leaders to take their disciples to their compounds while the competitors stayed behind.

The Heavenly Path Selection began with a mission to slay demons and retake Stilltide City, which had fallen to Sea Demons. Li Bufan organized his companions and led them from Raging Tide City into the darkness surrounding the occupied city.

• Xu Qichun announced that the selection would take place in Stilltide City and involve slaying demons, stirring painful memories in Meng Xinghe.
• Xu Qichun transported the contestants to Raging Tide City, where Wang Shu told them that Sea Demons had occupied Stilltide City and that they must clear a route there.
• Li Bufan warned Wen Qinglian, Meng Xinghe, and Gu Moxie about the Sea Demons and assigned each of them a role in their formation.
• Li Bufan and his companions flew from Raging Tide City’s wall into the darkness, followed by more than two thousand contestants.

Li Bufan and his companions fought through the sea demons on their thousand-li route and discovered that the demons were bound by sophisticated control restrictions. As Wen Qinglian and Meng Xinghe took over the attack, Li Bufan sensed multiple Truth-Seeking Realm auras ahead, in the direction of Stilltide City.

• Li Bufan protected the group from poisoned Water Arrows, and Gu Moxie used Heavenly Thunderfall to kill the sea demons hiding beneath the surface.
• Li Bufan and Wen Qinglian discovered control restrictions rooted in the sea demons' souls and concluded that someone might be controlling demons across thousands of li.
• Li Bufan and Gu Moxie used thunder arts to clear a path for about a hundred li, then paused to recover their depleted spirit force.
• Wen Qinglian used an azure formation to suppress the sea demons while Meng Xinghe attacked them with Moon Wheel Sword-Heavenly Heart Picks the Moon.
• Li Bufan sensed multiple ancient Truth-Seeking Realm auras ahead, coming from the direction of Stilltide City.

Li Bufan and his companions fought seven Truth-Seeking Realm Great Demons attacking them at sea. They killed all seven, but Gu Moxie and Meng Xinghe were badly injured, and Wen Qinglian was nearly exhausted.

• Wen Qinglian raised a formation as Li Bufan charged the octopus Great Demon and Gu Moxie attacked the giant shark.
• Gu Moxie and Meng Xinghe were wounded when the Great Demons overwhelmed their attacks, while Li Bufan and Wen Qinglian coordinated a counterattack.
• Gu Moxie and Meng Xinghe joined forces to kill the sea snake Great Demon, suffering further injuries in its dying counterattack.
• Wen Qinglian restrained the octopus Great Demon, allowing Li Bufan to kill it with Bright Moon Emerges from the Celestial Mountains.
• Wen Qinglian bound the five remaining Great Demons, and Li Bufan killed them all with Who Stands with Me.

After the four defeated seven Truth-Seeking Realm Great Demons, Li Bufan treated Gu Moxie’s broken arm and Meng Xinghe’s venomous wound with Spring Autumn Needle. They continued toward Stilltide City, and Li Bufan ended the chapter wondering who had placed restrictions on the Sea Demons and what Heavenly Foothill Academy had to do with them.

• Li Bufan, Wen Qinglian, Gu Moxie, and Meng Xinghe recovered after driving off the Sea Demons, and Li Bufan used Spring Autumn Needle to heal Meng Xinghe’s poisoning and Gu Moxie’s shattered arm.
• Li Bufan reflected on the missing history of Divine Doctor Valley and his inability to contact the Creation Cauldron, then the group resumed their journey toward Stilltide City.
• After traveling about a hundred li, the four landed on a reef island to rest, where Meng Xinghe estimated they had about two days left to travel.
• Wen Qinglian asked whether Li Bufan had used his Golden Core Origin Essence for “Who Stands with Me,” and Li Bufan said he could restore it after half a day of regulated breathing.
• After recovering for two hours, Li Bufan pondered the restrictions on the Truth-Seeking Realm Great Demons and the possible roles of Stilltide City, Heavenly Path Selection, and Heavenly Foothill Academy, before Meng Xinghe approached him.

Li Bufan reached initiation in the Heaven-Mending Art, restoring and strengthening his Golden Core’s Origin Essence while sensing Source Qi that also began empowering the Creation Cauldron. As he and his companions continued toward Stilltide City, Small Cauldron awakened and contacted him, relieved to find him alive after nearly two years without a response.

• Li Bufan cultivated the Heaven-Mending Art while recovering on the island, reaching initiation and drawing in vital energy and Source Qi.
• The Source Qi restored Li Bufan’s Golden Core and strengthened his Origin Essence beyond its previous state.
• Li Bufan concealed the Heaven-Mending Art from Gu Moxie, Wen Qinglian, and Meng Xinghe, then resumed the journey toward Stilltide City with them.
• Li Bufan sensed Source Qi flowing into the Creation Cauldron and circulated the Heaven-Mending Art faster to strengthen it.
• After the group had traveled more than six hundred li, Small Cauldron contacted Li Bufan and asked what had happened during the nearly two years he had been unable to respond.

Li Bufan discovered that restrictions were damaging the Sea Demons’ souls, leaving them unable to fight with their usual cunning. After Wen Qinglian confirmed the weakness, the four crossed the sea and reached Stilltide City.

• Li Bufan explained that the restrictions in the Sea Demons’ bodies had harmed their souls and made their attacks predictable.
• Wen Qinglian tested the theory by killing a Truth-Seeking Realm python demon with her soul-targeting Hundred Blossoms Soul-Destroying Array.
• The four used attacks aimed at Sea Demons’ souls to travel more easily toward Stilltide City, defeating a giant turtle demon on the way.
• Meng Xinghe returned to Stilltide City after a year and a half, and Li Bufan led the group toward its damaged walls.