Chapter Summaries

Linley used Bebe’s rat army to force the Far East Prairie tribes to consider surrendering to the Ultimate Empire, while Bebe learned that the ten billion rats had been given to him. Harry, Hart, and Harvey then asked to meet Zhao Nan, who agreed to see them the next day.

• The rat-like magical beasts devoured the fleeing Far East Prairie soldiers and stripped the grassland bare, prompting Tulilei to ask Linley to stop them.
• Linley agreed to hold back the rats if the Far East Prairie cooperated with the Ultimate Empire, and Tulilei persuaded its Saint-level experts to return to their tribes and discuss surrender.
• Harry, Hart, and Harvey revealed that the ten billion rat-like magical beasts now belonged to Bebe, who accepted responsibility for feeding them and told them not to devour everything.
• Harry asked to meet Linley’s teacher, so Linley and the others traveled with the three rats to Black Earth City.
• Barker visited Zhao Nan in his miniature space and relayed the rats’ request, and Zhao Nan agreed to meet them the next day.

Zhao Nan discovered that circulating his six fused bloodlines accelerated time in his Consciousness Sea, then met the three Harry brothers and agreed to spar with them. He defeated Harvey and caught Harry with his Fate techniques, while Hart had yet to fight.

• Zhao Nan realized his bloodlines could accelerate time in his Consciousness Sea and concluded he still needed a Death Clone to test his theory.
• Zhao Nan met Harry, Hart, and Harvey at the imperial palace, where Harry explained they had wanted to meet him and challenged him to spar.
• Beirut asked Zhao Nan to teach his sons a lesson and offered to let his faith spread across the entire Yulan Continent, so Zhao Nan agreed to fight in the Chiyang Desert.
• Harvey fought Zhao Nan first, but Zhao Nan's Gift of Fate briefly blocked Harvey's Darkness powers and let Zhao Nan tap his forehead, prompting Harvey to concede.
• Harry attacked Zhao Nan, who used Fate techniques to distort Harry's perception and trap his soul in a Fate Cage until Harry cried out and Zhao Nan stopped.

Zhao Nan prepared his disciples for the Necropolis of the Gods, which had opened for its once-in-a-thousand-years, ten-year expedition. At War God Mountain, Linley and the others joined the gathered Saint-level experts, where Barker accepted Klei’s challenge to spar.

• Zhao Nan declined Beirut’s invitation to enter the Necropolis of the Gods himself and arranged for his disciples to travel with O’Brien, promising to appear when the god-level experts entered.
• Beirut told Zhao Nan that the Necropolis of the Gods had opened, and Zhao Nan sent word for Linley and the others to gather at War God Mountain.
• Fain arrived at War God Mountain and asked about Zhao Nan’s disciples, while Linley and ten companions flew in and explained that the Necropolis would keep them inside for ten years.
• Fain introduced Linley and the others to the gathered experts and encouraged Klei to challenge one of the Undying Warriors.
• Barker accepted Klei’s challenge, and Linley warned him about Klei’s Earth Laws defense before Barker said he would use Pulse of the Earth against him.

Barker defeated Klei with one punch, prompting Fain to ask Linley about the realm beyond the Saint-level limit. Linley kept his sect’s secrets and devised a scheme involving Fain and the War God, but Zhao Nan warned his disciples not to cause trouble; the next morning, O’Brien led the group toward the Forest of Darkness.

• Barker endured Klei’s attack and knocked him from the air with the Undying Divine Fist, after which Klei conceded.
• Fain asked Linley whether a realm beyond the Saint-level limit existed, and Linley said that realm was godhood but withheld further details.
• Linley explained to Stone Drum and the others that recruiting Fain might provoke the War God and threaten O’Brien’s empire and faith; Zhao Nan warned them not to cause trouble.
• At sunrise, O’Brien emerged and led the thirty-one Saint-level experts from War God Mountain toward the Forest of Darkness.

Linley and his companions arrived at the Forest of Darkness to join the experts gathering for the Necropolis of the Gods. They learned that this visit would take place beneath the South Sea, where the danger was extreme, but the group decided not to withdraw.

• The War God asked Linley to look after Fain in the Necropolis of the Gods, and Linley agreed.
• Linley and the others reached Beirut’s Metal Castle, where Bebe flew inside and Desri, Cesar, Dylan, and the Six-Eyed Golden Ni met them.
• Catherine announced that the Necropolis entrance would be beneath the South Sea and gave the experts a chance to withdraw before departing that night.
• Desri warned that four out of five people had died on the previous South Sea visit and urged anyone who stayed to avoid endangering others.
• Fain told Linley that the Necropolis contained successive worlds with increasingly powerful creatures, and Linley’s group remained confident because they expected no God-level opponents.

Beirut led Linley and the other Saint-level experts through the South Sea and into the Necropolis of the Gods. Inside, Linley recognized clues connecting its reliefs to his ring as Beirut warned that a Middle God Ba Serpent guarded the first eleven levels and began explaining the tomb’s dangers.

• Beirut arrived, praised Linley and his fellow disciples, and led the group toward the South Sea.
• The experts descended to the seabed and entered the Necropolis of the Gods through a spatial door.
• Zhao Nan examined the door from outside, while Beirut sensed his divine sense without commenting.
• Inside the Necropolis, Linley learned that soul power was suppressed and saw a dragon relief resembling the carving on his ring.
• Beirut identified the four reliefs and revealed that a Middle God Ba Serpent guarded the first eleven levels, then explained that Godheads and divine artifacts appeared from the eleventh level onward.

As Zhao Nan’s Fate Clone faced an unexplained death aura during its breakthrough to Highgod, Zhao Nan asked Beirut to help him become a Lowgod of Death without refining a Godhead. Beirut hesitated over the costly method, until Zhao Nan revealed his progress in fusing the Profound Mysteries of Water Law.

• Beirut warned the Sacred Realm experts that the Ba Serpent guarded the Necropolis of the Gods, then opened separate passages for humans and magical beasts.
• Linley entered the left passage, Bebe took the right, and the other Sacred Realm experts followed; Beirut said Linley’s group might survive the Ba Serpent because Zhao Nan was their teacher.
• Beirut brought the War God, the High Priest, Dylan, and Lord Saisa to the Chaotic Territory to watch Zhao Nan’s Fate Clone become a Highgod.
• Zhao Nan told Beirut that his Fate Clone had lost contact with his original body, while death and annihilation gathered around it in the Micro-plane.
• Zhao Nan invited Beirut into the Micro-plane and asked him to help create a Lowgod of Death without refining a Godhead; Beirut hesitated at the cost.
• Zhao Nan revealed that he had fused four Profound Mysteries of Water Law and progressed over four percent, prompting Beirut to ask if it was true.

Zhao Nan comprehended the Laws of Death and combined his four Edict clones to awaken the Laws of Time, which Hongmeng sealed within his Consciousness Sea. After all four clones reached Highgod, Zhao Nan discovered he could control time in his Consciousness Sea and use his Dragon Roar ability to apply time indirectly outside it.

• Beirut gave Zhao Nan a soul fragment infused with the Laws of Death, and Zhao Nan began comprehending them.
• Zhao Nan's Life, Fate, and Destruction Clones returned to his Consciousness Sea and joined his true-body soul in a formation that stirred the powers of the four Edicts.
• After nine years and ten months, Zhao Nan began a breakthrough, and Hongmeng appeared to tell him that the Laws of Time could not manifest in the world and would be sealed in his Consciousness Sea.
• Hongmeng's power helped Zhao Nan's four Edict clones reach Highgod, with his Fate Clone advancing to just short of Paragon Highgod; one of Dylan's shared clones also became a Highgod.
• Zhao Nan found that he could freely adjust time within his Consciousness Sea and use Dragon Roar to affect time indirectly outside it.
• Zhao Nan entered the space created by his shared innate ability and sensed that it contained the Laws of Time belonging to him.

After reaching the Highgod level, Zhao Nan discussed his abilities and plans with Beirut, then joined him and the others on their way to the South Sea. Along the way, Dylan asked Zhao Nan to obtain Godheads for his sons, and Zhao Nan agreed on the condition that they first try to become gods through cultivation.

• Zhao Nan sensed his five Innate Divine Abilities and concluded that he was invincible beneath the Chief Gods and Paragons.
• Zhao Nan explained to Beirut how cultivating all four Edicts had raised his Edict clones to the Highgod level, and he described his plan to send only his Fate Clone to another plane after the Necropolis of the Gods.
• Zhao Nan and Beirut left the Micro-plane, and Zhao Nan suppressed his Highgod pressure when they joined Dylan, O'Brien, Catherine, Cesar, and Doehring Cowart.
• Beirut agreed to let Doehring Cowart join the trip to the Necropolis of the Gods, and the group flew toward the South Sea.
• Dylan asked Zhao Nan to obtain three Destruction Lowgod Godheads for his sons, and Zhao Nan agreed provided Dylan let them try cultivating on their own first.

Zhao Nan and his companions gathered outside the Necropolis of the Gods after the ten-year trial, where Bebe revealed his haul and Beirut learned what Linley and Olivier had gained. The group left with Olivier reassured about his Soul Mutation, while the other Saint-level experts were reminded that reaching godhood could take anywhere from days to a billion years.

• Zhao Nan agreed to take Catherine as a subordinate and promised her a Life Element Midgod Godhead, leaving O'Brien uncertain about their long-suppressed feelings for each other.
• Zhao Nan predicted that Bebe would benefit most from the Necropolis of the Gods, and Beirut confirmed that Bebe had indeed gained the most.
• Beirut opened the Necropolis of the Gods and brought out the people who had completed the ten-year trial.
• Bebe told Beirut he had obtained thirteen Godheads, and Beirut warned him not to refine one to become a god.
• Beirut praised Olivier's light-and-darkness fusion, and Zhao Nan explained Olivier's Soul Mutation and reassured him that he need not hide it.
• Beirut told Desri, Dylan's children, and the other Saint-level experts that they might reach godhood in days or might not manage it for a billion years.

Beirut urged the Saint-level experts to pursue godhood through their own efforts and warned that the planes ahead would be dangerous, then led everyone out of the Necropolis of the Gods. Back in the Yulan Continent, Zhao Nan invited Tarosha to become his disciple, returned to the Chaotic Territory, and gave Dylan three Destruction Godheads.

• Beirut praised Zhao Nan's extraordinary talent and advised Linley and Olivier to work hard because the Yulan Continent's future depended on them.
• Zhao Nan urged the experts to prepare for travel across the planes, and Beirut explained that the Necropolis of the Gods was meant to help Yulan's talents grow through danger.
• Beirut introduced Tarosha as the Ba Serpent and administrator of the Necropolis's first eleven floors; Zhao Nan proved he had become a High God in all Four Edicts.
• On March 4, 10034, Beirut led the survivors back to the Yulan Continent, where Zhao Nan offered to help Tarosha become a High God, but Tarosha declined and returned to the sea.
• Zhao Nan asked Linley, Bebe, and Olivier to show their loot from the Necropolis, then gave Dylan three Destruction Godheads.

Zhao Nan explained that the Necropolis of the Gods tested the Yulan Continent’s true geniuses, distributed Godheads to help his disciples’ families, and entered the twelfth floor with a group of divine experts. He left his Fate Clone behind to protect his disciples and began forming an alliance in the safe zone, where the chapter ended as he asked Cesar whether he would join them.

• Zhao Nan told Dylan that the Necropolis of the Gods discouraged Saint-level experts from risking independent breakthroughs, and explained that it served as a selection of the Yulan Continent’s true geniuses.
• Zhao Nan gave Godheads to Linley, Wharton, and Olivier for their relatives, returned the borrowed Godheads, and promised to seek Godheads suitable for the Bark Five Brothers, Ace, Stone Drum, and Sathius’s families.
• On April 9, 10034, Beirut brought Zhao Nan and the others to the Necropolis of the Gods and explained the dangers and safe zone on the twelfth floor.
• Zhao Nan asked Beirut to let his Fate Clone remain on the Yulan Continent to protect his disciples, and Beirut agreed.
• After entering the safe zone, Zhao Nan’s group formed an alliance; Tarosha asked to join them, and Zhao Nan accepted before asking Cesar whether he would come along.

Zhao Nan and his companions entered the twelfth level of the Necropolis of the Gods and learned that Ertis, a powerful flame spirit, ruled its volcanic region. After reaching Ertis, Zhao Nan scanned him and lost interest, leaving the group’s encounter unresolved.

• Cesar agreed to accompany Zhao Nan, and the group left the safe zone for a vast field of volcanoes.
• Zhao Nan sensed a mid-level god nearby, but Dylan declined to fight and Tarosha also refused, explaining that he knew the flame spirit Ertis and describing the distribution of gods across the Necropolis’s levels.
• Tarosha led the group through Ertis’s divine domain, while he and Dylan fused their domains to protect the others from the flames.
• The group found Ertis seated on a throne, and Ertis respectfully offered Zhao Nan anything he wanted.
• Zhao Nan scanned Ertis with his system and immediately lost interest in him.

Zhao Nan killed Ertis and took his Godhead, then sent four Lowgods into the Sea of Death to challenge Yatelei. After their failed fight revealed that Yatelei could resist their soul attacks, Zhao Nan confronted the giant carp, who began explaining how it gained its power.

• Zhao Nan killed Ertis, collected his Godhead and other items, and promised the Godhead to O'Brien.
• Tarosha explained that the forest was an illusion concealing the Sea of Death and identified its Gatekeeper as Yatelei, a Midgod fish.
• Dylan, Tarosha, O'Brien, Catherine, Cesar, and Doehring Cowart entered the Sea of Death, but Yatelei defeated the challengers and injured O'Brien and the others.
• Zhao Nan entered the sea and asked Yatelei how it had resisted Dylan and Tarosha's divine abilities.
• Yatelei said that about ten thousand years earlier it had swallowed a drop of blood and a pearl, rapidly become a Saint, and later refined a Godhead to become a Lowgod.

Zhao Nan recruited Yatelei after obtaining the White Tiger Pearl and learning the fate of the White Tiger clan’s Sovereign. He led his companions to Music Heaven and entered alone, where Mifei’s song helped him deepen his understanding of Sound Music and Sound Wave before he questioned how she had fused them.

• Yatelei gave Zhao Nan the White Tiger Pearl, whose message revealed that a Chief God had killed the White Tiger Sovereign and that the pearl held blood essence and Sovereign’s Might.
• Zhao Nan accepted Yatelei as a follower, collected his Godheads and divine artifacts, and reunited with Dylan, Tarosha, O’Brien, and the others.
• Yatelei described the other Gatekeepers on the twelfth floor and identified Mifei’s Music Heaven as their next stop.
• The group declined to challenge Music Heaven, so Zhao Nan entered alone while the others waited outside.
• Zhao Nan resisted Mifei’s song enough to study its fused Sound Music and Sound Wave mysteries, then asked Mifei how she had learned to fuse them despite refining a Godhead.

Zhao Nan subdued Mifei and recruited her, then welcomed Cesar and Tarosha as followers, making Tarosha his disciple. As the group prepared to enter Labyrinth City, Yatelei explained that the Necropolis of the Gods’ Gatekeepers were forbidden from fighting one another.

• Mifei chose to leave the Necropolis of the Gods with Zhao Nan and surrendered her treasures to him.
• Zhao Nan offered his followers a path to become Highgods, and Cesar agreed to follow him.
• Zhao Nan accepted Tarosha as his disciple and gave him two cultivation secret techniques.
• Mifei identified Luofu'er as the Earth Element Midgod guarding Labyrinth City, and Zhao Nan suggested Doehring Cowart challenge him.
• Yatelei and Mifei explained Luofu'er's strength, and Yatelei clarified that Gatekeepers could not fight other Gatekeepers.

Zhao Nan and his companions entered Labyrinth City to challenge its Gatekeeper, Luofu'er, and discovered that the maze’s fused divine realm made its walls extraordinarily resilient. After Luofu'er split the group apart, Zhao Nan forced him to retreat and began considering how to create his own Labyrinth World.

• Zhao Nan led his companions into Labyrinth City, where Doehring Cowart explained that its walls distributed attacks through Luofu'er's fused divine realm.
• Catherine proposed attacking the maze in coordinated groups, and the team broke through sections of its walls until Luofu'er appeared.
• Zhao Nan argued that destroying the maze was fair, while Luofu'er narrowed his divine realm and separated the group into different corridors.
• Zhao Nan overwhelmed Luofu'er with his aura and ordered him to go after the others, then began planning a Labyrinth World using his abilities.

Zhao Nan spent five years in the Necropolis of the Gods, developing his Labyrinth World and leading his group through its levels before entering the sixteenth level alone. Meanwhile, his disciples became Lowgods, and the Yulan Continent was thrown into upheaval after Bosha Dike was destroyed and the Gabadan Plane Prison was breached.

• Zhao Nan experimented with combining his mysteries to create a Labyrinth World, discovered that Gravity Space could not be replicated by other elemental spaces, and aligned Vitality with all his mysteries.
• Zhao Nan and his companions cleared the twelfth level, then spent nine months clearing the thirteenth, a year on the fourteenth, and three years on the fifteenth.
• Zhao Nan sent the others to remain behind and entered the sixteenth level alone, expecting its Gatekeeper to be a Highgod.
• Dylan's three sons and Desri became Lowgods in the third year, and Linley, Olivier, Ace, Stone Drum, the Bark Five Brothers, Sadius, and Bebe became Lowgods in the fourth year.
• In the fifth year, Linley and the other newcomers fought Beaumont and the escaped prisoners on Bosha Dike, whose destruction released countless experts from the Gabadan Plane Prison.
• Beirut repaired the breach, while the Yulan Continent underwent upheaval as forces shifted, Saint-level experts were killed, and ordinary people's souls were drained.

Linley accepted Zhao Nan’s advice and began a campaign to bring the Yulan Continent under the Ultimate Empire. Meanwhile, Zhao Nan fought his way through the Necropolis of the Gods’ sixteenth level and most of its seventeenth, stopping before the Fate World to assess his gains.

• Zhao Nan told Linley that he did not need to intervene in the continent’s turmoil unless Linley unified the Yulan Continent under the Ultimate Empire, prompting Linley to understand his position.
• Linley explained Zhao Nan’s stance to his allies and began a campaign to conquer the Yulan Continent, with the O’Brien royal family agreeing to join the Ultimate Empire.
• Zhao Nan entered the sixteenth level, fought the Fire-element Highgod Sadi for a month, and defeated him to claim his possessions.
• Zhao Nan spent three years clearing the sixteenth level’s Wind, Earth, Water, Lightning, Darkness, and Light worlds before entering the seventeenth level.
• Zhao Nan cleared the Destruction, Life, and Death worlds on the seventeenth level, then chose not to attempt the Fate World because he lacked time and reviewed his gains.

Zhao Nan fused Gravity Space and Earth Element, advancing his Earth Element divine clone to Middlegod with Beirut’s guidance. Beirut then tasked him with handling the escaped prisoners disrupting the Yulan Continent, and Zhao Nan led his companions back to face the turmoil.

• Zhao Nan used his original body and Earth Element divine clone to fuse Gravity Space with Earth Element, but his first attempt failed.
• Beirut advised Zhao Nan to make Gravity Space spherical, and Zhao Nan completed the fusion and advanced to Earth Element Middlegod.
• Beirut gave Zhao Nan Soul Golden Pearls and asked him to deal with the escaped Gebados Plane Prison prisoners causing trouble on the Yulan Continent.
• Zhao Nan remembered his promise to take Yatelei and Mifei out of the Necropolis of the Gods, and Beirut brought them out with the others.
• Zhao Nan told his companions that escaped prisoners had seized territories across the Yulan Continent, while his Fate Clone had rescued their friends and family.
• When Dylan asked why Beirut had not intervened, Zhao Nan reminded him that Beirut had also allowed Dylan to unify the Magical Beast Mountain Range.