Chapter Summaries

After Zi Ping returned, Chen Changsheng warned Wang Hao that new claimants would require everyone to give up part of their shares. He then gathered the two epochs’ experts to negotiate a new division, but the Pill Epoch’s Xuan Huo objected, leaving the dispute unresolved.

• Zi Ping told Chen Changsheng he would not compete to become the Bitter Sea Great Emperor, and Chen Changsheng cautioned him to act carefully.
• Chen Changsheng informed Wang Hao that Desolate Heaven Emperor Wu Li, Little Immortal Elder, and Nalan Zi Ping would need shares, prompting Wang Hao to join a meeting.
• Chen Changsheng met Lu Mingyu and the others as they returned from the Epoch Passage, and Lu Mingyu revealed he had broken through more than thirty thousand years earlier.
• Chen Changsheng asked experts from the Two Great Epochs to surrender some of their shares; the Forbidden Ground, the Chang Sheng Epoch, and other groups agreed to shares for Wu Li and Little Immortal Elder.
• Xuan Huo rejected Chen Changsheng’s request for the Pill Epoch to give up shares, and Chen Changsheng argued that the Chang Sheng Epoch contributed more because its experts controlled more of the outside market.

Chen Changsheng argued that the Virtual World needed the Chang Sheng Epoch’s territories and people to build living external markets, and that sharing resources with powerful outsiders could cost less than conquering and restoring worlds. Dream rejected the idea of sharing, and Chen Changsheng challenged him by asking how long he could leave the Pill Epoch.

• Chen Changsheng explained to Xuan Huo that the Chang Sheng Epoch offered valuable territories and living populations for the Virtual World’s future markets.
• The Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground said it could absorb at most sixty percent of the resources produced by the Two Great Epochs.
• Xuan Huo agreed to the plan only if there would be no future claims to shares, but Chen Changsheng refused to guarantee that.
• Chen Changsheng told Dream that powerful local rulers might need to be won over, since destroying worlds would undermine the Virtual World’s need for living markets.
• Dream said he did not want to share the Virtual World with anyone, and Chen Changsheng asked how long Dream could leave the Pill Epoch.

Chen Changsheng negotiated with Dream to secure the Virtual World’s share for his allies, agreeing that Zi Ping would visit the Pill Epoch in three months. He then returned to the black mist and prepared to test his son, who was breaking the Seven Baleful Immortals Trapping Formation.

• Chen Changsheng told Dream that the Virtual World would treat those who obstructed it as enemies, but Dream demanded three months before deciding whether to agree.
• Dream agreed to the proposal if Chen Changsheng could return after three months without injury, then left the Virtual World with the other Pill Epoch experts.
• Chen Changsheng told Zi Ping that he had secured their shares and ordered him to visit the Pill Epoch in three months; Zi Ping agreed.
• Chen Changsheng returned to the black mist and learned from Yuan Yi that his son had already broken half of the Seven Baleful Immortals Trapping Formation.
• Chen Changsheng identified the formation-breaker as his son and took Yuan Yi’s place so he could trade moves with him.

Li Changsheng and Sword Come faced deadly curses at the Bewitching Inn, and the mysterious livestream helper taught them ways to fight back. As Sword Come broke the Copper Pot Curse, Chen Changsheng prepared a Daoist Sect secret technique against Meng De.

• Li Changsheng destroyed a third source of Killing Intent but suffered severe injuries and lost his hand to corrosive blood mist after the mysterious helper left to check the other livestream rooms.
• Sword Come was trapped in a pot by the Copper Pot Curse, and the mysterious helper explained the Yansheng Art and taught him how to counter it with a Fire Ghost.
• Sword Come removed four ribs and his heart, summoned a Fire Ghost, and used its flames to heat the iron pot.
• Chen Changsheng praised Sword Come's counter but refused to spend lifespan retaliating, then prepared a straw effigy containing Meng De's name and bodily remnants.

Chen Changsheng used a Dragon Tiger Mountain surrogate technique to pin down Meng De’s souls, but a mysterious commenter guided Meng De to detonate half his divine soul and escape. Chen Changsheng then told Yuan Yi he could kill him within days by exploiting a weakness in his cultivation method.

• Chen Changsheng bound Meng De’s souls with a straw-doll surrogate technique, leaving him unable to move as vengeful ghosts attacked.
• Ruan Su Xian identified the technique and explained that Meng De’s incomplete cultivation made him vulnerable, while Wang Hao warned that the attacking ghosts would overwhelm him before he could recover.
• A mysterious commenter told Meng De to detonate half his divine soul, and Meng De used his life lamp to destroy the ghosts, regain movement, and summon the Cauldron of Fortune before fainting.
• Chen Changsheng spared Meng De because he was his son and said he had already severely wounded Sword Come and left Meng De half-dead.
• Yuan Yi asked whether Chen Changsheng could kill him, and Chen Changsheng said he could exploit a weakness in the Endless Shadow-Slaying Formula to kill him within two days if he used methods designed to counter him.

Chen Changsheng explained that he had arranged the Killing Game to expose the younger cultivators’ flaws, then persuaded Yuan Yi to leave them an escape route. Meanwhile, Mo Bai fought the horror in the Valley of the Dead and attempted to break through to Immortal King, while the Primordial Qilin revealed that Mo Bai had cultivated the Nine True Middle Sutra.

• Chen Changsheng told Yuan Yi that even a Quasi-Emperor could be wounded and killed, and explained that the Killing Game was meant to temper the younger generation through life and death.
• Chen Changsheng asked Yuan Yi to leave an opening in the Desperate Array Diagram, and Yuan Yi agreed to let anyone who retreated escape.
• Xuan Hai ordered his zombies to hunt down the fleeing Chi Ling and Hua Feng after the fire phoenix fell and the Corpse Tide was nearly destroyed.
• Mo Bai burst from the Valley of the Dead, was pierced through the chest, and returned to challenge the horror while the Fire Kirin held it back.
• Mo Bai manifested the Qilin Chasing the Sun vision and charged toward the Immortal King Realm, opening his Live Stream Room.
• The Primordial Qilin said Mo Bai would succeed because he had cultivated the Nine True Middle Sutra, and asked Wang Hao how he knew about Divine Continent.

The Primordial Qilin revealed why its people withdrew from the Divine Continent, while Chen Changsheng and Yuan Yi prepared to increase the pressure on the besieged prodigies. Sword Come began preparing to enter the Immortal King Realm, and Grand Preceptor Pang revealed his Nine-Orifice Exquisite Heart as his trump card.

• The Primordial Qilin told Wang Hao that the Nine True Middle Sutra had been seized and that the previous Primordial Qilin had died in the Divine Continent, prompting their withdrawal.
• Chen Changsheng and Yuan Yi watched Mo Bai prepare to break through and decided to force the prodigies to reveal their hidden trump cards.
• A mysterious commenter warned Sword Come that he had to enter the Immortal King Realm and find the true body guarding the Bewitching Inn, then left the Live Stream Room.
• Sword Come began preparing to enter the Immortal King Realm after the commenter said he could enhance his sense of smell to find Ghost Granny’s true form.
• Grand Preceptor Pang showed Feng Ran his glowing heart and revealed that he possessed a Nine-Orifice Exquisite Heart.

Grand Preceptor Pang explained that the second checkpoint was a watched formation where the guards’ motives posed a greater danger than the formation itself. He warned Feng Ran that their high profile could make them targets, then left him considering why some prodigies were more likely to be attacked than others.

• Feng Ran asked Grand Preceptor Pang about his Nine-Orifice Exquisite Heart, and Pang explained that it helped him cultivate, see through falsehoods, and avoid danger in the checkpoint’s illusion-filled formation.
• Grand Preceptor Pang warned Feng Ran that his group’s high-profile behavior could get them killed and explained that the Five Spirits mission had only one final victor.
• Feng Ran reasoned that guards expecting to die would target valuable prodigies to inflict the greatest losses, and Pang agreed but said Mo Bai would not be their first target because killing him could end the mission.
• Grand Preceptor Pang predicted that the Dragon and Phoenix Clans’ prodigies would be the first targets, followed by Meng De and the Buddhist Sect’s two prodigies.
• Feng Ran asked why Li Changsheng, Sword Come, and his own group were not priority targets, and Pang replied that they had not attracted enough attention.

Grand Preceptor Pang explained to Feng Ran why the checkpoint guards were unlikely to target him and urged him to endure until the end. After waking, Meng De reconsidered his fear of death and ordered Li Changsheng to enter the Immortal King Realm, asserting his authority over the Five Tigers Group.

• Grand Preceptor Pang told Feng Ran that Sword Come, Li Changsheng, and Feng Ran were unlikely priority targets because of their backgrounds and circumstances.
• Grand Preceptor Pang encouraged Feng Ran to focus on surviving rather than competing for the top position, then sat down to meditate.
• Sword Come entered the Immortal King Realm, found the unconscious Meng De, and revived him.
• Meng De reflected on his near-death experience and realized that death disregarded identity and background.
• Sword Come helped Li Changsheng escape the blood-red mist, and Meng De ordered him to enter the Immortal King Realm.
• Li Changsheng challenged Meng De's authority, and Meng De threatened to make him unable to survive in the Chang Sheng Epoch.

Meng De threatened Li Changsheng into abandoning his reckless push through the second trial, warning that the group would die if they kept fighting. Li Changsheng accepted the danger and asked what Meng De wanted to do, and Meng De proposed becoming an Immortal King, breaking the deadlock, and hiding until the mission ended.

• Meng De announced that everyone had to obey his command and threatened to have the Five Tigers Group shut Li Changsheng out if he refused to become an Immortal King.
• Li Changsheng agreed to hear Meng De out rather than leave and trigger his threat.
• Meng De argued that their enemies were deadly and that Li Changsheng’s status and Trump Cards would not save him; he revealed that detonating half his Divine Soul had brought him close to death.
• Li Changsheng’s anger subsided as he recognized that continuing onward could get them killed and asked Meng De what he proposed.
• Meng De proposed that Li Changsheng become an Immortal King so they could break the deadlock, then hide together and wait for the mission to end.

Meng De persuaded Li Changsheng to help sacrifice their fellow cultivators as distractions so they could survive the trial, while Li Changsheng agreed to advance to the Immortal King Realm and have Sword Come seek help. Elsewhere, Ye Xuan confronted Feng Zhi and invited her to advance before they fought, while Wang Hao revealed Ye Xuan’s terrifying past.

• Meng De argued that Li Changsheng should not notify Long Aotian and the others, since they could draw the guarded experts’ attention and leave Mo Bai and Baleful Shadow overwhelmed.
• Li Changsheng wrestled with the choice, then agreed to enter the Immortal King Realm while Meng De held on and Sword Come sought help from its senior.
• Ye Xuan appeared before Feng Zhi in the black mist, said he had come to kill her, and offered to let her advance to the Immortal King Realm first.
• Liu Yidao predicted Feng Zhi’s defeat, and Wang Hao identified Ye Xuan as a Ye Clan prodigy cultivated as a vessel by one of his ancestors.
• Wang Hao said Ye Xuan had once slaughtered his entire clan and was powerful enough to threaten even Mo Bai.

Wang Hao revealed Ye Yu’s connection to his ancestor’s Bloodline Immortality and tried to persuade Jun Lin and the others to help destroy the ancestor, offering them a chance to kill him afterward. Chen Changsheng appeared and warned them against trusting Wang Hao; meanwhile, Feng Zhi decided to advance to the Immortal King realm before facing Ye Xuan.

• Wang Hao explained that his ancestor had raised Ye Yu’s bloodline relative as a vessel, and that Ye Yu had sacrificed himself to prevent further tragedies.
• Wang Hao offered to help Jun Lin and the others destroy his ancestor and promised they could attack him three times afterward.
• Chen Changsheng confronted Wang Hao, rejected the offer to join forces, and warned Jun Lin and the others not to compromise their principles.
• Chen Changsheng joined Wang Hao to watch Feng Zhi’s live stream, while Wang Hao sent Feng Zhi a comment urging her to advance.
• After Ancestor Phoenix also warned her to advance, Feng Zhi told Ye Xuan that she was about to reach the Immortal King realm and that this was his only chance to kill her.

Ye Xuan recalled how Chen Changsheng freed him from the Underworld and recruited him to guard a challenge meant to oppose Ye Yongxian's Bloodline Immortality. As Feng Zhi advanced toward the Immortal King Realm, Ye Xuan explained that he needed her help but insisted she prove her worth in a fight to the death.

• In a memory, Chen Changsheng visited Ye Xuan in the Eighteen Levels of Hell and offered him a chance to live and help with a task.
• Ye Xuan demanded that Chen Changsheng kill Ye Yongxian, but Chen Changsheng refused and revealed that Ye Yongxian had possessed Ye Yu willingly.
• After learning that Ye Yu was gone, Ye Xuan accepted Chen Changsheng's offer to guard a place where the young people of the era could challenge Bloodline Immortality.
• Back in the present, Ye Xuan stabilized Feng Zhi's advancing aura and told her he needed her to accomplish a difficult task.
• Ye Xuan told Feng Zhi that she had to defeat him in a battle to the death to prove she was qualified, leaving her alarmed by his reasoning.

Ye Xuan explained to Feng Zhi why he pursued an extreme path, then confessed that he had killed his entire clan. Elsewhere, Li Changsheng reached the Immortal King Realm, and he and Meng De discussed how naturally gifted cultivators could enter that realm.

• Feng Zhi challenged Ye Xuan’s belief that others could not understand his pain, and he said he wanted to end pain by his own methods.
• Ye Xuan gave Feng Zhi time to stabilize after her breakthrough and revealed that he had personally killed every member of his clan tens of thousands of years earlier.
• Feng Zhi clenched her fists and told Ye Xuan that he truly deserved to die.
• Sword Come begged Ancestor Bai Ze for help in the Live Stream Room and memorized a mnemonic chant as Li Changsheng broke through inside the Bewitching Inn.
• Li Changsheng emerged after entering the Immortal King Realm, and Meng De asked how he had advanced so smoothly.
• Li Changsheng explained that Mo Bai, Long Aotian, and Feng Zhi were born with Great Dao Laws, and said he had comprehended one himself at age eight.

Li Changsheng explained how cultivators discovered that carefully combining laws mattered more than comprehending ever more of them, while the group searched for Ghost Granny’s true body. When viewers flooded the live stream with requests for more secrets, Wang Hao stepped in to explain in the contestants’ place and offered them a share of the proceeds.

• Li Changsheng told Meng De that entering the Immortal King Realm too early could be harmful and described how cultivators shifted from counting laws to studying Law Combinations.
• Li Changsheng recounted how a cultivator who comprehended thousands of Lesser Dao Laws reached Immortal King Fifth Grade but became weaker than others at that grade.
• Li Changsheng explained that the previous Yin Emperor’s Double Pupils helped him perceive the world and develop a Law Combination praised as the strongest of his age.
• Sword Come suddenly announced that he had figured out the Secret Technique, and Li Changsheng, Meng De, and the beast set out to find Ghost Granny’s true body.
• Viewers flooded the Live Stream Room with requests for more cultivation secrets, and Li Changsheng considered delaying the search despite Meng De’s warning.
• Wang Hao appeared in the Live Stream Room, announced he would explain the secrets for the contestants, and promised them thirty percent of the proceeds.

Wang Hao explained that Yin Jun Lin’s Law Combination was the strongest because its laws were constructed in a precise order, a secret revealed by Double pupils. He warned that ignoring this order could trap Immortal Kings at Fifth Grade, and identified Li Changsheng’s earlier example as one of his test subjects.

• Chen Changsheng explained to the Bai Ze Clan Leader why cultivators trusted Wang Hao’s livestream and why the Virtual World could profit from it.
• Wang Hao confirmed that Yin Jun Lin’s Law Combination was Number One Under Heaven and said the Forbidden Grounds had studied it during the Dark Turmoil.
• Wang Hao revealed that Yin Jun Lin’s eight hundred laws were arranged in a specific order that he could discern with his Double pupils.
• Meng De asked Li Changsheng about the order of constructing laws, but Sword Come reminded them to keep searching for Ghost Granny’s true body.
• Wang Hao explained that disregarding law order could prevent an Immortal King from advancing past Fifth Grade and said Li Changsheng’s earlier example had been his test subject.

Wang Hao explained Yin Jun Lin’s cultivation and revealed that he was preparing to challenge Lu Mingyu and the Phoenix Empress. After the livestream, Chen Changsheng defended Wang Hao’s approach as a way to encourage powerful cultivators to share knowledge.

• Li Changsheng told Meng De that his family’s records mentioned a major faction experimenting with combining laws, but did not name it.
• Yin Jun Lin confirmed that Wang Hao’s claims about him were true, including that he had comprehended eighteen Great Dao Laws by the time he reached Immortal King Ninth Grade.
• Wang Hao explained that the Forbidden Grounds had deliberately sent opponents to test Yin Jun Lin and study his Great Dao during the Dark Turmoil.
• Wang Hao revealed that Yin Jun Lin had reached Quasi-Emperor Ninth Heaven and might soon challenge Lu Mingyu and the Phoenix Empress, then ended the livestream.
• Chen Changsheng told the Primordial Qilin that livestreams could open the way for cultivators to exchange knowledge that they otherwise kept secret.

Sword Come found Ghost Granny’s true body beneath the Bewitching Inn, and Li Changsheng, Meng De, and the three Quasi-Emperors joined forces to destroy the inn and subdue her. Meng De drove a nail into Ghost Granny’s true body and began explaining how he had seen through her methods.

• Sword Come used his sharpened sense of smell to locate Ghost Granny’s true body beneath the Bewitching Inn, but suffered a three-month loss of smell as a side effect.
• Meng De identified the restrictions around Ghost Granny’s true body, and Li Changsheng used his Bitter Sea Phenomenon and golden Great Seal to crush the inn.
• Ghost Granny tried to stop the attack, but the Li family Ancestor, Yin Jie, and Ancestor Bai Ze held her down with their powers and weapons.
• The three Quasi-Emperors emerged from the ruins unharmed, while Meng De drove a nail into the heart of Ghost Granny’s true body.
• Ghost Granny demanded to know how Meng De had uncovered her methods, and Meng De explained that her ability to trap the Quasi-Emperors did not fit his understanding of her origins.

Meng De exposed and destroyed the Ghost Matron’s true body, freeing his group from the Bewitching Inn’s formation. Meanwhile, Yuan Yi prepared to target Chen Changsheng’s allies with the Desperate Array Diagram, believing the Divine Beast descendants and Buddhist Kingdom figures mattered most.

• Meng De explained how the Virtual World’s records revealed the Ghost Matron’s origins and how she had hidden beneath the inn while using the surrounding region to power her formations.
• Meng De drove the seventh steel nail into the corpse’s Baihui Acupoint, destroying the Ghost Matron and causing the Bewitching Inn to decay.
• Ancestor Bai Ze recognized the inn as a formation within a formation, and Meng De asked the seniors to lead everyone out and announced that they would follow his orders.
• Yuan Yi redirected the black fog’s power toward several locations after deciding not to spend much effort on Meng De’s group or the missing Feng Ran.
• Chen Changsheng named several allies Yuan Yi could target, but Yuan Yi dismissed them as replaceable and chose the Divine Beast descendants and Bai Zhi’s suspected subordinates as his priorities.

Chen Changsheng remained unmoved by Yuan Yi’s threats, while Yuan Yi began mobilizing troops against the targets Chen Changsheng had once marked. In the black mist, Feng Zhi defeated Ye Xuan’s close-combat attacks but was caught by his final sword and lost consciousness as her Life Lamp Realm flared.

• Chen Changsheng told Yuan Yi to act without explaining what mattered most to him, and Yuan Yi mobilized troops to encircle and kill the previous targets.
• Ye Xuan warned Feng Zhi that someone was after her, then challenged her to fight without using laws.
• Feng Zhi overwhelmed Ye Xuan with her fist art and smashed him through a stone mountain.
• Ye Xuan drew his sword and cracked Feng Zhi’s high-grade Imperial Weapon, forcing her to use the Ancestor Phoenix True Feather to burn him to ash.
• Ye Xuan’s final sword cut through the true feather and struck Feng Zhi, who lost consciousness as her Life Lamp Realm began burning violently.