Chapter Summaries

Chen Shisan fought Cang Hong over the cost of ruined food, insisting that reason required compensation, while Tian Xuan and Qian Bao'er helped him retreat. Cang Hong enlisted Nangong Ruoxue to stop them, and Chen Changsheng confronted the Eight Treasures Pavilion cultivators who had failed to act.

• Cang Hong pressured Chen Shisan, Tian Xuan, and Qian Bao'er, injuring Tian Xuan and driving Qian Bao'er back.
• Chen Shisan refused to abandon his demand for compensation, then drew the Zhenwu Sword as Tian Xuan attacked and Qian Bao'er opened an escape route.
• Chen Shisan's sword strike wounded Cang Hong, and Tian Xuan carried him away while Qian Bao'er used magical artifacts to hinder pursuit.
• Cang Hong asked Nangong Ruoxue to intervene, and she agreed to stop the trio but forbade him from taking their lives.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that he had restrained Eight Treasures Pavilion's cultivators and rebuked their Life Lamp Realm leader for bullying the weak.

Chen Changsheng punished the kneeling offenders with a blazing lamp while Nangong Ruoxue cast a Heavenly Net over the city to trap Chen Shisan and his companions. As Cang Hong pursued the fleeing youths, Chen Changsheng copied the net and hinted that a surprise he had arranged for Thirteen was about to arrive.

• Chen Changsheng made the kneeling offenders stare at a silver lamp for an hour, secretly making the Life Lamp cultivator's lamp burn faster and cost him decades of cultivation.
• Nangong Ruoxue cast Qingxu Heaven's Heavenly Net over the city, and Cang Hong used it to blast Chen Shisan and his companions apart as they fled.
• Nangong Ruoxue felt uneasy but dismissed the thought, while Chen Changsheng studied the net and replicated it briefly.
• Tian Xuan ran while injured as Qian Bao'er asked the miniature Chen Changsheng for help, but he said he could not save them and warned that his prepared surprise was near.

Chen Shisan refused to bow to Cang Hong and demanded the return of the seventeen hundred jin of divine source, with Tian Xuan and Qian Bao'er standing by him. As Cang Hong prepared to attack, a squirrel broke through Nangong Ruoxue’s Heavenly Net and appeared on Chen Shisan’s shoulder, followed by the arrival of an immortal maiden.

• Cang Hong dismissed Qian Bao’er’s threat and offered to spare Chen Shisan and his friends if Chen Shisan admitted fault.
• Chen Shisan asked Tian Xuan and Qian Bao’er whether he was wrong, and both supported his demand for compensation.
• Chen Shisan told Cang Hong to return the seventeen hundred jin of divine source, while Nangong Ruoxue urged him to respect the strong.
• Cang Hong challenged Chen Shisan to take the divine source himself, and Chen Shisan walked toward him despite his injuries.
• A pale yellow squirrel broke through Nangong Ruoxue’s Heavenly Net, landed on Chen Shisan’s shoulder, and hid in his hair as an immortal maiden arrived.

Chen Shisan used the restored Zhenwu Sword to defeat Cang Hong and Nangong Ruoxue, but Chen Changsheng kicked him and the others through a spatial rift. Chen Shisan woke injured in an unfamiliar Small World and set off toward the woods to find shelter and treat his wounds.

• Meng Yu of Kongming Heaven demanded the Treasure Vomiting Rat, but Chen Shisan refused to hand it over.
• The Treasure Vomiting Rat spat on the Zhenwu Sword, restoring its brilliance, and Chen Shisan's sword strike defeated Cang Hong and Nangong Ruoxue and opened a spatial rift.
• Chen Changsheng kicked Chen Shisan, Tian Xuan, Qian Bao'er, and Meng Yu into the rift, then followed them as it closed.
• Chen Shisan crashed into an unfamiliar Small World and was knocked unconscious while the Zhenwu Sword guarded him.
• Chen Shisan woke in the rain with the Treasure Vomiting Rat and the Zhenwu Sword nearby, then headed toward the woods to seek shelter and tend his injuries.

After being sent into a forest and badly injured, Chen Shisan found Meng Yu unconscious beside a spirit herb and carried her to shelter after treating her. They traded half the herb for a Secret Technique, but Meng Yu then asked whether he had washed her to take advantage of her.

• Chen Shisan recovered enough to explore the forest, and the Treasure Vomiting Rat led him to a spirit herb beside the unconscious Meng Yu.
• Chen Shisan dug up the polygonatum, then chose to carry the badly injured Meng Yu away on a stretcher.
• Meng Yu woke by the fire in clean clothes and slapped Chen Shisan twice after he admitted he had seen and washed her body.
• Chen Shisan refused to share the polygonatum until Meng Yu offered to teach him a Secret Technique in exchange for half.
• After eating the herb, Meng Yu asked Chen Shisan whether he had washed her to take advantage of her.

Chen Shisan and Meng Yu discussed his rescue of her and examined his two damaged swords before she criticized his cultivation method and insulted his teacher. Chen Changsheng appeared, revealing himself as the man she had cursed, while Chen Shisan asked him not to frighten her.

• Chen Shisan told Meng Yu he had treated her wounds without improper thoughts and would face her as an enemy once she recovered.
• Meng Yu inspected the Zhenwu Sword and Three Feet Green Edge, identifying both as damaged swords with dead or severely injured Sword Spirits.
• Meng Yu examined Chen Shisan's cultivation and called his basic Heavenly Cycle Circulation inadequate after he said his teacher had taught him the world's strongest method.
• Meng Yu insulted Chen Changsheng, and he struck her before identifying himself as Chen Shisan's teacher.
• Chen Shisan asked Chen Changsheng to stop frightening Meng Yu, saying he would otherwise have to bury her.

Chen Changsheng spared Meng Yu after learning she belonged to Kongming Heaven, whose ancestral teachings remembered him as the Imperial Tutor. He identified Kongming Heaven as the hidden home of the Phantom Legion and began explaining the original Bitter Sea System to Meng Yu and Chen Shisan, leaving the nature of the dantian’s inner world unresolved.

• Chen Changsheng spared Meng Yu, introduced himself, and startled her when she recognized the name Imperial Tutor.
• Meng Yu explained that Kongming Heaven’s ancestral precepts described Chen Changsheng as the era’s controller and credited him and Desolate Heaven Emperor Wu Li with creating the cultivation system.
• Chen Changsheng learned the precepts came from Taoist Ning Zi, whom he recognized as Fairy Zi Ning, leader of the Phantom Legion.
• Chen Changsheng concluded the Phantom Legion had hidden in the Small World called Kongming Heaven and refused to lift Meng Yu’s seal, telling her to break it herself.
• Chen Changsheng began teaching Meng Yu and Chen Shisan about the original Bitter Sea System and revealed a second world inside a translucent sphere as he explained the dantian.

Chen Changsheng explained how the Bitter Sea System resolved the conflict between internal and external cultivation, then told Meng Yu that her impatience and reliance on pills had left her foundation unstable. The chapter ended with him describing how opening a spring eye should begin the gradual transformation that unites essence, qi, and spirit.

• Chen Changsheng demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of internal and external cultivation and explained how changes to heaven and earth rules forced cultivators to seek new paths.
• Meng Yu asked whether Chen Changsheng had created the method of cultivating both internally and externally, and he showed how the two forces conflicted and caused his demonstration sphere to explode.
• Chen Changsheng used a needle to pierce the inner sphere, creating a cycle between inner and outer energy that made cultivating both internally and externally possible.
• Chen Shisan observed that cultivators rushed to grow stronger, and Chen Changsheng praised his clear heart before warning Meng Yu that she was too impatient.
• Chen Changsheng explained that Meng Yu's overuse of pills and natural treasures had boosted her spiritual power while neglecting the transformation needed to establish a stable foundation.

Chen Changsheng explained why Meng Yu had lost all her strength after he sealed her cultivation, while Chen Shisan mocked her and later received instruction in the bitter sea realm. The next morning, Chen Shisan and Meng Yu set out to explore the Small World, with Meng Yu riding on his back and offering to teach him her movement technique.

• Chen Changsheng explained that Meng Yu's unstable foundation left her with mostly spiritual energy, which she could not use after he sealed her dantian and divine sense.
• Chen Shisan admitted he was mocking Meng Yu because she had slapped him, and Chen Changsheng taught them the essence of the divine bridge realm.
• Chen Changsheng taught Chen Shisan the essence of the bitter sea realm, then vanished without telling him how to leave the Small World.
• Chen Shisan and Meng Yu argued over forgetting to ask Chen Changsheng how to escape, then settled down to rest for the night.
• At dawn, Chen Shisan carried the injured Meng Yu toward the Small World's central region, and Meng Yu offered to teach him Divine Travel Transformations.

Chen Shisan and Meng Yu traveled together for a month while she pretended her leg injury still kept her from walking, and she grew fond of him. When Cang Hong confronted them, Meng Yu began preparing a way to drive him back as Chen Shisan moved to hold him off.

• Meng Yu asked Chen Shisan for fruit and insisted her injury had not healed, offering him another sword technique in exchange for staying on his back.
• Chen Shisan carried Meng Yu onward, then set her down to gather firewood; they talked about their goals as he prepared their meal.
• Cang Hong appeared, and Meng Yu told Chen Shisan to hold him off for twenty breaths while she silently prepared a way to send him back.
• Cang Hong attacked Chen Shisan with his Nine Yang Fist, and Chen Shisan blocked him with the Zhenwu Sword before being knocked backward twice.

Chen Shisan drew on his will to expand his Divine Bridge and wounded Cang Hong, while Meng Yu broke through her seal enough to drive Cang Hong away. As Meng Yu tried to carry Chen Shisan off, a Phoenix-Tailed Chicken-Crested Snake bit him, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Cang Hong trapped Chen Shisan in the Three-Legged Golden Crow’s flames, while Chen Shisan realized his Divine Bridge could be built from his will.
• Chen Shisan used the Three Feet Green Edge to slash Cang Hong and draw blood, but Cang Hong prepared to finish him.
• Meng Yu revealed she had lied about the twenty breaths, unleashed Snow Flurries in the Mortal Realm, and wounded Cang Hong badly enough to make him flee.
• Chen Shisan and Meng Yu collapsed from exhaustion, then Meng Yu recovered enough strength to prepare to carry him away.
• Two Phoenix-Tailed Chicken-Crested Snakes ambushed them; the Treasure Vomiting Rat killed both, but one had bitten Chen Shisan’s neck, and Meng Yu cried out in despair.

Meng Yu begged for help as Chen Shisan succumbed to the Phoenix-Tailed Chicken-Crested Snake’s venom, but Chen Changsheng did not appear. Nalan Xingde and the Big White Dog arrived, cured Chen Shisan, and Nalan Xingde declared he would become Chen Shisan’s teacher.

• Meng Yu held the dying Chen Shisan and called for Chen Changsheng, then pleaded with the gods and Buddhas to save him.
• A Big White Dog and Nalan Xingde arrived after the Treasure Vomiting Rat called for help, and the dog identified the snake venom.
• Nalan Xingde used a golden character to draw the poison out of Chen Shisan, who awoke and teased Meng Yu about her rain-soaked clothes.
• Nalan Xingde introduced himself as a Teacher and said he would teach Chen Shisan to read, write, and understand the world.
• Nalan Xingde revealed that Chen Changsheng had guided them there and that fur from the Divine Beast Bai Ze had led the Treasure Vomiting Rat to recognize Chen Shisan as its master.

Chen Changsheng let Nalan Xingde take Chen Shisan and his companions out of the Small World, answered Nalan Xingde’s concern about Gongsun Huaiyu, and gave him a magical branch. After Meng Yu left for Kongming Heaven, Chen Shisan decided he wanted to go there too, while Cang Hong emerged from the Small World vowing revenge.

• Nalan Xingde led Chen Shisan, Tian Xuan, Qian Bao'er, Bai Ze, and Meng Yu out of the Small World after Chen Changsheng gave his permission.
• Bai Ze speculated that Chen Shisan was Chen Changsheng’s illegitimate son, and Chen Changsheng appeared and silenced him.
• Chen Changsheng told Nalan Xingde that Gongsun Huaiyu was likely alive, then forbade Meng Yu from meeting Chen Shisan until he reached the Buddhist Kingdom.
• Chen Changsheng rejected Nalan Xingde’s request for guidance, struck him with a branch, and left him with a branch that transformed into a ruler.
• Meng Yu gave Chen Shisan a map to Kongming Heaven before leaving, and Chen Shisan decided to go there to see her.
• Cang Hong and Nangong Ruoxue were thrown out of the Small World, and Cang Hong swore revenge on Chen Shisan.

Chen Shisan asked Nalan Xingde whether he was wrong to reject Meng Yu, and his teacher urged him to seek his own answer rather than follow someone else’s path. Nalan Xingde then let Bai Ze choose their next destination, and Bai Ze turned the group toward Huayang Grotto-Heaven for revenge.

• Bai Ze repeatedly offered to bring Meng Yu back for Chen Shisan, but Chen Shisan said he did not love her and worried she would misunderstand.
• Chen Shisan asked Nalan Xingde whether rejecting Meng Yu was wrong, and Nalan Xingde explained that love could not be repaid simply through devotion or sacrifice.
• Nalan Xingde told Chen Shisan that he could reject Meng Yu but could not control her feelings, and encouraged him to find an answer of his own.
• Nalan Xingde challenged Chen Shisan to regain his former courage and forge a path different from his teacher’s, and Chen Shisan resolved to act without dwelling on success or failure.
• Nalan Xingde let Bai Ze choose their route, and Bai Ze chose to head for Huayang Grotto-Heaven to take revenge on those who had chased him.
• Qian Bao'er questioned Nalan Xingde’s decision to let Bai Ze make the choice.

Nalan Xingde explained that Chen Changsheng had chosen Tian Xuan to bear the Demon Race’s Heaven’s Mandate in a future age and suppress the demons’ conflict with humanity. As the group prepared to enter Huayang Grotto-Heaven, Tian Xuan realized Nalan Xingde’s planned academy would hold him to his promise, leaving him to consider whether to accept that burden.

• Nalan Xingde told Qian Bao'er not to feel guilty about Bai Ze’s fight with Huayang Grotto-Heaven because Cang Hong still owed her seventeen hundred jin of divine source.
• Bai Ze searched for an old entrance to Huayang Grotto-Heaven while Tian Xuan questioned whether the group should enter by another method.
• Nalan Xingde told Tian Xuan that Chen Changsheng had chosen him to bear the next age’s Heaven’s Mandate and suppress the Demon Race after humanity’s fortune declined.
• Nalan Xingde warned Tian Xuan that Chen Changsheng would take back what he had given if Tian Xuan abandoned his promise, and suggested a Heaven’s Mandate Bearer could be defeated.
• Nalan Xingde announced that he planned to establish an academy open to every race, and Tian Xuan understood it would help bind him to his promise.

Nalan Xingde led Chen Shisan and the others into Huayang Grotto-Heaven to collect a debt, while explaining that Bai Ze’s instincts had drawn it to the place for an unknown reason. Huayang Heaven’s elder agreed to summon Cang Hong, who had bullied Chen Shisan and was recovering from his injuries.

• Bai Ze opened a Void Passage to Huayang Grotto-Heaven, but Nalan Xingde sealed it and used a token to enter through the front gate.
• Nalan Xingde explained that Bai Ze had targeted Huayang Grotto-Heaven through instinct, though it had no conscious knowledge of any secret there.
• Chen Shisan and the others emerged inside Huayang Grotto-Heaven, where an elder cautiously welcomed them.
• Nalan Xingde said he had come to collect the debt Huayang Heaven’s World Walker owed Chen Shisan.
• The elder apologized for Cang Hong’s behavior and summoned him to the great hall.
• Cang Hong arrived while still recovering from his severe injuries.

Cang Hong knelt before Chen Shisan, apologized, and handed over 1,700 catties of divine source after his master reprimanded him for losing. As Nalan Xingde showed Chen Shisan around Huayang Heaven, Bai Ze uncovered a Bronze Ancient Hall, prompting Nalan Xingde to confront Huayang Grotto-Heaven’s great powers.

• Cang Hong argued against apologizing, but his master slapped him and warned that he had lost the right to serve as Huayang Heaven’s World Walker.
• Cang Hong knelt before Chen Shisan, gave him 1,700 catties of divine source, and vowed to remain his enemy.
• Cang Hong showed Nalan Xingde and Chen Shisan the Filth Removal Spring, and Nalan Xingde challenged Cang Hong’s belief that strength justified his choices.
• Bai Ze dragged a Bronze Ancient Hall into the Cave Heaven, and Nalan Xingde pushed Cang Hong away before confronting Huayang Grotto-Heaven’s great powers.

Nalan Xingde fought Huayang Grotto-Heaven’s cultivators while Bai Ze hauled away the Bronze Ancient Hall, until a black force rose from the grotto-heaven and threatened everyone. After discovering ordinary attacks and flames could not stop it, Nalan Xingde used the fire from his stone Life Lamp and charged into the darkness to confront the hidden being.

• Bai Ze dragged the Bronze Ancient Hall away as Nalan Xingde warned Huayang Grotto-Heaven’s cultivators to leave it alone.
• Nalan Xingde suppressed a Life Lamp Realm expert, but an elderly Blood Moving Realm cultivator struck him with the power of a Humpbacked Ox.
• Nalan Xingde bound Huayang Grotto-Heaven’s cultivators with golden chains while Bai Ze taunted the old man.
• A black ocean formed an Overwhelming Giant Hand, empowering Huayang Grotto-Heaven’s experts and forcing Bai Ze to weaken its aura with holy radiance.
• Nalan Xingde severed the giant hand with sword qi, then tried fire after Bai Ze warned him that the black force devoured divine power.
• Nalan Xingde added orange flame from his stone Life Lamp, burning the Black Qi and shrinking the giant hand before charging into the darkness.

Bai Ze rescued Chen Shisan and the others from Huayang Grotto-Heaven, while Nalan Xingde fought his way free with them. After escaping, Nalan Xingde learned that the black substance was the Calamity sealed beneath the Bronze Ancient Hall and decided to draw Huayang’s pursuers away so Bai Ze could take it to Chen Changsheng.

• Bai Ze smashed through Huayang Grotto-Heaven’s encirclement with the Bronze Ancient Hall and carried Chen Shisan and the others away.
• Bai Ze fought the Blood Moving Realm elder with its Big Bone Club, then taunted him while fleeing through Huayang Heaven.
• Nalan Xingde emerged from the darkness, tore away the chain behind Bai Ze, and used the Bronze Ancient Hall to break through Huayang Heaven’s formation and escape with everyone.
• After they landed, Nalan Xingde expelled the black substance from his body and asked Bai Ze about it; Bai Ze identified it as the Calamity beneath the Bronze Ancient Hall.
• Nalan Xingde warned that Huayang Grotto-Heaven would pursue them and told Bai Ze to take the Calamity to Sir, while he drew their enemies away.
• Bai Ze swallowed the black energy wrapped in orange flames.

Nalan Xingde parted from Tian Xuan, Qian Bao'er, and the third youth, leaving Bai Ze to guide their cultivation as he led Huayang Grotto-Heaven's people elsewhere. In the Buddhist Kingdom, Chen Changsheng sensed that Nalan Xingde had encountered a major matter, then focused on a sealed box and vowed to find a way to destroy what was inside.

• Nalan Xingde told Tian Xuan and the others to continue the Ten Thousand Miles Buddha Country Road and left them in Bai Ze's care.
• Bai Ze promised to teach the three youths and decided to find Tian Xuan a suitable weapon before they headed to the Buddhist Kingdom.
• Bai Ze explained that Huayang Grotto-Heaven had hunted him because he accidentally dug through its ancestral grave.
• Chen Changsheng, disguised as Jue Yuan beneath the Bodhi Tree, sensed that Nalan Xingde had taken a serious matter in hand and chose not to interfere.
• Chen Changsheng examined a box covered in powerful restrictions and vowed to find a way to kill its contents permanently.