Chapter Summaries

Chen Changsheng faced Long Aotian, Lin Yao, and Feng Ran in battle after Long Aotian wagered their lives on a duel. Lin Yao revealed that his Great Compassion had made his Buddhist Golden Body flawless, so Chen Changsheng drew on Jian Fei’s Nine Forms Swordsmanship to break it.

• Long Aotian challenged Chen Changsheng to a wager: if he won, Chen Changsheng would let the three companions leave the Green Mountain World, and if he lost, their lives would be Chen Changsheng’s.
• Feng Ran and Lin Yao joined Long Aotian in attacking Chen Changsheng, who evaded their assaults and engulfed Feng Ran’s tree form in Spirit Fire.
• Lin Yao used the Buddhist Lion’s Roar to stun Chen Changsheng, then fought him with his Golden Body until Chen Changsheng cracked it with the Nameless Fist Technique of the Hundred Defeats Immortal.
• Lin Yao explained that his heart of Great Compassion had forged a flawless Buddhist Golden Body, and Chen Changsheng recognized that swordsmanship was the best way to break it.
• Chen Changsheng sent a treasured sword that wounded Lin Yao, then invoked Jian Fei’s Nine Forms Swordsmanship and its nine famous swords.

Chen Changsheng used the nine sword techniques against Lin Yao, Feng Ran, and Long Aotian, severely wounding them but failing to finish them. When his paper figure avatar was damaged and Long Aotian adapted to his attacks, Chen Changsheng acknowledged the loss and vanished to find other opponents.

• Chen Changsheng explained that he could wield Jian Fei's nine sword techniques at only seventy percent strength because he lacked the famed swords they required.
• Lin Yao recited the first three sword techniques while Chen Changsheng's Flying Swords attacked him and Feng Ran, who was struggling against the Heaven Earth Life Severing Array.
• Long Aotian lifted and hurled a mountain at Chen Changsheng, who used Sword Four to bind and wound him before Sword Five and Sword Six struck all three opponents with karma and tribulation fire.
• Chen Changsheng unleashed Sword Seven, which broke through the Heaven Earth Life Severing Array and devastated the battlefield, but cracks appeared in his body and his eighth Flying Sword before Sword Eight could unfold.
• Long Aotian emerged from the sea and struck Chen Changsheng's chest, then recovered as his body adapted to the attacks; Chen Changsheng recorded the damage and conceded the loss.
• Chen Changsheng refused to waste his only paper figure avatar and vanished, saying others would come looking for Long Aotian in a few days.

Wu Li and the other Paper Figure Clones overwhelmed the invading prodigies, leaving Long Aotian and his companions battered. After the clones returned to the meteorite, Lu Mingyu asked Chen Changsheng for a stronger replacement.

• Wu Li defeated Lu Jun and was about to kill him when Long Aotian intervened and offered to take a punch in exchange for Lu Jun's life.
• Wu Li's Paper Figure Clone struck Long Aotian, who barely recovered from being torn apart, then released Lu Jun and advised them to leave Green Mountain World.
• Lu Mingyu defeated Cui Yunzheng and withdrew, while Hua Feng and Nian Sheng defeated Baleful Shadow and Shangguan, respectively.
• Dugu cut Zhou Jingting into three pieces with three swords but stopped before finishing her when he sensed Shi Qi approaching.
• Lu Mingyu returned to Chen Changsheng and asked for another Paper Figure Clone, and Chen Changsheng told him to fight the prodigies himself.

Chen Changsheng and his students fought through a prolonged slaughter in Green Mountain World using fragile Paper figure avatars, until the students eliminated the outsiders and the final survivors were overwhelmed. Afterward, Chen Changsheng explained that the avatar contest exposed the importance of the physical body and emotions in cultivation, suggesting that successful research into them could change the cultivation system.

• Chen Changsheng invited his students to fight him, but Zhang Bairen chose to watch the younger prodigies instead.
• During the slaughter, Zhang Ling forced Zhang Bairen back, Wind Goose killed Lu Mingyu’s damaged avatar, and Chen Feng’s avatar vanished after his fight with Yu Dao.
• Shangguan, Zhou Jingting, Mo Bai, and Baleful Shadow interrupted Nian Sheng and Hua Feng’s duel, prompting the pair to hunt Green Mountain World’s prodigies.
• The prodigies killed Hua Feng, Zhang Bairen, and Dugu, then joined forces against Chen Changsheng and Li Niansheng; Yu Dao and Wind Goose surrendered afterward.
• Back at the meteorite, Chen Changsheng argued that the students’ competing plans had caused their defeat and said cultivators should not abandon the physical body or emotions.

Chen Changsheng explained how data could reveal the limits of Bitter Sea cultivators and presented rankings of high-level cultivators. Lu Mingyu was frustrated by his placements, while the killing-power ranking put Chen Feng first and left Hua Feng questioning its accuracy.

• Chen Changsheng told Dugu and the others that special soul states could let Bitter Sea cultivators surpass their realm's data limits, though the source of that power remained unknown.
• Chen Changsheng said his experiments had produced Chen Xiao's lineage, whose physical strength exceeded the usual limit but could not unleash power beyond it.
• Chen Changsheng gave the others Jade Slips containing his data rankings of high-level cultivators across the Two Great Epochs.
• Lu Mingyu objected that Chen Feng had ranked outside the top ten in the basic data ranking, and Chen Changsheng explained that it measured data rather than strength.
• Chen Changsheng revealed the explosive killing-power ranking, which placed Chen Feng first, Dugu second, Wu Li third, and Lu Mingyu fourth.
• Hua Feng questioned whether the killing-power ranking was mistaken, and Chen Changsheng said the data supported it.

Chen Changsheng presented his speculative ranking of the era’s strongest cultivators and explained why immortals with exceptional survival abilities ranked above Zhang Bairen. He concluded that emotions, contrary to prevailing cultivation methods, were the key to opening the forbidden gate within cultivators.

• Chen Changsheng explained that his third ranking included informed conjectures and excluded experts whose strength or circumstances remained unclear.
• Zhang Bairen questioned his low placement, and Chen Changsheng explained that Lu Mingyu’s abilities and Zhang’s incomplete True Spirit put Lu Mingyu above him.
• Chen Changsheng defended Wang Hao’s and the Bloodline Immortality cultivator’s high rankings, saying their ability to recover from defeat gave them an advantage over time.
• Chen Changsheng pointed out that several unusually powerful cultivators had achieved their results in far less time than other experts.
• Dugu asked whether emotions explained their achievements, and Chen Changsheng said emotions helped cultivators break their limits and unlock the forbidden gate within them.

Chen Changsheng explained how obsession let cultivators break their limits and warned that a new method could strengthen the Cultivation World while driving practitioners into madness. He revealed that the method was the final piece of Zhang Bairen’s True Spirit Severing Method and said Zhang was the one researching it.

• Chen Changsheng told Dugu that powerful obsession could lead cultivators to enter the Dao through obsession, which was the path of Evil Cultivators.
• Chen Changsheng described how Righteous, Demon, and Evil cultivators broke through their limits, and identified Zhang Bairen, Lu Mingyu, and Wu Li as the only people who could enter the soul state.
• Chen Changsheng said Lu Mingyu’s pride was an obsession and warned that obsession could push cultivators toward dangerous shortcuts when they met someone they could not surpass.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that he had met a complete alternate version of himself while contemplating Reincarnation at the Heavenly Lotus Sect, and that this encounter had shown him high-level cultivators were half-mad.
• Chen Changsheng said he had found a method that could help cultivators enter the soul state or push aspects of themselves beyond their limits, but warned it could plunge the world into darkness.
• Zhang Bairen questioned why Chen Changsheng was studying such a dangerous method, and Chen Changsheng replied that Zhang was researching it as the final piece of his True Spirit Severing Method.

Chen Changsheng proposed rules for handling the dangerous Forbidden Key and Soul Secret Method, then entrusted the future of the path to Green Mountain World’s younger generation. He warned that if they went astray, he would seal the method and hide—or erase—those who had fallen too deeply.

• Chen Changsheng explained to Zhang Bairen that the Forbidden Key enabled cultivators below the Bitter Sea Great Emperor Realm to enter the soul state, but could lead them onto demonic paths.
• Dream and Heavenly Dao Society members appeared, and Chen Changsheng called for leaders from the Chang Sheng Epoch to join the discussion.
• Chen Changsheng proposed forbidding cultivators below the Great Emperor Realm from deliberately pursuing the Soul Secret Method and protecting anyone who discovered the Forbidden Key without a teacher from being schemed against.
• Chen Changsheng said the pure-hearted younger generation in Green Mountain World had to show whether the path could remain open.
• Chen Changsheng warned that if the younger generation went astray, he would seal the Soul Secret Method and hide them away, and he would make anyone who sank too deeply disappear.

Chen Changsheng and Dream agreed to name the dangerous state Heavenly Prohibition and restrict its study while testing practitioners in the war-torn Pill Epoch. Chen Changsheng explained that obsession would eventually corrupt most users, then noticed that Shi Qi’s unusual nature might offer a way to break the cycle.

• A Heavenly Dao Society member challenged Chen Changsheng’s warnings, and Dream silenced him and ordered him to remain in secluded cultivation for two hundred thousand years.
• Chen Changsheng and Dream agreed that only people in Green Mountain World could study the path for now, and that they would be tested by being sent to help end the war in the Pill Epoch.
• Chen Changsheng proposed the name Heavenly Prohibition, explaining that the state defied heaven, and Dream accepted it.
• After Dream and the Heavenly Dao Society members left, Chen Changsheng told Chen Feng that Heavenly Prohibition amplified obsession and would eventually drive most practitioners mad.
• Chen Feng offered to study Heavenly Prohibition, but Chen Changsheng rejected him because his strength as a sword cultivator could make his path resemble obsession.
• Chen Changsheng pointed out that Shi Qi’s kind heart might let him approach Heavenly Prohibition differently, though Dugu had already taught him into being half-crippled.

Chen Changsheng explained why he would not teach Zhang Bairen the dangerous Second Divine Soul method, then oversaw the third trial, which Long Aotian won. He announced the requirements for the remaining trials, leaving the prodigies to face a Quasi-Emperor lightning tribulation and seek powerful Thunder Tribulation Liquid.

• Zhang Bairen asked Chen Changsheng to teach him the Second Divine Soul method, but Chen Changsheng warned that it could create an equally strong self empowered by the Heavenly Prohibition and refused.
• Long Aotian and Mo Bai entered the Endless Sea to claim the third trial's reward, but Mo Bai withdrew as the pressure became too great, leaving Long Aotian to win.
• Kunpeng stopped attacking Shangguan after Long Aotian claimed the reward, and Long Aotian returned to the island, where Mo Bai congratulated him and promised to challenge him again.
• Chen Changsheng gathered the surviving prodigies and announced that the fourth trial required undergoing a Quasi-Emperor lightning tribulation.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that the fifth trial would take place at the Imperial Preceptor's Tomb in the Chang Sheng Epoch and required Virtual World qualifications plus Thunder Tribulation Liquid above the fifth Quasi-Emperor level.

Chen Changsheng explained how to obtain Thunder Tribulation Liquid and warned the group about the formidable enemies awaiting them. He revealed that he would personally compete for the title of Number One Under Heaven and told them to gather Immortal Metals for their future Emperor weapons.

• Chen Changsheng explained that cultivators could draw out Humanoid Thunder Tribulations after an ordinary tribulation and defeat enough of them to obtain Thunder Tribulation Liquid.
• Chen Changsheng said the fifth checkpoint's guardian and powerful opponents, including the Sage Emperor, Talisman Emperor, Book Saint, and Tiger Guard, would challenge the group.
• Chen Changsheng named himself as an opponent and declared that he would personally compete for Number One Under Heaven, using any means necessary to eliminate them.
• Chen Changsheng told the group they needed Immortal Metals to forge Emperor weapons before reaching Quasi-Emperor Ninth Heaven or risk losing their chance to become Great Emperors.

After Chen Changsheng ended the training, Li Changsheng mourned his brother Li Changming and learned that Li Changming had planned his own death as a future escape route from the Imperial Tutor’s growing power. The recording left Li Changsheng with instructions to sever ties and rally the aristocratic families if the Virtual World became dominant.

• Chen Changsheng departed after telling his students to keep moving forward and meet him at the mountain peak someday.
• Lu Jun, Cui Shuo, and Cui Yunzheng escorted the surrendered Yu Dao and Wind Goose, while Shi Qi returned with them to the rebel army’s rear.
• Mo Bai returned Li Changming’s Yin-Yang Bottle to Li Changsheng, who asked him to tell the world that Li Changming had joined their side and died covering their retreat.
• After Mo Bai left, Li Changsheng opened the bottle and played a Jade Slip and Recording Stone containing Li Changming’s message.
• Li Changming explained that he had remained with the Old Aristocratic Families and arranged his death so Li Changsheng could later withdraw from the Imperial Tutor’s camp without being implicated if the Virtual World collapsed.
• Li Changming instructed Li Changsheng to give up status and sever ties with his companions if the Virtual World became dominant, relying instead on the aristocratic families and the Pill Epoch’s upper ranks.

Li Changsheng listened to Li Changming’s final message, which revealed that his brother had sacrificed himself to give Li Changsheng a way to break from the Imperial Tutor and pursue his own plans. Chen Changsheng explained that he could not retreat from the Virtual World project because too many people depended on it—and many wanted him and the Imperial Tutor’s lineage destroyed.

• Li Changsheng heard Li Changming explain that his death would give Li Changsheng an excuse to break with the Imperial Tutor and win goodwill in the Pill Epoch.
• The Recording Stone shattered after Li Changming entrusted his plans and concerns to Li Changsheng in a Jade Slip.
• Li Changsheng asked Chen Changsheng whether he would punish him for using Chen Changsheng and the Virtual World as a shield, but Chen Changsheng said Li Changming’s plan had been right.
• Chen Changsheng told Li Changsheng that he was not omnipotent and could not retreat from the Virtual World project without facing ruin.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that many people wanted him dead and sought the destruction of the Imperial Tutor’s entire lineage.

Chen Changsheng told Li Changsheng that the Virtual World would spread hope and make him the key to resisting the forces threatening the Chang Sheng Epoch. He revealed that four powerful madmen were about to return, then left Li Changsheng to prepare for the road ahead; elsewhere, Shangguan faced her silent master after failing the third trial.

• Chen Changsheng explained to Li Changsheng why he could not hide from the Forbidden Ground, the Pill Epoch, and the great families, and said he had chosen to face them head-on.
• Chen Changsheng admitted that defeat might come when the Virtual World reached its peak, but claimed Li Changsheng and countless others could serve as his greatest trump card.
• Chen Changsheng said the Virtual World would spread hope so widely that even if their leaders and the Imperial Tutor Lineage were killed, the world's people could still resist the darkness.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that four powerful madmen were about to return and that he had feigned losing his memories to make them believe he still had hidden trump cards.
• Chen Changsheng urged Li Changsheng to take care, then vanished, leaving Li Changsheng staring at the spot where he had stood.
• In the Void, Shangguan apologized to her silent master for failing to obtain the third trial's reward and waited anxiously for a response.

Chen Changsheng rescued Shangguan from her master by trading a Jade Slip containing the Original True Understanding, then urged her to find her own purpose in life. He arrived at the Rebel Army headquarters to plan the next stage of the campaign and began checking preparations.

• Shangguan's master blamed her for failing the third trial and raised his hand to kill her, but Chen Changsheng arrived and offered to buy her freedom.
• Chen Changsheng gave Shangguan's master the Original True Understanding in exchange for Shangguan, then warned him not to copy or pass it on without permission.
• Shangguan promised to repay Chen Changsheng, but he said he had saved her because people should not be treated that way and told her to seek her own purpose.
• Chen Changsheng left Shangguan and went to the Rebel Army headquarters, where representatives of the major powers gathered to hear his battle plan.
• Chen Changsheng checked the Qilin Communicator and logistics preparations, then contacted Lu Mingyu to ask about preparations among high-level cultivators.

Chen Changsheng ordered the final offensive against the Old Aristocratic Families and rejected attempts to delay the war or offer their leaders a chance to surrender. He joined Lu Mingyu at the Cui Family ancestral tomb, where he explained why Dream would permit the families’ old foundations to be destroyed.

• Chen Changsheng told Lu Mingyu to proceed with the plan to devastate the Old Aristocratic Families’ upper ranks, then announced that the final offensive would begin immediately.
• Chen Changsheng overruled the Zheng Family representative’s objections, warned the clan representatives against obstructing the Pill Epoch’s reforms, and told the Lu Family representative that surrender was no longer an option.
• Chen Changsheng ordered the alliance to continue the offensive until it seized all the Old Aristocratic Families’ territory, and Meng De began outlining the detailed tactics.
• At the Bo Ling Cui Family ancestral tomb, Lu Mingyu waited for Chen Changsheng while facing the Cui Family’s old foundation.
• Chen Changsheng arrived and told the Cui Family’s old foundation that Dream supported the attack because the aristocratic families’ forces had been dispersed and their leaders’ allies could not intervene.

Chen Changsheng explained how the Five Clans’ elders had doomed themselves by opposing Dream, isolating their forces, and concentrating command in their own hands. As Wu Li and the rebel experts attacked the elders, Chen Changsheng’s allies blocked the fleeing Cui Family experts, leaving the clan leaders surrounded and their forces trapped.

• Chen Changsheng mocked the Cui Family elder and argued that the noble clans should have compromised with the Heavenly Dao Society or fought it openly instead of threatening him.
• Chen Changsheng explained that opposing Dream and closing the Qilin Communicator had cut the elders off from their allies and weakened their control over the clans.
• Chen Changsheng declared that the elders would die, then transformed into a paper figure as Wu Li, Hua Feng, Chen Feng, Zhang Bairen, and Li Niansheng emerged to fight them.
• Wu Li and the other experts battled the Five Clans’ elders while Zhang Bairen pursued the experts fleeing the Cui Family Ancestral Tomb.
• Liu Yidao, Wang Hao, Chen Xiao, Ruan Su Xian, Wei Guang, Shui Yue, and Tiger Guard blocked the Cui Family experts’ escape routes.

Chen Changsheng and Dream dealt with the Heavenly Dao Society conspirators, then moved against the Wang family rebels at the Void Crack. Wang Lan explained his role in the conflict and revealed how he had killed Zheng Xuan, while the Wang family’s destruction remained underway.

• Chen Changsheng urged Dream to kill the two Heavenly Dao Society members, but Dream imprisoned them instead and promised Wang Lan the Zheng and Wang family territories and the Transcendent Void Hall’s territory as a reward.
• Dream told Chen Changsheng that the Wang family ancestor was trapped in his dream prison and that a war against the Heavenly Dao Society could risk unleashing the prisoners and destroying Pill Epoch.
• Chen Changsheng joined Yun Ya Zi, Dugu, and the Moon God at the Void Crack, where Xuan Huo helped them defeat and cast more than a hundred Wang family experts into the void.
• Wang Lan said that killing the Wang family’s experts would not erase the clan unless its mid-level members were also eliminated.
• Chen Changsheng questioned Wang Lan about his past as a Nether River Forbidden Ground spy and his killing of Zheng Xuan.
• Wang Lan said he killed Zheng Xuan with a Five Dragon Divine Fire Cover found in a Void Crack, and that he had gathered the materials for its Nine Dragon form there.

Wang Lan explained to Chen Changsheng how fear of the Pill Epoch drove the Taiyuan Wang Family into a secret scheme, and how he pursued survival while deceiving both Chen Changsheng and the other aristocratic families. Chen Changsheng recognized that the Wang family had played both sides with a plan designed to preserve its bloodline even if the Old Aristocratic Families fell.

• Wang Lan explained that he avoided cultivating the Heavenly Emperor's inheritance so powerful figures would not notice him, and Chen Changsheng praised his caution and patience.
• Wang Lan said the Wang family's leaders feared the Pill Epoch would exterminate them after their ancestor was suppressed, so they revealed secrets to much of the clan and mobilized everyone to save him.
• Wang Lan confessed that he contacted the Nether River Forbidden Ground to escape the Pill Epoch and killed Zheng Xuan to muddy the waters and seek entry into the Chang Sheng Epoch, but both plans ran into complications.
• Chen Changsheng questioned how Wang Lan had evaded his and Dream's surveillance, and Wang Lan explained that private discussions and the Phantoms inside aristocratic families could help conceal the Wang family's actions.
• Wang Lan revealed that the Wang family pretended to seek freedom from the Pill Epoch to gain Chen Changsheng's support while telling other families it was a feigned surrender, using bloodline nexuses to infiltrate them and preserve the aristocratic clans.
• Chen Changsheng concluded that the Wang family had prepared a trap for him while offering the other aristocratic families a covert plan to endure the Old Aristocratic Families' defeat.

Wang Lan explained that she had devised plans to free the Wang family from the Pill Epoch, but abandoned them when the family twisted her ideas into a dangerous scheme to rescue their ancestor. Chen Changsheng told her he did not despise her and urged her to treat herself and the future well as she took control of a third of the Pill Epoch.

• Wang Lan admitted that she had proposed the plans to free the Wang family from its restraints, then turned to planning for herself when the family persisted in trying to save its ancestor.
• Chen Changsheng outlined how the Wang family adapted her plan into an attempt to provoke conflict, break the dream prison, and help their allies escape the Pill Epoch.
• Wang Lan condemned the scheme as a reckless plan that would sacrifice the great clans and people under the Wang family's command.
• Chen Changsheng compared Wang Lan to Wang Hao, then told her he did not despise her for choosing to survive.
• Chen Changsheng reminded Wang Lan that she would control the Wang and Zheng families' territories and Transcendent Void Hall, and urged her not to let guilt corrupt her rule.