Chapter Summaries

Lin Niao challenged Mo Bai to fight at the same realm, and Mo Bai accepted despite Baleful Shadow’s objections. After their brief battle, Mo Bai used Lin Niao’s apparent ability to wound him to stir public attention and pressure Five Tigers Group, while Baleful Shadow arranged to protect Lin Niao.

• Baleful Shadow ordered Lin Niao arrested for his defiance, but Mo Bai stopped him and asked why Lin Niao had come.
• Lin Niao revealed he wanted to challenge Mo Bai at the same realm, and Mo Bai agreed to fight him beyond the heavens.
• Mo Bai and Lin Niao returned after their fight, with Mo Bai bleeding and Lin Niao pale; Baleful Shadow ordered Lin Niao confined for five hundred years.
• Baleful Shadow accused Mo Bai of staging his weakness and using Lin Niao’s apparent victory to make him a target of public scrutiny.
• Mo Bai admitted he was pressuring Baleful Shadow because Five Tigers Group’s growth had squeezed Qilin Group, and Baleful Shadow reluctantly moved to protect Lin Niao.

Chen Changsheng handled disputes over the Virtual World's expansion and decided to slow its growth to digest its gains. Netherworld Forest warned him that the Four Madmen and their allies would return within about thirty thousand years and would target those who drove the era forward.

• Baleful Shadow contacted Meng De about Lin Niao, and Mo Bai negotiated a meeting with Mo Bai in one month.
• Wang Hao told Chen Changsheng that the Netherworld Epoch demanded seventy percent of the Virtual World's gains, and Chen ordered its communicator rights revoked while inviting a friendly faction to negotiate.
• Chen Changsheng resolved disputes with other epochs and announced that the Virtual World would slow its expansion and consolidate its gains.
• Chen Changsheng visited Netherworld Forest, which said its creator and the Four Madmen would return within about thirty thousand years.
• Netherworld Forest told Chen Changsheng that the Four Madmen and people like them would not negotiate because they intended to kill those who explored Immortal Destiny and drove the era forward.

Chen Changsheng learned that the Four Madmen threatened those who advanced the era, but he chose to stay in the Chang Sheng Epoch and protect it. After the Virtual World lost contact with nearly every connected epoch, the Dao Ancestor Xiao Yunshu appeared before him.

• Netherworld Forest said it knew little about the Four Madmen, chose the name Qingjin, and urged Chen Changsheng to leave the Chang Sheng Epoch, but he refused to abandon the world or his allies.
• Chen Changsheng secretly prepared for danger as the Virtual World continued to improve and attract other epochs.
• After Bai Ze suddenly fell ill like the Supreme Sage, Chen Changsheng secretly sent him out of the Chang Sheng Epoch to keep him safe.
• Chen Changsheng waited alone for three thousand years, while the Virtual World lost contact with its connected epochs one after another until only the Pill Epoch and the Chang Sheng Epoch remained.
• At the Imperial Preceptor's Tomb, Xiao Yunshu appeared before Chen Changsheng and introduced himself as the Dao Ancestor.

Xiao Yunshu and his allies attacked Chen Changsheng, destroying his forces and killing those connected to him. Lu Mingyu, Chen Feng, Dream, and the Heavenly Dao Society arrived to fight back, but Chen Changsheng saw Nian Sheng and Bai Ze among the dead and lost hope.

• Xiao Yunshu revealed that he and his allies had prepared to kill Chen Changsheng and attacked him, overpowering him while destroying the Chang Sheng Epoch.
• The Three Religions Sages fought Xiao Yunshu; one Buddhist saint died, the Confucian Sage fell, and the Daoist Sage and the remaining Buddhist Sage fled gravely injured before Xiao Yunshu captured Chen Changsheng.
• Xiao Yunshu shattered the Epoch Heaven's Mandate, destroyed Ao Chuang's foundation, and took Chen Changsheng into the chaos, where Chen Changsheng saw Hua Feng, Chen Xiao, and Yin Jun Lin dead.
• Lu Mingyu and Chen Feng arrived and attacked Xiao Yunshu's forces, but an unfamiliar man appeared carrying the heads of Cui Shuo, Cui Yunzheng, Guan Ping, Liu Qingqing, Lu Jun, and Qian Ya.
• Dream and members of the Heavenly Dao Society arrived as the Dao Ancestor, Beast Ancestor, and Ominous Maker gathered to fight; the Ominous Maker reported that Nian Sheng and Bai Ze were among the dead, and the battle began.

Chen Changsheng was captured after Xiao Yunshu and the Ominous Maker overwhelmed his allies, but he insisted that their deaths would not stop the era’s forces from returning. At the Nether River Forbidden Ground, Wang Hao revealed that Chen Changsheng had arranged for his companions’ Essence Blood to be hidden and altered, and sent Zhang Zhen to leave his own Essence Blood behind before facing the Madmen.

• Zhang Bairen returned to attack Xiao Yunshu, then triggered the Bitter Sea Great Emperor’s self-destruction to wipe away everything nearby.
• Xiao Yunshu seized Chen Changsheng, who warned that destroying the Virtual World would not stop similar forces from emerging again.
• Wang Hao agreed not to rescue Chen Changsheng and told Zhang Zhen that the Nether River’s master needed time to recover.
• Wang Hao showed Zhang Zhen the hidden Essence Blood of Qian Ya and Liu Yidao, explaining that Chen Changsheng had made preparations after learning the Four Madmen planned to kill him.
• Wang Hao told Zhang Zhen to leave behind a drop of his Essence Blood, erase his memory, and ensure no remains were left when he fought the Madmen.

Xiao Yunshu’s forces defeated Chen Changsheng and his allies, then erased the Imperial Tutor’s name and legacy from history. Two hundred thousand years later, a stone on a mountain began to move.

• Lu Mingyu knelt and handed Xiao Yunshu Phantom’s list, but Xiao Yunshu killed him anyway and struck Chen Changsheng into a mist of blood.
• Xiao Yunshu used karma to erase Chen Changsheng’s hidden origins, though he wondered whether Chen Changsheng had truly died.
• The Ominous Maker withdrew from the conflict, and the Beast Ancestor left with several divine beasts after warning Xiao Yunshu not to target their lineage.
• Xiao Yunshu vowed to eliminate Chen Changsheng’s remaining lineage and pursued the escaped Wu Li and Nalan Zi Ping.
• A force suppressed news of the Imperial Tutor’s death, while Chen Changsheng’s history and affiliated organizations were erased or disbanded.
• Two hundred thousand years later, a stone atop a mountain began to move.

After awakening two hundred thousand years later, Chen Changsheng found that time had ruined the Essence Blood he had saved and abandoned his plan for revenge. After living as a wild man for a century, he met the Master of the Netherworld Forest, who asked him to teach his younger brother, Ma Yuxuan.

• Chen Changsheng awoke from the Nine-Aperture Strange Stone and learned that time had destroyed the vitality of the Essence Blood sealed in his divine sources.
• Chen Changsheng said revenge felt meaningless because time would eventually take everyone around him, then left the mountain with two hundred thousand attribute points.
• Chen Changsheng lived alone in the mountains for a hundred years, becoming a wild, beastlike figure.
• The Master of the Netherworld Forest found Chen Changsheng and explained that Qing Jin had told him Chen Changsheng was alive.
• The Master of the Netherworld Forest introduced himself as Ma Xu'an and asked Chen Changsheng to teach his younger brother, Ma Yuxuan.
• Chen Changsheng questioned Ma Xu'an's age and said he did not want to take the job because of his current situation.

Ma Xu'an offered to reveal the truth about immortals in exchange for Chen Changsheng taking his younger brother as a disciple, and Chen Changsheng agreed. Ma Xu'an explained that he and the other surviving “immortals” were remnants of a sealed Immortal Domain, and left their origins and the ancient calamity behind them revealed.

• Ma Xu'an promised to tell Chen Changsheng everything he knew about immortals if Chen Changsheng accepted his younger brother as a disciple, and Chen Changsheng agreed.
• Chen Changsheng asked what immortals were, and Ma Xu'an said that he and his companions were immortals but that true immortality did not exist.
• Ma Xu'an explained that the Immortal Domain was simply the name of his world, where cultivators had grown powerful and sought immortality.
• Ma Xu'an said the Immortal Domain's people opened a special space containing remnants of another epoch's failed pursuit of immortality, unleashing a catastrophe.
• The Immortal Domain's people drove back the indescribable things and sealed both the space and their world, but a later breach let Ma Xu'an and the remaining survivors fall out.

Ma Xu'an revealed how survivors from the Immortal Domain were scattered, hunted, and driven to conceal their origins, and why they hated those who pursued Immortal Destiny. He offered to take Chen Changsheng to the Immortal Domain, but Chen Changsheng remained focused on killing three people.

• Chen Changsheng learned that Spatial Rifts and later hunts had killed nearly all the Immortal Domain's inhabitants after they fell into the outside world.
• Ma Xu'an explained that tales of the Immortal Domain grew from misunderstandings about its name, its long-lived cultivators, and its treasures, while survivors hid their origins to stay safe.
• Ma Xu'an said his people hated holders and seekers of Immortal Destiny because they believed those people were tied to the deaths and suffering of their homeland's inhabitants.
• Ma Xu'an revealed that Dream's master had killed one of the survivors' strongest fighters, who disclosed the Immortal Domain's truth before he died.
• Ma Xu'an offered to take Chen Changsheng to the Immortal Domain, but Chen Changsheng refused and said he only wanted to kill those three.

Ma Xu'an told Chen Changsheng that he had found the Immortal Domain, but it was a lifeless ruin with fewer than ten survivors and no hope of rebuilding it. He asked Chen Changsheng to raise his sealed younger brother, Ma Yuxuan, and revealed that Chen's friends had either died or were lost to time, leaving Chen with his hope for them extinguished.

• Ma Xu'an explained that he had rediscovered a breach into the Immortal Domain and found it empty, with nearly all its inhabitants dead.
• Ma Xu'an said the surviving Immortal Domain natives were too few and too broken to rebuild their homeland, and feared powerful cultivators would plunder it.
• Ma Xu'an asked Chen Changsheng to care for Ma Yuxuan, whom he had sealed away when the Immortal Domain first cracked open, and Chen agreed.
• Ma Xu'an told Chen Changsheng that Xiao Yunshu had killed many of his friends and contingencies, though several people had survived initially.
• Ma Xu'an explained that Guan Ping had used two Creation Immortal Pills to revive the Immortal Emperor and Sword Master, but they later died or disappeared, while Guan Ping, Qian Ya, Long Aotian, and others also died.
• Chen Changsheng fell silent after Ma Xu'an explained that the Bitter Sea Emperor Realm System limited cultivators' lifespans, a system Chen himself had created.

After learning that Xiao Yunshu may have killed his friends and family, Chen Changsheng recovered his resolve and began carrying out a long-prepared plan against the Four Madmen. He spent ten years raising dogs until Xiao Hei returned as a white puppy, then discussed the fate of the others with him in Azure Lotus City.

• Ma Xu'an told Chen Changsheng that the Divine Land Epoch had begun and that his closest followers were likely dead, then gave him a Recording Stone for his younger brother.
• Chen Changsheng resolved to gather strength and kill Xiao Yunshu and the other two, and the system explained his old plan for counterattacking the Four Madmen.
• Chen Changsheng used a piece of divine source and traveled to a town, where he bought dogs and raised them for ten years.
• A pure white puppy was born, and Chen Changsheng recognized it as Xiao Hei returned.
• In Azure Lotus City, Xiao Hei complained that his body was close to exploding, and Chen Changsheng said the other companions' survival depended on fate.

Chen Changsheng explained that he revived Xiao Hei by using bloodline fragments from his fur and claws to artificially breed canines until Xiao Hei’s bloodline could be restored. He refused to revive Qian Ya, Guan Ping, Baleful Shadow, and the others because they chose to die, and the conversation left him reflecting on whether Heaven had also lost the will to live.

• Chen Changsheng explained that the Karma Great Dao could target living beings but not detached fur or claws, which could still provide genetic material for reconstruction.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that he used Xiao Hei’s fur and claws to extract bloodline fragments, reactivate Xiao Hei’s life essence, and breed canines over several generations until Xiao Hei could be revived.
• Xiao Hei asked whether the others could return, and Chen Changsheng said Qian Ya, Guan Ping, Baleful Shadow, and the others had chosen to die of old age, so he would respect their choice.
• Chen Changsheng warned that repeated genetic reconstruction could create beings who were no longer their former selves, and said life ended when self-awareness and the desire to live were gone.
• Xiao Hei asked whether that was how Heaven had died, and Chen Changsheng said it likely was, adding that he had been anxious after killing Heaven.

Chen Changsheng explained why Heaven had died and renewed his resolve to survive alongside Xiao Hei. After reaching Kangjin City, they forged identities and entered, only to be press-ganged as Chen Changsheng sought the Wu Clan, whose descendants he believed still lived in the Divine Land Epoch.

• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that Heaven had died after losing to them, and said he would keep living so the people of the past would not disappear forever.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei decided to enter the Divine Land Epoch, and Chen Changsheng planned to investigate the great clans and find the Wu Clan.
• After spending a day in Kangjin City, Chen Changsheng forged identity documents that could help them establish long-term residence there.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei entered Kangjin City, but a Blood Moving Realm cultivator immediately press-ganged them.
• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that Wu Li had settled the Wu Clan in a nearby Small World and later moved them out of the Chang Sheng Epoch during the Slaughter Epoch.

Chen Changsheng explained how Wu Li’s descendants came to live in the Divine Land Epoch and how he used the Favor-Extending Edict to keep that epoch from challenging the Virtual World. He admitted that he had deliberately empowered feudal lords to weaken the Divine Land Epoch and protect his own interests.

• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that the Wu Clan had settled in the Divine Land Epoch, but Wu Li hid his origins to protect them from his enemies.
• Chen Changsheng explained that Wu Li had named himself after the Wu Clan and that his original name had been Gu Li.
• Chen Changsheng described how divine beasts and the Three Teachings had united the Divine Land Epoch against foreign invasion when it neared collapse.
• Chen Changsheng said that he had the Divine Land Epoch issue a Favor-Extending Edict, granting noble titles and offices to powerful factions and their descendants.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the edict created dangerous feudal lords, and admitted that he intended to weaken the Divine Land Epoch so the Virtual World could expand and profit.

Chen Changsheng explained how Phantom Shadow survived through hidden networks and why he needed to recover the Divine Land Epoch treasury to regain control of it. After three days of digging as forced labor, he identified the workers’ master and suspected a shattered treasury lay beneath the mountain.

• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that he wanted to study the Divine Land Epoch’s cultivation system and search for a way to oppose Xiao Yunshu and the others.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that Phantom Shadow had two lines, with concealed agents operating beyond the list that Xiao Yunshu’s group had destroyed.
• Chen Changsheng explained that he had erased crucial information and needed to recover the Divine Land Epoch’s treasury to regain control of Phantom Shadow.
• A Teleportation Array transported Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei to a wilderness cave, where Chen Changsheng spent three days digging while Xiao Hei slept in a basket.
• Chen Changsheng identified the forced laborers as people serving Kang Metal Marquis and concluded that a shattered Divine Land Epoch treasury lay beneath the mountain.

Chen Changsheng searched his damaged treasury for knowledge that could help him regain power and find medicine for Xiao Hei. He recovered its hidden records and learned that Xiao Yunshu had failed to recognize the technology concealing them.

• Chen Changsheng worried that Xiao Hei’s severe aftereffects required Natural Treasures and warned that he might resume slaughtering if he could not find them.
• After night fell, Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei descended beneath the excavation site and broke through a restriction left by the overseers.
• Chen Changsheng found a Spatial Rift leading into his treasury, which Xiao Yunshu had apparently damaged from a distance.
• Chen Changsheng cleared the treasury floor and scanned its glass patterns, revealing preserved intelligence, cultivation methods, and secret manuals.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the patterns stored his priceless knowledge and concluded that Xiao Yunshu had not recognized the technology behind them.

Chen Changsheng assessed the Immortal Domain remnants as enemies and resolved to kill them, while sparing Ma Yuxuan because he believed the boy should join the New Era. After decrypting an archive, Chen Changsheng found a treatment for Xiao Hei and explained the Divine Land Epoch’s complex system of factions and titles.

• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that Xiao Yunshu was their primary target because his cultivation techniques were powerful but his methods and technology lagged behind theirs.
• Chen Changsheng said he intended to slaughter the Immortal Domain remnants, and Xiao Hei questioned whether that made him like the madmen they opposed.
• Chen Changsheng explained that he would spare Ma Yuxuan because the child should integrate into the New Era, as Ma Xu'an had intended.
• The Magical Artifact finished decrypting its contents, and Chen Changsheng found that the Nine-Dragon Precious Fruit could treat Xiao Hei.
• Chen Changsheng described the Divine Land Epoch’s emperors, kings, marquises, Twenty-Eight Alliance, and Five Planets, then explained how its factions had formed.

Chen Changsheng explained how the Divine Land Epoch had once prospered through the Virtual World, then freed the laborers and robbed Kang Metal Marquis’s overseers while seeking a Nine-Dragon Precious Fruit for Xiao Hei. Kang Metal Marquis’s adviser suspected the Sky-Stealing Bandit or a successor was behind the attack and proposed involving the other twenty-seven marquises; Chen Changsheng continued reflecting on how the Virtual World’s disappearance had left the era’s development distorted.

• Chen Changsheng left the treasure vault with Xiao Hei and said they would find a Nine-Dragon Precious Fruit before returning to the Chang Sheng Epoch.
• Chen Changsheng sent three Heaven-Piercing Talismans against Kang Metal Marquis’s overseers, freeing the laborers and stripping the overseers of their belongings.
• Kang Metal Marquis ordered the beaten overseers punished, then learned the underground treasure had not been discovered.
• The adviser identified the puppets’ Paper-Cutting into Soldiers technique and warned that the culprit might be the Sky-Stealing Bandit or a successor.
• The adviser proposed bringing the other twenty-seven marquises into the matter, while Chen Changsheng walked through the streets and explained to Xiao Hei how the Virtual World had once spread goods, culture, and knowledge across worlds.

Chen Changsheng explained to Xiao Hei how the Divine Land Epoch’s rulers monopolized cultivation paths and profited from weakening their own epoch. He detailed the immense revenues the imperial powers and feudal lords had accumulated through fees and shares from the Virtual World and other outsiders.

• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that the Divine Land Epoch’s rulers had monopolized cultivation methods, leaving Loose Cultivators with few ways to learn.
• Chen Changsheng contrasted the Divine Land Epoch with earlier epochs, where academies, sects, and other powers had offered more paths for learning.
• Chen Changsheng explained that monopolies could weaken an epoch without harming its rulers, who could still profit through negotiations and unequal agreements.
• Chen Changsheng recalled that the Virtual World earned three million trillion divine sources from the Divine Land Epoch every hundred years.
• Chen Changsheng estimated that the Divine Land Epoch’s forty-nine ruling powers received about one trillion divine sources in shares every hundred years, besides their own business profits.

Chen Changsheng explained to Xiao Hei why the Divine Land Epoch’s rulers benefited from keeping cultivators powerless and why changing the system would be nearly impossible. He refused to help reform it, saying he had more urgent threats and that even a grateful future ruler would not risk his people to aid them.

• Xiao Hei asked why the Divine Land Epoch’s rulers did not worry about the epoch’s decline, and Chen Changsheng explained that a backward world made it easier for them to exploit others.
• Chen Changsheng said low-level cultivators had little choice but to serve imperial power and feudal lords, while resistance required allies, luck, and powerful backers.
• Chen Changsheng described the conditions needed to change the Divine Land Epoch and warned that reformers would need a great benefactor to withstand the rulers’ retaliation.
• Xiao Hei asked whether Chen Changsheng would help the Divine Land Epoch, and Chen Changsheng refused, citing the Virtual World’s former interests and his current threats and responsibilities.
• Xiao Hei suggested that helping the Divine Land Epoch might earn its future ruler’s support, but Chen Changsheng argued that a ruler could not risk his epoch in a battle likely to be lost.