Chapter Summaries

Chen Changsheng explained to Xiao Hei that the Virtual World had been designed to spread cultivation knowledge and weaken the powerful epochs over five hundred thousand years. He revealed that Ao Chuang could be restored from Dream’s backup and that the plan’s next stage would exploit the elites’ greed, leaving Xiao Hei convinced of its scope.

• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that the Forbidden Ground and other epochs wanted their group dead now that it could challenge them.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that he intended to trap their enemies in a five-hundred-thousand-year scheme, and that Dream had secretly preserved a backup of Ao Chuang’s origin.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the Virtual World had spread cultivation techniques and knowledge to help future cultivators challenge the powerful.
• Chen Changsheng said he would help reformers after dealing with Xiao Yunshu and the Four Madmen, once they had accumulated enough strength.
• Chen Changsheng predicted that the loss of the Virtual World’s profits would turn greedy factions against one another and argued that their desire to recreate its wealth would keep them from returning to their old ways.

Chen Changsheng explained his plan to turn the Virtual World’s beneficiaries against Xiao Yunshu and revealed that his Second Divine Soul sometimes took control of him. He and Xiao Hei headed to Kang Metal Marquis's Residence, while Desolate Heaven Emperor Wu Li confronted Lu Mingyu, who pretended to be a beggar.

• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that exposing the Virtual World would give other era’s powerhouses a reason to attack Xiao Yunshu and his allies.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that his Second Divine Soul had appeared after the events two hundred thousand years ago and sometimes replaced his main Divine Soul.
• Chen Changsheng reassured Xiao Hei that he would resist going mad, then suggested they frame the Sky-Stealing Bandit for their amusement.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei arrived at an array outside Kang Metal Marquis's Residence.
• Wu Li confronted a filthy, drunken Lu Mingyu, who denied being the person Wu Li sought and ate rancid rice from a broken bowl.

Wu Li confronted Lu Mingyu over his despair and reminded him how he had survived past defeats by playing dead. He explained that the legendary battles of their era were far less triumphant than history claimed, leaving Lu Mingyu stunned by how dangerous the Forbidden Grounds had been.

• Wu Li challenged Lu Mingyu for giving up, and Lu Mingyu insisted he had failed everyone and betrayed Phantom's list, leading many trusted people to their deaths.
• Wu Li kicked Lu Mingyu away when he begged to be released, then reassured him that Teacher would not die.
• Wu Li told Lu Mingyu he had survived a powerful enemy by playing dead, even after half his head was blown apart.
• Wu Li explained that he had once sacrificed his pride to survive and had carried the burden while Teacher struggled with indecision.
• Lu Mingyu questioned Wu Li's account of their difficult past, and Wu Li revealed that their supposed challenges to the Forbidden Grounds were mostly just barking outside and fleeing at the slightest danger.

Wu Li explained to Lu Mingyu that the historical accounts of his group’s conflicts with the Forbidden Grounds concealed a long history of harassment, bargaining, and secret deals. He left Lu Mingyu with the revelation that Teacher and Scholar had even arranged the death of a Forbidden Ground expert, while the embarrassing events had gone unrecorded.

• Wu Li told Lu Mingyu that their group attacked Forbidden Grounds while their people were in seclusion, then fled after taking only a few blows.
• Wu Li explained that they repeatedly sought money and support from the Forbidden Grounds, including the eight hundred sets of Bronze Armor that Teacher obtained for Tiger Guard.
• Wu Li recounted that after an expert spread rumors about their past, Thirteen nearly attacked him, and Teacher later negotiated with the Forbidden Ground to resolve the dispute.
• Wu Li revealed that Teacher paid a huge sum to buy the expert’s life and hired someone to act, though he did not know the exact details.
• Wu Li explained that Righteous Cultivators and the Forbidden Grounds had kept no records of these incidents, so they disappeared into the River of Time.

Lu Mingyu regained his resolve after speaking with Wu Li, and the two made plans to prepare for their teacher’s return and counterattack against the Dao Ancestor. Meanwhile, Chen Changsheng infiltrated the Kang Metal Marquis’s Residence using the Sky-Stealing Bandit’s methods and told Xiao Hei about the thief’s reputation and skills.

• Wu Li told Lu Mingyu that the Phantom list had to be surrendered and that their teacher had likely left contingencies to protect his wife.
• Lu Mingyu revealed that his grief was real but that he had kept his judgment, then warned Wu Li not to risk leading enemies to them again.
• Lu Mingyu told Wu Li to find the Three Religions Sages and wait for their teacher’s summons, while he went to find Shi Qi and learn what he was guarding.
• Wu Li restored his injured body, bid Lu Mingyu farewell, and vanished as Lu Mingyu vowed that they would counterattack the Dao Ancestor.
• Chen Changsheng infiltrated the Kang Metal Marquis’s Residence with Xiao Hei and explained that he was copying the Sky-Stealing Bandit’s methods to frame him.
• Chen Changsheng described the Sky-Stealing Bandit’s three supreme arts and explained that even powerful nobles struggled to catch him, while ordinary Immortal Kings and Quasi-Emperors were no match.

Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei how the Sky-Stealing Bandit stole from Wang Hao and was swiftly captured. He explained why Wang Hao was a trusted and useful ally, and described how Wang Hao’s abilities countered the bandit’s techniques.

• Chen Changsheng explained that the Sky-Stealing Bandit grew reckless and targeted Wang Hao’s business in the Divine Land Epoch.
• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that the bandit believed Wang Hao would ignore a small loss and would lack support from powerful cultivators.
• Chen Changsheng described Wang Hao as cautious, well-connected, and dependable when profit or a common enemy was involved.
• Chen Changsheng said the Sky-Stealing Bandit stole goods worth Eight Billion Divine Sources, prompting Wang Hao to descend in person and capture him effortlessly.
• Chen Changsheng explained that Wang Hao could see through the bandit’s disguise and that the bandit’s paper soldiers were no match for Wang Hao’s mastery of flesh and blood.

Chen Changsheng explained how Wang Hao tracked down the Sky-Stealing Bandit by deducing that the thief was supporting vulnerable people and tracing his purchases through the Black Market. Wang Hao captured him by hanging suspected orphans from trees as bait, and Chen Changsheng said the alternative was that powerful people had stolen from Wang Hao.

• Xiao Hei guessed that Wang Hao had captured the Sky-Stealing Bandit through a superior combat technique, but Chen Changsheng said Wang Hao had investigated the Black Market and followed its leads.
• Chen Changsheng explained that Wang Hao deduced the Sky-Stealing Bandit was a conscientious, resource-strapped thief supporting a group of vulnerable people.
• Wang Hao ruled out prosperous regions, traced unusual Black Market supply flows in poorer areas, and narrowed down the thief's lair.
• Wang Hao hung orphans suspected of being supported by the Sky-Stealing Bandit from trees and waited for the thief to appear.
• The Sky-Stealing Bandit walked into Wang Hao's trap the next day, and Chen Changsheng said that if his deduction had been wrong, the thief would have been among the powerful.

Chen Changsheng explained how Wang Hao caught the Sky-Stealing Bandit and how they extracted compensation from the Divine Land Epoch, then revealed his Extravagance Plan to weaken the epoch and prepare for war. He and Xiao Hei stood before a vast lake of Spirit Liquid as Chen Changsheng described how it could fuel a puppet army.

• Chen Changsheng explained that Wang Hao pressured the Divine Land Epoch over the Sky-Stealing Bandit's theft, crippled the thief, and spared his life after Chen Changsheng intervened.
• Chen Changsheng said he and Wang Hao secured three Great Worlds, seven Small Worlds, and a ten-percent dividend from the Divine Land Epoch, while he hid the Sky-Stealing Bandit to conceal his own bad accounts.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei reached a vast lake of Spirit Liquid, and Chen Changsheng introduced his Extravagance Plan for the Divine Land Epoch.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the plan encouraged the epoch's nobles to waste resources and lose their fighting spirit while making their estates useful strategic targets.
• Chen Changsheng said Spirit Liquid could power puppets and that his simulations showed the puppet army could conquer thirty percent of the Divine Land Epoch within a month.

Chen Changsheng explained to Xiao Hei why he had scattered their forces against Xiao Yunshu and the Four Madmen, insisting that risking lives was necessary to learn their enemies’ strength and win. Reaffirming his resolve to oppose those who obstructed the New Era, he and Xiao Hei headed to a banquet at the Kang Metal Marquis's Residence to steal a meal, while an unnamed man sensed trouble might be coming.

• Xiao Hei challenged Chen Changsheng over deliberately scattering their forces and risking their lives when Xiao Yunshu and the others attacked.
• Chen Changsheng said they had little chance against all Four Madmen together and needed to trade lives for information, and he accepted blame for choosing that path.
• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that the Four Madmen were relics trying to halt progress and declared that he would defeat them as he had defeated the Three Thousand Zhou.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei decided to sneak into the Kang Metal Marquis's Residence and boldly eat at its banquet.
• An unnamed man sneezed while resting in a rocking chair, then wondered if trouble was coming as his grandchild went to fetch wine.

Kang Metal Marquis gathered the other marquises to recruit them for a treasury containing a fragment linked to a near Bitter Sea Emperor Weapon, warning that the Sky-Stealing Bandit was after it. The Sky-Stealing Bandit, disguised as Horn Wood Marquis, robbed Kang Metal Marquis during the banquet and escaped with the Nine-Dragon Precious Fruits.

• Kang Metal Marquis told the marquises about a treasury and showed them a fragment carrying Imperial Might.
• Kang Metal Marquis revealed that the Sky-Stealing Bandit had reappeared and was targeting the treasury.
• The Sky-Stealing Bandit exposed himself while disguised as Horn Wood Marquis and pressed the gathering down with overwhelming pressure.
• The Sky-Stealing Bandit's paper figures stole the Nine-Dragon Precious Fruits from Kang Metal Marquis.
• The Sky-Stealing Bandit fed the fruits to the sickly Little Dog and left after thanking Kang Metal Marquis for the feast.

Chen Changsheng explained how the Divine Land Epoch’s powerful families sought to create a new route to the Emperor Realm and revealed that he had deliberately set a trap for them. After calling out a hidden observer, he faced an old man who claimed not to recognize him as a disciple.

• The Sky-Stealing Bandit robbed powerful families across the Divine Land Epoch, drawing the attention of its strongest figures.
• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that the Divine Land Epoch’s leaders were trying to replace the destroyed Chang Sheng Era Thunder Tribulation with their own path to the Emperor Realm.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the Heaven’s Mandate Primordial Thunder Tribulation would let the powerful families monopolize advancement, but would drastically shorten the lifespans of those who used it.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that he had intentionally set this trap, forcing the powerful families to choose between the new path and the risk of being surpassed by Rogue Cultivators and people from humble origins.
• Chen Changsheng spotted a hidden observer and ordered them to appear.
• An old man appeared and told Chen Changsheng that he did not recall having a disciple like him.

Chen Changsheng confronted the Sky-Stealing Bandit, who demonstrated his divine abilities and suppressed Chen Changsheng’s imperial weapon before offering to take him as a disciple. Chen Changsheng revealed that he knew the bandit’s true name and sent him to investigate a person on a Jade Slip, leaving Qin Gui shaken by the return of a legendary figure from two hundred thousand years ago.

• Chen Changsheng dismissed the Sky-Stealing Bandit’s warning and questioned whether the old man was worthy of being his master.
• The Sky-Stealing Bandit demonstrated Paper-Cutting into Soldiers and the Wind-Swaying Flowing Light Step, then explained that Chen Changsheng had not mastered his techniques.
• The Sky-Stealing Bandit blocked Chen Changsheng’s imperial weapon and offered to protect him if he became his disciple.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei pretended to accept the offer, then called the Sky-Stealing Bandit Qin Gui and revealed that he had failed to see through Chen Changsheng’s disguise.
• Chen Changsheng gave Qin Gui a Jade Slip and promised to consider treating his lame leg if he found the person recorded on it.
• Qin Gui realized that Chen Changsheng resembled the legendary Imperial Tutor who had fallen two hundred thousand years earlier, and feared the coming upheaval.

Chen Changsheng borrowed a passage from the Divine Land Epoch and returned with Xiao Hei to find the Chang Sheng Epoch devastated. He vowed to rebuild it and make those responsible pay, declaring that they could not stop the era’s advance.

• Chen Changsheng gave a Divine Land Epoch expert a high-ranking Heavenly Court token, and the experts opened a passage for him and Xiao Hei.
• After Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei entered the passage, the Divine Land Epoch experts concluded that the token signaled the survival and coming counterattack of the man connected to the Heavenly Court.
• In the Space Channel, Chen Changsheng worried that Xiao Yunshu and his allies had destroyed the Chang Sheng Epoch, while Xiao Hei reassured him that they could rebuild it.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei emerged into the Chang Sheng Epoch, where their arrival destroyed the damaged array that had brought them home.
• Chen Changsheng saw that more than half the stars had dimmed and many Great Worlds lay desolate, while Xiao Hei wept over the ruined epoch.
• Chen Changsheng comforted Xiao Hei, vowed to make those responsible repay the destruction in blood, and declared that the advance of the era could not be stopped.

Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei set out to restore the dying Chang Sheng Epoch and traced its ruin to the Ominous Maker’s methods. After learning that the surviving life was being lured into five continents and consumed, Chen Changsheng chose an unconventional way to confront the threat.

• Chen Changsheng comforted Xiao Hei and promised they would rebuild the Academy, the Underworld, and the Chang Sheng Epoch together.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei surveyed the epoch and found that most Great Worlds were barren or shattered, while the remaining worlds were losing their vitality.
• Chen Changsheng inferred that the Ominous Maker had damaged the epoch’s foundations, leaving it to wither rather than destroying it outright.
• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei they would challenge the Four Madmen again, this time on the technological front.
• Chen Changsheng explained that five continents trapped and consumed beings ascending from connected Small Worlds, gradually draining the epoch’s remaining life.
• Xiao Hei suggested fighting upward from a Small World, but Chen Changsheng said he would use extraordinary measures.

Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei went to the Demon Continent, where Chen Changsheng planned to use the Four Wonder Books’ paths to fight the Four Madmen. Disguised as a weak scholar and a black dog, they exposed and killed a giant centipede demon, but Chen Changsheng sensed a stronger enemy still hidden beneath the continent.

• Chen Changsheng explained that the Four Wonder Books had laid out paths that might help defeat the Four Madmen, and Xiao Hei agreed to support him.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei traveled to the Demon Continent in disguise, with Chen Changsheng posing as a frail scholar and Xiao Hei as a black dog.
• Chen Changsheng exposed a restaurant waiter as a vicious ghost and destroyed it, revealing a wasteland covered in skeletons.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei escaped a giant centipede’s jaws, and Xiao Hei revealed his Divine Beast Bai Ze form to destroy the peak Immortal Venerable Realm Great Demon.
• Chen Changsheng sensed a more powerful presence hidden on the Demon Continent and pulled an iron nail from the ground.

Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei investigated the Blood Dragon Nails and traveled to the Blood Dragon Kingdom, where they posed as miners to probe its secrets. Chen Changsheng concluded that the Demon Continent’s spiritual energy was being absorbed rather than replenished, and wondered how the Ominous Maker had caused the strange depletion.

• Chen Changsheng identified the seven iron nails as part of a scheme to trap the Dragon Vein and enable a massive Blood Sacrifice, then decided to investigate the Blood Dragon Kingdom.
• A mysterious man in the Blood Dragon Kingdom’s imperial palace realized the Blood Dragon Nails had been pulled out and suspected the Mountain Keepers were responsible.
• A young Daoist found the cleared site of the centipede’s defeat, celebrated that the seven nails were gone, and prayed to his patriarch.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei entered Dragon Prefecture City and signed up as miners in the D-class mining district to investigate Dragon Blood Jade.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the Demon Continent’s spiritual energy was depleted and that even its sun, moon, and stars produced none, leaving him curious about the Ominous Maker’s method.

Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei investigated why World Spiritual Energy vanished from the Chang Sheng Epoch and went to the Blood Dragon Kingdom to find its source. Deep in the mine, they met an overly familiar young man who struck up a conversation and drew Xiao Hei into his arms.

• Chen Changsheng explained that World Spiritual Energy still poured through the Epoch Barrier but disappeared as soon as it entered the Chang Sheng Epoch, ruling out Xiao Hei's theories about formations and damage to the barrier.
• Xiao Hei urged Chen Changsheng to deal with the Blood Dragon Kingdom, and Chen Changsheng agreed that its cultivators might show the epoch was beyond saving.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei entered the Blood Dragon Kingdom's blood-soaked mining area and headed underground to find the source of its problem.
• Chen Changsheng mined in a deep tunnel while Xiao Hei lay nearby foaming at the mouth and convulsing.
• A lean young man approached Chen Changsheng to chat, then Xiao Hei suddenly sprang into the young man's arms.

Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei reached a chamber containing the remains of a dragon and a phoenix, while Gu Dongchun and the renegade Yang Zaiwei fought over whether the corpses threatened the Blood Dragon Kingdom. Gu Dongchun defeated Yang with the Mountain Keepers' last Purple Talisman, but Yang questioned whether the sect could survive and why only they had lived through the events thirty years earlier.

• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei descended into a cave, and Chen Changsheng secretly cushioned the talkative young man's fall when he followed them.
• Chen Changsheng and Xiao Hei found a decayed dragon shielding a phoenix in a stone chamber.
• Yang Zaiwei emerged from the darkness and attacked Chen Changsheng, but Gu Dongchun blocked the strike with Yellow Talismans.
• Gu Dongchun urged Yang to return to the Mountain Keepers, but Yang rejected the sect and declared he would destroy the dragon and phoenix remains.
• Yang defeated Gu Dongchun, who used the Mountain Keepers' Purple Talisman to summon a lightning phantom and bind Yang with silver lightning.
• Yang asked Gu Dongchun whether the talisman was the sect's last and challenged him to consider why only the two of them had survived thirty years earlier.

Chen Changsheng discovered that neither Yang Zaiwei nor Gu Dongchun had removed the Blood Dragon Nails, then ordered Xiao Hei to capture the culprit, Ye Zheng. After questioning Ye Zheng, Chen Changsheng learned that powerful people performed mass Blood Sacrifices to gain strength and that Ye Zheng had acquired a mysterious energy through them.

• Yang Zaiwei and Gu Dongchun both denied removing the Blood Dragon Nails, and their confusion revealed that neither knew who had taken them out.
• Chen Changsheng claimed responsibility for removing the nails and told Xiao Hei to defeat the middle-aged man while keeping him alive.
• Xiao Hei beat the man severely, and Chen Changsheng used a Broken Sword to suppress the black energy hidden inside him.
• Chen Changsheng questioned the captive, who identified himself as Ye Zheng and said he had one daughter.
• Ye Zheng said he had planted the Blood Dragon Nails to conduct Blood Sacrifices, that his second attempt had not succeeded, and that each sacrifice involved around thirty million living beings.
• Ye Zheng revealed that stronger people periodically sacrificed the entire continent and that Blood Sacrifices had granted him the mysterious energy in his body.

Chen Changsheng killed Ye Zheng and Yang Zaiwei after hearing why they had resorted to blood sacrifices, then revealed to Gu Dongchun that the remains belonged to a Dragon and a Phoenix who had once protected the land. The chapter left Chen Changsheng explaining that the passage of too much time had turned them into an Evil Dragon and an Evil Phoenix.

• Chen Changsheng questioned Ye Zheng about the blood sacrifices, killed him, and collected the strange gray energy from his body.
• Chen Changsheng called Yang Zaiwei and Gu Dongchun forward; Yang confessed to his choices, and Chen promised the orthodox path would return in the future.
• Yang Zaiwei shattered his meridians and Sea of Bitterness, and Chen Changsheng ended his life and burned his corpse.
• Chen Changsheng sent Xiao Hei outside to deal with the remaining people while he examined the two remains with Gu Dongchun.
• Chen Changsheng told Gu Dongchun that the remains belonged to a Dragon and a Phoenix who had become earth spirits to protect the land.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the Dragon and Phoenix became evil because too much time had passed.